Fun Fact

Yesterday, more than 1,100 books were returned to Bailey/Howe, not including library-wide pick-up efforts (the Cyber Cafe, and study areas)! Sounds like UVM students are doing a lot of asking, discovering and creating.

Caption Contest: Photo from Dana

Libraries Staff Appreciation Lunch

During lunch today, Mara and the Dean's Office celebrated something of a surprise Staff Appreciation Day. Libraries' colleagues enjoyed food, fun and games. They also heard the now legendary tale (tail) of the beaver at the National Library in Latvia--also shown here with his handler and associated dignitaries in the National Library.

We also learned things like the fact that Eric Melton was born in Japan, and that we have 136 computer stations in Bailey/Howe. Mary VanBuren-Swasey has been employed the longest and Anne Dixon is the newest member of the libraries' staff.

It was a great party in honor of the entire fabulous staff at UVM libraries, where we all like to "Ask. Discover.Create."

Darcelene Being Honored by Vermont for Charitable Works

Darcelene Lewis-Wedge has just been notified that she is one of the 2008 award winners for the State of Vermont's Commission on National and Community Service! She will be honored by the governor himself, on April 26th in Montpelier. She is being honored, of course, for her numerous volunteering and charitable works. Congrats Darcelene, we knew you were a star all along.

Dana Medical Library Receives Grant for "Information Prescription"

The University of Vermont, Dana Medical Library, received a grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region to support a project that helps doctors and nurses at UVM/FAHC outpatient practice in Milton (Milton Family Practice) to use consumer-oriented health information available on the internet to improve communications about health. The project also encourages the nearby Milton Public library to expand and promote its health information services for the community at large.

The key feature of the project is advocacy for use of the “Information Prescription,” a protocol developed by the ACP Foundation and the National Library of Medicine. In this system, a health care provider gives a patient or family member a written prescription to seek further information on a health or disease topic on MedlinePlus. Medlineplus.gov is the comprehensive evidence-based commercial-free Web site with over 740 health related topics developed and updated daily by the National Library of Medicine.

Principal Investigator Marianne Burke, Director of the University of Vermont’s Dana Medical Library, and co-Principal Investigator, Peggy Carey MD, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, are leading a team of medical librarians from Dana Library and Fletcher Allen’s Frymoyer Community Resource Center in partnership with Milton Family Practice and Milton Public Library. The demonstration project is being conducted at those two Milton, VT locations.

The project includes educational meetings with all providers at the Milton Practice and distribution of custom prescription pads to them, educational bulletin boards featuring MedlinePlus brochures, the installation of an Internet accessible computer and printer to allow patients to follow-through on suggestions made by their physicians, and a phone line tied to the Frymoyer Community Resource Center to enable patients to seek assistance in navigating the internet for health information.

John Ferguson MD, Medical Director at Milton Family Practice said, “The prescription pad makes it simple for the doctor to suggest topics patients can find in MedlinePlus and seek further information on their own.”

Marianne Burke, project PI said, “Health care providers need a streamlined way to recommend Web sites to their patients and be confident that the information patients will find is evidence-based and at the right level for different needs. The Information Prescription combined with MedlinePlus helps promote communication between physicians and their patients who use the Internet.”

The project team is also training librarians and staff at the Milton Public Library on using MedlinePlus and other health information sites to better assist library users seeking health and wellness information.

The demonstration project was awarded $40,000. The project period is May 2007 until July 2008.

PLEASE NOTE THE TIME CHANGE FOR THIS EVENT

Please mark your calendars for a very special Library Forum on Wednesday, April 9, 9:30 - 10:45 am. The event will take place in the Dean's Conference Room.

Noemi Danao, Executive Director of the Monteverde Institute, Costa Rica will be here to talk to us about the challenges involved in running a small research library in an environment of extremely scarce resources, way out there on what I call the information fringe. Noemi is a very dynamic and engaging speaker, who does not have a library background, but who has become an extremely effective advocate for and administrator of the Monteverde Institute library, as she quickly recognized the importance of the Monteverde Institute's library as the gateway to information that will lead to greater understanding of issues affecting the Monteverde Zone .

Noemi will discuss some of the larger overarching issues that the small Monteverde Institute library faces, as it attempts to grapple with developing a web-based Library Catalog (purchasing an ILS), providing greater levels of access to local collections and knowledge through digitization, providing access to other materials through creation of partnerships, providing computers and Internet access -- all with extremely limited funds. The Monteverde Institute is a Costa Rican non-profit organization whose mission involves both serving the international student and research populations, and giving back to the local community.

Noemi Danao has been the Executive Director of the Monteverde Institute, in Monteverde,Costa Rica, since January 2006. Her connection to Latin America spans many years, including nine years living and working in Nicaragua with national and international NGOs. Of interest to us library folks - for three years Noemi worked as Managing Editor of Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society.
-From Laurie