AHEC library services: from circuit rider to virtual librarian

The North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Library and Information Services (NC AHEC LIS) Network provides library outreach services to rural health care providers in all nine AHEC regions of North Carolina. Over the last twenty-five years, the AHEC and university-based librarians have collaborated to create a model program for support of community-based clinical education and information access for rural health care providers. Through several collaborative projects, they have supported Internet access for rural health clinics. The NC AHEC Digital Library—under development by NC AHEC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, East Carolina University, and Wake Forest University—will further extend access to electronic biomedical information and resources to health professionals in a statewide digital library.     

Faculty perceptions of librarians and library services: Exploring the impact of librarian faculty status and beyond

ACRL recommends that librarians with faculty status have the same privileges and responsibilities as other faculty on campus. A recent study revealed librarians feel that being on an equal footing with other faculty improves the relationship. It is not clear whether disciplinary faculty feel the same way. This paper presents a study investigating faculty perceptions of librarians in two types of institutions: those granting and not granting librarians faculty status. The study found no noticeable differences in perceptions of librarians and library services. However, the authors identified variables other than librarian-faculty-status as important in affecting the relationship between librarians and teaching faculty. These factors can help better understand faculty needs. Effective strategies can be established to meet those needs.     

The value of Web-based library services at Cedars-Sinai Health System.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Library/Information Center has maintained Web-based services since 1995 on the Cedars-Sinai Health System network. In that time, the librarians have found the provision of Web-based services to be a very worthwhile endeavor. Library users value the services that they access from their desktops because the services save time. They also appreciate being able to access services at their convenience, without restriction by the library's hours of operation. The library values its Web site because it brings increased visibility within the health system, and it enables library staff to expand services when budget restrictions have forced reduced hours of operation. In creating and maintaining the information center Web site, the librarians have learned the following lessons: consider the design carefully; offer what services you can, but weigh the advantages of providing the services against the time required to maintain them; make the content as accessible as possible; promote your Web site; and make friends in other departments, especially information services.     

A rural virtual health sciences library project: research findings with implications for next generation library services

PURPOSE: The Shared Hospital Electronic Library of Southern Indiana (SHELSI) research project was designed to determine whether access to a virtual health sciences library and training in its use would support medical decision making in rural southern Indiana and achieve the same level of impact seen by targeted information services provided by health sciences librarians in urban hospitals. METHODS: Based on the results of a needs assessment, a virtual medical library was created; various levels of training were provided. Virtual library users were asked to complete a Likert-type survey, which included questions on intent of use and impact of use. At the conclusion of the project period, structured interviews were conducted. RESULTS: Impact of the virtual health sciences library showed a strong correlation with the impact of information provided by health sciences librarians. Both interventions resulted in avoidance of adverse health events. Data collected from the structured interviews confirmed the perceived value of the virtual library. CONCLUSION: While librarians continue to hold a strong position in supporting information access for health care providers, their roles in the information age must begin to move away from providing information toward selecting and organizing knowledge resources and instruction in their use.     

Rethinking library service to distance education students: analyzing the embedded librarian model

Since fall 2009, reference librarians at The George Washington University's Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library have been embedded in online classes through Blackboard within the School of Nursing and School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The authors sought to determine the types of questions asked of the librarian, with the goal of informing future interactions with distance education classes to help develop a standard "protocol" for working with this population of students. Eighty-two questions were categorized and qualitatively analyzed. The findings have prompted librarians to explore tools such as Elluminate Live!, a tool that allows librarians to provide synchronous instruction within the Blackboard environment.     

User needs: the key to changing library services and policies.

A user survey and a series of faculty interviews are discussed as methods that can be used by a public relations librarian to change library policies and services in the direction of patrons' needs.     

Developing of methodologic tools for planning and managing library services: 3. Standardized inventories of library services

A standardized procedure was developed for eliciting those details of a library's service policies that are important to its users and for recording the data by checking appropriate categories on a form. This inventory procedure covers the entire spectrum of user services and accommodates a wide range of policies. The inventory was originally designed for use by trained interviewers in largescale surveys of academic medical libraries. However, it is also suitable for other kinds of libraries, and the Interview Guide and Checklist can be used for a self-survey by library staff. In addition to survey use, the inventory has a variety of educational, administrative, managerial, and research applications. A method for weighting the categorical inventory data to reflect the relative desirability of different policies makes it possible to calculate scores indicating how a library's policies compare with those of an "optimal" library. An analogous inventory of the services a library provides to other libraries was developed for surveying major backup resources in the medical library system.     

Costing the library services. Cairns Library: a casestudy

In the presentclimate libraries have to adopt a business approach to funding submissions; detailed managementinformation must be produced in support of expenditure and to ensure that the services are cost-effective. In addition to the grant from its parent body (the Faculty of Clinical Medicine,University of Oxford), the Cairns Library obtains funding from five other bodies, includingNational Health Service Hospital Trusts. The Cairns Library has introdu ies anduser education. The costs for each package have been apportioned to the funding bodies on thebasis of the number of registered users from each body.     

