HEALTH INFORMATION LITERACY

Do you think of questions that you wish you had asked your health care provider after you leave her or his office? Do your health care providers use terms that you would like to understand better? Would you like to be more informed about illnesses and medications? “Health information literacy” is a type of information literacy. It is the ability to access, find, use and communicate information related to personal health decision-making. There are studies that show that people who practice health information literacy have better health outcomes, use preventive services more and are hospitalized less.

There are many ways to find health information. People often ask friends and relatives or rely on well-known commercial web resources for health information. The information you find can vary in reliability, accuracy and bias — important considerations in deciding whether to use that information to make decisions about your health.

You might not be aware of some of the excellent sites that are produced by the U.S. government. For example, MedlinePlus has patient information about health conditions and drugs along with videos, calculators, quizzes and games. It has information written in non-technical language and only includes information that has an educational purpose (there is no advertising). MedlinePlus uses established criteria for the information it includes. HealthReach has health brochures, fact sheets and videos in many different languages.

To find studies on health and disease that are written and used by health professionals, search PubMed. PubMed includes reviews, or overviews, that summarize research about a disease or treatment. There is a PubMed tutorial that can help with searching this resource.

If you want to know about participating in clinical studies, go to ClinicalTrials.gov. This is a database of information about ongoing medical studies with human volunteers.

Try these sites the next time you want health information! And tell your family, friends and students about them! You can see that information literacy affects all areas of life!

SECOND ROUND OF LIBRARIES BRAVO AWARDS

The second round of Libraries Bravo Awards was announced in the March 18 issue of INSIDe, with nominations accepted for accomplishments occurring during the time frame of January 1 – May 1, 2015. The Libraries program follows University guidelines in making awards to individual Libraries employees to recognize a significant one-time contribution to the University's or the Libraries’ mission or goals. Nominations must include a description which links the accomplishment to one or more of the following award categories: Moving the University/Libraries Forward; Operational Excellence; Innovation/Creativity; Fiscal Stewardship.

All regular Libraries employees (with a few exceptions, mostly administrators) are eligible for consideration for the Libraries Bravo Award. Nominations may come from Libraries employees (self-nominations are accepted) and other Purdue employees. The nominations are reviewed by the Libraries Bravo Awards Committee, which is made up of the chairs of the Libraries Clerical Service Staff Advisory Committee (LCSSAC), the Libraries Administrative Professional Advisory Committee (LAPSAC) and the Libraries Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC), and is chaired by the associate dean for planning and administration. Allen Bol, Amanda Gill, Vicki Killion and Nancy Hewison are the current members. The committee sends its recommendations to the Dean of Libraries, who makes the final determination.

The recipient of a Libraries Bravo Award for January 1 – May 1, 2015, is Neal Harmeyer.

Neal was nominated for the development of a new system (DEPOT) for acquiring born digital records created by Purdue faculty and staff. DEPOT enables Archives and Special Collections to capture important digital records in a timely manner, as the records are created, and with ease for both the creator of the records and the Archives staff. The first successful acquisition through DEPOT of a born digital collection, Board of Trustees meeting minutes, took place during the time frame of this latest round of Libraries Bravo Awards. Going forward, not only will DEPOT continue to save valuable staff time and resources when acquiring Purdue records that are born digital, the use of DEPOT will be broadened to include acquisition of personal papers such as those created digitally by astronaut alumni.

THIRD ROUND OF LIBRARIES BRAVO AWARDS
The next round of Libraries Bravo Awards will recognize accomplishments during the period of May – November 2015. Please watch for further information, including specific dates, and a guide to preparing a nomination for a Libraries Bravo Award.

IMPACT WORKING WITH PURDUE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (PPI)

This summer, Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT) is working with the Purdue Polytechnic Institute (PPI - formerly known as the College of Technology). Ten faculty members from PPI are working with IMPACT teams to redesign PPI courses to make them more student-centered. Each IMPACT team is comprised of three to four faculty members from PPI, and a mix of individuals from the Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE) and ITaP Teaching and Learning and Purdue Libraries. From the Libraries, Clarence Maybee is facilitating the workshop sessions, and Nastasha Johnson and Michael Flierl are on IMPACT teams. The PPI faculty participating in IMPACT this summer will mentor other PPI faculty as they redesign courses during the fall 2015 semester.

