12/01/06
WMHIC meeting at Shriner's Hospital with presentations by BayState librarians and by Sandy Ward about planning libraries for future.
11/28/06
Sandy spent a day at the PlaneTree Health Library in Los Gatos, CA, meeting with Library Director Candace Ford and measuring the space of this library (as an example for the upcoming WMHIC presentation of library space planning). Sandy also visited some public libraries in CA while visiting relatives for several weeks.
10/30/06
Annual Report form listing HCHL Officers/Directors mailed to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
10/29/06
Sandy attended a 6-hour library planning workshop at Simmons taught by Dick Waters, “How Much Space Do You Need, and How Much Will It Cost?”. The registration fee was reimbursed by WMHIC; Sandy agreed to summarize this workshop at the next WMHIC meeting (Dec 1).
10/20/06
HCHL ANNUAL MEETING 9:00 - 11:00 AM in the Community Room at the Holyoke Public Library. Handout: Accomplishments in the past 12 months. Minutes.
10/15-17/06
Sandy attended the NAHSL 2006 Conference in Hartford, CT with health sciences librarians from New England, New York, and New Jersey, including a continuing education workshop Finding Information on Environment and Health. NAHSL stands for North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries, Inc.
10/06/06
A profile of HCHL is included in the Michelle Eberle's CHIChat column of NN/LM NER online magazine NER'eastah (vol 6, no 1, 2006). See the Consumer Health Profile.
That issue also includes a review of “Family Health and Literacy: A Guide to Easy-to-Read Health Education Materials and Web Sites for Families”.
10/06/06
Sandy Ward and Kathleen Packard attended the quarterly meeting of the Western Massachusetts Health Information Consortium (WMHIC) for a presentation by Penny Glassman, Technology Coordinator, NN/LM NER, on “Firefox, Blogs, RSS, Podcasts, Wikis, and Google Scholar.” Sandy met afterwards with Baystate librarians Fran Becker and Lauri Kolakoski.
10/05/06
Sandy met with Mary Farrell, HCC Dean of Health Division and a Board member of HHC, to discuss possible next steps for HCHL.
9/27/06
Announcement of date for our Annual Meeting: FRIDAY Oct 20, 2006 9:00 - 11:00 AM in the Community Room at the Holyoke Public Library.
9/20/06
NIH announced launch of a new magazine called NIH MedlinePlus. The magazine is co-sponsored by the Friends of the National Library of Medicine. Visit the FNLM website for more information. You can download the Fall issue (32 pages in pdf format), including articles on diabetes, flu, arthritis, and a sisters breast cancer study. This magazine, which promotes MedlinePlus, will be distributed to doctors' offices.
9/5/06
Sandy compiled statistics from the log of interactions at our Farmers' Market booth this summer (17 weeks). A total of 145 people stopped by to pickup brochures and/or talk with us about our project. We provided online MedlinePlus demonstrations to at least 50 people. In many cases we provided printouts relevant to their own health needs. This service was very well-received.
8/31/06
Last day of our summer grant. Kathleen Packard and Sandy Ward staffed the last day on duty at the Farmers' Market. A final report to NNLM will be written soon.
8/30/06
Jen Hartley staffed an information table at the Senior Fest. She was assisted by Carla from the Holyoke Public Library.
8/2/06
Article about us in The Republican Wednesday, August 2, 2006 in HolyokePlus section, page HP11, “Online library a health resource”. You can read the text on MassLive at this link. Also, short notice titled “Health Information”
was published Friday July 28 on front page of the Local section (Chicopee, Holyoke, So Hadley, Granby) of the Republican.
7/26/06
Press Release about our summer grant and outreach programs.
7/25/06
Photos of Farmshare and Farmers' Market outreach added to these albums:
7/18/06
First day at CISA Senior FarmShare program, Holyoke Council on Aging. Fresh vegetables from Riverland Farm distributed to seniors. Jen and Sandy set up an information display and offered health and nutrition resources.
7/15/06
Sandy updated four pages on this website: About, Libraries, Holyoke information, and News. Our summer project is well underway. Jen has been active at the Teen Center as well as the Farmers' Market. Ooutreach to the FarmShare program at the Council on Aging begins July 18.
7/11/06
Judy Atkin officially began as our new Treasurer. She wrote the first check to Kathleen Packard to pay for the hours worked at the HCHL booth at the Farmers' Market. Kathleen assisted Jen Hartley while Sandy was out of town for three weeks.
