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Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund
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Learning Partnerships Successfully Completed!!!!
The purpose of the Learning Partnerships is to place experienced librarians within leading health care or research organizations in order for both partners to gain a better understanding of how best information sciences can be effectively applied in each environment. The Fund believes that this experience will facilitate a bridging of cultures resulting in a more creative and effective application of information science in the health care arena. The Sewell Fund support covers salary and incidental expenses for these twelve-month Learning Partnership fellowships. Six eminent health organizations, based in Washington state, Maryland, Texas, and Washington, DC have been selected for the Sewell Learning Partnerships, two in 2010-2011, two in 2007/2008, and two in 2005/2006. These host organizations are leaders in health-related research, direct care, and public health programming. Not only do they provide a dynamic, cutting edge environment in which to learn and contribute, but they also each will benefit significantly from the placement of a skilled and well-educated librarian. Below are detailed descriptions of the Learning Partnerships! For additional information about each host, go to each organization’s website.
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2010/2011 Learning Partnerships Kathleen Amos completed her Learning Partnership with the Public Health Foundation (PHF). During her fellowship, she worked closely with the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages), a collaborative initiative of 19 national public health organizations focused on workforce development. Kathleen worked with representatives of these organizations and other public health professionals to develop the Academic Health Department (AHD) Learning Community, a primarily virtual community of practice that aims to enhance collaborative learning about AHDs and produce resources to support the development, maintenance, and expansion of AHDs. Kathleen participated actively in the creation of a new strategic plan to guide the work of the Council on Linkages. She was directly involved in the communication and information dissemination activities of the Council on Linkages and assisted in creating content for and enhancing the functionality of PHF’s website. As well, she provided training and assistance with effectively locating literature and other resources to support the workforce development and quality improvement work of PHF. During her fellowship, Kathleen authored and presented a poster on the AHD Learning Community, “Bridging the Academic/Practice Divide: Facilitating Collaboration within Public Health,” for the 2011 Medical Library Association (MLA) Annual Meeting. She is also the co-author of a poster, “Living the Life of a Public Health Professional: Lessons Learned from Immersion in Public Health Practice,” reporting on Learning Partnership experiences for the 2012 MLA Annual Meeting. Kathleen is continuing her work at PHF in the position of Project Manager for the Council on Linkages. In this role, she coordinates the Council on Linkages and its initiatives. Among her various activities, she will be exploring ways to better facilitate collaboration among the public health organizations and professionals involved and to enhance communication and information dissemination related to Council on Linkages initiatives and products.
Jacqueline “Jac” Peery is in the midst of the Sewell Learning Partnership with the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. The fellowship allows her to work alongside the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio Libraries, the San Antonio Public Library, and the University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus to provide health information resources and coordinate research services for her local health department colleagues. Jac, with guidance from her Sewell advisory team, created, launched, and assessed a comprehensive Employee Workforce Development Survey. She received 283 completed survey responses from full-time, part-time, temporary, and contract public health professionals. The survey addressed how, when and why employees enter the public health workforce; employees' professional development and continuing education needs and preferences; employees' health information needs, information searching behaviors, and access to library resources; and the public health framework within which employees perform assigned tasks and job duties. In collaboration with Kathleen Amos, Learning Partnership Fellow, the Public Health Foundation posted the survey instrument to the Resources and Tools section of their website. Jac is also the co-author of a poster, "Living the Life of a Public Health Professional: Lessons Learned from Immersion in Public Health Practice," reporting on Learning Partnership experiences for the 2012 MLA Annual Meeting. Additional initiatives Jac actively participated in, organized, and developed during the fellowship include: a worksite lactation policy which recognized the City of San Antonio as the first municipality in Texas to implement the DSHS Mother Friendly Worksite Lactation program and policy; a four-year contract partnering with UTHSCSA Libraries’ Circuit Librarian Health Information Network (CLHIN); a 4-part Public Health Grand Rounds series in collaboration with the Department of Family & Community Medicine and the South Central Area Health Education Center (AHEC); an approved Single Event Provider application through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) for on-site continuing education and professional development activities; and a San Antonio Public Library Bookmobile and Library Card Drive parked in front of City Hall. Jac continues the Sewell Learning Partnership with the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District on a part-time basis while working as an Admissions Coordinator for the UT School of Public Health. She administers the dual-degree programs between the UT School of Medicine (MD/MPH), and the UTSA College of Business (MBA/MPH). She continues to explore participation in the Academic Health Department Learning Community developed by the Public Health Foundation with the goal of creating an AHD between Metro Health and the UT School of Public Health.
