Library links on medical school home pages

The purpose of this study was to assess the websites of American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC)-member medical schools for the presence of library links. Sixty-one percent (n?=?92) of home pages of the 150 member schools of the AAMC contain library links. For the 58 home pages not offering such links, 50 provided a pathway of two or three clicks to a library link. The absence of library links on 39% of AAMC medical school home pages indicates that the designers of those pages did not consider the library to be a primary destination for their visitors.     

Library Links on Medical School Home Pages

The purpose of this study was to assess the websites of American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC)-member medical schools for the presence of library links. Sixty-one percent (n = 92) of home pages of the 150 member schools of the AAMC contain library links. For the 58 home pages not offering such links, 50 provided a pathway of two or three clicks to a library link. The absence of library links on 39% of AAMC medical school home pages indicates that the designers of those pages did not consider the library to be a primary destination for their visitors.     

Problem-based medical education: effect on library use.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is being adopted by U.S. medical schools. Information-seeking skills are central to the PBL curriculum, which emphasizes self-directed learning and the acquisition of problem-solving and lifelong learning skills. The purpose of this study is to begin exploring the relationship between the PBL curriculum and student information and library use. Medical students in PBL and conventional medical school curricula were compared on library and information-seeking competencies, behaviors, and perceptions. A survey was sent to second-year students in four medical schools, two schools with two curricular tracks (one PBL and one conventional), one PBL school, and one conventional school. The results showed certain significant differences (P less than 0.05) between PBL and conventional curriculum students, suggesting that PBL students were the more frequent library users, used information resources that supported the independent learning process, acquired information-seeking skills at an earlier stage in their medical education, and reported greater ease in using these skills.     

Modeling time-to-trigger in library demand-driven acquisitions via survival analysis

Conventional statistical methods (e.g. logistics regression, decision tree, etc.) have been used to analyze library demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) data. However, these methods are not well-suited to predict when acquisitions will be triggered or how long e-books will remain unused. Survival analysis, a statistical method commonly used in clinical research and medical trials, was employed to predict the time-to-trigger for DDA purchases within the context of a large research university library. By predicting which e-books will be triggered (i.e., purchased), as well as the time to trigger occurrence, the method tested in this study provides libraries a deeper understanding of factors influencing their DDA purchasing patterns. This understanding will help libraries optimize their DDA profile management and DDA budgets. This research provides a demonstration of how data science techniques can be of value for the library environment.     

Serving Community Faculty Through a Dedicated Liaison

Community-based medical schools rely heavily on volunteer faculty to provide medical education. Volunteer faculty consist of health care professionals, primarily physicians, who commit to educating medical students and residents. While these volunteer faculty are typically unpaid, many medical schools provide some benefits to them for volunteering their time. One such benefit, although rarely noted in library or medical education literature, is access to academic medical library resources and services. This article highlights a library services liaison model dedicated to the support of volunteer faculty at a community-based medical school.     

Academic status for medical school librarians

Results of a survey conducted indicate that most medical schools grant academic status in some degree to their professional librarians. Faculty appointments and benefits are not always awarded. In order to upgrade the stature and effectiveness of the medical school librarian in relation to his institution and to the teaching faculty, his having faculty status is desirable. It is the medical school's responsibility to grant faculty status to librarians who possess necessary qualifications; likewise, it is the responsibility of the medical school librarian to merit faculty rank on a basis with other teaching faculty. In three new medical schools, the library is considered an academic department, and other schools are considering such designation.     

Library school education for medical librarianship.

This paper reviews the current situation in library school education for medical librarianship in the United States and Canada based on information from a questionnaire sent to teachers of courses in medical librarianship in accredited library schools. Since 1939, when the first course devoted entirely to medical librarianship was offered at Columbia University, courses have been introduced into the curricula of at least forty-seven of the ALA-accredited library schools. In 1978 there were seventy courses available through forty-seven library schools. Possibilities for specialization in medical librarianship are examined. Course content is reviewed. Implications of the MLA certification examination for library school courses are explored.     

Medical school libraries and the "new" curriculum

The growing recognition of the need for humanities taught in schools of medicine is affecting acquisitions policies of medical libraries. This paper presents results of a survey conducted in various medical school libraries to evaluate the availability of humanities literature in their collections.     

Librarian Participation in Expanding the Pool of Potential Medical Students

This article reports on the results of an exploratory survey to determine if librarians actively participate in medical school student recruiting programs. It looks specifically at what librarians are doing to assist with recruitment and what biomedical career resources their libraries offer. The survey link was e-mailed to all U.S. medical school library directors, who were asked to forward it to the appropriate librarian. Out of 113 medical schools, 68 (60%) responded to most questions. Forty-three (86%) of 50 item respondents do participate in such activities, and 29 (67%) of 43 item respondents have been doing so for more than five years. Thirty-two (64%) of 50 item respondents provide resources on biomedical careers in the libraries.     

Librarian participation in expanding the pool of potential medical students

This article reports on the results of an exploratory survey to determine if librarians actively participate in medical school student recruiting programs. It looks specifically at what librarians are doing to assist with recruitment and what biomedical career resources their libraries offer. The survey link was e-mailed to all U.S. medical school library directors, who were asked to forward it to the appropriate librarian. Out of 113 medical schools, 68 (60%) responded to most questions. Forty-three (86%) of 50 item respondents do participate in such activities, and 29 (67%) of 43 item respondents have been doing so for more than five years. Thirty-two (64%) of 50 item respondents provide resources on biomedical careers in the libraries.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Library Holdings as Compared to the Basic Resources for Pharmacy Education List

The catalogs of 11 university libraries were analyzed against the Basic Resources for Pharmaceutical Education (BRPE) to measure the percent coverage of the core total list as well as the core sublist. There is no clear trend in this data to link school age, size, or rank with percentage of coverage of the total list or the “First Purchase” core list when treated as independent variables. Approximately half of the schools have significantly higher percentages of core titles than statistically expected. Based on this data, it is difficult to predict what percentage of titles on the BRPE a library will contain.     

