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From papyrus to compact disc: the microbial deterioration of documentary heritage.

Highly significant evidence of the intellectual and cultural efforts of the human race is contained in documents. They take many forms, from papyri through paper to modern magnetic media and optical records. These items are mainly made of organic materials many of which contain polymers, which span from cellulose and its derivatives to synthetic resins. As with other manmade objects, however, documentary heritage is susceptible to chemical, physical, and biological damage. For the colonization and establishment of any biological community, the composition of materials used, their status of conservation, and environmental and climatic factors, such as temperature and humidity, are important elements to take into account. This article covers the scientific investigation of microbial degradation of documents, which is one of the most serious and underappreciated sources of damage to library and archival materials. In particular, although less known, modern records, including compact discs, are also subjected to biodeterioration. Archival and library material preservation broadly encompasses those activities and functions designed to produce a suitable and safe environment that extends the life of collections in useable condition for as long as is feasible. In the literature quoted, key information is also provided to avoid or limit microbial growth and some conservation treatments are also reported.

Animals↗

Collection policy management for the Kuopio University and Kuopio University Hospital, Finland: detecting the needs of users and developing high-quality collections.

BACKGROUND: This article discusses the collection policies of a university library in a modern digital environment. A brief description of national collection policy decisions in Finland is provided. The rapid evolution and growth of scientific publication places new demands on building a collection in a health and bioscience orientated university, and it requires an evidence-based approach to support effective service processes. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to identify the needs of the university's students and staff. METHODS: Usage statistics were surveyed and analysed. RESULTS: Both usage statistics and user surveys indicate that the library use is divided half-and-half between the traditional use of printed material and library premises and the modern use of digital materials via the Web. The former is mainly the way that the students and hospital staff use the library, and the latter can be viewed as the researchers' way of using the library. Librarians and information specialists act in this as service providers and/or guides and tutors to the end-users. These results, however, must be validated with a longer timescale data collation and analysis, both of which are an ongoing process within the library. CONCLUSIONS: It is important that requirements and needs of the library's users are monitored regularly and acquisition policies are updated frequently. It also seems that the needs have changed quite dramatically in response to modern ways of disseminating publications, but this supposition will require further study.

Finland↗

Gene expression in nematode-infected plant roots.

A major pathogen of potato plants (Solanum tuberosum) is the potato cyst nematode (Globodera spp.), which induces localized redifferentiation of a limited number of host cells to form a specialized feeding-site termed the syncytium. A novel strategy utilizing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to construct a cDNA library from dissected potato roots highly enriched in syncytial material. The library was differentially screened with cDNA probes derived from the infected root tissue from a compatible interaction and from healthy root tissue. Characterization of one gene identified by the library screen indicated an expression pattern that correlated with events in the immediate vicinity of the pathogen after syncytial establishment. The strategy for library construction and screening could be applicable to the study of gene expression in any plant-pathogen interaction in which the limited supply of cells at the interface of the two organisms precludes a more traditional approach.

Animals↗

A college course for nurses on the utilization of library resources.

Library user instruction has been a no-man's-land between librarian and educator. Each assumes that the other has offered the student some necessary preparation before his assignments requiring library consultation. Too often, this is not the case. Reference librarians at the Duke University Medical Center Library are currently offering a ten-week, 1 1/2-hour credit library instruction course for nursing baccalaureate candidates. "Introduction to Library Resources in the Nursing Field" is designed not so much to orient students to a specific library facility, but rather, to provide them with background material on library organization and services and to familiarize them with basic bibliographic tools relevant to the nursing profession. Lectures are supplemented through the use of homework questions, bibliographies, handouts, in-class exercises, and on-line demonstrations. Very positive feedback from both students and faculty has attested to the value of such a course in the nursing curriculum and has resulted in its being offered four times to date. The library staff is exploring methods for offering additional library instruction not only to nursing students but to other user groups in Duke's medical complex.

Curriculum↗

EMERGING DISCIPLINES IN THE HEALTH SCIENCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIES: THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES.

Interest in human behavior has always been present in schools of medicine. Particularly since World War II, this interest has been amplified, as shown by a number of trends. These include increasing time in the medical school curriculum for the teaching of the behavioral sciences, increasing numbers of people on medical school faculties who are studying problems of human behavior, and more emphasis on integrated teaching of human behavior by a number of disciplines. The behavioral sciences have also had impact on a number of the methods in medical schools. These various trends have changed the literature needs of the community that the library serves in that there has been an increase in the amount of material available and in the people interested in this material. The library has also profited as an institution from the increasing body of knowledge available in the behavioral sciences. From the level of learning to the level of social interaction in the library it is becoming increasingly possible to organize this important institution in the medical center in a conscious goal-directed way.

