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Academic Library Evolving from Hospital Library (6/7/07)I got some very thoughtful and interesting replies to my question, and have compiled them in the attached. Except third-party comments, I edited out names and locations in the interest of confidentiality, and hope I've remained true to the message while respecting the privacy of the sender. I hope to remain in touch with several of you. I deleted your names in this copy, but not my own! I deeply appreciate the willingness of so many of you to help. We really have some great people on this hls list!Jane Bridges, ML, AHIP, Mercer's Clinical Campus Librarian, Health Sciences Library, Memorial Health University Medical Center, P.O. Box 23089 / 4700 Waters Ave., Savannah, GA 31404 Jane, I know of two hospital libraries that were taken over by Washington University Medical School Library in St. Louis. The librarians are employees of Washington University, but the budgets are the hospitals responsibility. The up side is that the librarians have access to the full text databases and services of the University. I guess our situation could be considered something like that. Almost 10 years ago there was a sort of merger of two hospital libraries into a sort of branch of a medical school library. There is a "partner" setup, with annual contributions from the partners, a board etc. You can call me on the 800 line if you like. -- Harborview Hospital has been a teaching hospital of the Univ. of Washington Medical School for years, and a number of years ago, the library came under the direction of the U.W. Health Sciences Library & Information Center. Ellen Howard is the librarian at Harborview and could probably help you. I don't have her e-mail address. I would love to hear what others have to say on this issue. I'm not a "hospital" but a "regional" library serving many sites. If you haven't heard from them already you may want to contact the librarians at the Cleveland Clinic: Gretchen Hallerberg, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, NA30, Cleveland, Ohio 44195 Christine Dziedzina, Chief Librarian, Brittingham Memorial Library, MetroHealth Medical Center, 2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland, Ohio 44109-1998 Jane - we've had several hospital libraries become integrated into our Univ Health Sciences Library System. These hospital libraries were formerly "freestanding" hospital libraries. Jane, I am the librarian at [campus]. Basically, we are part of the School of Medicine, but we are located about 200 miles of main campus. We have seven residency programs, as well as a program in Pharmacy and Dentistry. We don't have our own supply of med students but they do cycle through from main campus every six weeks. We also have our own faculty. We have our own building and library but we are located across the street from a regional medical center where the majority of our residents work. Last November, they decided to outsource its library to us. Since most of their docs and residents are Univ affiliated, they felt it would be a smart move. So, I have been managing the general operations of that library since November, but we hired another Univ librarian to oversee its day-to-day operations. Budget = We negotiated a budget with them for library operations. Now, we pay the bills directly, but then turn around and invoice the hospital. They also pay for the librarian's salary. Licensing agreements= Licensing agreements are very strict. The hospital library is NOT an official Univ library, so we cannot use a Univ IP address on the computers. This means that all of our users have to access remotely when inside the hospital library. Licensing agreements also prohibit non-Univ affiliates to access Univ library resources. We have a separate journal package for the private docs, nurses, and med staff. It is not as complicated as it sounds. Univ users know they have to access remotely, and non-Univ users don't feel slighted that they cannot access Univ stuff. Since my library is just across the street, and is an "offical" Univ library, we serve anyone. So the private docs, nurses, etc. can come in, search, and print whatever they want. Union catalog= When we took over the hospital library, we also convinced some of the local libraries to get CyberTools. Two of them were able to do that and now we have a local union catalog. Very helpful. Reporting structure= The Univ librarian at the hospital reports directly to me and, in a more informal way, to the hospital's director of ME. The ME director doesn't really understand much about a library, but he keeps tabs on what is going. The librarian also has to work within the policies of the hospital, so it is important that she has open communication with their administration. So far, so good. Even though the hospital is not part of the School of Medicine, the library operates as an academic/hospital library. I don't know if this is helpful information. Let me know if you have other questions. Jane: In the mid 70s, Univ purchased the then County Hospital as its training hospital. Part of that deal was for the existent library. The library negotiated a kind of separate deal within this purchase. I report to the University Librarian on the main campus and the library is considered to be a branch of the University Library system which has 3 branches. The monies come from the library with some increment based on who-knows-what anymore from the hospital (it's not very much and may not even be collected anymore). Everyone, including hospital staff, have access to the electronic and on-site resources as we negotiate our license agreements for IP recognition. We "collaborate" with the School of Medicine on various projects and sit on some of their standing committees. Our collaboration with the hospital side is hit and miss at best and then we have to identify the opportunities. If you have any other questions, please let me know. I'll try to answer them as this transition occurred before I was hired. I'll be at MLA if you want to meet and discuss further. Hi Jane, Our library was given by a hospital (Regional Health Center) to an academic institution who built a new nursing education building right across the street from the hospital. We moved in the library in December, 1998 and on January 1, 1999 we became University employees. For a while we continued to serve the hospital staff and physicians (whenever they requested stuff), but it eventually petered out and now they go elsewhere for their needs. After becoming part of the University, we began serving their nursing students, both on-campus and also outreach nursing programs (BSN and MSN as well as students in an Addiction Studies program). Our holdings were integrated gradually into the card catalog of the main campus library but we are located in another city. The University folks do OCLC borrowing and lending and contact us daily to send out stuff that is requested from us via OCLC. At our Campus we use DOCLINE for ILL and use that system primarily for our students requests unless there is something that is unobtainable and then we will forward the request to the ILL person to try to get on OCLC. As far as I know the break was immediate at the time we became University employees. I have forwarded your letter to the person who was the librarian at the time and she may respond also. Please let me know if you have any further questions. Hi, Jane. The place that springs immediately to mind is the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in East Lansing. This school has a unique community campus-based structure - CHM physicians and medical students are positioned in six communities (Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Saginaw and the Upper Peninsula) throughout the state. I know several of the larger hospital libraries in the state are essentially medical school libraries. The Michigan Health Sciences Library Association (http://www.mhsla.org/) is very active and might be a good place to start. Hi Jane, New York University Medical Library runs Bellevue Hospital library (City Hospital) and Hospital for Joint Diseases library (Private) in NYC Hi Jane, Your message was forwarded on to me. We have gone through a similar experience with the Health Region and the University. The Health Region operates multiple hospital sites and other locations in the City and the surrounding area. They serve about 1/3 of our population. In 2005 the HR and the Univ signed a contract for library services. The Univ employs the staff (13.5 FTE) and manages the collections and services (overall budget 1,498,000). There is a lot to it! We are just moving out of transition now but there is still work to be done in establishing SFX and some other technical issues. We are governed by a management committee chaired by our Vice Provost, University Librarian. The committee has membership from the Region and from the University. As manager, I am an ex officio member of the committee. We also have an operations committee again with members from the department our contract comes under and myself and the Director of the Health Sciences library. If you have any questions please contact me and I'll answer as best as I'm able. We're going into preparation for our budget right now (and I go on vacation!) but I'll get back to you as best as I'm able. Your own situation sounds very interesting! Let me know how it goes. Good Luck! Hello Jane, With respect to your question about hospital libraries becoming academic libraries, would you mind sharing with me any responses that you get? This scenario is possibly going to happen to me in September 2008. We are currently meeting the information needs of 3rd year medical students, but they are going to have a medical school by September 2008 and it's possible that the University will take over the hospital library. Nothing is for certain yet but I wouldn't mind being prepared. Thanking you in advance if you are able to obtain this information. Regards, Jane, Our hospital has just recently become affiliated with the nearby medical school. They have not purchased the hospital yet and the libraries remain separate. But I see it coming down the pike. I don't know if I have any answers for you at this point, but perhaps we could bounce ideas off from one another? Thanks, Hello Jane, I could not help but respond to this. Years ago, I was the Director of Education Resources for an Osteopathic Hospital. In the late 70s the University opened the College of Osteopathic Medicine. As funding went out to the hospitals in the state to pay for their student rotations the libraries became a central piece of the services the University wanted to improve. My library was one that received upgrades and at one point, a new education wing was added to the hospital and the library was the focal point with a lovely environment and all new furniture and equipment. However, it was not without a price. The University took full credit for the new facility, services and even the budget. My budget came from the hospital, we provided services for anyone who came in the door, including community members. As you can imagine, my department became a hotbed for problems. The University wanted service only to their students. We had medical students from all over the country rotating through our facility. Eventually, there were very clear dividing lines and I was caught in the middle. What a mess!! The University sent their librarians to "train" us and there were times when the folks from their offices would just walk into the library and try to "bump" our physicians from computer terminals or workstations, because their students needed the space. Many times there were shouting matches in our computer lab about who had the right to 'bump' who from the workstations. It became almost comical. The University offices were on the first floor of the building, the library on the second, and the medical education offices on the third floor. I was caught in the middle! The first regional dean would show up at my door, at times, and offer to purchase huge amounts of medical books if I just gave her the list. I quickly learned that meant there was going to be a heavy duty political rumbling she would expect me to support in exchange. The Medical Education Vice President, who was my boss for a time would call me and bark out orders to undermine anything the dean wanted.....I think you are getting the picture. I am sure some of these issues were pretty pertinent only to that environment. I think it could be a good thing being attached so closely to a university, provided they are financially sound. However, I have often maintained the support for hospital library services often hinge on the physician support and that is the group to have as your champions. Hope this helps. If you would like to discuss this further, I would be happy to. As you probably figured, by now, I no longer work for that organization. Hello Jane, I don't know of any situations like this, but I am interested in learning what you find out about this. So, if you have time to let me know that would be great. Thanks.
