Impact of end-user search training on pharmacy students: a four-year follow-up study.

The Alfred Taubman Medical Library at the University of Michigan has offered instruction in online literature searching to third-year pharmacy students as a component of the course "Drug Information and Scientific Literature Evaluation" since 1983. In the spring of 1989, a follow-up study was conducted to assess the impact of instruction on four classes of graduates. Of a pool of 151 graduates, 90 (60%) responded to a mailed questionnaire on their use of information and computerized literature searching. The respondents were divided into four subgroups: end-user searchers, users of intermediaries, end users who used intermediaries, and those who did not use computerized literature search systems. Seventy-two percent of the respondents used some type of computerized literature searching, and 42% performed their own searches. The four subgroups differed in general computer use, familiarity with MEDLINE search terminology, information use, reasons for using or not using literature searching, and characteristics of searches (i.e., type, time frame, amount, and frequency). Training in end-user search systems appears to have had an impact on the continued use of computerized literature searching several years after the formal educational program.     

Ethics of information giving: the librarian's view*

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Organizational change in the Medical Library Association: evolution of the continuing education program

"Change" is a critical dimension of contemporary experience. Library associations are not exempt, and they change in ways similar to other organizations. According to some authorities, four phases typify the process: diagnosis, design, implementation, and incorporation. Focusing on changes in the Medical Library Association's longstanding program of continuing education, the authors utilize the "phase framework" to chart that association's movement from a management system depending primarily upon volunteers to one in which professional staff figure prominently. The historical review serves a heuristic purpose for individuals and institutions in identifying characteristic features of the change process.     

Time series analysis of knowledge of results effects during motor skill acquisition

Time series analysis was used to investigate the hypothesis that during acquisition of a motor skill, knowledge of results (KR) information is used to generate a stable internal referent about which response errors are randomly distributed. Sixteen subjects completed 50 acquisition trials of each of three movements whose spatial-temporal characteristics differed. Acquisition trials were either blocked, with each movement being presented in series, or randomized, with the presentation of movements occurring in random order. Analysis of movement time data indicated the contextual interference effect reported in previous studies was replicated in the present experiment. Time series analysis of the acquisition trial data revealed the majority of individual subject response patterns during blocked trials were best described by a model with a temporarily stationary, internal reference of the criterion and systematic, trial-to-trial variation of response errors. During random trial conditions, response patterns were usually best described by a "White-noise" model. This model predicts a permanently stationary, internal reference associated with randomly distributed response errors that are unaffected by KR information. These results are not consistent with previous work using time series analysis to describe motor behavior (Spray & Newell, 1986).     

Library systems in the electronic era

The ‘traditional’ academic library system model – i.e. a central system constructed around a common catalogue record that also dictated the end‐users' view – is breaking down. Systems that were constructed to handle the processing and lending of printed items are no longer capable, on their own, of dealing with the variety of different information resources handled by modern academic libraries. A great deal has been written about how end‐users expect more ‘Web 2.0’ features than library catalogues currently provide. New front‐end services have been designed by libraries and library system providers to cater for this need. However, not much has been written about the needs of internal library staff who struggle with processing, handling, and supporting the huge volume of electronic resources subscribed to by libraries. Electronic resource management systems have been developed to cater for these needs, and new standards for data interchange with such systems have been developed. Just as standards were important in encouraging electronic data interchange (orders, invoices, claims, etc.) between libraries, publishers, and agents in the last century, so new standards are evolving for such transactions in the electronic era.