Behavior↗

Nonprint media as information resources: software and hardware.

Nonprint materials are rapidly becoming important information and learning resource materials for the health science library. Because of their long experience in organizing and utilizing informational materials, libraries represent highly appropriate repositories and sites for utilization of these new materials. Nonprint materials differ from printed materials in several ways, and this may account for the resistance of some librarians to dealing with them. One of the most important differences is that a machine must serve as mediator between the information and the user of nonprint materials. Also, the great variety of formats and machines can confuse the novice. The librarian must learn to deal with these differences in a creative way through a process of cooperation and collaboration with media and educational technology specialists.

Attitude↗

Using geographic information systems to identify prospective marketing areas for a special library.

BACKGROUND: The Center for Disability Resources (CDR) Library is the largest collection of its kind in the Southeastern United States, consisting of over 5,200 books, videos/DVDs, brochures, and audiotapes covering a variety of disability-related topics, from autism to transition resources. The purpose of the library is to support the information needs of families, faculty, students, staff, and other professionals in South Carolina working with individuals with disabilities. The CDR Library is funded on a yearly basis; therefore, maintaining high usage is crucial. A variety of promotional efforts have been used to attract new patrons to the library. Anyone in South Carolina can check out materials from the library, and most of the patrons use the library remotely by requesting materials, which are then mailed to them. The goal of this project was to identify areas of low geographic usage as a means of identifying locations for future library marketing efforts. METHODS: Nearly four years worth of library statistics were compiled in a spreadsheet that provided information per county on the number of checkouts, the number of renewals, and the population. Five maps were created using ArcView GIS software to create visual representations of patron checkout and renewal behavior per county. RESULTS: Out of the 46 counties in South Carolina, eight counties never checked out materials from the library. As expected urban areas and counties near the library's physical location have high usage totals. CONCLUSION: The visual representation of the data made identification of low usage regions easier than using a standalone database with no visual-spatial component. The low usage counties will be the focus of future Center for Disability Resources Library marketing efforts. Due to the impressive visual-spatial representations created with Geographic Information Systems, which more efficiently communicate information than stand-alone database information can, librarians may benefit from the software's use as a supplemental tool for tracking library usage and planning promotional efforts.

Journal Article↗

Options for the disposal of unwanted donations.

Donations of biomedical books and journals frequently duplicate the holdings of a receiving library. A decision must then be made concerning the distribution of the material to other libraries that may need it. What options are available to the librarian? Are many volumes of valuable material destroyed each year because libraries lack the necessary staff, space, or money to distribute donated materials? Are libraries restricted in choice of methods for distribution or unaware of available options? A survey questionnaire was mailed to 150 health sciences libraries in the spring of 1988 to determine the various methods used to dispose of unwanted gift materials. A total of 113 responses was received (75% return rate). This paper reports the results and discusses some of the creative methods used by receiving libraries to place unneeded materials. Statistical comparisons are included for the methods used by academic, hospital, and other types of health sciences libraries.

Book Collecting↗

Electronic reserves: copyright and permissions.

Electronic reserves present a new service option for libraries to provide needed materials during hours that the library is not open and to user groups located some distance from library collections. Possible changes to current copyright law and publishers permissions policies have delayed the development of electronic reserves in many libraries. This paper reviews the current state of electronic reserves materials in the publishing and library communities and presents the results of a survey of publishers to determine permissions policies for electronic materials. Issues of concern to both libraries and publishers are discussed.

Computer Communication Networks↗

Synthesis of neoglycopolymers by a combination of "click chemistry" and living radical polymerization.

The synthesis of novel well-defined alkyne side chain functional polymers featuring narrow molecular weight distributions (PDI = 1.09-1.17) by living radical polymerization is described. Grafting of protected and unprotected carbohydrates is achieved via either a C-6 or an anomeric azide (alpha or beta) onto these polymers by Cu(I)-catalyzed "click chemistry", providing a simple and efficient route to synthetic glycopolymers. The strategy provides an extremely powerful tool for the synthesis of libraries of materials that differ only in the nature of the sugar moiety presented on a well-defined polymer scaffold. A library of multivalent ligands were then prepared following a "coclicking" synthetic protocol, and the reactivity of these glycopolymers in the presence of concanavalin A and Ricinus communis agglutinin, model lectins able to selectively bind appropriate mannose and galactose derivatives, respectively, was assessed.

