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Library is part of Online Consumer Health Information Initiative  The MUSC Library has received a grant of $39,991 from the National Library of Medicine to fund the S.C. Online Wellness Center Project. Barbara Carlson, coordinator, Consumer Health Information and Education, Peggy Mauldin, reference librarian, and Lisa M.Boyd, manager, Library Enterprises, Projects and Emerging Technologies, will be co-directors of the statewide project, with the assistance of Conyers Bull, public services and education assistant, and other library staff. “The Internet offers us one of the best opportunities for improving access to reliable, up-to-date, health information,” said Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D., director of the National Library of Medicine. He announced that the library is funding 49 electronic health information projects in 34 states, affecting rural, inner-city, and suburban areas.  “The projects we are supporting will increase Internet access in a variety of settings, from middle schools serving low income and educationally underserved students to shopping malls and senior centers,” Lindberg said. “These are imaginative and well-targeted projects that will help us determine how we can best provide millions of Americans who are still not connected to the Internet with access to health information. They will stimulate medical libraries, local public libraries, and other organizations to work together to provide new electronic health information services for all citizens in a community.” The MUSC Library project will allow collaboration and extend access to quality health information to all counties of South Carolina via the web. Presently, the Charleston County Public Library, in partnership with the MUSC Library, will allow 40 public librarians from throughout the state to be trained and a wellness website will be developed and publicized. Ultimately the plan calls for a partnership among MUSC, the University of South Carolina Medical Library and the State Library.