Top 10 Reasons to Use Your Library

These came from the brochure “Library Services for Primary Care Standards,” published by the Virginia Library Network and "based on recent studies of library user patterns." I don't think it's a particularly great list, but a top-ten list is a good idea--especially in a brochure. And this idea is not limited to medical libraries--any library can do this.

I'm sure if you work on it, you can come up with 10 reasons specific to your organization and your library and are better than these. Go to it!

10. Get valuable information to help make decisions.
9. Get more accurate information.
8. Make better decisions.
7. Save time.
6. Be more productive.
5. Get your work done.
4. Do better work.
3. Be a “fast-tracker.”
2. Contribute to knowledge sharing within your organization
1. Save money.

URL: http://www.mlanet.org/pix/nmlm_07/large/valnet.jpg

Need Help in Writing Your Library Brochure?

Tanya Feddern-Bekcan [University of Miami (FL) School of Medicine] asked members of the MEDLIB-L electronic list for suggestions for what should (or could) be included in a library brochure. Here is a summary of the replies she received.

Note: You don't need to put all of these into every brochure. You should have a basic brochure with numbers 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,13 (just the who can use the library part), 33, and a selection of 18 and 21. Adding 27 and 28 would be good, too.
Other brochures could have more specialized information, such as "More About the Library" with the basic information plus 1, 9,13,14, and 20; "Library Services" with the basic information 16,17, and 18; "The Library: Wherever You Want It" with the basic informaton plus 15,22,23,30 and 32. You can think of others, I'm sure.

1. Library Mission/Vision Statement
2. Hours
3. Main phone number
4. Physical address
5. Post Office address with campus locator code (for interoffice mail)
6. Main email address
7. Website address
8. Director’s name
9. Librarians’ names (with/without email addresses or phone number extensions)
10. Campus map showing library location
11. Layout map of the library (indicating location of study rooms, stacks, etc.)
12. NLM Classifications
13. Library Rules (who can access library in person or online, children accompanied by adult, no food/drink, computer usage rules, badge worn inside the library, etc.) - only the "who can access the library" is necessary
14. Library Policies & Procedures (checkout, donating materials, renewal, placing a hold, fines, etc.)
15. Website URLs or databases: with or without annotations (PubMed, MEDLINEplus, etc.)
16. Listing of the number of books, electronic resources, databases, etc.
17. Listing of number of computers and other library equipment (copiers, scanners, paper cutter, etc.)
18. Listing of library services (training, ILL, designing/printing professional posters, document delivery, copying, providing guidance relating to copyright and the ethical use of information, teaching curriculum-related information skills with you, etc.)
19. Listing of librarian duties (part of healthcare team, contribute to patient care and safety, serve on hospital committees, share new resources & ideas, etc.)
20. Referring to librarians as masters-prepared, certified, faculty, professional medical librarians, etc.
21. Quotes by pleased patrons identified as “Molecular Biologist,” “Assistant Professor of Medicine,” etc.
22. Instructions for Remote Access
23. Search tips
24. Description of the EBM/Research process
25. Funded/Donated items and the name of the donor/funding source
26. Awards the library has received
27. “Coupon” for a free library service or candy
28. Tear-off bookmark that lists the library contact info, hours, and services
29. Information prescription form
30. Training request form
31. Top 10 Reasons to Use Your Library
32. Image of the library homepage with its features pointed out and annotated
33. Date the brochure was last revised

Great Marketing Idea! Digital Picture Frames Lure Potential Users

Amber Draksler and Melinda Byrns of Inova Fairfax Health Sciences Library, Falls Church, Virginia, have a great marketing idea. Load your presentation on a digital picture frame and take it to your potential customers.

Read all about it in National Network 34(1):12, July 2009 published by the Hospital Libraries Section of the Medical Libraries Association. NN is available online, but you have to have the password. Write Amy Frey, editor, at amyfre@hfsc.org to get it.

New Zealand Study Finds That Healthcare Workers Don’t Use Internet-Based Research Tools

A study by four researchers in Christchurch, New Zealand found that a frightening 37 percent rarely or never consulted Google and 58 percent rarely or never consulted Ovid Medline or PubMed. Medical and dental staff consulted search engines (83 percent) or library resources (63 percent) at least weekly, higher than nursing or allied health staff. All professional groups consulted coworkers or experts more frequently than they did online or library resources. They used Google more often than any other electronic resource (big surprise) and it received the highest value rating (yikes). Almost all searched using keywords; few used MeSH terms. Over 82 percent wanted more training on searching Internet-based resources, so there is still hope for educating them on the value of better sources.

