Planning and Implementing a Digital Library for Public Health Seattle & King County Ann Madhavan, MLS

A Collaboration Between… University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries Public Health Seattle & King County

Funded by… The Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund, Inc. Sewell Learning Partnerships goal is to “place experienced librarians within leading health care organizations for the purpose of both partners gaining a greater understanding of how best information sciences can be effectively applied in each environment”

PHSKC es/health.aspx es/health.aspx serves 1.8 million people – one third of the state’s population and the 12 th most populous county in the U.S. serves 39 incorporated cities (Seattle is the largest at 563,374) jurisdiction covers 2,134 square miles of land (size of Delaware)

PHSKC - Slide 2 is the 10 th largest public health department in the U.S. has ~ 1,500 regular employees and 10 public health centers provides safety net medical services, jail health services, EMS, has an research/academic health department, coordinates with community health partners…

The PHSKC HIV/AIDS Library… originated in 1985 because of information needs of the AIDS epidemic since 1994, has received NLM funding for several projects involving upgrading computer equipment and providing training to community based organizations

Needs Assessment

Survey Results Approximately 700 survey respondents Greatest number of respondents fell into the following interest/work categories:  Administration/Program Management  Health Education/Promotion  Public Health Nursing

Online Access Over 80% have access to the Internet at home and/or work Over 40% need to access online information more than once a day to do their job Over 70% feel confident about their ability to do so Over 55% know how to evaluate information from the Web as to reliability and accuracy

Most Frequently Used Websites Search engines (Google, Yahoo, …) PHSKC Public Website PHSKC Employee Intranet Washington State Department of Health (DOH) Washington State Department of Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Information Needs Almost 80% of survey respondents reported that if they had an information need they would search for the information themselves…

Locating Journal Articles & Books Top Three Choices Recommendations from colleagues Workplace reference materials Newsletters or current awareness tools

Types of Information Needed Top Ten… Print Sources/Documents (Word, Excel, PDF) Electronic / Internet Sources Telephone Directories for Contact Information (Phone numbers, Addresses) Advice / Information from Colleagues Professional Conferences & Workshops Reference Books Government Publications Dictionaries Best Practices / Evidence- based Work Manuals

Topics All aspects of Public Health, including Infectious Diseases, HIV AIDS, STD, Immunization, Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health, Toxicology… Directories Community Specific Information Grant Information Legal Information State and Federal Government Information Technology-related Information Financial Information…

Public Health Journals American Journal of Public Health JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report New England Journal of Medicine Public Health Reports…

60% of survey respondents did not receive professional journals for work purposes Of those who did, most paid for them themselves

Lacking Skills In… Using article databases such as PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, or Web of Science Using Electronic discussion lists or listservs Finding "Grey literature" such as reports from government agencies or NGOs that are not published commercially Accessing journal subscriptions in print or online Searching statistics databases such as ICPSR, census.gov resources Consulting online catalogs, experts, librarians

If a digital library (journals, books and related content available online in digital format only) of core public health journals and books were available in Public Health would you use the digital library content? Yes 56.7% No 6.1%

If computer literacy training was made available to you what applications would you like to receive training in?  Microsoft Office  File & Folder Management  Internet Search Engines   Geographic Information Systems  Reference Managers Yes !

Reoccurring Themes Need for evidence-based, point of service, just in time information Need for a diverse range of information resources on a wide range of public health related topics Need and desire for improved access to information Need and desire for training to improve information seeking skills Perceived lack of time and support to maximize information use

Implications of Survey Results

Implications Improve access to information Improve information seeking and critical appraisal skills Improve knowledge management skills

Plan… Explore a range of options to improve information provision including: Development of a virtual/digital online library Offering online and onsite training regarding efficient searching, critical appraisal, knowledge management, and application use

Issues to Consider Cost to implement & maintain current investment in information resources? cost effectiveness of electronic access? personnel costs?

Issues to Consider – Slide 2 Sustainability who will update and maintain the website? who will administer electronic resource licenses? who will troubleshoot?

Issues to Consider – Slide 3 Levels of Support buy in from PHSKC? ownership? breadth of access? continuing financial support?

Issues to Consider – Slide 4 How to Measure/Evaluate Impact is the resource being used? is it being used effectively? is it having an impact? can we improve usability?

Questions? ?