12/07/2008
Website maintenance: some obsolete sections of this website deleted.
12/05/2008
Jim and Sandy attended the WMHIC meeting at Shriner's Hospital and had
a brief side conversation about our HCHL website. The issues of future
webhosting and responsibility for updating still have not been
resolved. Sandy recently learned that the cost with our current service
has risen to $22.50/month and is likely to rise again. (The $10/month
rate for non-profits is no longer an option.) Jim will check again with
the volunteer(s) he has in mind for webpage maintenance, and followup
with some contacts at institutions that might be willing to help with
hosting.
10/27/2008
At the Annual Meeting of HCHL, Inc., Jim Craig and Marilyn Billings
gave a demonstration of ScholarWorks
at UMass and discussed possible areas of collaboration.
HCHL Officers for 2009 were elected: Sandy Ward, President; Jim Craig, Vice President; Doug Fleury, Clerk; and Judy Atkin, Treasurer. We discussed the possibility of bringing the formal corporation to a close by May 2009 (when we will file the required 2008 tax forms). We completed the required Annual Report form for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Corporations Division for submission with its $15 fee.
10/16/2008
Announcement:
Annual Meeting of HCHL, Inc.
Monday October 27, 3:30 - 5:00 pm
in the Library at Holyoke
Community College
(in the Donahue Building, marked DON on this campus map).
Come see proposed changes to our website and
participate in discussion of next steps for our organization.
10/13/2008
Jim Craig and Sandy Ward met to plan agenda for upcoming annual
meeting.
8/27/2008
We promoted MedlinePlus and GoLocal Massachusetts at the Holyoke
Senior Fest
Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 11am-2pm, sponsored by the Council on Aging
and the Holyoke Parks and Recreation Dept. Sandy Ward did the set-up,
Maria Pagan provided Holyoke Public Library handouts, Jim Craig and
Judy Atkin helped staff the table. Photos
of Senior Fest.
8/26/2008
A new page called Contact Us
has been created, including a form mailer which allows people to send
email to us, but does not reveal the exact email address. This should
prevent spammers from harvesting the email address. It will also allow
us to change the email and only need to update ONE page, rather than
re-editing every page of this website. We will no longer use Sandy's
mtholyoke.edu address, which she plans to close. For the time being,
Sandy will use another private address, which will be remain hidden
behind the form. Sandy revised the bottom line of every page to read,
“For questions or comments about this web site, please contact us.”
[12/7/08: Because some spam was still getting through, in spite of the
form, Sandy deleted the form and inserted a disguised version of the
email.]
8/17/2008
Sandy began reviewing options for future hosting of this website,
investigating possible alternatives, now that Anita, our website
designer and donor who has paid our web-hosting costs for years, has
moved out of state. The question of maintenance and updating of each of
our pages has also been raised. (Sandy has been less active recently
and wishes to phase out of the “HCHL webmaster” role.) This transition
is perhaps a good time to step back and ask who is using this website,
and what parts of it are worth continuing. Is this Holyoke-specific
service, which mostly just links to other websites, still useful? In
recent years we've promoted MedlinePlus.gov
as THE starting place, rather than promoting our own website.
MedlinePlus has improved SO much over the many years since we launched
our service. MedlinePlus is updated daily, whereas our pages remain
relatively static. Since we are linking to highly reliable, stable
resources, perhaps static is fine, but should we be actively scouting
for new reliable resources to add to our pages? If so, who will do this
work of searching for new sites and evaluating them in relation to our
existing choices? Jim suggested involving student interns (either from
UMass Public Health? or Simmons library school?) to assist in future
updating work. Suggestions welcome.
5/12/2008
Our webpage Espaņol
has been updated.
5/7/2008
Medline Plus announced a new section: Health
Information in Multiple Languages (40 languages!). Note the Criteria
for selection: materials must be written by professionals for U.S.
consumers, and there must be an equivalent English version. They have
added links to instructions about display
issues for different language fonts on your computer (e.g.,
for Russian, Chinese, or Arabic).
4/30/2008
CHNA Forum: Connecting the Dots in Holyoke: Family Health Resources.
Holyoke Health Center. Sandy Ward and Carol Soules spoke about the new
Holyoke Unites/Holyoke Se Une website, which had been launched April
8th.
3/14/2008
Our History
page has been updated to include this information:
During 2007-2008 the focus has been on collaboration with broader efforts in Holyoke, especially the Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council (HFFPC) and work with a variety of coalitions to create a resource directory of service providers and coalitions in Holyoke. This directory, web-based and bilingual, is named Holyoke Unites/Holyoke Se Une. Judy Atkin and Sandy Ward serve on the HU HSU Web Team. Our HCHL webspace (behind the scenes) has been used for early drafts of the website and web team notes. A team of UMass IT students is designing the public version for April 2008 launch.
3/7/2008
Medical and heath science librarians of Western Mass (W.M.H.I.C.) met
at BayState Medical. Michelle Eberle, NER Consumer Health Information
Coordinator, gave a presentation on “the Healthy librarian”.
1/29/2008
Our Hotlines
page has been updated to include Mass2-1-1,
the statewide Information & Referral System created by United
Way
and endorsed by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).
Visit www.mass211.org
or dial
2-1-1 for human service and public safety/disaster information.
“Currently Mass2-1-1 operates its call center Monday through Friday
from 8:00am to 8:00pm with the ability to activate 24-7 during times of
emergency in the Commonwealth.” In times of emergency, this primary
telephone information call center should help reduce the number of
non-emergency calls made to 9-1-1. This service provides citizens “the
opportunity for 'one-stop-shopping', with access to vital updated
disaster information, numerous post-disaster programs, interpreter
services, ...”
Mass2-1-1 also provides routine referral information, e.g., how to find adult day care, or a food pantry. Use www.mass211help.org SEARCH page to enter your search, e.g., by topic, and zip code or city.
News items from earlier years are archived: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | Sept-Dec 2004 | 2003-2004 transition | History page with links to earliest years |
