In This Issue:
New
NLM Web Site
MEDLINE
Logs Ten Millionth Citation
Betsy
Humphreys Heads Library Operations
ELHILL
and TOXNET Change
Regents
Chart New Course
Honoring
Elsie Werth
Native
American Youth Visit
Dr.
Spann Retires
 Public
Health Center Named for Dr. Mel Spann
NLM
Rolls Out New Booth
Dr.
Harold Schoolman Retires
Dead
Sea Scrolls
Emerging
Health Information Infrastructure
Worthy
of Note: BLAST
Partners
In Information Access Awards
Bosma
and McCutcheon Appointed Section Heads
NLM
Director Visits University of Colorado
Training
NLM Associate Fellows
"Breath
of Life" Exhibit
Dr.
Allen Dies
In Every Issue:
Names
in the News
Products
and Publications
NLM
in Print
|
Public Health Training and Resource Center
Named for SIS
Director Dr. Mel Spann
Atlanta Facility Will Continue His Legacy of Outreach to the
Minority Health Community
Dr. Melvin L. Spann, NLM Associate Director for Specialized
Information Services, has been a driving force over the last decade
in establishing and directing NLM's toxicology information outreach
program in minority communities. So when his frequent collaborator
in this work, the Minority Health Professions Foundation, invited
him to the grand opening of its Public Health Training and
Information Resource Center in Atlanta, Georgia, July 12th, he was
pleased to attend.
What he didn't know until he arrived was that he would be asked
to participate in the dedication of "The Spann Center." The
Foundation had chosen to honor him for his tireless support of
training minority health professionals around the nation in the use
of NLM's toxicology and environmental information resources.
"I found out during the dedication ceremony," Dr. Spann
recounted. "It was a total shock. I was dumbfounded as my family
walked in -- my wife, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, cousins. I sat
there and wondered, 'What's happening here?'"
The Spann Center, in Atlanta, supports the Association of
Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS) and other Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in providing advanced
training curricula to public health educators, community
stakeholders and academic leaders in the areas of environmental
health, HIV/AIDS, and community outreach and intervention
strategies.
The Center has 14 computer workstations, state-of-the-art
software and telecommunications facilities, and extensive
audiovisual equipment for interactive presentations and instruction.
It is the first center of its kind to serve as a training resource
for minority health professionals, community organizations of all
kinds, and HBCUs in the use of technology, the Internet, and
specialized databases related to health and environmental issues
that disproportionately affect minority and disadvantaged
populations.
Joining Dr. Spann, his family, former HHS Secretary Dr. Louis
Sullivan, the Foundation staff and other invited guests at the
dedication was NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D., who was in
on the secret. 
Photo: Joining Dr. Mel Spann (center) in the ribbon cutting
for the center bearing his name were NLM Director Donald A.B.
Lindberg, MD (left), and Henry Lewis, III, PharmD (right),
President, Minority Health Professions Foundation, and Dean, College
of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Florida A and M
University. |