Blogs for Hospital Librarians (7/11/07)Blogs about Hospital & Clinical Library Services:Affinity Health System, Oshkosh, WI http://affinitylibraries.blogspot.com/ New Books http://affinitynewbooks.blogspot.com/ Colchester General Hospital, Colchester, Essex (GB) http://collibrary.blogspot.com/ Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA - Patient Education http://patienteducationmatters.blogspot.com/ Hospital Universitario de Getafe, Madrid (Spain) http://www.infodoctor.org/BiblioGE.php Maine Medical Center Library, Portland, Me http://mmclibrary.wordpress.com/ St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA - Nursing Research: Show Me The Evidence http://evidencebasednursing.blogspot.com/ University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries, Seattle, WA Department of Medicine Morning Report http://blog.hsl.washington.edu/report/ Blogs of Interest to Hospital Library Staff: Krafty Librarian http://kraftylibrarian.com/ David Rothman http://www.davidrothman.net/ Musings of A Medical Librarian Maven http://medicallibrarianmaven.wordpress.com/ Running A Hospital, Paul Levy, President & CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston, MA http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/ Patient Safety - Lorri Zipperer, Principal, Zipperer Project Management http://patientsafetylib.blogspot.com/ Medical Librarianship Weblogs - Library and Information Science (LIS) Wiki http://liswiki.org/wiki/Weblogs_-_Medical_Librarianship Blogging Libraries Wiki - Amanda Etches-Johnson http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=Welcome_to_the_Blogging_Libraries_Wiki HealthLINE: for the Dallas/Fort Worth area medical librarians http://healthline.blogspot.com/ Blogadillo: National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region http://nnlm.gov/scr/blog/ SeaCurrents: National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region http://nnlm.gov/sea/newsletter/ Emergency Preparation http://sea-dp-tf.pbwiki.com/ Midwest Chapter. MLA Bloggers http://65.181.189.143/midline/2007/05/attention_midwest_bloggers.html UBC Bloggers in Health and Medicine http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php?title=Bloggers_in_health_%26_medicine Librarian’s Rx: Canadian Health Science Libraries’ interests http://blogs.library.ualberta.ca/rx/ Best 100 Health Blogs - eDrugSearch http://www.edrugsearch.com/edsblog/healthcare100/ BlogTutorials http://www.blog-tutorials.com/category/blog-tutorial/
Computer Users in Hospital Library (7/24/07)Original Question:We have six end-user computers for use in our 500 bed hospital library. Currently they are used by employees, family members, the occasional patient and general public (for medical/clinical research only, but I have no way of verifying this). I'm interested in asking other hospital libraries what types of patrons use their end-users computers. Also, do you have a sign in sheet for computer use or for general library use? If so, who signs it, all patrons, just certain ones (general public, employees, docs only, etc.)? What type of information is on the form? How do you feel about letting the general public use your computers or is it even allowed? I'll appreciate any examples of sign in sheets. Also regarding what websites the patrons are looking at, we do have restricted access to categories of sites, such as gambling, games, auctions, porn etc., but they are not constantly monitored 24/7. I could request this if I thought there was abuse. There is one security camera in there, but the way the computer desks are arranged it's impossible for me or the assistant to see what people are looking at without doing some obvious snooping. How do you all monitor this or do you? Since this is a medical library, the clientele are different than what public libraries deal with and I don't really want to start making a lot of rigid changes. However, there have been a few recent incidents that cause me to think more about this. I'm interested in seeing how others are handling these situations. Any feedback, comments are greatly appreciated. Please reply to me off list, I'll summarize if there is interest. Tonia Harris, MLIS, Manager of Library Services, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, 101 East Wood St., Spartanburg, SC 29303 I was asked to summarize for the lists. I received 40 replies over the course of 1 1/2 days. Here is the summary: Filtering of sites: All libraries who responded said networked computers were blocked/filtered by categories such as: gambling, games, auctions, adult sites, some also filtered dating, shopping, sports. Even some filtered individual websites such as MySpace, YouTube. Some also filtered Yahoo, shopping, sports, etc websites. Computers on the network were filtered by IS. Most network computers did not have hospital email or Outlook. One library keeps network computers behind a locked door accessible by badge reader only. Some libraries have computers and "kiosk" computers were not on the network and used either dial-up, DSL or T1 for just internet access. For those, the library did its own filtering with software, via Internet Explorer or didn't filter at all. These computers were used for family, members, public or employees without network ID's. Some said there is an "all or nothing" approach to filtering by the IT dept for network computers. One library uses thin clients (WCD's)- communication boxes that connect to server from remote location. Its hospital programs are on it, but can't alter the computer or download junk. Filtering and/or monitoring software titles: Websense, Web Trends, SurfControl, Content Manager from ContentWatch. One library's IS dept. set it up so that screen resets back at the beginning of the next day. Two other resetting programs: DeepFreeze and Centurian Shields. Logins: For network computers, most employees had their on logins, those who didn't (generic) either the librarian logged them on, they were given the login info or the login info was posted near the computer. In some libraries, the generic was always the same, in others it changed periodically. Computers not on the network usually didn't have a login. Some libraries only had employee login only, thus eliminating use by family members, patients and public. Some libraries logged in all computers each morning with a generic login, some don't turn the computers off every night because of lack of access for after hours employees (employees without logins and library staff logs them on with generic). One reply said they have auto login set up by the IT dept. Tracking history of use: Many said IT could track from user's logins. One library said IT tracks regardless of login since it tracks by workstation not by user login. Another library said staff can pull history from each computer via Internet Explorer. Some libraries said IT constantly monitors computers, some said they don't. Some replied that a log report can be retrieved from IT. In a couple of instances a notice is sent to the offender's supervisor regarding inappropriate website viewing. Monitoring of the computer area: A few libraries had security cameras, but one or two could only see the users and not what was on the screens. In some libraries, staff walk by occasionally and ask user if they need any help. Some have the computers placed near the circulation desk or staff area to hinder inappropriate use. Some reminded users what the computers were available for if they saw inappropriate use and most of the time the user left. Some said users were asked to leave if they were disruptive. Some don't walk around at all or just look in occasionally through a window near office. In some cases users told staff of inappropriate use by someone. Time limits if other are waiting: 10 mins., 15 mins. 30 mins. One reply said 1 hour usage, longer if no one is waiting (high usage of the computers, in this case they also left ID's with staff. When they picked them up staff knew a computer was free to let another person use). Some had signs posted about this. Some people had to be asked to move or leave if others were waiting since no sign was posted. Types of users: Some didn't allow public or would refer them to local public library or nearby university medical center library, some allowed family members and patients, some allowed all of these including all employees. One said they didn't allow patients or family members to use the computers, but staff could help them find the info they need. One mentioned no children on computers even if accompanied by adult. Some said no children under 18 or 16 in the library/using computers unless accompanied by adult. Signs near computers: Some verbiage of signs placed near computers or in computer area warning users of inappropriate use: "This computer's internet log is reviewed periodically. It has shown inappropriate use by the computers used in the library. Please be sure to use appropriately." "The intentional display of inappropriate sexual material will not be tolerated and is considered a violation of hospital policy. People who violate this policy will be told to leave the library and denied future library services." "... zero tolerance policy regarding inappropriate website use and people will be banned if they are caught viewing these websites." "...hospital related business has priority..." "...computers are for business use only..." "...be careful what sites you look at - is it worth your job?" or similar. Some mentioned that Security will be called if needed even after users supposedly read the signs. Access after hours: Several replied about using badge scanner access after hours and a report can be retrieved from Security showing access. Some had a sign in sheet for after hours visitors. One library is locked 24/7 and is only accessible by badge scanner. Sign in sheets: The majority of replies did not use them, some used them for the users using generic logins to track back to if problems occur, some used them for after hours visitors (all employees or just certain types like docs & nurses). One library uses these sheets in monthly and annual reports. Others just track and tally and get public counts. One reply used these to justify getting another end-user computer based on usage. This is some of the info on sign in sheets: Name, initials/Work Area/Date, Supervisor Name, For work or personal, Which computer used (1,2,3,etc), Did you have to wait? Signature, Sign-in time/Sign-out time, How long were you on? Item(s) Used, Suggestions, Dept. check off for the databases used i.e. EBSCO Medline, EBSCO CINAHL, Cochrane, StatRef!, Email, CareLearning/Synquest, Microsoft applications, Research, Education, Other (specify). Several of you sent actual policies of end-user computer use, non-hospital users, unaffiliated persons/users, etc. Some of these were adopted from other libraries and some had to be signed off by hospital attorney before posting. Several also sent copies of sign-in sheets. If any of you would like to see these, let me know and I'll ask the library who sent it to me for permission to send it to you. Some problems reported: Most common was looking at porn, in a couple of cases the offender was fired. In some cases a letter is sent to the employee's supervisor about inappropriate computer use. Also, listening to computer programs and websites too loudly, especially internet radio, users using their CD's with unknown viruses, printing out too many pages, and spending too much time on computer when should be working. A couple of technologies alleviating some end-user computer problems are internet access in patient rooms and wireless internet connections.
Communication with Physicians (6/27/07)Thanks to all who responded to my query last week re: tools hospitals are using to communicate information to physicians (i.e., internal websites or portals). This seems to be a hot topic, as several hospitals have intranet pages for physicians or are investigating them. Many physicians still "don't do" computers or don't have access to the intranet, so a multi-faceted communication approach seems to work best. I received a few screenshots, but I wasn't sure if they'd be scrubbed from the message so I didn't include them. I'll send them to you if you're interested. My original question and the replies I received appear below.Jason Young, MA, Librarian, Genesis Medical Center, 1227 E. Rusholme Street, Davenport, IA 52803 ORIGINAL MESSAGE The health system where I work is looking at ways to improve organizational communication with physicians, in particular. There are three hospitals, various clinics and physician groups which are geographically separate in the system. There's no longer a physicians' newsletter, and medical staff meetings aren't held, as far as I know. The system is investigating ways to better reach physicians, many of whom don't use email or use only personal email accounts. One proposal is to create an intranet website for physicians that would be a centralized clearinghouse of information. Do any of your organizations have something similar for either doctors or nurses? I haven't found much in PubMed. If you have something like this, could you send me a link or screenshot? Thanks for your help. REPLIES At Sparrow Health System in Lansing Michigan we have implemented flat screen computer monitors mounted in walls to aid in communication with physicians. They have been strategically placed in high traffic areas where physicians frequent. I can take a picture of this and send it if you are interested. Also note; however, that Med Staff Qrtly meetings and newsletters are used. *** We do have a central location but it’s entered via the hospital’s public Internet page. http://www.columbuschildrens.com/gd/templates/pages/medpros/medpros.aspx?page=40 We have a large number of off-site locations as well as a huge network of community practice physicians. Authorized users (physicians with Children’s affiliations) login to eChart connect (on or offsite.) It is a portal to all the specialized resources that support their clinical activities. *** I think it would be helpful in this situation to spend some time "amongst the flock" you are trying to inform to get a sense of how the look for information, find stuff and then use it amongst themselves. To all, I'd ask, have any of you done this -- or conducted focus groups to that end -- and what did you learn? It would be a fascinating exercise, you'd learn about them, they'd learn about you, and the resulting "tool" would take into account their work process and environment. *** The physicians here (Trinity Medical Center in Rock Island, IL) have a secure website that they access by password. There's a variety of information for them there including bylaws. We used to have a newsletter for them, but now, they do monthly updates of important information. I know that because my memo about the library was distributed to physicians that way. I believe there is also a fax distribution for items of an urgent nature. I've seen the Medical staff Committee meeting schedule. There are lots of committee meetings and staff does meet monthly and used videoconferencing between campuses. *** See the link below. From our general website, there is a page specifically for physicians. You will only be able to get so far without a password, but you’ll get an idea of how this works. Notice, too, that the libraries within our system have a link from the page. http://www.presbyterianmdlinks.org/site/unplacedpages/home_authenticated.html The other communication tool that our healthcare system utilizes is our physician liaisons (called Network Development). This group meets one-on-one with physician practices to keep them up to date *** Our docs have an intranet portal that they use to access patient records, and the front page has announcements and other info. They do have a newsletter and an annual med staff meeting, at which they give away door prizes as attendance incentives. Screenshot of the portal attached. We've been on the "most wired" list several times. I really think our hospital rocks! *** I am just doing some thinking so forgive me if this has already been addressed. If your physicians are not really using email would they really "get connected" using an Intranet page? My institution has two intranet pages, one for the main campus and one for the community hospitals. I can say one thing is for sure, most employees (physicians included) do nothing but complain about not being able to find stuff on the intranet. Unfortunately there may be no other alternative. There needs to be a method for communication and an intranet page and email are some of the most popular usual ways. You also mentioned that a lot of the physicians who do use email use their personal accounts, which begs me to ask the question whether most of the users you are trying to attract will even be able to see the intranet page. If they are in the doctor's offices or at home they will not be on the hospital's IP range and will not be able to see the intranet. So intranet communication would be completely ineffective for that group of people, since the only time they would be able to see the intranet page is when they are within the hospital IP range. Unfortunately I don't see any easy answers. *** We also are a health system with 5 separate hospitals. Recently we discussed this same issue, how to get information out to docs, in our library committee meeting. The committee is composed of physicians and their assessment was to do multiple formats. They recommended using email, the health system's physician intranet site as well as to get information to the Chiefs of the various services for them to disseminate. I know that our Medical Staff Services department has asked physicians how they want to receive information so that have a list of personal emails. *** Having just left a multi-hospital system with docs in lots of different communities I'd say you are going to have a tough challenge. An "intranet" implies an internal control and access mechanism and that is exactly where the docs will balk. They don't want to have to come to you and the system doesn't know how else to reach them or control the content they get. If you have an EMR coming on line and it will be required for them to use it, your organization should take advantage of that contact and secure access mechanism. *** My library's situation is different than yours in size but I thought I'd share a few thoughts and things we have here. First, Asheboro is a small town, which gives me opportunity to see several physicians on a regular basis, here at work and in the community. The hospital has a physician liaison (part of the same department that oversees corporate development and physician recruitment). It's a new position and from the beginning I asked to be and kept him in the loop on physician suggestions, complaints and ideas. And I asked to sit on a new committee tasked with improving physician communication. (That was the biggest complaint in their last survey -- a national trend??) I think he's working on asking every physician their preferred information format: newsletter, fax, email, phone, audio and encouraging them to not ignore hospital communications. I volunteered to produce a redesigned physician newsletter. Originally it was a quick document we put together so physicians would have only one monthly mailing with various department news bits and alerts. The deal was the physicians wouldn't get nickeled-and-dimed with a pile of paper they never read anyway. And if departments would send me news, I'd put together in one document and a secretary would copy and distribute. A win-win for both sides. I've spoken to physicians' committee meetings (that we do have), have hosted lunch and learn drop-ins on PDAs, etc. and go out of my way to do lit searches as quickly as possible. I also nose in where it seems appropriate. For instance, we are now using an internet-based formulary product in pharmacy and I offered to learn it and present at medical executive committee. The head of pharmacy was thrilled not to present. I also distribute the quarterly ob/gyn required readings and the yearly ED required readings. We're getting into EMR finally and a few physicians have asked for education to get up to speed. I'm considering another lunch and learn on that integration (without stepping on IT's or the vendor's toes). The staff here is me. I need to stay indispensable to ward off possible staff cuts -- after all, the library is icing (at a community hospital), not cake. Could you offer on-site educational offerings to physician practices? I spoke at our medical society about efficient lit searching (for their needs) and the best sites for patient needs. *** Our health system has eliminated some paper communication but not all and relies heavily on our intranet. North Mississippi Health Services is made up of NMMC-Tupelo and 5 community hospitals located within a 60-mile radius of Tupelo including one in Alabama. We also have 45 clinics employing 120 physicians in the same region. We have an intranet, which is accessible from any NMHS computer. The intranet contains a wide variety of information. The Physician's Net is an area designed for physicians and contains the things they use most often. I've attached printouts of the intranet and the physician's net. Hope these are helpful. I feel it's made a great difference in dissemination of information for our system.