Journal Article↗

INTERLIBRARY LOAN, 1952-62: TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS?

Although the revised General Interlibrary Loan Code of 1952 was designed to alleviate the "crisis" in interlibrary loan services existing at the time, libraries today find that they are still facing the same problems as they did in 1952, namely, excessive use of large, distant libraries for materials available locally, unverified references, stringent restrictions on the materials lent and their subsequent use, and the rising cost of operating interlibrary loan programs. A brief description of the use and abuse of interlibrary loans at the National Library of Medicine is followed by consideration of the alternatives to the concept of interlibrary loan presently under study in various regions. To relieve the current situation, it is proposed that federal funds be made available to medical and scientific libraries on the basis of the percentage of interlibrary loan transactions handled (2 percent of their total circulation figure), that present lending restrictions on materials be relaxed, that photocopying of articles in lieu of loan of the original be done to a greater extent, and that standardized procedures in handling requests be instituted.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

Construction and screening of a cosmid library generated from a somatic cell hybrid bearing human chromosome 15.

A cosmid library has been constructed with DNA isolated from a mouse/human hybrid cell line designated A15, which was previously characterized and shown to retain chromosome 15 as the only human material. The library was generated and stored as 34 independent pools of primary colonies at 8-10,000 colonies per pool. Screening colonies representing pools of this library by hybridization with a human-specific repetitive probe has facilitated the identification of random clones bearing human inserts. To data, 43 unique clones have been isolated and the inserts mapped by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to chromosome 15. An STS was generated for each of these clones by end sequencing of the inserts. Two of these clones, c36 and MR23, were mapped by FISH to 15q26.1, and end-sequence data revealed homology to different regions of the FES protooncogene. Sequence generated from the other end of the c36 insert was found to match the previously identified and unmapped coding sequence EST00075. In addition to the identification of such random clones, establishment of the library as pools was expected to facilitate the PCR-based identification of unique clones representing specific regions of chromosome 15. Screening of the library pools with primers specific to the FES region led to the recovery of five independent clones facilitating the development of a cosmid contig encompassing the FES gene. One of the cosmids isolated by PCR-based analysis was derived from the same pool as M23 and was subsequently shown to be identical to M23. The data offer the first report of a chromosome 15 cosmid library and demonstrate the value of utilizing pools to evaluate libraries generated from complex sources like somatic cell hybrids.

Animals↗

Mobilization of duplicates in a Regional Medical Library Program.

An overabundance of duplicate journals without an efficient and economical method of distribution caused one library's staff to reassess traditional methods of dispersal. A simplified form for listing duplicates was devised. In conjunction with the Regional Medical Library Program and the extension program, lists of duplicates were distributed to hospital and clinical libraries. These libraries selected materials to strengthen their ability to fill information needs at the local level and to conserve RMLP support for esoteric and expensive materials. In a two-year period, 86,000 individual pieces were distributed. Some lessening of interlibrary loan requests from heavy users was documented. In an evaluation survey users expressed satisfaction with the program. The successful use of the duplicate program will lead to a further experiment--the library will attempt to fill interlibrary loan requests for common journals with hard copy rather than photocopy in a cost and time reduction effort.

Book Collecting↗

A purine at +2 rather than +1 adjacent to the human U6 promoter is required to prepare effective short hairpin RNAs.

The human U6 (hU6) promoter is widely used to express short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in mammalian cells. To verify the validity of the generalized concept-the hU6 promoter essentially requires a purine (usually guanine) at +1 for transcription, we enzymatically constructed an arbitrary shRNA library with the following features: (1) to have any one of adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine at the site; (2) to comprise shRNAs of 25-30 nucleotides in stem length which are transcribed through the promoter. cDNA of the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKACalpha) was used as material for library construction. We then used luciferase reporter cell lines to screen shRNAs which effectively reduced PKACalpha activity. Consequently, a purine was mostly present at +2, not at +1, of the clones isolated, suggesting that a purine at +2 rather than +1 adjacent to the hU6 promoter provides effective shRNAs for target gene silencing.

Cell Line↗