Public Library Participation in a MedlinePlus® Go Local Project: Perceptions of Georgia Librarians and Staff

Abstract

In an effort to promote public library involvement in Georgia Health – Go Local, a National Library of Medicine initiative to link consumers to health resources in their local areas, staff at a large public library system in south Georgia were trained to enter local records into the Go Local database. Results of two follow-up focus groups indicated that participants were enthusiastic about demonstrating Go Local and MedlinePlus to library users but were not comfortable creating or maintaining Go Local records due to concerns about the relevance of the project, unease with medical terminology, varied levels of computer expertise, and worries about possible liability.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer health information
• database development
• Go Local program
• MedlinePlus
• National Library of Medicine
• public libraries

This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6–3502 with the University of Maryland, Baltimore.