Cultural Profiles (11/20/07)Question:I've been asked by our hospital Diversity Coordinator to look for an online source (database, website, etc.) for information on various cultures. The source would need to contain continuously updated information on traditional health practices, values, attitudes towards illness, death, hospitalizations, funerals, etc. Our clinicians and social workers are currently consulting a word document prepared by assorted people that addresses these issues, but it has to be constantly updated and tinkered with. I've seen various sites that are almost perfect including http://ethnomed.org, http://www.culturegrams.com, http://www.thinkculturalhealth.org, http://www.xculture.org I'd appreciate any advice. If there is enough interest I'll summarize to the list. Please respond to me directly. Many thanks in advance! Sharon Leslie, MSLS, AHIP, Sauls Memorial Library, Piedmont Hospital, 1968 Peachtree Rd, NW, Atlanta, GA 30309 Summary: Culture Vision an online product designed to be used at the point of care and is supposed to be constantly regularly. "I went to the vendor demo and could not help thinking that it follows the "Up-To-Date" model although I don't think it is quite that pricey." Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care by Larry D. Purnell & Betty J. Paulanka ONLINE Full text book available from Stat!Ref. First comment: "We put a link directly to the book on the Intranet so that when staff click on the link they go directly to the table of contents of this book. They do not need to remember that it is in Stat!Ref. We have received good comments and staff are using it." Second comment: "It seems to be very thorough and to the point. We have it in print as well as online through Stat!Ref so it's as easily accessible as a database. It has won an AJN award and is written in outline format for easy reference." "Cultural, ethnic and religious reference manual for health care providers", 3d ed., 2005. "I keep a copy in the Library. The book is also available online at Jamarda Resources. I remember the price being higher than I wanted to pay at the time." Assorted websites: Culturally Competent Care/ American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Culturally Competent Care/ Harvard Cultured Med Refugee/ Immigrant Health Ethnic & Minority Health/ Wayne State Multilingual & Multicultural Health Brochures & Info Cultural Competency/ U.of Michigan NLM NIH's Outreach to Specific Populations NLM NIH's Minority Health EthnoMed Culture Grams HHS's Think Cultural Health CCHCP's 12 Community Profiles
Docline & Database Holdings (9/10/07)I cross posted the question on Docline-L and MEDLIB-L on whether other Libraries include their online journals that are aggregated in Databases with Serhold. I appreciate very much the 18 replies I received. 11 Libraries do not include their online holdings and the other 7 do to some degree. Comments highlighted from the replies include these:1. Negotiating with providers of online content for ILL approval in the license agreement can be done. Some providers will allow their content to be used in interlibrary loan with the stipulation that articles are not to be supplied to the enduser electronically. This restriction may not apply if providing articles by Ariel or another service that has a use/time limit in place for the availablility of the transmitted article. 2. Having time to enter and keep updated the Serhold records with changing database/publisher content is a consideration. 3. Having time to fill the number of interlibrary loan requests that would increase as a result of inclusion is a consideration. Some deal with this potential problem in these ways: * List only those online titles which might be of special interest/need to others in their groups * Reject ILLs if on occasion they don't have time to fill * Don't participate in Freeshare * Only include those titles for which there is also print * As more enter there holdings there will be more choice in the system to spread requests around and less burden on a few 4. A couple of folks commented that the requests that could be filled by online titles were the easiest, quickest to fill and with better image quality. Martha Pedigo, MLS, Medical Librarian, Gateway Medical Center, Health Science Library, 1771 Madison Street, Clarksville, TN 37043
Electronic Journal Access by Private Physicians (10/24/07)The general thought was that an individual can search PubMed and then follow the publisher links to their own journals. They just have to manage their own password list. Here is the compilation, names omitted. Topic: Accessing online journals at a small private practiceDate: October, 2007 Source: Hospital Libraries Listserv Question: Have any of you heard of ways to manage online journal access in a private practice, like a small group of physicians? I had a question from someone about how doctors could easily get to their own personal online journals when they are searching PubMed. These are doctors out in the community. I'm thinking they would just have to make a list of their own online titles and check them after they get a citation, not from within a search. All the linking services I'm aware of are designed for libraries, right? or someone willing to pay a lot to access a personal copy of a service designed for a library. I guess if most of their titles were from one particular publisher then they could probably use search features within the publisher's site and maybe be able to see their titles, but that would depend on the publisher. I'll bet some of you have encountered this before. I'd appreciate any input. Responses: 1. Would they not be able to link directly into the publisher sites with their individual log-on information from Link-Out? That's how we access my journals off campus. (So they would just need to keep a list of their passwords handy.) 2. If a publisher has its linkout icons displayed in PubMed (I think a lot of publishers do that), the physicians should be able to run a search in PubMed and use the publisher's linkout icons (in abstract or citation format) to access online articles from journals which they subscribe to. They probably need to create a list of login id and password for all journal titles they have. 3. They can set up their own bookmarks at http://del.icio.us/ I don't know if PubMed offers LinkOut to individuals. 4. I would question these physicians to find out if they are purchasing journals for "institutional" usage or as personal memberships. If they are personal memberships they should NOT be resource sharing. That would be a violation of their membership/personal subscription usage. Of course I know physicians in groups share their journals but they should be aware that technically they are violating copyright. They would have significant problems sharing the electronic. It would be just like one person buying a CD of music and making copies for everyone else or uploading it to a shared folder. That would be a copyright violation. Of course it is done but it maybe something they might not be thinking about. Especially since the physicians are for profit and don't have any non-profit leeway. Just something you might want to mention. They will probably ignore it but it is important. 5. I haven't done this, but I think it could work and you could assist them in setting it up by signing them up for My NCBI or getting their password. You would need their journal list also. Use My NCBI: Set up an account Login Set up a saved search with the titles of the 7 to 10 journals they get. The search would retrieve all the citations for theses journals. Do a subject search Execute the saved search "And" the two results sets together Use the publisher's links as previously suggested. Have a passwords list available when searching. Thanks so much for the tips - Mary Peters, MLS, AHIP, Medical Library Manager, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, 2222 Welborn St., Dallas, TX 75219-3993
Electronic Journal License Negotiations for Multi-Site Systems (10/24/07)Original Question:I’d like to hear from those of you who negotiate licenses to electronic resource, ESPECIALLY those who are negotiating multi-site licenses for electronic journals. This year we are making a big conversion of our journal collection to electronic-only access vs. print or print+online. As many of you probably already know, making this move requires much more negotiating with publishers to ensure that all of your sites are covered by the license agreement and that the price they quote you is 1) correct (a very relative term, I realize) and 2) based upon a model that they can explain to you. Some information I’d like to find out (and can try and summarize) from those of you in a similar situations is: 1. Who within your organization is involved in the “negotiations?” 2. If you use a subscription vendor, are (or will) you continuing to use them to order electronic journals? 3. Any successes or challenges you’ve had in negotiating license agreements? 4. Any tips you’d like to share that might be helpful? I’ll share somewhat briefly the struggles I’m having. First, we use a subscription vendor (EBSCO) and I’m struggling to see where they can be of help to us as we look at multi-site licenses for electronic journals. Basically, since we can’t give them power-of-attorney to negotiate on our behalf, I am negotiating licenses for electronic journals with the individual publishers. Based on my conversations with various folks EBSCO, about the best I can get from them are a history of the titles we’re ordering, one itemized invoice (maybe), and maybe some reports that tell me something. All, of course, for a service fee. Thus, my struggle is whether the service fee is worth it if I’ve negotiated with individual publishers a license that lists the titles I’m ordering and lists the sites that are covered, I can get an invoice from them that is the price we’d agreed upon, and hopefully get some at least “passable” usage statistics. Another struggle is making sense of how the vendors determine pricing for a multi-site organization. I’ve seen everything from FTE, number of physicians, number of hospital beds, number of sites, AND any combinations of these. Most of the time, I end up with pricing that can be around 125% of the cost to cover all my sites. I guess I would say that if there’s something that a subscription vendor could offer me that might make a service fee worth it (on top of the fees from the publishers!) would be a list of what information a publisher may need from an organization to determine a price and even take a step further and generalize what items on that list are negotiable (what a “site” is, for example.) I would like to end on a positive note in all of this. I’ve worked with our contracts department on these licenses to determine what the organization needs to see in a license agreement. Through compromise and educating each other, we’ve actually improved this process. No, it didn’t cut down on all things that we need to do to get sign-off on a license agreement. However, I have a better working relationship with my contracts folks and more people are aware of the complexity and cost of providing knowledge-based information resources to support the work of the organization. I hope somebody else out there is willing to share their knowledge on this topic. Summary of Answers: I thought I’d share a summary of the responses that I’ve received on this topic. This is quite lengthy so let me give you the bullet points right away: - Everyone has experienced challenges and would also like to hear other people’s experiences - Most who responded still utilize a subscription vendor but are also doing direct negotiations & purchasing with individual vendors/publishers - Most who responded work with or involve their organization’s legal/contracts department in the process As for us, I’m moving forward with several individual negotiations. Most are going fairly smooth with regard to negotiating license agreement terms – each one gets a little easier as you do it and in general, most vendors do want to reasonably work with you. I don’t have a really good answer to the question about using a subscription vendor for multi-site licensing of online journals. The responses I received were mixed and tended to lean towards not using the subscription vendor for these types of deals. At this point, I’m am not including these multi-site deals in my renewals for our subscription vendor because I honestly felt that the service fee that I was going to be asked to pay isn’t providing me any additional service that I hadn’t already negotiated with the publishers. My experience has been that if I were buying a package of journals that a publisher offers where there may be little to no negotiation on what the package contains (like a subject collection of journals) I could see where a subscription vendor could help as they should have the information about what title(s) are in the package and should receive fairly decent notification of titles being added/subtracted from the package. However, when it comes to what might be a “custom” package of titles, I’m sorry, but an itemized invoice of the titles I’ve ordered or notification that a title is no longer available from X publisher but is now available from Y publisher isn’t enough to make me want to pay an additional service fee – generally, this information is covered in a license agreement or certainly can be added. SUMMARY OF RESPONSES (names & organizations have been excluded): “I will be in the exact same position as you soon, and I too use Ebsco, and I too can use some guidance. Please share your responses and your progress. Did you consider purchasing some products that have online journals such as MDConsult, or Ovid LWW? I have those at present.” RE: who is involved in negotiations – usually just me directly, although all contracts go to legal, who sends me comments on things they want changed or they want to be sure I noticed. They have certain things they look for in each contract. To be honest, the things specific to our kind of contracts they don’t usually notice, or maybe don’t understand (I _always_ look at who is allowed to use the stuff, and for ILL capabilities, they couldn’t care less about ILL, and have missed significant user group issues. I’m the only one who signs it. Re: the EBSCO issue, I am still doing some from them, and some not. The reasons are a little complicated to explain in an email, but the short answer is that I too am struggling with what answer makes the most sense. Re: Successes & challenges – I could tell you stories! But not in writing. Suffice it to say for now, that I have gotten everything I have asked for eventually. What I ask for has grown significantly over time, at the beginning I don’t think I really knew I could ask. As I started asking & having successes, it actually got to be fun. Would be happy to fill you in on details if you’d like to chat, call me anytime. Re: tips to share, details fall into the chat sometime category, it’s just easier than trying to explain in writing. The biggest one is to explain WHY you want something, and how it will affect them – I have a great example of a publisher who was saying no ILL, no way, no how, and ultimately said, sure, go ahead. They somehow envisioned us sending out hundreds of articles from the journal in question every year, and the truth is it was less than a dozen, and almost all of them were 10+ years old.” “Good luck - I'm interested on how you proceed. We aren't going online only but I can a small success or two. We are a small, 5 hospital system with 2 teaching hospitals. When I was negotiating with AAP for Pediatrics journals, they were going to charge enormous fees for all 5 sites even though we only have one major and 1 minor peds sites. We can't (or not reasonably anyway) restrict access to resources by site so I told them that we realistically only has 2 sites of the 5 that would have any significant use and they agreed to price accordingly.” “You asked for advice, but I don’t think you’ll like mine! I am an embedded medical librarian/information specialist/ clinical librarian in the radiology dept. I do much of the information retrieval for a staff of 45 radiologists, 10 fellows and 13 residents and anybody else in the dept. who needs me. Since I am one of the few people in the department who has a color printer and because radiology these days is reported in color (MRI.Ultrasound, etc) I am frequently asked to download and print articles that are online. I am constantly shocked at how many times I get “this page is not available” or the publisher’s server is not functioning. Fortunately I also have the print which can be read or photocopied in the library. Urgent questions from radiologists in the midst of reading films because the diagnosis is complicated is not something that can be postponed because a publisher is having trouble with a server. So my advice is don’t drop your print and try to convince your hospital’s management that both print and online are today the cost of doing business and they are a whole lot cheaper than malpractice suits that occur because information was not available to a physician.” “Just a suggestion - did you contact NASIG North American Serials Interest Group” (To answer, no I didn’t but I will give it a try) Additionally, I had someone contact me from a medical library that is trying to coordinate electronic subscriptions for several hospitals in a city and face several issues including non-static IPs, lack of real help from their subscription vendor, dealing with archival access, & getting decent statistics. Thanks! Michael L. Scott, Manager, Corporate Library Services, Orlando Regional Healthcare, 1414 Kuhl Avenue, MP 28, Orlando, FL 32806
