Judy Burnham, long-time Biomedical Library faculty member, was recently selected to receive the Estelle Brodman Award from the Medical Library Association. Judy’s plaque, along with a check, will be presented to her in May at the MLA Annual Meeting in Dallas. The Estelle Brodman award is given to a mid-career, academic medical librarian in the US or Canada who best exemplifies outstanding accomplishments and potential for leadership on the job and within MLA.

A recent reception hosted by the College of Medicine honored Ms. Burnham along with AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award nominee Dr. Yih-Ming Yang.

-Tom Williams

The Biomedical Libraries is participating in a nationwide survey called LibQUAL+. Developed collaboratively by the Association of Research Libraries and Texas A&M University, LibQUAL+ is a research and development project that provides a method to define and measure library service quality across institutions.

It also offers a model to create useful quality assessment tools for local planning. Based on the principles of the SERVQUAL business model, LibQUAL+ will serve as a tool to measure library users’ perceptions of service quality and identify gaps between desired, perceived and minimum expectations of service. LibQUAL+ will identify service dimensions that are most important to our users and help determine how well we are meeting their expectations. Since over 170 academic and health sciences libraries are planning to participate in this third year of the research project, the results will provide valuable benchmarking data and help identify best practices.

All faculty and students affiliated with the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions were asked to complete the survey. Email notices were sent to users, and included a link to the LibQUAL+ survey Website at Texas A&M. Once connected to the LibQUAL+ Website, users were asked to enter demographic data and respond to 30 questions related to service quality. Confidentiality was ensured since email and network addresses are separated from the survey responses.

We are very excited about this survey as it will provide a tremendous amount of outcomes-based, qualitative data for use in the Library’s planning and budgeting. As an added incentive, everyone completing the survey had the option to be included in a random drawing for a PDA.

Additional information on the LibQUAL+ program is available by contacting Geneva Staggs at libqual@bbl.usouthal.edu or 251-460-6890.

-Geneva Staggs

• Sally Murray is leaving the Biomedical library to take a position as Database Librarian at the American University of Paris in France. She will have basically the same responsibilities as she has here, with a few extras added, and without the medical emphasis. Sally has held the position of Internet Resources/ Education Librarian since it was created in 1999. Before that she worked mainly in reference, appointed to the library faculty in 1996, after her return from the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. We here at the Biomedical Library all bid her a fond, “adieu.”
  
• On April 9, Tom Williams and Ellen Sayed presented a poster “BML Goes Global” at University of South Alabama 9th Annual Research Forum. The poster highlighted the Biomedical Library’s document delivery service to other countries.
  
• Lynda Touart and Frank Vogtner of Media Productions were invited to participate in a self portrait show that recently concluded at the Gulf Gallery in Fairhope, AL. In addition, Lynda was awarded second place in the Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society Annual Spring Exhibition here in Mobile.

The Biomedical Library provides access to more than 2,500 different electronic journals through its web page (http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/epub.htm). Almost half of these titles are from Journals@OVID and EBSCOHost collections. Until February, users had to search for the title after entering the databases, but recently the two companies began offering direct linking to individual titles. Now users can go straight to issue lists and then to tables of contents for the journals. Not only does this make finding specific articles easier, but it also allows users to browse the electronic version much as they would the print.

Additionally the Biomedical Library has also recently added the Science and Medicine Collection of electronic journals from Blackwell-Synergy. The new collection allows access to the full text of over 200 more titles, including: Allergy, British Journal of Surgery, Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Gynaecological Endoscopy, Immunology, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Nephrology, and Transfusion.

All of the OVID, EBSCOHost and Blackwell titles are available from home through the proxy server. For more information on accessing these journals and many more visit the Biomedical Library web site at http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/medgate1/index.html

-Jana Slay

All previous document delivery/interlibrary loan request forms have now been “merged” into one. This form can be used for both books and journals, but only one request per form, please. Only the form has changed; nothing else. Our charges, surcharges, timing etc. remain the same. To use the new form, access “Forms” on the Library’s web page, as usual, then click on “All users.”
http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/docdel/forms/illform.html
Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the new form, don’t hesitate to call us at (251) 460-6891.

-Ellen Sayed

OVID databases are now available to USA faculty, staff, and students without a password to remember! Our OVID account has been reconfigured to recognize hardwired computers from campus, and we have put it on our proxy server so that USA patrons can access it from home as well.

OVID is still available with a password for those who need it. There are a few differences between the password access and non-password access. When using the password accounts, you can save searches and rerun them later. Auto-alerts may be used with password accounts. The auto-alert feature will automatically run a search on a particular database and email it to the user whenever the database is updated. The last feature available only to password users is a session recovery in which a user’s last search is saved automatically.

If you need any of the features above, you may want to keep using or request an OVID account with a password. Otherwise, the ease of going to http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/ovid.htm and clicking on OVID Direct (no password necessary) will far outweigh the few disadvantages! No sbXXXXX number to remember! No ‘What is my password’?! Just click and go directly to OVID and start searching! We ask that you remember to logoff when you are finished with your search so that someone else may get on.

-Sally Murray

Each year the Medical Library Association (MLA) provides a four-month fellowship for health sciences librarians from countries outside the United States and Canada for observation and supervised work in one or more medical libraries in the United States or Canada. This year the USA Biomedical Library was chosen as one of the hosting libraries. MLA’s 2002 Cunningham Memorial International Fellow, Yuan Lin, of Sichuan University Medical School Library, Chengdu, China, visited the library for two weeks from mid to late February.

