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No. 125 | |
May/June 2005 |
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This column continues the spotlight on Arkansas’ Area Health Education Center (AHEC) libraries that have a long tradition of providing services to AHEC faculty, staff and students. They also provide tremendous support to the surrounding medical community by providing library services to health professionals in their region. In the sixth part of this series we place the spotlight on the AHEC Library in Fort Smith run by Grace Anderson. History: The AHEC Library in Fort Smith is unique in several areas. In the early 1970’s several interested physicians had convinced a supportive administrator, Marvin Altman, of the need for a medical library in the hospital. With the help of Sally Kasalko, a reference librarian at the UAMS Library, these individuals obtained in 1971 a grant from THE LIBRARY ASSISTANCE ACT supported by the National Library of Medicine. The Library opened in its present location in June 1972. Thus, this Sparks Regional Health Sciences Library was an entity giving service when the AHEC Program began in Fort Smith in 1975. The local Sebastian County Medical Society had designated this as their official library and continues to provide some support from their annual membership dues. Also, this Library was among the first in community hospitals to gain MEDLINE access, which had been limited to academic centers. Until recently, the Library had a most unique item, a flight simulator. Several physicians and the administrator who were avid pilots had purchased this simulator in the early 1970’s. They accrued flying time through use of this flight device and the audiotapes that came with it. They had a logbook to log flight time and checked out the simulator key through the librarian. It now resides happily in the Fort Smith Air Museum. Librarian:
Patron Quotes: “It is a wonderful asset to have a skillful
reference librarian, like Grace Anderson, available to help with lit
searches for grant preparation and other scholarly work! Grace is
so prompt in providing search results for the latest clinical investigations & information
relative to “research-based practice.” Additionally, she
will show you how to access information on your own! Grace seems to
always be accessible to help in locating materials within the library
holdings. She consistently maintains a pleasant manner & goes
about her tasks with remarkable “grace!” THANKS” An article entitled Dr. Cyberspace: Patients Turn to the Internet concluded with a nice tribute to the AHEC Library. “Finally those who live in the vicinity
of Fort Smith have an excellent resource concerning Internet
health information at the AHEC Medical Library at Sparks. Medical
Librarian Grace
Anderson has been locating medical information for physicians and
other health-care personnel for years using both the Internet
and a variety of other sources. She is an invaluable guide
to reputable sources and is also part of an organization of medical
librarians who network on Internet health information. Some
of the sources she recommends, not only for health topics
but for other useful sites as well are posted on the Sparks website
(www.Sparks.org) under “Medical Library.” Groups Served: AHEC Faculty/Staff, Residents, UAMS Students Services Provided: Mediated searches for health professionals and others Technology: UAMS Library Staff provide training and support for changing technologies. AHEC Librarians are included in numerous UAMS licensing agreements for databases and other electronic resources which adds value to services in AHEC Libraries. In addition, Sparks Health System provides Micromedex and Up-to-Date on its Intranet. Access is available in the Library. AHEC provides subscription to MDConsult, which is available in the Library. This Library also gained use of Ariel in the past year, which enhances the ability to initiate and receive article requests with short turn around. The Innovative Innopac Online Catalog System including the Millennium Circulation Module is used by all the AHEC libraries. Medical Collection: This AHEC Library has 1200 books and 125 journal titles. Many of those journals date back to the middle 1900’s. The Library has 5 computers. Special Collections: The Library has consumer health books and access to The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus via the web available for the general public. Hours: Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Photo:
For further information contact: AHEC - FORT SMITH Counties Covered: Crawford, Conway, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Montgomery, Polk, Pope, Scott, Sebastian, Yell.
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Outreach News
