State Nurses Get Wired With Library Grant

The Health Sciences Library, in collaboration with the School of Nursing, recently received a $25,000, one-year subcontract from the National Library of Medicine Regional Medical Library to connect 14 public health nurses from south central Wisconsin county health departments to the Internet. Co-primary investigators are Karen Dahlen, Health Sciences Library director; Susan Kirkbride, HSL information services; and Yvonne Eide, clinical instructor of nursing.

Access to the Internet will allow the nurses and other staff at the 14 health departments to find “just-in-time” information on a variety of subjects such as nutrition, maternal-child health, immunization and home health care by using medical and nursing databases, UW resources and the World Wide Web.

Nurses will be affiliated with the UW–Madison for the duration of the grant, and will receive technical support, document delivery, reference support, and instruction on using Grateful Med, a medical literature database, from HSL staff. A major goal of the project is for the nurses to continue to use the Internet once the contract is over.