Objectives of the NSHN

• Provide the citizens of Nova Scotia with a quality source for local and general consumer health information.
• Facilitate cooperation among the various organizations presently providing consumer health information in the province .
• Provide a portal to reliable sites on many aspects of health and wellness.
• Increase the public's awareness of the role of libraries and CAP sites as sources of health information.

Project Summary

The Nova Scotia Health Network (NSHN) is a province-wide, web-based consumer health information service. It is provided through the cooperative efforts of public libraries, health sciences libraries, the Nova Scotia Provincial Library (Department of Education), several health-related organizations and a number of departments of Dalhousie University. For a complete list of NSHN participants, see our committee list.

The NSHN service has a number of components:

• Links to directories with information about health-related organizations in Nova Scotia.
• Information written by Nova Scotia health care providers.
• Links to reputable health information sites, such as the Canadian Health Network and Medline.
• Access to The Health and Wellness Resource Center, a database of reference material and full-text journal articles from authoritative sources.
• Links to databases of libraries in Nova Scotia which provide health information.
• An email "Ask a Librarian" service to answer information queries from the public.

For more information, please see our project plan.

From 1996 through 2001, a partnership between the health centre library and the public library in Southwestern Nova Scotia provided a www-based infrastructure to support consumer health information services. The WHIP website had four main sections:

• A wellness directory.
• A collection of locally produced health information.
• A link to Infotrac Health Reference Centre, a commercial health information database.
• A link to public and health centre library catalogs.

From 1998, WHIP also assisted health care professionals creating patient information by recommending changes to lower reading levels and by converting text to html.

The Western Health Information Partnership (WHIP) operated on the principle that the public library delivers consumer health information through its branch libraries and its public Internet access computers while the health centre library provides back-up for inquiries beyond the capability of public librarians and assures the quality control of the information being offered.

In 1999/2000, WHIP was funded as a CAP Pilot Project designed to train the public, volunteers in CAP sites, health care professionals and library staff members in the use of the WHIP page and in finding health information on the Web. This project was funded jointly by Industry Canada, Human Resources Development Canada and the Nova Scotia Technology and Science Secretariat.

WHIP received national attention as a model for delivery of consumer health information. In 1997 it was acclaimed as a Best Practices site by LibraryNet, a division of Industry Canada. It was also mentioned in the final report of Health Canada's Advisory Council on Health Infostructure and in the 1998 Novaknowledge Economy Report Card for Nova Scotia. WHIP was also listed as a top health information site in the September 2000 issue of Chatelaine magazine and has been presented at over a dozen national and provincial meetings.

Nova Scotia's Community Health Boards gather comprehensive information on local organizations and services that contribute to health and wellness in their communities but lack the infrastructure to publish this information. WHIP managed this information for community health organizations in western Nova Scotia, making it freely available for anyone to search, duplicate and republish in whole or in part, while recognizing Community Health Boards' interests and mandate in collecting and maintaining the information.

This same model, partnering public libraries and health centres for maximum effectiveness in the delivery of consumer health information, was identified as a desired, effective approach by the US National Library of Medicine in 1998. A pilot study of this model is underway in 39 public libraries in the United States.