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The library as a resource for decision making in mental health care.

OBJECTIVE: The study sought to determine whether mental health practitioners decided to make changes in specific areas of patient or client care as a result of information obtained from library literature searches. METHODS: A ten-question survey was distributed to 350 mental health professionals who had requested at least one computerized literature search from a library affiliated with a state institute of mental health during an eight-month period. RESULTS: A total of 70.5 percent of survey respondents made one or more changes in their approach to patient or client care after reviewing the information obtained through the search. CONCLUSIONS: Access to the wide range of research and experience embodied in the published literature is a valuable adjunct to the mental health professional's training and personal experience.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

The impact of medical libraries and literature on patient care in New Zealand.

This paper reports the results of a survey of 372 physicians working in regional hospitals in New Zealand. The survey was undertaken to determine if these physicians used their local medical library and what impact the literature obtained had on patient care. The 295 respondents (80.6% of the sample) expressed genuine interest in their library, with most visiting the library once a week or more. Patient care was ranked as the main reason for their visit; the second most important reason was keeping up-to-date on the latest research. Physicians indicated that information obtained at the library was used to confirm or change diagnoses, medications, or diagnostic tests, or to change advice given to patients. Information also was used to make decisions concerning early discharge, avoidance of hospital admission, or transfer of patients to another hospital. The survey also addressed the use of librarian services, sources of information used, and physicians' purchase of textbooks and journals. All comments by respondents were supportive of the library. The significance of libraries to clinical decision making, especially in small hospitals, is discussed.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Normalization and subtraction: two approaches to facilitate gene discovery.

Large-scale sequencing of cDNAs randomly picked from libraries has proven to be a very powerful approach to discover (putatively) expressed sequences that, in turn, once mapped, may greatly expedite the process involved in the identification and cloning of human disease genes. However, the integrity of the data and the pace at which novel sequences can be identified depends to a great extent on the cDNA libraries that are used. Because altogether, in a typical cell, the mRNAs of the prevalent and intermediate frequency classes comprise as much as 50-65% of the total mRNA mass, but represent no more than 1000-2000 different mRNAs, redundant identification of mRNAs of these two frequency classes is destined to become overwhelming relatively early in any such random gene discovery programs, thus seriously compromising their cost-effectiveness. With the goal of facilitating such efforts, previously we developed a method to construct directionally cloned normalized cDNA libraries and applied it to generate infant brain (INIB) and fetal liver/spleen (INFLS) libraries, from which a total of 45,192 and 86,088 expressed sequence tags, respectively, have been derived. While improving the representation of the longest cDNAs in our libraries, we developed three additional methods to normalize cDNA libraries and generated over 35 libraries, most of which have been contributed to our integrated Molecular Analysis of Genomes and Their Expression (IMAGE) Consortium and thus distributed widely and used for sequencing and mapping. In an attempt to facilitate the process of gene discovery further, we have also developed a subtractive hybridization approach designed specifically to eliminate (or reduce significantly the representation of) large pools of arrayed and (mostly) sequenced clones from normalized libraries yet to be (or just partly) surveyed. Here we present a detailed description and a comparative analysis of four methods that we developed and used to generate normalize cDNA libraries from human (15), mouse (3), rat (2), as well as the parasite Schistosoma mansoni (1). In addition, we describe the construction and preliminary characterization of a subtracted liver/spleen library (INFLS-SI) that resulted from the elimination (or reduction of representation) of -5000 INFLS-IMAGE clones from the INFLS library.

Adult↗

Are health science faculty interested in medical history? An evaluative case study.

This paper deals with the efforts of a medical library to stimulate interest in the history of medicine by utilizing its historical resources. It is based on a survey designed to evaluate the monthly publication of the library, the Bookman, and to determine the response of health science faculty to historical essays as well as to other sections of the publication. The results show that a large percentage of the faculty reads historical essays either regularly or occasionally, and reveal a trend contrary to the common belief that the teaching staff in health science centers is not interested in medical history. The authors suggest that a library with historical resources can contribute to the educational process in a medical community by actively publicizing its collections and providing opportunities for informal and self-initiated reading.

Attitude↗

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CANADIAN MEDICAL LIBRARIES.

Library developments since the Biomedical Library's establishment in 1951 are discussed, including the province-wide B.C. Medical Library Service and the recent activities of Canadian medical school librarians. The recommendations about medical libraries, which were submitted by the Committee of the Medical Science Libraries, C.L.A.-A.C.B., in its Brief to the Canadian Government's Royal Commission on Health Services, are listed. There is some discussion of the Survey report of the twelve medical school libraries which has been prepared for the Royal Commission's Special Committee on Medical Education, the outcome of which will not be known until midsummer 1963.

