On Oct. 9, health care journalists and journalism professors turned out for a free workshop on how to use resources from the National Library of Medicine.
Robert Logan, a senior staffer with the NLM, presented the workshop at the Cleveland Heights Library on Cleveland's east side. Logan was formerly a journalist and professor of journalism at the University of Missouri-Colombia. Currently, he is with NLM' s Office of Communications and Public Liaison and chair of NLM's Consumer Health Informatics Research Interest Group.
The 2 ½-hour workshop accomplished two goals. It taught attendees how to access several of the National Library of Medicine's online databases (PubMed, Clinical Trials.gov, and Medline Plus) and it provided hands-on training on how use the MeSH feature on NLM's website to better-target research and databases searches. Feedback indicated that the workshop was, as one person put it, "well worth giving up a sunny Saturday morning for."
In addition, the workshop tested the waters in the Cleveland-Akron area (home to several large newspapers, Advanstar Communications, Penton Media, Inc., MedCity News and a host of health care institutions) about interest in forming a local chapter of AHCJ to provide opportunities for more education/training events and networking.
Feedback on this was also good, so, if you live in Northeast Ohio, contact AHCJ member Eileen Beal (eojb@visn.net) for more information about forming a local chapter.
