Trends in reference usage statistics in an academic health sciences library.
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PURPOSE: To examine reference questions asked through traditional means at an academic health sciences library and place this data within the context of larger trends in reference services. METHODOLOGY: Detailed data on the types of reference questions asked were collected during two one-month periods in 2003 and 2004. General statistics documenting broad categories of questions were compiled over a fifteen-year period. RESULTS: Administrative data show a steady increase in questions from 1990 to 1997/98 (23,848 to 48,037, followed by a decline through 2004/05 to 10,031. The distribution of reference questions asked over the years has changed-including a reduction in mediated searches 2,157 in 1990/91 to 18 in 2004/05, an increase in instruction 1,284 in 1993/94 to 1,897 in 2004/05 and an increase in digital reference interactions 0 in 1999/2000 to 581 in 2004/05. The most commonly asked questions at the current reference desk are about journal holdings 19%, book holdings 12%, and directional issues 12%. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a unique snapshot of reference services in the contemporary library, where both online and offline services are commonplace. Changes in questions have impacted the way the library provides services, but traditional reference remains the core of information services in this health sciences library. (+info)
Improving e-book access via a library-developed full-text search tool.
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PURPOSE: This paper reports on the development of a tool for searching the contents of licensed full-text electronic book (e-book) collections. SETTING: The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) provides services to the University of Pittsburgh's medical programs and large academic health system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The HSLS has developed an innovative tool for federated searching of its e-book collections. Built using the XML-based Vivisimo development environment, the tool enables a user to perform a full-text search of over 2,500 titles from the library's seven most highly used e-book collections. From a single "Google-style" query, results are returned as an integrated set of links pointing directly to relevant sections of the full text. Results are also grouped into categories that enable more precise retrieval without reformulation of the search. RESULTS/EVALUATION: A heuristic evaluation demonstrated the usability of the tool and a web server log analysis indicated an acceptable level of usage. Based on its success, there are plans to increase the number of online book collections searched. CONCLUSION: This library's first foray into federated searching has produced an effective tool for searching across large collections of full-text e-books and has provided a good foundation for the development of other library-based federated searching products. (+info)
Realizing what's essential: a case study on integrating electronic journal management into a print-centric technical services department.
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OBJECTIVE: To support migration from print to electronic resources, the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University reorganized its Technical Services Department to focus on managing electronic resources. METHODS: The library hired consultants to help plan the changes and to present recommendations for integrating electronic resource management into every position. The library task force decided to focus initial efforts on the periodical collection. To free staff time to devote to electronic journals, most of the print subscriptions were switched to online only and new workflows were developed for e-journals. RESULTS: Staff learned new responsibilities such as activating e-journals, maintaining accurate holdings information in the online public access catalog and e-journals database ("electronic shelf reading"), updating the link resolver knowledgebase, and troubleshooting. All of the serials team members now spend significant amounts of time managing e-journals. CONCLUSIONS: The serials staff now spends its time managing the materials most important to the library's clientele (e-journals and databases). The team's proactive approach to maintenance work and rapid response to reported problems should improve patrons' experiences using e-journals. The library is taking advantage of new technologies such as an electronic resource management system, and library workflows and procedures will continue to evolve as technology changes. (+info)
Effective metadata discovery for dynamic filtering of queries to a radiology image search engine.
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We sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of techniques to index radiology images using metadata discovered in their free-text figure captions. The ARRS GoldMiner image library incorporated 94,256 figures from 11,712 articles published in peer-reviewed online radiology journals. Algorithms were developed to discover metadata--age, sex, and imaging modality--from the figures' free-text captions. Age was recorded in years, and was classified as infant (less than 2 years), child (2 to 17 years), or adult (18+ years). Each figure was assigned to one of eight imaging modalities. A random sample of 1,000 images was examined to measure accuracy of the metadata. The patient's age was identified in 58,994 cases (63%), and the patient's sex was identified in 58,427 cases (62%). An imaging modality was assigned to 80,402 (85%) of the figures. Based on the 1,000 sampled cases, recall values for age, sex, and imaging modality were 97.2%, 99.7%, and 86.4%, respectively. Precision values for age, sex, and imaging modality were 100%, 100%, and 97.2%, respectively. Automated techniques can accurately discover age, sex, and imaging modality metadata from captions of figures published in radiology journals. The metadata can be used to dynamically filter queries for an image search engine. (+info)
Which journals do primary care physicians and specialists access from an online service?
