The NLM-Hosted Go Local System: An Opportunity for Medical Libraries

Posted by Maryanne Blake on January 12th, 2006 Posted in: News from NLM

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This informative article by Naomi Miller, Manager, Consumer Health Information in the Public Services Division at NLM gives the history and the present-day workings of GoLocal. She describes the GoLocal process and calls on the reader to consider participating.

“The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus is a high-quality gateway to consumer health information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government, professional and voluntary organizations creating authoritative health information. … What MedlinePlus does not include is information on local health services. Early in the development of MedlinePlus, NLM staff recognized that local organizations would be the best source of information about services in their states or regions. MedlinePlus concentrates on linking to information about diseases, conditions and wellness issues from national sources. Providing the information on facilities, health care professionals, programs and services, is the goal of MedlinePlus Go Local. The ultimate goal is to integrate the two complementary services. MedlinePlus provides the health information and link users to Go Local sites for information about services. Go Local sites would provide the links to local community services and connect residents to MedlinePlus for health information.”