Open AccessHealth Information Services Available for People Living With HIV/AIDS: Perspectives of Library and Information Professionals
Author(s) -
Mehra Bharat,
Albright Kendra S.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
proceedings of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8390
pISSN - 0044-7870
DOI - 10.1002/meet.14504301150
Subject(s) - public relations , context (archaeology) , business , service (business) , health informatics , health care , public health , medicine , nursing , knowledge management , political science , marketing , computer science , paleontology , law , biology
There is an urgent need for availability of life‐saving health information services as well as adequate marketing, advertising, and dissemination strategies to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs), and to the broader public at large, especially in the context of a recent UNAIDS estimation that the number of people living with HIV in the United States, at the end of 2003, exceeded one million for the first time. This study explores the HIV/AIDS health information services that are available within the local community of Knoxville, Tennessee, and presents focus group perspectives of nine library and information professionals about awareness and use of these services by PLWHAs. The study forms part of a larger plan to apply a community informatics (CI) approach to examine the provision of health information services for PLWHAs in terms of how PLWHAs and other stakeholders including health care service providers, academic community at the University of Tennessee, community leaders and activists, and faith‐based organizations, use and apply information and communication technologies (ICTs) to empower and enable PLWHAs to meet their information needs, goals, and aspirations. Here we report findings from the project's first phase of documenting perspectives of library and information professionals about existing HIV/AIDS information services, users of these services, barriers and challenges to effective use, and the role of health information professionals in the context of developing ideal information support services for PLWHAs.