Creating a Web-accessible, point-of-care, team-based information system (PointTIS): the librarian as publisher.

The Internet has created new opportunities for librarians to develop information systems that are readily accessible at the point of care. This paper describes the multiyear process used to justify, fund, design, develop, promote, and evaluate a rehabilitation prototype of a point-of-care, team-based information system (PoinTIS) and train health care providers to use this prototype for their spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury patient care and education activities. PoinTIS is a successful model for librarians in the twenty-first century to serve as publishers of information created or used by their parent organizations and to respond to the opportunities for information dissemination provided by recent technological advances.

The Southeast Florida AIDS Information Network: a community outreach, specialized information system.

In the years ahead, end-user instruction will expand from the current models of curriculum- and institution-based programs for teaching MEDLINE to include outreach programs to unaffiliated users for teaching specialized database searching. The Southeast Florida AIDS Information Network (SEFAIN), a community-based information system targeting health care providers in a tri-county area, is an example of this new model. The components of SEFAIN and the results of the outreach and educational programs are presented. The advantages of these programs to both providers and librarians are highlighted. Comparisons are drawn between end users who take specialized information courses and those who take MEDLINE courses or no courses. These data will assist librarians in the justification and development of specialized information systems.

An intrapreneurial approach to integrating information production services into an academic medical center library.

The many challenges faced by health sciences libraries of all types and sizes often require innovative solutions. When an innovative solution involves calculated risk taking, the approach is called intrapreneurial. At the University of Miami School of Medicine, an intrapreneurial approach solved the fiscal problems of the biomedical communications unit. The Louis Calder Memorial Library inherited these problems when the Department of the Library and Biomedical Communications was created in the early 1980s. In this paper, two intrapreneurial programs are described, and the benefit and suitability of this management style to information services are demonstrated.

The economics of academic health sciences libraries: cost recovery in the era of big science.

With launching of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, science and technology became a high priority in the United States. During the two decades since, health sciences libraries have experienced changes in almost all aspects of their operations. Additionally, recent developments in medical care and in medical education have had major influences on the mission of health science libraries. In the unending struggle to keep up with new technologies and services, libraries have had to support increasing demands while they receive a decreasing share of the health care dollar. This paper explores the economic challenges faced by academic health sciences libraries and suggests measures for augmenting traditional sources of funding. The development of marketing efforts, institutional memberships, and fee-based services by the Louis Calder Memorial Library, University of Miami School of Medicine, is presented as a case study.

The design of the automated serials accession system at the Library of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York.

This paper describes the development of the Automated Serials Accession System. It demonstrates the logic used in the design of the mechanized system and how the problems encountered were handled. The areas of cooperation with the Medical Library Center of New York and the types of programs needed to run the system are explained.