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.