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| Clista Clanton, assistant librarian at the USA Biomedical Library, shown at 15 Place. Clanton works to promote health literacy at the shelter. |
The University of South Alabama Biomedical Library recently received the 2012 Distinguished Library Award from the Consortium of Southern Biomedical Libraries (CONBLS) at the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association’s (SC/MLA) meeting in Baltimore.
The Distinguished Library Award was given for the USA Biomedical Library’s involvement with Our Neighborhood Healthcare Clinic, a nurse-managed clinic that provides health and wellness services to patients by collaborating with different community agencies.
Wellness clinics have been established in two community agencies serving traditionally underserved populations: 15 Place, a day shelter for homeless people, and the Dumas Wesley Community Center, an urban community center with programs for senior citizens and formerly homeless women and their children.
According to Judy Burnham, director of the USA Biomedical Library, the library’s project involved promoting clearer communication between health professionals and patients at the two clinics.
Clista Clanton, assistant librarian at the USA Biomedical Library, received funding for the project in 2010 through an Outreach Award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/Southeastern Atlantic Region.
“Working with health care professionals and students, Clista works to promote health literacy and evidence-based practice at both sites,” Burnham said. “She purchased netbooks and printers for each location in order to provide consumer health information and education at the point of care, to promote health literacy and evidence-based practice, and to track patient data.”
Additionally, Clanton teaches quarterly computer literacy classes for the new residents of the Sybil Smith Family Village, a residency program for formerly homeless women and their children that is part of the Dumas Wesley Community Center.
Andrea Wright, another librarian from the USA Biomedical Library, volunteers weekly in the computer lab at the Sybil Smith Family Village to keep the software up-to-date and the computers running. She also assists the residents with research, social networking and online job applications.
In addition to receiving the Distinguished Library Award, the USA Biomedical Library presented four posters at the meeting. One poster – A Bibliometric Analysis Comparing International Collaboration Rates Over Two Decades: 1991-2010 – won the 1st Place Research Poster Award. The researchers involved in this project were physical therapy students, co-supervised by Burnham.
Also at the event, Geneva Staggs, senior librarian at the USA Biomedical Library, was presented with the association’s Hospital Librarian of the Year award, established to recognize a hospital librarian who exemplifies excellence, promotes leadership, and pursues continued high levels of achievement in the field of library science.
To read more about the award presented to Staggs, click here.
