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ABSTRACT
THE INCREASED DEMAND FOR CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION over the past twenty years has inspired many to usurp the job of the librarian. Health professionals are writing articles about the provision of health information for their patients. Newspaper and magazine articles tout the importance of health information companies as the means through which the public can pay for access to health information. Hospital libraries are closing at a rapid rate throughout the United States, with hospital administrators citing lack of funding as the reason and viewing the medical library as a drain on the hospital bottom line. Collaboration and marketing are two elements that ensure the library remains viable in the eyes of health professionals, hospital administrators, and the public. As librarians, we have collaborated with each other for years with tremendous results. Now is the time to publish these successes in the professional literature of health administrators and professionals and in newspapers and popular journals. Now is the time for the public and health professionals alike to realize the contributions librarians have made and are making on the consumer health front.
The Colorado Consumer Health Information Librarians Listserv (CCHILL) formed in 2002 and began holding quarterly meetings (National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Midcontinental Region, 2004). The CCHILL group's mission is to establish personal connections between public and medical librarians. They meet regularly to share ideas and innovations, develop relationships, talk with professionals who have similar consumer health missions in their institutions, and develop collaborative projects for the mutual benefit of the institutions and the public they serve. CCHILL has met primarily in the greater Denver area. It is hoped that the rest of the state will implement CCHILL groups as geographic areas permit.
A poster session hosted by a Douglas County and a Denison Memorial librarian at the 2004 Colorado Association of Libraries Conference will demonstrate the efficacy of CCHILL and encourage more partnerships within the state. A letter will be sent from the MidContinental Regional Medical Office at the University of Utah to hospital administrators who support their libraries, thanking them for their support and detailing the benefit that the hospital library provides to their institution. The Colorado Council of Medical Libraries Advocacy Committee will be presenting an award at the...