Brandon/Hill selected list of books and journals for the small medical library. (1/177)

The interrelationship of print and electronic media in the hospital library and its relevance to the "Brandon/Hill Selected List" in 1999 are addressed in the updated list (eighteenth version) of 627 books and 145 journals. This list is intended as a selection guide for the small or medium-size library in a hospital or similar facility. More realistically, it can function as a core collection for a library consortium. Books and journals are categorized by subject; the book list is followed by an author/editor index, and the subject list of journals by an alphabetical title listing. Due to continuing requests from librarians, a "minimal core" book collection consisting of 82 titles has been pulled out from the 214 asterisked (*) initial-purchase books and marked with daggers ([symbol: see text]). To purchase the entire collection of books and to pay for 1999 journal subscriptions would require $114,900. The cost of only the asterisked items, books and journals, totals $49,100. The "minimal core" book collection costs $13,200.  (+info)

Making sense of the electronic resource marketplace: trends in health-related electronic resources. (2/177)

Changes in the practice of medicine and technological developments offer librarians unprecedented opportunities to select and organize electronic resources, use the Web to deliver content throughout the organization, and improve knowledge at the point of need. The confusing array of available products, access routes, and pricing plans makes it difficult to anticipate the needs of users, identify the top resources, budget effectively, make sound collection management decisions, and organize the resources effectively and seamlessly. The electronic resource marketplace requires much vigilance, considerable patience, and continuous evaluation. There are several strategies that librarians can employ to stay ahead of the electronic resource curve, including taking advantage of free trials from publishers; marketing free trials and involving users in evaluating new products; watching and testing products marketed to the clientele; agreeing to beta test new products and services; working with aggregators or republishers; joining vendor advisory boards; benchmarking institutional resources against five to eight competitors; and forming or joining a consortium for group negotiating and purchasing. This article provides a brief snapshot of leading biomedical resources; showcases several libraries that have excelled in identifying, acquiring, and organizing electronic resources; and discusses strategies and trends of potential interest to biomedical librarians, especially those working in hospital settings.  (+info)

Interlibrary cooperation: from ILL to IAIMS and beyond. (3/177)

A recent solicitation over the MEDLIB-L e-mail discussion list revealed over thirty diverse examples of hospital library-based interlibrary cooperative initiatives currently underway. Many are familiar and have been featured in the professional literature. Most go unreported and unrecognized however, comprising invisible resource-sharing infrastructures that hospital librarians painstakingly piece together in order to provide their clients with expanded service options. This paper, drawing from the MEDLIB-L survey as well as descriptions in the published literature, provides a broad overview of such recent interlibrary cooperative efforts. Examples include interlibrary loan networks, collective purchasing initiatives, holder-of-record or union catalog access agreements, arrangements to provide e-mail and Internet access, and consortia to share electronic resources. Examples were chosen based on the initiatives' diversity of participants, and represent a wide range of locations across the United States. Such initiatives focus on local, statewide, or regional collaboration, and several involve partnerships between academic medical center libraries and regional hospital libraries. An early example of a hospital-based interlibrary cooperative IAIMS effort is described, pointing to future possibilities involving the Internet and regional hospital system intranets.  (+info)

The hospital library online--a point of service for consumers and hospital staff: a case study. (4/177)

The Health Library at Stanford University is described in the context of electronic information services provided to Stanford University Medical Center, the local community, and Internet users in general. The evolution from CD-ROM-based services to Web-based services and in-library services to networked resources are described. Electronic services have expanded the mission of The Health Library to include national and international users and the provision of unique services and collections.  (+info)

UCMP and the Internet help hospital libraries share resources. (5/177)

The Medical Library Center of New York (MLCNY), a medical library consortium founded in 1959, has specialized in supporting resource sharing and fostering technological advances. In 1961, MLCNY developed and continues to maintain the Union Catalog of Medical Periodicals (UCMP), a resource tool including detailed data about the collections of more than 720 medical library participants. UCMP was one of the first library tools to capitalize on the benefits of computer technology and, from the beginning, invited hospital libraries to play a substantial role in its development. UCMP, beginning with products in print and later in microfiche, helped to create a new resource sharing environment. Today, UCMP continues to capitalize on new technology by providing access via the Internet and an Oracle-based search system providing subscribers with the benefits of: a database that contains serial holdings information on an issue specific level, a database that can be updated in real time, a system that provides multi-type searching and allows users to define how the results will be sorted, and an ordering function that can more precisely target libraries that have a specific issue of a medical journal. Current development of a Web-based system will ensure that UCMP continues to provide cost effective and efficient resource sharing in future years.  (+info)

IAIMS and JCAHO: implications for hospital librarians. Integrated Academic Information Management Systems. Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. (6/177)

The roles of hospital librarians have evolved from keeping print materials to serving as a focal point for information services and structures within the hospital. Concepts that emerged from the Integrated Academic Information Management Systems (IAIMS) as described in the Matheson Report and the 1994 Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) standards have combined to propel hospital libraries into many new roles and functions. This paper will review the relationship of the two frameworks, provide a view of their commonalities, and establish the advantages of both for hospital librarianship as a profession.  (+info)

Librarians, clinicians, evidence-based medicine, and the division of labor. (7/177)

Have librarians promoted end user searching to the detriment of the profession and promoted clinical inefficiency from causally trained health practitioners? Issues related to the complexity of bibliographic retrieval in the networked environment are explored within the context of evidence-based medicine and the division of labor.  (+info)

Expediting the transfer of evidence into practice: building clinical partnerships. (8/177)

A librarian/clinician partnership was fostered in one hospital through the formation of the Evidence-based Practice Committee, with an ulterior goal of facilitating the transfer of evidence into practice. The paper will describe barriers to evidence-based practice and outline the committee's strategies for overcoming these barriers, including the development and promotion of a Web-based guide to evidence-based practice specifically designed for clinicians (health professionals). Educational strategies for use of the Web-based guide will also be addressed. Advantages of this partnership are that the skills of librarians in meeting the needs of clinicians are maximized. The evidence-based practice skills of clinicians are honed and librarians make a valuable contribution to the knowledge-base of the clinical staff. The knowledge acquired through the partnership by both clinicians and librarians will increase the sophistication of the dialogue between the two groups and in turn will expedite the transfer of evidence into practice.  (+info)