Sections
This is my last annual report. I will retire this fall after fifteen years as Loeb Librarian and Assistant Dean for Information Resources. It seems appropriate, therefore, to document some of the changes that have occurred over this time; current year's activities are described in the program area narratives that follow. This review is not done in the service of self-aggrandizement. Rather it reflects the changing environment of an academic health sciences library and the efforts required to maintain its relevance to the biomedical enterprise.
Space. I begin with the physical plant, for the Library, first of all, is a place. The Library has always been and, in my view, will always be a place where members of the Medical College community can come for a variety of purposes. Although the look of the Library has changed and will change more as the container for information continues its evolution from print to digital, the Library will remain a physical place, a symbol of the intellectual heart of the Medical College. Faculty will still come for reflection and intellection surrounded by the intellectual output of all the scientists, clinicians, and educators who preceded them. Others will come to use the shared equipment that is still necessary and more easily provided in one place. Still others will come to consult with Library faculty on complex information or database searching problems.
In 1986, the Library's physical plant was woefully inadequate. At approximately 17,000 square feet, there was insufficient room for users and staff. While collection space was close to adequate, it was so poorly laid out as to make access virtually impossible. Fortunately, the Medical College, under Dean Meikle's leadership, secured private funding to expand the Library. This expansion doubled the space and allowed for remodeling the old space to integrate it with the new construction. A critical decision was made regarding the allocation of space. Since the Library did not view itself as a library of record, space for the collection was capped at approximately 150,000 volumes. This allowed for allocating the major portion of space to reader functions and staff offices. The participation in the Medical Library Center of New York, a cooperative storage facility, was an important factor in this decision. Now, with the rise of digital information and its replacement of print, that decision is even more relevant. The new Library was an immediate success and has continued to be an effective and pleasant physical facility with approximately 30,000 square feet. The design decisions that were made at that time have held up and the Library still reflects the commitment to new knowledge by the Medical College.
Technology. A second major part of the infrastructure is technology. In 1986, the Internet did not exist as it does today. There were no full text electronic journals or books, and access to bibliographic databases, primarily MEDLINE, was limited. The Library had just a few computers available for users with two computers connected via long distance telephone lines to the computer center on the Ithaca campus. These two computers were used primarily by scientists at the Medical College who needed access to statistical analysis programs that could handle large data sets. In addition, the Library taught some short classes in computer literacy, primarily how to use a computer, basic word processing, and searching the literature. The Library did have, however, an integrated library information system supporting the work of the Library and providing an online public access catalog (OPAC) accessible from terminals in the Library as well as remotely via dialup.
It would take too many pages to detail the changes and sequence of steps taken to adapt to new technology that began to appear at a rapid pace beginning around 1990. Fortunately, the Library had built into its new space the capability for distributing telecommunications wiring so networking the proliferation of computers was not a major problem. A microcomputer room had also been built in the new Library and served both for public access to computers and as a computer classroom facility. The Library quickly became the place users came to use computers and to take advantage of the many classes the Library offered.
Today, the Library has 24 networked computers for users as well as 10 wireless laptops that can be checked out and used in a number of locations within the Library. A new integrated library system with a new OPAC, shared with the libraries of Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Rockefeller University, provides increased capability and is accessible by anyone with an Internet connection and a Web browser. An electronic computer commons has replaced the old index and abstract tables and card catalog. Surprisingly, even as the number of individuals with access to computers increases, the number of users coming to the Library to use computers continues to increase. Additional computers, both hard-wired and wireless, are needed to accommodate this demand.
Collection. Historically, the heart of the Library was its collection. That is no longer specifically accurate, since now one could characterize the heart of the Library as the access it provides to information. Much of that information is not physically present in the Library or physically represented at all. With the incredible growth of full-text biomedical journals, the information our users need is accessed via the contracts, licenses, and links we provide. Nevertheless, physical collections still exist, and will for an indeterminate future. Most notable during this time was the closing of the Payne-Whitney Library as a result of new hospital construction and the merging of its collection with ours. This was a significant growth, since much of the psychiatric literature is not time dependent and needs to be available. The integration of that collection was successful but shortened the time for growth of the collection until stack capacity was reached. A major deacquisition program was implemented and continues to this day as we try to accommodate the print collection that continues to grow albeit at a slower pace.
At the end of this year, the Library provided access to close to 2,000 full text electronic journals and over 179 full-text books. The print collection also grew slightly as many electronic journals paralleled their print counterparts and new journals were published in print only. We continue to live in a transition world where print and digital coexist and both must be accounted for. Many new bibliographic resources have also been added over this time period, several of them cooperatively with our neighboring 4-Corners libraries and Cornell University Libraries in Ithaca.
