Academic Medical Library Research Articles

Implementing PDA Technology in a Medical Library

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) have grown from being a novelty in the late 1990s to an essential tool for healthcare professionals in the 2000s. This paper describes the experiences of a librarian who implemented PDA technology first in a hospital library, and then at an academic medical center library. It focuses on the role of the library in supporting PDA technology and resources. Included are programmatic issues such as training for library staff and clinicians, and technical issues such as Palm and Windows operating systems. This model could be used in either a hospital or academic health sciences library.

End‐user training in a virtual medical library setting – a case study of an academic medical library in Lebanon

The Saab Medical Library (SML) developed its virtual medical library site in 1997. The spread of the Internet prompted its development, in addition to continuous requests from users to provide such a service for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The virtual library is dynamic, growing and changing continuously, and the role of the traditional reference librarian and the end‐user education programs had to change to fit this borderless library. This paper discusses the aim, preparation, problems and lessons learned after three years of the user education program in a virtual library setting, and how reference work had to change to satisfy the needs of both the system and its users. The reference librarian has to carry out a smooth transition to a virtual library and help users cope with the technological changes. Training at the SML, as in any academic library, aims at teaching how to retrieve information rather than providing answers. This training is presented in different forms such as orientation sessions, seminars, and course‐related instruction, in addition to Web‐based instruction. In a virtual setting, reference librarians should act both as educators and consultants for end‐users, advising them on the search strategy as well as the software set‐up. The “Lebanese Corner” and an e‐reference service were added to complete the picture of this virtual library. This change had advantages and disadvantages for the users.

Academic Mentorship

Academic mentorship is a professional development strategy that enables fledgling professionals to take advantage of the skills and expertise of the senior members for professional growth. Although widely practiced in many other professions, academic men-torship has not been widely reported in medical librarianship. Drawing upon personal experience, the author reports the success story of an academic mentorship program implemented in an academic medical library and argues for academic mentorship to be widely adopted in academic medical libraries. This paper first reviews the literature on the concept of mentoring in an academic setting, and then describes the background, rationale, methods, and results of the mentorshipprograms the author has experienced. Lastly, based upon an analysis of several surveys and studies on coping skills for quality job performance of health sciences reference librarians, the paper discusses mentorship as one effective means to ease a new medical reference librarian's transition from his/her pre-service experience to the professional world of medical librarianship. It calls on other health sciences librarians to consider developing their own mentorship programs to promote their professional development and personal growth.

Academic Medical Libraries' Policies and Procedures for Notifying Library Users of Retracted Scientific Publications

Academic medical libraries have a responsibility to inform library users regarding retracted publications. Many have created policies and procedures that identify flawed journal articles. A questionnaire was sent to the 129 academic medical libraries in the United States and Canada to find out how many had policies and procedures for identifying retracted publications. Of the returned questionnaires, 59% had no policy and no practice for calling the attention of the library user to retracted publications. Forty-one percent of the libraries called attention to retractions with or without a formal policy for doing so. Several responding libraries included their policy statement with the survey. The increasing number of academic medical libraries that realize the importance of having policies and practices in place highlights the necessity for this procedure.

Selecting processes to bench‐mark; a key step in quality improvement—a case study in an academic medical library setting

Selecting processes to bench‐mark; a key step in quality improvement—a case study in an academic medical library setting

Promoting an awareness of retractions: the Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport experience.

The current mission statement of the Medical Library Association states that it is "dedicated to improving health through professional excellence and leadership of its members in the ... provision of information services and educational programs ..." With this goal in mind, retractions offer medical librarians a professional challenge to become involved in the scientific process. Through results of a survey conducted among the consortium of South Central Academic Medical Libraries (SCAMeL), this paper reveals opinions on the importance of retraction awareness and who is responsible for disseminating this knowledge. The paper also reports what the Louisiana State University Medical Center at Shreveport Library and other SCAMeL member libraries are doing to promote awareness.

