NNLM Public Library Partnership Award Supports Health Information Toolkits

Posted by Darlene Kaskie on July 14th, 2019 Posted in: All of Us, Blog, Consumer Health, From the GMR, Funding, News from the Region, Outreach, Public Libraries, Success Stories

Stephanie Swanberg, Assistant Professor and Information Literacy and eLearning Librarian for the Oakland University William Beaumont (OUWB) School of Medicine received one of four NNLM Public Library Partnership awards. With her award, the OUWB Medical Library was able to take on a medical student as an intern for the first time.

She said, “This is the perfect time for OUWB to host summer internships as our M1 students have made it through their first year and have the foundational knowledge and skills to now apply to their internship work,” Swanberg said.

Emily Yuen, M2, helped develop a set of ready-made health education toolkits to be used by the Auburn Hills Public Library as part of its programming in 2019-2020.

“As a future pediatrician, Emily enthusiastically delved into developing two toolkits on bone health and the heart for kids and was so excited to learn about how libraries and health professionals can work together to promote healthy lifestyles and health literacy,” Swanberg said.

Swanberg said Yuen’s previous experience, knowledge, work ethic, and outgoing personality made her the ideal intern.

“This truly was a collaborative internship where Emily worked with experts from many different areas of OUWB and the community: the medical library, the public library, medical school faculty, and medical education staff,” Swanberg said.

OUWB Summer Internships Benefit Students, Community Alike

The NNLM All of Us Public Library Partnership Award allows for the development of projects and programs that increase access to and capacity to use National Library of Medicine (NLM) and other authoritative health information resources to enable individuals to make informed decisions about their health. Each award recipient receives up to $20,000.

The award also supports the NNLM All of Us Community Engagement Network (CEN) mission to increase public and participant awareness and understanding of the NIH All of Us Research Program using approved health literacy topics, programs, and materials in support of public libraries providing outreach to populations that meet the NIH Underrepresented in Biomedical Research (UBR) criteria as defined by the NIH All of Us Research Program.

Learn more about JoinAllofUs.org

ABOUT Darlene Kaskie
Darlene Kaskie, M.L.S. is Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist for Region 6 of the Network of the National Library of Medicine. She connects communities to training, engagement, and funding to improve access to health information and NLM Resources such as MedlinePlus. Advancing health literacy and digital skills training helps people make informed decisions about their health. She earned her Consumer Health Information Specialization (CHIS) from the Medical Library Association.

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