Physician information seeking: improving relevance through research

Health sciences libraries have considerable potential as resources for both formal continuing professional education, as well as the informal continuing education that results from the professional's efforts to solve problems in daily practice. While there is a growing interest in making the resources of health sciences libraries more accessible to practitioners on a routine, day-to-day basis, there also needs to be more awareness of how, when, where, and why professionals look for information in the context of practical problems. This paper reviews recent research that identifies the context in which physicians seek information and advice from external sources, the information sources that physicians access, and the factors that influence which particular sources are sought. The results indicate that physicians vary in their information needs, preferences, motivations, and strategies for seeking information. This diversity suggests that health sciences libraries, in their efforts to be more accessible, should consider "market research" to determine the needs, preferences, and use patterns of the library's targeted users. Libraries may also benefit from exploring alternative methods of improving access to their resources.     

Financial Feeling: An Investigation of Emotion and Communication in the Workplace

There is growing interest in the role of emotion when considering communication in the workplace. This work has most often considered workers in front-line service positions in investigations of emotional labor, and human service workers in investigations of empathy and emotional work. In this study, we consider processes of both emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. Financial planners occupy a role requiring ongoing relationships with clients, conversations about the often emotional topic of money, and a need to manage emotion in a variety of interaction contexts. Thus, from extant theory and literature regarding emotion and communication, we proposed research questions regarding the roles of emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. These questions were investigated in a web-based survey study of almost 300 professional financial planners and supporting interviews with 14 financial planners. Results indicate support for existing theory on emotional work, extensions to current research regarding emotional labor, and important implications for the role of emotion and communication in a range of professional service roles.     

Key issues of the development of the information infrastructure and information support of innovation activities

We consider some issues of the development of the national information infrastructure in the field of innovation, including a national system of accounting for the results of scientific and technical activities (RSTA) and a national new-generation research computer network (NNGRCN). The current state of the national system of scientific and technical information and its resources for information support of innovation processes are analyzed. In the context of further development of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), we propose a Conception of scientific and technical support for programs and projects of NIS member-states in the field of innovation, making it possible to incorporate the existing innovation-oriented information resources into a joint distributed integrated information system as well as to create new information resources and technologies.     

Expanding rural primary care training by employing information technologies: the need for participation by medical reference librarians

The use of rural sites to train badly needed primary care providers requires access to sophisticated medical information not traditionally available outside of academic health centers. Medical reference librarians can play a key role in the development of primary care training sites in rural settings. Electronic information technologies, with proactive support from medical reference librarians, can provide current and detailed information without concern for distance from the health science center library. This paper discusses recent developments in technology, describes current challenges to the application of this technology in rural settings, and provides policy recommendations for medical reference librarians to enhance rural primary care training.     

Reconciling rising serials costs, the serials budget, and reference needs in a medical library serials retrenchment program: a methodology

Devising a coherent serials retrenchment plan while maintaining quality reference service is a dilemma faced by increasing numbers of medical librarians. In 1991, the staff of the Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University, began to address increasing serials budget reductions that by 1994 amounted to a projected 20% maximum cut. The resulting retrenchment plan combined an ongoing serials use study, faculty and librarian reviews of cancellation lists, and systematic refinements in interlibrary cooperation and document delivery service. The Shiffman plan provides a constructive framework that can be adapted to other medical libraries facing immediate, major serials retrenchment.     

Analysis of the use of reference services in an academic health sciences library

In 1991, the Reference and Information Services staff of the Alfred Taubman Medical Library at the University of Michigan gathered data on the use of the reference desk, including the frequency and types of assistance requested by different user groups throughout the year. Recommendations based on the results of this study led to improved service as well as more efficient use of staff resources.     

The literature of women and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): implications for collection development and information retrieval

The purpose of the study was to identify the pattern of publication about women and AIDS in scientific journals. Bradford zones were identified in each of six databases. The study determined that journal scatter for this subset of AIDS literature differed from the scatter in the general literature; further, the information indexed in the six electronic sources demonstrated little overlap. Consequently, key journal and newsletter titles identified by this study should form the core of any collection focusing on women and AIDS. The assurance of quality patient care management demands that librarians consult multiple resources for information retrieval that can assist health care providers, patients, and caregivers to enhance quality of life as well as to provide optimum care.