Poster Abstracts
Session 1
Friday, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
1. The State of Reference Services: A Look at the Big Picture
Author/s: Kristen Morda, MA, Graduate Medical Education Librarian, University of South Florida, Shimberg Health Sciences Library; Randy Polo, JD, Access Services Librarian; Rose Bland, MA, AHIP, Assistant Director of Technology and Access Services; Danny O'Neal, MA, AHIP, Assistant Director of Information and Outreach Services; Beverly Shattuck, MS, MBA, Assoc. VP of Libraries, USF Health Director, Shimberg Health Sciences Library & Media Center
Question/Objective: A comparison of reference services provided by the academic medical/health sciences libraries of institutions accredited by either LCME (Liaison Committee on Medical Education) or AOA (American Osteopathic Association). This research is expanded from a previous survey, commenced July 2008, limited to the libraries of LCME and AOA institutions within the Southeast Atlantic region of NNLM.
Setting/Participants: The survey was sent to reference department supervisors and/or staff or, in their absence, the director of the identified academic medical/health sciences libraries.
Design/Method: The survey was created using SurveyMonkey and distributed electronically. Survey questions related to reference services offered, the hours, staffing, and scheduling of the reference desk, the criteria and parameters of fee-based literature searching, and the library’s involvement with grant funding by the institutions’ supporting colleges and schools.
Findings/Results: Survey was administered in July/August, 2009. Data will be presented using graphs and tables.
Conclusion: The statistics will be helpful in evaluating library services and programs. Outcome and comparison will be helpful for planning, budgeting, marketing, and promotion of reference services.
2. Old Skills, New Roles: Extending Our Influence on Campus
Author/s: M.J. Tooey, MLS, FMLA, Associate Vice President and Executive Director, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland, Baltimore; Tierney Lyons, MLS, Reference/Instruction Librarian, Penn State Worthington, Scranton, Dunmore, PA; Alexa Mayo, MLS, Associate Director for Services; Paula Raimondo, MLS, Head of Liaison and Outreach Services, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland, Baltimore
Question/Objective: Librarians have diverse skills and abilities that can extend their roles beyond the traditional confines of the library. How can those skills and abilities translate into opportunities to serve the greater university community, thus raising visibility and campus perception?
Setting or Participants: The faculty librarians involved in these projects are employed by the Health Sciences and Human Services Library at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. UMB is located in an urban environment on the west side of downtown Baltimore. The professional schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Social Work, and Law are located on this campus along with a Graduate School, two institutes, the University of Maryland Medical Center, and a VA Hospital.
Methodology: The librarians involved in these projects had unique skills, abilities, and training that enabled them to participate in campus programs in which they normally would not have been involved. By raising awareness of these competencies at the campus level, projects gratefully accepted the librarians’ offers of support.
Findings: The three projects highlighted in this poster—Work/Life Strategies Committee, UMB Sustainability Committee, and the Institutional Review Board—were highly successful due to the participation of the librarians involved in the projects. They saved the campus money because consultants did not need to be hired for focus groups in the Work/Life Strategies Committee. They brought technology expertise to the Sustainability Committee, and they filled the nonscientist roles on the Institutional Review Boards.
Conclusion: Librarians at the library will continue to look for opportunities to expand roles and influence at the university. These demonstrations of volunteerism, expertise, and excellence benefit not only the university and the library but enhance the perception of the librarians and their skills and abilities.
3. Rediscovering a Forgotten Tune
Author/s: Trey Lemley, Information Services Librarian, MLIS, JD, Institution: University of South Alabama Biomedical Library; J. Michael Lindsay, MSIS, AHIP, Serials/E Resources Librarian, Preston Medical Library & Learning Resource Center, The University of Tennessee; Jie Li, MLS, AHIP, Assistant Director for Collection Management, University of South Alabama Biomedical Library; Sarah M. Doyle, Student, University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences; Adam Kemper, Student Assistant, Preston Medical Library, The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine.
Question/Objective: To develop and execute a method to assess the collection of historical books in the holdings of the University of South Alabama Biomedical Library in an effort to determine their value and significance and to determine whether this method can be successfully applied to other medical library settings.
Setting or Participants: The primary setting would be an academic health sciences library serving a college of medicine, a college of nursing, a college of allied health, and two university-related teaching hospitals. One goal of the project is to determine whether the method developed can be applied to another setting, specifically, an academic health sciences library serving residents of a graduate school of medicine, and nurses and other healthcare professionals in an academic medical center.
Methodology: This project begins with an inventory of uncatalogued antiquarian books held in the collection. Each book will be evaluated based on rarity, monetary value, and historical significance. Rarity will be assessed by locating each book on WorldCat to assess the number of copies held worldwide. Monetary value will be assessed based on an analysis of entries on the websites of antiquarian book dealers, and historical value will be assessed by an examination of Morton’s Medical Bibliography.
Findings: This project will result in the development of a policy for evaluating older books in this library, as well as a method for evaluating older books that can be used by other libraries.
Conclusion: Books that meet the policy will be catalogued and retained in the collection, and other institutions will have a workable method to evaluate their antiquarian collections without the necessity of hiring outside consultants.
4. Consumer Health and Toxicology Project
Author/s: Joe Swanson, Jr., MSLS, Division Head for Computer Systems; Roland B. Welmaker, Sr., PhD, MSLS, Archivist/Librarian; Xiomara E. Arango, MSLS, Division Head for Technical Services; Cynthia L. Henderson, MILS, Director; Darlene P. Kelly, MSLS, Division Head for Information Services, Morehouse School of Medicine Library
Question/Objective: The objective for the Consumer Health and Toxicology Project of the Morehouse School of Medicine Library (MSM Library) was to train select public librarians who would then train their patrons to search for medical information using the National Library of Medicine databases.
Setting or Participants: MSM Library librarians, librarians from selected (5) AFPL branches and their patrons.
