A Structural Analysis of Interlibrary Networks:

This study is a structural analysis of a multi-type and multi-level library network within the framework of a regional interlibrary loan (ILL) system. The study monitored information network structure for resource sharing of academic and research library materials transmitted through the ILL. The local flow of academic and research information was measured by a survey of the filled ILL transactions by individual libraries in the Western 3Rs region. The major findings were as follows: (1) the regional ILL network showed less than half participation of the total subject libraries, (2) existing structure surveyed was identified as a composite centralized network with three communication groups, (3) depending on the types of materials transacted, the structure was changed, (4) statewide and multi-state library cooperatives had direct interactions with some of the local libraries, (5) individual libraries participated in the ILL network more for periodicals than book materials, and (6) academic libraries throughout the total six structures analyzed showed the highest percentage of participation.     

The information requirements and information-seeking behaviours of health and social care professionals providing care to children with health care needs: a pilot study

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this work were to identify the sources of information currently received, information-seeking behaviours, information requirements and preferences for future information provision amongst health and social care professionals providing care to children with health care needs. METHODS: Data were collected using a cross-sectional postal questionnaire survey. RESULTS: A wide range of information resources was reported as being available to professionals. However, a large proportion of respondents found it necessary to perform additional searches for information, suggesting that current resources were not satisfying their needs. The majority of professionals reported a preference for electronic formats, whilst a smaller proportion preferred hard copy materials. Participants promoted the use of informal networks as a means of support and exchange of information. CONCLUSION: Supplementing the information that is provided in electronic and hard copy formats, by enhancing informal networks, may be the most effective way of meeting the information needs of this group of professionals.     

Personal records on the web: Who's in charge of archiving, Hotmail or archivists?

This examination of how the general public uses commercially provided e-mail and blog services to keep their personal documents and history supports exploration into how information professionals can assist the general public in archiving their data, with a view to preservation for future generations and historians. An online survey was conducted to gather data on the current status of e-mail and blog usage, users’ perceptions on archiving their contents in e-mail and blogs, and the expectations for and functionalities of archiving tools users find useful or necessary. A total of 345 e-mail and blog users participated in the survey. Participants were found to be well aware of the risk of losing their content in e-mail and blogs, and of the fact that most e-mail and blog services do not provide any method of backing up content. Participants valued the content related to their personal history highly and would have liked to have it preserved; however, they had not located many acceptable tools for preservation. Despite this, information professionals have not been actively engaged in meeting such users' needs.     

A pilot project to investigate commercial document suppliers

In the winter of 1993/1994, the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) Libraries began a project to test several of the emerging commercial document suppliers. The purpose was to evaluate their responses in terms of speed, efficiency, quality, and cost effectiveness. The testing was done in four science branch libraries at University Park. In each of the branches (Earth & Mineral Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences) requests that were submitted for Interlibrary Loan (ILL) were reviewed. Those that qualified under the pilot project guidelines were sent to commercial suppliers of documents, instead of through the normal ILL work flow. Compiled data indicated that the cost of each item and the time taken to supply items were less than that required for ILL. The pilot project suggests that when integrated into ILL work flows, acquiring items through commercial document delivery suppliers would assist in making the process less costly and more efficient.     

An Examination of the Consequences of Electronic Innovations

ARL libraries were surveyed to determine what impact telefacsimile service has had on interlibrary loan (ILL) departments. Also studied was what policies concerning telefacsimile have been added to network and reciprocal agreements, and how much libraries are charging for telefacsimile service. Findings show that the advent of telefacsimile has significantly increased the workload in ILL. To offset this, many libraries are charging a fee.for telefacsimile service, even when photocopy is provided free of charge as in network and reciprocal agreements. Recommendations are included for libraries in the process of formulating policies, procedures and fees for telefacsimile service.     

Analysis of non-urban end users' MEDLINE training.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) Library mailed a MEDLINE End User Practice Survey Form to 310 health professionals who had attended MEDLINE seminars supported by a two-year NLM grant. The survey sought to determine how many respondents had obtained NLM codes, reasons for not obtaining a code, searching time done since the seminar, differences in the use of information since taking the seminar, factors helpful in successful searching, and factors contributing to frustrations. The most prevalent reasons for not obtaining a code were lack of a microcomputer and modem, infrequent use of MEDLINE, cost, lack of time, complications, and ability to obtain free searches.     