Citation/URL:
Hider, Philip N., Gemma Griffin, Marg Walker [all of University of Otago-Christchurch], and Edward Coughlan [Christchurch Hospital], The information-seeking behavior of clinical staff in a large health care organization, Journal of the Medical Library Association 97(1):47-50, January 2009, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2605037

IMPROVED MEDICAL WEBSITE: FAMILYDOCTOR.ORG

The American Academy of Family Physicians has unveiled its improved website, FamilyDoctor.org, complete with videos. You can search by condition, or symptoms, look a term in the dictionary, find a physician, locate drug information, or search in the following categories: healthy living, women, men, smart patient guide, advocacy, parents and kids, seniors, health tools, and a guide to over-the-counter medications.

An authoritative, attractive, and easy-to-use health portal.

URL: http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home.html

GUIDELINES FOR HEALTH LIBRARIES

The fourth edition of Guidelines for Australian Health Libraries is now available. It is endorsed by the Australian Library and Information Association. The guidelines are divided into Planning and Strategy, Organisation and Philosophy, Resources Management, and Information Service Provision and include evidence-based staffing levels. They cover all types of health libraries, not just those in hospitals. At this site are also links to two checklists for self-assessment.

URL: http://www.alia.org.au/policies/health.libraries.html

THREE MEDICAL RESOURCES OF NOTE

Three resources have come to my attention recently—ones that you might not have been aware of.

Web 2.0 Resources, from the Medical Library Association, http://www.mlanet.org/resources/web20_resources.html

Blogs, wikis, Facebook groups, and more. Many have an RSS feed so you can subscribe and stay up-to-date.

Researching Medical Literature on the Internet, 2008, by Gloria Micciolli, http://www.llrx.com/features/medical2008.htm

Covers National Library of Medicine databases, metasites such as WebMD, drug information, journals and textbooks, search engines, and more.

Asian American Health, http://asianamericanhealth.nlm.nih.gov, from the (US) National Library of Medicine.

Categories: health and diseases, behavioral and mental health issues, complementary or alternative medicine, health organizations, major Asian populations, and materials in Asian languages.

MANAGING KNOWLEDGE IN HEALTH SCIENCES BACK “IN PRINT”

The classic book, Managing Knowledge in Health Sciences, edited by Andrew Booth and Graham Walton, London: Facet, 2000, is now available online. (It had been out of print, but the publisher has allowed it to be placed online). Contributors and subjects are:
Linda Banwell, Evaluating information services
Andrew Booth, Identifying users’ needs; making a case; organizing information resources; delivering and accessing resources; marketing a service, formulating the question; selecting appropriate sources, searching the Internet; organizing a personal knowledge base; keeping up to date with the knowledge base
Sharon Dobbins, Identifying resources
Louise Falzon, searching the databases
John Hewlett, Health service information providers
Alison Hicks, Training the users
Donald Mackay, Consumer health information
Jane Mackenzie, Health service libraries
Suzy Paisley, filtering and evaluating the knowledge base
Christine Urquhart: Health service users of information
Graham Walton, Health services: a contemporary approach; providing direction and management for health library and information services

URL: http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/mkhs/

PHYSICIANS AND LIBRARIANS SHARE THE "INTERNET" PROBLEM

There's a good article in the current issue of C&RL News (v. 69, #7, July/August 2008). In The Issues Facing Librarians and Physicians: Facilitating Quality Research in the Internet Age, Mary Francis [Dakota State University, Madison, South Dakota, USA] notes the common proglems that the two professions face.

She "heard a doctor comment on how his patients were turning to the Internet to conduct research on their health. My thought, 'Welcome to my world.' As a reference and instruction librarian, I have
continually been faced with students who use the Internet as the end all and be all of their research. I spend time during each instructional session I teach to note how the Internet will not provide the same quality material as that found within the academic journals indexed in the library’s databases. Physicians face a similar problem when patients find poor-quality health information online.

