Library Annual Report
Library staff recently completed the Library’s 2001/2002 annual report, which is available at http://www.library.uams.edu/aboutlib/annualrpt02.htm. The report includes annual statistics, such as number of volumes in the collection, number of online journals and books, etc. Selected highlights of accomplishments for the year include the following:
Collection Management
Document Access Services
Historical Research Center
Education and Reference Services
Administration
Physical Facilities
Major Problems Which Affected Services
The Library was unable to provide services at the levels desired because of the following problems:
Mary L. Ryan
UAMS Library Director
The plans for the library's most recent renovation involved changes to the northeast corner of the first floor, as well as office areas in Reference, Circulation, Interlibrary Loan, and Document Access Services. The changes in the second floor resulted in a new area for the History of Medicine/Archives area, as well as Collection Management. On third, the Faculty Development Room was moved, and space for the Access Grid was installed. Come by and take a look at the finished product!
First Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor
Australia-based Clineguide, The Residency and Fellowship Training Programs of the University of Arkansas College of Medicine, and UAMS Library Learning Resource Center recently joined together to survey residents and fellows about their use of medical knowledge resources. Dr. Jeanne Heard, College of Medicine, wanted the residents/fellows to complete the survey in order to help UAMS improve access to relevant medical knowledge resources, since improved access would help make work-ups and patient care activities more efficient for the residents/fellows.
The survey covered:
Residents
and fellows had the opportunity to complete the survey online using QuestionMark
Perception, a testing program that allows for tests or surveys to be completed
online using an Internet connection. They were also given the choice of completing
the survey on paper. More participants chose to complete the survey online.
Those residents/fellows that did complete the rather lengthy survey were entered into a random drawing. There were five winners and each won a $100 bill. The winners were Laura Sisterhen, James S. Bridges, Joni Carmack, Daniel Brown, and Kristi Wenger. The director of the Library, Mary L. Ryan, drew the names of the winners July 31, 2002 and the winners were notified that same day.
The participants represented the fields of internal medicine, family medicine, surgery, emergency medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, ob/byn, and other fields such as med/ped and radiology. The results of the survey will help the Library and other medical knowledge resource suppliers to offer the support necessary for the residents/fellows.
Heather Smith
Two Arkansas Hospitals Named Internet Connectivity Sites
The National Library of Medicine [NLM] offers various opportunities for medical libraries, hospitals and clinics to upgrade or install new Internet equipment for the purpose of providing health professionals with access to NLM’s services and resources such as MEDLINE via PubMed. The institution applying must have limited Internet access or none at all.
The newest recipients of these awards are Mercy Hospital of Scott County in Waldron, AR and Booneville Community Hospital in Logan County. Each of these hospitals will receive workstation equipment (computer, printer, fax, and software) and Internet service provider subsidy for one year, as needed.
Staff at each site will also be provided with free on-site training from the UAMS Library which will cover use of the equipment, basic Internet searching (if needed) and training in the use of PubMed for searching the clinical literature in the MEDLINE database. Their health professionals will have access to various biomedical and consumer health resources for clinical, research, and patient education needs.
If you would like additional information about Internet Connectivity grants, please contact Susan Steelman at 501-686-6737 or email SteelmanSusanC@uams.edu.
Exhibits
This period has been an extremely busy time for outreach services in the UAMS Library. In addition to regular classes, we have also been providing information on library services and biomedical resources during exhibits at annual conferences and meetings for health professionals.
We also exhibit at health fairs for the general public in order to distribute information on quality consumer health web sites and resources such as ARHealthLINK, the consumer health web site for the state of Arkansas. It also provides us with the opportunity to let Arkansans know that the UAMS Library is open to the public and they may come in to use our print and electronic resources.
September 7, 2002 Mary Ryan and Dena Plaisted exhibited ARHealthLINK and NLM’s MEDLINEplus consumer health web site at the 5-A-Day Health Fair held in the Rivermarket in downtown Little Rock. During a 4 hour period they distributed information to over 300 individuals.
Saturday, September 21, 2002 Susan Steelman and Abby Holt exhibited at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Psychiatric Society held in the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. This was our first time to exhibit with this group and we look forward to working with them further in the future. In addition to providing them with information on NLM products and services, we also had the opportunity to make some good contacts with other exhibitors such as the NAMI group.
Upcoming Exhibits
The Library will also be exhibiting at the upcoming Arkansas Hospital Association annual meeting on October 10, 2002 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
To promote quality resources to the public, we will be exhibiting at the UAMS Wellness Fair to be held November 7, 2002. Please stop by and see us.
Susan Steelman, MLIS
In August, 2002, the UAMS Library added two additional collections of Ovid full text journals. The Essential Nursing Collection includes 40 top nursing journals indexed in Medline and/or CINAHL. Among the titles in this collection are American Journal of Nursing, JONA Journal of Nursing Administration, Clinical Nurse Specialist, and Cancer Nursing as well an many other journals that were previously available at UAMS only in print.
