SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Access to information in the NHS is in need of huge improvements. In 1992 more than half of all staff had no access to a library service geared to their requirements. NHS libraries are now expected to serve patients and managers as well as clinical staff.
The extent of library service and the character of the library staff of hospitals in the United States are reported from the results of a survey conducted by the American Hospital Association in 1968. These data supplement the data reported on the nonhospital institutional population to make up a composite picture of health sciences library manpower today. Only 2,918 hospitals (48.5 percent) out of a total of 6,018 surveyed reported the existence of a library of any kind, though some of the hospitals reported multiple libraries. For all of these libraries only 2,872 individuals were reported under the rubric for "librarians," and of these only 726 were reported as having the master's degree or better. Of the total staff almost half are non-salaried (volunteer or contributory) and almost half of the salaried staff are half time. It is obvious, therefore, that hospital libraries must be substantially strengthened if they are to fulfill their important function in the biomedical information network.
The Health Sciences and Human Services Library of the University of Maryland developed and implemented a methodology to evaluate print and digital resources for social work. Although this methodology was devised for the interdisciplinary field of social work, the authors believe it may lend itself to resource selection in other interdisciplinary fields. The methodology was developed in response to the results of two separate surveys conducted in late 1999, which indicated improvement was needed in the library's graduate-level social work collections. Library liaisons evaluated the print collection by identifying forty-five locally relevant Library of Congress subject headings and then using these subjects or synonymous terms to compare the library's titles to collections of peer institutions, publisher catalogs, and Amazon.com. The collection also was compared to social work association bibliographies, ISI Journal Citation Reports, and major social work citation databases. An approval plan for social work books was set up to assist in identifying newly published titles. The library acquired new print and digital social work resources as a result of the evaluation, thus improving both print and digital collections for its social work constituents. Visibility of digital resources was increased by cataloging individual titles in aggregated electronic journal packages and listing each title on the library Web page.
Simultaneous ACCESS to and DISSEMINATION of electronically available PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE, in a productive, Cost-of-Ownership effective, and affordable manner are now achievable. Emerging MANAGEMENT-OF-INFORMATION and SYSTEMS-INTEGRATION disciplines are essential contributing factors to devising and implementing NEW STRATEGIES for ONLINE REFERENCE LIBRARIES. Bringing integrated information closer to the ultimate user and RESHAPING the electronic databases and full-text management systems MARKETPLACE are the most significant outcomes. Key technology attributes are advancements in CD-ROM, Networking, and office automation. We have proven this concept by developing an INTERFACE between MEDLINE from COMPACT CAMBRIDGE and ALL-IN-1 from DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION. Saved search results are automatically routed to the individual's ALL-IN-1 account where further DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT and electronic mail functions may be performed. A 486Ware system from Logicraft and a five-members VAX-Cluster (respectively), are linked in a DECNet environment that is the foundation of Children's Integrated Hospital Information System. In phase one of the project up to 8 SIMULTANEOUS USERS may access the 8 RECENT YEARS, from any one of 1500 ACCESS POINTS (local and remote), and utilize any one of 150 NETWORKED PRINTERS. Opportunities are now within reach to expand the electronic library services while utilizing progressive methods and taking advantage of the best available technologies.
Adapting to change is always difficult; all the more so when changes in the administrative structure of health care are part of a national political transformation toward democracy. As South Africa moves from apartheid to integration in its health services, the Witwatersrand Medical Library (WML) will have to adopt innovative strategies to cope with increasing demands on its resources by sub-Saharan African medical libraries and with expected decreases in state funding for health and education. WML also will have to address the lack of hospital library services in the Johannesburg region by expanding its academic branches at University of the Witwatersrand Medical School's teaching hospitals to serve both hospital and academic health care staff. This article discusses these challenges in the context of rapidly changing academic health care services in Johannesburg.
Outreach by health sciences librarians to various constituencies helps ensure that the information needs of these groups are adequately met. In the past, librarians have extended outreach to isolated rural health care providers, urban clinicians not affiliated with libraries, and consumers. One logical next step in outreach efforts is to partner with existing community groups who seek to improve the health of residents concerning such areas as lead contamination and rising asthma rates. This article describes a National Network of Libraries of Medicine-funded project, where librarians worked with a group of grass roots community organizations, schools, and clinics. Knowledge gained from past outreach projects was applied with mixed success because of the unique nature of community groups where many unanticipated issues arose. Lessons learned while extending outreach library services to community groups are described.
A study of ninety-five health sciences libraries, obtaining nearly 24,000 user responses, provides estimates of the national cost of library services through the three principal services of circulation, reference, and in-house use; and for four types of users: persons interested in patient care, those interested in research, those involved in education, and others. Unit costs of the three principal services are reported and differences in their relative importance are described. National totals for nine classes of libraries are reported as well as costs by service, user, and function: patient care, research, education, or other. The national expenditure in 1982 was approximately $365 million. The study establishes a method for obtaining results that can be compared and combined across libraries.
