MAC Messages Number 86:
March/April 2001

On January 10-11, the Public Library Association, National Library of Medicine, and Medical Library Association co-sponsored a pre-conference to ALA Mid-Winter entitled: "The Public Library and Consumer Health: Meeting Community Needs through Resource Identification and Collaboration."

More than 200 public librarians, and medical librarians gathered together for the general sessions over a two-day period. General sessions included a keynote address by Dr. Tom Ferguson, followed by a nicely summarized history of consumer health information by Heidi Sandstrom, Consumer Health Information Services Coordinator for NN/LM PNR. Carla Funk, Executive Director of the Medical Library Association also spoke about the new credentialing program for Consumer Health Information through MLA (for more information, see: http://www.mlanet.org/education/chc/index.html).

Attendees were able to choose from among four break-out sessions, including: Planning and managing the Consumer Health Library by Michele Spatz; Consumer Health Information on the Internet by Cecilia Durkin; National Library of Medicine Information Resources; and Fundraising and Grantwriting Strategies.

The final general session included two panels, and a welcome from NLM director, Dr. Donald Lindberg. The first panel, led by Becky Lyon, concerned promoting health literacy through NLM and Public Library partnerships and featured Jane Fisher of the New York Public Library, J. Sara Paulk, of Tifton-Tift County Public Library, and Bernie Todd Smith, of Werner Health Sciences Library in Rochester NY. The final panel, led by Angela Ruffin, centered around the topic of funding health information access, and included representatives from the Office of Library Services, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and National Telecommunications and Information Administration Technology Opportunities Program.

From the Southeastern/Atlantic region, we had more than 70 attendees - nearly 1/3 of all participants. Also seven of our twelve subcontractors were present. Those who administrated the conference are to be commended for the great effort that must have preceded this event. It was a marvelous opportunity to meet people, absorb new ideas, and be encouraged.

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