Karla Block, Minnesota Go Local Project Director, provided an overview of the beginning and development of their Go Local project. Minnesota is similar to NYS in that it is large (87 counties) and has a rural area similar to NYS. They received NLM funding and began the project in April 2006. They had an original launch date of December 2006; it was postponed to April 2007; and a final actual launch date of July 2007. They began the project with a Project Manager and 4 hourly staff who had health sciences library backgrounds. In developing the database, they concentrated on NLM established priorities that included hospitals, nursing homes, and public health clinics.

The original plan called on regions to submit data but that model did not work. Instead they had people in the regions discover existing lists and/or create lists which were then sent to the project team to input and approve. The lists were formatted in an Excel spreadsheet that provided for a skeleton record.

In terms of staffing, they found that a dedicated/focused project manager was a necessity. In addition, staff needed to work a minimum of 5 hours a week to retain skills acquired during training. Although the use of volunteers has worked out in other states, this practice did not work out well with the Minnesota project. They had a positive experience with library school students who were doing practicums that required 120 hours of time to a project. 211 agencies in Minnesota were very cooperative. However they found that the 211 data required considerable checking and additional information for Go Local inclusion.

In terms of the developing the database, they followed the established NLM priorities. NLM recommended that they have a minimum of 1,500 records at launch. They had 1,800 records at launch and now have 4,600 records in the database. Karla emphasized that developing the database is a very labor intensive process, that there are a lot of grey areas that need to be addressed, and a lot of decision points.

Some observations:

Promotions. Karla would wait till near launch time to start promoting the project. They started early and had to deal with delayed launch times, a temporary url for their website, and the need to make changes to some promotional material as a result. Karla would use this time to continue to build partnerships and support in the communities.

Sustainability. This is the biggest issue facing Minnesota’s Go Local project. Building and maintaining the database requires a lot of work and effort. There are 3 queues in the NLM database structure: approved records (which the public sees); pending (which needs to be approved); and incomplete (which needs more information). In addition NLM requires an annual audit of all records.

Database recommendations include:

1. making the agency descriptions general rather than very specific and consider that sometimes less is better than more
2. having all style guides, selection criteria ready ahead of time and realizing that there are a lot of decision points when entering agency records
3. centralized data entry with staff assigned to certain categories of agencies
4. having staff work at least 20 hours a week on the database
5. having staff be able to do more than one task so that the work does not become tedious

Terri Bunyatov, our STAT!Ref representative, will be meeting with me at SCRLC's office on July 16. I will repeat to her how much we'd like a single point-of-access for those of you who have multiple STAT!Ref accounts. Are there other questions you would like me to ask her? Please let me know!
Thanks,
Nora

It was suggested that the committee try to arrange for a sunrise seminar on Go Local at the UNYOC Conference in Ithaca in October 2008. It was also suggested that we propose a formal session on Go Local for both the UNYOC and NYLA 2009 programs.

NY3Rs have been asking what they can do. Below is a preliminary list:

• form a committee
• begin to identify existing databases
• make a list of potential partnerships
• look into 211
• consider outreach and training – develop centrally but deliver regionally
• foster awareness of NLM priority levels for organizations to include
• encourage public library participation

Discussion Excerpts from June 30 Go Local Minutes

Gary Byrd stated that he is willing to contribute 50% of Ophelia’s time to this project.

Cristina Pope said that Upstate would be willing to contribute staffing as well but needed to know what was needed and would like to see sample job descriptions. Grace DiVirgilio said that she would have some MISP money available ($5,000) to contribute to this project. CLRC has received a $10,000 member item grant to begin work on this project. (The day after the meeting, Julie emailed saying that E.G. Miner could contribute one senior level paraprofessional and one primary cataloger for up to 12 hours per week during the database building stage.)

Elizabeth Irish (via phone) was asked about the potential involvement of the NYS Department of Health. She indicated that they had a project beginning that was similar to Go Local and that she would follow up with a contact to determine the nature of their project. She and Chris will also contact the NYS Health Library.

