Characteristics of information resources preferred by primary care physicians.
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Primary care physicians use patient data, medical knowledge, logistic information, and population statistics. They rely on their personal knowledge to care for their patients, their top priority. When they seek information beyond this personal knowledge base, they frequently want information in the context of the care of a specific patient. They also continually add to their personal knowledge base. Less frequently, they seek logistic information and population statistics. For patient-specific questions, physicians most often seek medical facts or medical opinions. A physician may be persistent in seeking information if the patient's problem is perceived to be urgent and the doctor believes a definitive answer exists. Information resources for answering clinical questions should be readily available, familiar, and quick to use. Lifelong learning activities should also be readily available, and they should require a minimum of time, effort, and expense. Minimal cost in time and effort is particularly important when knowledge is sought as a part of ongoing medical learning, since there is less immediate benefit to balance the time and effort invested in information seeking. (+info)
A basic list of recommended books and journals for support of clinical dentistry in a nondental library.
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A basic list of 133 book and journal titles in dentistry is presented. The list is intended as a bibliographic selection tool for those libraries and health institutions that support clinical dentistry programs and services in the nondental school environment in the United States and Canada. The book and journal titles were selected by the membership of the Dental Section of the Medical Library Association (MLA). The Dental Section membership represents dental and other health sciences libraries and dental research institutions from the United States and Canada, as well as from other countries. The list was compiled and edited by the Ad Hoc Publications Committee of the Dental Section of MLA. The final list was reviewed and subsequently was approved for publication and distribution by the Dental Section of MLA during the section's 1996 annual meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. (+info)
Information needs of rural health professionals: a retrospective use study.
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To explore the information needs of rural health professionals, a retrospective study was undertaken of 1,224 document delivery requests made during the course of three outreach projects in west and central Illinois. The 547 unique journals from which the articles were requested were analyzed for frequency of request, subject content, and inclusion on core lists. These rural health professionals were found to request current information on a wide range of topics in clinical medicine, nursing, health administration, allied health, social sciences, and basic sciences. While 10% of the titles filled 37% of the requests, 58% of the titles were requested once and filled 26% of the requests. A high correlation with Abridged Index Medicus and Brandon/Hill list titles was found, but titles from either of these lists could fill no more than 30% of the total requests. Besides demonstrating the complex information needs of rural health professionals and depicting the difficulty of building a collection to support them, the study exemplifies a method for need-based journal collection development and begins to identify titles commonly requested in a rural health setting. (+info)
Scientific meeting abstracts: significance, access, and trends.
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Abstracts of scientific papers and posters that are presented at annual scientific meetings of professional societies are part of the broader category of conference literature. They are an important avenue for the dissemination of current data. While timely and succinct, these abstracts present problems such as an abbreviated peer review and incomplete bibliographic access. METHODS: Seventy societies of health sciences professionals were surveyed about the publication of abstracts from their annual meetings. Nineteen frequently cited journals also were contacted about their policies on the citation of meeting abstracts. Ten databases were searched for the presence of meetings abstracts. RESULTS: Ninety percent of the seventy societies publish their abstracts, with nearly half appearing in the society's journal. Seventy-seven percent of the societies supply meeting attendees with a copy of each abstract, and 43% make their abstracts available in an electronic format. Most of the journals surveyed allow meeting abstracts to be cited. Bibliographic access to these abstracts does not appear to be widespread. CONCLUSIONS: Meeting abstracts play an important role in the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Bibliographic access to meeting abstracts is very limited. The trend toward making meeting abstracts available via the Internet has the potential to give a broader audience access to the information they contain. (+info)
Hospital library service and the changes in national standards.
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Two important sets of standards affecting hospital libraries were significantly revised in 1994, those of the Medical Library Association (MLA) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). As part of its continuing efforts to monitor library services within its region, the University of California, Los Angeles Biomedical Library, Regional Medical Library for the Pacific Southwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) conducted a survey in late 1994, in part to determine the effects of these revised standards on regional hospital libraries. Data from the survey were also used to provide a view of hospital libraries in the Pacific Southwest region, and to make comparisons with similar data collected in 1989. Results showed that while libraries remained stable in overall number, size, and staffing, services, especially those associated with end-user searching and interlibrary loan, increased enormously. With respect to the MLA standards, results show a high compliance level. Interesting differences were seen between the perceptions of library staff concerning their rate of compliance with the JCAHO standards and their actual compliance as measured by the MLA criteria. While some libraries appear to measure up better than their own perceptions would indicate, others may be fully aware of their actual compliance level. (+info)
Information on alternative medicine: a collection management issue.
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Collection management of library materials about alternative medicine may be a growing problem for librarians because differing views exist regarding the acceptability of this information in a public forum. The purpose of the study reported was to investigate possible differences in the views of physicians, medical students, and librarians regarding the availability of information about alternative medicine for both medical students and the general public. Interviews were conducted with two representatives from each group, all of whom are affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at The University of British Columbia or its library. The study was exploratory in nature, conducted in part to determine whether a larger research project in this area should be mounted. The data revealed considerable differences in opinion about alternative medicine: the librarians were more hesitant about the acceptability of radical or revolutionary materials, particularly those containing information that could result in direct harm to a patient. The physicians and medical students were more confident than the librarians that traditional medical treatment (and therefore information about it) should always be paramount. (+info)
Brandon/Hill selected list of books and journals in allied health.
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This list of 410 books and 78 journals is intended as a selection guide to be used in a library supporting allied health educational programs or allied health personnel in either an academic or health care setting. Because of the impossibility of covering the large number and wide variety of allied health professions and occupations, the recommended publications are focused primarily on the educational programs listed and described in the AMA's Health Professions Education Directory, 1997-1998, plus physical therapist and medical secretary. Some programs do not have their own specific literatures. 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. Items suggested for initial purchase (160 books and 31 journals) are indicated by asterisks. To purchase the entire collection of books and journals (1998 subscriptions) would require an expenditure of about $29,180. The cost of only the asterisked items total $11,390. (+info)
The vital few meet the trivial many: unexpected use patterns in a monographs collection.
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PURPOSE: To test three related hypotheses about monographs circulation at academic health sciences libraries: (1) Juran's "Vital Few" Principle, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Pareto Principle"; (2) most (> 30%) new monographs will not circulate within four years; and, (3) Trueswell's 20/80 rule concerning intensity of monographs circulation. METHODS: Retrospective circulation study conducted at a major academic health sciences library in November 1997 on monographs acquired during 1993, utilizing an online review file. RESULTS: Unexpectedly, most monographs (84%) had circulated at least once in the four years following acquisition. Combining circulation and in-house data revealed that 90.7% of the monographs acquired in 1993 had been used at least once. Small percentages of these monographs produced disproportionately high circulation levels. CONCLUSION: Monographs circulation rates confirm Juran's Vital Few principle. Most monographs circulated at least once in contrast to results reported by the Pittsburgh Study or other studies reported by Hardesty and Fenske. The results do not comply with Trueswell's 20/80 ratio rule. Further research needs to investigate the effects of low students to books ratios and problem-based learning (PBL) curricula upon monographs utilization. (+info)