• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.339-360
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to revitalize library service by examining how public and medical libraries provide health and medical information services. For this purpose, we conducted a survey of the two library types, and the results are as follows. First, more than 50% of the questions public librarians were termed "immediate answer" questions, while more than 80% of the questions medical librarians receive take up to a few days' time to answer. Public librarians were more likely to comment on the limitations of their expertise and information resources as compared to the medical librarians. Second, public librarians use mainly medical journals and websites for answering users' requests. However, medical librarians used, in almost the same ratio, all types of information resources represented in the survey questions. Third, when asking about health/medical-related training contents for performing their tasks, public and medical librarians are highly interested in all information about all health-related issues. However, while medical librarians showed high interest in all subject areas, public librarians most preferred well-being related education topics such as Information on diet and nutrition, Information about exercise and fitness, and information on quitting smoking.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.209-221
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• 2014

Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify the effects of area-based health promotion initiatives with community participation and partnerships conducted in Sabong-Myeon, Jinju City for three years. Methods: We used data from the '2008 Sabong-Myeon Health Survey' and the '2011 Health Plus Happiness Plus Community Health Survey'. The study comprised 520 systematically sampled individuals, composed of 300 adults in 2008 and 200 adults in 2011. We compared some health behavior and mental health indicators as well as social capital levels between these two surveys. Results: The prevalences of smoking and walking exercise in 2011 were significantly higher than those in 2008. The prevalences of high risk alcohol consumption in men, stress perception, depressive symptoms experience, and suicide ideation were significantly lower than those in 2008. The proportion of people having a high level of social capital in 2011 was significantly higher than that in 2008, regardless of sex or marital status. However, the difference in the proportion was not statistically significant among people with a high educational background. Conclusions: This study suggested that the 3 years' implementation of area-based health promotion initiatives conducted in Sabong-Myeon might help to improve the mental health and social capital level of this community. The long-term health effects of area-based health promotion initiatives with community participation and partnerships need to be studied further, and lessons from these initiatives can be obtained by adapting proper evaluation methods.