Lessons learned from the national library of medicine AIDS community information outreach program

ISSUES: While providing affected communities with meaningful health information is an essential constant in the battle against HIV/AIDS, the specific information needs are evolving. HIV infection is now a chronic condition; also, the US demographics of the epidemic and patterns of information access have changed significantly. As a consequence, maintaining an effective information outreach program is a significant challenge. This presentation will review AIDS Community Information Outreach Program of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), which has been meeting this challenge since 1994.

DESCRIPTION: In 1994 NLM initiated a funding program to support efforts of community-based organizations to improve access to HIV/AIDS-related information for the affected community. The program supports:

•Improving organizational/community access to electronic information •Providing information access skills training •Developing specific educational materials •Providing access to HIV/AIDS-related documents

Close to 300 projects, most by community-based organizations, have received competitive funding. To validate the program's approach in the face of changing epidemic, NLM recently undertook a systematic assessment of a retrospective and purposive sample of projects and conducted a panel review with a number of awardees.

LESSONS LEARNED: The program has been successful in reaching low-resource community organizations serving high-risk populations. Repurposing NLM information to meet local needs is an important feature that awardees find particularly useful. Despite many changes in the HIV/AIDS landscape, the information disparities and the need for information outreach still exist.

RECOMMENDATIONS: The program is satisfying an important need and should be continued with some adjustments that reflect changes in HIV/AIDS demographics, treatment and prevention.