Pacific Northwest Library Association

PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.3 Spring 1999

Alberta's Universities: Leaders in Moving Health Information into the Professional Community

By Della Jacobson, Health Knowledge Network, University of Alberta

The Health Knowledge Network (HKN) is a collaborative venture of the University of Calgary (UC) and the University of Alberta (UA). These two universities work together to provide information services to the campus user groups (faculty and students at UA and UC) and to extend services beyond the campuses into the health care community in Alberta and the Canadian Territories. In this way, HKN has become a regional network and is viewed as a model for partnerships in other institutions and provinces.

In the early 1990's the medical librarians at the partner universities identified an increasing need to provide information services in the teaching hospitals around the province. As part of the health care education programs, students were being taught to use databases and other information resources. But when these same students went out into the various hospitals around the province doing their practicum and residency programs, they no longer had consistent access to the information that they had been taught to incorporate into their work. To fill this gap, the medical librarians at the UC and UA developed the HKN. HKN enabled the libraries:

  • To visibly contribute to the broader mandate of the academic communities by readily sharing their rich resources with the community at large.
  • To actively support health education programs and research conducted at remote locations throughout the region.
HKN has now grown beyond its early implementation stages. Efforts are now directed towards adding value to the service and reaching the late-adopters of networked-based information.

HKN is a complete information service supporting evidence-based medicine. HKN takes a new user through a complete cycle of training, access to bibliographic and full-text databases, and document delivery services. HKN services include:

  1. Training - Basic and advanced level training sessions; customized courses focused on specific needs or subject specialties. These courses are delivered on or off the campuses--often in conjunction with the Continuing Medical Education of the UC and UA.
  2. Access to databases - From the Internet, individual and institutional customers can search databases available from the campus networks. The trusted and sophisticated Ovid search interface is used to run the system. While high-end researchers continue to use the text-based version of Ovid for speedy response times, most users have migrated to the friendlier, state-of-the-art Ovid Web interface. The basic suite of databases available to all HKN users is Medline, CINAHL, HealthSTAR and CancerLit. PsycINFO and EBMR (Evidence Based Medicine Reviews) are added to database menus on a customized basis. (Additional Ovid databases, like Embase and Bioethicsline, are available to campus users at the UofA.) HKN's value as a buying group is well recognized by the administration of each university and by user groups throughout the province. While partnerships require changes in thinking and working, there is real value to be found in working together to create weight behind negotiations for database licenses.
  3. Document Delivery - HKN's document delivery service is focused on individual customers or institutions without a library. While many fortunate health professionals have affiliations allowing them to benefit from interlibrary loans, HKN meets the need when libraries or librarians are not readily accessible. The UA and UC have exceptional library collections; it is through HKN that the universities ensure everyone in the region can share the wealth.
Throughout the province of Alberta, HKN provides services to hospitals, community care clinics, to community colleges and technical institutes, and to boards like Workers' Compensation and the Alberta Cancer Board. HKN's prevalence in the province has created a continuity of access as professionals move from one institution to the next. HKN also provides a 'buying group' for the negotiation of database licenses. Recent market research has confirmed that HKN is a valuable part of everyday library collections in the province. Several libraries have cancelled print and CD-ROM subscriptions because they have greater access through HKN. In addition, feedback from librarians and health professionals, most notably physicians, indicates that the external community values working with a familiar, credible organization like their own local universities.

HKN's focus is now directed towards adding value to the services currently provided and to reaching deeper into the rural communities. While our urban centres have enjoyed the benefits of HKN since inception, technological barriers have hindered our rural colleagues.

In the last year, the technical infrastructure for several of the regional health authorities has become current and rural health professionals are eager to tap into the resources provided by this collaborative venture.

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