ABSTRACT
"Design thinking" principles from a leading design firm, IDEO, were key elements in the planning process for a one-desk service model, the ASK Desk, at the John A. Prior Health Sciences Library. The library administration and staff employed the methodology to enhance customer experiences, meet technology challenges, and compete in a changing education environment. The most recent renovations demonstrate how the principles were applied. The concept of "continuous design thinking" is important in the library's daily operations to serve customers most effectively.
Subject(s)
Consumer Behavior , Environment Design , Interior Design and Furnishings/methods , Libraries, Medical/organization & administration , Library Services/supply & distribution , Models, Organizational , Architecture , Educational Technology , Efficiency, Organizational , Humans , Information Storage and Retrieval , Information Systems , Ohio , Organizational Case Studies , Planning TechniquesABSTRACT
Biomedical knowledge is expanding at an unprecedented rate-one that is unlikely to slow anytime in the future. While the volume and scope of this new knowledge poses significant organizational challenges, it creates tremendous opportunities to release and direct its power to the service of significant goals. The authors explain how the Center for Knowledge Management at The Ohio State University Medical Center, created during the academic year 2003-04, is doing just that by integrating numerous resource-intensive, technology-based initiatives-including personnel, services and infrastructure, digital repositories, data sets, mobile computing devices, high-tech patient simulators, computerized testing, and interactive multimedia-in a way that enables the center to provide information tailored to the needs of students, faculty and staff on the medical center campus and its surrounding health sciences colleges. The authors discuss how discovering, applying, and sharing new knowledge, information assets, and technologies in this way is a collaborative process. This process creates open-ended opportunities for innovation and a roadmap for working toward seamless integration, synergy, and substantial enhancement of the academic medical center's research, educational, and clinical mission areas.
Subject(s)
Academic Medical Centers/organization & administration , Biomedical Research , Computer Systems , Information Management/organization & administration , Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems , Libraries, Medical/organization & administration , Cooperative Behavior , Diffusion of Innovation , Hospitals, University/organization & administration , Humans , Ohio , Organizational Case Studies , Organizational Innovation , Organizational Objectives , Systems IntegrationABSTRACT
This paper describes the costs associated with providing library support for a series of distance-education courses at The Ohio State University (OSU). These courses are designed as a pilot program offered by the OSU Office of Geriatrics and Gerontology. Costs to the library are analyzed for document delivery, electronic reserves, reference services, and librarian activities. Also included are the results of a student evaluation survey. The students are full-time working professionals who cannot attend regularly scheduled classes on campus. Conclusions extrapolate costs for each course, student, and service.