Canada↗

An information service for practicing veterinarians.

Many Indiana veterinarians are relatively isolated from colleagues and information sources. Their information needs cannot be easily met by public or medical libraries. The Veterinary Medical Information Center (VMIC) at Purdue University, which began operation in the fall of 1977, offers information services designed to meet the specific needs of veterinary medical practitioners in the state of Indiana. Questions received by the center have covered all facets of animal medicine and management. After two years of free service, VMIC will begin charging clients for services and will consider expansion of the service to other states. VMIC operations will be evaluated through data collected by the center and follow-up surveys.

Animals↗

The changing continuing education role of health sciences libraries.

Libraries have always organizationally supported the continuing education (CE) objectives of their respective institutions. As CE experts increase their understanding of the learning process and the factors that make CE opportunities successful, it is important that health sciences librarians use this knowledge to enhance their positions as key players in the CE field. This paper surveys the literature related to the roles of health sciences libraries in CE, reports an informal survey of health sciences librarians, and identifies innovative services that integrate the library with the lifelong learning processes of its users. Four distinct support areas are identified in which the library relates to CE (resources, content, education, and information management), illustrating traditional library CE roles and suggesting new opportunities. To be successful in improving the library's role in CE, librarians must attend to their own lifelong learning needs, increase collaboration with educators and CE providers, participate in research that addresses the learning and information assimilation processes, and actively involve the library in the quality filtering process.

Education, Continuing↗

[The medical and scientific book in the Roudnice Lobkowicz library in the 15th and 16th centuries].

With about 65000 volumes, the Roudnice Lobkowicz Library, recently restituted to the owner and reconstructed at Nelahozeves Castle, is one of the greatest aristocratic libraries of Middle Europe. The library holds an extremely rich collection of medical books, starting from manuscripts and incunabula. Following up the development of studies started in the last years in the Library focused on provenances, collecting and with the reception of books throughout the centuries, the research is a survey of the medical literature present in the library. It is an attempt to individuate the kind of edition as well as to determinate the origin of the items, to explain their presence according to the different provenances and possibly their use through the different periods. As result, is possible to determinate models of reception of medical books in aristocratic libraries.

Books↗

Measuring use patterns of online journals and databases.

PURPOSE: This research sought to determine use of online biomedical journals and databases and to assess current user characteristics associated with the use of online resources in an academic health sciences center. SETTING: The Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria is a regional site of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Library with 350 print journals, more than 4,000 online journals, and multiple online databases. METHODOLOGY: A survey was designed to assess online journal use, print journal use, database use, computer literacy levels, and other library user characteristics. A survey was sent through campus mail to all (471) UIC Peoria faculty, residents, and students. RESULTS: Forty-one percent (188) of the surveys were returned. Ninety-eight percent of the students, faculty, and residents reported having convenient access to a computer connected to the Internet. While 53% of the users indicated they searched MEDLINE at least once a week, other databases showed much lower usage. Overall, 71% of respondents indicated a preference for online over print journals when possible. CONCLUSIONS: Users prefer online resources to print, and many choose to access these online resources remotely. Convenience and full-text availability appear to play roles in selecting online resources. The findings of this study suggest that databases without links to full text and online journal collections without links from bibliographic databases will have lower use. These findings have implications for collection development, promotion of library resources, and end-user training.

Computer Literacy↗

Providing consumer health information via health professionals.

The Health Education Center in Pittsburgh, a community-based health promotion agency which provides library services to health professionals, students, and the lay public, received a resource grant in 1981 from the National Library of Medicine to study professionals' awareness of consumer health information (CHI) materials for their patients and clients. A survey of telephone patrons and on-site library patrons provided details on health professionals' use of the CHI resource center: their areas of interest, the material formats they preferred, and the intended use of the materials. Health professionals' demand for information about consumer-oriented materials and their satisfaction with the HEC library suggest that such a resource can be a valuable asset to a community.

Area Health Education Centers↗

MEDLINE evaluation study.

MEDLINE (MEDLARS-ON-LINE) is the new on-line, interactive bibliographic searching system which was recently developed by the National Library of Medicine. The system provides users with lists of bibliographical citations and other information from a three-year file of over 1,250 biomedical journals. A survey testing user reactions was conducted at the University of Virginia Medical Library. The results of the survey are based on replies by 246 users who requested one or more MEDLINE searches between September 1972 and March 1973. The findings indicate that over 93% believe that MEDLINE is a substantial improvement over the traditional methods of searching through the printed indexes. These respondents also stated that the results of MEDLINE searches had assisted them in their clinical or research work, or both. Asked whether they would continue to use MEDLINE after the imposition of user charges on July 1, 1973, about 75% said that they would. The remaining 25% expressed some reservations and doubts. The survey gives reason to believe that with the imposition of user charges the use of MEDLINE will decline.

