BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
published in the WSMA Medical Memo throughout the year. Member physicians make information requests by letter or by telephone using the MEDCON toll-free line. MEDCON is a telephone consultation service that connects physicians in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska with specialists at the University of Washington hospitals. It is funded through a grant from the Washington Emergency Medical Services Program of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. MEDCON will also connect WSMA physicians with the library service. Physician members in King, Spokane, and Pierce counties are encouraged to contact their respective society library services, except for MEDLINE requests for Spokane and Pierce County society members. WSMA supplies photocopies for items not available in Spokane and Pierce county, so it acts as a backup service. WSMA Library Service also provides all MEDLINE services for Spokane and Pierce members. Definition of the relationship between the WSMA Library Service and the library services provided by King, Pierce, and Spokane County Medical societies is under consideration at present. In its first year the library service has been used by 612 individual requesters. A total of 833 reference questions has been answered, including 27 brief reference answers, 281 manual literature searches, 502 MEDLINE, 20 SDILINE, and 3 searches of other data bases. A total of 5,075 requests for photocopy for 580 individual requesters has been completed. The service provided 33,637 photocopy sheets. Processing time for reference questions consisted of both the time involved in researching the question, preparing a bibliography, or running a MEDLINE search, and the time involved in photocopying pertinent material generated by the original request. The following were provided within three calendar days: 96% of brief reference answers; 73% of manual literature searches; 69 %of MEDLINE searches; 72% of article requests. Since its inception the library service has enclosed postcard questionnaires with each literature search and the first photocopy request. As of July 31, 1976, 706 postcards had been mailed out, and 469 postcards had been returned. Of those responding, 95% reported receiving the information needed, and 93% reported that the informa-
382
tion arrived within a reasonable time. Sixty-six percent said that their information requests were for patient care. Initially, the Medical Education Committee of the association allocated a budget of $25,000 for the trial. A quota system of 100 photocopy sheets per year per member with a charge of $0.10/page beyond 100 was initiated in July 1976, because there were several heavy users, and budgetary restrictions necessitated a limit. There was no charge for MEDLINE or other data bases. Future funding alternatives are under study. REFERENCE 1. CRAWFORD, S. Health sciences libraries of professional societies, voluntary health organizations, and foundations. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 60(suppl.): 38-45, Apr. 1972.
Intraschool Cross-Indexing System to Encourage Sharing of Departmental Collections BY JAMES F. CRAIG, ED.D., Chairman Department ofEducational and Instructional Resources SUZANNE F. GREFSHEIM, Media Specialist Independent Learning Center Department of Educational and Instructional Resources
Baltimore College of Dental Surgery Dental School University of Maryland Baltimore, Maryland
ON the University of Maryland at Baltimore campus the schools of dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and social work and community planning are served by a centralized Health Sciences Library. Because the traditional course of study in the dental curriculum, as in most health sciences curricula, allows little free time for independent, self-motivated reading, dental students seldom get an opportunity to use the facilities at the Health Sciences Library. As in some other health science institutions, state funds are also provided to individual departments within each school for the acquisition of monograph and Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(3)July 1977
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE I RESULTS OF SURVEY BY THE LIBRARY AND PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE OF THE DENTAL SCHOOL Number Faculty Students Bound volumes Journal titles Library storage in sq. ft. Library assistants Professional librarians Hours open per week Annual expenditures
178 673 2,867 153 1,199 0 0 40 $5,960
journal collections used to satisfy the immediate research and reference needs of their faculty and graduate students. Unfortunately, few of these materials find their way beyond the confines of the individual departments. With this in mind, the Faculty Council's Committee on Library and Publications decided that one of its goals should be to make this literature more accessible to faculty, staff, and students. The committee felt the first step should be to conduct a survey to determine the number and types of print materials contained in the departmental collections in the Dental School building. Table 1 lists the findings of this survey. COORDINATION
the cross-indexing procedure was to be implemented through the use of work-study students so that an additional burden would not be placed on departmental secretaries. In addition to the workstudy students, an organization composed of dental faculty wives was contacted and asked to assist with the project in order to complete the entire undertaking in a shorter period of time. Finally, the cross-index file itself was to be integrated with the present card catalog in the Dental School's Independent Learning Center. This center houses over 1,400 titles of independent learning programs which serve as an integral part of the curriculum. These titles include a variety of media formats such as slide/tapes, videocassettes, manuals, and film loops. Because this area was centrally located, heavily used by students, faculty and staff, and already contained a catalog, it was the obvious choice for the cross-index file for departmental collections. The dean of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Dental School, University of Maryland at Baltimore was contacted and informed of the committee's intention. He acknowledged the desirability of the project and requested the support of the Executive Committee, composed of all department chairmen within the Dental School, for the implementation of the cross-indexing system. Once the support and approval of all concerned individuals was obtained, the committee proceeded with the project. The director of the Health Sciences Library serves as an ex-officio member of the Dental School's Library and Publications Committee and was called upon for guidance and technical assistance for the project. She advised the committee that access to the departmental collections should be through main author, title, and department. No attempt was made to do subject cataloging. It was felt that the very fact that a book was selected by a particular department, such as biochemistry or pharmacology, would provide subject access enough for the purpose of this project. Sample formats for the monograph and journal cards were provided by the health sciences librarian in an effort to ensure compatability with the central catalog in the Health Sciences Library should the Dental School wish to include these cards in the central catalog in the future.
