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January/February 2006: Issue 128
Outreach News :
Spotlight: AHEC Library - Fayetteville
This column concludes the spotlight on Arkansas’ Area Health Education Center (AHEC) libraries. In addition to supporting AHEC faculty, staff and students, these libraries also provide tremendous support to the surrounding medical community by providing library services to health professionals in their regions.
In the seventh and final part of this series, we place the spotlight on the AHEC Library in Fayetteville directed by Elva Conditt.
History:
The AHEC Library opened in 1977 following the establishment of the AHEC in Fayetteville three years earlier. Connie Wilson was the original Librarian. At that time the library was located at 1125 N. College in the Washington Regional Medical Center (WRMC). The library remained at that location until June 2003 at which time they moved to two new locations.
The main medical library now resides on the AHEC NW campus at 2855 E. Joyce Blvd. where the majority of the book and journal collection is housed. To keep a presence at the new Washington Regional Medical Center (3215 N. North Hills Blvd.), they maintain a point-of-contact library with a small core collection and selected medical and nursing journals. This staffing of two locations makes the AHEC Fayetteville library unique among the seven. The current library staff includes Elva Conditt, Connie Wilson and Laura Williams.
Library Director:
Elva Conditt, the current Library Director, provided the following tidbits about herself:
Hobbies:“Puttering in the garden-to say gardening might be an overstatement of my exertions.” She also enjoys reading, football season tailgates, and antiqueing.
Favorite part of the job: “Of course, it is the interaction with the patron, either medical or public, and feeling that I have found the information that is going to fill their particular need for knowledge. Ultimately, that knowledge is used to help heal-through the physician or by setting the patient’s mind at ease.”
What has been your strangest request? “It’s hard to say – usually I just laugh and keep going.”
Professional Memberships:
• Medical Library Association
• South Central Chapter/Medical Library Association
Patron Quotes:
“The librarians at the AHEC-NW Library have provided excellent services for our research and grant projects over the past 7 years. The librarians have performed multiple literature searches each year for our research projects regarding health promotion, telemedicine, and health workforce research. This review of literature has been essential for the background, research design and methods, and implications for our research studies and grants. The information from this review of literature has been incorporated into multiple publications and national/international/statewide presentations for these projects each year. We very much appreciate the librarians’ expertise, helpfulness, and efficiency in performing these literature searches for our research and grant projects.”--Cathy Irwin, Ph.D., RN
Groups Served:
• AHEC Residents
• Physicians & health professionals at Washington Regional Medical Center, and Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, AR.
• AHEC NW Rad Tech students, Diagnostic Medical Sonography students, English/Spanish Medical Interpretation students.
• Because we have the only available computer lab at the AHEC campus, the library also serves as a testing site for some advanced degree nursing students, as well as, nuclear medicine and med tech students.
Medical Collection:
• This AHEC Library has just over 1500 books and 140 journal titles.
• The AHEC NW Library has five computers at the main location and three computers at the new WRMC location.
• The library provides UpToDate via CD at the WRMC location.
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.
Services Provided:
• Mediated searches for health professionals and others
• Interlibrary Loans
• Document Delivery
• Circulation
• Consumer Health Information
• Current Reading List
• Database Training for searching medical literature and consumer health sites
• Loansome Doc for health professionals
• Reference Services available to all
Technology:
• UAMS Library Staff provide training and support for changing technologies.
• AHEC Libraries are included in numerous UAMS Licensing agreements for databases and other electronic resources which add value to services in AHEC Libraries.
• The Innovative Innopac Online Catalog System including the Millennium Circulation Module is used by all the AHEC libraries.
Hours:
AHEC NW Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
WRMC Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Area Health Education Center - Fayetteville
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Card Catalog & Computers |
Reading Area |
Reading Area
Contact Information:
AHEC - FAYETTEVILLE
Elva Conditt -
Director, Library Services
Connie Wilson - Librarian
Area Health Education Center - Northwest
2855 E. Joyce Blvd.
Fayetteville, AR 72703
ph: 479-521-7615 [AHEC]
ph: 479-463-1175 [Hospital satellite]
fax: 479-442-1707
toll free: 888-740-2432
e-mail:econditt@ahecnw.uams.edu
e-mail:cwilson@ahecnw.uams.edu
Counties Covered: Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Izard, Madison, Marion, Newton, Searcy, Stone, Washington
If you would like additional information regarding services available at the AHEC in Fayetteville, please contact Elva Conditt.