While we have been able to increase access to information through cooperative purchasing with our 4-Corners colleagues and our counterparts in Ithaca, we are still in need of additional support. The high cost of biomedical periodicals continues unabated and the additional cost of electronic resources just adds to the problem. Alternatives such as PubMedCentral are not yet viable and, to some extent, have driven publishers to increase their pricing to protect their revenue streams from future efforts to increase free access. During the next few years, this increase in cost for both print and digital biomedical information will continue to put stress on the Library's materials budget.
Services. Although the services of the Library have not changed significantly--they are still to help users find information--the way we accomplish them has. In the mid-eighties, we were still doing a large volume of searches for users and teaching few courses on searching. Now, we do few searches but offer numerous classes. We also now consult with users who are beginning to search the literature or who have and have not been satisfied with their results. These consultations serve both as an expert opinion as well as an educational opportunity for expanding the user's searching knowledge. And we still are called on frequently to help users navigate electronic resources, especially Web-based resources and assist them with computer functions that many still have not yet mastered.
But the most significant change in our service profile is in the area of formal instruction. The Library faculty have, for these past fifteen years, been interested in greater participation in direct teaching, e.g., offering formal courses or participating in courses within the curriculum. As the movement towards increased use of the literature by physicians grew, the Library faculty saw an increasing need to provide this instruction in a more formal way. Opportunities in the traditional curriculum of the Medical College were virtually non-existent and even with the dramatic change in the curriculum that occurred several years ago, there still were no specific opportunities available. Several attempts were made without success. The focus remained on the presentations at Gynecologic Oncology Tumor Board that have been provided for many years along with special presentations at other specialty rounds. While well received, these still were not the type of formal instruction the Library faculty wanted to provide and felt was needed.
The first major opportunity for expanding the Library's educational role occurred in 1997 when the Library taught a formal course in the Clinical Epidemiology/Health Services Research Masters Program. This ten-week course has become a major element in the basic curriculum for these Masters Students. Three years later, the Library faculty were involved in a citywide effort to teach Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) through a program initiated by the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians. The Department of Public Health became interested in EBM and, in collaboration with the Library, developed a course that has become a regular part of the first-year curriculum. This increase in the academic activities of the Library faculty demonstrates the value of our faculty to the educational enterprise as well as providing the opportunity for them to expand their contributions to the Medical College.
Over the past fifteen years, Library services have evolved from traditional onsite information provision to a full-fledged academic component with major teaching and research responsibilities. The Library has extended its services throughout the Medical College virtually via the network and actually via the classroom.
Staff. Remarkably, the staff of the Library has not increased substantially over these fifteen years. While there are more staff today than there were in 1986, that growth has occurred from a variety of sources other than increases in staff positions and funding. Most of the staffing increases came from the merger with the Payne-Whitney Library where we not only merged the collection but also merged the staff. Other increases have come from combining a variety of hourly-funded positions into permanent ones. And some increases have come from converting faculty positions to non-faculty positions at a greater than 1:1 ratio. In 1986, the Library had 33.3 FTE and at the end of this year it had 36.8, a 3.5 FTE differential. Given that 2.5 FTE were acquired from the Payne-Whitney merger, the net gain in Library staffing over fifteen years has been 1.0 FTE.
There are two reasons why the Library has been able to expand its activities while keeping its staffing constant. The first is the staff themselves. The Library is fortunate to have a dedicated and loyal staff who are totally committed to the Library's goals. With low turnover, staff have become more accomplished and less time has to go into training new staff. It is hard to over-emphasize the quality of the Library staff. They have cheerfully taken on new tasks, using new technology, often under difficult circumstances but they have always gotten the job done. And they continue to do it in a user-friendly way. One of the hallmarks of the Library has been its service and, while we may not always achieve the level we aspire to, we continue to strive for it and reach it at a consistently high level.
The second reason is the implementation of technology. As the Library has obtained newer technology, the detailed tasks that required extensive manual labor, have been made considerably easier. While libraries will continue to be labor-intensive operations, or at least will as long as print is around, many of the back office tasks are now fully automated considerably reducing the staff effort needed. Again, the Library was fortunate to have staff who adapted quickly to new technologies as they were implemented and got the work done without missing a beat. They deserve the major share of the credit for the success we have achieved.
This success notwithstanding, the Library is in need of additional staff. We are asked to expand our educational activities and our consultation more frequently now and we are unable to respond. New technologies and the delivery of increasing information via the Web have strained our ability to respond. And continued onsite requests for assistance is putting stress on our public services staff to respond. At a minimum, the Library needs one additional faculty member and one support staff position. This is not a lot given the staffing history but difficult to achieve in tight economic times.
