The impact of IAIMS at Georgetown: strategies and outcomes.

Integration of multiple information systems of a medical center will change the way physicians work and practice medicine in the future. Several major steps must be taken by an institution to make this a reality. Since 1983, Georgetown has been engaged in an Integrated Academic Information Management System (IAIMS) project to bring together multiple sources of information that reside on different computers and database systems. Georgetown is developing a Biotechnology and Biomedical Knowledge Network that includes informational and clinical databases, scholar workstations, instruction on computer use, a campuswide network with local area network nodes, and a modular approach to systems integration. The IAIMS project, spearheaded by the medical library, has enabled a broad spectrum of health professionals to benefit directly from new, dynamic information services. The network is heavily used; in 1991, more than 2,100 individual users conducted more than 148,500 computer functions and more than 104,000 searches. There is economy of scale in high-volume use. Overall, the average search cost is $1.57; for high use databases the cost is $0.38, and for low use, it is $9.41. As described in this paper, IAIMS offers a cost-effective means of enhancing patient care by improving information services to physicians. At Georgetown, IAIMS has advanced the concept of integration, accelerated use of computers in education, increased user acceptance of advanced technologies, and established cost factors for providing information resources. While progress made in improving the transfer of medical information is impressive, it is clear that IAIMS requires several more years of support to achieve full implementation.     

Health information for patients: The hospital library's role

Libraries today, including most hospital-based patients' libraries, are involved only peripherally in providing patient health science information. Hospital libraries should collaborate with health professionals in getting health information to patients--along with the library's more traditional roles of providing recreational reading for patients and serving the informational needs of the physician and medical staff. The library should act as the center for educational materials and programs within the hospital. Many health agencies, health educators, physicians, and librarians have been discussing the need for patient health education, but there are few effectively organized or established education centers. This paper discusses an overview of patient health education and intellectural freedom, proposes a new role for the existing hospital library in patient health education, and suggests guidelines for establishing a patient education center.     

动静结合的图书馆个性化资源推荐系统的建立

通过分析高校图书馆读者的基本信息、历史行为以及位置、信息环境等的变化,建立动态推荐和静态推荐相结合的个性化图书馆资源推荐系统。系统通过对图书馆信息资源提取关键字、分类和位置化,可以根据用户的兴趣模型和档案结合环境因素进行计算和信息推荐,不但为读者挖掘兴趣和推荐与兴趣相关的资源,节省读者搜索、查找时间,同时还可以提高图书馆资源的利用效率。     

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.     

Enhancing web search in the medical domain via query clarification

The majority of Internet users search for medical information online; however, many do not have an adequate medical vocabulary. Users might have difficulties finding the most authoritative and useful information because they are unfamiliar with the appropriate medical expressions describing their condition; consequently, they are unable to adequately satisfy their information need. We investigate the utility of bridging the gap between layperson and expert vocabularies; our approach adds the most appropriate expert expression to queries submitted by users, a task we call query clarification. We evaluated the impact of query clarification. Using three different synonym mappings and conducting two task-based retrieval studies, users were asked to answer medically-related questions using interleaved results from a major search engine. Our results show that the proposed system was preferred by users and helped them answer medical concerns correctly more often, with up to a 7 % increase in correct answers over an unmodified query. Finally, we introduce a supervised classifier to select the most appropriate synonym mapping for each query, which further increased the fraction of correct answers (12 %).     

医院图书馆与社区互动的启示

医院图书馆已成为社区居民获取医学信息资源的重要渠道。在介绍医院图书馆为社区服务现状的基础上,从建立社区卫生服务的信息支持系统、拓宽社区医疗服务职能以及增强馆藏资源的文化功能3个方面,深入阐述了新时期医院图书馆与社区互动带给医务工作者的启示。     

Are the national technical information service's prices too high?

