JOURNAL USE UPDATE
JOURNAL USE UPDATE
Over the years the Biomedical Library has tracked the use of the journals
in the collection. Every time a journal is reshelved and/or checked out,
its use is captured for inclusion into the database. This is why you are
asked to not reshelve a journal after pulling it off the shelf. The following
table lists the top 15 titles for 1997 and compares it to the previous
two years.
| Title | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 |
| Journal of Biological Chemistry | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| American Journal of Nursing | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| New England Journal of Medicine | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Nursing | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| Nursing Times | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| JAMA | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Science | 8 | 13 | 13 |
| Nature | 9 | 10 | 14 |
| Nursing Management | 10 | 15 | 12 |
| RN | 11 | 8 | 8 |
| Lancet | 12 | 9 | 11 |
| Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing | 13 | 14 | |
| Journal of Advanced Nursing | 14 | 12 | 9 |
| American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology | 15 | ||
| American Journal of Occupational Therapy | 11 | ||
| Nursing Research | 10 | ||
| Journal of Nursing Administration | 15 |
A price study of journals indexed in Index Medicus for 1992-1996, conducted by EBSCO, reveals that the average cost of a 1996 subscription is $423.69, an increase of 17.4% since 1995. During the five-year period covered by the study, prices have increased by 64%, and have increased 213% since 1986. The chart shows the average increase since 1988.
FAX SERVICE NOW AVAILABLE
Always looking for ways to say "yes" to library users, the library has set up a fax sending service. For individuals affiliated with the Biomedical Library, the fees are $.50/page (minimum of $2.00) for all numbers with a 334 area code and $1.00/page (minimum of $3.00) for all other numbers. Fees for unaffiliated individuals are slightly higher. Requests are taken at the Circulation Desk in each site of the Biomedical Library. If you have questions, please contact the library.
HOMEPAGE UPDATE
The list of electronic journals included on the homepage has been expanded. The URL is http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/e-jour.htm. To see what is new check out the "New" section at http://southmed.usouthal.edu/com/new.htm
SYSTEMS UPDATE
A number of changes are underway for the Biomedical Library's computer systems, including both hardware and software upgrades. Probably the most far-reaching one is the migration from a local area network based upon Token-Ring technology to one based upon Fast Ethernet 100 technology. Many of today's products barely support (or don't support at all) the older and slower Token-Ring technology, and since the future of medical informatics is clearly going to be much more bandwidth intensive (more and bigger graphics, real-time streaming audio and video, etc.), it is necessary to prepare now to keep pace with patron needs.
The old IBM 320 server, which has run Novell, was upgraded with two new Pentium 133mhz CPU's (it originally had only one 90mhz CPU), and given a new operating system -- Linux. It took over as southmed.usouthal.edu and it houses our web pages and listservs. The old webserver, a Sun Netra J, has only one 110mhz CPU, so the Biomedical Library home pages will be able to handle many more simultaneous users and downloads. Another addition on southmed is the new listserv for College of Medicine faculty, which joins the COM student listserv. Each message submitted to the list will go to every faculty member on the list.
That Netra J is itself going through an upgrade, with more memory and the latest Sun Solaris 2.6 operating system, including Sun's Intranet Server and Sun's JavaStation server. Thus, it will form the heart of the Biomedical Library's new Intranet, which will connect all our existing workstations, plus the 4 new Sun JavaStations we just received. As old workstations die, they will be replaced with the much cheaper JavaStations, creating a vastly cheaper and easier to maintain Network Computer environment, while providing even faster and better graphics and sound capability through Java technology. A Citrix Winframe server will join this in the near future to enable the use of legacy Windows and DOS applications -- which, of course, are still available in the meantime on all our current workstations and Novell server.
The usaovid server is also being upgraded, with two new 4.3gig SCSI drives to give increased room for OVID itself, and also to provide for 10 megs of personal space for each COM student account (previously we could only allow them 2 megs). Also, usaovid is being upgraded with many new security features to fend off commercial spammers who have been bouncing spam off our server, causing serious system slowdowns. It will also be upgraded with the new Solaris 2.6 operating system and both Intranet and JavaStation server software, to enable us to have redundant servers for the Intranet. To help maintain all this, the Biomedical Library has purchased the Sun Solaris Systems Administration CD-ROM training set, a self-paced learning tool shared by the systems staff at Biomedical and University Libraries.
