Many technical services departments are approaching the millennium with
shrinking staff and expanding or changing duties.  One duty often neglected is
original cataloging of locally produced videos.  This poster will describe a
commonsense collaboration between a library-school intern with a nursing
background and a technical services librarian in an academic health sciences
library to cope with a video backlog consisting primarily of tapes with a
medical focus.  The authors will present the rationale for the plan and
illustrate significant steps along the path from the student's encountering a
blank OCLC workform for the first time to her creating original full- level
bibliographic records, complete with NLM classification and appropriate
medical subject headings.  The student's goals were to learn how to catalog
and to develop a routine for more efficient original cataloging of these
videos.  The librarian's goals included reducing the video backlog and
providing a practical foundation which the student can apply to other
cataloging situations.  The poster will also outline the cataloging routine
developed and highlight some of the benefits of collaborative endeavors for
both individuals and their institutions

The Planetree Health Resource Center (PHRC) in San Jose has had a series of
parent institutions since it opened in early 1989. PHRC has been increasingly
self supportive, augmenting its operating budget through a retail bookstore on
site, from contracts and consulting services, and with contributions from
individuals, agencies, and foundations.

A hallmark of being a part of the national Planetree organization, which
celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1998, is having access to a series of
Planetree Fact Sheets that cover medical conditions as well as tests &
procedures. These multi-page fact sheet titles are appreciated by hospital
patients & families, as well as library patrons, for their consumer-friendly
style and for the information that also covers self care and coping. 

The Planetree library in San Jose had suggested for several years that the
fact sheet series be made available to hospitals outside the Planetree
network. In 1998 an agreement was negotiated with the Planetree national
office to update and market the fact sheet line. This poster will outline the
key issues facing the Planetree network librarians as they find themselves
learning to become entrepreneurs. Such issues include how to efficiently
revise and update standardized consumer health information targeted for a
national market; evaluate and add website and support group information;
create culturally competent translations into Spanish, Vietnamese, and other
languages; create a new product line of audio cassettes for those who would
rather learn verbally; and other development and marketing activities.

In preparation for the official launch of this patient information line at the
MLA conference in 1999, it is hoped that this presentation will also encourage
NCNMLG colleagues to participate in focus groups to establish, among other
things, market pricing, efficient advertising, and distribution

The Hawaii Medical Library (HML) is the largest medical library in Hawaii, and
is the only medical library resource in the state that is open to the public.
The Consumer Health Information Service (CHIS) at HML fills a statewide health
information need for the public.  CHIS provides telephone and walk-in
reference, public access to computers, and compiles information packets to
answer personal health questions.

In October 1998, CHIS received a one year grant to provide public and private
secondary school libraries and their users with access to a medical library
resource.  School libraries traditionally use a variety of informational and
organizational resources; CHIS will focus as a resource connection with school
libraries for school librarians, teachers, health personnel, and students.

The poster presentation will describe and highlight the following activities
of this unique outreach project in Hawaii:  1) online catalog to view and
request charts, models, and videos for instructional use; 2) evaluated web
sites for parents, young adults, and children; 3) age-appropriate books on
selected health topics; 4) health career resources for students interested in
medical and allied health professions; 5) an online calendar of statewide
health events; and 6) medical library reference services to assist librarians,
teachers, health nurses, and students.

Health sciences librarians, especially those working in hospital or clinical
settings, have historically envisioned a patient library that is separate and
distinct from the medical or professional library.  Within Samaritan Health
System in Phoenix, Arizona, that dream was impossible to realize within the
organization's capital allocation process.

The dream of a learning center for patients and their families has been held
by several library staff members since the early 1980s, and materials have
been purchased and integrated into the medical library since then.  Several
proposals  to the hospital auxiliary, to the capital allocation committees,
and to hospital administration, while supported in concept, were never funded
to the degree necessary to build a separate site.

Beginning in 1995, Samaritan became a Planetree affiliate, and embarked on the
process of creating a total healing environment in each facility of the
multi-hospital corporation.  The idea of a learning center finally had both
fiscal and emotional support outside of the library.  Two grants were obtained
to fund collections within existing libraries in the system.  One collection
was located in the local public library, as a distinct section, and the others
in the professional libraries of the acute care hospitals in the Phoenix area.

