The article introduces a special issue on health care for underserved populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, describing the emergence of the field of minority health, defining its parameters, and reviewing some of the strategies that will be important in improving the health status of underserved minority populations. (SM)

Highlights some of the conditions affecting rural and small libraries and describes their roles in providing information services. Results of two research investigations report that for many Americans, the community library is perceived as a place for books and is used primarily by women. The complete survey instruments and results are appended.…

Describes an approach to combining health and social work services in a small community in a nontraditional setting through the use of a multidisciplinary student training project. Discusses professional relationships, service provision, patient use of services, and patient satisfaction. Provides suggestions for the establishment of similar…

Wayne Myers, director of the Office of Rural Health Policy, discusses Appalachian rural health and access to health care. The health manpower shortage in Central Appalachia still exists but is less severe than 10 years ago. The needs of underserved areas could be address by training local people in the community and through telemedicine and…

Focus groups with 18 health-care employers identified assessment, independence, critical thinking, and collaboration as the most important skills and qualities for community-health practice. Partnerships to improve undergraduate nursing curricula and the marketability of nursing graduates were developed. (SK)

A collaborative project of a nursing school and a community health service was designed to improve nursing students' preparation for community nursing. Features included links between practice to theory, community placements for students, and co-participation in student assessment. (SK)

Analyzes the emerging community informatics evaluation literature to develop an understanding of the indicators used to gauge project impacts in community networks and community technology centers. The study finds that community networks and community technology center assessments fall into five key areas: strong democracy; social capital;…

Discusses telecommunications developments affecting Latino access and participation. Examines telecommunications policy as political discourse. Presents elements of a telecommunications policy agenda drawn from that of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and focusing on access to services, education for digital literacy, needs of small businesses…

Of 13 nursing students in a community nursing clinical project, 7 worked with older adults who received instruction about drug interaction. Compared to the six whose patients did not receive instruction, these students achieved greater knowledge and self-efficacy scores related to drug interaction. (Contains 16 references.) (SK)

Describes various infoshops across the United States: these centers offer alternative materials; are collaboratively run and staffed by volunteers; are typically founded/run by young people; and often serve as venues for concerts, screenings, and political discussions. Suggests libraries might take inspiration from infoshops, and serve coffee,…

Pretest-posttest results from 66 students in community nursing and 71 medical students in a family practice rotation showed that nursing students had significantly higher self-efficacy for health counseling at the posttest and 3 months later. Nurses' self-efficacy scores were significantly related to use of health promotion principles. (SK)

Summarizes the Richmond Public Library's (RPL's) experiences in development and provision of technology-based services. Describes RPL's approaches to technology-based services, including training, communicating benefits to the community, creating a community-based Web site and marketing. Explains benefits of Internet-based services to patrons,…

Explains MOOsburg, a community-oriented MOO that models the geography of the town of Blacksburg, Virginia and is designed to be used by local residents. Highlights include the software architecture; client-server communication; spatial database; user interface; interaction; map-based navigation; application development; and future plans. (LRW)

In the current paper we focus on the role of physical fitness in the life stress process for both psychological and physical well-being. The major research question posed in the current study is: Does physical fitness deter distress in a model containing the major components of the life stress process? That is, do individuals who exercise show…

A life cycle metaphor characterizes the evolving relationship between the evaluator and program staff. This framework suggests that common developmental dynamics occur in roughly the same order across groups and settings. There are stage-specific dynamics that begin with Pre-History, which characterize the relationship between the grantees and…