Library and Information Science Commons^™

Text 4 Health: Addressing Consumer Health Information Needs Via Text Reference Service, Van M. Ta Park

Faculty Publications

This study seeks to provide empirical evidence about how health-related questions are answered in text reference service in order to further the understanding of how to best use texting as a reference service venue to fulfill people’s health information needs. Two hundred health reference transactions from My Info Quest, the first nation-wide collaborative text reference service, were analyzed identify the types of questions, length of transactions, question-answering behavior, and information sources used in the transactions. Findings indicate that texting-based health reference transactions are usually brief, and cover a wide variety of topics. The most popular questions are those seeking general …

Searching For Health Information On The Internet : The Experiences Of Western Australian Adolescents, Lee-Anne Martins

Theses : Honours

Adolescents readily engage in online entertainment pursuits, however, it is their online social activities and health information searches that encourage psychosocial development and influence identity formation and autonomy. Considerable research has been completed on various aspects of adolescents’ encounters with online health information (for example, see Percheski & Hargittai, 2011), yet minimal research has been conducted using Australian adolescents. This study extends existing research utilising Western Australian adolescents who have used the Internet to obtain health information. The areas explored include how Western Australian adolescents search for online health information, by means of which devices, and their experiences of using …

Enhancing Access To Health Information In Africa: A Librarian's Perspective, Nasra Gathoni

Libraries

In recent years, tremendous progress has been made toward providing health information in Africa, in part because of technological advancements. Nevertheless, ensuring that information is accessible, comprehensible, and usable remains problematic, and there remain needs in many settings to address issues such as computer skills, literacy, and the infrastructure to access information. To determine how librarians might play a more strategic role in meeting information needs of health professionals in Africa, the author reviewed key components of information systems pertinent to knowledge management for the health sector, including access to global online resources, capacity to use computer technology for information …

Librarians And Health Workers: Partnering And Collaborating To Support Free Access To Health Information In Nigeria, Ngozi Blessing Ukachi

Collaborative Librarianship

The well-being of individuals and communities depend on accessibility to accurate health information. A recent study shows the many communities in some regions of Nigeria lack accessibility to this information. Building on the success of partnerships between librarians and health care workers in the delivery of health information in other parts of the world, the Nigerian situation could be greatly improved through a number of strategies, as suggested.

More Than Evaluation: Student Nurses And Their Ability To Assess Online Health Resources And Verbalize Findings, Stephanie Wiegand

University Libraries Faculty Publications

Purpose The Internet poses both a frontier that represents the possibility for vast exploration and an open space that leaves patients wandering through unreliable information. The purpose of this study was to determine the abilities of first-year (Junior-standing) nursing students to choose, evaluate and then explain their findings in relation to health information on the Web.

Setting/Subjects 108 first-year nursing students in Foundations I at the University of Northern Colorado.

Methodology Content analysis of written papers.

Results Evaluation comprised of three cohorts (consisting of 36 students each) of first-year nursing students in Foundations I in their assessment of 216 websites. …

Personal Health Information In Canada: A Comparison Of Citizen Expectations And Legislation, Wilhelm Peekhaus

Wilhelm Peekhaus

This paper explores whether the Canadian legislative protections in place to safeguard medical privacy meet the expectations of Canadians. An overview of current governance systems designed to protect the privacy of personal health information at both the federal and provincial levels is first presented. This is followed by an empirical analysis of the results of a public opinion survey conducted to determine Canadian attitudes about medical privacy, particularly genetic privacy. The analysis highlights areas where legislation and public opinion converge and diverge.

Health Information Literacy And Competencies Of Information Age Students: Results From The Interactive Online Research Readiness Self-Assessment (Rrsa), Lana Ivanitskaya, Irene O'Boyle, Anne Marie Casey

Publications

This study aimed to measure the proficiency of college-age health information consumers in finding and evaluating electronic health information; to assess their ability to discriminate between peer-reviewed scholarly resources and opinion pieces or sales pitches; and to examine the extent to which they are aware of their level of health information competency.

Health Information Access

The Southeastern Librarian

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern Atlantic Region, wishes to remind libraries in the region that they provide training and assistance with health information access to the public.

Health Information Seals Of Approval: What Do They Signify?, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

Much of the health information available to consumers on the Internet is incomplete, out of date, and even inaccurate. Seals of approval or trustmarks have been suggested as a strategy to assist consumers to identify high quality information. Little is known, however, about how consumers interpret such seals. This study addresses this issue by examining assumptions about the quality criteria that are reflected by a seal of approval. This question is of particular importance because a wide variety of quality criteria have been suggested for online health information, including core aspects of quality such as accuracy, currency, and completeness, proxy …

Information Needs Of Rural Health Care Workers, Gerald W. Lundeen, Carol Tenopir, Paul Wermager

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Information workers, including physicians, nurses, social workers, etc., in rural areas have needs for a wide range of specialized information, but have difficulty getting access to information resources. As part of a rural health education project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and human Services, we studied the information needs of rural health workers in Hawaii and their current means of information access. Barriers to information access included lack of funds, lack of appropriate hardware, infrastructure problems (such as poor telephone lines or no convenient access to libraries), insufficient training in how to use information sources, and insufficient time …