The J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library has been awarded a 1-year license for the English/Spanish software Package, Health Literacy Advisor from Health Literacy Innovations, Inc. The National Network of Libraries of Medicine /Midcontinental Region awarded licenses to regional libraries to improve health information literacy. Described on the HLA website “[a]s a health literacy checker, the HLA streamlines the review and simplification process by allowing users to assess the health of their documents and then fix it using plain language principles.”
Documents can be reviewed for readability level and stamp the results in the footer. The software will scan the document and highlight words that compromise the readability. It will then suggest easier to read alternatives. Spanish documents can also be checked.
The Health Literacy Advisor program will run for 1 year from the end of April 2012 through the end of April 2013. This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, under Contract No. HHS-N-276-2011-00006-C with the University of Utah Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library.
For more information about how to have your materials checked, feel free to contact Darell Schmick at the Health Sciences Library at 884-3575 or SchmickD@health.missouri.edu.