Implementing PDA technology in a medical library: experiences in a hospital library and an academic medical center library

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) have grown from being a novelty in the late 1990s to an essential tool for healthcare professionals in the 2000s. This paper describes the experiences of a librarian who implemented PDA technology first in a hospital library, and then at an academic medical center library. It focuses on the role of the library in supporting PDA technology and resources. Included are programmatic issues such as training for library staff and clinicians, and technical issues such as Palm and Windows operating systems. This model could be used in either a hospital or academic health sciences library.     

Moving a medical center library

The relocation of a medical center library collection of 30,000 book and journal volumes and 600 audiovisuals is described. The planning and moving procedures which facilitated the move are detailed. A bibliography of the library literature concerning library moves is attached.     

Use of NEXIS in a medical research library

The NEXIS online system is used a great deal in business and law libraries, but has been virtually overlooked by medical librarians due to their perception of the system as expensive and difficult to search. The changing health care environment has placed new demands on medical searchers for just the type of legal, business, governmental, and news information found in the full-text files in NEXIS. Through the recent introduction of News Plus software, NEXIS can be searched as never before by those unaccustomed to full-text search techniques. Besides simplifying the search process, the new software has cost-saving features since search building and file selection are accomplished offline, and several activities may be done simultaneously. NEXIS via News Plus should be seriously considered as an addition to the repertoire of online systems accessed by medical librarians.     

Evolution of a veterinary medical library.

Planning a new library and developing a book and journal collection for the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University are described. The Veterinary Medical Library is a self-contained unit (6,800 square feet) for print material within the Veterinary Medical Building. Seating for 140 patrons is available. The collection is designed to provide basic materials for teaching and research in veterinary and comparative medicine. Indexing and abstracting tools permit access to local, state, and national resources as well. At present the collection totals over 17,000 volumes and over 500 serial titles. A working collection of 25,000 volumes will be maintained in the Veterinary Medical Library, and the University Library will continue to function as the principal backup source.     

From closet to library in the community hospital: remodeling a hospital medical library

Halifax District Hospital's Medical Library, Daytona Beach, Florida was altered from two dingy rooms to a modern, well-equipped Medical Library twice its former size by its maintenance men in six months time, with the help of the librarian's sketches and an architect student from the junior college to draw the plans.A complete renovation was done, eighteen-inch walls between rooms being demolished, plumbing, ceiling, and windows removed. These were all replaced with walnut-paneled walls, special 125 candle-power lighted ceiling, retractable shelves, more shelves for periodicals and books, wall-to-wall carpeting and fashionable decor. New furniture, tape recorders, and TWX were made possible by a Medical Library Resource Grant.The official opening was six months from the first day of renovation, with ribbon cutting, guests, hospital personnel, and a reporter from the newspaper to take pictures for an article about the most modern medical library in Volusia County.The new Medical Library is in the "core" of the Medical Education Department with space for five years growth.     

Medicine and literature: a section in a medical university library

Objectives: In 2007, the Alberto Malliani Medical Library of the Università degli Studi in Milan decided to order some novels for its students. The library purchased 24 titles written by famous authors and planned to add others in the future. The proposal for this action was made by a professor, with whom the library had previously co‐operated in organising meetings for students. This article summarises the results of this experiment over 4 years, from its conception, to determine whether any positive outcome has resulted, including how library users welcomed this addition to the library and evaluation of its economic sustainability. Results: Data from July 2007 to December 2010 are presented in terms of the initial purchases, costs, and volume of lending for this section of the library; in addition, readers’ preferences are examined. Conclusions: A university medical library can act as a stimulus to its students’ new or renewed interest in literature, assuming that the novels, biographies, and short stories can contribute positively to the training of medical students. Therefore, setting up a special section can be useful, even though the costs of this section must be limited. A questionnaire could be the method of gathering information about users’ assessment.     

Users' information-seeking behavior on a medical library Website

The Central Medical Library (CMK) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, started to build a library Website that included a guide to library services and resources in 1997. The evaluation of Website usage plays an important role in its maintenance and development. Analyzing and exploring regularities in the visitors'' behavior can be used to enhance the quality and facilitate delivery of information services, identify visitors'' interests, and improve the server''s performance. The analysis of the CMK Website users'' navigational behavior was carried out by analyzing the Web server log files. These files contained information on all user accesses to the Website and provided a great opportunity to learn more about the behavior of visitors to the Website. The majority of the available tools for Web log file analysis provide a predefined set of reports showing the access count and the transferred bytes grouped along several dimensions. In addition to the reports mentioned above, the authors wanted to be able to perform interactive exploration and ad hoc analysis and discover trends in a user-friendly way. Because of that, we developed our own solution for exploring and analyzing the Web logs based on data warehousing and online analytical processing technologies. The analytical solution we developed proved successful, so it may find further application in the field of Web log file analysis. We will apply the findings of the analysis to restructuring the CMK Website.     

National library of medicine regional medical library program

The National Library of Medicine is charged with the development and management of a National Biomedical Communications Network. The Regional Medical Library Program is a forerunner of such a network; the product and institutions involved will be critical elements in its evolution. The immediate objective of the RMLP, the facilitation of biomedical information transfer, presents a logistical problem requiring substantial commitment from the health sciences community and extensive cooperation among libraries in each region.