Health Center library’s outreach program gains national recognition

After guiding traffic on the information highway for more than 20 years, Healthnet, the Health Center library’s free outreach program, has been recognized in a national health awards competition.

The program is one of 10 finalists chosen by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS).

“This is wonderful recognition for our program, which we think provides an invaluable service to the residents of Connecticut,” says Alberta Richetelle, director of Healthnet.

“When our program started in 1985, we had six or eight drawers of pamphlets plus medical texts that we could use to answer consumers’ questions,” she says.

“Now we have the Internet, multiple electronic databases and a host of online sources from government agencies, academic institutions, and organizations.

“There’s been a real explosion in health information but our goal is the same,” adds Richetelle.

“We try to help people evaluate the resources that are available and locate health and medical information that is accurate and up-to-date.”

Help is provided through librarian-to librarian outreach programs designed to develop local public libraries as primary access points for consumer health information.

Several times a year, Richetelle and Healthnet librarian Judith Kronick offer training for librarians in medical reference tools and techniques.

They prepare subject bibliographies on consumer health topics and help identify and evaluate sources of consumer health information; provide consultation on collection development and presentation of community health programs; and four times a year, they publish a newsletter to keep librarians informed about new consumer health information issues and resources.

“Our goal is to help them work effectively with their own library users,” says Richetelle.