Methodology: Five branches of the Atlanta Fulton Public Library (AFPL) that serve a significant and diverse minority population were selected to participate in the project. The MSM Library Health Sciences librarians trained AFPL librarians in the use of the following NLM databases: Clinical Trials, DIRLINE, Genetics Home Reference, Hazmap, Household Products Databases, MedlinePlus, NLM Gateway, PubMed Central, Tox Map, and Tox Town so that they could provide ongoing support to public library patrons. Workstations were purchased for all five branches, and each received a collection of medical reference books. Direct website links between AFPL, MSM Library, and NLM databases were installed on the workstations. Kickoff promotional events were held at each branch where patrons were instructed in the use of the NLM databases and NLM promotional material was disseminated.
Findings: The public librarians felt comfortable in instructing patrons in the use of the NLM databases, and the patrons were able to utilize the NLM databases for information on medications and health issues or concerns.
Conclusion: Public librarians felt empowered to instruct their patrons on consumer health information using NLM databases, and patrons were interested in obtaining trusted health information. Patrons felt that the information presented was understandable and felt comfortable using the NLM data bases to find answers to their health questions, issues, and medications. Several indicated they had increased their awareness of where to go to get consumer health information and would return to the public library for future health related questions.
5. Webs of Care: Connecting Patients with Family and Friends
Author/s: Valerie S. Gordon, AHIP, Associate Professor/Head of Cataloging/Staff Dev. Officer, MLS; Tracy E. Powell, AHIP, Associate Professor and Clinical Services Librarian, MA, MLS, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Question/Objective: To identify and compare services that allow patients to connect with friends and family through a website and to find out from hospital librarians how these services are used and supported in their hospitals.
Setting or Participants: Personnel affiliated with and/or websites for the services identified and hospital librarians responding to a survey advertised on the Hospital Libraries Section discussion list.
Methodology: We identified websites that provide patient communication and support and gathered information on these services through phone calls, emails, and/or data provided on their websites. The information gathered included vision of organization, target groups served, number of web pages and visitors, website features, additional content provided, technical support, privacy information, and revenue stream. To provide some context for this information, we conducted a survey of hospital librarians to gather information about patient websites available to patients at their hospitals. The information collected included hospital type and geographic location, types of patient websites used or promoted in their hospitals, access to computers and WiFi for patients and families, and technical support and promotion of the websites.
Findings: We compiled the information gathered and compared the websites for features and usage. We also analyzed the data from our survey to see which sites were being used and how they were promoted and supported in hospitals.
Conclusion: The websites we examined that are available to connect patients with family and friends vary in features and intended audience. Although CarePages and CaringBridge may be the most widely recognized sites, the other sites provide features that make them valuable tools. The levels of support and promotion of these websites vary greatly at hospitals.
6. The Recession and Its Effect on Academic Health Sciences Libraries
Author/s: Elizabeth R. Lorbeer, Associate Director for Content Management, EdM, MLS, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Michael J. Donohoe, Web Analytics Specialist, MBA, EBSCO Industries
Question/Objective: This poster discusses the financial landscape for academic health sciences libraries over the next 5 years. The objective is to help librarians to make appropriate decisions to sustain the library during these difficult economic times. Setting or Participants: This poster focuses specifically on the health science libraries. Though all libraries are facing budget challenges over the next few years, health science libraries are uniquely positioned to handle the decline in funding.
Methodology: The United States economic recession started in late 2007; the full impact did not hit academia until the fall of 2008. With substantial reductions in funding, libraries are quickly scrambling to adjust their collections, staff, and operations costs. The financial squeeze has caused associations, state consortia, and individual libraries to publicly issue open statements seeking flexibility in pricing and licensing terms.
Findings: On May 29, 2009, the Wall Street Journal ran an article that discusses the current financial bind faced by many universities. The article reported that university endowments will shrink by 25% to 30% for the fiscal year ending in June 2009. Some wealthier schools, which are also top institutions that receive NIH funding, rely on endowments for 20% to 40% of their operating revenue compared with about 5% at the typical college/university. This effect is putting financial pressure on a library’s ability to maintain multiyear agreements to publishers’ bundles (Big Deals) and biomedical and clinical decision-making databases. With the loss of content, users will seek out content through open-access venues such as PubMed Central and institutional and subject repositories and expect libraries to support pay-per-view and traditional interlibrary loan services to satisfy research needs. There will be a shift from annual subscriptions and leasing aggregated content to libraries securing articles. This is a fundamental change in how libraries procure content in that instead of buying the journal or bundle, it is purchasing the individual article.
Conclusion: In the current economic and financial environment, publisher deals and high-price clinical diagnostic tools may no longer be in the best interest for purchase. Basically, these materials tie up too much of the library’s budget and do not allow for flexibility to purchase materials from other sources. This is the time for health science librarians to reinvent themselves as the experts on campus who can connect users to content even when barriers exist.
8. Support of Evidence-Based Practice through Promotion of CINAHL Resource: A Collaborative Effort between the Nursing Quality and Research Council and Preston Medical Library
Author/s: Martha Earl, Assistant Director, MSLS; Sandy Oelschlegel, MLIS, Library Director, and Vicki Cannington, RN, MSN, UT Graduate School of Medicine
Question/Objective: To track the impact of making CINAHL database available to nurses at UT Medical Center and promoting its use for evidence-based practice.
Setting or Participants: UT Medical Center is a 600-bed teaching hospital in an urban setting.
Methodology: The Nursing Quality and Research Council and Preston Medical Library collaborated to obtain a 3-month trial subscription to CINAHL and to hold several educational promotions to nurses during that time. The CINAHL service provided tracking information on the number of sessions, searches, and content use, which were used to evaluate the impact of the promotion efforts and the availability of the database subscription on nurses’ actions to look for research articles. SPSS software was used to determine if significant differences occurred in CINAHL use.
Findings: Differences in the numbers of sessions, searches, and content use of CINAHL before, during, and after the 3-month trial subscription and promotion period were significant. Nurses are using CINAHL more often now than during the promotion period.
Conclusion: Use of CINAHL increased during the trial period and afterwards in relation to marketing and educational efforts jointly supported by the library and the nursing councils. Further research is needed to assess impact on evidence-based decision making.
