Librarians--particularly health sciences librarians--made significant contributions to preparedness and recovery activities surrounding recent disasters. Lessons learned from the oral history project increased understanding of and underscored the value of collaborative relationships between libraries and local, state, and federal disaster management agencies and organizations.

Abstract. This paper reports selected results from two comprehensive evaluation studies of the Information Prescription (or "Information Rx") Program implementation conducted from 2002-05 by the American College of Physicians Foundation (ACPF) and the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). In this Program physicians are provided with Information Prescription pads, analogous to pads used to prescribe medications, that are used to direct patients to the MedlinePlus web site and its contents that are applicable to a patient's health condition. The results describe the Program's potential to enhance patient education and interpersonal communication from physician and patient perspectives. The findings suggest once physicians adopt the use of an information prescription, they perceive they are providing an additional clinical service that enhances patient education and interpersonal communication. For physicians, participation in information prescription may improve patient communication, encourage information seeking, and lessen the number of poor quality Internet searches that patients frequently self-perform and bring to a doctor's office. Similarly, once patients receive a recommendation from a physician to seek health information on the web, patients may be more comfortable with health seeking on the Internet and discussing their findings with their doctor. The conclusions of the two evaluation studies imply an Information Prescription fosters a dialogue between providers and patients, helps patients use the Internet more effectively and seems to favorably impact patient education. As the medical community and patient advocacy groups continue to emphasize the importance of evidence-based information as the gold standard for accepted care, it can be expected that informatics tools such as Information Rx will come to play an increasingly important role as a vehicle to help identify and access high quality health information on the Internet.Perceptions of the Internet as a source of vital health information and a resource for patient education, communication and empowerment are changing. In 2000, Shactman [14] found physicians resisted turning to health information on the Internet as a strategy to improve patient interpersonal communication and education. Three areas of concern were identified: the anticipated time demands of emails from patients, lost time in patient visits to discuss information from unknown or dubious sources, and the unreliability of much of the health-related information posted on the Internet.Five years later, Wofford, Smith and Miller [16] note physicians' reservations are changing rapidly. They predict the use of health information from the Internet will become an integral part of patient office visits and education. The computer:

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sented their vision of medical libraries in 2015 to the health professional community [1]. In 2006, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) completed a long-range plan to guide the library to 2016 [2]. It is now incumbent on the Library Operations Division of NLM to ensure that it is guided by that vision and helps to achieve the goals of the long-range plan. To this end, Library Operations has embarked on its own strategic planning process. Library Operations is the heart of NLM's essential services to health care professionals and the general public. Products and services such as DOCLINE, PubMed, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), MedlinePlus, and LocatorPlus are the backbone of medical library services and information management in the United States and abroad. While this editorial focuses on challenges and opportunities Library Operations faces, we do not work in a vacuum. All our services have benefited from synergy with other NLM components. The library's multidisciplinary workforce has been critical to NLM's previous successes and continues to be its greatest asset. We are delighted by the magnitude of worldwide use of NLM products and services, but we will not go forward resting on our accomplishments. We would like to share with you our priorities for 2008 to 2010. While our plans include optimizing technology, evaluating our existing services, and nurturing younger talent, our immediate priorities have a decidedly practical bent, and the first three are more significant than others.