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Abstract
The goal of this health information outreach project was to increase access to health information and improve health literacy in rural Maine. A health literacy curriculum was developed and piloted by teachers and librarians in local schools. Among students who completed the pre-survey (N = 121), 18% said they were confident in their ability to evaluate Web-based health information before participating in the curriculum compared with 48% after their participation. Sixty-five percent said on the post-survey that they were confident in their ability to share what they learned with others in the community. These findings indicate that teachers and librarians have an important role to play in improving health information literacy.
This project was funded in whole or in part by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine – New England Region, a program of the National Library of Medicine under contract number NO1-LM-1-3508 with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The authors are greatful to the teachers and librarians who piloted the curriclum with their students and provided valuable feedback, the public librarians for supporting community access to computers and the Internet, and the peer educators who where involved in the final curriclum feedback session.