After we accumulated this information, the individual department chairmen were solicited to gain their support for a system that would make their print materials known to dental students, faculty and staff, and individuals from schools on the University of Maryland at Baltimore campus. In order to gain this support, certain ground rules were established. First, responsibility for checking out materials contained within departmental collections was delegated to the departmental secretary. Second, the privilege of checking out materials could be refused anyone from within or outside the dental school who, on past occasions, had demonstrated a lack of responsibility for returning materials promptly. Third, the chairmen reserved the right of restricting use of the materials by all individuals to the reading areas within the individual departments. The purIMPLEMENTATION pose of this last rule was to prevent the circulation of limited copies of rare or very expensive items From this point, the media specialist in the Inwhich could result in their loss or damage. Fourth, dependent Learning Center worked with the Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(3)July 1977
383
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
work-study students assigned to this project in order to train them in the techniques for gathering information to be placed on the cross-indexing cards. The data gathering form was devised to clearly identify the relevant information students needed to obtain from each book or journal. During the initial phase of this project, careful supervision of the students by the media specialist was necessary in order to ensure that data forms were being properly filled out. A further control consisted of working with one department's collection at one time. Once the information was gathered, it was transferred to the cross-indexing cards and placed in the card catalog in the Independent Learning Center. Periodic review of new materials in departmental collections keeps the index file up-to-date. This system also allows individual faculty members interested in sharing their private collections with others to do so by merely adding their name to the index card. Therefore, if an individual locates an item in the index file and an instructor's name appears on the card, this indicates that the item is part of a private collection and can be obtained by contacting that instructor. In addition, because the instructor's name is on the card, should the instructor leave the university for any reason, cards containing his name can easily be identified and removed, keeping the file up-to-date. CONCLUSION
Whether impetus to establish such a system comes from within the subject area, as it did at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, or from the health science library, the following items must be kept in mind. Clarify your intent and gain approval and support from those whose collections are directly involved. This includes agreement on the ground rules and the priorities of the departments. The cooperation of library and departmental personnel is also essential. Then, design your tools carefully, supervise the work, and establish a system of maintenance. There is evidence that cross-indexing will be adopted by the other schools at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, even centralized in the Health Sciences Library, following the experience of the Dental School. Given the shortage of funds and the rising costs of published materials, this system of resource sharing has been recognized as one of the most economical and efficient ways to extend and improve accessibility to a wide range of materials.
384
On-Line Literature Retrieval as a Continuing Medical Education Course BY ADA M. BOWEN, Head, Services to the Public
Medical Center Library University of South Florida Tampa, Florida
THE Medical Center Library of the University of South Florida sponsored and conducted a continuing medical education course about on-line literature retrieval as another attempt to publicize and explain this aspect of library service to area health science personnel. Although the library publicized MEDLINE by mailing news sheets to physicians and hospitals in central Florida and by placing announcements in local medical society bulletins to supplement reports by the National Library of Medicine and the Southeastern Regional Medical Library Program, many health professionals in the community indicated that they had not even heard of MEDLINE. This fact, plus requests from physicians at a local hospital for more information about MEDLINE and other computer literature search services, inspired us to develop a formal educational activity with American Medical Association and Florida Medical Association continuing medical education (CME) credit endorsement. Such a CME program would provide certain advantages that traditional library orientation methods do not offer. First, a larger user group could be accommodated; second, earned CME credits would attract an audience with a vested interest in learning about a specific library function heretofore not accorded such importance. In the summer, the library was encouraged by local physicians to proceed with plans to present a CME program. COURSE CONTENT The two-hour course, "Patient Management/Computerized Information Resources Used in Patient Care," was designed in conjunction with the Medical Center Office of Continuing Medical Education and approved for two hours of AMA Category I CME credits and two hours of FMA mandatory credit. A $10.00 registration fee helped to defray expenses. Course content concentrated on all of the National Library of Medicine data bases except CATLINE and SERLINE, as well as a brief discussion of Lockheed Retrieval Service and System Develop-
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(3)July 1977