Achieving change through mutual development: supported online learning and the evolving roles of health and information professionals

Introduction: Major changes in health care, within an information‐ and technology‐rich age, are impacting significantly on health professionals and upon their education and training. Health information professionals—in both the National Health Service (NHS) and higher education (HE) contexts—are consequently developing their roles, skills and partnerships to meet the needs of flexible education and training. This article explores one facet of this—supported online learning and its impact on role development. Methodology: A case study approach was taken, aiming to explore how academics, health information professionals and learning technologists are developing supported online learning to explicitly address the e‐literacy and information needs of health students within the context of NHS frameworks for education. This was contextualized by a literature review. Results: The case study explores and discusses three dynamics—(i) The use of supported online learning tools by future health‐care professionals throughout their professional training to ensure they have the appropriate e‐literacy skills; (ii) the use of supported online learning by current health professionals to enable them to adapt to the changing environment; (iii) the development of the health information professional, and particularly their role within multi‐disciplinary teams working with learning technologists and health professionals, to enable them to design and deliver supported online learning. Conclusions: The authors argue that, in this specific case study, health information professionals are key to the development of supported online learning. They are working successfully in collaboration and their roles are evolving to encompass learning and teaching activities in a wider context. There are consequently several lessons to be drawn in relation to professional education and role development.     

Republican Scientific-Medical Library, The Republic of Armenia: progress and programs

In 1990, the Republican Scientific-Medical Library (RSML) of the Ministry of Health of Armenia in collaboration with the Fund for Armenian Relief created a vision of a national library network supported by information technology. This vision incorporated four goals: (1) to develop a national resource collection of biomedical literature accessible to all health professionals, (2) to develop a national network for access to bibliographic information, (3) to develop a systematic mechanism for sharing resources, and (4) to develop a national network of health sciences libraries. During the last decade, the RSML has achieved significant progress toward all four goals and has realized its vision of becoming a fully functional national library. The RSML now provides access to the literature of the health sciences including access to the Armenian medical literature, provides education and training to health professionals and health sciences librarians, and manages a national network of libraries of the major health care institutions in Armenia. The RSML is now able to provide rapid access to the biomedical literature and train health professionals and health sciences librarians in Armenia in information system use. This paper describes the evolution of the RSML and how it was accomplished.     

A Library for Libraries: Is the Joint Library Facility becoming an Interlibrary Loan Hub for Libraries?

ABSTRACT

What happens when libraries begin to use ILL to request items that they already own in their home collection? The goal of this multiyear study involving 9565 ILL requests to the Joint Library Facility in Bryan, Texas, is to examine whether or not the shared storage facility was becoming an ILL hub for some libraries. This paper reports the results of the study and how individual requesting and lending interlibrary loan policies and procedures might be altered to address these developing issues.     

Outreach: the western New York Hospital Library Services Program, 1985-1989

The Hospital Library Services Program (HLSP) in western New York, during the period covered by its first five-year plan, 1984-1989, is recounted and described. This ongoing program is funded annually by a New York State grant and hospital participation fees. It is designed to support access to biomedical information for health care professionals through a grant program for hospitals with staffed libraries and a circuit program for hospitals without library staffing or without libraries. Hospitals participating in the grant program contribute funds and receive grants for collection development. Hospitals participating in the circuit program pay a participation fee and receive regularly scheduled, documented, circuit librarian visits; a collection development grant; and a grant for contract library services. The program contracts with the State University of New York at Buffalo's (UB) Health Sciences Library to provide computerized literature searches; interlibrary loan (ILL) of journal articles, books, and audiovisuals; and ILL referrals.     

Automated ILL analysis and collection development: A hi-tech marriage of convenience

Microcomputers and database management packages reduce the difficulties of collecting and analyzing ILL requests. This article examines earlier ILL/collection development studies to identify important ILL record elements for collection analysis. Further, this article reports on the results of a telephone survey of available ILL database management packages to determine whether the elements considered important in the earlier manual studies are being included in these new software packages. The article concludes that through the use of ILL database management packages, ILL activity analysis can be easily incorporated into ILL workflow and quickly passed along to subject selectors.     

Information-seeking behavior changes in community-based teaching practices.