During her stay, Lin spent time in different library departments, learning, observing and sharing her own experiences with the faculty and staff. Topics of mutual interest, such as information technology in health care, electronic databases, document delivery, library automation, collection development, managing electronic resources and library administration issues, provided ample subject matter for discussions of common experiences. Yuan Lin even learned to create her own website during her stay.

In addition to her library experiences, Lin also had the opportunity to experience a bit of the local color, attending a Mardi Gras Parade, spending a weekend at the beach and visiting New Orleans.

-Jie Li

• Duke University Medical Center Library Personal Digital Assistants
  http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/respub/guides/pda/
  A large list of PDA Internet resources by category.
  
• University of Alberta Libraries Resources for Health Care Professionals
  http://www.library.ualberta.ca/subject/pdas/
  A useful starting point for health care professionals and students interested in learning about PDA information available on the Internet. Includes links to PDA downloadable reference materials, drug handbooks, practice guidelines and more.
  
• University of Maryland Personal Digital Assistants - Going Mobile
  http://www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/resources/pda.html
  An overview of PDA hardware available including links to manufacturers sites, PDA operating system sites, evaluative/review sites and various software re- sources.
  
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio PDA Resources
  http://www.library.uthscsa.edu/internet/pda.cfm
  Includes links to PDA product and instructional information such as: medical/drug reference materials, medical calculators, patient tracking software, PDA tutorials and PalmOS and Pocket PC specific web sites.
  
• Palm @ UVA
  http://www.med.virginia.edu/medicine/student-affairs/palm/index.html
  Developed by UVA physicians, site includes hardware buying guide, PDA peripherals info, available PDA medical programs and a list of PDA medical program recommendations.
  
• Jim’s Handheld Computing Pages
  http://www.jimthompson.net/handhelds/
  This physician-created site compares Palm and Pocket PC operating sys- tems designed to help users make informed decisions when purchasing a PDA. Site also includes a shopping list of reliable and useful medical-related handheld software.
  
• Guide to Handheld and Palmtop Computing Resources for Health Care
  Professionals
  http://medicalsoftwareforpdas.com/
  A downloadable (for a small fee) handbook on handheld software, covering more than 500 resources for Palm OS, Pocket PC, Psion 3/3/5x and Newton OS.
  
• CollectiveMed PDA Center
  http://www.collectivemed.com/pdasource.shtml
  Information on PDA hardware, software, accessories, technical support and equipment. Software is listed by categories and is searchable.
  
• pdaMD.com
  http://www.pdamd.com/
  This site provides the latest news and articles about PDA’s, and also contains a learning center for prospective users with several “how-to” tutorials.
  
• handheldmed
  http://www.handheldmed.com/
  Founded by physicians and medical students, Handheldmed provides software in health care for Palm OS, Pocket PC and EPOC/Psion.
  

-Ji Lie

 

My Folder is a personal filing tool provided by MD Consult that allows users to:

• Save and organize content found on MD Consult
  
• Save searches for easy reuse
  
• Create personalized folders and organize them in a variety of ways
  
• Access folders from any computer at anytime

To open a previously saved bookmark, open “My Folder” then click on the bookmark name. To re-execute a saved search, open “My Folder” then click on the Saved Search name.

You can open a new folder, rename folders, arrange them in a hierarchy of folders, and “Drag and Drop” information from one section to another.

You might organize your Folder to help with research projects, study notes, patient discharge information, or any number of activities.

-Judy Burnham

In January 2002, MD Consult conducted a member survey that was sent to a random sample of MD Consult users. Survey results were drawn from a total of 388 respondents, spread across hospital, private and group practice settings and more than 25 specialty areas.

The survey showed that prior to using the service, nine out of ten respondents indicated it was frequently impractical to research clinical questions, as they would have liked, by using traditional means.

After adopting use of MD Consult, respondents reported dramatic improvements in their ability to find answers to difficult clinical questions and to keep up-to-date with current medical information. Overall, more than three quarters of those responding ranked MD Consult as effective or very effective in supporting daily patient care with information resources.

Additionally nearly 70 percent of respondents indicated that they found MD Consult to be a great time saver, saying that it typically took less than ten minutes to find answers to difficult clinical questions. Before using MD Consult, over 70 percent indicated that it typically took anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours or more to find such answers.

Nearly half of the respondents estimated that MD Consult saved an average of 1-3+ hours per week in finding answers to clinical questions.

MD Consult is available by clicking: http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/medgate1/index.html

-Geneva Staggs

On April 25-26, USA Biomedical librarian Jie Li attended and exhibited at the 3rd Annual Alabama Rural Health Conference held at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. The exhibit was supported by a Nationall Network of Medical Libraries’ grant to promote National Library of Medicine’s products. Ninty-six people visited the booth and Jie Li did nine demostrations on PubMed, PubmedPlus, and Clinicaltrials.gov.

One conference attendee, noticing the University of South Alabama Biomedical Library sign, came to the booth to tell Ms. Li that by providing remote access to electronic services the Biomedical Library was of great help to her when she was taking online courses at USA’s College of Nursing.

During the same few days several other USA Biomedical Librarians exhibited at the Alabama Public Health Association Annual Meeting at the Mobile Convention Center. Also supported by a grant from the National Network of Medical Libraries, Judy Burnham, Justin Robertson and Jana Slay were on hand to provide guided tours and demonstrations of the National Library of Medicine’s many online resources.

Both meetings were successful ventures, helping raise awareness among health professionals about the wealth of free, reliable medical information currently available through the Internet from the National Library of Medicine.

-Jie Li/Justin Robertson