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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ859486 |
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Table of Contents:
- School and Public Youth Librarians as Health Information Gatekeepers: Research from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas Lukenbill, Bill Immroth, Barbara Delphi Technique Health Promotion Elementary Secondary Education Caregivers Public Libraries Information Literacy Access to Information Librarian Attitudes Community Information Services Information Dissemination Disadvantaged Youth School Libraries Library Role Library Services This study investigated how school and public librarians can become better disseminators of health information and improve health information literacy in small and rural communities in a selected research area. We used the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas as our study area, composed of the economically depressed Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties, populated largely by people of Mexican descent. We used a Delphi method in which an expert panel of school and public librarians (N = 19) responded to three rounds of questions regarding how school and public librarians might become active as disseminators of health information in their communities for K-12 youth and their caregivers. Generally the panel held that (1) health information is lacking in their communities; (2) school and public librarians can play important roles in making health information available; (3) school and public librarians can network with other agencies in promoting and disseminating health information for K-12 youth; (4) resource availability will limit how much librarians can become involved in the dissemination of health information; (5) participants are not willing to assume a health-information "gatekeeper" role; and (6) library staffs needed training in health information resources. We included recommendations for future research in health literacy. (Contains 9 tables.)