To the suggestion "that doctors provide their patients with a list of Web sites they would recommend as containing quality material," she comments, "Fortunately, this list has already been compiled by the Medical Library Association." It's a shame that haven't gotten the message to more MDs that we've already done much of their work for them. We have to do better!

URL:http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2008/july_aug08/qualityresearch.cfm

THREE INTERESTING RESOURCES: One for law librarians, two for medical librarians

Real Lawyers Have Blogs: Law Blogs, Blawgs, Law Firm Marketing is produced by Kevin O’Keefe, founder of Lexblog, Inc. and former trial lawyer. His goals in blogging are: “to get people the legal help they need, to connect people in need of a lawyer with the most appropriate lawyer, to help lawyers, and to improve the image of the legal profession.” It’s a very professional looking blog, with legal news, links to “in-depth information on blogs and their marketing potential,” and links to other law and lawyer blogs. Although it isn’t aimed at law librarians, it’s one you should at least add to your RSS feed.
URL: http://kevin.lexblog.com/

The MLA Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher, by Terry Ann Jankowski, Neal-Schuman, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55570522-7, US$65.00. I haven’t seen a copy yet, but it looks like it would be a good resource for almost anyone. It includes a self-evaluation tool to “find out where you are on the novice-to-expert continuum,” an interview checklist, examples of librarian-user interactions, “practical guidelines for deciding what resource to start with,” tips and tricks, reviews of health-related databases, and exercises.
URL: http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=9781555706227

Also new from Neal-Schuman and MLA is Answering Consumer Health Questions by Michele Spatz (2008, ISBN 978-1-55570532-6, US$65.00). “Spatz outlines the most common inquiries and behaviors of health information searchers and the most useful go-to resources.” There are “templates and forms and tips on everything from setting up the reference desk to encourage confidential inquiries to using body language to signal your availability….” Spatz also includes sections on ethics; legal issues; email, virtual, and telephone reference; marketing, and even job stress. Again, I haven’t seen the book, but it looks really great.
URL: http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=9781555706326

Minority Health Archive

The Minority Health Archive, created in collaboration with the Center for Minority Health and the University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh, is an online archive of print and electronic media related to the health of the four nationally recognized minority groups: Blacks/African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders.” It includes materials on general health, current research, or health disparities among these groups. Information may appear as journal articles, journal articles, web-based materials, government documents, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, conference papers, course outlines, events/presentations, images, pre-prints, or theses and dissertations. The archive is free, but you must register to add to it.

URL: http://minority-health.pitt.edu/

PALLIATIVE CARE WEBSITE, AUSTRALIAN STYLE

"CareSearch is an online resource of palliative care information and evidence. All materials included in this website are reviewed for quality and relevance." It is sponsored by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and in cooperation with Flinders University, Adelaide.

The site is divided into: what is palliative care? for patients and families, finding services, clinical practice, finding evidence, education, research resources, and professional groups. There are quick links for those working with indigenous populations and for general practitioners.

I'm not a medical librarian, so I can't judge the content, but it looks good and useful--even for those outside Australia.

URL: http://www.caresearch.com.au/

CANADIAN CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION WIKI

The Toronto Public Library Consumer Health Information Service has put together a wiki “to help you find reliable, understandable health information for you and your family.” The site includes information on locating reliable health information, links to various resources, a browsable list of over 500 current information files held by the library, several health FAQs, and toll-free number for various Ontario health services and organizations. Some of the site is also available in French. Looks to be pretty useful.

URL: http://chis.wikidot.com/

SOME REALLY GREAT TAG LINES FOR MEDICAL LIBRARIES

When I was working as a corporate librarian, my boss accidentally created my tag line, or slogan—“The Bailey Library—it’s more than you thought!” If you don’t have a creative boss and/or haven’t come up with a tag line yourself, here are some to think about from Amy Frey [Hospital for Special Care, New Britain, Connecticut, USA], editor of National Network, the newsletter of the Hospital Libraries Section of the Medical Library Association (v. 32, no. 3, p. 3, April 2008). They come from some of the HLS members; I’d suggest locating the “owner” (by Googling the phrase) before adopting one of these.

Information today…for smart health care decisions tomorrow
The information you trust
A resource and a refuge
Your link to health information and more
Supporting education and research to foster clinical excellence
Quality information for quality health care
Solving your problems; saving your time
Check it out
Got a question? Step right up, open wide and say ahhhh…
Navigating the maze: health information for the busy consumer

One slogan I just found (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,17689-page,1/article.html; but it’s other places on the Web, too) is Stop searching; start finding; ask a librarian!

