In June/July of 2003, the College of Medicine surveyed researchers about the research infrastructure provided at UAMS. This Survey included questions about the support provided by the Library.

Library staff carefully reviewed the survey responses concerning the Library. Overall, we were pleased with the ratings given for the Library and with the many positive comments that were made about the Library’s resources and services. However, we realize that the Library’s budget prevents us from providing immediate access to a significant number of information resources, especially selected online journals which are needed by UAMS researchers, and we were not surprised to see numerous comments to that effect in the survey results.

The following is a summary of information related to the survey comments and/or the Library’s support for research.

Unfortunately, the Library’s budget is very limited. We are attempting to do as much as we can to purchase access to the information resources needed most often by researchers.

• In the past few years, we have more than doubled the number of online journals accessible to UAMS researchers, and now have about 2,500 journals available online (including Science, which was mentioned in the survey comments).
• We routinely convert print subscriptions to online subscriptions whenever the online versions become available.
• Several resources added within the past two years which are of particular use to researchers are as follows:
  • Subscriptions to all eight Cell Press journals online, including Cell, which was mentioned by one of the survey responders. Other titles include Cancer Cell, Development Cell, Current Biology, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Neuron, and Structure. These subscriptions were initially funded by the BRIN project
  • An upgraded subscription for Current Contents: Clinical Medicine and Current Contents: Life Sciences (the previous limited user license resulted in researchers often being denied access when all of the licenses were in use).
  • Journal Citation Reports: Science Edition, the ISI database which allows researchers to easily identify articles which have the highest impact factors.
  • SciFinder Scholar, which includes the online Chemical Abstracts database and related resources. We share a 3-user license subscription with UALR, and our share of the cost is over $30,000, one-third of which is funded with ABI (Arkansas Biosciences Institute) money.

We realize we do not have as many social sciences journals and indexes/databases as needed. However, in the past two years, we have added the following databases to fill in some gaps in our collections:

• EBSCO PsycINFO database and 550 full-text psychology journals
• EBSCO Business Source Elite, which includes over 1,100 business journals
• EBSCO Academic Search Elite, a multidisciplinary database containing over 1,250 titles

The Library implemented a proxy service last year to facilitate remote access to the Library’s online information resources from offices, homes, etc., so that researchers do not have to come to the physical Library to access these resources.

• We are currently upgrading the proxy service to improve remote access.
• We will soon implement Serials Solutions software to make access to online journals through the Library’s website and catalog less confusing. This will also allow the Library staff to more quickly update the holdings statements in the catalog when journal subscriptions are cancelled, as was mentioned in one of the survey comments.

Because the Library cannot afford to purchase access to all of the information resources needed by researchers, we try to make our interlibrary loan service as efficient as possible.

• Most journal articles not accessible immediately through the Library are delivered electronically within 24 hours to the requestor’s desktop through the Library’s ILLiad interlibrary loan system.
• The majority of the nearly 10,000 interlibrary loan requests we process annually are for UAMS researchers.
• Unlike most other academic medical libraries, we do not charge for the interlibrary loan service.
• We also participate in a reciprocal borrowing agreement which enables UAMS personnel to check out materials from most other university libraries in Arkansas (ARKLINK borrowing cards can be obtained at the Library’s circulation desk), and we have a courier service with many of these libraries which facilitates rapid delivery of books and other materials.

To avoid cutting journal subscriptions or other items, the Library began charging for printing at the public computers in the Library last August. We regret that some users are not happy about this chargeback, but the Library can no longer afford to provide this service for free, as the cost of paper and toner alone averaged over $10,000 annually. The UAMS Library was the last academic medical library in our 5-state region to implement printing charges.

The Library provides UAMS personnel with free mediated searching of nearly 500 databases.

• Charges are incurred only when a very expensive database must be accessed.
• A UAMS reference librarian is an active member of the IACUC and provides mediated searches related to research proposals.
• UAMS librarians also provide free group and individualized training on searching Ovid and PubMed, as well as other information resources.

The Library maintains the Access Grid room, which enables researchers to collaborate virtually face-to-face with colleagues in other institutions without having to travel to the other sites. We are working with Dr. Charles Winter, COM Associate Dean for Research, to identify ways the Access Grid can further facilitate collaboration and to publicize Access Grid events and seminars of potential interest to researchers at UAMS.

The Library also recently purchased an institutional membership in BioMed Central (www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/instmembership) to allow UAMS researchers to publish in any of the more than 100 BMC journals without paying the $500 per article publication fee. At least six papers were published in BMC journals by UAMS researchers in the past few years, and we expect that number to grow as the popularity and number of BMC journals grow. We consider BMC an excellent alternative to publishing in very expensive for-profit journals. The BMC articles are carefully peer-reviewed and several already have high impact factors. The Library will consider purchasing institutional memberships for other open access publications as they become available.

We would like to continue to improve our services for all UAMS personnel in any way we can within our limited budget. We appreciate the input from the COM researchers on their information needs, and we encourage all UAMS faculty, staff and students to provide us with suggestions for ways we can improve and publicize our services.

Mary L. Ryan,
Director