A National Library of Medicine information access grant allowed for a collaborative project to provide computer resources in fourteen clinical practice sites that enabled health care professionals to access medical information via PubMed and the Internet. Health care professionals were taught how to access quality, cost-effective information that was user friendly and would result in improved patient care. Selected sites were located in medically underserved areas and received a computer, a printer, and, during year one, a fax machine. Participants were provided dial-up Internet service or were connected to the affiliated hospital's network. Clinicians were trained in how to search PubMed as a tool for practicing evidence-based medicine and to support clinical decision making. Health care providers were also taught how to find patient-education materials and continuing education programs and how to network with other professionals. Prior to the training, participants completed a questionnaire to assess their computer skills and familiarity with searching the Internet, MEDLINE, and other health-related databases. Responses indicated favorable changes in information-seeking behavior, including an increased frequency in conducting MEDLINE searches and Internet searches for work-related information.     

Providing consumer health information via health professionals

The Health Education Center in Pittsburgh, a community-based health promotion agency which provides library services to health professionals, students, and the lay public, received a resource grant in 1981 from the National Library of Medicine to study professionals' awareness of consumer health information (CHI) materials for their patients and clients. A survey of telephone patrons and on-site library patrons provided details on health professionals' use of the CHI resource center: their areas of interest, the material formats they preferred, and the intended use of the materials. Health professionals' demand for information about consumer-oriented materials and their satisfaction with the HEC library suggest that such a resource can be a valuable asset to a community.     

Shadow ILL Services: How Scholarly Pirate Websites and Hacking Affect ILL

Abstract

Full-text research pirating sites are a fact of life at this point. Regardless of how we personally feel about this issue, the fact that students, researchers, and patrons are turning away from the library as a legitimate source for research documents means libraries’ numbers are affected. We are all seeing usage numbers go down, it’s a trend throughout ILL. This could be for a number of reasons: use of OA and pre-print servers, better collection development, or an increase in use of pirating or black market PDF websites. Regardless, this decrease in numbers can lead to a decrease in funding for our departments. At the same time we have seen cases of abuse in institutional logins. During this discussion we will look at some examples of attempted phishing and impersonation techniques used by “pirates,” our library patrons’ motivations for using these sites, consequences for the user as well as the institution, and the role of ILL in this conundrum.     

U.S. State Documents in Academic Libraries*

This article presents the results from a survey intended to determine how academic libraries in the United States manage and promote their state document collections. In November 1996, a six-part questionnaire (including general information; coordination of state documents; selection and acquisition of state documents; location of and access to state documents; use of state documents; and electronic access to state documents) was distributed to 350 academic libraries including one flagship institution in each state and 300 institutions randomly selected from the Higher Education Directory, 1996. Two hundred seventy-seven libraries responded to the questionnaire, for a return rate of 79.1 percent. The answers to the survey indicate that about 54 percent of the respondents participate in a state document depository program, and less than 50 percent have a designated librarian coordinating state documents. State documents are acquired either through purchases or through the depository program, are circulated and integrated with the general collections, classified in accordance with the Library of Congress classification system, and accessed through the library Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). The librarians responding to the questionnaire perceived the use of state documents as limited.     

Tufts academic health information network: concept and scenario

Tufts University School of Medicine's new health sciences education building, the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Health Communications, will house a modern medical library and computer center, classrooms, auditoria, and media facilities. The building will also serve as the center for an information and communication network linking the medical school and adjacent New England Medical Center, Tufts' primary teaching hospital, with Tufts Associated Teaching Hospitals throughout New England. Ultimately, the Tufts network will join other gateway networks, information resource facilities, health care institutions, and medical schools throughout the world. The center and the network are intended to facilitate and improve the education of health professionals, the delivery of health care to patients, the conduct of research, and the implementation of administrative management approaches that should provide more efficient utilization of resources and save dollars. A model and scenario show how health care delivery and health care education are integrated through better use of information transfer technologies by health information specialists, practitioners, and educators.     

Reference as an Access Service: Collaboration Between Reference and Interlibrary Loan Departments

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries increasingly rely on Interlibrary Loan (ILL) departments to obtain research materials. This adds to the workload of ILL at a time when many libraries are experiencing budget cuts and dwindling staff. Collaboration between ILL and Reference can assist ILL by providing searching expertise. Collaboration is facilitated by the paperless environment provided by ILL management software. Patrons benefit from increased fill-rates and reduced turnaround time for ILL requests. Reference benefits by exercising creative searching for difficult-to-find materials and gaining exposure to new reference sources and online catalogs. These benefits are explored through analysis of fill-rates, sources from which materials were ultimately obtained, sources used by the Reference Department, and interviews with staff.