12/28/05
Sandy and Kathleen met to review progress during past month, including Kathleen's revision of the Teen Health websites.
12/1/05
Stephanie Merrick and Kathleen had a productive meeting at the Senior Center. Kathleen delivered more books and brought recommendations for nutrition and cook-book titles, as had been requested earlier. They decided where to locate the health reference books and discussed how to promote them, including the idea of a luncheon meeting to present information about our project and information resources. (Sandy, Kathleen and Stephanie will meet in January to plan.)
11/17/05 -12/22/05
Kathleen attended the Nov 18 staff meeting at the Holyoke Public Library and described the trainings she would be offering. Maria Pagan, HPL Director and also an HCHL officer, told staff about the history of this project [which Maria was supervising during Sandy's absence Nov 17-Dec 22]. In December, Kathleen provided MedlinePlus training for six HPL staff members, worked on collection development, and began designing a handout about health information resources at HPL.
11/14/05
Kathleen and Sandy visited the Community Health Information Center at Mary Lane Hospital, 85 South St., Ware, MA. Janet Lussier, Health Librarian, gave us a tour. A few days later, Kathleen visited librarian Adrienne Racz at the Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. Both of these institutions are part of Baystate Health. See photos at sward.smugmug.com (click on Health Libraries gallery category).
11/10/05
Kathleen did a MedlinePlus training for Leah at the Teen Center.
10/31/05
Sandy distributed newly-purchased reference books to four of our partner sites: Holyoke Public Library, Teen Center, Senior Center, and Providence Prenatal Center. See photo gallery Halloween and HCHL books.
10/28/05
Officers for 2006 elected at our Annual Meeting. New books displayed. See agenda, photos, and the Minutes. Michelle Eberle visited from the New England office of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine and showed us a large poster she uses in NLM exhibits at conferences. It incorporates statistics and a photo from our Holyoke project. Michelle, Sandy, and Kathleen enjoyed lunch at a new cafe in Holyoke.
10/27/05
Kathleen attended an NN/LM workshop, ¿No Comprende? Spanish Health Information Resources for English Speaking Librarians, taught by Michelle Eberle.
10/25/05
Kathleen and Sandy promoted MedlinePlus at a Health Fair at Alden Baptist Church in Springfield. We shared a table with Holyoke Health Center staff. We estimate that at least 75 people talked with us and/or took information promoting MedlinePlus (pens, bookmarks, flyers, screen cleaners). In addition, some special contacts were made:
10/24/05
Karen Dorval gave Kathleen a tour of the Health Sciences Library at Baystate in Springfield. We also visited the Baystate Consumer Health Library, 3300 Main St, Springfield, where Diane Mazur answered questions about their services. Photos of these libraries at Baystate.
10/15-25/05
An active period of selecting and purchasing core reference books for each partner site.
10/5/05
New email address established for Kathleen Packard to use during this project: holyokehealth@gmail.com
(Note: gmail is the Google mail service she already uses.) A business card with this address will be prepared soon. [Done.]
10/1/05
Kathleen Packard and Doris McKethan participated in the "Holyoke Loves Learning" Education Fair at the Holyoke Heritage State Park on Saturday, October 1, 11am-3pm. Kathleen estimates that fifty people stopped by the table and took information about MedlinePlus. Photos of the Fair. This fair was coordinated by Jody Spitz of the Holyoke Family Literacy Coalition.
9/29/05
Kathleen visited the library at the Western Massachusetts Center for Healthy Communities and met staff members Gail, Jeff, and Miriam.
9/14/05
Kathleen and Sandy met at the Holyoke Teen Center with Leah Uberseder, Daisy Rivera, Dalia Robles, and Sarah Dutton. Photos of Teen Center and staff
9/9/05
Kathleen Packard began as the new Consumer Health Information Coordinator. Sandy introduced her to Maria Pagan (Holyoke Public Library) and Maritza Smidy (Providence Prenatal Center). On 9/13 Stephanie Merrick took photos of Kathleen and Sandy at the Senior Center.
9/2/05
After an active week of reviewing applications and conducting telephone interviews, two candidates for the position of Consumer Health Information Coordinator were brought to Holyoke for in-person interviews with Sandy Ward, Jennifer Hartley, Gail Gramarossa (Holyoke Health Center) and Stephanie Merrick (Council on Aging). On 9/8 Kathleen Packard accepted our offer.
8/31/05
Information booth at Senior Fest, Pulaski Park, Holyoke, in conjunction with Council on Aging's free health fair. Sandy and Doris promoted MedlinePlus and the health information services of the Senior Center. Photos of Senior fest.
8/20-28/05
Sandy attended various community events and spoke with representatives of agencies that might be interested in learning about MedlinePlus: Providence Ministries for the Needy; SupportNetwork for Families of Western Massachusetts; Enlace de Familias; Children's Museum of Holyoke. This type of impromptu outreach (e.g., circulating among the information tables at Caribbean Nights) would have been easier with an updated business card. Sandy decided to order new HCHL business cards.
