Poster Information for Presenters.

Craig Haynes, M.S., Head, Medical Center Library, University of California, San Diego

The UC-San Diego Medical Center Library was built in the late 1970's and opened for business in 1981. Over the years, the interior of the 10,000 square foot facility not only looked dated, but conceptually did not suit the needs of customers nor the changing work flow patterns of the staff. Spaces originally designated for collections of books, were now required to make way for myriad machines. Clearly, user needs and service patterns of the staff had changed and the library's interior spaces and flow had not changed along with them. On a budget of $60,000 and with no plans for increasing the existing footprint, the library launched a modest renovation project that better reflects the needs of the library’s customers and the workflow patterns of the staff. The result is a facility that is more inviting and accessible to users and a work environment that is more conducive to the workflow of the staff.

Lynn M Fortney, MLS, Director, Biomedical Division, EBSCO Information Services

Abridged Index Medicus was published by the National Library of Medicine from 1970 - 1997. These titles continue to be searchable on NLM’s PubMed databases and on MEDLINE as a search subset limit called “core clinical journals”. This study was based on prices of the journals indexed for Abridged Index Medicus during the period from 1999 - 2003. The price selected for each title was the least expensive, annual retail subscription rate available to non-membership institutions in the U.S. A bar chart shows the increase in the average price of an AIM indexed title from $112.32 in 1990 to $391.76 in 2003. Tables show price differences between US published journals and non-US published journals in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. This study will be of particular interest to hospital and other medical librarians who subscribe to core clinical journals.

Barbara Slater, Capital Projects Coordinator, and Susan Starr, Ph.D., Director, University of California San Diego, Biomedical Library

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) Biomedical Library, built in 1969, has begun a state-funded building project that will both almost double its current size (27,000 asf) and completely renovate the existing space. Construction drawings for the project are almost finished and groundbreaking is scheduled for March of 2004. The project is scheduled for completion at the end of 2006. The poster will explain our flexible design principles and provide examples of how they have been incorporated into our plans. A central challenge of this building project has been to design a building that will remain flexible for the next 30 years. In this environment, flexible design has become our watchword. We have taken advantage of options to create a structure and an infrastructure that will allow us to adapt and change the services we offer many times in the years to come.

Carla A. Smith, Health Sciences Library, Maricopa Integrated Health System, Phoenix, AZ , and Rebecca A. Birr, Health Sciences Library, Maricopa Integrated Health System, Phoenix, AZ

The Arizona Health Academy, hosted by Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS), is a health professions exploration and academic enrichment program for high school students. Participants explore health careers in a limited hands-on manner through practical experiences in different departments throughout the hospital. For the past three years, the Health Sciences Library at MIHS has taken a role in this program. Each student completes a research project that consists of a paper and an oral presentation on a topic of their choice. The goal of the research project is to help students gain a better understanding of the important role that reliable information plays in health care. Students were surveyed to gauge their health information research and retrieval skills and the likelihood they would use MEDLINEplus in future school projects. Results of the survey and a description of the program will be discussed.

Fred Heidenreich, Information Services Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

This poster describes both manual and technical solutions to keeping library website links in good working condition. Well-maintained websites are indicators of quality, keep customers satisfied and protect your reputation. While daily checks may not be necessary, it is important to spot errors, diagnose, and correct them before your readers notice and look elsewhere. For small websites, much of the behind the scenes work can be done manually. Larger websites may require commercially available link checking software to alert librarians to potential problems. What kind of errors do link checkers find and how well do they work? They are good at finding broken or lapsed links or paths and links with syntactic errors. Some link checkers scan websites only for “404”s those annoying “page not found” errors and will not check links in Flash or frames. Dynamic sites have special requirements for link checking.

Jeanette McCray, Patricia Auflick, Paul Bracke, David Howse, University of Arizona, Health Sciences Library, Tucson; Jane Kolbe, Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records; Michael Kronenfeld, Arizona School of Health Sciences, Mesa, AZ; Michelle Ochillo, Associate Fellow, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; Catherine Riley, Maricopa County Department of Public Health and Arizona Turning Point Project.

AZHealthInfo.org is a Web-based resource designed to facilitate access to public health and consumer health information for public health professionals and the citizens of Arizona. It is being developed by the Arizona Turning Point Project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson, and administered by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the Arizona Health Sciences Library of the University of Arizona. AZHealthInfo.org contains information and links to pertinent public health statistics and consumer health information resources in each county, as well as statewide, national and international resources. A key component of the project involves visits to every county to train public librarians and local health department officials how to access AZHealthInfo.org and input local information. Another focus is to connect local public libraries with local health departments and local medical libraries in order to open the lines of communication.

