A Review of: “The Medical Library Association Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher: Proven Techniques,Strategies, and Tips for Finding Health Information. Jankowski,Terry Ann.”

Abstract

The Center for Families Resource Library at St. Louis Children’s Hospital was integrated into the hospital’s new Epic electronic medical records system in June 2018. The new system enables clinicians to request consults from the Center for Families Resource Library. The librarian can participate more actively and collaboratively with patient education by providing reliable health information and charting it as part of the patient’s permanent record. The article reviews improvements over the former system and reveals an enhanced role for the health services librarian.     

A Review of: “Health Informatics for Medical Librarians. Cleveland,Ana D. and Cleveland,Donald B.”

This article is a retrospective look at the changes in hospital libraries from 1970 to 2014 based on the author's experience and a survey of the literature related to hospital libraries indexed in PubMed from 1970 to the present. New roles for librarians and methods for conveying the value of libraries to administrators are described.     

A Review of: “The Street.com Ratings' Guide to Health Insurers.”

No abstract available for this article.     

A Review of: “Training Paraprofessionals for Reference Service: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians. 2nd ed. Morgan,Pamela J.”

QR codes, or “Quick Response” codes, are two-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned by mobile smartphone cameras. These codes can be used to provide fast access to URLs, telephone numbers, and short passages of text. With the rapid adoption of smartphones, librarians are able to use QR codes to promote services and help library users find materials quickly and independently. This article will explain what QR codes are, discuss how they can be used in the library, and describe issues surrounding their use. A list of resources for generating and scanning QR codes is also provided.     

A Review of “The Kovacs Guide to Electronic Library Collection Development”

This article describes a computer program developed by the author to extract subject-level usage and inventory data from Aleph system reports and to track usage trends by subject over time. Two implementations of the program are detailed, at the Institute of Fine Arts Library and the East Asian collection at Bobst Library, both at New York University. Use of the program in processing inventory, in-house usage, and circulation data in greater detail is demonstrated. Information about usage trends within major Library of Congress subject areas provides collection managers with more precise data for use in a variety of collection management decisions. The article shows that the program offers significant new functionality for collection assessment.     

A Review of “Research within the Disciplines: Foundations for Reference and Library Instruction”

Usability testing has become a routine way for many libraries to ensure that their Web presence is user-friendly and accessible. At the same time, popular subject guide creation systems, such as LibGuides, decentralize Web content creation and put authorship into the hands of librarians who may not be trained in user-centered design principles. At Metropolitan State University, researchers performed usability testing on LibGuides in order to see how patrons interact with guides. Researchers completed two rounds of usability testing on a total of ten students, one alumnus, and one community patron. The results indicate that patrons struggled most when encountering jargon, inconsistent language, and visual clutter. Based on their findings, researchers recommend ongoing usability testing of subject guides as well as the creation of a style guide to help librarians create usable, accessible guides.