Information Systems↗

CD-ROM databases in academic libraries.

Of 200 libraries in 50 states 130 responded to a survey showing the major CD-ROM databases available: ERIC, PsycLIT, INFOTRAC/INFOTRAC II, Social Science Index, COMPACT DISCLOSURE. For 38 libraries costs prevented purchases.

Humans↗

The Medical Library Association Benchmarking Network: development and implementation.

OBJECTIVE: This article explores the development and implementation of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Benchmarking Network from the initial idea and test survey, to the implementation of a national survey in 2002, to the establishment of a continuing program in 2004. Started as a program for hospital libraries, it has expanded to include other nonacademic health sciences libraries. METHODS: The activities and timelines of MLA's Benchmarking Network task forces and editorial board from 1998 to 2004 are described. RESULTS: The Benchmarking Network task forces successfully developed an extensive questionnaire with parameters of size and measures of library activity and published a report of the data collected by September 2002. The data were available to all MLA members in the form of aggregate tables. Utilization of Web-based technologies proved feasible for data intake and interactive display. A companion article analyzes and presents some of the data. MLA has continued to develop the Benchmarking Network with the completion of a second survey in 2004. CONCLUSIONS: The Benchmarking Network has provided many small libraries with comparative data to present to their administrators. It is a challenge for the future to convince all MLA members to participate in this valuable program.

Advisory Committees↗

End-user training: does it make a difference?

Although database access has been available via search intermediaries for some time, online services are now encouraging end users to search databases directly. In response to this trend, librarians are taking on new end-user training and support roles. But is this training effort worthwhile? The relationship between online training received and the level of implementation of end-user searching is discussed using survey data from 124 Canadian health professionals (response rate 83%). There was a positive relationship between the number of training events reported and implementation level. Several different kinds of training, in addition to formal courses, were reported by end users. The use of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) was related to more positive perceptions of online searching which, in turn, predicted higher implementation levels. Variability in the implementation levels of the respondents suggests that end users are a diverse group with different information needs and degrees of searching expertise. Various types of both formal and informal training will continue to be required by end users.

Canada↗

No more tours: how library tours of the past become today's celebrations.

In 1999, Northwestern University's Galter Health Sciences Library redesigned the library orientation program for first-year medical students. Surveys indicated tours were ineffective and students retained little of the information presented. Furthermore, the tour was not related to the student's curriculum and did not reinforce their learning objectives. As a replacement, the library staff developed a self-directed two-hour library open house. Stations throughout the library showcased the library staff, services, and resources, focusing on the first-year student curriculum. A follow-up survey found this redesign more useful and relevant to the students' course work, indicating libraries should be creating more interactive tours for students allowing them to learn actively.

Chicago↗

Raising the bar: the importance of hospital library standards in the continuing medical education accreditation process.

The Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS) reviews and accredits the continuing medical education (CME) programs offered by Connecticut's hospitals. As part of the survey process, the CSMS assesses the quality of the hospitals' libraries. In 1987, the CSMS adopted the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) "Minimum Standards for Health Sciences Libraries in Hospitals." In 1990, professional librarians were added to the survey team and, later, to the CSMS CME Committee. Librarians participating in this effort are recruited from the membership of the Connecticut Association of Health Sciences Librarians (CAHSL). The positive results of having a qualified librarian on the survey team and the invaluable impact of adherence to the MLA standards are outlined. As a direct result of this process, hospitals throughout the state have added staffing, increased space, and added funding for resources during an era of cutbacks. Some hospital libraries have been able to maintain a healthy status quo, while others have had proposed cuts reconsidered by administrators for fear of losing valuable CME accreditation status. Creating a relationship with an accrediting agency is one method by which hospital librarians elsewhere may strengthen their efforts to ensure adequate library resources in an era of downsizing. In addition, this collaboration has provided a new and important role for librarians to play on an accreditation team.

Accreditation↗

Analysis of non-urban end users' MEDLINE training.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) Library mailed a MEDLINE End User Practice Survey Form to 310 health professionals who had attended MEDLINE seminars supported by a two-year NLM grant. The survey sought to determine how many respondents had obtained NLM codes, reasons for not obtaining a code, searching time done since the seminar, differences in the use of information since taking the seminar, factors helpful in successful searching, and factors contributing to frustrations. The most prevalent reasons for not obtaining a code were lack of a microcomputer and modem, infrequent use of MEDLINE, cost, lack of time, complications, and ability to obtain free searches.

Computer User Training↗