Some have claimed that prices charged by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) for its information products and services are inappropriately high. The National Technical Information Service commissioned a study, carried out by the author, to determine whether these claims were substantiated. The study focused on 15 selected information products and services, and asked whether prices for these products were too high relative to NTIS' costs, relative to prices for comparable commercial products, and relative to prices for comparable products from the Government Printing Office (GPO). NTIS breaks even in the aggregate, showing neither profit nor loss at the end of the year, although individual products may be priced higher or lower than cost. NTIS prices appeared to be competitive with comparable private sector prices, and 17 executives from information industry firms believed NTIS prices were about right or not too high. For comparable products from GPO, NTIS prices tend to be lower because of administrative decisions to underprice GPO. The study examined, in greater depth, issues surrounding two new information products, Big Emerging Markets and World News Connection. NTIS prices are not too high relative to costs, to comparable commercial products and GPO products.     

认知建构视角下交互式信息检索模型研究

[目的/意义]信息检索本质上是一个认知过程,研究促进用户认知的交互式信息检索模型具有重要意义。[研究设计/方法]以建构主义理论为指导,以促进用户的认知发展为研究目标,构建了以信息空间层、用户空间层和界面交互层为顶层分析框架的交互式信息检索模型,并开发了原型系统。[结论/发现]实验结果表明原型系统能有效地促进用户对信息空间的探索与挖掘,帮助用户积极主动地进行认知建构,发展认知空间。[创新/价值]将认知建构理论运用于信息检索领域,从交互设计方面对检索系统提出了改进建议,以更好地提供认知支持。     

MEDTUTOR: a microcomputer-based training program for MEDLINE

MEDTUTOR is an interactive, microcomputer-based training package designed to teach medical and health professionals, as well as librarians and information specialists, how to use MEDLINE effectively. The objective of MEDTUTOR is to provide a comprehensive package for teaching the various commands and search techniques required for utilizing the MEDLINE database through the MEDLARS system. MEDTUTOR's menu-driven design allows novice users to learn about the content and use of MEDLINE, such as author searching, text word searching, MeSH indexing, etc., at their own pace and with considerable program feedback. In addition, MEDTUTOR provides the skilled searcher with a way to reinforce or recall previously-learned search techniques without incurring online charges. MEDTUTOR may be used in place of formal training, as a precursor to or as a refresher following formal training, or for review of a particular concept. It provides inexpensive and easily accessible instruction for searching MEDLINE.     

Expanding Librarian Roles Through a Librarian Initiated and Facilitated Faculty Learning Community

The role of libraries is changing to focus more on users rather than the collection of information. Community building and connecting people with shared interests represents a social role for libraries in the information age. Their role adds a new dimension to the traditional domains for libraries. Developing and implementing an integrated medical curriculum became the primary focus of basic sciences faculty at a new medical school. Scholarly teaching and connecting teaching with educational research presented a great challenge for the faculty. In response to the learning, teaching, and developmental needs of faculty members, a librarian established a faculty learning community as an approach to supporting faculty development and growth as teaching scholars and scholars of educational research. The article provides a case to illustrate how a librarian spanned boundaries and took up the responsibilities of establishing a faculty learning community and developing a year-long program in light of different developmental needs of faculty members at the new medical school. It also describes the process of developing the faculty learning community program, its components, and the many roles that the librarian took in implementing the program.     

面向高速信息网络的信息资源管理(二)——从经济角度的分析

面向高速信息网络的信息资源管理（二）——从经济角度的分析马费成陈锐ＡＢＳＴＲＡＣＴＴｈｅｉｎｄｕｓｔｒｙｏｆｆａｓｔｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎｎｅｔｗｏｒｋｓｉｎｃｌｕｄｅｓｎｅｔ－ｗｏｒｋｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎｐｒｏｖｉｄｅｒｓ,ｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏ...     

中国——东盟背景下广西高校图书馆联合参考咨询服务网运行机制的建立

论文分析中国—东盟背景下广西高校图书馆联合参考咨询服务网的运行机制,并从目标用户、收费免费、咨询系统、咨询成本、咨询时间、内外包模式等六个方面进行了详尽分析。     

Controversial issues: female genital mutilation

As immigrant women from African countries enter the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Western Europe, western health care providers are beginning to see patients affected by the cultural practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Unfamiliar with the practice, either medically or culturally, these providers are turning to medical librarians for information. Complicating the issue are the strong negative feelings most western health care workers have about FGM, which appears to them to be both barbaric and cruel. These feelings may conflict strongly with those of their immigrant patients, who regard the practice as normal and desirable. Both medical and cultural information are needed for the professional to provide treatment of medical conditions, while also establishing a good relationship with the FGM affected patient. This article identifies and describes the most important refereed journal article databases, available now over the Internet, providing both medical and cultural information on FGM, and the most useful Web sites for health professionals, librarians, and interested laypersons who need information about this difficult multicultural issue.     