9. Investigating Availability of Library Services at Clinical Rotation Sites
Author/s: Lisa Travis, Medical and Allied Health Librarian, MS; Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine. Randal Batchelor, Director of Academic Assessment, EdD; Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine. Jody Caldwell, Director of Clinical Rotations, Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine
Question/Objective: To prepare to serve our student while on rotations, we surveyed clinical rotation sites to learn if they had a library, a librarian, online resources, etc. The survey also included questions about the hospital's technological capabilities.
Setting or Participants: We surveyed all of the community hospitals serving as clinical rotation sites.
Methodology: Data was compiled into an Excel spreadsheet.
Findings: Out of 16 hospitals, two included a library and part-time librarian. One hospital does not have a library but has a part-time librarian and a part-time staff member. Another library has a library but not a librarian. Technological capabilities varied; some results are listed on the poster.
Conclusion: Collecting data on clinical rotation sites can help prepare a library to serve students during rotations.
10. Characteristics of Study Spaces and Policies on Their Use in Academic Medical Libraries
Author/s: Lisa Travis, Medical and Allied Health Librarian, MS; Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Question/Objective: To determine number of study rooms and seats and policies for use of study rooms in academic medical libraries.
Setting or Participants: An online survey of academic medical libraries was distributed via the MLA list serv, Southern Chapter list serv, and other list servs. A second version of the survey that included two additional questions on allowance of food in the library was administered in MLA's class, Dig Deeper.
Methodology: Mean, median, and mode have been calculated for existing data where appropriate.
Findings: Out of forty-one academic medical libraries that serve undergraduate and graduate students, only three libraries have separate study spaces for the two populations. Eight out of twenty-six respondents allow users to reserve study rooms. Fourteen libraries specify that rooms are for use by individuals and groups, and the percentage of rooms designated for each vary. More results are listed on the poster.
Conclusion: In deciding policies for study rooms, libraries may want to examine the characteristics of other libraries' policies and study spaces. However, policies vary greatly. Allowing users to provide input may be a wise choice.
11. Connecting the Dots: Tennessee's Disaster Preparedness and the Role of Information Services
Author/s: Jan Haley, MLS, Saint Thomas Health Services, Nashville TN; Sandy Oelschlegel, MLIS, AHIP, Library Director, University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, Preston Medical Library, Knoxville TN; Beth M Wescott, MLS, Network Access Coordinator, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern Atlantic Region, University of Maryland Baltimore, Health Sciences and Human Services Library
Question/Objective: The objectives were to raise the awareness of the need for a state-wide disaster plan, teach librarians how to create a successful plan, and formulate Mutual Assistance Agreements throughout the state so libraries could provide reciprocal "back up" for a similar "size and mission" library either in or out of their region to cover essential library services. Setting or Participants: Tennessee health sciences librarians, other types of Tennessee libraries, and individuals interested in disaster planning from across the state.
Methodology: A workshop of nationally known experts showed librarians how to create disaster plans, salvage damaged materials, and establish a Mutual Assistance Agreement with a partner library.
Findings: The poster will display a map of Tennessee libraries and their corresponding reciprocal partner library. A sample Memorandum of Understanding was developed.
Conclusion: This project resulted in numerous plans being posted to the THeSLA wiki and was a vehicle to formalize partnerships with other libraries.
12. Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Low-Vision Senior Citizens
Author/s: Cheryl Dee, PhD
Question/Objective: Train, study, and describe the consumer health information needs and the information seeking behavior of low-vision senior citizens.
Setting or Participants: A senior residence center hosted by Dr. Martin M. Cummings, Director Emeritus of the National Library of Medicine. Methodology: Train senior citizens to search the National Library of Medicine’s consumer health database, MedlinePlus. Instructors, assisted by graduate students in library science, use the following methodology: an introductory MedlinePlus searching demonstration, a teaching hand-out and take-home MedlinePlus tutorial, and a hands-on computer training session with individual training assistance. Methodology was modified by study training experience that revealed the need to emphasize the MedlinePlus features that focused specifically on voice-over programs for senior citizens, including MedlinePlus NIH Senior Health and the MedlinePlus Interactive Tutorials. Subsequent to the MedlinePlus training, trainers use qualitative research techniques including a questionnaire to survey the senior citizens and follow-up interviews with the participants to ascertain the senior citizens’ technology experience, health information needs, health information seeking behavior, and the seniors’ suggestions to meet seniors’ low-vision health information needs.
Findings: Observation and survey results show a wide variety of technological experience and consumer health needs. Consumer health information needs predictably relate to the seniors’ own health needs but frequently include assisting friends. The information-seeking behavior shows a wide variety of individual needs related to their degree of low vision and ability to see the computer screen. Individual differences will be charted and described. Continued observation during training gathers data related to training senior citizens with low vision that reveals a need for an understanding of the challenges faced by this population and knowledge of the assistive programs that facilitate the information-seeking behavior of low-vision consumer health information seekers.
Conclusion: Conclusions are in process since additional training at each facility is scheduled in the next 4 months. Conclusions will be enumerated and recommendations summarized from the information gathered from the research and the seniors. The preliminary conclusions reveal the critical need for an understanding of this unique population to deliver consumer health information. Preliminary conclusions include the importance of individualized attention for the seniors, simple black and white large print instructions to accompany the training, a knowledge of low-vision enhancements to provide access to the consumer health information, and an emphasis on the excellent MedlinePlus voice-over programs that take the vision aspect out of the low-vision challenge.
13. Keeping up with the Flow; the Low-tech Version
Author/s: Mary Williams, Serials Librarian, MLS; Wanda Booker-Wade, Computer Information Specialist, B.S.E.T., University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Question/Objective: How could we manage workflow for a number of simultaneous projects during our transition from print to online serials? Setting or Participants: Academic health sciences library, serials unit.
Methodology: During a departmental reorganization, a number of projects needed work simultaneously. Tracking these projects and keeping everyone aware of progress was frustrating until we devised a visual exhibit of all of the projects and to whom each had been assigned.