This poster will describe the process, funding, staffing, advantages and
disadvantages, as well as the pay-offs for proceeding to offer
patient-directed services from the confines of existing libraries.

Mailing, faxing and holding photocopied articles for pickup have been, for
years, the only methods available to libraries for document delivery.  While
the Internet is still not a standard delivery method in many libraries, a
growing number of them are providing this service to other libraries and to
individual patrons who use DocView, Ariel, or some other software for
receiving and viewing images.

When the National Library of Medicine revised Loansome Doc in March, 1998, a
new "Internet Address" option was added under Method of Delivery.  Many PubMed
and IGM searchers began to inquire about receiving articles at their email
addresses; few libraries were able or willing to meet the increasing demand
for this service.

This poster will explain how Internet document delivery works and will
highlight the technical components of this delivery method. It will outline
steps librarians can follow to provide this service and will list the
advantages and pitfalls.

In September 1995, libraries of the Hospital Consortium of San Mateo County
received an automation grant from NLM to expand its librarians-only, dial-up
catalog to a multi-user OPAC. Its purpose was to extend catalog access to
library patrons, and also to expand catalog coverage of the collections in the
member hospital libraries, upgrade the catalog, and promote interlibrary loan
and resource sharing agreements. In the past three years, the project survived
two hospital mergers, two database conversions, and a technology shift.  The
result is a World Wide Web accessible consortium OPAC for the four
participating hospital libraries. Where does the project go from here?

This poster session describes the consortium's plans to move the project
forward, independent of NLM funding. It focuses on key issues and decisions
for joint projects among the hospital libraries, and describes the
decision-making process for many issues such as: 1) the history of this
project; 2) which libraries participate; 3) expansion plans; 4) where the
database is hosted; 5) addition of new records; 4) catalog and system
maintenance; and 6) how major decisions are made for catalog format, upgrades
or new products, and how to adapt to technology changes.
 
The observations and experiences of the participants of this project will
inform and  serve as a model for other cooperative projects for small- to
medium-sized hospital libraries.

Information professionals are being challenged to understand enough about
digital libraries to make project design recommendations and to provide
solutions when such projects encounter snags. They are further challenged to
accomplish this in record time and at the right price.  Whether one is
involved with digital archives or digital preservation, access to current
information is vital to success.  Therefore, the following are valuable assets
to have:  1) knowledge of digital technology definitions; 2) understanding the
technology; 3) maintaining accounts with key vendors and having the ability to
judge their products, and 4) being aware of  on-going projects.

This poster will provide facts and figures about digital library technology,
information about vendors and criteria for selecting software, and a catalog
of on-going projects.  Information professionals who are responsible for
digitizing archives, need information about preservation issues, or are
converting to a digital environment will benefit from this knowledge.

Most hospital libraries have been coping with dwindling budgets, while those
of modest size face space constraints as well.  Librarians must decide
continually which journal subscriptions to maintain, number of years of
holdings to retain, and whether to keep back issues of discontinued titles.
Many factors may influence their retention decisions, such as available shelf
space; their hospital's specialties and case mix; consortial and holder of
record agreements; and availability of electronic or CD-ROM full-text
versions.  Tools used in decision-making may include where the title is
indexed and depth of indexing; presence on core lists, such as AIM subset and
Brandon Hill; and holdings within that library versus local and state
availability.

In order to facilitate the decision-making process when faced with such
retention decisions, the authors reviewed the journal holdings for the
Samaritan Health System library against the above tools and factored in other
criteria such as cost and faculty/staff input.  The findings were analyzed to
formulate a serials collection development/weeding and retention policy.  

This poster will describe how the policy was developed using existing tools
and how it is being applied for new additions to the collection, weeding
existing titles, and space planning.  The poster will also discuss how arising
issues are handled including the demand for and impact of additional full-text
electronic journals and the changing needs within their institution, including
development of new programs with their ensuing impact.