As I finish this brief review of the past fifteen years, I see a Library fully prepared to provide sophisticated information services to the Medical College in the 21st Century. The Library has evolved to meet changing conditions. I will not resort to the current cliché of saying we have re-invented the Library. The Library did not need to be re-invented. We still do what libraries have always done. We carefully evaluate and select the best information based on the needs of our constituents. We organize that information so users can easily locate the information we provide. And we assist users in finding information through consultation and education. The fact that the container in which information is packaged today is different from the traditional codex book is of no concern to the Library or our faculty. We have the same mission and the same vision. We had no need to re-invent the Library or ourselves. We simply adapted to the changes of the digital world as we have adapted to past changes. We stand ready to meet the next challenge.
The evidence of our resolve and our ability is reflected in the activities of the Library faculty as follows:
Kris Alpi presented, a session for EBM Librarians entitled "Reading Between the Lines: Demystifying the EBHC Journal Club" at the New York Academy of Medicine; was awarded the New York-New Jersey Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Research Grant for inquiry into volatility of Web sites published in Medicine on the Net and Health Care on the Internet; organized and facilitated a six-month Public Health Informatics Electronic Journal Club for the Public Health/Health Administration Section of the MLA; served on the planning committee for the Public Health Outreach Forum held at the National Library of Medicine on April 4-5, 2001; guest lectured on bioinformatics for the science librarianship class at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science; presented "Decision Analysis: Its Importance for Librarians in an Informatics Environment", moderated "Plainly Speaking: Meeting the Health Information Needs of Low-Literate Consumers," and co-developed and taught a CE course on the Public Health Knowledgebase at the Annual Meeting of the MLA; served as Chair, Grants & Scholarships Committee, MLA; was appointed to the Technology Group advising the MLA 2003 National Program Committee; continued as co-editor of MLA News Technology Column, as reviewer for E-Streams, as Newsletter Editor and Webmaster of Public Health/Health Administration Section, MLA, as Secretary/Treasurer of Medical Library Education Section, MLA and as the Spanish Content Editor for New York Online Access to Health (NOAH). She also presented two posters at the Annual Meeting of the MLA: helen-ann brown, Kristine Alpi and Danny Cleary, "Accessing the Most Recent Information," which received Honorable Mention from the MLA Research Section, and Gail Hendler, Kristine Alpi and Patricia Gallagher, "How Did you Find That? The Odyssey of NOAH's Online Genetic Information for Patients"; and published Alpi K, Gallagher P, Neri R. NOAH (New York Online Access to Health): Accurate, Timely, Unbiased, Bilingual. Public Library Quarterly 2000 18(3/4):53-65; and Alpi K. "Multicultural Health Information Seeking: Achieving Cultural Competency in the Library." Jo Hosp Libr 2001 1(2): 51-59.
Robert M. Braude continued on the Editorial Board of JAMIA; presented "Republican Scientific-Medical Library, The Republic of Armenia: Progress and Programs." 8th International Congress on Medical Librarianship, London, July 2-5, 2000, and "Medicine and Information Technology: Changes and Challenges and Integrated Information Technology: Myth, Magic, Miracle," at the 23rd Anniversary of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, November 15, 2000; and published Braude RM, Shirinyan, A, Zargaryan, T. Republican Scientific-Medical Library, The Republic of Armenia: progress and programs. Bull Med Lib Assoc 2001 89(1):45-50, and Braude RM. When publishing online, faculty must exercise their academic rights & assume control of their intellectual property. [Editorial] Acad Phys Sci 2001 Mar/Apr:2-3.
helen-ann brown served as Visiting Professor, School of Information and Library Science, Pratt Institute; served as a member of the jury for the Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award, Chair of the Hospital Libraries Section Professional Recognition Award Committee, and Strategic Planning Coordinator for the Leadership and Management Section all for the MLA; and presented the poster, helen-ann brown, Kristine Alpi and Danny Cleary, "Accessing the Most Recent Information" at the MLA Annual Meeting which received Honorable Mention from the MLA Research Section.
Dan Cleary presented the poster, helen-ann brown, Kristine Alpi and Danny Cleary, Accessing the Most Recent Information at the MLA Annual Meeting, which received Honorable Mention from the MLA Research Section.
Mark Funk continued his service as a member of the NIH chartered committee: Literature Selection and Technical Review Committee and was elected to the Board of Directors and appointed MLA Treasurer of the Medical Library Association.
Mira Myhre participated in Cataloging Internet Resources, a Nylink course and Cataloging Internet Resources Using MARC 21 & AACR2 offered by OCLC Institute's Online Library Learning Series; and continued as a member of the Technical Services Section of the MLA.
Carolyn Reid served as the representative to the Board of Directors of Documentation Abstracts, Inc. for the MLA; served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Information Science Abstracts; presented "MeSH for Searchers" at the Annual Meeting of the MLA; served as a consultant to Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.; was invited to present, "Using Medical Subject Headings," Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, LIS 624, Electronic Information Resources in the Health Sciences; served on the Library Advisory Council for Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; was elected Section Council Representative for the Leadership and Management Section of MLA; presented a report on WMC EBM activities at the MLA Annual Meeting; and served as library representative on the New York Presbyterian Hospital, JCAHO Task Force for Information Management.