Findings: A project form detailing the name, description, start date, and timeline of each project was put on a wall. Together, all the forms did more than keep us informed as to what had been assigned. They allowed us to collaborate more effectively, balance work time, and work more closely as a team. By moving completed forms to the other side of the wall, we were able to view our progress in a dynamic manner.
Conclusion: As the projects completed side of the wall fills up, we file the completed forms in a folder so that we can easily review them, see who was involved, the tools used, and how long the project took. We continue to use the project forms as new tasks are begun.
14. Connecting with Colleagues: The Creation of a Journal Club
Author/s: Barbara A. Wood, MLIS, Public Services Librarian; Kristen A. Morda, MA, Graduate Medical Education Librarian, University of South Florida
Question/Objective: The objective of this poster is to review the creation of a journal club: why we started it, how we started it, problems and successes we've encountered, and some tips on how to start a journal club at your library.
Setting or Participants: Members of the journal club. Members of the journal club include medical/health science librarians from hospital, research, and academic libraries in geographic proximity to the University of South Florida.
Methodology: After it was determined that there was sufficient interest in having a journal club, a literature search was performed on the topic. The authors met to discuss the feasibility and specifics of creating a journal club, including the mission, goals, rules, etc. An invitation to join the journal club went out in the summer 2008 to all academic medical/health science and hospital librarians in the area.
Findings: We have encountered both pros and cons to starting a journal club. Some of the pros include networking, staying current with the literature, and interacting with our peers in a scholarly setting. Some of the cons we have encountered are fading interest in presenting topics, the extra work it takes to prepare for journal club, and finding a date and time that works for all members.
Conclusion: Although creating a journal club creates additional work, the authors have been very pleased with the turnout, topics discussed at the meetings, and the overall response from the other journal club members. We hope that through our successful venture, other libraries that currently do not have journal clubs will consider starting one.
15. Using Journal Usage Studies to Assess the Journal Collection
Author/s: Jie Li, Assistant Director for Collection Management, MLS; Robert Britton, Electronic Resources/Collection Development Librarian, MLIS; Judy Burnham, Director, MLS, University of South Alabama
Question/Objective: The purpose of this study is to use various journal usage study methods to evaluate the University of South Alabama Biomedical Library’s journal collection. Data collected will help develop a collection that will be more cost effective and better meet the needs of faculty, researchers, clinicians, and students.
Methodology: Statistics including individual print and electronic journal cost-per-use and electronic full-text journal package download percentages have been analyzed. Statistics on journals with articles by faculty and journals with articles cited in faculty publication have been studied. Journal citation and performance data, such as impact factors, have been used, and large publisher online journal packages that are licensed through consortia arrangement have also been compared.
Results: The journal cost-per-use study identifies journal usage patterns that will help the decision-making process regarding the retention of heavily used journals and the cancellation of less used journals. Comparison of full-text journal packages identifies average cost of journal, average cost per article download, and percentage of usage of each package. This identifies the most and least cost effective packages. Study of faculty publication confirms that the Biomedical Library’s journal collection meets the needs of faculty and students. Out of the 789 journals that have articles published by faculty members, the Biomedical Library subscribes to 615 (78%) journals. Users also have access to 73 (9%) journals with up to 12 months’ delay. Only 101 (13%) journals are not subscribed to by the Biomedical Library.
Conclusion: As journal prices continuously increase and libraries face budget cuts, using comprehensive methods for a journal usage analysis presents a better picture of the journal use pattern by faculty, thereby helping libraries make decisions on what individual journals or journal packages to keep and to cut. Specialty journals that may not have high usage but are essential to their disciplines and journals heavily used by faculty should be given careful consideration for addition and cancellation. Statistics on interlibrary loan requests need to be taken into consideration as well.
16. Are You Loansome Tonight? An Assessment of Information Interventions with Isolated Rural Clinicians
Author/s: Rick Wallace, Assistant Director, MSLS, EdD, AHIP; Nakia J. Carter, Clinical Reference Librarian, MSIS, AHIP, East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine Library
Question/Objective: This longitudinal cross-sectional study was designed to give a picture of the Northeast Tennessee rural health care providers’ information needs.
Setting or Participants: The population of this study was the health care providers in Northeast Tennessee outside the Tri-Cities urban area. It is in the 15-county service area of the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine Library's outreach and includes no one from a community larger than 25,000.
Methodology: The names of physicians were gathered from the Tennessee State Licensing Verification Database and personal knowledge of the librarians. The surveys were administered to registered nurses (RNs) from a list from the Tennessee Center for Nursing. A P=0.05 was obtained. The questionnaires were sent out by mail with a self-addressed stamped envelope. A cutoff date was set for 2 weeks for the return of the surveys. Surveys that came in after the cutoff date were accepted up to 1 month. A cover letter was included to explain the purpose of the survey. The data were analyzed in terms of central tendencies and dispersions of distributions. The data are displayed in the report by means of frequencies and percentages.
Findings: This study compared rural information needs and practices in the same geographic area 12 years apart. This has given valuable information as to how the information needs and practices of this group have changed. This study will enable the librarians to change their outreach strategies to reflect the new reality.
Conclusion: Our purposes as medical librarians do not change. However, the environment of our service changes constantly. Longitudinal cross-sectional studies give the opportunity to obtain "snapshots" of a service environment to see how they change over time.
Session 2
Saturday, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
1. LHLWebLab
Author/s: John Paul Mussleman, Instructor, MLIS; Jason Blaine Baker, Instructor, MLIS, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Question/Objective: The library has always sought to introduce users to the best tools for the job. Traditional tools are changing, and new services (web apps) are being developed that empower the user to that tap into these resources in new and powerful ways. New books are currently displayed on new bookshelves, and new databases are announced via news feeds, newsletters, and emails. The library needed a means of not just introducing new tools but also engaging our patrons in conversations regarding the merits and efficacy of them. Toward this, two reference librarians decided to start a blog, weblab, as a means of promoting, storing, and discussing the tools and widgets we develop. Additionally, the blog is used to showcase outside tools that may benefit our patrons’ work and lives.
