Public Library Participation in a MedlinePlus Go Local Project: Perceptions of Georgia Librarians and Staff

In an effort to promote public library involvement in Georgia Health - Go Local, a National Library of Medicine initiative to link consumers to health resources in their local areas, staff at a large public library system in south Georgia were trained to enter local records into the Go Local database. Results of two follow-up focus groups indicated that participants were enthusiastic about demonstrating Go Local and MedlinePlus to library users but were not comfortable creating or maintaining Go Local records due to concerns about the relevance of the project, unease with medical terminology, varied levels of computer expertise, and worries about possible liability.