From The Library Director:
The Library has been asked to cut its base budget by 3% for the coming year. Some of the cuts we will make in order to meet the 3% mandate include the following:
Two of our highest priorities when considering these cuts were to minimize the impact on library services and to try to preserve the collections (journals, databases, books, and audiovisuals) budget. We have added approximately 300 full-text journals in the past two years and need to add many more in order to make information more accessible not only for our on-campus users, but also for the AHECs and the growing number of distance education students enrolled at UAMS. We will do a comprehensive review of our journal holdings this year to determine which ones we can cancel and which new ones need to be added. We will be asking for input from UAMS personnel before making decisions concerning journal cancellations.
During the next six months, we will also be reviewing our organizational structure and the duties of each position to determine if changes need to be made which will make the operation of the Library more efficient and effective. I encourage you to provide us with input at any time, but especially as we go through this difficult budget-cutting period.Mary L. Ryan
Contributed by Helen
May
(From: Nursing Capsule, December 1999.
Reprinted with permission.)
Across the country, hospitals and healthcare organizations are under siege. Higher cost, lower reimbursement, increasingly strict and complicated regulations and laws, and huge financial deficits are causing hospitals, including UAMS, to have to scramble to find ways to keep our doors open and deliver save care.
These are times when leaders have to make very difficult decisions, and all employees have to find ways to deal with the high anxiety accompanying an uncertain future.
As managers, directors, and front line staff, each of us responds emotionally to times of change based on our own experience dealing with loss or grief.
The Grief Cycle for Personal Change:
Try this exercise:
1) Think of a time you went through great change; a job change, a move from one state to another, the death of a close family member or friend, divorce, marriage.
2) Now, think of how you dealt with this life event. Do you feel you adapted quickly, or did it take months or more to feel centered again? Did you look positively toward the future? Do you feel that, coming out of it, you learned or grew stronger from it? Are you still dealing with the loss, the change, and perhaps angry or remorseful about the outcomes?
We tend to carry the same set of coping mechanisms through life unless we consciously work to improve them. We might apply the same positive or negative attitude to a job change as we did toward a previous life change. However, coping skills can be learned.
Here are some tips for how to help yourself and your staff or co-workers through times of stressful organizational change.
This gives others the benefit of preparing for their future, even if it is uncertain what will happen. They are adults and deserve to have as much control as possible over their destiny.
Allow questions, speculations, and time for all to let it sink in. Arrange for follow-up discussion as needed. This allows employees to process the information and surrounding emotions at their own pace. Sometimes the initial shock takes a long time to pass.
Don't take the anger of staff personally. And OWN you own anger. It is a natural part of the process, but it is not necessarily appropriate to place blame.
Source: Barger, Nancy J., Kirby, Linda K. The challenge of change in organizations. Helping employees thrive in the new frontier. Palo Alto, CA: Davis-Black Pub., 1995.
Q. How do I find out if the Library owns a specific journal?
A. This is a question that is asked often, especially now that the UAMS Library has an online catalog, and is phasing out the print journal lists that have served so well for the last 20 years.
The lists are being discarded because the journal environment at UAMS is changing so fast that keeping print lists updated cannot be done quickly and correctly.
The best way to find out what journals can be accessed (note, not just owned, but accessed) via the UAMS Library is to use our online catalog. But remember, if the Library does NOT have access in either electronic or print form, the title will not be in the catalog.
The address for the online catalog is www.libcatalog.uams.edu, or it can be accessed from the Library's home page at www.library.uams.edu. Once at the home page, click on the live link called: UAMS Library Catalog and Other Library Catalogs.
That link takes you to: Library Catalog Main Menu. The first option is: Search the Catalog. Click on that one, and you will go to: Library Catalog Search Menu. The second option on that screen is TITLE.
Click on TITLE. At the Title Search Screen, follow the directions by typing in the title you want, using the words at the beginning of the title.
If there are many items on the next screen, you can limit to "Journals Only" if you want. To do this, click on the arrow next to "View Entire Collections" in the area above the displayed titles. Select "Journals (all locations)". Then click on "Search". Once you are satisfied with the selection presented, click on the one closest to what you want.
Once you reach the correct journal
title, the page will list the Library's holdings, if the Library owns it in
hard copy. The page will also provide a live link to any electronic holdings
that are accessible, by saying, immediately below the title and publisher information:
Click on the following to:
Connect to online version
Once you click on "Connect to online version", you enter the Web, at the home page for the journal.
If the Library only has electronic access, the notation: [electronic journal] will appear immediately after the journal title on the page, and a live link will be provided after the note "Click on the following to:" The information on that page will also give any system requirements for accessing that title, such as Adobe Acrobat.
There are many journals for which the Library has both hard copy and electronic access, but be very aware that electronic journal issue availability can be quite limited.
If you have questions, contact the Information Desk at 686-6734, or via e-mail.
UAMS Library journal holdings can now be accessed directly from the OVID database system!
In OVID, when looking at the "abstract" or "complete reference" view, you have the option at the top of the screen to click on the link: UAMS Libraries Web Catalog.
This brings up another window showing the holdings of that journal title in the UAMS Library catalog. By pressing "Alt" and "Tab", it will toggle you back to the OVID screen!
This great innovation allows you to know precisely what issues the Library holds of a particular journal title. If you have questions about this feature, or would like a demonstration, please call the Library's Information Desk at 686-6734 or e-mail us.On December 21, 1999, the Library will install a new exit gate for its Checkpoint security system. The present turnstiles were moved from the previous library site in 1977, and have served the library well. However, the new gate conforms to ADA requirements, and will be less physically intrusive than the present equipment.
"The Holiday Season is Here" is the title of the current exhibit in the Library's exhibit cases. Come and read about mistletoe and holly and how you can "gift" the Library at this special season. The exhibit will continue during regular library hours through January 31, 2000.
The UAMS Library Interlibrary Loan Department is not borrowing original materials (books, journal issues/volumes, or audio visual items) during the month of December. We will resume borrowing of original material January 3, 2000. Requests for photocopied material will be processed as usual.
Jan and Tom Hart, Tim Muren, Jana Allcock and Mary Hawks worked to clean up our section of Markham (and more, in the case of the Harts) on November 6, 1999.
Administration: Ruth Riley has resigned her position as Associate Director to become the new Director at the University of South Carolina Medical Library in Columbia, South Carolina. We wish her well in her new position.
Learning Resource Center: Loretta Edwards as well as Jan and Tom Hart rode their horses in the Christmas parade in downtown Little Rock on Saturday, December 11, 1999. They road as member of the Trailblazers, #28 in the parade lineup.
Systems: Eric Dousay is the new Web Manager for the Library as of November 22, 1999.
UAMS Library News:
Editor, Amanda Saar
Soundwords: Editor, Fred Bassett
Contributors: Jana Allcock, Edwina Walls Mann,
Belinda Rocco and Mary Ryan
Published by the UAMS
Library
4301 W. Markham, Slot 586
Little Rock, AR 72205-7186
(501) 686-5980
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