8/19-23/05
Sandy met with Maritza Smidy at Providence Prenatal to discuss next steps for this project; Maritza requested MedlinePlus training for newly-hired staff and a review session for some existing staff. Sandy held an informal training session for 6 staff on 8/23/05. The staff expressed enthusiasm for MedlinePlus and how it helps with their work. The Spanish language and easy-to-read pages are helpful for their patients.
8/15/05
Jen taught a workshop at Holyoke Health Center: Introduction to MedlinePlus.
8/10/05
Good news/Bad news: Jen has accepted a full-time job as Reference Librarian at Springfield College (Congratulations, Jen!) and has cut down her hours with our project (bad news for us). This provides a NEW opportunity for someone else. We are now recruiting candidates for the part-time position of Consumer Health Information Coordinator. See the Position description.
Please contact Sandy Ward or Jennifer Hartley if you are interested, have questions, or wish to recommend someone.
8/9/05
Doris McKethan and Sandy Ward met with Stephanie Merrick at the Senior Center to discuss progress to date on this grant. Stephanie is very pleased with MedlinePlus and uses it regularly in helping seniors. She no longer needs to maintain piles of pamphlets; the information accessible via MedlinePlus is more up-to-date and more specific to the needs expressed by her people. She has requested (from the City) a printer for the publicly accessible search station; until it arrives she must use the staff equipment. She would love to have a core group of volunteers to help seniors with the MedlinePlus searches, since many seniors are not comfortable using a computer.
8/5/05
Jen conducted MedlinePlus training at MSPCC-Holyoke (Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children).
8/5/05
Sandy posted photos of PlaneTree Health Library, which she had visited while in CA last month.
8/3/05
Summer news: Website statistics continued to increase in June. Jen conducted additional trainings at the Holyoke Health Center. We met with HHC administrators and planned future collaborations (and submitted a grant application). Sandy and Jen were away much of July, but website usage statistics stayed high, indicating that staff in the various partner sites actively connected to the resources. We're now back and will be in touch with each of our partner sites.
5/31/05
Completion of 3rd Quarter of NLM grant. Very successful quarter: Jennifer conducted 7 training sessions at 4 partner sites (Holyoke Health Center, Senior Center, Holyoke Public Library, and Providence Prenatal), attended by total of 27 people. Usage of our website has increased significantly (see stats).
5/10/05
At Mount Holyoke College, Sandy Ward's colleagues celebrated her upcoming Early Retirement (which will start July first) with an afternoon party and a wonderful surprise: all donations towards her retirement gift are being donated to Holyoke Consumer Health Library, Inc. A symbolic check for $575 was presented to Sandy. By day's end the total had climbed to $620.
HCHL Treasurer Doris McKethan had met with Sandy that very morning to review our financial situation and prepare the required Form PC and IRS 990 for 2004 to file with the state. Not counting our NLM funding (which is simply reimbursement handled through the Public Library Corporation as our fiscal agent), our balance that morning was $162, hardly enough to buy many reference books. "We need to do some fundraising soon," we said then, with NO idea of the surprise to come. Photo of Treasurer Doris McKethan holding the check a few days later.
5/9/05
Jen attended the Massachusetts Library Association annual meeting May 9-11 with several colleagues from Holyoke Public Library.
5/6/05
Jen conducted MedlinePlus training for five Holyoke Health Center staff. HHC Program Manager Gail Gramarossa helped organize small groups to attend these training sessions, to be held each Friday, beginning May 4 and continuing into June.
5/4/05
Sandy and Jen met with Holyoke Health Center Program Manager Gail Gramarossa to discuss a possible idea for future grant support and collaborations.
4/28/05
Jen and Sandy attend MAHSLIN (Massachusetts Area Health Sciences Library Network) Annual Meeting in Waltham, MA, at headquarters of Massachusetts Medical Society. The library there has a "Holyoke Terrace"! See photos.
4/27/05
Jen conducted MedlinePlus training for staff at Providence Prenatal Center. Training on critical evaluation of health information planned for mid-May.
4/25/05
Jen attended Reforma meeting in Southbridge, "Providing Library Services to Latinos"
4/22/05
Jen attended a workshop at CRLS taught by Michelle Eberle, "No Comprende"
4/19/05
Sandy visited the Stanford Health Library in California.
4/3/05
Sandy added a new webpage Holyoke water : Links to Information Resources .
3/15, 21/05
Jen met with and trained Stephanie Merrick, Council on Aging.
3/14/05
HCHL meeting at Holyoke Public Library. Javier Crespo of NN/LM New England Region attended.
3/9/05
Sandy submitted the second Quarterly Report to the NN/LM New England Region (UMass-Worcester), covering December 1, 2004-February 28, 2005.
3/9/05
Jen attended an MLA Teleconference program at University of MA Medical School Worcester Partnering for Public Health: Information, Librarians,
and the Public Health Workforce
3/1/05
Jen met with Holyoke Health Center administration and staff to plan implementation of our project at HHC.
2/9/05
Jen and Sandy visit the Consumer Health Library at Baystate Health Systems, Springfield.
2/2/05
Holyoke Public Library celebrated 103th birthday (built Feb 2, 1902). Sandy and Doris attended and saw architect's plans for a future addition.
News items from other years are archived: 2006 | Sept-Dec 2004 | 2003-2004 transition | History page with links to earliest years |