published in the WSMA Medical Memo throughout the year. Member physicians make information requests by letter or by telephone using the MEDCON toll-free line. MEDCON is a telephone consultation service that connects physicians in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska with specialists at the University of Washington hospitals. It is funded through a grant from the Washington Emergency Medical Services Program of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. MEDCON will also connect WSMA physicians with the library service. Physician members in King, Spokane, and Pierce counties are encouraged to contact their respective society library services, except for MEDLINE requests for Spokane and Pierce County society members. WSMA supplies photocopies for items not available in Spokane and Pierce county, so it acts as a backup service. WSMA Library Service also provides all MEDLINE services for Spokane and Pierce members. Definition of the relationship between the WSMA Library Service and the library services provided by King, Pierce, and Spokane County Medical societies is under consideration at present. In its first year the library service has been used by 612 individual requesters. A total of 833 reference questions has been answered, including 27 brief reference answers, 281 manual literature searches, 502 MEDLINE, 20 SDILINE, and 3 searches of other data bases. A total of 5,075 requests for photocopy for 580 individual requesters has been completed. The service provided 33,637 photocopy sheets. Processing time for reference questions consisted of both the time involved in researching the question, preparing a bibliography, or running a MEDLINE search, and the time involved in photocopying pertinent material generated by the original request. The following were provided within three calendar days: 96% of brief reference answers; 73% of manual literature searches; 69 %of MEDLINE searches; 72% of article requests. Since its inception the library service has enclosed postcard questionnaires with each literature search and the first photocopy request. As of July 31, 1976, 706 postcards had been mailed out, and 469 postcards had been returned. Of those responding, 95% reported receiving the information needed, and 93% reported that the informa-
382
tion arrived within a reasonable time. Sixty-six percent said that their information requests were for patient care. Initially, the Medical Education Committee of the association allocated a budget of $25,000 for the trial. A quota system of 100 photocopy sheets per year per member with a charge of $0.10/page beyond 100 was initiated in July 1976, because there were several heavy users, and budgetary restrictions necessitated a limit. There was no charge for MEDLINE or other data bases. Future funding alternatives are under study. REFERENCE 1. CRAWFORD, S. Health sciences libraries of professional societies, voluntary health organizations, and foundations. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 60(suppl.): 38-45, Apr. 1972.
Intraschool Cross-Indexing System to Encourage Sharing of Departmental Collections BY JAMES F. CRAIG, ED.D., Chairman Department ofEducational and Instructional Resources SUZANNE F. GREFSHEIM, Media Specialist Independent Learning Center Department of Educational and Instructional Resources
Baltimore College of Dental Surgery Dental School University of Maryland Baltimore, Maryland
ON the University of Maryland at Baltimore campus the schools of dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and social work and community planning are served by a centralized Health Sciences Library. Because the traditional course of study in the dental curriculum, as in most health sciences curricula, allows little free time for independent, self-motivated reading, dental students seldom get an opportunity to use the facilities at the Health Sciences Library. As in some other health science institutions, state funds are also provided to individual departments within each school for the acquisition of monograph and Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(3)July 1977
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE I RESULTS OF SURVEY BY THE LIBRARY AND PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE OF THE DENTAL SCHOOL Number Faculty Students Bound volumes Journal titles Library storage in sq. ft. Library assistants Professional librarians Hours open per week Annual expenditures
178 673 2,867 153 1,199 0 0 40 $5,960
journal collections used to satisfy the immediate research and reference needs of their faculty and graduate students. Unfortunately, few of these materials find their way beyond the confines of the individual departments. With this in mind, the Faculty Council's Committee on Library and Publications decided that one of its goals should be to make this literature more accessible to faculty, staff, and students. The committee felt the first step should be to conduct a survey to determine the number and types of print materials contained in the departmental collections in the Dental School building. Table 1 lists the findings of this survey. COORDINATION
the cross-indexing procedure was to be implemented through the use of work-study students so that an additional burden would not be placed on departmental secretaries. In addition to the workstudy students, an organization composed of dental faculty wives was contacted and asked to assist with the project in order to complete the entire undertaking in a shorter period of time. Finally, the cross-index file itself was to be integrated with the present card catalog in the Dental School's Independent Learning Center. This center houses over 1,400 titles of independent learning programs which serve as an integral part of the curriculum. These titles include a variety of media formats such as slide/tapes, videocassettes, manuals, and film loops. Because this area was centrally located, heavily used by students, faculty and staff, and already contained a catalog, it was the obvious choice for the cross-index file for departmental collections. The dean of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Dental School, University of Maryland at Baltimore was contacted and informed of the committee's intention. He acknowledged the desirability of the project and requested the support of the Executive Committee, composed of all department chairmen within the Dental School, for the implementation of the cross-indexing system. Once the support and approval of all concerned individuals was obtained, the committee proceeded with the project. The director of the Health Sciences Library serves as an ex-officio member of the Dental School's Library and Publications Committee and was called upon for guidance and technical assistance for the project. She advised the committee that access to the departmental collections should be through main author, title, and department. No attempt was made to do subject cataloging. It was felt that the very fact that a book was selected by a particular department, such as biochemistry or pharmacology, would provide subject access enough for the purpose of this project. Sample formats for the monograph and journal cards were provided by the health sciences librarian in an effort to ensure compatability with the central catalog in the Health Sciences Library should the Dental School wish to include these cards in the central catalog in the future.
