The primary target population for this project includes the public health staff of the two northern Idaho Health Districts (260 employees), the Idaho State Laboratory - Coeur d?Alene Branch (10 employees), and two tribes, the Coeur d?Alenes, and the Nez Perce (45 employees). The project will potentially impact all 1200 public health employees in the State of Idaho, as this will be the first effort at developing library access, web resources and Listserv discussion groups for Idaho public health districts. Successful implementation of this pilot should stimulate further development in Idaho?s other health districts. The primary goal of this project is to improve the access to knowledge-based information resources for the public health personnel serving northern Idaho. 1) Increase access to the Internet and other information resources by installing a wide-area network with a thin-client server and frame relay connections between each county health department office and the northern branch laboratory. 2) Develop and enhance web resources for public health personnel in Districts One and Two, including computer-assisted instruction modules and news groups/ discussion groups using Listserv. 3) Train 260 public health personnel and 45 tribal staff members in the use of Internet and NN/LM resources, including PubMed, Loansome Doc, CDC WONDER, E-mail and Listserv, and the web resources developed at Kootenai Medical Center and Panhandle Health District websites. 4) Increase awareness of local, state, regional, and national information services through presentations at three professional meetings, the Idaho Public Health Association, the Idaho Environmental Health Association, and the Washington Rural Health Association.