Another feature of the new Intranet will be a Netscape Calendar Server, which will enable the Biomedical Library to have meeting dates and times coordinated automatically by the system, rather than by the present time-consuming and tedious method of round after round of e-mail and/or phone calls.
Our new login system for all computers has proven successful and robust, enabling the Biomedical Library to implement the new pay-for-printing system. Beginning Jan. 1st, 1998, anyone printing from the computers at BML or UMC will have to first go to the circulation desks and pay into their printing account. COM students won't have to pay for printing in the COM lab itself, but will be charged the same $.05 per page as everyone else if they print from any of the other computers. Users can download documents onto floppies to avoid printing charges.
Last but not least, a new OVID statistics page which provides complete statistics for OVID usage is available, created by David Chen, our programmer. David also applied his programming skills to a project for University Library, enabling them to run their FirstSearch and SearchBank databases online.
INFO FAIR PLANNED
May 6th and 7th, 1998, the Biomedical Library and Media Production Services (formerly Learning Resources) will be hosting our first Infofair. The latest innovations in the Biomedical Library and in Media Production Services will be showcased.
There will be classes on using the Internet, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and demonstrations of Java technology, digital imaging, computer assisted instruction, multimedia, and more. Vendors will come and display some techno-gadgets and demonstrate software.
Faculty, staff and students from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health are welcome to make suggestions. Let us know what you would like to see. Contact Sally Murray at 414-8210 (x68210) or smurray@jaguar1.usouthal.edu to make suggestions. Please mention the Infofair if you call or e-mail. Further details will be included in the Spring ‘98 issue of Biofeedback.
INTERLIBRARY LOAN COSTS
Obtaining materials, especially journal articles of titles not own by the Biomedical Library, is an important and essential service. There is currently no charge for articles nor a limit on the number processed each month. The Biomedical Library does its best to obtain articles from libraries that do not charge us a fee per item. However, this is not always possible and item costs are going up steadily as many sources charge up to $10.00 per request. Additionally, even for those items for which there is no charge, the Biomedical Library must still adhere to existing copyright laws which require royalty fees on many titles. A national study done several years ago documented that the average interlibrary loan costs $35.00, $17.50 for the lending institution and $17.50 for the borrowing institution. This is ONLY for staff costs, not including item fees, royalty charges, online costs, telephone cost, etc.
We are currently in the process of evaluating how to maintain this valuable service and still be able to afford it.
FREE DATABASES
Several databases are now available without charge. MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, HealthSTAR, AIDSTRIALS, DIRLINE, HSRPROJ, OLDMEDLINE and SDILINE can be searched using Internet Grateful Med -- http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/. PubMed -- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ which can also be used to search MEDLINE links to about 100 journals that are available full-text on the Internet. (There is a charge to access some journals). Individuals affiliated with USA can also search several databases without charge from the University Library's homepage. Using SOUTHcat, users can search ERIC and PsycLit. Using the InfoTrac Search Bank, users can search Health Reference Center. Uncover, a database of articles from 17,000 journals is also available. FirstSearch is now available from the University Library homepage -- http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/firstsrh.htm After entering your social security number a list of databases will be given from which you can choose. There are several databases that individuals in healthcare will find useful - WorldCat, Article1st, Books In Print, FactSearch, GPO, Proceedings, and the World Almanac and Book of Facts. Access is restricted to currently eligible students, staff and faculty in the colleges of the University of South Alabama that are served by the University Library. The faculty, staff, and students of the College of Medicine are not eligible to use FirstSearch. For further information, contact the Reference Desk at either site.
BIOMEDICAL LIBRARY CLASSES - WINTER QUARTER 1998
The following classes, scheduled for January through March 1998, are open to University faculty, staff, and students and SOUTHmed members for searching MEDLINE, CINAHL, the Core Biomedical Collection, the PDR Electronic Library and Stat-Ref. Friday classes at the Campus site focus on using CINAHL for nursing information, but may change to MEDLINE according to demand.
