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What sets health sciences librarians apart from other academic librarians when it comes to partnering with health-focused innovators? Do health-related innovators have different information needs or space requirements? This chapter illustrates some of the major issues and topics health sciences librarians consider as they offer information services to entrepreneurs and innovators. Health sciences innovators must be aware of relevant policies and laws such as HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. They also need to meet federal safety regulations required by the Food and Drug Administration; moreover, device materials must be biocompatible. Those developing therapeutic games and apps in this arena need to ensure their products are supported by current literature and scientific evidence. In many cases, these new technologies require clinical trials and testing to ensure their safety and efficacy. Health sciences librarians guide innovators to relevant resources, knowledge, and experts on these and other topics. This navigator role is extremely valuable to students, who may not understand the healthcare landscape and its processes. Additionally, librarians assist innovators with identifying dissemination venues for their scholarly output. They provide instruction and guidance on how to write and tailor conference proposals to meet specific professional association criteria. A retired health sciences library director shares her experiences. Tips and lessons learned are highlighted so others may gain an understanding of the unique information needs of health innovators.

Many health‐care professionals are reaching for their palm‐size computer or personal digital assistant (PDA) as their latest indispensable health‐care instrument. How can libraries, librarians and information science professionals support further adoption of this popular peripheral tool? The Tompkins‐McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, part of the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, has formed a health‐care PDA Special Interest Group and sponsored a listserv to provide opportunities for informal communications. In addition, other health sciences libraries have provided instructional and program development support. Highlights such activities and programs to provide an overview of how PDAs are being used by health‐care practitioners throughout the country. In addition, offers Internet home pages and articles that specifically address health‐care applications of the PDA.

University of Utah has created various partnerships to improve health literacy and health outcomes among patient populations, employees and community members. Health sciences librarians have been key members of these partnerships. This paper aims to describe and share several of these partnerships, including training programs, research efforts and advocacy initiatives, to encourage others to engage in similar activities.

Case studies include outreach projects and partnerships to foster health literacy and promote healthy living such as: highly visible information resource provision and associated outreach for patients and families; community health fairs; research on providing point-of-need information for vulnerable community populations; health literacy awareness and resources for professionals; health literacy education for interprofessional students; and a competition for interprofessional students to create health videos to address a variety of topics in multiple languages.

Partnerships and outreach efforts lead to improved awareness by institutional personnel of the importance of health literacy. Research on using health literacy to empower patients and increase patient satisfaction can demonstrate how to lower institutional costs and improve guideline compliance, as well out health outcomes.

Librarians’ instructional skills create personal health educational content for patients and professionals; engaging colleagues to address health literacy lowers health care costs, institutional costs and increases patient compliance and satisfaction.

Draws parallels between individuals and organizations, and notes the importance of having regular, periodic organizational checks to avoid incurring serious problems.

Suggests collecting and analyzing appropriate data, and getting a second opinion when necessary, as a strategy to better understand an organization's health.

Being clear about one's purpose, strategic initiatives, and/or goals – what one intends to learn, and how one plans to use the findings – is of uppermost importance.

Outlines the order in which data should be collected and how to use the information found.

Looks at the pathfinder approach to library instruction, which was developed in the 1960s by Patricia Knapp. Knapp's system focused, not on the simple provision of answers to questions, but on the teaching of the effective use of the library and its resources– in other words, on the finding of one's “way” in the library.

A traditional theoretical model for the creation and evaluation of pathfinders (subject research guides) can be identified through study of the literature. This model, expressed in the design criteria of consistency, selectivity, transparency and accessibility, sprang from an impulse to serve the inexperienced user by emulating or facilitating the user's search process.

A gap in this model can be detected, in the form of a missing multi‐dimensional picture of the user and the user's experience of the information service via the pathfinder. In an attempt to fill the gap, literature examining information behavior, the search process, the design of user‐centered services, and the information retrieval interaction is discussed.

