![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
Abstract
The public library needs to be understood as a source of consumer health information. Although medical librarians have extended outreach to their public counterparts for years, few detailed evaluations of the effectiveness of this outreach have been published, and the skill sets and knowledge gaps in the public library community are undocumented. This paper reports the results of a large interview study in which 102 library workers, professional and paraprofessional, were asked about their awareness of consumer health information resources.
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, Washington, D.C., May 2010.
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of Gale Dutcher and the Specialized Information Services Division of the National Library of Medicine through subcontract 2008-13. She also thanks Tammy Mays, doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for assistance in interviews during the pilot phase of this study, and Ulrike Dieterle, outreach librarian at the Ebling Health Sciences Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, for her advice and provision of NLM outreach materials to study participants.
Notes
*Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau. Table 4: Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places in Wisconsin, Listed Alphabetically: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 (SUB-EST2005-04-55). Release Date: June 28, 2007. Available: <http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2006-04-55.csv>. Accessed: December 10, 2010.
**Population estimate reported at tribal websites.