Terry Ann Jankowski, AHIP, Janet G. Schnall, AHIP and Leilani St Anna, AHIP, Information Management Librarians, Health Sciences Libraries University of Washington

This poster demonstrates the use of relatively inexpensive software, Camtasia, to enhance web instruction pages and tutorials by adding short videos to static pages. The videos are quick and easy to produce. They can be played using the free version of RealOne Player. They may be used both in the library and off-site. The presenters will demonstrate these videos and answer questions about how to obtain the software and create your own mini-videos.

Judith Welsh, RN, MLS, Carlson Health Sciences Library, University of California, Davis

The UC Davis Health Sciences Libraries established a liaison program in January 2003 to serve targeted departments within the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. The intent of the liaison program is to increase communication with and improve services to faculty, staff and students within these departments by providing more customized and specialized services.

Benefits of the liaison program include improved communication with and service to targeted departments within the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine By working closely with a specific group of faculty, staff and students, librarians increase their understanding of user needs and facilitate responses to those needs in a more user-centered fashion.

Benefits to librarians include increased competence and confidence, improved rapport with members of their targeted departments, greater proficiency in a specific group of resources, and greater awareness of trends and programs.

• Liaison Model Framework: Individual & Group Responsibilities to Targeted Departments/Divisions
• Proposed Liaison Program for the UC Davis Health Sciences Libraries

Sally J. Bremner & Kathy Murray, University of Alaska, Anchorage

This poster will describe our successful marketing efforts with examples of a poster, brochure, newsletter samples and a rolodex card.

Kathryn J. Skhal, Document Delivery Coordinator, Carlson Health Sciences Library, University of California, Davis

Health sciences libraries can present great career opportunities, but a master’s degree is required for all librarian positions. For paraprofessionals interested in advancement, this can be a major stumbling block. While they may wish to earn a master’s, life’s circumstances often prevent them leaving their position and relocating to attend library school. Fortunately, many schools in recent years have capitalized on technology to provide an alternative option: distance education. Programs range from once weekly “commuter” classes to completely online offerings. This poster presents an assessment of the nationwide opportunities available to provide library assistants with new options for their professional development.

A list of all active library schools was compiled from the ALA list of accredited schools. Distance education offerings for each institution were examined through departmental web pages and personal communication with administrative staff. Any health sciences course offerings were noted. The literature was also reviewed for qualitative reviews of these programs.

Julia K. Kochi, Gail L. Persily; Kalmanovitz Library and the Center for Knowledge Management, University of California, San Francisco

As part of the web site’s redesign, several rounds of usability tests were performed to ascertain if the site’s new information architecture and graphic design were clearly designed and met users’ needs. Usability testing was performed on an initial prototype. Taking the feedback from the usability testing into consideration, the prototype was subsequently redesigned, re-tested, and revised again. By examining closely this process of design, test, and redesign for two sections of the site, we can illustrate the impact of usability testing on the design process.

The sections of the web site went through significant modifications based on usability test results. The resulting sections are more user centered and focus on how users access information, rather than how the information is organized within the library. Another round of usability testing will be performed on these sections to see if we have achieved our goals of a user-centered site that facilitates information discovery.

Clair Kuykendall, MLIS; Peggy Tahir, MLIS; Jean Blackwell, MLS; Kirk Hudson; Gail Persily, MLIS; The Library and Center for Knowledge Management, University of California San Francisco

The Library’s website serves as the digital library both for the main campus, and for its affiliated satellite campuses, which are located in a number of fairly dispersed geographic locations. As the portal to an array of electronic resources, its role is vital in serving the campus community. In 2002, the Library undertook a complete redesign of the site. The goal of the redesign was to provide our users with a more efficient, intuitive and easily navigable resource. To ensure that the design accomplished this goal, usability issues were addressed by a team consisting of instruction and reference librarians, a computer lab manager, and web design professionals. A number of usability testing methodologies were used throughout the process, and various techniques were employed to address different issues. This poster will discuss the practicalities of the implementation of these various methods, examples of test and survey questions, and examples of how test data informed the process.

Ronald E. Schultz, MLS; Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa

This live demonstration will illustrate the ease of making a PDF copy of an article and how to then electronically send that same article. Resending received articles to medical staff in remote locations will also be reviewed. With electronic delivery, the goal should be to meet ILL requests within 48 hours. A copy of Quickdoc will also be available, as an example of keeping Docline requests.