Read about some of the recent events and resources available through the Brigham and Women's Hospital Health Promotion and Education Program and The Michele and Howard Kessler Health Education Library.
Check Out Our Large Print Collection
The Kessler Library now has over a dozen large print books, provided through Thorndike Press/Cengage/Gale. As the large print collection has grown, we've moved the books to the library's adaptive computer area. Many of our books are titles that we also have in regular print, such as Eating Well for Optimal Health.
Due to popular demand, we now also offer a selection of fiction and memoirs in large print that patients and families can read or borrow. In addition, every month we receive a new large print health title from the Worcester Talking Book Library.
Interactive Health Education TV Debuts
The LodgeNetRX(TM) Interactive Patient Television System is now available in the Kessler Library and patient rooms at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Our televisions now offer a selection of educational video on demand programs in English and Spanish, movies, music and interactive informational screens describing the hospital's services and amenities. Visitors can make appointments to view the new educational videos, such as "Newborn Care: A Guide to the First Six Weeks" and "Falls Prevention", in the Kessler Library.
We are happy to be able to offer over 100 English and Spanish VHS titles, at no cost, from our previous collection to medical facilities, libraries or schools that may want them. These videos will be available throughout August, for anyone who would like to view and pick up the videos.
For more information, please contact Cara Helfner at 617-732-8103 or chelfner@partners.org.
Ask-A-Librarian through Instant Messaging
Now Kessler Library users have even more ways to communicate with our staff. We've implemented a Meebo Instant Messaging "Ask-a-Librarian" Center on our Intranet site. Our Meebo room is Kessler_L, which will open when visitors click on our Intranet's "Reference Databases and Tools" page. When you enter the room, a message will display as to whether Kessler_L is online.
Library users can use this tool to:
Renew a book or request a book delivered to a patient's room, if they have a Kessler Library card
Enroll in one of our classes or events
Find out more about the library
"Chat" with our librarians to learn how to search our databases
Ask reference questions
Kessler_L is particularly helpful for patients' family members, who can use it on the computers set up in many family waiting rooms, while still staying close to their loved ones.
The library is currently offering this tool Monday - Thursday, 9am-4:30pm. For more information, please contact Cara Helfner at 617-732-8103 or chelfner@partners.org. We look forward to IM-ing with you!
Cart Brings Health Education to Patients’ Bedside
Brigham and Women’s CWN 7 Hospital Nurse Educator Carol Prone and Gyn-Oncology and CWN Float Pool Nurse Manager Bernadette Quigley-Lavoie had a vision! Since inpatients on the 7th Floor of the Center for Women and Newborns (CWN) could not leave their rooms to come to the Kessler Library, they wanted to bring the library’s research resources to them. They worked with Kessler Library Chief Librarian Cara Helfner to design a computer cart on wheels with a customized desktop providing access to online patient education resources.
CWN-7 patients may request the computer cart from their nurse to research their condition and treatment through the online Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute Cancer Information Centers, the National Cancer Institute and the Kessler Library’s Gale Virtual Reference Library (with access to the eEncyclopedia of Cancer), OCLC NetLibrary, (with access to the BWH eBook The Breast Cancer Survivor's Fitness Plan) and EBSCO Consumer Health Source databases (full-text journals include Cancer and Harvard Women’s Health Watch).
CWN-7 patients who would like to use the Kessler Library’s research tools on the computer cart can make an appointment with a librarian or health educator for research assistance by calling x2-8103, TTY x5-7337, or email kesslerlibrary@partners.org.
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