Grants Offered by MLA (10/22/07)MLA offers a variety of grants and scholarships to assist qualified students in graduate library science programs and to enable practicing health sciences librarians to take advantage of opportunities for further professional development. Downloadable applications and information are available on the MLA website at http://www.mlanet.org/awards/grants/. For more information, contact the jury chair for the grant/scholarship/fellowship you are interested in. The deadline for applications is December 1, except as noted.Continuing Education Award Consider applying today for an MLA CE Award of $100-$500 to develop your knowledge of the theoretical, administrative, and/or technical aspects of librarianship. This grant may be used for travel, lodging, course tuition, etc. (see application for details). Questions may be directed to the CE Jury Chair Nancy Henry at nih@psulias.psu.edu. Eligibility criteria include: hold a graduate degree in Library Science, are a practicing health sciences librarian with at least two years experience, are a regular member of the Medical Library Association, and are a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or Canada. Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship Applications are now being accepted for the 2009 Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship. The award is given annually to citizens or permanent residents from countries outside the United States or Canada who have both an undergraduate degree and a master's level library degree and are working or preparing to work in a health sciences library in their countries. The program provides a learning experience that may consist of a stay in the United States at one or more medical libraries. Based on a pilot program for the 2007 Cunningham Fellowship, the format and duration of the 2009 program could vary from two weeks up to a period of three months. For more information contact Jury Chair Jan Graham at tudorhx@bellsouth.net. The Cunningham Fellowship was established in 1967 and named in honor of Eileen Cunningham. EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant This scholarship is sponsored by EBSCO Information Services and enables MLA members to attend the association's annual meeting. Each year awards of up to $1,000 for travel and conference-related expenses will be given to four librarians who would otherwise be unable to attend the meeting. Applicants must be currently employed as health sciences librarians and have between two and five years' experience in a health sciences library. Further questions can be directed to Jury Chair Carol Watwood at carol.watwood@wku.edu. David A Kronick Traveling Fellowship The David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship grant, sponsored by the Bowden-Massey Foundation, awards one $2,000 fellowship yearly to cover the expenses involved in traveling to three or more medical libraries in the United States or Canada, for the purpose of studying a specific aspect of health information management. Additional questions may be directed to Jury Chair Lora Gault at lgault@ccc.edu. Donald A. B. Lindberg Fellowship MLA is now accepting applications for The Donald A. B. Lindberg Research Fellowship, established by MLA to fund research aimed at expanding the research knowledge base of health sciences information management and enhancing the role of health sciences librarians and other information professionals in health care access and delivery, public health, consumer information, health professions education or biomedical research. The endowment will provide a $8,100 grant, awarded by MLA through a competitive grant process, to a qualified health sciences librarian, informatician, health professional, researcher, educator, or health administrator. Applications are due November 15, 2007. The recipient will be notified in late February 2008. Additional questions may be directed to Lisa C. Fried, MLA headquarters at mlapd2@mlahq.org. Hospital Libraries Section / MLA Professional Development Grant Applications due February 1, 2008 Are you looking for financial support to, advance your professional education, attend a meeting or conduct research? The HLS/MLA Professional Development Grant helps librarians in hospitals and other clinical care settings to acquire knowledge and skills through educational or research activities. Please contact Jury Chair Marilyn Teolis at marilyn.teolis@baptisthospital.com or 615-284-5373 for more information. Medical Informatics Section / MLA Career Development Grant The MIS/MLA Career Development Grant provides up to two individuals $1500 to support a career development activity that will contribute to advancement in the field of medical informatics. The award was established in 1996 by the Medical Informatics Section.Contact Jury Chair Matt Wilcox at matthew.wilcox@yale.edu for additional information. MLA Research, Development, and Demonstration Project Grant The purpose of this grant is to provide support for research, development, or demonstration projects that will help to promote excellence in the field of health sciences librarianship and information sciences. Grants range from $100 to $1000. Grants will not be given to support an activity that is operational in nature or has only local usefulness. More than one award may be granted in a year. Please contact Jury Chair Michael Newman for additional information at mnewman@stanford.edu. MLA Scholarship Applications are now being accepted for the 2008 MLA Scholarship, which provides up to $5000.00 to a library school student interested in a career in health sciences libraries. For further information contact Lisa McGuire, Jury Chair at lmcguire@umn.edu. MLA Scholarship for Minority Students Applications due November 1, 2007. The Medical Library Association (MLA) Scholarship for Minority Students Jury announces the acceptance of applications for the 2007- 2008 MLA Minority Scholarship. The scholarship of up to $5000 will be granted to a minority student entering an ALA-accredited library school, or with at least one-half of the requirements of the library school program to finish when the award is granted in February 2008.The second runner up for the MLA Minority Scholarship will receive a $1,000 scholarship to attend MLA '08, May 16-21, 2008, in Chicago, IL. The winner will be notified in late February 2008.African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander or Native American students who wish to study health sciences librarianship are eligible. Each applicant must submit an application packet which includes an application, essay and letters of reference. Please contact Jury Chair Wendy Ellis at wfellis@ufl.edu for additional information. Thomson Scientific / MLA Doctoral Fellowship The purpose of the Thomson Scientific/MLA Doctoral Fellowship is to foster and encourage superior students to conduct doctoral work in health sciences librarianship or information science. This fellowship provides a grant of $2,000 to support research or research-related travel in a 12 month period. Send additional questions to Marlene Derrick, Jury Chair, at marlene.derrick@csauh.com.
Herbal Medicine Resources for Consumers (9/26/07)Thanks to all that contributed ideas for my listing of consumer-oriented resources on herbal medicine to share with ISMP. Here you go!Mosby's "Herbs & Natural Supplements", Linda Skidmore-Roth 3rd Edition "Nurse's Handbook of Alternative & Complimentary Therapies", Lippincott Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database comes as a book and electronic resource). There is a consumer version: http://www.naturaldatabaseconsumer.com Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Foster, Steven and Varro E. Tyler, Tyler's Honest Herbal, Haworth, 1998 Duke, James A., The Green Pharmacy, Rodale Press, 1997 Barrett, Marilyn, The Handbook of Clinically Tested Herbal Remedies Haworth Press, 2004 Websites HerbMed http://www.herbmed.org/ Memorial Sloan Kettering - about herbs, botanicals & other products http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/11570.cfm Alternative medicine community http://www.alternativemedicinechannel.com/ NCCAM http://nccam.nih.gov/ American Botanical Council http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/PageServer Henriette's Herbal http://www.henriettesherbal.com/ Lorri Zipperer, Cybrarian, Zipperer Project Management: Helping Experts Excel www.zpm1.com http://patientsafetylib.blogspot.com/ https://librariansptsafetycop.wikispaces.com/
Holiday Decorations & Promotions (11/30/07)A huge THANK YOU to all 21 of you who wrote to share your great ideas. I’ve had the best week, reading all these ideas! We are really in a festive mood here now. If you have photos of your past (and upcoming) efforts, please send them to me. If you agree, I will put them together for the MLA Library Marketing SIG webpage (at the request of Mindy Robinson-Paquette, Convener-extraordinaire, Library Marketing SIG/MLA). Please send to me at teresa.prior@viha.ca.FYI – Here, we will do a “Red / Read” (pronounced red red) Christmas in the hospital library this year. We will decorate the library with lots of red (cheap) stuff and collect new children’s books from hospital staff, to pass along to our hospital pediatrics ward and other health region programs (such as mental health, public health, etc. etc.). They can use them either to give to families or put in their waiting rooms. Donors can sign red bows with a silver pen and we’ll pin those bows up in the Library. We will also display clinical library materials related to children, to tie in even more and show off our library resources. So that’s us! We are excited to try it. Here are all your fantastic ideas (in no particular order). Another example of what great people hospital librarians are! (Boy do I love Hls-list, to link us all together.) Teresa Prior, Librarian, Vancouver Island Health Authority, Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, BC Canada LIBRARY DECORATING / LIBRARY PROMOTION IDEAS – from HLS-list (week of Nov. 26, 2007) CDs: I string together bunches of those "throw-away" CDs into garlands. We have old Medline CDs that we used to use when we used to run Ovid Medline on a tower, and lots of those CDs that come as ads with journals, or those that came with discarded texts. -------------. One year we decorated an artificial tree with old CD-Rom textbooks and journals. Put coloured ribbon through the center and hung them. This year we are thinking of adding jump drives, .... -----------------. We once took old CD-ROMS and hung them from the ceiling tile supports in the library. They looked quite festive AND fit our changing image as an electronic library. At the time we had a vendor that kept sending them to us so we had a lot. We used nylon string to hang them. I had a library assistant at the time who was crafty and so was willing and able to carry out my idea. ----------------. Over the years we've done a few fun things. We put red or green "shiny" wrapping paper on a door and the made a tree with old cd's (a long triangle) one year we got very creative and made a wreath. We used the backside of the cd's if you have any colored ones place them in the tree as ornaments. This has always encouraged questions about the cd's. We saved our old one's from databases and damaged cd's. -----------------. I use old cd-roms as tree decorations. Glue two together so the shinny sides reflect out and then drill a small hole in top. Always get nice remarks. Also have used lots and lots of bookmarks as tree decorations. ----------------------. An "old" one is using outdated CDs to decorate a tree. CDs and more!: You may have thought of this already, but we took old CD's and made a Christmas tree out of them. We showed the non printed side. People seemed to like that. Another year, we bought one of those small fake Christmas trees (about three feet tall) and used different hospital items as decorations. Like band-aids, fake needles, a nurse brought us IV tubing to use as garland, etc. The infection control nurse brought us some condoms. That always made people comment. It was a lot of fun. -------------. I once saw a Christmas tree made out of old CDs (shiny side on display) on a bulletin board. The push pins in the centers were red and green. // For 22 years, my library has sponsored a "Mitten Tree." Working with the local Salvation Army, I've collected mittens, gloves, winter hats, scarves and socks. Participants hang them on a Christmas tree, which brings potential patrons to the library. Last year, I extended the project to two other libraries now in our hospital system, and we go a great response at all three of the facilities. The only problem is that the charity usually needs the items b/4 Christmas so you end up decorating the tree twice. However, it is for a good cause! One year, I took catalog cards and tied red and green ribbons on them like a package. I then used the rod holes for the hooks and put them on the tree once the mittens came down. ------------------------. Interesting thought. We decorate---A LOT--- and that actually began when I was at another hospital years ago that did exactly what you are describing...in fact had a prize for the best decorations. For several years we had used CD-roms that we decorated with bows, silk flowers, etc hanging on our tree. It you have any leftovers of these, you could do something with them. You might also want to have a "book drive" and collect children's books to give to a community group. Or how about those books that are about "going to the doctor, to the hospital, having surgery, etc...They could be given to kids coming into your pediatric dept. Maybe you could hang some book mock ups or dust jackets on a wreath... --------------------. I have always decorated our library for holidays, etc. feeling that the library is an integral part of the Medical Center and a great place to showcase. In decorating the library, I am always mindful of the many cultures within our facility. Of late, our holiday decorations have a ‘poinsettia’ theme – I have 4 large banners, and vases with silk poinsettias that we reuse from year to year and acquired from a local craft store with minimum cash outlay. The Medical Center also includes the library in their poinsettia order and provides us with 4 very large poinsettias. My volunteers have come to realize that helping decorate the library is part of their ‘job description’. My staff and our customers love to come to a welcoming library and decorations help with the ambiance. ----------------------. When I was a solo hospital libn, I decorated for every occasion I could think of -- sports medicine leading up to the Olympics, Am Diabetes Assn. cookbooks, etc. around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and dietary guidelines, obesity, etc. post-Christmas, so that folks would be ready for swimsuit season (and the skin cancer awareness decor!). // Find a way to not just decorate, but tie in seasonal topics which relate to Library services - perhaps post a good article on the toxic effects of holiday plants on pets or children, "holiday blues", how to avoid gaining weight/overindulging around the holidays, and even exercise and fitness tips to stay fit during the cold winter months. Showcase your expertise as a health information professional, and show why the expensive electronic resources are of value. I've always enjoyed using a seasonal theme whenever I teach basic Medline searching, too -- vampires, zombies, mummies around Halloween, for example. ---------------------. Before I came to the library, the secretary acting as the librarian took very small 'Little Golden Books' and put holes in their spines and made ornaments for the tree by attaching ribbons to each. I don't know if we'll be able to continue using them (we're putting in stricter rules for decorations), but they've been a big hit. I was horrified at first that anyone would put holes in a book, but in retrospect, it was a good idea, and the holes don't interfere with the text or anything. Of course, we're a children's hospital, so it was appropriate. ----------------------------. I have often incorporated "Seasons' Readings" into my theme... ------------------------. How about something multicultural like the Library offering enlightenment during a time of darkness. We used the clear plastic shipping tape, rolled into balls and stuck them to a wall in the shape of a tree. We fortunately had a laminated wall so we did not have to worry about peeling off the paint. ------------------. We have a poinsettia plant at our front desk. I have bought a miniature tree with mini decorations to sit on the counter at the front desk. We put up garland along the counter at the front desk. We have a nativity set that we always set out. There are a few paper cut out type decorations that we tape in various places. -----------------. Promote literature about world religions, cultures, and traditions. You could hang a color Xerox of book covers, festivals, items, include sayings, etc on a plant, tree, or other item. Also, you could have an angel tree to promote giving back to the community in need or to patients in need. -----------------. When we had more space, we tied big ribbons around de-accessioned books and placed under an artificial tree. -----------. Just a quick idea off the top of my head - forgive the terminology here - "PIMP" Your library cart! I belong to a local library consortia called McNET. It was suggested doing this for a type of contest or possibly entering our carts in the local Christmas Parade. Each cart would affix their school logo, hospital logo, etc. I'm trying to get the link for you to see visually some of the library carts that won top honors - the one from IPS that looked like a UPS truck used the theme - "What Mr. Brown (actual librarian name)' can do for you! It might have been on the KY School Library Association website (KSLA.org). //Our consortia consists of librarians from all sectors - public library system, elementary, middle, high, and college libraries, business sector (federal govt installation), church, and hospital libraries. If you have a library cart, you might fix it up with a Christmas flair. // When I was teaching in Christian school we always needed funds. So I did a Christmas "wish" tree and decorated it with angels and listed book titles for parents to donate to the library. I know medical books, etc. are way expensive, but you might REVERSE it. Have the nurses, staff, etc. give you an angel for the tree with a book title on it that they'd like for you to purchase for your hospital's collection. / In our department (Education) we have an annual appreciation tea (Christmas decor, music, baked items) for our hospital staff that have taught CE programs, provided coverage during our Education "Training" Week. It's just a way of saying thanks. Our department staff bakes all the items. We're reimbursed any expenses. / / Of course, like the proverbial fruit cake, you can always do book marks and computer mouse pads with a Christmas theme. -----------------------. I really don’t do much in the library for the hospital wide contest but I like your way of looking at it; the most unique thing we have done is decorated the Christmas tree with bookmarks. -----------------------. I decorate a fake wreath with themed ornaments. Last year I used Hawaiian Santa Claus ornaments and this Florida Flamingos. You might go online to find library ornaments. A Canadian theme could be fun.
