Developing a Cancer-Focused Library Survey - Assessing the Current Environment and Planning for the Future.

The primary goal of this project is to understand how each National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center library, and all libraries that support cancer research, function within their institutions. Through an in-depth survey focused on three major areas (staff, content and tools procurement, and user services), the research team hopes to determine how a cancer-centric library can be successful in supporting quality patient care, research excellence, and education. Additionally, the survey will examine the necessary minimum staffing levels for librarians and information professionals based on organizational size and degree of research focus. The survey will seek out the new skills librarians will need to deliver optimal services. The survey will also explore how content libraries purchase reflects and maps to constituents' current medical and research activities. Libraries within a research intense environment have a responsibility to align with researchers and health care professionals to provide resources and services that support their workflows. Cancer libraries need to be attuned to their institutions' missions, whether that includes excellent patient care, research endeavors, or cutting-edge educational programs. The information gathered from the survey will provide data for this research team to define the vision and standards of excellence for a cancer specialized research library.

International trends in health science librarianship: part 1 - the English speaking world.

This is the second in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors were asked to reflect on developments in their country - viz. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Future issues will track trends in Northern Europe, the Nordic countries, Southern Europe and Latin America. JM.

Defrosting the digital library: bibliographic tools for the next generation web.

Many scientists now manage the bulk of their bibliographic information electronically, thereby organizing their publications and citation material from digital libraries. However, a library has been described as "thought in cold storage," and unfortunately many digital libraries can be cold, impersonal, isolated, and inaccessible places. In this Review, we discuss the current chilly state of digital libraries for the computational biologist, including PubMed, IEEE Xplore, the ACM digital library, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Citeseer, arXiv, DBLP, and Google Scholar. We illustrate the current process of using these libraries with a typical workflow, and highlight problems with managing data and metadata using URIs. We then examine a range of new applications such as Zotero, Mendeley, Mekentosj Papers, MyNCBI, CiteULike, Connotea, and HubMed that exploit the Web to make these digital libraries more personal, sociable, integrated, and accessible places. We conclude with how these applications may begin to help achieve a digital defrost, and discuss some of the issues that will help or hinder this in terms of making libraries on the Web warmer places in the future, becoming resources that are considerably more useful to both humans and machines.

Collection policy management for the Kuopio University and Kuopio University Hospital, Finland: detecting the needs of users and developing high-quality collections.

BACKGROUND: This article discusses the collection policies of a university library in a modern digital environment. A brief description of national collection policy decisions in Finland is provided. The rapid evolution and growth of scientific publication places new demands on building a collection in a health and bioscience orientated university, and it requires an evidence-based approach to support effective service processes. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to identify the needs of the university's students and staff. METHODS: Usage statistics were surveyed and analysed. RESULTS: Both usage statistics and user surveys indicate that the library use is divided half-and-half between the traditional use of printed material and library premises and the modern use of digital materials via the Web. The former is mainly the way that the students and hospital staff use the library, and the latter can be viewed as the researchers' way of using the library. Librarians and information specialists act in this as service providers and/or guides and tutors to the end-users. These results, however, must be validated with a longer timescale data collation and analysis, both of which are an ongoing process within the library. CONCLUSIONS: It is important that requirements and needs of the library's users are monitored regularly and acquisition policies are updated frequently. It also seems that the needs have changed quite dramatically in response to modern ways of disseminating publications, but this supposition will require further study.

Library as place: results of a delphi study.

OBJECTIVE: An expert consensus on the future of the library as place was developed to assist health sciences librarians in designing new library spaces. METHOD: An expert panel of health sciences librarians, building consultants, architects, and information technologists was asked to reflect on the likelihood, desirability, timing, and impact on building design of more than seventy possible changes in the use of library space. RESULTS: An expert consensus predicted that the roles librarians play and the way libraries are used will substantially change. These changes come in response to changes in technology, scholarly communication, learning environments, and the health care economy. CONCLUSIONS: How health sciences library space is used will be far less consistent by 2015, as space becomes more tailored to institutional needs. However, the manner in which health sciences libraries develop and deliver services and collections will drastically change in the next decade. Libraries will continue to exist and will provide support for knowledge management and clinical trials, provide access to digital materials, and play a host of other roles that will enable libraries to emerge as institutional change agents.