Setting or Participants: A large academic health sciences library in the Southeast that serves seven professional schools and a large and active body of clinical and research faculty.
Methodology: We will analyze traffic, comments, and tool adoption and usage to ascertain the reach of the blog.
Findings: We expect to find that our core patronage begins to develop a relationship with the blog and the tools we examine and discuss.
Conclusion: Conclusions at this point are premature but we would hope to suggest that well maintained blogs are an effective means of promoting, storing, and discussing the tools and widgets we develop and/or post.
2. A Visual Approach to Introducing MedlinePlus® Tutorials to Low Literacy, Low Income Patients
Authors/s: Marilyn Teolis, Medical Librarian Coordinator, MLS, AHIP, Saint Thomas Health Services, Nashville, TN; Mary Virginia Taylor, Chief Librarian, VA Medical Center, Memphis, TN; Andrew Todd, Instructional Librarian, University of Central Florida, Cocoa, FL
Objective: This project, funded by the National Library of Medicine under contract NO1-LM-6-3502 with the University of Maryland at Baltimore Health Sciences and Human Services Library, aimed to design a kiosk and website with a pictorial interface for 48 MedlinePlus® tutorials for clinic patients who faced various access barriers such as poverty, disabilities, and low literacy skills.
Methods: A convenience sample of 740 patients from a primary care health clinic for uninsured people in Nashville and Davidson County in Tennessee were invited to use a visual interface to learn about their chronic health conditions. Of these patients, 40% were elderly, and 95-98% had an income 200% below the federal poverty level. The kiosk featured 48 tutorials on a variety of diseases and conditions, as well as drug information available from MedlinePlus®.
A website, http://www.baptisthealthlibrary.com, was created in addition to the kiosk featuring the same visual interface. Data collected from Urchin Software from GoogleTM was used to determine demographics, whether the participant had ever used MedlinePlus® before, and the topics and number of pages viewed. Previous users of MedlinePlus® were asked if the information accessed from past MedlinePlus® sessions were helpful and easy to navigate.
3. Safety First: How an Academic Medical Library Enhanced Security for Users and Staff
Author/s: Karen D. McMullen, MLIS, Head of Access Services; Laura Townsend Kane, MLIS, AHIP, Assistant Director for Information Services, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Library, Columbia, SC
Objective: To enhance security at an academic medical library by installing a surveillance system and panic buttons for use by library staff and medical students who use the library after hours.
Methods: The University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine Library went forth with the recommendations made by the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety and installed 4 panic buttons and 12 security cameras in the library. Two wireless, portable panic buttons were installed for use by the staff. One portable panic button was mounted at the Circulation desk, located on the first floor, and the other in a second floor office. The portable panic button located at the Circulation desk can be carried around by the graduate assistant working in the evenings when performing nightly closing rounds. Two hard-wired panic buttons, for use by the public, are located on both the first and second floors of the library. The 12 cameras have been placed throughout the library.
Results: To date, neither medical students nor staff have had to use the panic buttons. The surveillance cameras have been used to ask patrons who are violating our Internet Use Policy to leave the premises.
Conclusion: In the wake of recent tragedies, campus security has become a hot issue nationwide. Campus libraries, as traditional meeting spots for varied groups of people, are particularly vulnerable to security issues. The USC School of Medicine Library has taken steps to enhance security by installing panic buttons and a multicamera web-based surveillance system.
4. WIKI-PEDI-ATRICA: A Library—Department of Pediatrics Collaboration for a Morning Report WIKI
Author/s: Laura K. Cousineau, Assistant Director, Medical University of South Carolina, MLS; Candace Moorer, MLIS, Reference Librarian/Instructor; David M. Mills, MD, Chief Resident, Department of Pediatrics; Sanjiv Pasala, MD, Chief Resident, Department of Pediatrics; David B. McCabe, Systems Engineer; MUSC Library, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
Question/Objective: Inspired by the MLA 2008 meeting, librarians began working with Web 2.0 applications to enhance our residency education work. Could a Wiki improve the teaching and learning environment during a departmental Morning Report? Could a Wiki offer an extended learning opportunity by longer case follow-up and expanding the experience to more learners?
Setting or Participants: Residency Education, Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina.
Participants: Chief Residents, Faculty, Interns, Residents and Librarian Contributors: Library Systems staff.
Methodolgy: At the Department of Pediatrics goal-setting retreat, the librarian participated in Morning Report planning with the chief residents. They decided to pilot a Wiki that would create a catalog of cases presented in Morning Report, record the discussions, post the chief residents’ teaching point presentation, post related articles, and provide follow-up information on the cases progress. The librarian presented the plan to the systems engineer, who developed the Wiki, along with special forms allowing instant updates of complex information, so that chief residents could quickly upload information immediately following Morning Report. In addition to adding functionality, the Wiki would be evaluated by its ability to improve attendance, allow for more diverse case presentations, increase learning by those unable to attend, and allow attendings involved in the case but not able to attend to add information about their medical decisions and management of the patient.
Findings: Attendance at Morning Reports is now standing room only. Use statistics confirm use of current and past morning reports.
Conclusion: The library is expanding its use of the Wiki for applications in other residency programs. The Department of Emergency Medicine is using a library-developed Wiki for its journal club, in which a librarian participates. The Department of Nephrology has also expressed interest in collaborating with the library using Wiki technology. As word of the Wiki spread, a librarian was invited to speak to give a workshop on the use of Wiki and other Web 2.0 technologies at the institution’s teaching society.
5. Digitizing In-House Ephemera for the Archives: From Buried in the Stacks to Electronic Open Access
Author/s: Lee Ann Howlett, MA, AHIP, Head/Serials Dept.; Linda K. Florence, MA, Serials/Reference/ILL; Ms. Duane K. Reigel, Archivist, University of South Florida Shimberg Health Sciences Library
Question/Objective: Digitizing materials distributed by various health sciences departments in the early years of the University of South Florida College of Medicine for archival purposes and open access.
Setting or Participants: The Serials Department of the Hinks and Elaine Shimberg Health Sciences Library at the University of South Florida.
