Interactive Personal Assistants (1 of 5), 37895

File — Box: 17, Folder: 5

Scope and Contents

From the Series: The Records of Philly Health Info span the years 1999 to 2010, and include documentation from pre-planning phases of the project, background information, correspondence, advisory committee meeting minutes, grant funding reports, outreach and partnership files, and website design and maintenance details. The collection is divided into nine series, which resemble the original order in which the material was received. Researchers interested early 21st-century public health initiatives by non-profit organizations will find the materials significant, especially if they are interested with community partnerships and collaboration work.

Series 1: Administration dates from 1999 through 2010, and is divided in six subseries. “Marketing” (1999 to 2010) includes advertisements for PHI, correspondence regarding promotion, events held at the College to promote PHI, correspondence and other material related to the website, and several 3-D objects, including signage, keychains, a stress ball, and other ‘swag.’ The “Legal paperwork” subseries dates from 2003 to 2006 and deals mostly with copyright and trademark issues. The “RCHIS Subcommittee” file provides insight in to the early planning phases for PHI in 2003. Researchers interested in the development and progression of PHI will find the “Reports” subseries (2005-2010) and “Strategic Planning” subseries (2006-2008) especially useful, as they provide evidence and a summary timeline of the changes the project went through.

Series 2: Committees spans the years 2002 to 2009, and includes correspondence and meeting minutes from the Advisory Board, which was established in 2006. The series also contains meeting minutes and other materials from the Portal Advisory Committee, which was implemental in the planning and first launching of the website at phillyhealthinfo.org in 2003.

Series 3: Grants and Funding, dating from 2001 to 2010, includes information about the grants received by College to plan, implement, and enhance Philly Health Info, including grants from the Langeloth Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust, and STEPS to a Healthier Philadelphia. The final reports to the Langeloth Foundation and the narrative reports about the Pew grant provide good, detailed overviews of the project, from its implementation in 2003 through its near end in 2010. However, information regarding the decision to switch from the kiosks and the website to only the website during the years 2005 and 2006 will not be found in this series.

Series 4: Kiosks covers the early years of PHI, from 2003 to 2005, and holds information about kiosk locations and requirements for those locations. Additionally, researchers will find materials relating to the hiring and training of volunteers used to staff the kiosks. A major part of the series, “Northeast Regional Library (NERL)” and “Other Locations” include correspondence, instructions, and user and volunteer surveys from PHI’s first kiosk location, as well as later installations.

Series 5: Project Planning contains background and planning information about PHI and spans the years 2001 to 2005. Project proposals and brainstorming for a Regional Community Health Information System (RCHIS) can be found in this series, as well as early meeting minutes from PHI staff meetings, and project sustainability outlooks. The evaluation of PHI, done by the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation in 2005, provides greater insight into the operations, success, and failures of the first two years of the project.

Series 6: Outreach, dating from 2001 through 2008, makes up nearly half of the collection, and includes what are known as “Call reports” – meetings and site visits to institutions, such as senior centers and Free Library branches, who were interested in either hosting kiosks or health literacy training sessions. Series 6 also includes more detailed information about the partnership formed with the Free Library in 2003 as part of the pilot project as well as the kiosk installed in the Northeast Regional Library branch. Partnerships formed later in PHI’s lifecycle, such as the one with the Delaware County Public Library System, are represented in this series. Researchers will also find presentations given by PHI staff at conferences, such as Health Information Access (Lancaster, PA, 2008, and the Medical Library Association in 2001).

Series 7: Website, dating from 2001 to 2010, holds feedback and user testing of the first version of the website in 2003; content and contact information for the ‘microsites’ launched circa 2008; and the website redesign in 2006. The contract, work proposal, and project updates for the website design and redesign are found in the subseries “MRB Communication/Verve Internet.”

Series 8: Workshops and Training (2003-2005) contains presentations and workbooks used while training volunteers to staff the kiosks, as well as “intermediary” staff from locations which hosted kiosks.

Series 9: Events contains flyers and correspondence related to lectures held at the College and sponsored by Philly Health Info for the years 2006 through 2010.