Collaborating with Community Partners to Provide Health Information in Arabic

Locating quality consumer health information in languages other than English can be challenging in a complex electronic information environment. Locating consumer health information in Arabic is especially difficult. At present, electronic health information in Arabic is limited in scope, not easily accessible, and poorly organized. An academic medical library collaborated with community partners to identify and bring together multiple sources of Arabic language health information in one convenient location. As a result, over 80 electronicArabic language health materials are organized and available via the World Wide Web for health information seekers to access, view, and print. This paper will outline the need for reliable electronic health information in Arabic, describe the important role of community partners in helping libraries identify appropriate health materials for target communities, and discuss future directions for the online collection of Arabic language health materials. [(C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]