Partners help with understanding of health information

Four institutions in the USA will work together to enhance the training of librarians and improve the public's access to, and understanding of, health information.

The partners are the National Library of Medicine; the Health and Human Services Library at the University of Maryland at Baltimore; the University of Maryland at College Park; and the Universities at Shady Grove.

The partner institutions will develop and participate in curriculums and courses, training and internship opportunities, and other educational initiatives. They also will explore areas of mutual interest for research, and will develop initiatives to increase access to careers in medicine and health, with a particular interest in reaching students who are under-represented in the fields.

As an initial effort, the partners will work with the University of Maryland, College Park, College of Information Studies (known as the iSchool). They will: design a specialisation in health sciences information for the iSchools Master of Library science programme to be offered by the iSchool at the Universities at Shady Grove; assess the feasibility of a series of regular internship placements for iSchool students at the partner libraries; and identify areas of mutual interest for research or other collaboration.