Impact of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region, express outreach awards 2011-2013

Abstract

Annually, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) funds Express Outreach projects in eight US regions to improve public and professional access to NLM databases. In 2000, NLM published Measuring the Difference: Guide to Planning and Evaluating Health Information Outreach (Burroughs and Wood, 2000) to guide outreach award recipients in effective planning, implementation, evaluation, and outcome reporting that would document project value and improve reproducibility. The National Network/Library of Medicine, South Central Region funded 11 Express Outreach projects, 2011-2013, and was charged with assessing outcome reporting improvement for these projects. Using content analysis of interim/final reports and semi-structured interviews with project managers to validate data, authors evaluated outcome reporting against Measuring the Difference (Burroughs and Wood, 2000) guidelines to assess reporting status. The publication of these general guidelines was inadequate for the funding organisation to obtain the desired outcome reporting by Outreach Award recipients. The assessment identified the need to provide and require a standard, highly structured, and measureable outcome reporting format for awardees to obtain the desired improvement in outcome reporting.