Kansas Health Online

.
Did the Doctor tell your patron he had a disease with a name a mile long, and now the patron is asking you to explain it in language he can understand? Do you have a self-employed patron who wants to explore his insurance options? How do you help the mother who wants to know if coughing and a low grade fever are serious enough to take her child to the doctor? Where do you find information for the nursing student (or grade school student) who has to do a report on the circulation system?

Have no fear! Help is here! Search http://kansashealthonline.org

Kansas Health Online is sponsored by the National Libraries of Medicine, The Kansas Health Policy Authority, the A. R. Dykes Medical Library at the University of Kansas Medical Center and the State Library of Kansas. I'm really excited about it because it gives librarians and consumers "one-stop-shopping" for a world of quality health information. You will no longer need to "Google" the topic and wade through all the folks wanting to sell you an herbal treatment or home remedy instead of finding the hard facts.

This website links you to handpicked websites that offer all sorts of information: Symptoms, How to find a doctor, Information about a disease, the latest healthy living information. Going in for surgery? You can watch videos of surgical procedures so you understand exactly what will happen. This is particularly comforting to some children who don't understand what will happen to them during a procedure such as a tonsillectomy.

Coming this fall, Kansas Health Online will join more than 20 other states giving Go Local information. This portion of the website will link searchers to hospitals and agencies offering services in your hometown, county and region. Right now Mary Lou Chard is entering the GoLocal information that SEKLS librarians have shared with her. Other parts of the state will be covered by other data entry people. We hope to see the service "live" before Christmas.

Check out the website! It's one you will wnat to bookmark on the reference computer. Your patrons will love this service.

Free Louis L'Amour Centennial Book

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Louis L'Amour's birthday, Bantam Books is giving a free copy of Education of a Wantering Man to free lending libraries that request the book.

As popular as Louis L'Amour's books are with patrons who read Westerns, this would be a good addition to your collection. It would let them learn more about the author. The offer expires July 14, 2008. The publisher expects books to be delivered by September 2008.

Go to this website to request a copy.

http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/lamour/

Transition Notebook

Chris Rippel, the System Consultant at Central Kansas Library System, is encouraging his librarians to make a Transition Notebook. He says,

“A Transition Notebook captures the knowledge of the current library director for passing to the next director.”

I love this idea! Every job should have a transition notebook. What if you won a free trip around the world and had to leave tomorrow? Someone would have to carry on until you get back. You wouldn’t have time to write the manual as you are getting on the cruise ship. With a tip of the hat to Chris, here are some things to include in your notebook. You may think of more:

1. Copy of your library policies and personnel policies.
2. Board minutes for the last 12 months and its long range plan.
3. Copy of last year's budget.
4. Copy of last year's annual statistical report for your library.
5. Organizational chart.
6. Important phone numbers (Include SEKLS staff!).
7. Passwords for computers and all Web sites.
8. Schedule for maintaining computers.
9. A procedure manual that includes (but isn’t limited to):
Instructions for ordering books.
Instructions for cataloging.
Instructions for processing materials.
Instructions for operating the library’s computers.
Instructions for checking out every kind of material.
Instructions for making inter-library loans.
Checklist for opening the library.
Checklist for closing the library.
Lists of all reports you complete, when they are due, and how to do them.
Other information unique to your library.
Once the notebook is written, review it at least once a year and correct the things that have changed.