A GUIDE TO THE MEDICAL LITERATURE FOR STUDENTS—AND EVERYONE ELSE

A Student’s Guide to the Medical Literature “has been designed especially for medical students, but it can be used by anyone who wants a guide to the medical literature.” It has almost everything you might need, including: a tutorial on a 4-step approach to reading medical literature; search strategies and links to “best” Web sites; “a guide to critical appraisal of journal articles;” an interactive glossary with statistical terms hotlinked; calculators for outcome measures; and a list of useful references. There’s even a version to use on a Palm or pocket PC. This was a fourth-year medical school project of Katherine McLucas [University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, USA], and is being kept up by the librarians there.

URL: http://grinch.uchsc.edu/sg/

INNOVATIVE (PATIENT) CARE WEBSITE

If your hospital administrators are looking for ideas for better health care delivery systems—and who isn’t?—then this website may be of some help. Innovative Care Models “provides detailed profiles of 24 successful care delivery models…developed as part of a research project conducted by Health Workforce Solutions LLC and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.”

The models are divided into acute care, bridge continuum, and comprehensive care. The ten acute care models range from ones for a small (12-bed) hospital to ones for medical/surgical nursing teams and patient-centered care [shouldn’t all care be patient centered??]. The ten bridge continuum models include “hospital at home,” chronic care, and “the little clinic.” There are only four models under comprehensive care: one for rural care, the Evercare system, independently living for the elderly, and the values-driven system.

Each model is carefully chosen and is “intended to serve as a starting point in the development and propagation of innovative care delivery models” and includes an overview, background, key elements, implementation and replications, results, lessons learned, a leader profile, discussion board, and links to relevant resources. Organizations are encouraged to submit their own best practices.

URL: http://www.innovativecaremodels.com/

GREAT NEW BOOK FOR PATIENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Jari Holland Buck has turned personal tragedy into a positive for everyone. Her husband was taken to the hospital with acute pancreatitis. He wound up having crisis after crisis, including heart attacks and strokes, and was hospitalized for over seven months in four different hospitals. If Buck had not been at his side 24/7 and been his advocate, he probably wouldn’t have survived—but he did, though not in great shape.

Buck has written a book about their ordeal and it is wonderful! Hospital Stay Handbook: A Guide to Becoming a Patient Advocate for Your Loved Ones (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7387-1224-6, US$17.95) is just that—a guide. It starts with forewords from the primary physician, the patient, and the wife. Then she makes 14 recommendations: take care of yourself, choose your hospital with awareness, pick the days of your stay carefully, take legal steps to ensure the patient’s wishes are honored, read and use the patient advocacy statement, assume your loved one can hear everything so speak in the positive, educate yourself, ask about every medication, understand every procedure used or denied, keeps track of all supplies and services, arrange for 24/7 coverage, pray, surrender, and (again) take care of yourself. Each recommendation comes with checklists and/or appropriate forms to fill out. There are a few essays at the end for more depth and a list of resources (mostly on the Web) and an index.

There are two other wonderful things about this book: it mentions the hospital library at least twice as a great source of information (even if she does think every hospital has a library) and the extremely reasonable price of US$17.95.

If you have anyone in the hospital or think you might, you should read (and/or buy) this book. It will help you and your loved one survive.

URL: http://www.hospitalstayhandbook.com (a great site with additional resources)

a WONDERFUL MEDICAL WIKI !!

I just discovered WikiDoc. It is a wiki run by and for medical professionals--and patients. As usual, I searched for my 2 major health issues (peripheral neuropathy and spinal stenosis). I found very good and accurate information on both, mostly understandable to the reasonably medicalese-fluent layperson. But the best feature was the link to other websites. I clicked on to excellent resources on both conditions--that I had never seen before. One was even peer-reviewed.

You can search or look at content by disease, differential diagnosis, signs and symptoms, lab tests, and drug. There is also the WikiDoc Medical School Curriculum, which has very complete lessons on everything from anatomy to public health. The home page has news stories and links to the WikiDoc Community ("It's the FaceBook/MySpace of Healthcare" where you can share video, images, blogs, and participate in forums. Another neat feature is "What Was My Doctor Talking About?" where you can watch "world experts explain procedures and treatments in language that you can understand." You can even put WikiDoc on your iPod. "There is no industry support for this site."

