CHIS Spotlight: CHIS Cohort Program

Posted by liaison on February 18th, 2026 Posted in: #CC/Academic List, Opportunity to Participate, Public Libraries

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This is a guest post written by Shelie Vacek and Rachael Lebo from the University of South Dakota. They led a cohort-based training program for library staff across Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to deepen their impact as trusted health information professionals. Offered collaboratively by Minitex, the University of South Dakota’s Wegner Health Sciences Library, and the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), this 12-month program blended asynchronous learning and monthly meet-ups to support flexible, community-centered professional growth. By the program’s end, participants earned either a Consumer Health Information Specialization (CHIS) Level 1 or Level 2 recognition. If you would like to learn more about CHIS, including teaching CHIS classes in your community, please reach out to the NNLM National Training Office at nto@utah.edu. 

Briefly introduce yourselves and share how you came to co-facilitate a CHIS cohort.

Shelie Vacek, Director of Wegner Health Sciences Library and Rachael Lebo, Clinical Services Librarian, Wegner Health Sciences Library, University of South Dakota.

Maggie Snow, Director of Minitex approached us to help co-facilitate a CHIS cohort in order expand the reach of the CHIS certification to include Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The course was also cofacilitated with Stacey Hendren, Deputy Director for Rochester Public Library, Rochester, MN.

Do you have any advice for library professionals thinking about earning their CHIS?

These are quotes from participants:

• I recommend all library staff – regardless of library type – take the CHIS training. Anyone can benefit from it as health reference questions don’t always just come up in medical contexts like medical/health sciences libraries.
• Health information is more abundant and more easily accessible than ever but navigating it all can be overwhelming. After completing the CHIS training, library staff will feel more confident in navigating a few go-to reputable health resources to help patrons find quality information.
• Provides valuable training in using consumer health resources
• Feel confident in helping patrons access high-quality health information
• Learned more about my community’s demographics
• Helps librarians stay current with new information and services in the consumer health field

How do you keep your participants informed and engaged throughout the certification process, especially when they are geographically dispersed?

We utilized Canvas (LMS) course site to organize course materials, utilized the discussion board as a communication tool, and held monthly meetings as a group via Zoom.

What metrics or evaluation tools are you using (or will use) to track how participants have improved their health information knowledge?

We distributed a course evaluation survey. Here are some comments from participants.

“In what ways will your CHIS certification benefit your present job or future career”?

• It will help me better help patients find consumer health information.
• It will help with my liaison duties to the Health and Human Performance Department.
• It has given me a great foundation for helping patrons with health and medical questions. I would like to continue taking NNLM classes to receive my level 2 certification.

“What did you find the most valuable about the course”?

• Interactive activities
• Being able to learn from others in the cohort
• Class discussions
• The resources provided through the classes have been invaluable

100% of participants who have answered the survey so far “completely agree” that they would recommend this class to others.

100% of participants “completely agree” or “agree” that the knowledge and skill learned can be applied to their work.

At the end of the course, most participants were able to apply for their Level 1 CHIS certification. Several were also able to apply for their Level 2 CHIS certification.

Any challenges or things you’d do differently if you had the chance to run another cohort like this?

Our cohort consisted of many academic librarians. It was great, as many were new to health sciences librarianship, or were going to be starting new health sciences programs at their colleges/universities. For future programs, we would try to market this cohort experience to public libraires in order to help increase consumer health reference confidence at public libraires. We would also promote the flexibility of the program, so that even busy solo librarians in rural libraries could still actively participate.

Anything else you’d like to share?

We believe the cohort idea has great potential. It was wonderful to have the group engage with each month, share stories and experiences, and learn from each other in addition to the structured learning modules provided by the NNLM.