Methodology: For the purposes of this project, in-house ephemera were defined as newsletters or bulletins published by various departments in the Health Sciences Center from the early years of the college (the 1970s) through the early 1990s. This material was often published sporadically and/or discontinued after a few issues. The library cataloged all issues received before they were placed in pamphlet boxes and shelved in the general journal collection in the second floor stacks. This material contained information and, often, photographs of the early years of departments as varied as Ophthalmology, Gerontology, Pediatrics, and Physical Therapy. The decision to digitize these items was made for several reasons, including the deterioration of the paper copies, entire pamphlet boxes being misplaced, and, most importantly, their archival value.
Findings: After identification of the materials that fit our criteria, the issues were pulled from the stacks, scanned, and saved as PDF files, and uploaded to dedicated server space. Procuring the server space involved working with the library’s internal IT department. Editing of the catalog records was also necessary since the material was transferred from Serials to Archives and the appropriate URLs were added to the holdings records. A backup copy of these files was also saved by our archivist in the event the records on the server should be corrupted.
Conclusion: Archival material pertinent to the early years of many areas of the various health colleges are now readily available via electronic open access in the library catalog.
6. First Steps to Increasing Access to a History of Medicine Collection through Digitization.
Author/s: Christine Whitaker, Collection Development Librarian; Felicia Yeh, Assistant Director for Collections Management, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Library
Question/Objective: The Charles S. Bryan History of Medicine Room at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Library houses a 500+ volume collection of materials of great importance to medical, historical, and sociological research. The collection gives an indication of the kinds and numbers of medical books in the hands of physicians in South Carolina and reflects the education and training of doctors during the 18th and 19th centuries. The library has decided that, because of the restriction on use of the fragile physical materials, the collection is underused. Digitizing selected volumes and providing a "History of Medicine" website, which includes digital versions of our history of medicine holdings and other selected titles, will increase access, and therefore scholarship and understanding of this field.
Setting or Participants: The authors are working with the Digital Collections Department of the University of South Carolina University Libraries, using their digitization resources. We have learned to scan, edit, and save the page images; how to create and attach metadata tags for each image; and to use CONTENTdm database 4.1 software to mount the images.
Methodolgy: For our initial digitization project, we selected five titles. Several factors were taken into consideration during the selection process. The works are not freely available online, and all show limited holdings in print. As part of our rare book collection, these titles are noncirculating and restricted to in-library use. These titles reflect the education and training of local doctors prior to the Civil War and are of interest to South Carolina history of medicine scholars. Some of these volumes are in fragile condition, and it was determined that digitization was a better immediate option than conservation, as usage would be greatly enhanced.
Findings: Once digitized, the content of these titles will be freely accessible via the library’s new Digital History of Medicine website, which will include links to these titles, as well as links to the University Libraries’ Digital Collection website - http://sc.edu/library/digital/index.php, the South Carolina Digital Library website - http://www.scmemory.org/index.php, and the Online Exhibitions and Digital Projects area of the National Library of Medicines website - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/onlineexhibitions.html. Those titles related to South Carolina history will be added to the SC Digital Library database (http://scmemory.org ) and searchable with many other SC historical collections within that site. The non-SC related books will be available from the USC Digital Collections site and searchable with all of USC digital collections.
Conclusion: The Digital History of Medicine website will be monitored for usage via StatCounter, Google Analytics and/or CONTENTdm statistical software, all of which count page hits and locations. There will also be an email link for comments and suggestions, which will provide user feedback. We expect to see increased use of these valuable titles as the Digital History of Medicine website is advertised and developed in coming years.
7. Comparing and Contrasting Physical Therapy-Related Article Tags from a Social Bookmarking Site to Library Database Terminology
Author/s: D. Fell, Department of Physical Therapy; J. Burnham, MLS, Biomedical Library; K. Adams, DPT, recent graduate of DPT program; K. Greathouse, DPT, recent graduate of DPT program, University of South Alabama
Objective: Online researchers may become frustrated using bibliographic databases because the descriptors used by healthcare professionals might not be the terminology used in a database’s vocabulary. This could lead to incomplete search results or useless information. This study evaluated user-assigned tags on CiteULike and descriptors in Scopus and PubMed to determine the commonalities and further discern characteristics of unrelated tags and descriptors.
Method: Tag data and assigned indexing terms were collected in an Excel spreadsheet from 230 articles found on CiteULike, PubMed, and Scopus. Articles were chosen from CiteULike users’ libraries by searching for physical therapy terms. Assigned tags from CiteULike were compared with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) assigned in PubMed and keywords in Scopus. Tags, keywords, and MeSH were labeled using three categories: same, related, and not related. All terms categorized as not related were further sorted into distinguishing groups.
Results: In comparison to CiteULike user tags, 5.8% of Scopus keywords were the same and 8.7% were related, while 12.4% of PubMed MeSH terms were the same and 11.6% were related. 43% of CiteULike tags were not related to Scopus keywords. 48.6% of CiteULike tags were not related to PubMed MeSH. Although the study “methodology” and “medical” term subcategories contained the most terms overall, the databases were more likely to use more demographics and drug terms, and CiteULike was more likely to use discipline-specific terminology, i.e., rehabilitation and motor performance.
Conclusions: CiteULike users assign tags that are more clinically relevant to physical therapy, whereas databases use more abundant terms making search results less relevant to the researcher.
8. Brief Library Survey To Assess Library Services and Skills
Author/s: Lisa Travis, Medical and Allied Health Librarian, MS; Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine. Randal Batchelor, Director of Academic Assessment, EdD; Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine
Question/Objective: A brief, ten-question survey was administered to medical students to assess the library services and their library skills. The Likert scale was employed for responses.
Setting or Participants: The survey was administered online via Blackboard to approximately 320 first and second-year medical students.
Methodolgy: Data was analyzed in SPSS. The percentage of respondents for each Likert response has been tallied for all questions. Results for students who reported that they had studied in the library were analysed separately.