[Back to Learning Partnerships Page] 2007/2008 Learning Partnerships Emily Glenn completed her Learning Partnership fellowship with Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI). A major part of SBRI science is collaboration and the concerted effort to break down the barriers to information exchange that can delay innovation. To help support and facilitate collaborations, Emily partnered with project mangers, laboratory groups and research scientists to create and customize research-specific portals and laboratory information management systems using SharePoint portal technologies. She also implemented document management tools and created secure spaces for the Institute’s workings groups. She taught the Institute’s first classes on literature search techniques and provided support for users of citation management software. She also created a virtual index, the Knowledge Portal, where staff can find literature resources, NIH Public Access Policy help and submission tools, a toolbox for portal site managers, and an institutional repository of research articles. As a fellow, Emily co-authored a research paper on Winifred Sewell for Libraries & the Cultural Record and presented it at the annual meeting of the American Society for Information Science & Technology. She also co-authored and presented a poster, “A Process for Developing Collaborative Portals for International Biomedical Research Collaborations,” for the PHI2008 conference. Emily will continue her work at SBRI in the new position of information specialist and library services coordinator. During the next year, she will focus on the archives and records of the Institute, developing and implementing a records management plan. She is grateful for the opportunity that the Sewell Learning Partnership has given her to develop professional research interests and to learn alongside leading global infectious disease researchers.
Hugh Kelsey, a Deployment Operations Engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in Atlanta, Georgia, worked with faculty in the Office of Public Health Practice and Training (OPHPT) within the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). The partnership was co-hosted by the Welch Medical Library at Hopkins. During his partnership, Hugh established a five-stage process for Web design, the purpose of which is to help improve the usefulness of Internet sites in achieving public health goals. He was instrumental in re-designing the Web sites of the Maryland Association of County Health Officers (MACHO), the Mid-Atlantic Public Health Training Center (MAPHTC), and the Chesney Medical Archives. The OPHPT not only improved its Web site delivery through this systematic process of design, it adopted a philosophy of Web design that stands to influence the work of students and practitioners in furthering the mission of applied public health. In addition to Web design, Hugh also managed the establishment and activities of a faculty subcommittee within OPHPT on informatics as it pertained to applied public health. One of its achievements was the systematic review of a proposal with the recommendation to establish a master’s degree program in applied public health informatics in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In addition, Hugh configured an Intranet site to enable the management of JHSPH student practica. Over the course of the fellowship Hugh came to appreciate the vision of Winifred Sewell in establishing the Learning Partnerships and the support of the Sewell Foundation in giving him the opportunity to work and learn in the nation’s top academic public health setting.
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2005/2006 Learning Partnerships Carol Cahill, information services manager for the City of Port Townsend Library, joined a Group Health team to develop a methodology to identify, track and communicate about community benefit activities performed by Group Health Cooperative, a large membership-based HMO headquartered in Seattle. Ms. Cahill, in addition to general librarian work has also served as a research analyst and librarian for the former Puget Sound Health Systems Agency and received her MLS in 1977 from the University of Washington. Carol Cahill’s fellowship at Group Health Community Foundation focused on the Community Benefit program for Group Health Cooperative. To maintain tax-exempt status, nonprofit health care organizations must show how they benefit the communities they serve, including promoting health and extending care to vulnerable populations. Carol did extensive research about health services, looking at published literature in health care, philanthropy, law, tax policy and sociology. She developed a framework for reporting on Group Health’s 2005 Community Benefit activities, and designed a database to facilitate tracking and reporting information in the future. One of the goals of the project was to contribute to strategic planning for community benefit, and Carol provided background information as well as reviews of the literature and a position paper on Community Benefit planning. She also set up a cooperative-wide staff intranet site for Community Benefit. Over the Learning Partnership, Carol has come to deeply appreciate the vision of Winifred Sewell in establishing this Learning Partnership, and is very grateful for the opportunity to become a colleague of the evaluators and program planners at the Group Health Community Foundation.
Ann Madhavan, a 2004 graduate of Drexel University with a MSLIS, worked with a large public health agency serving Washington State's most populous county and the University of Washington's Health Sciences Libraries to connect its information resources to the knowledge needs of health department workers. Ms. Madhavan had been working as a technical information specialist for ECRI, a non profit health services research organization in Pennsylvania and has worked in other health related fields and as an occupational therapist. Ann Madhavan has completed her fellowship with Public Health Seattle & King County in association with the University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries. She planned and implemented a digital library for the public health department workforce.
The online library, which includes access to both free and fee-based
resources, was launched in June 2006 and can be viewed at:
http://www.metrokc.gov/health/library/
Visitors to the digital library, which resides on PHSKC’s Internet website, are able to explore a variety of resources geared to public health, including bibliographic databases, topic oriented websites, links to evidence-based public health, and guidelines/best practices websites. The library also provides staff with information regarding how to access restricted electronic journals, document delivery services, and library services specific to the department. Ann anticipates that digital library and document delivery user statistics will help her to determine how to better meet the information needs of health jurisdictions across Washington State. She has obtained funding to remain at PHSKC post-fellowship and is very thankful for the wonderful opportunity the Sewell Learning Partnership has given her to expand her horizons and contribute to the field.
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Anticipated Outcomes from our Learning Partnerships
(1) Institute of Medicine. Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. [Web document]. Washington, DC; National Academy Press, 2001. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309072808/html/). (2) Davidoff E, Florance V. The informationist: a new health profession? [editorial] Ann Int Med 2000 Jun 20;132(12):996-8. (3) Rankin JA, Grefsheim SF, Canto, CC. The emerging informationist specialty: a systematic review of the literature. J Med Libr Assoc 2008 Jul;96(3):194-206. |
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