Addressing underutilization of consumer health information resource centers: a formative study

Problem: Four consumer health information centers in Richmond, Virginia, provide one-on-one assistance in accessing health information. Because they may not be fully utilized at present, an exploratory marketing study of factors affecting usage of the centers was conducted.Method: Observers counted center passers-by and tracked their paths. Also, brief intercept interviews were conducted with people who had just used a center, people nearby who could have used one but did not, and people on the street. Finally, in-depth individual interviews were conducted with key informants.Results: There was a high degree of satisfaction with the centers among users. Nonusers universally endorsed the center concept. However, most passers-by did not even glance at the centers, and intercept interviewees suggested better signage and promoting the resource centers through various media channels. Key informants added suggestions about interpersonal strategies (e.g., physician referrals) for center usage promotion but cautioned that a large increase in traffic could not be accommodated without increasing staff size or shifting from a model of individualized service.Conclusions: Triangulating findings from multiple data collection methods can provide useful guidance for efforts to promote center utilization. At minimum, steps should be taken to make the largest centers more noticeable. Because center utilization is not only associated with consumer satisfaction with hospitals, but may also foster health literacy, both hospital-based and community-based usage promotion strategies may be warranted. All such promotional strategies should be audience-tested before they are adopted.

Highlights

• Both users and nonusers of consumer health information centers said they would think more highly of a hospital with a center and would refer friends or family members to such a center.
• Study participants classified as nonusers of the centers were unaware of the centers or found them hard to locate.
• Suggestions for increasing center traffic ranged from improving signage to promoting routine referrals from hospital staff.
• An alternative to increasing center traffic is delivering information to places where consumers are located.

Implications

• Those responsible for making funding decisions about health information centers should be made aware that hospitals with health information centers are perceived more positively.
• The potential trade-off between intensive, personalized customer service and serving large numbers of consumers must be considered carefully.

     

The Library as Center of Meaning

Libraries can further increase their relevancy by becoming centers of community meaning even more directly than they already are, making visible to a community what matters to it and how it understands itself and its world. This function can be advanced by libraries adopting platforms that gather anonymized usage information and make it accessible not only to users but to the global of community of developers who can do unprecedented things with it, including intersecting it with information from communities near and far so that we can learn from one another at a new scale.     

图书馆业态的变化与发展趋势

图书馆业态是指图书馆事业为满足不同读者需求而进行相应要素组合所形成的运行形态。目前,信息资源正由模拟形态进入数字形态、文献结构由线性到多维、读者更多地依赖网络获取信息、书刊涨价、其他信息行业的竞争等因素,正在促进图书馆业态的变化。这种变化的趋势主要表现在图书馆日益嵌入社会、逐渐成为读者中心,实现数字化获取、资源整合、馆际联盟、权威服务,以及回归其教育和文化价值。参考文献63。     

数字图书馆电子商务服务忠诚用户的培育

忠诚用户对于电子商务服务具有重要价值.数字图书馆可根据卡诺模型采取确保当然质量、提升期望质量、打造迷人质量三位一体的培育模式培养忠诚用户.培育忠诚用户的策略有:建立安全可靠的支付系统,保证用户信息安全,善于识别用户潜在需求,及时进行服务效果评价与反馈,提供优质知识服务,开展多种形式的推销活动,等等.     

Enhanced functions of the modern STI system in Russia in the context of its improvement and of the development of the innovative orientation

The need for functional changes within the Russian STI system in order to correct and to increase its functions in the innovation economy is considered. The main directions of functional changes are revealed and analyzed. The importance of expanding the functional interaction of the STI system elements among themselves and with consumers of scientific and technological information is substantiated. The need to develop problem-oriented information services, as well as to expand coverage of the different categories of users is noted. Much attention is paid to the analytical component in the STI system. The prospects of the consulting component and of knowledge management are emphasized. The roles of information and consulting centers and of information and scientific clusters in the implementation of functional changes in the national STI system are presented.