Findings: Responses were received from 89 second-year students and 102 first-year students. Not all students responded to every question. 93.3% of first-year and 77.7% of second-year respondents strongly agree or agree with the statement, "I am able to effectively use PubMed." All respondents either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, "The medical librarian has effectively addressed my questions and inquiries." The results included complaints on noise in the study rooms, the number of online journal subscriptions being too low, and the wireless network being unreliable. More data is provided on the poster.
Conclusion: A brief survey can be effective in gauging opinions of library services and library skills. The library has created a document for accreditation listing what changes have been implemented as the result of survey results. An excerpt from the document is listed on the poster.
9. Use of Google Docs to Solicit Input on Renewal of an Electronic Books Consortial Purchase
Author/s: Lisa Travis, Medical and Allied Health Librarian, MS; Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Question/Objective: While representing consortia members on a committee negotiating renewal of a database, I solicited input on what items should be added, dropped, and replaced within the existing subscription. Results were used in proposals to the negotiating committee and to the consortia membership libraries.
Setting or Participants: The survey was distributed to students, faculty, and staff of the osteopathic medical school.
Methodolgy: An online survey created in Google Docs that was distributed to approximately 360 students, faculty, and staff in the osteopathic medical school.
Findings: Google Docs is an easy-to-use survey tool. The consortia chose to replace older items with items chosen by survey respondents. The librarian learned what items users desire to add to the online electronic book collection. The librarian will work to add requested items to the consortial purchase or to a separate subscription.
Conclusion: Google Docs is an effective tool for simple surveys. Users appreciate being able to provide input on what is included in electronic book purchases and renewals.
10. Creating a Disability Information Portal for a Support Network for Families
Author/s: Steven P. Wilson, Coordinator, Center for Disability Resources Library, MLIS; Rozalynd P. Anderson, Assistant Director for Education & Outreach, MLIS, University of South Carolina, School of Medicine Library
Question/Objective: The goal of this project was to improve access to health information and the Center for Disability Resources Library’s services by providing a new multimedia computer system for Family Connections’ new Family Wing and by creating the InfoAble Portal.
Setting or Participants: During this project, librarians collaborated with Family Connection of South Carolina, which is a support network for families who have children with special needs. Their programmed services are based on parent-to-parent networking, and they link families to community resources. This project was funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3502 with the University of Maryland Baltimore.
Methodolgy: The InfoAble Portal features links to the online catalog, an Ask a Librarian form, MedlinePlus, Disability Dashboards, two virtual tours, and more. The Disability Dashboards page provides a menu of topic-specific dashboards derived from various Family Connection support groups. The Disability Dashboards feature deep-links to ClinicalTrials.gov, MedlinePlus, and PubMed.
Findings: Families visiting the Family Wing can now use the new multimedia computer to access the InfoAble Portal, which is the workstation’s default homepage. During support group meetings and training sessions, group leaders can now search the portal and share information with families.
Conclusion: The library has received positive feedback about the InfoAble Portal from the Family Connection staff and family visitors via an online survey. This project has also helped to promote the Center for Disability Resources Library’s collection and services.
11. Land of the Lost: Laying Dinosaurs to Rest with a Personalized Computer Consultation Service for Faculty
Author/s: Marina Salcedo, Technology Services Librarian, MLIS, University of Florida, Borland Health Sciences Library
Question/Objective: Subtitle: To empower clinical faculty, through on-site, private one-on-one consultations in the effective use of web-based technologies improving and expediting their access to medical research.
Setting or Participants: On-site consultations with clinical faculty in their offices at their workstations.
Methodolgy: Whether accessed through the library's electronic collections or via the world-wide web, the set of relevant information for physicians is constantly expanding. Keeping abreast of the latest medical breakthroughs and best practices requires that clinical faculty constantly sift through these resources, taking away time better spent on patient care. Through one-on-one lessons covering various electronic tools, the technology consultation program presented in this research hopes to answer this problem by making clinical faculty more efficient at finding the information they need. Each lesson will have an estimated duration, as well as a set of expected learning outcomes, enabling clinical faculty to evaluate and customize their own curricula.
Findings: The technology consultation program presented in this research improved the clinical faculty's ability to search, evaluate, and utilize electronic medical resources.
Conclusion: Allowing the clinical faculty to select topics from a set curriculum and conducting the sessions in the privacy of their office creates a safe haven for learning new technologies.
12. FACE-ing the Music: Using Facebook to Connect with Library Users
Author/s:
Name: Kim Meeks, MLIS, Systems Librarian; Roxanne Nelson, MSLIS, Assistant Director for Public Services; Anna Krampl, MSLS, Reference Librarian; Carolann Curry, MLIS, Circulation Assistant; Carolyn Klatt, MLIS, Reference & Electronic Services Librarian, Mercer University School of Medicine, Savannah campus and Memorial University Medical Center
Question/Objective: Connect with medical students and other library patrons via the popular Web 2.0 social networking tool, Facebook.
Setting or Participants: The Mercer University School of Medicine campus in Macon, Georgia, enrolls approximately 240 medical students in any given year. Our second medical school campus in Savannah currently enrolls 30 students per class, with that figure scheduled to rise as the school grows. The Macon campus library also supports master’s programs in Public Health, Family Therapy, and Nurse Anesthesia.
Methodolgy: When medical students asked for a venue to discuss the purchase of medical textbooks and National Board study books, librarians examined various methods of hosting a discussion board. After evaluating different options, we decided that Facebook offered the best combination of ease of use, flexibility, popularity, and timeliness to meet the needs of other users. After clearing our plans with institutional administration, we established Facebook accounts for each campus and marketed to students, faculty, and staff.
Findings: Growth in use of the Mercer Facebook accounts has been gratifying. Our first marketing efforts involved sending email notifications to potential users; later we announced our Facebook presence with displays in the library. We have used Facebook to highlight new products and services, announce holiday hours, set up discussion boards, and engage patrons in surveys and recommendations.
