eNews Edition: Spring 2013
By highlighting specific resources, librarians Lynn Lampert, Marcia Henry and Anna Fidgeon hope that their project, “Women’s Health Resources and Gender Research Differences: Outreach at California State University, Northridge,” will improve both student and faculty awareness of these subjects. The $50,000 NIH/NLM Grant for the Women’s Health Research Dissemination Outreach Project will benefit the Library and the campus in a number of ways, including valuable additions to the Library catalogue, the development of information resources in the form of digital learning objects, and an outreach program tailored to provide specific campus communities with vital information specific to their needs.
The grant will enhance the Library collection by funding the acquisition of a variety of valuable books, videos, and databases such a Health and Science in Video and Primal Pictures: 3D Human Anatomy Software. In addition, grant funding will support the creation of metadata in the Library catalog, and the creation and distribution of digital learning objects. One of the challenges outlined in the grant proposal cited the tendency for students and researchers to feel that they are facing “infoglut” because of the ever-increasing range of resources that are available. This project aims to address that concern by targeting specific audiences and delivering pertinent information to a variety of disciplines, with a goal of improving research abilities. Two important information resources that will be highlighted as part of this project are the Women's Health Resources Portal at https://orwh.od.nih.gov/research/resources and the training programs on “The Science of Sex and Gender in Human Health.”
The project will disseminate information regarding access to valuable resources by providing outreach to a variety of groups: classes, faculty, departments, campus centers and institutes, and student organizations. “We aim to reach our campus community through a number of different channels — in the classroom, online and through our collection,” Fidgeon explained when asked about how the outreach will be structured. “The grant allows us to purchase 10 iPad Minis, which we will load with relevant electronic resources as well as the Digital Learning Objects created for the purposes of this project. Librarians can bring the iPad Minis into the classroom and loan them to students or faculty to use.” Fidgeon went on to say that the digital learning objects created for this project are now live on the Library blog, at http://library.csun.edu/blogs/cited , and on YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/OviattLibrary , with the hope of connecting with followers who may not be reached in the classroom.