6/14/06
Javier Crespo hand delivered the check for $10K from NN/LM NER to fund our summer project; HCHL Treasurer Doris McKethan and Sandy Ward deposited it in the bank; later that day we gathered for a party at Sandy's house. During the party a brief HCHL meeting was held to elect the next Treasurer. Judy Atkin will become Treasurer starting in July. We wish Doris well as she leaves Holyoke, returning to her family home in NJ by the end of June. Photos of June 14.
6/1/06
Improved signs on our booth at the Farmers' Market. New webpage of photos of our summer project: www.holyokehealth.info/admin/farmers2006.html
5/31/06
Sandy attended the Massachusetts EqualAccess Libraries Institute hosted at the Palmer Public Library and led a one-hour session “Tales from the Field: Community Responsive Programming”. The institute is a professional development program for public librarians. It was developed by Libraries for the Future (LFF) and brought to Massachusetts by the MBLC. See the LFF website for more about LFF's Health Access and health literacy programs.
5/18/06
Successful afternoon at the Holyoke Farmers' Market. Jennifer Hartley and Sandy Ward spent five hours on duty in the HCHL booth with wireless Internet connection to MedlinePlus. We also displayed information from the Holyoke Public Library. Several people with worries about health issues in their families stopped by, sat for a demonstration of MedlinePlus, and left with printouts of relevant information. People responded with gratitude for the service and information provided. Jen conducted several of these information sessions in Spanish. It was a very windy day and we learned that big signs and brochure racks fall over easily. By next week we hope to have custom-made banners and a good supply of paperweights. Photos of Farmers Market!
5/16/06
Sandy attended Connecting the Dots: Holyoke's Networking Conference on Education and Family Support Services. Photos of conference. HCHL and MedlinePlus brochures were displayed. Kittridge Business Center, Holyoke Community College.
5/11/06
HCHL made its debut at the Holyoke Farmers' Market, High Street, Holyoke. Come visit us! EVERY THURSDAY this summer.
5/9/06
HCHL participated in a Health Fair and “Ending Health Disparities” Forum at Holyoke Health Center organized by El Dialogo.
5/3/06
Proposal submitted to NN/LM NER for May-Aug 2006 project: Health Information Outreach in Holyoke in coordination with the Council on Aging FarmShare program, the Holyoke Farmers Market, the Teen Center, and the Holyoke Public Library.
4/28/06
Sandy Ward attended the MAHSLIN Annual Meeting, 8am - 3:30pm in Waltham, MA. The theme was Think Globally, Act Locally. Speakers discussed Healthcare Disparities, Resources for People with Disabilities, and many other topics. Sally Gore gave a good presentation on “All Health is Local: Introducing Go Local Massachusetts.” Try Go Local Massachusetts: www.medlineplus.gov/massachusetts. Search by location: Hampden County, or by category of Service provider, or by Disease or condition. Additions to this directory are welcome. We should work to have Holyoke added in its City directory, and to have all our local health care providers and services represented.
4/28/06
Final Report on our 2004-2006 NLM-funded project submitted to Javier Crespo, NN/LM NER. Jennifer Hartley, Kathleen Packard, and Sandy Ward all contributed to the preparation of this report and accompanying Powerpoint. HTML version of the Final Report.
4/13/06
SURPRISE! Morning call from Javier Crespo, NN/LM NER: would we like to have a 4-month “extension” so that our work could reach additional audiences in Holyoke? Up to $10,000 could be available if we acted quickly and filled out Intent Form by the end of the day! Sandy spent hours on the phone and email, consulting with many potential partners and participants, and drafting a tentative budget and plan. By the end of the day, the form was filed and Javier emailed back to confirm that a$10K “Express Award” would be earmarked for HCHL in the NN/LM NER budget. Title of new project: Health Information Outreach in Holyoke. Details to be refined in coming weeks. No money will actually come until we submit a specific proposal.
4/12/06
We celebrated the successful completion of our 18-month project funded by the National Library of Medicine and thanked our community partners, donors and friends with a Party! See photos of HCHL party.
04/3/06
Launch of the Guides section of our virtual library. It includes links to training materials and instructional resources, e.g., how to help people find health information, how to use MedlinePlus, etc. You can find a web version of Kathleen's recent handout there: Criteria and Tips for Evaluating Health Web Sites.
03/29/06
Meeting of HCHL, Inc. at Holyoke Public Library. Kathleen Packard did a presentation “Evaluating Health Web Sites”
and handed out a written guide Criteria and Tips for Evaluating Health Web Sites. Chris Craig took Minutes.
We selected the date (April 12, 4-6pm) for a PARTY to celebrate our accomplishments and thank partners and donors.
After the meeting Doris, Kathleen and Sandy went to lunch and discussed budget, menu, and invitations.
We also considered how to add Kathleen's useful handout to our website, creating a Guides section. Sandy will work on the html, while Kathleen prepares a flyer for the party.