The public library system is targeting the geriatric population and instituting programs to meet informational and recreational needs. From retirement planning, visual aids, and screening, to accessing library material to the elderly, the public library system attempts to meet the challenge of providing service to this special population. Although not a formal group, the library has inherent therapeutic effects that benefit the elderly who participate in their programs. The clinician would be advised to take advantage of these various programs. Because each local and regional center will offer different programs, calling a local library is the most effective way to find out what a specific public library system has to offer. Nurses may also consider joint efforts to initiate programs in their library systems to better meet the population's needs.
Since the Second World War, Britain has established or rehabilitated medical schools in eight territories for which she has some responsibility, and, through the British Council, she is making medical library services available in many other countries. Official organizations and professional bodies provide abstract and review journals which enable medical men overseas to keep abreast of modern knowledge, while the Library Association Medical Section and the British National Book Centre have established flourishing exchange services, whose facilities are offered to medical libraries abroad. The most pressing need in developing countries at the present time is for professional medical librarians. Opportunities for training in Britain are open to librarians through at least six official sources besides the British Council and World Health Organization, but so far only two trainees have presented themselves on such grants. Less experienced librarians in the developing countries also need the continuing support of their senior colleagues overseas.
OBJECTIVES: This paper introduces the special supplement to the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) that documents the proceedings of the "Symposium on Community-based Health Information Outreach" held on December 2 and 3, 2004, at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The goal of the symposium was to explore new models of health information outreach that are emerging as technology dramatically changes the abilities of medical and health services libraries to provide resources and services beyond their traditional institutional boundaries, with particular concern for consumer health information outreach through community-based organizations. The symposium's primary objectives were to learn about successful and promising work that had already been done as well as to develop a vision for the future that could inform the NLM's next National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) contract. Another objective was to review and assess the NLM's Strategic Plan to Reduce Health Disparities with special emphasis on Native Americans. METHOD: The paper describes the background events and rationale that led to the NLM's decision to convene the symposium and summarizes the supplement's ten other papers, some of which were presented at the symposium and some of which were written afterward to capture the symposium's working sessions. RESULTS: The symposium convened approximately 150 invited participants with a wide variety of perspectives and experience. Sessions were held to present exemplary outreach projects, to review the NLM's Strategic Plan to Reduce Health Disparities, to summarize the research underpinnings for evaluating outreach projects, and to provide a futurist's perspective. A panel of community representatives gave voice to the participants in outreach projects, and sixteen posters describing outreach projects were available, many of them with community representatives on hand to explain the work. IMPLICATIONS: This JMLA supplement provides a comprehensive summary of the state of the art in community-based outreach and a jumping-off point for future outreach efforts.
A brief historical sketch, tracing the development of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and its library from the Royal charter date of 1754, is presented. Little is recorded of library development prior to 1928, when the departmental libraries were united with the Reference Library to form the core of the present library. The planning processes for the new library are discussed, noting the involvement of the entire library staff. Four floors in a twenty-story tower are devoted to library services, and each floor is described. Several of the major compromises made during the planning process are documented. Photographs and floor plans of two of the floors help illustrate the text.
Why should librarians, including those in hospitals and corporations, build virtual libraries and create information visions? This question is explored in relation to the three themes of the 1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Services-Democracy, Productivity, and Literacy.
The authors discuss new library services and support for a podiatric residency program. They present information on how to conduct medical literature searches through the use of MEDLINE and CD-ROM MEDLINE. Information on interlibrary loans also is provided.
BACKGROUND: The analysis included forty-one academic health sciences library (HSL) Websites as captured in the first two weeks of January 2001. Home pages and persistent navigational tools (PNTs) were analyzed for layout, technology, and links, and other general site metrics were taken. METHODS: Websites were selected based on rank in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, with regional and resource libraries given preference on the basis that these libraries are recognized as leaders in their regions and would be the most reasonable source of standards for best practice. A three-page evaluation tool was developed based on previous similar studies. All forty-one sites were evaluated in four specific areas: library general information, Website aids and tools, library services, and electronic resources. Metrics taken for electronic resources included orientation of bibliographic databases alphabetically by title or by subject area and with links to specifically named databases. RESULTS: Based on the results, a formula for determining obligatory links was developed, listing items that should appear on all academic HSL Web home pages and PNTs. CONCLUSIONS: These obligatory links demonstrate a series of best practices that may be followed in the design and construction of academic HSL Websites.
The Central Medical Library (CMK) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, started to build a library Website that included a guide to library services and resources in 1997. The evaluation of Website usage plays an important role in its maintenance and development. Analyzing and exploring regularities in the visitors' behavior can be used to enhance the quality and facilitate delivery of information services, identify visitors' interests, and improve the server's performance. The analysis of the CMK Website users' navigational behavior was carried out by analyzing the Web server log files. These files contained information on all user accesses to the Website and provided a great opportunity to learn more about the behavior of visitors to the Website. The majority of the available tools for Web log file analysis provide a predefined set of reports showing the access count and the transferred bytes grouped along several dimensions. In addition to the reports mentioned above, the authors wanted to be able to perform interactive exploration and ad hoc analysis and discover trends in a user-friendly way. Because of that, we developed our own solution for exploring and analyzing the Web logs based on data warehousing and online analytical processing technologies. The analytical solution we developed proved successful, so it may find further application in the field of Web log file analysis. We will apply the findings of the analysis to restructuring the CMK Website.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.