New measures for new roles: defining and measuring the current practices of health sciences librarians

The roles of academic health sciences librarians are continually evolving as librarians initiate new programs and services in response to developments in computer technology and user demands. However, statistics currently collected by libraries do not accurately reflect or measure these new roles. It is essential for librarians to document, measure, and evaluate these new activities to continue to meet the needs of users and to ensure the viability of their professional role. To determine what new measures should be compiled, the authors examined current statistics, user demands, professional literature, and current activities of librarians as reported in abstracts of poster sessions at Medical Library Association annual meetings. Three new categories of services to be measured are proposed. The first, consultation, groups activities such as quality filtering and individual point-of-need instruction. The second, outreach, includes activities such as working as liaisons, participating in grand rounds or morning report, and providing continuing education. The third area, Web authoring, encompasses activities such as designing Web pages, creating online tutorials, and developing new products. Adding these three measures to those already being collected will provide a more accurate and complete depiction of the services offered by academic health sciences librarians.     

Public library trends

Public libraries tend to be taken for granted. They can be found in nearly every community and are used by a substantial proportion of the population, particularly the young and the old. Yet the public library service, as it is today, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Despite their origins in the mid-19th century, the widespread network of public libraries is largely the product of the post-war welfare state. The demand for the service grew rapidly during the war and in the immediate post-war period. Provision to meet the demand was constrained initially by the competing demands for reconstruction, but by 1960 the service was ready to expand. The growth was consolidated by the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act and was given further emphasis by the 1962 Bourdillon standards (Ministry of Education, 1962). The Act and the standards provided the impetus for what might be described as the golden age of public libraries. This brief period was brought to an abrupt end by the economic crises of the mid-1970s and the subsequent downward pressure on public expenditure. The service managed to hold its own during the late 1970s and early 1980s but since then it has been in decline, with the rate of decline accelerating during the 1990s as new requirements and increasing costs stretched diminishing resources even further, to the point where the overall level of provision now falls well short of the basic standards that were considered to be essential in the early 1960s.     

An Analysis of Academic Library Web Pages for Faculty

Web sites are increasingly used by academic libraries to promote key services and collections to teaching faculty. This study analyzes the content, location, language, and technological features of fifty-four academic library Web pages designed especially for faculty to expose patterns in the development of these pages.     

Design and evaluation of a personal digital assistant- based alerting service for clinicians.

PURPOSE: This study describes the system architecture and user acceptance of a suite of programs that deliver information about newly updated library resources to clinicians' personal digital assistants (PDAs). DESCRIPTION: Participants received headlines delivered to their PDAs alerting them to new books, National Guideline Clearinghouse guidelines, Cochrane Reviews, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Alerts, as well as updated content in UpToDate, Harrison's Online, Scientific American Medicine, and Clinical Evidence. Participants could request additional information for any of the headlines, and the information was delivered via e-mail during their next synchronization. Participants completed a survey at the conclusion of the study to gauge their opinions about the service. RESULTS/OUTCOME: Of the 816 headlines delivered to the 16 study participants' PDAs during the project, Scientific American Medicine generated the highest proportion of headline requests at 35%. Most users of the PDA Alerts software reported that they learned about new medical developments sooner than they otherwise would have, and half reported that they learned about developments that they would not have heard about at all. While some users liked the PDA platform for receiving headlines, it seemed that a Web database that allowed tailored searches and alerts could be configured to satisfy both PDA-oriented and e-mail-oriented users.     

China's statistical system and resources

As the People's Republic of China plays an increasingly important role in international politics and trade, countries with economic interests there find they need to know more about this nation. Access to primary information sources, including official statistics from China, however, is very limited, as little exploration has been done into this closely controlled repository of information. This study explores major current statistical sources in China through examining (a) the statistical system in Chinese government, (b) the mechanism of statistical data collection, and (c) what statistical information is currently available in both print and electronic format and at what level. It shows that a wealth of statistical information does exist in China, it is systematically compiled, and it is available, although not conveniently, to the public through various channels. This study can serve the need for China's data from the academic and business communities, contribute to a better understanding of China's statistical system, and serve as a collection tool for academic, public, and corporation libraries as well.