Improvements Suggested for New Library (7/23/07)I will be meeting with architects and interior designers in 15 minutes. We are in the process of building a new hospital medical library. What should I include in my requirements or wish list for the new spaceKeydi Boss, MLS, AHIP - Librarian, Holy Name Hospital - NJUHNH, Bartholomew Medical Library & School of Nursing Library, 718 Teaneck Rd., Teaneck, NJ 07666 Hospital: http://www.holyname.org; Library: http://www.holynamelibrary.org SUMMARY OF RESPONSES Need space for computer stations and one or more printers, space for comfortable seating, maybe space for consumer health (if you do that kind of thing). More than adequate shelving space, because you will need more than you think. Ask for a work area separate from your office or any assistant's office. Should contain sink and have space for microwave, fridge, etc. AND you need a staff restroom in the library. -------------------------------------------------------- Moving shelves to store older journal are great. Very compact, easily moved and great space saver. (Same type as they use in medical records) -------------------------------------------------------- Separate room for watching av's; meeting space; 5 years growth for shelves. -------------------------------------------------------- We're renovating this summer and included a 10-seat training/interactive room, comfortable lounge furniture, space for 10-11 computers (public access), smaller print periodicals shelving and nice new carpet, walls, office furniture, ceiling and lighting. -------------------------------------------------------- If I had my druthers - plenty of small meeting rooms and quiet study areas. Modern libraries are far too noisy for patrons. People still need quiet places to study. If you don't have a wireless network, I'd lobby for one. Many libraries are going for a one desk/self serve area where reference questions can be answered and book checked out. Sort of the 'Borders' concept. You might think of a central desk where all things can happen. . -------------------------------------------------------- Storage space, plenty of space for public computers, public (networked) printer, large carrels (4 ft wide). -------------------------------------------------------- Get all your wires behind the walls. Looks so much better. Darker colors don't show all the bangs that happen to the furniture. -------------------------------------------------------- We're renovating our 2,000 square foot hospital library at the *******. I've been working for the past year and a half with a renovation committee and architect. Suggestions would include: Double the # of public computers Reduce shelving for journals Multipurpose Conference Room Good networking to allow for connectivity to the Internet -------------------------------------------------------- We renovated an area three years ago. You may want as many computer workstations as space allows. A computer classroom with a blank wall for projection, good acoustics, and numerous pc workstations. -------------------------------------------------------- 1. Ask them for one week so you can prepare and submit a proper written "library building plan" documenting your needs properly! Attached are two model library space building plans, they are confidential-- but illustrate what you want to do for them. 2. Tell them you want to tour the most recently built medical libraries to take pictures to share with them.... of the latest library space plan trends. Go to Lancaster Hospital Medical Library, Lancaster and Chrisitiana Hospital, Newark DE, and Overlook's new library -- (they have a consumer health library, and it really helped Princeton get 1500 more square feet!). This will make ALL the difference. 3. Tell them you want a patient/consumer library area in addition to medical library. 4. You need space for seating for PC's -- Library 2.0 is all about the patron's use of the library ... Not necessarily the collection, so do not let them cut your space saying it all goes electronic..tell them that means seating 5. Wireless. Carrels that allow for PCs. -------------------------------------------------------- Lots of electrical outlets for laptops. -------------------------------------------------------- Individual carrels for computers and studying. Wireless library. A room (if possible) west up with webcam so people can take classes over the Internet. A consumer library space (if applicable) At least 2 comfortable chairs for reading. A workroom with ample shelving for all your library materials. Flat screen monitors for your public computers. -------------------------------------------------------- Lots of network connections and ample power supplies A good floor would also help - weight bearing as well as padding to give your back a break on those days you don't sit down. -------------------------------------------------------- Suggestions included: Open environment with computer workstations and comfortable chairs for relaxed reading. Eliminate circulation desk and make that area open as well Casual reading area adjacent to current journals/new books display Quiet study room (with network ports) Group study room(with network ports)--can be booked for group study or journal clubs, DVD for independent staff learning and /or patient/family teaching. One person wishes they had more of these rooms! PC area/computer center - number of computers varies from 7- 25 Improved lighting system, ie indirect lighting Add consumer health or patient/family resource center Wireless access for those bringing in laptops Borders like atmosphere with ability to drink coffee and study Plants, color, and seating to provide atmosphere where hospital staff, medical staff, patients and family can check decompress from the stress of the hospital. Try to have a new and contemporary look in an old space. Space to conduct reference interview with some privacy, confidentiality Check websites on HLS Wiki Variety of furniture--carrels, tables, casual seating. computer workstations, quiet study rooms. Get MLA Guide to Mangaing Health Care Libraries (Holst and Phillips) Also, a Haworth Press book, Planning, Renovatin, Expanding, and Constructing Library Facilities in Hospitals, Medical Centers, and Health Organizations. Review Library Journal and American Libraries that "Show off" new and renovated libraries. Visit libraries and bring a digital camera. Some of the ideas I have incorporated include: more open environment, with a casual reading area near the current periodical shelving. We will have improved lighting, and a better use of color.(the library had been the only section in the Education Center, which had not been given a "face-lift" in many years). There will be a variety of furniture. The library will have a color scheme which will tie in with the colors that flow from the main entrance (lobby) back to our Education Center. I am delighted! -------------------------------------------------------- Consider entrance and location: central is better, some entrance that you can monitor from your position in the library; consider how many staff you have and where you will put them relative to their tasks; consider whether the space will be disabled accessible -- not just for patients; how many computer stations? Location for study? Separate rooms for office; storage; study; etc. Hope this helps. -------------------------------------------------------- I have docs in all the time trying to talk about heir patients- I have to keep reminding them about confidentiality - seems like they always use names and always forget that there are other folks in the library. I have movable shelving- get the non-electrical kind - I have had only one service call since 1989.
Knowledge-Based/EB Nursing Resources (7/17/07)HLS Wiki http://mla-hls.wikispaces.com/Evidence+Based+Practice has links to blogs and wikis produced by librarians on this topic as well as PowerPoint presentations and other excellent resources in print and on the web.Critical appraisal, including looking at citations is always required, but there are some things you can check when searching and appraising articles. 1. Where does this fit in the the model of Evidence Based Practice they are using (see my EBP presentations on my website - writing on the fly while consulting). Research, Evidence Summary, or Translation Literature" 2. If Evidence Summary/Systematic Review, are the levels of evidence noted with the citations? 3. If they need to look at _nursing research_, not biomedical, they need to determine the topic first. Of course, that's always a good idea. 4. I recommend trying to identify their concerns/interests first (nursing problems/issues), then look for evidence (or lack thereof). Some things can be learned from online database searches and looking at the full record to determine types of information that is included. Julie(?) in California has a great blog Evidence Based Nursing blog with online journal club. Margaret (Peg) Allen, MLS-AHIP, P.O. Box 2, Stratford, WI, 54484 Original Question: Our nursing staff, recently, started a Journal Club and are still in the beginning process. They are looking to find steps they should follow in determining if the material they are using is "Knowledge Based". Do any of your organizations have something similar? If you know of any current guide lines - recommendations more recent than those from the 80's - we would love to hear from you. Thanks for your help. - Martha A. Short, Medical Library, Blanchfield Army Comm Hosp, 650 Joel Dr., Fort Campbell, KY 42223
List of What We Supervise (1/28/08)Thank you to all who responded so promptly to the question I posted last week to the listserve about additional departments we supervise. I had several requests to summarize for the list. Barb Top two contenders were: 1) CME 2) Media Services - AV, Telemedicine/Telehealth, Video Conferencing Other areas in alpha order: Cancer RegistryCompliance/Training Computer Labs Electronic Personal Health Record Graphic Design Health Stream Hospital Archives Hospital Orientation Institutional Review Board Intranet Site Internet Site Joint Commission Coordinator Medical Photography Patient Education - This was the third most frequently sited department under the direction of the library Patient TV System Phone System Policies/Procedures/Forms Room Scheduling Visitor's Center/Concierge Services Webmaster Barbara Platts, MLIS, AHIP; Manager; Library Services Munson Healthcare; 1105 Sixth Street; Traverse City, MI 49684
Naming the Profession (8/31/07)Original post (7-30-07):I just had a meeting with my hospital CIO to whom I directly report. We talked about changing the name of my department from “Medical Library Services” to something more inclusive of the work that I and my staff do. My CIO agreed that the names “library” and “librarian” garner little respect in the hospital environment and that strategically it makes sense to change the nomenclature. I know, a lot of folks say, “But everyone knows what a Librarian is; they don’t know what a “Knowledge Manager” (or whatever) is.” I think that is not true. Few people really do know what a librarian is or does, especially a medical librarian. They know what a “librarian” used to be, in their hometown or college. We are “not your father’s librarian,” so to speak. I’m going to do a little more research and discussion with my staff before a decision is made, but soon we will no longer be “Medical Library Services” here at BIDMC. We also may change the designation of the library itself! I'm putting this out to my fellow "knowledge navigators" for some feedback. I was following the "knowledge management" discussion from last spring with interest. While "knowledge management" may have a broader definition, it still may be what I end up with. I also think that "knowledge base" is cropping up in discussions and in the literature as another term for the medical literature. Knowledge Base Management, anyone? Margo Coletti, Director, Medical Library Services, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, One Deaconess Road, Boston, MA 02215 Replies: I think this is a "bad" move to make. Maybe you need to define for your users what a Librarian is in the 21st century, rather than try and squeeze what you do into some new name that has no history nor dlear parameters. A librarian is a worthy occupation and a library is a center of knowledge, but so much more. I disagree wholehearedly with your decision - in my hospital, the library is valued as the place to go for quality information, and the librarian (myself) is who they identify as the "go to" person for accessing, identifying, and facilitating the flow thereof. Amy L. Frey, MA AHIP, Manager, Health Sciences Library, Editor, National Network (HLS/MLA), Hospital for Special Care, 2150 Corbin Avenue, New Britain, CT 06053 Although I am maintaining my title as Medical Librarian, I have started referring to my department - on my letterhead, search covers, etc. - as "Medical Library/Knowledge Management Services" Ardis Weiss, Medical Librarian, San Antonio Community Hospital, Upland, CA 91786 I agree with Amy. If we spent half as much time working on changing the image of the Librarian in the 21st Century as we spend trying to avoid using the "L" word,, we'd be much better off. Judith Siess, a librarian...and proud of it! Just to take the discussion one step further - throughout the centuries, since library at Alexandria, through technological innovations (Gutenberg & the printing press), to the era of photocopiers, fax, and now the Internet, the word LIBRARY has been used to capture the old along with the new. Why is it that now we seem to think this word, that has defined this special center of knowledge, is antiquated? Just my 2 cents - or, should I say in the 21st c. - my $2 worth. Amy L. Frey, MA AHIP So here's my two cents. The fact is that what we do nowadays is information (or knowledge) management, whatever we want to call it, particularly in the Medical area. We're not preserving information for posterity, although we do that, too; but our main job is to provide the best current medical information to those who need it most. This isn't a bad thing! So we have a chance here to be both the old idea of librarians (Alexandria---History of Medicine---Epidemiology) and the new (information providers on request). Why wouldn't we want that? And why wouldn't we embrace that? The question then seems to be more what we're called rather than what we are. At BIDMC we've been a part of the IS Department for the past 4-5 years, and we're better off for it, in my opinion. We're in on IS decisions and have a seat at the table whenever these things are discussed; why wouldn't we want to be there? Sorry to go on like this. I'm also a librarian, of course, as I think you know, Amy. Have been since getting my MSLS degree from Simmons back in 1975. But I think Margo's right: we need to change with the times. And who knows more about changing with the times than we librarians do? And one more thing: Margo went to Library School at the University of Michigan (Tom Brady's school, I might add, as a Patriots fan). So when she came to BIDMC she brought with her a navy blue and yellow coffee mug with the words "The Few, The Proud, The Librarians" imprinted in those Michigan colors. So I don't think she's embarrassed about the 'L' word. Jay Daly, QuickDOC, 45A Mason Terrace, Brookline, MA 02446-2611 If you have not already done so, I recommend reading the article in the New York Times July 8, 2007, "The New Librarian." That article put to rest ANY idea I may have had in changing the librarian title, and it was fun to read. Librarians (and the profession) are now 'cool'! Candy Winteregg I think I am singularly responsible for flaming the fires of this discussion, however, it is a topic about which I am rather passionate. I am so proud of my career as a Librarian - 34 years! (Oy, when I see that in print, it does give me pause). A colleague sent me an equally impassioned e-mail off-list, and I am writing this to him as well as to all of you. I agree that we need to change with the times, but Information Management, Knowledge Management, etc. all seem to blur the lines between what we do and what others do within our own and other institutions. The title of Librarian is worthy to maintain - it is a role with history and, as much as we don't believe it, a role others can understand. What we do can certainly change with the