Communications May 2004 |
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the Newsletter of the School of Medicine Library, Publishing with BioMed Central has a number of advantages, including:
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The School of Medicine Library and the Division of Geriatrics at Palmetto Health/USC School of Medicine are proud to announce the availability of GeriatricWeb, an Internet digital library of links to peer-reviewed geriatrics resources to be used in the clinical care of the older patient and in the education of health care professionals. GeriatricWeb provides a portal or "one-stop-shop" for geriatrics resources categorized by topic. Funded by a grant from the National Library of Medicine and led by Dr. Ihab Hajjar, the GeriatricWeb initiative is a powerful partnership of medical librarians and clinicians. USC School of Medicine librarians are providing expertise in information architecture, web design, and Internet resource discovery. Identified resources are reviewed by an Editorial Review Board composed of over 50 clinicians around the country. The review process assesses the accuracy, credibility, design, and educational value of the resources using a validated instrument, the Geriatric Online Assessment Tool. If the review meets the acceptance criteria, the resource is included in GeriatricWeb.
GeriatricWeb is geared towards health care professionals and is a free service that is open to all users with access to the Internet. Check it out at http://geriatricweb.sc.edu and let us know what you think!
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On April 3rd, the School of Medicine Library hosted a reception to mark the completion of a project involving 5,000 volumes of books and journals in the topic of psychiatry. These items from the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute Library were donated to the Library by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. Library staff spent months transporting the collection to the School of Medicine, processing and cataloging the items, and integrating them into the current collection. The Library is pleased to have this valuable collection. As a commemorative, a portrait of Dr. William S. Hall was hung in the lobby of the Library.
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The Library is anticipating a 10% increase in journal prices for the 2005 subscription year and a flat or reduced budget in 2004-2005. This requires that the Library plan for canceling a number of its journal subscriptions, reducing the book budget, and reviewing database subscriptions. The Library expects that it will have to make journal cancellations totalling approximately $40,000 before the 2005 subscription year begins.
The Library has identified a list of potential candidates for journal cancellation using various factors -- including journal price, usage, impact factor, availablility via Thomas Cooper Library either in print or online, and access to other titles in the same subject area. Another important factor in making journal cancellation decisions is the input that the Library receives from School of Medicine faculty, students, and staff. We will be working with the Library Committee and department chairs to solicit feedback from our users on potential cancellations.
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The majority of our journal subscriptions have now become available online. Unfortunately, some publishers are pushing up the price of our online access and we are unable to sustain the price increases necessary to keep electronic access. We plan on continuing to provide as much online access as possible to our patrons, based on the budget availability.
Please be aware that the following journals published by Lippincott will no longer be available online, but the print is available in the Library should you need an article.
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On December 22nd and 23rd the School of Medicine Library conducted a winter practicum for Julie Gaines, Associate Fellow at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD. Ms. Gaines applied for the fellowship program upon completing her studies at the USC College of Library and Information Science in 2003. She is one of eight people selected nationwide for the 2003-2004 program.
Ms. Gaines has a strong interest in the provision of health information to consumers and prior to her graduation she worked in the Community Health Information Library of Lexington Medical Center. However, she is also interested in the professional roles and the work environment of academic medical librarians. During her practicum she had an opportunity to interview each librarian at the School of Medicine Library, including Ruth Riley, Director of Library and Information Services. She was also given an extensive tour of the Josey Health Sciences Library at Palmetto-Richland conducted by Pat Stout, Library Director.
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Last spring, I received a leadership scholarship from the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) to participate in the Association of Research Libraries' "Library Leadership for New Managers Program." I selected this program because it offered a variety of educational experiences, an in-person leadership institute, a web-based course, and a facilitated project. The major concepts discussed during the in-person leadership institute were career management, collaboration, and communication. I was surprised how many conditions are required to make money an effective reward and how rewards can be ineffective for motivating employees.
The last portion of the program was a facilitated project that required using the information gained from the New Managers Program at my institution. My facilitated project focused on improving the effectiveness of our Collection Development Committee. First, I distributed a pre-survey to the Collection Development Committee members which asked them to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the committee. Next, I created a survey about collection development committee activities, procedures, and goals to identify best practices for collection development at other academic libraries. I posted the survey on four collection development-related listservs. After I compiled the survey results, the Collection Development Committee met to discuss the findings & implement relevant methods. Finally, I distributed a post-survey to the committee to evaluate the project. This committee was fairly inactive over the past year, and this project reinvigorated the group.
Overall, the program was a great experience. Reports are available at http://www.aahsl.org/document/ACF9B45.doc.
Roz McConnaughy
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To celebrate National Medical Librarians Month in October, the School of Medicine Library created a "Meet the Staff" display, complete with photographs of library staff and descriptions of each person's job duties. The display was mounted beneath a banner which read "Celebrate National Medical Librarians Month!" In addition, candy and library bookmarks were distributed to all library patrons.
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Librarian Laura Kane's new book, Straight from the Stacks: A Firsthand Guide to Careers in Library and Information Science was highly reviewed in the December 2003 issue of American Libraries. The book, which highlights the various career opportunities in the field of library science, was published by the American Library Association in September 2003.
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In October the Library participated in several events during the South Carolina Library Association's annual conference in Columbia, SC. Ellen Reynolds presented the poster session A Dream Come True: The Charles S. Bryan History of Medicine Room, volunteered at the conference registration desk, and was voted secretary of the Health Sciences Round Table (HSRT). Victor Jenkinson, as outgoing chair of the HSRT, coordinated the workshop entitled Personal Digital Assistants: Your Mobile Future taught by Dale Prince of NN/LM. Victor also coordinated two conference programs: Consumer Health Information on the Internet (also presented by Dale Prince) and Hands On Health (a descriptive tour of the health website developed and presented by Nancy McKeehan of MUSC).
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Return to the Table of Contents Library Hours and General InformationHours:Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Saturday - 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday - 1 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Telephone Number: (803) 733-3344 Fax Number: (803) 733-1509
Address: Home Page: http://uscm.med.sc.edu/ Return to the Table of Contents Newsletter Committee
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This page was last updated 12 October 2004.
This page copyright 2004, The Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina.
URL: http://uscm.med.sc.edu/com32.htm