From now until May 11, women over the age of 18 can submit their story in 700 words or less to womansday@ala.org, or by visiting the library's Web site at www.gi.lib.ne.us and clicking on the "Women's Day, Have you Heard? Health and Wellness" icon. This icon will guide the user to the Women's Day Web site where the womansday@ala.org link can be found.

Four stories will be featured in the March 2009 issue of Woman's Day, which has more than 4 million readers. Official rules are available on the Woman's Day web site at www.womansday.com/ala .

Everyday, people turn to our library as a source of reliable health information. With the help of trained information experts your librarians you can be sure to find what you're looking for, whether it's in print or online.

A popular online health resource available at the library is Medline Plus at www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/. This site is part of the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical library. Here you will find a section on Health Topics with more than 700 topics on condition, diseases and wellness; there is a query box for searching for different topics and with a click on the "Espanol" tab all text will turn into Spanish.

One also will find other sections on "drugs and supplements," which covers prescriptions and over the counter medicines, herbs and supplements; a "medical encyclopedia" section which includes pictures and diagrams; a "dictionary" section for spellings and definitions of medical words; a "news" section for current health news and press announcements; "directories" for finding doctors, dentists and hospitals,; and a "go local" section for finding local resources for health related issues.

Under "Interactive Tutorials" one will find more than 165 slide shows with both an audio and visual component. Just click on your topic, for example "colonoscopy", and you will experience a tutorial that explains a procedure or condition in easy-to-read language.

Other helpful Web sites:

* Consumer Health Information Resource Services (CHIRS) at www.unmc.edu/library/consumer/, made available through the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Information is provided free of charge to Nebraska residents; a health sciences librarian will research your condition and provide a tailored package of information that may include: journal articles, book chapters, pamphlets and Web Resources; also available on this site is a search index for MedlinePlus.

* The Internet Drug Index at www.rxlist.com/script/main/hp.asp. You can browse drugs by letter; if you are having trouble identifying generic pills and capsules without their original packaging you can use the pill identification tool, just search by imprint, color or by shape. Also available on this site is a link to Web MD at www.webmd.com/ which is the leading source for trustworthy and timely health and medical news and information.

Trustworthy and timely health and medical information can also be found in "print" source, for example, an important reference sourcebook is "Health Reference Series," covering such topics as diabetes, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases; each is written in simple language for everyday, non-technical users. Also available is the "Johns Hopkins White Papers." Each White Paper summarizes the very latest research and findings from all the major medical journals.

Stay healthy and informed!

Kathleen Nonneman is a librarian for the Grand Island Public Library.