Darra Ballance, MLIS, AHIP, and Nancy Webb, PhD, Director of the GRU Child Care Center, collaborated on an outreach grant focused on nutrition literacy. The Health Literacy Pilot Project award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine grants $5000 for projects providing health literacy training and reliable health information resources to underserved populations, including caretakers of children. The GRU Child Care Center has been involved in wellness and nutrition projects and grants for some years. This award allowed us to introduce technology into their existing efforts by purchasing six (6) iPads for the Center—one for each classroom—and training the child care teachers to use them to find reliable nutrition information on Medlin
e Plus.
Sallie Long, a registered dietician, was also hired as part of the award, and led four interactive sessions on nutrition
for infants, children and adults. Darra Ballance helped the teachers learn to use the iPads and to identify reliable health information on the web.
The sessions began in October 2013 and will conclude in March 2014.
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Southeastern/Atlantic Region (SE/A) serves to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by:
- Providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information.
- Improving the public’s access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The Program is coordinated by the National Library of Medicine and carried out through a nationwide network of health science libraries and information centers.
The NN/LM SE/A provides award funds annually to libraries and other member organizations. http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/