The other new collection of full text Ovid journals is the Lippincott Williams & Wilkins High Impact Collection. This is a collection of Lippincott’s 50 top ranked, highly cited journals. Some of the titles in this collection that were formerly available only in print are American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Ear and Hearing, Epidemiology, and Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology.
When searching the Ovid databases the designation of “Ovid Full Text” will appear under the citation for these journals and from there you may link directly to the full text article. Most of the journals are full text from 1996 to the present. The addition of these two new collections will expand the number of full text journals in the “Journals @ Ovid Full Text” database by 61 journals. To see the full list of journals in these collections go to “What’s New” in the Library’s website at http://www.library.uams.edu/whatsnew/news/ovidnew.htm.
Mary Hawks
Please note that free PubMed classes are being offered each month. These classes are open to any practicing health care professional in Arkansas. If you would like to register for one of these classes or schedule an individual, customized class, please contact Susan Steelman, M.L.I.S. at 501-686-6737 or SteelmanSusanC@uams.edu.
Note: On-site classes are available for any Arkansas hospital or clinic where 4 or more health professionals are registered to attend.
October 30th Wednesday 9:00 – 11:00 am
November 19th Tuesday 9:00 – 11:00 am
November 29th Friday 8:00 – 10:00 am
UAMS Library patrons may now gain access to the Library’s online journals and databases from off-campus locations thanks to a new proxy service.
How?
When accessing the online resources from off-campus using the Library’s online catalog or webpage, the patron will be asked to supply his last name and UAMS badge barcode number. The name and barcode will be compared to the Library’s patron database. If a match is found the patron will be “authenticated” and will then be able to go to the online resources just as he would from on campus. This authentication will be valid for the rest of the browser session. In order to be authenticated a patron must have a record in the patron database. Student and housestaff records have been loaded into the database. Faculty and staff who have not used the Library, however, will need to contact the Library’s Circulation Desk at 686-5980 or come by the Library to register. On-campus users will not be asked for a name and barcode except for those resources that require a password.
Note: CD’s available for AOL & Adobe
It will be necessary for America Online (AOL) users to minimize their AOL browser and use either Internet Explorer (IE) or Netscape. It is also a good idea to have the latest version of the Adobe Reader on your computer. A CD-ROM may be checked out at the Circulation Desk with the needed software. [These browsers are available online, but if you do not have a high speed Internet connection it may take awhile to download them to your computer.] Please do not use the link provided by AOL for downloading either IE or Netscape because they have some AOL coding and will not work.
Please contact Mary Hawks (hawksmarys@uams.edu) or Dena Plaisted (plaisteddenak@uams.edu) if you have questions.
Mary Hawks
What
I enjoy most about working at the UAMS Library is the people. Everyone is extremely
friendly and very helpful. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone. I am excited
about the opportunities available to me and look forward to many happy years
here at the Library.
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, I moved to Arkansas when I was twelve because my dad was transferred with Union Pacific Railroad. I am the youngest of three children with an older brother and sister. Steve Smith and I have been married for five years. We live in Sherwood and have a Pomeranian named Misty (no kids).
I received a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education in 1996 from UALR and was employed with Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic school for six years. I taught a semi-departmentalized sixth grade for three years and then moved to a self-contained fifth grade where I taught for another three years. I enjoyed the diversity of my days when I was teaching the students in my classes. Each child was different and it was fun to teach and get to know each student.
In May, 2002, I received a Master's Degree in Learning Systems Technology/Instructional Resources in Education, again from UALR. The main focus of this program is web-design, computer software, networking of computers, and many other aspects of computer based instruction.
In June, 2002 I accepted the position with the UAMS Library Learning Resource Center as the Curriculum Support Liaison. In this position I work closely with the faculty of UAMS to:
On
Sept. 19, 2002, Chuck Byrne, a member of the UAMS Library’s Technical
Support staff, along with hundreds of thousands of other American Cancer Society
volunteers gathered in Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to make health care
a national priority at the Relay For Life® Celebration on the Hill. Representing
all 50 states and each of the 435 Congressional districts, three thousand “Relay
Community Ambassadors” and thousands of others told Congress that more
needs to be done to promote research, education and prevention. Chuck was an
Ambassador who represented the citizens of Arkansas.
“Celebration is the cumulative voice of millions of volunteers sending a message to our elected leaders that cancer and health related issues are in their own backyards.” said Chuck Byrne, who is also a ten year volunteer with the American Cancer Society. Relay For Life® Celebration on the Hill is a grassroots event celebrating cancer survivorship and empowering survivors and others to advocate for laws that will help people fight cancer.