times, and, at the same time, we can help others to understand what we do by showing them - what we do day to day on our jobs. As one who graduated from the now defunct University of Minnesota School of Library Science (MA, 1973), I realize how times have changed, perhaps more than some of the more recent graduates. I manually searched the indexes, used books to answer other reference questions, and have made the transition to the technological era - sometimes with regrets- having taken my first online course with DIALOG in 1975. However, as librarians, we have a clear understanding of the organization of information, how to disseminate it with maximum value, etc. So, where we "live" or what we do might metamorphosize, but the concept of "library" can keep up with the transitions. I do one night a week at a public library which is also changing, however I do not see them struggling to change their name to Knowledge Management Center. Why do we chafe so at keeping something with a history? I will continue to promote and use the title "Librarian" and hope that my son, a millenial who is entering our profession, will continue to promote its use as well. He was not turned off by the title nor the concept in making a career choice. In fact, he saw something wonderful in the career I have had and has chosen to make it his own. He has no conflict in marrying the intellectual pursuit of knowledge with the technological aspects of our profession...in fact, it is second nature to h im. I think it is we who have made this an issue - those of us who have been doing this for a while. The next generation sees a Library as a different kind of place than we did....if they can adapt, we should be able to, as well. I promise this is my last e-mail in this discussion. I know some people are already annoyed at the e-mail clogging their inboxes! My apologies to all of you, Amy L. Frey, MA AHIP About four years ago this issue came up on medlib-l and I wrote a rather passionate rant along the lines of Amy's. Shortly thereafter, we had to move to a new location in the hospital, and I had argued so convincingly that we discarded the long-standing "Learning Resources Center" name (which no one ever really understood) and returned to "Library". I have never regretted it. In the past three years I have become involved in health literacy initiatives. I think it was Harvard's Rima Rudd who told us that what we're doing isn't "dumbing down" our writing- we're just communicating as clearly as possible. This is just what we should always do. Rather than capitulating to political correctness, or jumping on every naming trend that comes along, I agree that we should stick with the name that is historically honored, accurate, and yes, understood. Sure, the profession has changed with technological innovation. We've changed with it. And yes, there are people who don't know what we do. The solution to that is to show them what we do, not to muddy the waters with names that could apply to any number of others in our organizations. I do think that "information services" and "knowledge management" make great tag lines but for me, they annotate "library," they don't replace it. To go somewhere, you start from where you are- not from where you aren't. Michael Heyd, AHIP, Director, Medical Library, Susquehanna Health, 777 Rural Avenue, Williamsport, PA 17701 I haven't jumped in on this, largely because I've just been too slammed to, but what Amy said was so close to what *I* feel that I decided to fire a quick message off on it (if for no other reason than to let people know I'm still alive This discussion thread comes up big-time every 3-4 years or so, so for us dinosaurs it's nothing we haven't seen before, bookoodles of times. (I'm also a 30-years-plus type.) The phrase "Knowledge Management Center" was what *really* jumped off the page at me. I saw it cycle in the '70s, two or three times in the '80s, & watched it at *least* five times in the '90s -- it's nothing new. Fancy-Dan spiffo new names have come & gone in the last 3 decades, yet "librarian" remains. There must be a reason for that. With ALL (And believe me, I mean that *most* sincerely!) respect due to any/all who may feel it's time for a nomenclature change, "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." Change is often either necessary or desirable; change for its own sake is never either. [You may quote me. :)] From the long view, ranging from print NUC to God-only-knows-what over the horizon tomorrow, the terms we've used have served us well; they've proven flexible enough to be consistent & meaningful monikers, regardless of the vast changes that have occurred inside them. As adaptive as we are as a profession, if names like "Knowledge Management Center" or "Knowledge-Based-Information Professional" worked any better worked any better, we'd have been adopted them by now. (That said, BTW, I freely admit to calling myself an "info pro." Yes, I'm a dinosaur, but no, I've evolved. I may not be a bleeding- edge geek, but I've avidly used every new technology I could, as quickly as it became available to me for decades now; I'm not against change simply for curmudgeonliness' sake. It's just that this is one I just don't see needing to be made. Bill Nichols, 96 MDSS/SGSFL, Eglin AFB, FL I agree with Amy and Bill. I too am so busy with work that I really don't have the time to take for a lengthy response. However, I believe the problem is that we do not advertise effectively what we do. That said, from a literacy perspective, most people can identify with library but you will have to do quite a sell to enlighten people what exactly is Knowledge Management or a Knowledge Based Information Professional. To me those are abstract terms and people outside the realm of Information Management will not identify as well with those terms-in fact, it may cause more problems. For example, when Medical Records changed their title to Health Information Management-that worked well for them. However, nobody else knew what it meant, especially the public-most people still call it Medical Records. It seems now days that if something doesn't work the way we would like we decide to throw it out instead of fixing or improving the situation. Deflecting attention away from a problem or situation by changing a name, etc. does not always solve the problem. Instead, the problem needs to be evaluated and the issues addressed. There is nothing wrong with being a librarian and working in a "library," it is a noble profession, and I know at our hospital we are extremely busy and highly valued and respected by our medical, nursing, and management staff. Janet Petty, MLIS, AHIP, Craig Memorial Library, Miami Valley Hospital, One Wyoming Street, Dayton, Ohio 45409 Special Libraries Association discussed a name change and reimaging [again] a few years ago. We stayed Librarians among ourselves. That does not mean SLA does not recognize MIS and MS in Information [computer science] as valid degree tracks for the profession as will as MLS/MLIS, we do. We call ourselves librarians no matter what the fashion is. I looked at the SLA job listings to give some junior high kids an idea what tiles library jobs carry in the real world. These are librarians just not called librarians that I found: * Corporate Knowledge Manager - Qualifications: 7+ yrs exper. with Bachelor’s degree in Information / Library Science from an ALA accredited program Analyst - An ALA-accredited Master's Degree in Library Science is required. * Information Specialist - Master’s in Library Science, 2-5 years experience in a business library setting * Research Associate - Must be diligent and highly accurate in gathering high quality information quickly and precisely under tight time frames. * Information Specialist - Bilingual/Spanish - MLS - Fluent in Spanish and English * Legal Researcher, Tax - Bachelor's degree • MLS or related advanced degree a plus • Proficiency in major legal and tax related research products and services * MANAGER, GLOBAL INFORMATION SERVICES / GLOBAL INFORMATION SERVICES (IS) MANAGER - Masters of Library Science degree from an A.L.A. accredited institution or equivalent experience in a consulting, financial services or other professional services environment * Knowledge Management Director - Bachelors degree, MBA Preferred; Previous Knowledge Management experience and an aptitude for leading IT systems development, as it relates to collaboration/ knowledge technologies, data and taxonomies * Information Resources Coordinator - The ideal candidate will have a Masters degree in Library and/or Information Science from an ALA accredited university. Association for Financial Professionals * Market Intelligence Manager - Bachelor’s degree required. Master's degree preferred. A minimum 6 years relevant experience including: design and analysis of research, managing client relationships, and providing consultative perspective. Dan Chandler, Medical Library 1007455, 3300 NW Expressway, Integris Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73112 I have been stopping to look at this discussion like everyone else but it didn't occur to me until today to think about the word "library". Yes, "library" is based on the word for book. But think about how the much the word has changed. Do a PubMed search on "libraries" and you will get titles like, "Method for Screening and MALDI-TOF MS Sequencing of Encoded Combinatorial Libraries", or "Selection and characterization of lipase abzyme from phage displayed antibody libraries". Our IT people talk about database libraries, (not to mention "folders"!). I think the word library has come to mean organized collections whether those collections are books, videos, computer programs, gene sequencing, physical or virtual data. Perhaps in the future books as we know them may disappear (how sad!) but the word "library" may continue to evolve with new meaning. As the light from my pc glows behind the words on this listserv perhaps I am indeed viewing an "illuminated manuscript"! Christine Dziedzina, Chief Librarian, Brittingham Memorial Library, MetroHealth Medical Center, 2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland, Ohio 44109-1998 Response to above responses (7-31-07): I'm afraid that my subject line gave the impression that I wanted to wipe the words "librarian" and "library" from the lexicon. I was referring to medical librarians, hospital librarians in particular. I am fortunate to work in an institution that values what I and my colleagues do. My job is not in jeopardy. My department, however, is under constant scrutiny by various administrators, right now by the Space Committee which questions our use of space for a "library" when "everything is on the web." I KNOW that education of such administrators is key. But the use of language is also important. Ask the Bush administration. ;) We just finished a facility use survey so we have hard data on who uses our library, what they do when they are here, etc. While discussing the survey with my CIO - who is an international leader in his field and has the respect of every individual in this hospital and most hospital CIO's in the country - the subject of our department name came up. I have been working since February on transforming our facility into an "information commons," - a term first used by my CIO to describe our function. It's not a huge leap to consider what we call our department. If our function is at all retained in the Joint Commission standards, it will be unlikely to be called "medical library" anything. More likely it will keep the term "knowledge-based information" or some variation, don't you think? How better to justify hospital library services than by using the language of the JC? Hospital libraries are in a struggle for survival. Say the word "library" to a small hospital administrator and watch him/her shrug. Say, "Joint Commission" and watch him/her sit up and take notice. Margo Coletti Responses to above response: I know I promised to keep quiet, but just as I was sitting here reading the follow-up postings and thinking that I probably had just ridden roughshod over some fine colleagues' very real and appropriate concerns, Margo's new message came in. Her points and Jay's are excellent and I did not mean to belittle them, though I stand by what I said. And although Margo brought up my other favorite rant topic (Joint Commission) I will resist the temptation. :-) Michael Heyd, AHIP, Director, Medical Library, Susquehanna Health, 777 Rural Avenue, Williamsport, PA 17701 Here's my opinion/perspective and I respect what other's have said. JCAHO - With the revision of the Information Management standards, we may become "content integration specialists", if you think of our new role with integrating electronic resources into the EMR? Who knows what we'll be called? What do most people think of when they think of a "library"? I think they think of a place they can come or call for help finding the information they need. Further, I think they think of a place with staff willing to help them find what they need. This is good PR. In my previous job I coordinated the opening of a new consumer health library in the lobby of a university hospital. It was given a catchy name and "library" appeared nowhere in the title. The hospital staff and the visitors/patients had no idea what we did in that space. The name of the space had no relevance to their lives. Every day I wished that "library" was in our name. (The name for the consumer health center was selected prior to my arrival.) So after the center opened, the hospital staff began referring to the space as "the Patients' Library." I have a friend who works in an "Information Access Center"; the people who use the space and services call it "the Library." Also, in the academic setting, some libraries are adding an "information commons" area within the library. There is no question that we have to educate hospital administrators about what we do, but I think that "libraries" are perceived by our customers as information centers, regardless of the format of the information, and "librarians" are perceived as knowledgeable, helpful people no matter the environment. Something to think about... Pat Hammond, Immerman Memorial Library, Potomac Hospital, Woodbridge, VA Just walked in on this discussion and this term made me pause. I'm fond of walking through leafy Boston Commons, and I've enjoyed walking through the commons of small English villages whenever I visit Great Britain, but you just don't hear the term "commons" that often in this part of this country. The concept of municipal or community parks developed differently here. So I guess an information commons is an assembly of people sharing information and opinions? But I can't help it; the term "commons" makes me think of trees and grass. I need a vacation. Ruth Humphrey, Asst. Medical Librarian, Webster Library, Evanston Hospital, Evanston, IL How about writing something for the SIG's web page about how and why to market ourselves and our spaces, regardless of what the Library is called? http://www.library-marketing-sig.mlanet.org/ Mindy Robinson-Paquette, Convener, Library Marketing SIG/MLA Update (8-31-07): A few weeks ago, I wrote that I would be changing the name of my department from Medical Library Services to something without the term “library.” It is official as of last week. My department, a division of Information Systems, is now Knowledge Services. Our library will be called “Medical Library and Information Commons”. The medical librarians on my staff will be re-titled Information Specialists. I will still be Director. My email triggered some strong reactions from the listserv, opposing the suggested changes. Interestingly, most of the opinions in support of these changes came directly to my email address, not to the listserv. Two folks actually wrote me that they didn’t want to post to the listserv in view of the heated responses. I found this terribly discouraging; what it seemed to say about the profession did not bode well. We should never be afraid to put our views out there, nor should we be subjected to flames. I believe that in our profession we cannot afford to be closed-minded. As my former CEO once put it, you can approach change in one of three ways. You can make it happen, you can watch it happen, or you can wake up one day and say, “What happened?” In my hospital, the Knowledge Services director and information specialists perform