OVID MEDLINE, CINAHL, CORE BIOMEDICAL COLLECTION, PDR Electronic
Library and Stat-Ref:
| Biomedical Library Campus Site |
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| Biomedical Library Medical Center Site |
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INTERNET RESOURCES
This class is designed to give a basic knowledge of using the Internet
in medical research. Classes may be geared to using e-mail or the World
Wide Web as tools at the request of students. E-mail classes demonstrate
the use of Pine mailer commands, netiquette, and discussion groups. World
Wide Web classes include surfing and searching using a networked browser.
This session will cover using various search engines such as Yahoo, Webcrawler,
Lycos and InfoSeek to find medical resources on the Internet.
| Biomedical Library Campus Site | Monday | 3:00pm-4:30pm |
| Biomedical Library Medical Center Site | Monday | 3:00pm-4:30pm |
GRATEFUL MED
Grateful Med is the National Library of Medicine searching software
for accessing the MEDLARS databases (such as MEDLINE) in either an IBM
compatible or Macintosh environment. The class will cover searching MEDLARS
databases by using Grateful Med. Classes in using Grateful Med are available
from the Biomedical Library if requested by an individual or group. Please
call 460-7044 to reserve a place in a class at the Campus Site, or 471-7855
to reserve a place in a class at the UMC Site. Send email to medlib@jaguar1.usouthal.edu.
NEWS FROM MEDIA PRODUCTION SERVICES (Formerly Learning Resources)
Media Production Services (MPS) is acquiring some exciting new digital
imaging hardware. New additions to the department will be a high end professional
digital camera, a photo realistic dye sublimation printer, and a film scanner.
This will enable MPS to accomplish total digital production for many applications,
from image acquisition thru publication quality output. Using this image
acquisition hardware with CD-R system, MPS can bring practically all types
of images into a digital environment and store a useful quality on removable
media, (CD-R). You will see a reduction in turn around time for many of
the products you are currently requesting and you may receive high quality
color or continuous tone black and white photo-realistic prints from your
computer files. We expect to be up and running with these new additions
by February 1, 1998. For more information contact Mike Carmichael (Media
Production Services). 460-6317. Media Productions Services now has its
own WWW page
http://southmed.usouthal.edu/com/mps/.
Information on all services provided by MPS can be found on this homepage.
BIOMEDICAL LIBRARY FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS
In honor of National Medical Librarians Month in October, the National Library of Medicine created baseball cards for medical librarians from throughout the United States. Judy Burnham was one of the twenty librarians included. She presented a paper "Accessing Health Care Information" at the 1997 meeting of the Alabama State Nurses Association in Montgomery, AL, and was also a co-presenter in a November workshop in Montgomery for local health care professionals. The workshop was sponsored by the Alabama Health Libraries Association.
The Biomedical Library has been notified that it has received another subcontract from the Southeastern Atlantic Region of the National Libraries of Medicine. This subcontract will provide Internet training at eight rural hospitals in Southwest Alabama. Judy Burnham is the principal investigator.
DONATIONS
The following individuals have donated materials to the Biomedical Library in the last few months. These materials have helped to expand the collection and have replaced some missing journals issues.
BIOFEEDBACK, New Series, Issue #38, Winter1998
The Biomedical Library Biofeedback, a publication of the University
of South Alabama Biomedical Library, is published at irregular intervals.
Editor: Judy Burnham. Contributors to this issue were Judy Burnham, Geneva
Bush, Sally Murray, Pat Rodgers, Harmon Seaver, Diane Williams, Tom Williams
and Kirby Wilson. Comments should be addressed to Judy
Burnham, Biomedical Library, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL
36688-0002
To make comments, suggestions, or get more information, send email to medlib@jaguar1.usouthal.edu or call (334)-414-8210.
University of South Alabama Biomedical Library
Revised: January 15, 1998 (updated January 2, 2001)