The 12-hour day opened at 10 a.m. with a special “survivors lap” around the Reflecting Pool. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson addressed the group in the afternoon. Ambassadors met with their Representatives and Senators throughout the day. They asked legislators to complete doubling of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget this year, fully fund the National Cancer Institute (NCI), commit needed resources to the new National Cancer Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities at the NIH, and substantially increase funding for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Highlights included a candle lighting “luminaria” ceremony held at dusk with 17,000 luminarias lining the reflecting pool four times. These lights honored cancer survivors and remembered those who lost their battles. Another highlight was the arrival of the Celebration Bus. The shrink-wrapped bus gathered more than 135,000 signatures on its exterior during its seven-month trip through the continental United States. So many people lent their names to the panels, the bus was wrapped nine times to make room for more signatures.
Relay For Life, the Society’s signature activity and the single largest non-profit fundraiser in the world is a unique overnight event. It offers everyone in a community an opportunity to fight cancer by forming teams to walk, run or otherwise move around a track to demonstrate their resolve to eliminate cancer as a major public health problem. This year, more than 3,300 Relay For Life events were held all over the country, raising $245 million for the American Cancer Society’s research, education, advocacy and service programs. A total of 2.25 million people participated, including 450,000 cancer survivors. Relay events were also held in 9 different countries around the world.
Abby
Holt is the new Reference & Campus Outreach Librarian at the UAMS Library.
She has a B.A. in Psychology from UALR (1996) and a M.L.I.S. from the University
of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg (1998). Abby was the Instruction Coordinator
at UALR’s Ottenheimer Library before joining the UAMS Library faculty.
She has also worked at LSU and Tulane. At the UAMS Library, Abby's position
will include extensive participation in the Library's education programs and
working with faculty to assess and develop ways to meet their information needs.
So far, the most challenging aspects of her life at UAMS involve finding the cafeteria, learning the War Memorial shuttle schedule, and learning to explode MeSH. Her home life involves sharing with Ginger the Abyssian and Domino the Dalmation.
DID YOU KNOW that the VA Library has one of the best computer assisted literature searchers in the business? (Ask anyone at the VA about the quality of his searches.) And that his experience and expertise is available to YOU at a very reasonable price: FREE!
His name is Michael M. Blanton and he has been doing Medline searching for over thirty years. A native Arkansan, he graduated from Harding University with a dual major in General Sciences and Speech Pathology/Audiology in 1967. He then went on to graduate school at LSU and received a Master of Library Science degree in 1968. After a year of postgraduate training in Science Librarianship at the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis in 1969, he attended training in Medline searching at the National Library of Medicine in 1971. At that time, the training for Medline searchers at NLM was an intense three weeks of Index Medicus indexing under Thelma Cherin, the head of indexing at NLM.
Michael began his actual search experience at Sparks Regional Medical Center Library in Fort Smith where he was the Medical Librarian. The initial online system was called AIM/TWX (Abridged Index Medicus/Teletypewriter Exchange). As the name implies, the system was accessed by teletype machine and it was VERY slow!
Michael began his VA career at the VA Medical Center Library in Durham, North Carolina in 1974 as the Chief Librarian. He was there for 8 years until I selected him in 1981 to fill the vacant position of Health Sciences Librarian in Little Rock. (One of the best decisions I have ever made!)
When he first transferred to Little Rock, he began searching online using a dial-up modem and a Texas Instruments terminal. The transmission speed of 30 characters per second was considered fast at the time! The paper used was thermal and continuous feed. If exposed to light, the print faded and the paper had a nasty habit of curling up so it was hard to read.
Skipping over a few years, in the early 1990’s the Little Rock VA Library pioneered the use of a CD-ROM personal computer based version of Medline called CD-Plus [now known as OVID]. When Michael visited New York and met Mark Nelson the founder of CD-Plus/OVID he was told that the Little Rock VA Library was the first installation of his system in the world!
Reminiscing about the “good old days” in a recent conversation, Michael said “I began my career before personal computers and before the Internet/WWW. When I was trained at the University of Tennessee Medical Units ALL searching was done manually using the printed Index Medicus. The currently available versions of the Medline database and others allow trained users to perform searches that would have been impossible to do manually using printed indices. The ease and speed with which even complex searches may be performed is a delightful experience for someone trained, initially, in purely manual methods.”
Michael is not only an excellent searcher but is willing and extremely able to help in the formation of your own searches. He also is available for one on one instruction in searching various versions of Medline and other medical databases or can teach small groups. He can be reached at 257-5628 and can be found most often Monday through Friday from 7:00 to 3:30 in the Little Rock VA Library, Room 7D120.
George M. Zumwalt,
Chief, Learning Resources Service
UAMS Library: Editor,
Amanda Saar
Contributors: Chuck Byrne, Mary Hawks, Mary Ryan, Heather Smith, Susan Steelman,
George M. Zumwalt
Published by the UAMS
Library
4301 W. Markham, Slot 586
Little Rock, AR 72205-7186
(501) 686-5980
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