Trends in academic health sciences libraries and their emergence as the "knowledge nexus" for their academic health centers.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to identify trends in academic health sciences libraries (AHSLs) as they adapt to the shift from a print knowledgebase to an increasingly digital knowledgebase. This research was funded by the 2003 David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship. METHODS: The author spent a day and a half interviewing professional staff at each library. The questionnaire used was sent to the directors of each library in advance of the visit, and the directors picked the staff to be interviewed and set up the schedule. RESULTS: Seven significant trends were identified. These trends are part of the shift of AHSLs from being facility and print oriented with a primary focus on their role as repositories of a print-based knowledgebase to a new focus on their role as the center or "nexus" for the organization, access, and use of an increasingly digital-based knowledgebase. CONCLUSION: This paper calls for a national effort to develop a new model or structure for health sciences libraries to more effectively respond to the challenges of access and use of a digital knowledgebase, much the same way the National Library of Medicine did in the 1960s and 1970s in developing and implementing the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. The paper then concludes with some examples or ideas for research to assist in this process.

Colección histórica de instrumentos científicos del Museo de la Farmacia Hispana de la Facultad de Farmacia de Madrid / Historical collection of scientific instruments from Spanish Pharmacy Museum of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Madrid

La colección histórica de instrumentos científicos del Museo de la Farmacia Hispana de la Facultad de Farmacia de Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) consta de 453 ejemplares, agrupados en 349 conjuntos instrumentaleso instrumentos y 74 accesorios o partes de los mismos, conjunto ordenado en 27 secciones.Todos ellos se encuentran en la actualidad en la Facultad de Farmacia de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid: algunos proceden de su precursora, la UniversidadCentral, y otros del Colegio de San Fernando. En la colección hemos podido constatar que existen asimismo instrumentos donados por distintas institucionesy particulares. En el trabajo se recogen los instrumentos científicos desde la creación, en 1892, de la Cátedra de Aparatos de Física aplicada a la Farmacia. Por ello, esta colección de instrumentos de Farmacia, Físico-Química y Análisis Instrumental Farmacéutico es singular y de enorme valor científico, didáctico y museístico.Predominan entre todos, los instrumentos ópticos sobre los eléctricos, englobando la colección un número de aparatos suficientemente importante como paraaseverar el alto nivel que tenían los estudios de Farmacia de la época. Por otra parte, la conservación de dicha colección resulta una herramienta de inmensurableutilidad con fines históricos. En la colección dominan los equipos físicos para investigación sobre los de docencia, con un 13,9 por 100 de equipos eléctricos, frente a un 28,1 por 100 de equipos ópticos, todos ellos utilizados por varias generaciones de estudiantes de Farmacia y por profesionales farmacéuticos y de otras ramas. La colección se basa en Técnica Física y explica el nivel de esta disciplina. El objetivo del trabajo ha sido contribuir al catálogo del Museo de la Farmacia Hispana; los instrumentos expuestos, no sólo se han descrito, sino que se han estudiado y catalogado

The collection has 453 pieces grouped on 349 instrumental units or stand alone instruments plus 74 accessories or instrument parts sorted on 27 chapters; and belonge to the University Complutense. All of them are settled now on Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University, Madrid: some come from its preceding Central University and others from San Fernando College. On the collection we have verify 74 instruments given by different institutions or individuals. On this paper are described scientific instruments from passed branch of study «Physical Instruments Applied to Pharmacy» («Cátedra de aparatos de Física aplicada a la Farmacia») born at 1892. Therefore this Pharmacy, Physic-Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Instrumental Analysis instrument collection is singular and has an outstanding, scientific, teaching and museum value. Optical instruments domain over electrical instruments, having whole collection enough apparatus to can sure the high level of Pharmacy studies on the past. Indeed, this collection preservation results a valuable tool for historical purposes. On collection are more research physical equipments over teaching equipments. There is 13,9% of electrical equipments versus 28,1% of optical equipments, all of them used by several Pharmacy students generations, pharmaceutical and other professionals. The collection is based on Technical Physics and explains very well this discipline level. Work approach has been to contribute to Spanish Pharmacy Museum Catalogue. Included instruments have been described and indeed studied y catalogued

Current issues in the design of academic health sciences libraries: findings from three recent facility projects.