Promoting library services to qualified nurses:towards a market-led approach

This article summarizes a research projectcarried out with the nursing staff of South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust. A ‘communityprofile’ looked at nurses’ use of library and information services for patient carepurposes and found that only a small proportion of all categories of qualified staff were libraryusers. A postal questionnaire was used to investigate why nurses sought information,what they used it for, where they obtained it from and how valuable they perceived it to be. Theresults show that personal and departmental collections were used quite frequently and theinformation was widely disseminated by the nurses to patients and their families, to colleagues andto students. The overall message from the survey was that the information obtained is valuedhighly and is used for various important purposes in health care delivery, such as educatingpatients and their families and revising treatment plans. However, nurses have difficulty inaccessing libraries, which are judged to contain the most accurate, reliable and up-to-dateinformation. The data from the community profile and questionnaire were furtheranalysed using soft systems methodology, in order to identify problems in the traditional model ofinformation delivery to nurses via a conventional library and information service. These were theninvestigated further and a series of recommendations for action drawn up.     

Mediated computer search services relative to instruction services: a survey of one health sciences library

To assess the quality and usefulness of one health sciences library's mediated computer search service, a survey was undertaken to determine satisfaction rates, why users do or do not use the service, and how useful the service is perceived to be in comparison to instructional service. Satisfaction rates were high, with users indicating librarian expertise and time/cost savings as the main reasons for using the service. Non-users indicated that they preferred to do their own searching, and many were unaware of the service. Though a majority of respondents do not currently use the service, surprisingly a majority of respondents placed significant value on the mediated search service in relation to instruction.     

Supporting Academic Health Centers with Knowledge Management: Learning from the Web

In a 2003 publication, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) made explicit the many ways in which a library might contribute to an academic health center's success through knowledge management (KM). Building on Success: Charting the Future of Knowledge Management within the Academic Health Center elucidated the ways in which a library can serve as the center of an organization's KM initiatives. The study and application of knowledge management tools is formidable; unlike information management (IM), the field of knowledge management has roots in a seemingly infinite and wide-ranging number of professional and academic disciplines. The planning of institutional KM initiatives is not commonly discussed, and history shows knowledge management projects often fail to thrive. This column introduces the topic of knowledge management and includes suggested Web-based resources for further understanding and project planning.     

Insourcing library outreach: Engaging technical services in outreach to student organizations

Abstract

In recent years, library outreach has become an increasingly important aspect of public services work. In order to expand capacity and engage patrons, libraries should consider expanding their library outreach programs to include the efforts and expertise of technical services personnel. In this article, librarians from Texas A&M University will share how public services librarians, cataloging experts, and preservation librarians collaborated to provide support for a student-led textbook lending library for student veterans. Through this collaboration, the library was able to develop new outreach opportunities that highlighted technical services expertise as well as lend support to an important campus effort to improve the affordability of college textbooks for veterans.     

Trends in hospital librarianship and hospital library services: 1989 to 2006

Objective:

The research studied the status of hospital librarians and library services to better inform the Medical Library Association''s advocacy activities.

Methods:

The Vital Pathways Survey Subcommittee of the Task Force on Vital Pathways for Hospital Librarians distributed a web-based survey to hospital librarians and academic health sciences library directors. The survey results were compared to data collected in a 1989 survey of hospital libraries by the American Hospital Association in order to identify any trends in hospital libraries, roles of librarians, and library services. A web-based hospital library report form based on the survey questions was also developed to more quickly identify changes in the status of hospital libraries on an ongoing basis.

Results:

The greatest change in library services between 1989 and 2005/06 was in the area of access to information, with 40% more of the respondents providing access to commercial online services, 100% more providing access to Internet resources, and 28% more providing training in database searching and use of information resources. Twenty-nine percent (n = 587) of the 2005/06 respondents reported a decrease in staff over the last 5 years.

Conclusions:

Survey data support reported trends of consolidation of hospitals and hospital libraries and additions of new services. These services have likely required librarians to acquire new skills. It is hoped that future surveys will be undertaken to continue to study these trends.

Highlights

• Data support reported trends in the decrease in the number of hospitals and hospital libraries.
• About 44.0% of hospitals had some level of onsite library service in 1989, compared with between 33.5% and 29.1% of hospitals in 2005/06.
• More electronic services and resources, such as Internet access and online materials, are being offered by hospital libraries, in addition to more traditional services
• Library staffing appears to be more unstable today than in 1989, with more libraries reporting a decrease in the number of staff.

Implications

• Hospital libraries continue to change in response to changes in the health care environment as health care administrators respond to financial pressures, library staff are downsized, degreed librarian positions are eliminated, and reporting structures change.
• MLA must continue to track the status of hospital librarians and libraries in light of the changing environment with surveys and other means, in partnership with others such as the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.

     

Measuring patrons' technology habits: an evidence-based approach to tailoring library services

Librarians continually integrate new technologies into library services for health sciences students. Recently published data are lacking about student ownership of technological devices, awareness of new technologies, and interest in using devices and technologies to interact with the library. A survey was implemented at seven health sciences libraries to help answer these questions. Results show that librarian assumptions about awareness of technologies are not supported, and student interest in using new technologies to interact with the library varies widely. Collecting this evidence provides useful information for successfully integrating technologies into library services.     

Development and assessment of specialized liaison librarian services: clinical vs. basic science in a veterinary medicine setting

In 1998, the University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries (HSCL) developed and implemented a Liaison Librarian Program, dedicated to providing customized, subject-specific services to the faculty, students, clinicians, researchers, staff, and administrators of the six Health Science Center Colleges (Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine). Subject- and role-specific (clinical vs. basic sciences) liaisons were assigned. This paper describes the HSCL liaison program, exemplified by the liaisons' work with the College of Veterinary Medicine. Preliminary program evaluation, a pilot project developed to discern the needs of the veterinary medicine clientele and facilitate awareness of liaison services, and subsequent re-evaluation of patron awareness and satisfaction are also discussed.