Conclusion: We are currently evaluating this experiment with social networking and are investigating how other libraries use Facebook, with an eye to opening additional lines of communication to our students, faculty, and staff. http://tinyurl.com/qk3lhp
13. Managing the Information Flow with a Faculty Publications Database
Author/s: C. Brooke Caldwell, Student Assistant, MA; Alisa Greene, Student Assistant; Cynthia J. Vaughn, Assistant Professor, MLIS, University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine; Preston Medical Library, Knoxville
Question/Objective: Why do we need a faculty publication database? In these modern times, information is scattered throughout the Internet. Even within an institution, there is not always one central place to find everything. By creating an authoritative database, the library organizes and catalogs the intellectual material of the parent institution. Thus, access is increased to materials that support the research mission of the institution.
Setting or Participants: Preston Medical Library is part of the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine and serves the UT Medical Center, the region’s premier academic medical center. The investigators are two student library assistants and a clinical information librarian.
Methodolgy: A request was made for the curriculum vitae of faculty members. Once collected, the library located and verified abstracts, articles, and posters through PubMed, Google, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and other available databases. Citations were then compiled in RefWorks to be shared as a database linked from the library’s home page.
Findings: While more current articles and abstracts are easy to locate and compile, the materials published before 2000 are more difficult to find. This is due largely to how the Internet was seen as a place to store information. Anything before 1995 is even shakier to verify, because institutions are more reluctant to spend the man-hours needed to input what potentially may be more outdated information.
Conclusion: This project supports one core value of libraries: to bring together information and create a central, authoritative location where researchers can go to access the information freely. The next step of this project is to use this database to inform patrons of material of interest and resources that will further their research and teaching goals, thus enhancing the patrons’ knowledge base.
14. SharePoint: Creating Collaborative Spaces and Interesting Places
Author/s: Lisa Ennis, Systems Librarian, MS, MA; Randy Tims, Web Coordinator, BA, UAB Lister Hill Library
Question/Objective: This poster will describe how Lister Hill used Microsoft’s SharePoint to develop a secure, scalable, and collaborative e-space for library staff and campus users. We will describe the library’s implementation of SharePoint, outline the different kinds of projects we’ve used SharePoint for, and discuss lessons learned.
Setting or Participants: The University of Alabama at Birmingham Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, established in 1945, is the largest biomedical library in Alabama and one of the leading such libraries in the South. The library serves seven professional schools, as well as the campus at large.
Methodolgy: SharePoint, developed by Microsoft, is a powerful collection of products and software elements that can be used as collaboration space for document management and versioning, includes wikis and blogs, RSS and email updates, meeting workspaces, surveys, and can leverage the power of the Microsoft Office Suite. Since SharePoint is provided free of charge by the university, Lister Hill Library hopes to use it to replace the folders on shared network drives, outlook public folders, as well as creating dynamic, collaborative workspaces for library departments, groups and committees, and campus users in one easily accessible location.
Findings: SharePoint is indeed a powerful collaborative tool for staff and campus users. Over the past year, we’ve used it to collect and analyze data and generate reports on chat references and education sessions; to organize and track PubMed submission requests by university researchers; to create meeting workspaces for both standing meetings and departments; to generate reminders and alerts; to create surveys; and much more.
Conclusion: While the library has not totally converted to SharePoint, we have made a great deal of progress. Despite the relatively steep learning curve, the system is proving to be well worth the effort.
15. Inside the Matrix: Choosing a New ILS
Author/s: Lisa Ennis, Systems Librarian, MS, MA; Sylvia McAphee, Serials Librarian, MLIS; Nicole Mitchell, Reference Librarian, MLIS, MA; Michael Fitts, Assistant Director for Access and Document Delivery Services, MLIS, UAB Lister Hill
Question/Objective: This poster will outline the process by which Lister Hill Library evaluated and selected a new ILS, as well as lessons learned.
Setting or Participants: The University of Alabama at Birmingham Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, established in 1945, is the largest biomedical library in Alabama and one of the leading such libraries in the South. The library serves seven professional schools as well as the campus at large.
Methodolgy: When Sirsi and Dynix merged in 2005 and subsequently announced that the company would no longer be developing Dynixs Horizon ILS, opting instead to throw all its resources into Sirsis Unicorn system, Lister Hill was faced with a unique challenge. Not only had the library’s ILS just become obsolete overnight, but the system was sitting on an aging proprietary (Solaris) server that would be expensive to replace or fix, and the company admitted that the public catalog (Horizon Information Portal 4.x) was unstable and subject to crash any minute. In short, to migrate the data off the proprietary Solaris server to Linux on a Dell server would be expensive, and to migrate to the Unicorn system would be a full migration. So using the committee structure already in place, the Horizon Management Group, the library decided to evaluate a variety of ILS options including both commercial and open source.
Findings: While the process is still ongoing, the committee has done preliminary evaluations of six systems: Ex Libris Voyager, Innovative Interfaces, Incs Millennium, Evergreen with Equinox as support, SirsiDynixs Symphony, EOS, and a brief look at Koha. The selection process included site visits from vendors, as well as web sessions and demos. From these visits, we will narrow the field to one or two top choices for a much closer look. The group is also considering discovery layers in addition to the ILS.
Conclusion: This story is far from over, but by the annual meeting we will have made a decision and at least begun to negotiate a contract and possibly even begun implementation!
16. Next Generation User Services: The Digital E @ MUSC Library
Author/s: Candace Moorer, David McCabe, Maria Merritt, and Sherman Paggi, Medical University of South Carolina Library
The Digital E @ MUSC Library is a new library service being offered to the Medical University of South Carolina’s students, staff, and faculty. This poster will feature how we introduced this service at the MUSC Library Technology Fair this past April. We also will feature the Digital E’s promotional video. This service offers MUSC students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to discover new technology that will enrich their presentations, grants, and class projects. Digital equipment available under the Digital E service for checkout are two Flip Video Ultra camcorders, two Cannon Powershot 10 mega-pixel digital cameras, three Amazon Kindle 2 e-readers with preloaded books, and one 3M Pro 110 micro projector. These items circulate for 1 week. This service was made possible through grant funding by the National Library of Medicine’s Express Technology Library Improvement award.
Last updated: Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 08:49am