EMBASE OR MEDLINE? The impact of the BIDS EMBASE service on academic medical libraries and their users. Meeting organized by the University Medical School Librarians Group, Leicester University Library, 20 January 1993.

EMBASE OR MEDLINE? The impact of the BIDS EMBASE service on academic medical libraries and their users. Meeting organized by the University Medical School Librarians Group, Leicester University Library, 20 January 1993.

Medical school librariesʼ handling of articles that report invalid science

In 1989-90 the authors conducted a nationwide study to examine how academic medical libraries handled articles that report invalid science and to determine the effectiveness of any policies implemented to limit the use of such articles. Ninety-five of the 127 medical school libraries the authors surveyed completed questionnaires analyzing policy and attitude issues. Eighty-four of these libraries manually reviewed the available copies they held of ten retracted articles. Of the 811 copies of the retracted, invalid articles reviewed, 742 (91.5%) were not tagged as being invalid. Seventy-nine percent of the libraries had tagged none of the retracted studies and only 16% had policies for managing articles that report invalid science. Academic librarians reflected a common attitude against perceived library censorship and emphasized the user's role in assuring validity. The nation's medical libraries, at least in part by intent, do not commonly identify or have policies to handle the invalid articles they hold. The authors conclude that biomedical researchers, clinicians, and teachers should not assume published studies held in libraries are inherently valid. The lack of stated policy and the disparate assumptions about the role libraries play in this area may perpetuate the use of invalid articles.

Meeting the Information Needs of Nursing Students

Reference librarians in large academic medical center libraries deal with a variety of user groups with markedly different needs and skills. Undergraduate nursing students in particular have unique requirements. To help these students effectively with a small reference staff, librarians at the Indiana University School of Medicine Library developed a library instruction module for use in an introductory nursing research class. This article describes the module and the particular needs of the nursing students.

Manual Selective Dissemination of Information from Journal Holdings of an Academic Medical Library

In the 1960s and 1970s manual selective dissemination of information (SDI) services were widespread in medical libraries. Since 1972 when the National Library of Medicine introduced SDlLlNE, manual SDI services have been largely replaced by automated SDI. This paper reexamines the unique benefits of the manual approach to SDI through a currently successful program called Comprehensive Outreach Service (COS). Benefits are described both for faculty/researchers at a media school and for the library.

Multiple File Computer Searching: Can Trends in Use Be Predicted?

This research project examines on-line searching data to determine if there are criteria which can identify the frequency of multiple file searching for use in predicting costs. Five years of data from the searching records of an academic medical research library were reviewed to identify the number of search requests answered using one, two, three, or more specific numbers of databases. Searches used for the study included all interactive subject requests and ready reference use. The data revealed some seasonal variation and a lower volume of multiple file searching than is reported in other research. The months with higher levels of search requests did not result in higher multiple file use, but in higher single file use.

Multiple File Computer Searching

This research project examines on-line searching data to determine if there are criteria which can identify the frequency of multiple file searching for use in predicting costs. Five years of data from the searching records of an academic medical research library were reviewed to identify the number of search requests answered using one, two, three, or more specific nunbers of databases. Searches used for the study included all interactive subject requests and ready reference use. The data revealed some seasonal variation and a lower volume of multiple file searching than is reported in other research. The months with higher levels of search requests did not result in higher multiple file use, but in higher single file use.

Development of Quantitative Assessment of Medical Libraries

Assessments of library services can be used for a variety of purposes, including improvement of services, management justification, and budget preparation. The Institute for the Advancement of Medical Communication has developed methods for testing an academic research medical library's ability to provide specific services. These include the ability to deliver books and journals to primary clientele, to supply answers of simple fact, to deliver documents through interlibrary lending, and to verify and correct citations. Other methods were tested for evaluation and comparison of library service policies and utilization of services by a library's primary clientele. A random alarm device was developed. The use of this device has been tested and has demonstrated that many library statistics can be collected randomly and provide the same information that can be acquired by maintaining total counts of such services as circulation and library use.