many functions in addition to traditional library services. We collaborate with the Forms Committee, serve as IS liaison to the Ethics Committee; index online medical school course materials, and serve as the DMCA agent for BIDMC, among other functions. We all - I, my staff and the CIO - feel that term, Knowledge Services, recognizes the broader scope of what we do. Hopefully, in another year, I’ll be able to report that the name changes have had a positive, tangible impact on our staff, our work and/or our facility. Margo Coletti, Director, Knowledge Services, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, One Deaconess Road, Boston, MA 02215, Responses to update: You are right about expressing views, whether we all agree or not. Our colleagues in SLA also have many different names and titles. And I like what you said about change. Christine Chastain-Warheit, MLS, AHIP I like "medical library and information commons." And while I'm not wild about "information specialists" it sounds like you all have thought it through carefully, so I hope that it will work well for you. I would regret it tremendously if anything that I said inhibited someone from publicly expressing a contrary view. Best of luck to you and your staff, and I look forward to hearing future reports of your successes. T. Scott Plutchak, Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham My own personal primary mantra re change addresses another aspect of it, probably "primary" due to the fact that in my environment change is often willy-nilly. Case in point: In an effort to minimize stigma, the Air Force's mental health depts. were renamed "Life Skills" a year or three ago. The name has now been changed back to "Mental Health." A perfect example for the mantra: "Change is often either necessary or desirable. Change for its own sake is never either." You may quote me without attribution. :) Bill Nichols, 96 MDG/SGNE, Eglin AFB, FL I realize that this thread is getting timeworn, but I just happened across an interesting piece by Jakob Nielsen, web usability geek, that offers an interesting, and I think compelling, perspective. It is entitled "Use Old Words When Writing for Findability" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search-keywords.html and he summarizes: "Familiar words spring to mind when users create their search queries. If your writing favors made-up terms over legacy words, users won't find your site." In case you don't know of his work, his Alertbox is must-reading not only for designing websites but for searching success (and entertaining too--not to mention free, that all-important librarian criterion). As an example that librarians would appreciate, I got to the above after following a link from this week's post "Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/fancy-formatting.html which highlights the U.S. Census Bureau's formatting of the answer to its #1 question, current population of the US, in large bold bright red font, only to have 86% of users ignore it because it looks like an ad. He points out that using made-up terms (like "population clock") or branded descriptions rather than plain-spoken words impedes users' abilities to find what they are looking for. True, he is specifically addressing web-design issues that impact user success, not what to name a department or call a position description, but I was struck by the parallels to our identity crises discussion nonetheless. Jo-Anne Aspri, MLS, Library, Kent Hospital, 455 Toll Gate Road, Warwick, RI 02886 My library for years (not sure for how long) was named Education Resource Center on papers but everyone called it Library anyway. In some period of time after I started here I changed to the Library again. It's also interesting to read http://marylaine.com/myword/wordmean.html Luda Dolinsky, Director, Health Sciences Library, Lutheran Medical Center, 150 55th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11220
Ordering/Cataloging Books for Other Departments (12/19/07)Questions:1- Do you order books, videos, etc. for departments other than the Library? If yes, please answer questions #2 and #3. 2- If so, do you catalog them? 3- Are they in your library catalog or a separate catalog? Answers: Thank you all for your replies! This has been a very helpful exercise for me. Here is a summary: Total responses = 139 Do not order books, videos, etc. for departments other than the Library = 60 Order but do not catalog = 52 Order and catalog = 27 Of those who do order and catalog, 21 use the library catalog; 4 have a separate catalog. (2 did not indicate) Some people said they do not officially catalog departmental items but have an acquisitions list. I did not count those in the catalog group. Some people catalog by request only or for a couple of specific groups. I did not count those in the catalog group. SUMMARY: 81% of respondents do not catalog departmental resources. Brynn Beals, MLS, AHIP; Library Program Manager Franciscan Health System; St. Joseph Medical Center PO Box 2197; 1717 S. J Street; Tacoma WA 98401-2197
Research Programs Supported by Hospital Libraries (7/20/07)I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my recent inquiry regarding hospital libraries and their support for research programs. The responses were incredibly helpful, thoughtful and insightful. More than one person asked for a summary, so here it is below. Susan~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have not given such a talk, but beginning last year the library has taken on ever increasing roles in research at our hospital. XXXXX is a member of the nursing research council and I am a member of the research development council (RDC). The library organized a research grand rounds last year where we had 25 research posters presented by physicians, nurses, and other staff. We organizing another one this year. I am also the liaison for the RDC working to find and then work with a freelance medical writer on our first research annual publication. This publication is a direct result of the new initiative our system is also under taking to increase research and more importantly, to increase the awareness in our extended community of the research that goes on here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I would start out thinking of all different aspects of the research process and mention how the library can help in those aspects. -- Do you have materials on grant writing or grant sources. -- Highlight what books and other sources you do have on the research process (I just did a show and tell with my EBP books at the last Nursing Research Council meeting) -- Talk about the different reference management software that is available for importing citations into (I am hooked on EndNote and they will give you a copy to use for training purposes) -- What materials do you have on writing for publication or giving presentations -- Do you have items on research ethics and working with human subjects My guess is that you have more in your library than you think that would be of interest to them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, at the risk of giving away all of our trade secrets :) I've found the most important resource you can provide is YOU. They will first and foremost be interested in how you are going to educate yourself and/or your staff about the research process and what you can do to expedite it. The things you already have in place should be very helpful, such as ILL, lit searches and reference. They will be very excited if you and your staff are approachable and willing to work with/listen to them on developing new services, collections and other resources. Usually they are not as "I want it yesterday" as medical staff are (for obvious reasons -- these guys usually take the long view and don't have the patient care issues to deal with) and are ok if something takes a little while to solve. So you need to put yourself more in the frame of mind of a researcher and be able to spend a lot of time on one question if that's what it takes. Beyond that, focus on resources such as online protocols (Current Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology/Molecular Medicine, Cold Spring Harbor Protocols), access to basic science journals such as the Cell Press (now part of ScienceDirect) and Nature Publishing Group journals. I haven't found that online books (besides the protocols) are so important to them, but they will probably want some basic textbooks in their fields of interest. Online databases that are very important are, of course, PubMed and the NCBI databases, databases for funding opportunities such as CRISP (I use this to find out who's being funded by whom on certain projects), Community of Science, GrantsNet, etc. Web of Science is very important but may be too expensive. Scopus will probably be important but is 'way too expensive. Also training -- how you plan to train staff on PubMed, the NCBI databases and others mentioned above. And offer services such as current awareness searches -- they love this. Hope this helps. I ran through all this stuff in a hurry so I'm sure there's a lot I'm leaving out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are also just building our research program so we do not fall into the robust category. However I would imagine Embase, or Web of Science would be great resources, in addition to Medline. A lot of our researchers actually use PubMed. And do you have EndNote or Refworks? I also just became responsible for monitoring all the publications of our staff so that is available for the IRB and other reviewing agencies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the main things I'd emphasize would the valuable services of a professional librarian. That a librarian helping with the research process and instructing others on search techniques saves time and effort. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They have you, a trained information professional. You can provide searches in support of researchers' proposals to the IRB (or whatever it's called there), RFPs, publications, tenure applications (if you are related to an academic center). Every research proposal has to document its value up front, and the search accompanying that proposal should be based on the work of an information professional, so that the IRB or other review board can know it has authoritative value. This will allow the IRB to evaluate the search as being exhaustive as possible, given available resources. *You know how to combine hand-searching with keyword searching with controlled language searching in ways the clinicians do not. *You know how to locate resources held by other libraries. (get OCLC access if needed to expand your ILL reach) *You know how to link researchers with web-based citation manager products for research teams working on shared bibliographies - i.e. RefWorks or EndNote. *You know the value of publishing in high impact (ISI Impact Factor) journals. (It may be an inexact resource, but it's still the best we have for this sort of resource - and the researchers respect it (probably more than librarians do!). *You know how to locate the best journals where hospital staff can publish their research. In turn, the better/higher impact journal publications will influence the authors being selected in futuure competitions for proposal funding, tenure approval, US visa approval, and other competitions where an evaluation of publication merit is taken very seriously. * You know how to edit drafts of papers - (or how to find a scientific editor to do this!!) - to assist in the final revisons prior to publication of various documents and to assist with formatting changes for specific publications. Again, a product like RefWorks or EndNote networked via library efforts is critical to this plan. * Add to this a brief mention of available databases, journals, electronic books and journals. Throw in a big inclusive number to make sure they know you've ordered a huge number of articles from other locations. Use numbers but make this brief. They will be more interested in services than in collection strength. I would stress that articles arrive in less than 2 days' time, for instance, rather than you have X number of journal titles. * Mention SPSS. If you can add SPSS services through the library, this would be excellent. Maybe you could simply have the library be the conduit for training, license purchase, consultant-identification, etc. In any event, researchers will need access to SPSS or SAS, or something equally impressive - and if you have the skills to assist, more power will be yours! Since you're in a big city and can probably walk in to the UW library, this may also be helpful: You can borrow their resources, even if the hospital library doen't pay to own them initially. I'm using ISI's Web of Science at my neighboring university as a walk-in customer to get journal Impact Factors for our Medicine faculty/staff. Our hospital's clinical faculty hold adjunct appts at the state medical university next to our campus. They have to publish for tenure, so our chief of medicine is determined to get them on track by forcing them to write (job performance requirement). My task for him is to provide help to these first-time authors by finding best-publication choices/venues. He regularly sends these junior faculty to me with nearly complete papers to find possible journals where they can submit their work. My goal for these 'searches' is to find best publication options - appropriate subjects for specific journals, high impact factor titles, required page length, interest in similar topics as the choice of paper topic, etc. If he weren't already offering them a workshop on writing for publication, I would do that for them (or bring in my professional scientific editor friend to do it instead). I've just begun to tackle the Research Dept. with the same focus, to show them I can assist with better searches to support funding requests and publication efforts. My intent is to document my efforts with a list of publications in high impact journals within the coming year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My advice is to tell them you want to be their personal medical information shopper, and you will do everything you can to meet their literature based information needs. You'll accept requests in person, via email, snail mail, fax, handwritten note, telephone, instant messenger, they can ask you in the hallway, in the cafeteria (or wherever you eat lunch), they can send a messenger, use Loansome Doc, (if you have Ovid ) via Ask-A-Librarian, or even your "official" form. However they can get you their request to you, you will try to get them their information ASAP. If it is an article you will email them a PDF copy within 48 hours (using Loansome Doc/DOCLINE should be able to handle that in about 24 hours). I don't have a large research program, but my experience with researchers has been that what they really want is a personal meatware contact. A human being who will make every effort to meet their information needs. While they love all the databases, full-text whatevers, and bells and whistles, they will stop using them at the first obstacle. They appreciate having a human being they can call, or visit, or email with their vague (or specific) requests and have that person fill their request. A librarian is great, but they will settle for whoever responds positively to them - a colleague, a secretary, a drug salesman, the local dog catcher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Get yourself on the IRB, nursing and any other research committees. It’s not so much what you can buy, but your constant presence and support that are essential. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These are some of the things I would mention to researchers. RefWorks to manage their citations and allow collaboration on publications No limit/no fees on ILL/document delivery - capacity to provide PDFs (even if you have to scan and convert..) outstanding searching expertise, access to top databases/resources in both clinical and biological fields Outstanding virtual resources with remote access for home and office Current awareness service available through your journal management software (like TDNet) Easily navigated library web site with online forms to request ILL, books, lit searches Visit to your office by reference librarian to demonstrate library resources and demo the web page Early on in my career I worked in a library that served only researchers. They loved it when I attended their presentations (like rounding) and often asked for things when they saw me and I learned a lot about what everyone was working on. They also loved book borrowing with unlimited renewals and book buying services. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If I was to give this talk I would make it a question and answer session in which I found out first what type of research they are involved in - basic science, clinical research only. Needs will vary with research emphasis. Find out whether they prefer electronic journal access (can almost guarantee this). You should be prepared to answer the question of whether you or they would be performing searches in the various databases you will highlight for them. You should be prepared to offer instruction in each of the databases. Basic Science Biological Abstracts Scifinder Scholar or Beilstein ISI Scopus Clinical Research PubMed Excerpta Medica Psychological Abstracts Drug databases such as Micromedex, Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology Online SportDISCUS There are others of more specialized scope such as Speech. Language & Hearing Abstracts that we do not use much here, but perhaps copying a page from a guide to databases and circulating that would help them to focus on their particular needs when recommending resources. Researchers also need citation management software. We have an institutional subscription to RefWorks and a laughably low rate (for the time being at least). You might want to bring that to their attention as another option to consider. Then have them recommend the top journals in their fields and make certain you have them either in paper or electronically. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I sit on both the Research Committee (which approves hospital sponsored research projects and then sends them on to the IRB) and the Animal Care Committee (IACUC). My principal involvement is to work with the Pis and their collaborators on proper literature searches. ( Invariably, they say they do searches but they do not use the proper terminology—just keywords). They are supposed to talk to me BEFORE they submit their proposals. If they do not, they are referred to me by the committee. This makes sure that searches are done. I also have purchased a number of books that support research, including multiple human anatomy books and some on the animals we use routinely. We also have the complete set of Netter slides and some other images on DVD’s etc. Our Physicians and residents,(and others) published nearly 100 publications last year which is extremely unusual for a community hospital ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We do a lot of research, I believe mostly relating to genetics and to surgery implants, but we have a separate collection on that floor and we actually have separate staff doing some jobs that could be handled by the library. So those topics might be ones you would want to consider adding to your job description! My researchers really want access to very expensive titles like Science and the various Nature products, plus things like Cell. Luckily we don't have to buy those though because the people who need them are associated with the local medical school complex, and that library gets them online. I'm hoping you have such a connection? If not, you will need to budget for very expensive titles. And for sure they will want them online. Also, patents will be important. We have an attorney who handles that, so I don't get involved. Also NIH grants, and they do that mostly through the med school, too. We have an Institutional Review Board. Some librarians have recommended that a librarian be on that, so that is something I need to investigate. We do have another separate staff person who coordinates grant applications, although I'm not quite sure the level to which that person is involved. She is the one who gets the materials like Grant Indexes, etc. All of that is stuff you could be involved in if there is not yet staff for it. I have recently been added to an internal Access database that shows me who is involved in various research topics. It is just a listing of the title, topic and researchers, but ideally it will help me know what they are doing so I can be pro-active. Also, when I fill ILL requests I now ask the purpose. As a result of keeping that statistic I know that at least half of my deliveries are for research rather than for direct patient care. Document delivery is very important since it is impossible to really buy all you will need. You could be sure they know that brackets around a title in PubMed mean foreign language because you will be encountering more foreign language citations! They may or may not want them. Someone will want to keep a posting of all papers published by your researchers. We have a display, and also an annual listing for our board meeting. I don't do that either, the secretary for Research handles it. You will also want to discover whether they intend to include nursing research. There are an entire different set of journals for that topic! I believe our promotion process for nurses involves research participation, but theirs is usually much more practical, patient-based than others. It also seems like it would be a recruiting tool to say you have good literature support for nursing research. Not sure any of these are what you would want to talk about, and it is just off the top of my head, but they are all potential opportunities for library involvement in research. I'll be working full time soon so will probably try to be more involved. On my library committee I do have a representative from Research and a staff member from Neurology who is involved in research. Also the nurse who coordinates research. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have a new research center, and the researchers there are computersavvy and want immediate full text access to their esoteric journals. Big surprise, huh? They are interested in knowing why that is not possible and what steps to take to procure articles. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I would say electronic journals and a citation manager (we have Refworks) are the most important. Other resources might be books on writing grants or publishing, Interlibary loan services and the cost and speed of them. Our researchers also like the knowledge organizing software QUOSA. I assume other departments would probably cover finding sources of funding and managing grants. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Be sure to mention your MLA colleagues as a resource! I'm a libn in a pharmaceutical company, and am constantly being asked to help identify sites and PIs to contact about upcoming trial needs. This has worked out nicely over the last couple of years, when a hospital libn has contacted me about "how do we get involved with your companies' trials?" questions -- we have access to the folks your docs need to contact. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The key thing our researcher want/need is access to the scientific lit. --online of course. They will need journals that you currently probably do not subscribe to. (And they are more costly than clinical titles) One product our researchers love is QUOSA--again a big-ticket item. http://quosa.com Researchers are also heavily invested in bib mgt sw--EndNote, RefWorks,etc. Emphasizing yoru services is important of course--your role in linkiing out to you online subscriptions--informing them that their seamless access to theser resources does not happen by magic--but through library efforts. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have a very strong research institute here. In our case, I would emphasize our ILL service with 1.5 day turnaround. We have mixed results in satisfying our researchers. Our collection, which is mostly e-library now, is more & more basic pediatric. Our local university affiliate carries a lot of more research-oriented journals in its library but one has to be faculty to get to them & some researchers are not. We do have a strong Ovid collection and use Linkout in PubMed to link to full-text when we can. I always tell them about that & how to get to it. Some researchers use us heavily & others do not-I do not know where they get their info. If I get a chance to talk to one or a group of them, I emphasize our databases & e-library and how to get access from the Intranet, how to get home access through VPN, how to ask for documents to be emailed in PDF to their desktop and how to use Clipboard on PubMed to collect articles & email the needed ones to us-remembering to put their name in the email. We encourage email communication & always deliver documents to their email of choice. A lot of research journal articles are free after 6 mos or 1 yr. Sometimes searchers do not understand about the green & yellow bars on the little books indicating free access in the PubMed search. Susan L. Klawansky, Librarian, Library & Information Commons, W-6850, Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, P.O. Box 5371, Seattle, WA 98105
Security Device Use (10/28/07)Question: Are you still placing security devices in books and other materials? What are your experiences?Summary of responses: Overwhelming the responders (6-1) do not use security devices in books. Reasons noted were: ~ Low theft problems! The expense of a security system is not cost effective in comparison to replacing the few books "lost" each year. ~ Loss due to failure to return borrowed items is greater than loss due to theft. ~ Security devices can not prevent loss to the determined thief. ~ Access to libraries and materials is 24/7. Security devices, card readers and even cameras are not enough to assess whether an after-hours user is actually taking materials or not. Missing items are not often detected until inventories are taken, usually months after the loss. ~ The need for currency and the transition to online resources limit the number of materials now kept in the library. This lowers opportunity for theft. ~ The one dissenter, still using security devices, noted that the security devices were "an important deterrent--however customers will steal if determined". Thank you for sending responses to my questions. Your input has helped us make a difficult decision. Susan P. Hardee, MLS, Director, Wake AHEC Medical Library, WakeMed Health and Hospitals, 3024 New Bern Ave., Suite G01, Raleigh, NC 27610
Teaching How to Search Using EBSCOHost Databases (11/9/07)Question:I am going to start teaching nurses, allied health and other interested personnel in the use of our EBSCOHost databases. Do any of you have some really good search examples that you use which come up with relevant hits? If you can provide your search strategy also, I would really appreciate it. I need to show some examples using keyword searching and the use of CINAHL/MeSH subject headings. I have done several searches over the past few months and can use those, but I want to see what others have done successfully. Many thanks in advance. Tonia Harris, MLIS, Manager of Library Services, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, 101 East Wood Street, Spartanburg, SC 29303 Summary of responses: I have been teaching these classes for a while, and have been changing from Ovid to EBSCO for CINAHL. My first demo search is about "prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia". Our default is to the Advanced search with "Suggest subject headings" checked. That of course leads you through the tree and the subheadings, as well as the major concept. For this particular subject, the history of the term (beginning in 2002) can also be mentioned. On the left of the results page are ways to narrow the term, including "mouth care", which makes a good demonstration of this feature. Then I can Refine the search, to relatively recent dates and research articles; this gives a chance to introduce this Refine Search page and to show more of the limits available. Alas! I am beginning to accept that the end user is not tuned in to subject headings, no matter what you say. (Although I did have some nursing students who were very pleased about this much better way of searching! How nice!) Especially with this search, when I type in the term (as an end user is likely to do), "prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia", and use the keyword rather than the subjects offered, I do get some different and relevant results that are not located with the subject headings. Some of these are "in process" and show that for the very most recent articles, this can be a good addition to the search. I am trying to figure out a good way to show both of these techniques without being totally confusing; at this time, I am completing the subject searching part and then going back and using a second approach with just using the keywords - both going through the "Suggest subject headings" approach. Of course, I may just be confusing everyone. After going through this search and explanation, and after a couple of practice exercises, I then add the concept of handwashing as a factor in the prevention of VAP. That leads to another subject search, an explanation of Explode, an introduction to the History page and to the Boolean concepts. Hopefully, this allows the class to begin to understand part of subject searching, and then, after some practice, to add another facet. My practice questions are rather simple. I would be interested in some that had a little more "meat" to them, but were not overwhelming. ------- Please be sure to first assess the student's starting points, skills, and goals. Some of the student's attitudes will impact on how they see the exercise and may end up frustrating you-I know from experience. Most are happy to have the exposure but may not see the relevance. You will have to build this in. Please be sure to ask for their assignment in full and then tailor. I have taught the students two ways depending on what it is that I think that they need. If they are terminal AS RN students who don't value the exercise and see it as just another assignment I try to at least get them familiar with the journals that are important to their area of concentration-peds, geriatrics, etc. I have them pull down the CINAHL headings and then select out journals to make the exercise important to them and they get to see which journals may be specific to their area of practice. (This also allows me to circulate and help them conduct more complex searches.) I then have them refine their search according to the parameters requested in the assignment using the limits area. For those students who are continuing on and are comfortable with computers beyond e-mail. I have them conduct keyword searches and then apply the parameters-nursing core,USA,...I have noticed that some of EBSCO's limits are redundant, so I don't have them often refine by using the search boxes and then sometimes I do. "Asthma" has been a good keyword search word for them to use. I also try to get them to think that more is not necessarily better, what is better is to retrieve the results they need. Hope that this helps some. I am still tweaking and refining, for instance I just put together a sheet that will help them remember the process and that is what I am try to instill...it is a process that should be thought about before attempting. --------- One search I had that was much easier done in CINAHL because of the focus of the subject heading was a medical errors search on items being left in the surgical patient. MeSH Headings: Foreign Bodies Medical Errors Iatrogenic Disease CINAHL Headings: Surgical Count Procedure Retained Instruments Health Care Errors Needless to say the CINAHL search was much cleaner and I didn't need to read through as many unrelated articles. ---------- My Ebsco PsychInfo and EbscoCinahl tutorials can be found here Tutorials/ East Carolina Univ Amy Blevins - East Carolina University
 Wiki for Hospital Librarians(http://mla-hls.wikispaces.com/) Wiki for Hospital Librarians: Many resources are provided in the following areas: Advocacy Benchmarking Blogs Collection Development EHR & Point of Care Evidence Based Practice Instructional Resources Joint Commission Magnet Hospitals MLA 2007 Physical Space Reference Tips & Tricks Research Technology
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