After we accumulated this information, the individual department chairmen were solicited to gain their support for a system that would make their print materials known to dental students, faculty and staff, and individuals from schools on the University of Maryland at Baltimore campus. In order to gain this support, certain ground rules were established. First, responsibility for checking out materials contained within departmental collections was delegated to the departmental secretary. Second, the privilege of checking out materials could be refused anyone from within or outside the dental school who, on past occasions, had demonstrated a lack of responsibility for returning materials promptly. Third, the chairmen reserved the right of restricting use of the materials by all individuals to the reading areas within the individual departments. The purIMPLEMENTATION pose of this last rule was to prevent the circulation of limited copies of rare or very expensive items From this point, the media specialist in the Inwhich could result in their loss or damage. Fourth, dependent Learning Center worked with the Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(3)July 1977
383
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
work-study students assigned to this project in order to train them in the techniques for gathering information to be placed on the cross-indexing cards. The data gathering form was devised to clearly identify the relevant information students needed to obtain from each book or journal. During the initial phase of this project, careful supervision of the students by the media specialist was necessary in order to ensure that data forms were being properly filled out. A further control consisted of working with one department's collection at one time. Once the information was gathered, it was transferred to the cross-indexing cards and placed in the card catalog in the Independent Learning Center. Periodic review of new materials in departmental collections keeps the index file up-to-date. This system also allows individual faculty members interested in sharing their private collections with others to do so by merely adding their name to the index card. Therefore, if an individual locates an item in the index file and an instructor's name appears on the card, this indicates that the item is part of a private collection and can be obtained by contacting that instructor. In addition, because the instructor's name is on the card, should the instructor leave the university for any reason, cards containing his name can easily be identified and removed, keeping the file up-to-date. CONCLUSION
Whether impetus to establish such a system comes from within the subject area, as it did at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, or from the health science library, the following items must be kept in mind. Clarify your intent and gain approval and support from those whose collections are directly involved. This includes agreement on the ground rules and the priorities of the departments. The cooperation of library and departmental personnel is also essential. Then, design your tools carefully, supervise the work, and establish a system of maintenance. There is evidence that cross-indexing will be adopted by the other schools at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, even centralized in the Health Sciences Library, following the experience of the Dental School. Given the shortage of funds and the rising costs of published materials, this system of resource sharing has been recognized as one of the most economical and efficient ways to extend and improve accessibility to a wide range of materials.
384
On-Line Literature Retrieval as a Continuing Medical Education Course BY ADA M. BOWEN, Head, Services to the Public
Medical Center Library University of South Florida Tampa, Florida
THE Medical Center Library of the University of South Florida sponsored and conducted a continuing medical education course about on-line literature retrieval as another attempt to publicize and explain this aspect of library service to area health science personnel. Although the library publicized MEDLINE by mailing news sheets to physicians and hospitals in central Florida and by placing announcements in local medical society bulletins to supplement reports by the National Library of Medicine and the Southeastern Regional Medical Library Program, many health professionals in the community indicated that they had not even heard of MEDLINE. This fact, plus requests from physicians at a local hospital for more information about MEDLINE and other computer literature search services, inspired us to develop a formal educational activity with American Medical Association and Florida Medical Association continuing medical education (CME) credit endorsement. Such a CME program would provide certain advantages that traditional library orientation methods do not offer. First, a larger user group could be accommodated; second, earned CME credits would attract an audience with a vested interest in learning about a specific library function heretofore not accorded such importance. In the summer, the library was encouraged by local physicians to proceed with plans to present a CME program. COURSE CONTENT The two-hour course, "Patient Management/Computerized Information Resources Used in Patient Care," was designed in conjunction with the Medical Center Office of Continuing Medical Education and approved for two hours of AMA Category I CME credits and two hours of FMA mandatory credit. A $10.00 registration fee helped to defray expenses. Course content concentrated on all of the National Library of Medicine data bases except CATLINE and SERLINE, as well as a brief discussion of Lockheed Retrieval Service and System Develop-
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(3)July 1977