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OBJECTIVE: The study sought to determine which online journals primary care physicians and specialists not affiliated with an academic medical center access and how the accesses correlate with measures of journal quality and importance. METHODS: Observational study of full-text accesses made during an eighteen-month digital library trial was performed. Access counts were correlated with six methods composed of nine measures for assessing journal importance: ISI impact factors; number of high-quality articles identified during hand-searches of key clinical journals; production data for ACP Journal Club, InfoPOEMs, and Evidence-Based Medicine; and mean clinician-provided clinical relevance and newsworthiness scores for individual journal titles. RESULTS: Full-text journals were accessed 2,322 times by 87 of 105 physicians. Participants accessed 136 of 348 available journal titles. Physicians often selected journals with relatively higher numbers of articles abstracted in ACP Journal Club. Accesses also showed significant correlations with 6 other measures of quality. Specialists' access patterns correlated with 3 measures, with weaker correlations than for primary care physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Primary care physicians, more so than specialists, chose full-text articles from clinical journals deemed important by several measures of value. Most journals accessed by both groups were of high quality as measured by this study's methods for assessing journal importance. (+info)
A comparison of primary care information content in UpToDate and the National Guideline Clearinghouse.
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OBJECTIVES: The study sought to determine if two major resources for primary care questions have significant differences in information content and whether the number of documents found differs by disease category, patient age, or patient gender. METHODS: Seven hundred fifty-two questions were randomly selected from the Clinical Questions Collection of the National Library of Medicine. UpToDate and the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC) were searched utilizing keywords from the questions. The number of documents retrieved for each question in the resources was recorded. Chi-squared analysis was used to compare differences in retrieval between the resources. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the effect of patient age, patient gender, or disease category on the ability to find content. RESULTS: UpToDate returned 1 or more documents for 580 questions, while NGC returned at least 1 document for 493 questions (77.1% versus 65.5% of question sampled, P = 0.001). In combination, the 2 resources returned content for 91% of searches (n = 685). NGC retrieved a mean of 16.3 documents per question versus 8.7 documents from UpToDate. Disease category was the only variable having a significant impact on the presence of online resource content. CONCLUSIONS: UpToDate had greater breadth of content than NGC, while neither resource provided complete coverage. Current practice guidelines, as reflected by those in the NGC, addressed at most two-thirds of the selected clinical questions. (+info)
Building better connections: the National Library of Medicine and public health.
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PURPOSE: The paper describes the expansion of the public health programs and services of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in the 1990s and provides the context in which NLM's public health outreach programs arose and exist today. BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Although NLM has always had collections and services relevant to public health, the US public health workforce made relatively little use of the library's information services and programs in the twentieth century. In the 1990s, intensified emphases on outreach to health professionals, building national information infrastructure, and promoting health data standards provided NLM with new opportunities to reach the public health community. A seminal conference cosponsored by NLM in 1995 produced an agenda for improving public health access to and use of advanced information technology and electronic information services. NLM actively pursued this agenda by developing new services and outreach programs and promoting public health informatics initiatives. METHOD: Historical analysis is presented. RESULTS/OUTCOME: NLM took advantage of a propitious environment to increase visibility and understanding of public health information challenges and opportunities. The library helped create partnerships that produced new information services, outreach initiatives, informatics innovations, and health data policies that benefit the public health workforce and the diverse populations it serves. (+info)
The Central American Network for Disaster and Health Information.
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PURPOSE: This paper describes an international outreach program to support rebuilding Central America's health information infrastructure after several natural disasters in the region, including Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and two major earthquakes in 2001. SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND DESCRIPTION: The National Library of Medicine joined forces with the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, and the Regional Center of Disaster Information for Latin America and the Caribbean (CRID) to strengthen libraries and information centers in Central America and improve the availability of and access to health and disaster information in the region by developing the Central American Network for Disaster and Health Information (CANDHI). Through CRID, the program created ten disaster health information centers in medical libraries and disaster-related organizations in six countries. RESULTS/OUTCOME: This project served as a catalyst for the modernization of several medical libraries in Central America. The resulting CANDHI provides much needed electronic access to public health "gray literature" on disasters, as well as access to numerous health information resources. CANDHI members assist their institutions and countries in a variety of disaster preparedness activities through collecting and disseminating information. (+info)