03/17/06
Kathleen and Sandy attended PubMed training taught by Donna Berryman, NN/LM. Many new features have been added to PubMed in the past year.
03/17/06
Launch of new section of our virtual library devoted to HIV/AIDS Internet Resources: www.holyokehealth.info/AIDS. Kathleen Packard not only designed and created these pages, but also published them to the web. More links will be added in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
03/14/06
Kathleen has spent several weeks evaluating and annotating web resources on HIV/AIDS. This work is funded under a separate NLM grant administered by the Holyoke Health Center. The resulting webpages will eventually be incorporated into HHC's website. An early draft posted today on our website. Kathleen works with Gail Gramarossa, Program Manager, HIV/AIDS Services, HHC. Coincidently, in these same weeks, Gail and her HHC group have moved from rented offices on High Street into the newly opened Holyoke Health Center building at the corner of Dwight and High (main entrance at 230 Maple Street). Kathleen and the shelf of HCHL-provided reference books moved, too. They are now on the 3rd floor of the new facility.
02/23/06
Paper City Notes (a Holyoke weblog on MassLive, written by Bronwen Hodgkinson) included mention of our Health Information Week event. See Feb 23 entry. Jen Hartley visited Holyoke Public Library and enjoyed greeting staff she had worked with last year.
02/21-25/06
Health Information Week at Holyoke Public Library. Michelle Eberle from NN/LM visited on Wednesday and watched as a Channel 40 news team gathered a story about us. The Channel 40 cameraman even captured good images of MedlinePlus in Spanish which displayed well on the Feb 22 evening news, with Kathleen explaining how easily one can move from the English to Spanish pages. Good publicity! The Republican newspaper also published an article entitled "Online health data offered"; it ran on page 17 of the HolyokePlus section of Wednesday paper. Text on MassLive. One woman arrived at the Public Library with the clipping in her hand, seeking information to help a family member with a health crisis. Sandy showed her the print resources, MedlinePlus, and then PubMed for more advanced information. MedlinePlus proved to be very helpful. She went home with printouts of relevant information, including a doctor's explanation of the surgical procedure that might be used. Photos of Health Information Week.
02/20/06
Kathleen revised and expanded two webpages on this website: Web Resources and Hotlines.
02/14-17/06
Kathleen and Sandy helped HPL rearrange the Reference collection, with special attention to health section. We added a new sign, "Health Information", and new holders for HCHL rack cards. Kathleen and Michael weeded the health section. Photos of HCHL at HPL.
02/13/06
Grand Opening of the new Holyoke Health Center. See Sandy's photos of HHC.
02/9-17/06
Planning for a Health Information Week (Feb 21-25) at Holyoke Public Library, including press release, and creation of a rack card highlighting health resources at HPL.
See our Events page. Maria Pagan posted a notice on the City's online Community Calendar at www.holyoke.org
02/06/06
Kathleen and Sandy visited the Planetree headquarters in Derby, CT and toured the Griffin Hospital Health Resource Center. Photos. Planetree website.
01/27/06
HCHL Open House at the Senior Center. Improved Internet access in the Senior Center library, thanks to larger monitor donated by Kathleen Packard, faster computer and printer provided by City of Holyoke, and a new desktop icon for our website. See photos of Open House and upgraded computer at Senior Center.
01/25/06
Holyoke Health Center administration invited Sandy to participate in a conference call about possible future scenarios for health information services at HHC. We brainstormed freely and generated some good ideas.
01/17/06
Press Release sent to media: "The Holyoke Consumer Health Library will host an Open House on Friday, January 27, 2006 from noon to 2:00 p.m. at the Council on Aging, in the War Memorial Building, lower level, 310 Appleton Street, Holyoke. Come see the new books at the recently expanded Caregivers Resource Library. Come try MedlinePlus, an extensive online health database for consumers. Knowledgeable librarians will be on hand to assist attendees in finding information about health concerns."
01/17/06
Kathleen conducted MedlinePlus training for additional staff at Holyoke Health Center.
01/11/06
Kathleen and Sandy staff an information
table during a "Health Topics" luncheon at the Senior Center, part of a
series run by Stephanie Merrick, RN. After lunch we
offer one-on-one assistance in the Library room for any senior needing
help in finding information about health issues.
01/10/06
Revised version of Factsheet about our project.
01/10/06
Kathleen and Sandy met with nine pregnant teens at Providence Prenatal Center and showed them MedlinePlus and some of the books purchased under this project.
News items from earlier years are archived: 2005 | Sept-Dec 2004 | 2003-2004 transition | History page with links to earliest years |