Committee reports

Standards Committee. Michele reported. The committee has done a second draft of the Selection Guidelines that incorporated the changes recommended. Her question to the Steering Committee was how to handle individual practitioners. After some discussion it was agreed that Michele would add a statement to the effect that listings will not include group practices or individual practitioners at least initially.

Funding Committee. Kathy has had preliminary discussions with Albany about including an increase in MISP funding to support Upstate NY Go Local on an on-going basis. The response she received was favorable; however, because of the financial condition of NYS, it would not be available for at least two years. The increase in MISP funding to support Upstate NY Go Local would also have to be approved by the Regents Advisory Council for Libraries. Kathy noted that Lucretia McClure is president of this council and she will be talking to her about an ongoing source of funding for consumer health information programs.

PR. Carole reported that the latest suggestions have been incorporated into the one page summary of Upstate NY Go Local. She also noted that the PR committee was asked to develop a list of talking points. Carole will do a draft, ask our consultant to review and send out the draft to the committee for review and comments. Karla noted a couple of points that have served them well:

1. service is state-wide
2. links to Medline Plus
3. adheres to national standards
4. vetted clearinghouse of health-related organizations

3Rs updates.

Grace reported that their region has reformed their HLISP committee into the Community for Health Information Access committee. Diane, Ophelia, Grace and reps from the 2 public library systems in their area are members. Medline Plus classes are scheduled for public librarians in their region.

Greetings -
SCRLC has received its 2-CD set of the conference proceedings. You can listen to the presenters and view the powerpoints and handouts at your convenience. This conference's topics included

• Leadership
• Technology (especially Web 2.0)
• Trends and demographics shaping medical librarianship's future
• Lots more!
  

Please send Nora an email to borrow the MLA 2008 CDs.
Enjoy!
PS The audio sessions can be converted to podcasts suitable for listening to on an iPod, MP3 player, or computer.

Hospital Library Services Program Advisory Committee Meeting

10:00 a.m.-11:00 noon, Wednesday, July 1, 2008

Virtual Meeting, OPAL

Minutes

Present: Sue Bretscher, Laura Dixon, Ward Romer, Brad Zehr. Minutes taken by Nora Hardy.

1. April 30, 2008 minutes approved as written.

2. Databases are all working well. Hardy reported that while at MLA she was able to contact BMJ and will have more concrete information soon.

3. HLSP Grant 2008-9 – Will probably be similar to the current grant. The NYS budget process is not complete and SCRLC has not received the actual Grant figures.

4. MLA 2008, Chicago – Hardy attended and found it extremely valuable. Emphasis was on the use of Web 2.0 tools and their value to medical libraries. More information will be posted and linked on the committee blog at http://hlsp.blogspot.com/

5. UNYOC 2008, (10/22-24/2008, Ithaca) Plans are proceeding well.

6. MLA Class will again be cosponsored with CLRC. We will work together on and a PubMed for Experts session, to be held in Binghamton. If we can afford an additional class the group was particularly interested in Understanding Health Care Literature: A Primer for Working with Evidence-based Health Care Principles (Kathleen McKibbon, Hamilton ON), with an emphasis on how to teach those principles to their patrons.

7. New Business: Mary-Carol Lindbloom suggested that the Hospital Committee consider working with the ALA Wellness initiative at http://www.ala-apa.org/wellness Hardy will post more information on the Blog at http://hlsp.blogspot.com/. Lindbloom inquired about interested in establishing a journal club, possibly in conjunction with other NYS- or IL-based medical librarians. More details will be shared at a later date.

8. 2008 Hospital Committee Schedule, Tuesdays, 10:00-12:00
1. Aug. 12, Virtual Meeting-OPAL
2. Oct. 23, UNYOC, Ithaca
3. Dec. 9, Binghamton