Library Exposure from the Prior Years: An Examination of Public High School Library Websites

The frequent occurrence of first-year college students showing disinterest and unfamiliarity with basic library resources is a phenomenon experienced by many academic librarians. This article aims to increase understanding of student exposure to the school library, prior to college arrival, by examining the online information and tools from high school libraries. Four hundred ninety-seven (497) public high schools from New York City were surveyed for 1) online presence of their school library programs and 2) the extent of information featured on these school library websites. Findings indicate that many public high schools have not adequately embraced web development for the purpose of educating students about information literacy.     

The Well-Furnished Business Law Library

"Publish or Perish!" While this time-worn phrase rings equally loud and clear for most business law faculty, the opportunity to successfully publish is many times limited for some faculty members by their lack of access to adequate research material. For those teaching at large universities with well-stocked libraries, the choices of research sources are many and varied. However, for those teaching at small universities or community colleges, the choices may be quite limited indeed. Additionally, the smaller schools may be located at too great a distance from law schools or large universities to make travel to and from those libraries a practical solution. Often, at the smaller schools, business law teachers may be given a very limited budget and allowed to order only a few books a year. The question arises, then, for the business law faculty at smaller schools: "What are the most important research sources to have in the university or college libraries?" If a priority list could be drawn up, those business law faculties at smaller schools would be able to use the little library money they do have in a more beneficial way. This article will analyze which library materials business law teachers have selected as necessary resource tools, and the priority in which they should be acquired. The information supporting this article will be acquired by a survey of randomly selected teachers of business law in AACSB-accredited schools.     

Automated acquisitions in small academic libraries

Librarians at small colleges were surveyed to determine the types of automation their libraries are using or plan to use in various areas but with special emphasis on the acquisitions processes. Results suggest a relationship between size of school and the amount of automation, but not so clearly as to discourage the small library from investigating means by which it can benefit from some type of computer application. Respondents also offered comments and suggestions which may benefit other small libraries investigating automated acquisitions.     

Exploring Library Discovery Positions: Are They Emerging or Converging?

Web-scale discovery service systems and platforms are continuing to evolve and become more commonly adopted in academic libraries. Functioning as more than next-generation catalogs due to their volume and associated Web services, they invite strategic inquiry and launch libraries into deeper questioning and continuous critical thinking concerning discovery system best practices. This article explores emerging library discovery positions and discovery requirements gleaned through position postings from Autocat, Code4Lib, ERIL-L, and NGC4Lib listserv e-mails, from February 2012 through July 2014, along with a 2013 scan of Association of Research Library (ARL) staff directories’ Web sites. As seen through the lens of recent discovery position postings and names of discovery positions at ARL libraries, staffing solutions suggest strategic oversight and deep understanding of discovery systems, metadata, and users. This study of 36 discovery positions reveals directors or managers as comprising the highest number with ten (28 percent), systems with eight (22 percent), cataloging and metadata with seven (19 percent), acquisitions or electronic resources with five (14 percent), user experiences with three (8 percent), access services with two (6 percent), and general technical services with one (3 percent). These emerging discovery positions traverse both traditional technical and public services functions, with the majority, 26 (72 percent), from large research-level institutions.     

中美医学院网络信息计量指标的比较分析

选择41所美国医学院和14所中国医学院作为研究样本,对医学院网站的总入链数、外链数、网页总数、链接效率、网络影响因子等网络信息计量指标进行考察,探索各个指标在大学评价中的有效性,并对中美医学院的网络影响力进行比较分析。研究结果表明,中美医学院网站具有不同的计量特征,美国医学院的网络影响力要强于中国医学院。     

Doing Without: Serving Allied Health Programs at Universities Without Medical Schools

This article compares libraries in the United States that serve allied health programs at universities without medical schools. Although these university libraries all serve a similar array of health sciences programs, the organization of their library services differ dramatically. There is also little similarity in their collections, particularly in their choice of indexing and abstracting databases. Yet librarians serving as liaisons to allied health programs at universities without medical schools face comparable challenges in meeting the needs of their users. All reported concerns about gaps in their collections and felt hard pressed to provide optimal library service.     

Development of methodologic tools for planning and managing library services. IV. Bibliography of studies selected for methods and data useful to biomedical libraries

This selective bibliography is intended to serve as a guide to empirical studies reporting data and methods that can be used by medical librarians to assess their own efforts objectively and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of services they offer. The decision rules that governed selection of items for the bibliography are specified in detail. A total of 178 items published between 1915 and mid-1968 met the selection criteria. The list of items is supplemented by a keyword index derived from titles. Half the items are journal articles; a third of these articles appeared in the Bulletin, and most of the remainder in thirteen other library and information science journals. Most of the non-journal items are technical reports issued by the organization that conducted or sponsored the work. The characteristics of this literature suggest that few medical libraries, unless they are part of a university system that includes the collection of a library or information science school, are likely to have quick access to the literature base needed to support a comprehensive program of self-evaluation studies and the continuing education of their own staff. Regional medical libraries might well undertake to ensure both ready access to, and awareness of, literature on the scientific aspects of librarianship.