An experience‐centered model for online research guide design and evaluation is derived from the findings.

Health sciences librarians no longer find themselves only staffing reference desks or building collections. Their activities range from being active participants in health‐care teams to providing training to the general public. Emerging roles are surfacing in all arenas served by health sciences libraries: educational, clinical, research, and administration. Librarians are meeting new skill demands by re‐educating both on the job and through traditional coursework. New types of positions are being explored and new partnerships with health‐care colleagues are being forged. This article highlights the reasons why these new opportunities exist and provides references to articles contained within this journal issue.

There are thousands of web sites about cancer and cancer‐related topics on the internet today; this webography offers an annotated list of selected sites.

The article begins with a brief explanation of how the web sites were evaluated and chosen. The generally accepted rules of authority, currency, purpose, objectivity, accuracy and audience were used in each case.

The sites included cover cancer in general, specific cancers, patient information, clinical trials and medical centers that treat cancer. Information on each site includes the name of the site, the URL and a brief abstract explaining what the site is about.

The information may be used by librarians as a quick reference, by physicians and other health‐care workers and by the patients and their families.

At the foundation of FDR_x was the drug formulary for UW Medicine published by the Drug Information Center. The DIC pharmacist had contracted with USPDI to receive the full text of its drug information electronically and reformat it into a print, pocket‐sized guide for distribution to clinicians. The goal of the FDR_x project was to add to this core and distribute an expanded drug reference as part of a clinical resource.

Librarians at the University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries collaborated with clinicians to create an electronic federated drug knowledge resource, FDR_x, to be used at the point of care.

Skills and experiences gained in previous projects, e.g. negotiating the licensure of campus‐wide access to bibliographic databases, project leadership, developing interfaces, instruction in the use of information resources, and IAIMS planning, easily transferred to the development of the FDR_x project. The most immediate outcome, FDR_x itself, had a short but successful lifespan, meeting the drug information needs of its users.

This partnership set the stage for future developments in the knowledge management arena at the University of Washington and changes in the roles of librarians.

Aims to confirm that societal changes and access to the internet have heightened interest in health information by the general public. Patients/consumers are more involved in their health care. Patients’ rights to make informed health‐care decisions are more recognised by the medical community. Approximately 27 percent of the entire US adult population has visited a web site for health‐care purposes. Increasingly, hospitals in the USA and other countries are providing consumer health information centers for patients and their families.

In February 2002, a patient/consumer health information service opened at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia. This article will discuss the partnership that was forged to create the Community Health Education Center (CHEC) and the role VCU Libraries has in the partnership.

Apart from the obvious value of having The Community Health Education Center, its existence has opened new doors to the three partners for networking, community outreach and obtaining extramural funding.

The health system's visibility in the community has increased because of CHEC's involvement in community events. The strategy and marketing department has come to rely on CHEC staff to represent the health system at exhibits as a result, whilst other VCUHS departments have learned about CHEC's mission and see CHEC staff as part of the patient care team.

Librarians have an opportunity to contribute to the evolution of scholarly communication. By serving on advisory boards, especially those of publishers that are revamping their products for an online environment, librarians can both accelerate the development of good digital information resources and foster greater diversity in the marketplace. The New England Journal of Medicine's newly established library advisory board is a case in point. Aims to give an overview of the situation.

A total of nine librarians agreed to serve as members of the library advisory board – designed to build relationships with the academic and hospital library community.

As a profession, librarians value learning and the lifelong augmentation of knowledge and skills. Stretching oneself by serving on the advisory board of a publisher is entirely consistent with that value, affording a rewarding opportunity to understand better the complicated world of scholarly communication and the role of publishers in that cycle.

By stretching their current skill set, librarians serving on this board have gained a better understanding of the exigencies of the publishing world and have been able to influence the development of critical policies, pricing, and processes in ways that benefit both the publisher and the library community.