Addressing socioeconomic disparities in access to health information and information technology is a long-term focus of Dr. Xie’s research. Her goal is to have a tangible impact on the lives of older adults, especially underrepresented minority and low-income older adults who have the most limited access to, and greatest need for, trustworthy and reliable health information and services. The project has been funded with federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health.

In association with the Prince George's County Memorial Library System and the College of Information Studies, Dr. Bo Xie has been providing computer training for older adults in the Hyattsville public library. The focus of the training classes is to use the Internet to find good quality health information. She had been awarded a grant from the National Library of Medicine for her research on “Promoting Health Literacy among Older Adults: Computer Training in Public Libraries.” The one-year award will focus on generating new knowledge about the special health and medical information needs of the rapidly aging population and on developing an educational program to train older adults to use information technology to meet those needs.

Since these classes have been so popular, we have added another site at the New Carrollton public library. These are 4 week training classes (each class meets twice per week for a total of eight 2-hour long sessions. More than 50 older adults in the community have received extensive training classes and we are expecting to reach this number again at the end of the spring semester.