LIBRARIES NEW STAFF

Meredith Gozo
Metadata Services Specialist
Metadata Services/Collection Management

Hello, Purdue Libraries! I am your new Metadata Services Specialist. I will be doing regular and special collections cataloging as well as metadata work in support of Digital Programs and projects in Archives and Special Collections. Prior to my arrival at Purdue, I was working on my M.S.L.I.S. and a Certificate in Archives and Special Collections from the University of Illinois LEEP program online, which I completed over a two year period. During that time frame I worked full-time at The University of Chicago Regenstein Library as a cataloging assistant. Before that, I was a processing intern at Loyola University Chicago’s University Archives and Special Collections, a position I held while obtaining my MA in English Studies there. Coursework in Textual Criticism and Digital Humanities brought me to the world of primary research materials, and I have since fallen in love with book history, bibliography, cataloging and resource description in general. I am thrilled to become part of a library team eager to enhance discovery and access through innovative means.

I was born in Cleveland and lived in New York for a while, but I really spent my formative years in Northwest Indiana and have been living in and around Chicago my whole life since. I am excited to get to know the charms that the Greater Lafayette area has to offer. While I didn’t move far enough south to expect better weather, it is so refreshing to live somewhere with so little traffic!

Naturally, I love to read, but in recent years I’ve also come to enjoy listening to podcasts, especially the ones hosted by comedians. This is something I’ve found I can do while I work — in fact, it kind of helps me “get in the zone” while cataloging — so if you find yourself in my department and hear someone giggling on the other side of a cubicle wall, it’s probably me with my headphones on. I also like hiking, biking, swimming, traveling — just getting out there to see and do as much as I can while I can. I enjoy listening to and playing music and have been in a number of unknown indie bands in which I played keyboard, synthesizer and accordion.

I’m accepting restaurant recommendations, local activities info, band startup inquiries and of course work-related communications by email, phone, or in-person at: mlgozo@purdue.edu, 49-40785 and room 364 of STEW. I look forward to meeting and working with you all.

Robin Meher
Library Assistant IV
Life Sciences Library

I’m the new library assistant at the Life Sciences Library. At Life I’ll be staffing the service desk and assisting with the library’s many ongoing projects as it transitions its collection in preparation for the opening of the Active Learning Center in 2017.

I have a BA in English from the University of Prince Edward Island and am working towards a Masters in Library Science from Wayne State University.

My hobbies, for which I have much more interest than skill, include archery and chess. I’m a vegan, but Oreos are also vegan, so it all works out.

I’m excited to be part of the Purdue Library community and I look forward to meeting everyone.

My desk is located at the Life Science Library in Lilly Hall, Room 2400, and I can be reached by phone at 49-61883 or by email at rmeher@purdue.edu.

PURDUE, IU-BLOOMINGTON AND IUPUI HOST INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN WORKSHOP

Purdue Libraries partnered with Indiana University-Bloomington (IU) and Indiana University, Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) to provide a workshop for librarians and archivists developing instructional plans. The workshop, called Cultivating Inquiry through Backward Design, was developed and facilitated by Clarence Maybee (Purdue), Andrea Baer (IU) and Bill Orme (IUPUI). In this blended learning program, librarians and archivists from the three institutions explored and applied principles of backward design and informed learning. These two learning frameworks offer practical approaches to fostering problem-based, “authentic” learning. After meeting online on May 12, five people from Purdue, Michael Flierl, Tracy Grimm, Sammie Morris, Megan Sapp Nelson and Catherine Fraser Riehle, attended an in-person meeting held in the Herman B. Wells Library at IU-Bloomington on May 22. Each librarian and archivist who participated was working on very different types of instruction, such as developing an online module about research methods, embedding archival literacy into a history class and using twitter to engage students in socio-cultural research. After working collaboratively on instructional plans through the morning, the group spent the afternoon listening to presentations about approaches to embedding information literacy at the curricular level. Carrie Donovan (IU) discussed librarians adopting a consultant role, Bill Orme (IUPUI) described a curriculum mapping project and Michael Flierl (Purdue) talked about the benefits of the Purdue Libraries being involved with Instruction Matters: Purdue Active Course Transformation (IMPACT).

MAY SMILE AWARD

Monica Kirkwood’s name was randomly drawn from all those who were SMILED upon in May. She received a $25 Von’s Book Shop gift certificate.

All faculty, administration and staff are invited to send a note of appreciation for a kindness or thoughtfulness given, assistance provided to or by a Libraries, Press or Copyright Office colleague.

To learn more about how to participate in our SMILE Program, please visit and bookmark this page on the Libraries intranet: http://intranet.lib.purdue.edu/display/HR/SMILE+Program/

AROUND THE LIBRARIES

Libraries staff members, Lisa Berry-Wensveen, Joette Hutchcraft, Kaitee Hardesty, Carol Tolley and Ashley Hutchcraft, enjoyed a fun-filled day at Spring Fling 2015.