The site is available in English, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Japanese and Turkish. It is the brainchild of Jacki Buros and C. Michael Gibson MD, but anyone can edit pages. If they approve you, you can become the editor of a page. As of today, there were 64,817 textbook chapters and news articles and far more pages.

I highly recommend this site.

URL: http://www.wikidoc.org/

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING LATELY

Like most of you (I hope), I still get some of my library news from print sources. Here’s some of what I’ve read lately.

Rise and Shine, by Tracey Caldwell, gives an European view of the changes in medical information. Here are some excerpts:
"Dan Penny, analyst at Outsell, identifies a number of issues that will affect the role of the health information professional. ‘The emphasis of the role will change from being purely a curator [!!!!??] to sitting on cross-disciplinary teams working with IT and medical practitioners to establish what is the best value-added product,’ he says.” [In a sidebar…] “Up and Coming in Health Information: Health information professionals and analysts tip the following trends: involvement in cross-disciplinary work and more tailored training; standardizing data input and semantic interoperability in health information systems; librarians’ taking on knowledge management; workflow is a concern of information professionals, not just content service providers; library space usage changing to reflect new roles and priorities; convergence of technologies and content in ways is likely to be reflected by supplier tie-ups; consortial purchasing of health information.” They also list technology trends not yet in the mainstream, including electronic patient records, blogs and wikis (facing reliability and trust issues), PDAs, e-books, and digital imaging management. Caldwell ends the article with, “…it is up to the health information professionals to get in at the beginning to build new models if they are to secure their future.”
Read the entire article in Information World Review (224):12-14, March 2008.

Tales of Technology Innovation Gone Wrong, by Mary Mallery.
It is very unusual for anyone to write about what didn’t work, but Mallery has put together a list of failures that we can learn from. She even says, “technology is not the best solution for every problem in a library”—what a concept! There are good sidebars on issues to consider before and after innovating. Well worth a read.
Computers in Libraries 28(4):22-25, April 2008

In the same issue, columnist Marshall Breeding has a good article, Content, Community, and Visibility: A Winning Combination, on operating “in a dual existence, divided between in-person and online services. Excerpts: “Content is a natural area of excellence for libraries. It’s what we do.” But that’s not enough. On community, “it’s no longer only about serving up pages of static content but also about engagement, community and participation.” “It’s not that I necessarily expect the library Web presence to ever displace social networking hotspots such as Facebook of LinkedIn, but we do need to ratchet up our social engagement a notch or two….” He also writes about the importance of location, findability and measurable performance.
Computers in Libraries 28(4):26-28, April 2008

You should also read the column by Terence Huwe on “understanding fun and its crucial role is an important skill for digital librarians.” (pp. 33-35), Janet Balas’s list of resources on social networks and the library community (p. 40), and the tech tips for every librarian column on Optimizing In-House Internet Experiences (pp. 46-47). And don’t miss one ad (sponsored content): Robert Berkman’s Twenty Years of Changes in Information, Online Technology, and Research. Berkman is the editor of The Information Advisor and the two-page article (pp. 44-45) covers 1988-2013—that’s 25 years, but who’s counting.

Thanks to Information Today, Inc., publishers of The New OPL Sourcebook, for free subscriptions to these journals—but this does not influence my reviews—I read a lot of other not-free journals, too.

GREAT NEW PATIENT NETWORKING SITE

“Patients Helping Patients Live Better Every Day” is the motto of a new website called PatientsLikeMe. The site provides information and networking for patients with “life-changing diseases.” Diseases included so far are ALS, MS (multiple sclerosis), HIV, Parkinson’s, and Mood Disorders (depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar, or anxiety). You create a profile of your condition, your mood (today), your medicines and dosages (!), a history of your symptoms, and your weight. Not only can you connect with others who have similar conditions or are on similar medications, but you can track your condition over time. You can even print out a sheet to take to your doctor.
It was founded by three engineers from MIT who were inspired by a young friend with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). How do they make money? By selling “anonymized” data and permission-based access to healthcare providers. (They tell you which information they share and which they don’t.)
I really like this site and see great things for it once there are more people on it.

URL: http://www.patientslikeme.com