Abstract
The paper describes the expansion of the public health programs and services of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in the 1990s and provides the context in which NLM's public health outreach programs arose and exist today. Although NLM has always had collections and services relevant to public health, the US public health workforce made relatively little use of the library's information services and programs in the twentieth century. In the 1990s, intensified emphases on outreach to health professionals, building national information infrastructure, and promoting health data standards provided NLM with new opportunities to reach the public health community. A seminal conference cosponsored by NLM in 1995 produced an agenda for improving public health access to and use of advanced information technology and electronic information services. NLM actively pursued this agenda by developing new services and outreach programs and promoting public health informatics initiatives. Historical analysis is presented. NLM took advantage of a propitious environment to increase visibility and understanding of public health information challenges and opportunities. The library helped create partnerships that produced new information services, outreach initiatives, informatics innovations, and health data policies that benefit the public health workforce and the diverse populations it serves.
Highlights
Public health is concerned with improving the health of entire populations
In 1989, a special National Library of Medicine (NLM) Long Range Planning Panel chaired by Michael Debakey strongly recommended that NLM and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) work to improve information access for ‘‘unaffiliated health professionals,’’ in other words, those who had no regular connection to an institution that provided library services [10]
The substance of the meeting and the lobby conversations were a revelation to many. For those engaged in medical informatics and high performance networking, it provided a picture of the range and magnitude of public health problems that might be amenable to help from advanced information systems and communications
Summary
Public health is concerned with improving the health of entire populations It has been defined as encompassing ten essential services: III monitoring health status to identify community health problems; III diagnosing and investigating health problems and hazards in the community; III informing, educating, and empowering people about health issues; III mobilizing community partnerships to identify and solve health problems; III developing policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts; III enforcing laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety; III linking people to needed personal health services and assuring the provision of such services when otherwise unavailable; III assuring a competent public health and personal health care workforce; III evaluating the effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services; and III research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems [1].
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