Statement of Purpose
The Delaware Academy of Medicine wants to help people cross the digital divide to achieve better health. We will partner with underserved health, community, or senior agencies to provide computer hardware, software, and training. Our goal is to get credible health information to the widest possible audience.
Supporting Rationale
Home to Delaware’s premier health library, the Delaware Academy of Medicine is a unique health resource in the state of Delaware. Our librarians have extensive knowledge of health resources and they provide information services to consumers, hospitals, doctors, laboratories, and corporations throughout Delaware. The librarians are also aware that as more consumers research their health concerns, the Internet can be a good starting point. Consumers, however, first need basic Internet use skills which include not only such basics as using a mouse, keyboard, and browser, but also looking at sites with a critical eye and choosing information that comes from authoritative sites. The librarians of the Academy are well equipped to teach these skills.
Academy librarians are uniquely qualified to take on this project. In 1998-1999, the Academy’s Delaware AIDS Outreach Project funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine provided three computers housed at three different AIDS education sites statewide. Once a month one of our reference librarians traveled to the sites to teach clients about AIDS related Internet sites. Our librarians have also trained staff at the Division of Public Health in Dover and at Delaware hospitals to use GratefulMed, the first user-friendly interface to the National Library of Medicine’s medical database, Medline. The consumer health librarian at the Academy has also trained Delaware public librarians in the use of consumer health reference sources.
Several of our reference librarians are currently involved in choosing and evaluating health internet sites for inclusion in the state library sponsored DelAWARE website. Involvement in this project has fine-tuned their skills in being able to choose authoritative health web sites. The librarians’ unique expertise will be tapped into when developing and presenting our Internet training sessions.
Prospective Partners
We propose to partner with non-profit agencies such as community centers, senior centers, or health agencies that do not have computers and/or Internet access available to the public, but have space to provide an area that can serve as a small learning center. We will also consider partnering with a community agency that is a recipient of funds from the Jessie Ball Dupont Foundation. Since the Academy is eligible to receive Jessie Ball Dupont funding, collaborating with another recipient could enable us to increase the funding for our proposed project and meet community needs more successfully.
Target Populations
Initially our primary target audience will be underserved adults that use services at health, community, or senior agencies. This audience will also include staff and volunteers. We foresee that as other needs arise, we can customize our training to target seniors, children, and/or adolescents. The basic skills taught would remain the same; teaching techniques and content, however, would have to change to appeal to different audiences. The content focus will always be health-related, but web sites will reflect the interests of the group being taught.
Implementation Strategies
Our vision is to provide computers, needed software, hardware, and training to health, community, or senior agencies. Most importantly, we will train staff to effectively use the Internet and provide suggestions and materials for the training of their clients. We will also provide public training sessions for a timeframe guided by the needs of the agencies. By conducting these sessions, staff and volunteers can observe and participate so they can gain more training skills and Internet knowledge. The teaching of basic skills will be presented in the context of acquiring useful and authoritative health information on the Internet.
The librarians of the Academy will develop and present the training workshops. If appropriate, the staff and volunteers of the agencies will be involved in this process. All training materials will be given to the agencies’ staff and volunteers for future use. The librarians will seek input from staff and volunteers to help assess their agencies’ technology and health information needs. We envision that in the long-term, the library and staff resources of the Academy will be made available to the agencies with which we partner.
Conclusion
With this project we hope to help people cross the digital divide and become confident Internet users; at the same time, we want to empower people to find the health information they need to deal effectively with health issues for themselves and their families.
ADDENDUM - January 27, 2000
The Delaware Academy of Medicine has found several partners who are willing to work with us to achieve our goal to get credible Internet health information to Delaware citizens. The following four senior centers have agreed to partner with us: Newark Senior Center, Lewes Senior Citizen Center, Cape Henlopen Senior Center, and Wilmington Senior Center. Since the senior centers have different technology and training needs we want to tailor the grant to meet those needs. For example, the Lewes Senior Citizen Center and Cape Henlopen Senior Center would like us to provide them with computers, Internet access, and Internet training. The Newark Senior Center wants us to provide training for their seniors, while the Wilmington Senior Center needs help with acquiring Internet access and wants training. As both the Wilmington Senior Center and the Academy are eligible for funds from the Jessie Ball Dupont Foundation our collaboration will enable us to seek extra funding for our project.
As outlined in our initial concept paper we will provide the needed hardware and software to the centers so that they have full Internet access for their seniors. We will also train staff, volunteers, and seniors in the use of the Internet specifically to access authoritative and useful health information.