Outreach: Iowa Public Health Research Center at Allen College

Allen College, UnityPoint Health is a regionally-accredited, private, nonprofit institution of higher education located in Waterloo, Iowa. Built on a tradition of more than 90 years of excellence, Allen currently serves 625 students in seven health programsnursing, public health, radiography, sonography, medical laboratory science, medical imaging, and occupational therapyranging from associates to doctorates. Allen College's Barrett Library provides access to over 33,000 library materials, including 47 databases, 3,200 online journals, 3,100 streaming videos, and over 12,000 physical texts. As a premier repository of biomedical and health information, Barrett Library seeks to link local health professionals, especially those in underserved areas, to these resources. Through the Iowa Public Health Research Center IPHRC at Allen College, Barrett Library will provide 25 counties in Northeast Iowa with no-cost equal access to library materials. As of right now, county health departments and government funded non-profits that provide public health services have limited access to peer-reviewed journals and are often unfamiliar with NNLM resources, which constitute the primary source of evidence-based practices needed to solve community health problems. Allen College's IPHRC project librarian will be available throughout the grant period to respond to item requests; locate, assess, and share resources; answer questions; produce literature reviews; and collaborate with healthcare providers to find the best solutions for their needs. In order to ensure that everyone involved knows how to best navigate federal health information resources, programming will include training sessions for interested participants and train-the-trainer initiatives for library staff. Expanding programming is another primary aim. Within the first year, Barrett Library hopes to add additional counties, based on capacity.