Planning a new health sciences library at the beginning of the twenty-first century is a tremendous challenge. Technology has radically changed the way libraries function in an academic environment and the services they provide. Some individuals question whether the library as place will continue to exist as information becomes increasingly available electronically. To understand how libraries resolve programming and building design issues, visits were made to three academic health sciences libraries that have had significant renovation or completed new construction. The information gathered will be valuable for planning a new library for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and may assist other health sciences librarians as they plan future library buildings.

Health library partnership programmes between resource-poor countries and Western Europe.

A survey of health library partnerships between the UK and northern European countries and African or eastern European countries was undertaken to complement a similar survey of 24 North American health libraries. Out of 11 partnerships described, six provided sufficient data to be included in a quantitative analysis. These results give some baseline data about such partnerships and their activities, reasons for success and problems encountered. Some libraries have little involvement other than sending duplicate books and journals; others are more deeply involved in all aspects of library activity including professional development. Good communications, both human and technological, are important for maintaining partnership momentum. Staff commitment on both sides and institutional support for the partnership are essential, especially when programmes have costs which must be met either by the institution or outside funders. The financial consequences of partnership may inhibit their initiation, but successful partnerships with demand driven programmes bring benefits to both sides.

Medical history for tomorrow--preserving the record of today.

This paper addresses the need to recognize the importance, and the challenges, of preserving the hugely expanding record of medicine today for historians of the future. We are faced not only with an increase in traditional publishing formats, but also with the rapid growth in electronic communications. Two celebrated medical cases, one from the late seventeenth century and one from the late twentieth, are used to illustrate the differences and the difficulties. The need for active and effective professional collaboration is stressed; libraries should work together to address these issues.

Collection development and outsourcing in academic health sciences libraries: a survey of current practices.

Academic health sciences libraries in the United States and Canada were surveyed regarding collection development trends, including their effect on approval plan and blanket order use, and use of outsourcing over the past four years. Results of the survey indicate that serials market forces, budgetary constraints, and growth in electronic resources purchasing have resulted in a decline in the acquisition of print items. As a result, approval plan use is being curtailed in many academic health sciences libraries. Although use of blanket orders is more stable, fewer than one-third of academic health sciences libraries report using them currently. The decline of print collections suggests that libraries should explore cooperative collection development of print materials to ensure access and preservation. The decline of approval plan use and the need for cooperative collection development may require additional effort for sound collection development. Libraries were also surveyed about their use of outsourcing. Some libraries reported outsourcing cataloging and shelf preparation of books, but none reported using outsourcing for resource selection. The reason given most often for outsourcing was that it resulted in cost savings. As expected, economic factors are driving both collection development and outsourcing practices.

An assessment of collections at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Health Sciences Libraries: drug resistance.

In December 1997, the authors completed an in-depth collection assessment project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Health Sciences Libraries. The purpose was to develop a framework for future collection assessment projects by completing a multifaceted evaluation of the libraries' monograph and serial collections in the subject area of drug resistance. Evaluators adapted and synthesized several traditional collection assessment tools, including shelflist measurement, bibliography and standard list checking, and citation analysis. Throughout the project, evaluators explored strategies to overcome some of the problems inherent in the application of traditional collection assessment methods to the evaluation of biomedical collections. Their efforts resulted in the identification of standard monographs and core journals for the subject area, a measurement of the collections' strength relative to the collections of benchmark libraries, and a foundation for future collection development within the subject area. The project's primary outcome was a collection assessment methodology that has potential application to both internal and cooperative collection development in medical, pharmaceutical, and other health sciences libraries.