The activities of each program area
follow as reported by the heads. For the final time, I acknowledge the effort
of all the staff in helping the Library achieve its goals. Their contributions
are greatly appreciated.
Robert M. Braude, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Frances and John Loeb Librarian
Human Resources. In Administration, Audrey Townsend left the position of Administrative Secretary effective October 13, and Jessica Ortiz was hired effective February 8. Faculty and staff changes in other program areas are noted throughout. A new procedure was initiated in collaboration with the Director of Security for library staff access to the library front door key in the Security Annex Office.
Finances. Capital funding provided by the College allowed for continued expansion of the computer facilities provided to users and enhancement of the environment of the library. The allocation for FY01 for information resources continued to be sufficient to provide for the basic collection, although not for any expansion in electronic resources, but, once again, supplemental funding from Library discretionary accounts had to be used to provide for additional supplies and services expenses.
Facilities. Capital funding provided this year for the replacement of carpeting in the main reading room area on the first floor and for asbestos abatement and carpet replacement in both stack levels. Planning took place throughout the last several months of the year and the actual work will take place during August of next year. Capital funding was also provided for renovation of the alcove opposite the Information Services Office to create more office space for Information Services faculty and staff, but unfortunately the funding was not sufficient for the needs and the project, with a more appropriate funding estimate, was resubmitted for FY02.
Planning. Rather than expand the Computer Commons to provide more workstations, we decided to use capital funds to purchase 10 Macintosh iBook laptop computers and three transmitters to provide wireless computing throughout much of the library. This allows users to take a laptop computer, with software providing a full compliment of network and internet services, to a location of their choosing rather than be limited only to the desktop spaces with physical network connections.
The remodeling of the college lobby brought significant changes to the library, first through the need to create a temporary entrance to the Library which had to be staffed for over three months (in addition to the Circulation Desk); and second, through the addition of the Lobby Courtesy Desk, which will be staffed by the Library, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, beginning in September 2001.
Ms. Reid and the Information Services faculty collaborated with faculty from the Department of Public Health (DPH) in the development and presentation of a four-session course on evidence-based medicine (EBM) for the first-year medical students. The success of this project clearly demonstrates the potential value of such cooperative activities.
Camille Campbell, Administrative Manager, served on the program committee and presented instructional sessions at the New York State Library Assistants' Association annual conference held June 13-15, in Queens. As always, all regular statistical reports were completed and submitted in a timely fashion along with several special surveys and questionnaires. Ms. Reid and Ms. Campbell attended various WMC Administrative staff sessions throughout the year, and Ms. Reid attended General Faculty Council Meetings on occasion, at the request of Dr. Braude.
Carolyn Anne Reid
Librarian and Associate Director
The driving force for Collection Development this year was once again the acquisition, organization, and management of electronic full-text information resources, as it will probably remain for several years. Our access to electronic journals, which tripled the previous two years, has doubled this year. From June 2000 to June 2001, we went from 980 to 1,985 electronic journals. While some of these new electronic journals represent publishers who are converting their print publications, many are available through our cooperation with the Cornell-Ithaca Library. Working with Ithaca (and in turn the NorthEast Research Libraries consortium), we added full-text journals from Blackwell Science, Munksgaard, the American Society for Microbiology, and Wiley. In addition, with Cornell-Ithaca, we were able to add the complete backfiles of Web of Science - allowing users to search the scientific literature back to 1945. A particularly significant electronic journal family we added this year was the set of 10 journals from the publisher of Nature. The Serials staff of Collection Development was kept busy by adding the hypertext links to these electronic journals in our online catalog, guaranteeing easy access.
Other, non-journal electronic information sources added this year include Praxis, a "best-practice" database for physicians, and MANTIS (Manual, Alternative, and Natural Therapy Index System). Due to the high level of use, we increased the number of simultaneous users to MD Consult from three to six.
As we worked to increase our access to electronic information, we also had to continue our weeding of the print collection, as decreasing space continues to be an issue in the stacks. Considerable hours were spent evaluating both the book and journal collections, with selected older material being removed. The journal weeding was completed, with older journal titles sent to the Medical Library Center's collection as needed. Space, however, is still very tight in the journal stacks. The weeding of the monograph collection continues.
Collection Development staff were busy this year in projects with their professional colleagues. Mark Funk attended a two-day conference at the New York Academy of Medicine on the future of electronic journal access, and participated in a year-long weeding project for the Medical Library Center's journal collection. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Medical Library Association, and is a member of the NIH Literature Selection and Technical Review Committee. Michael Wood and Vergie Savage-Branch attended the Innovative User Group meeting in Santa Clara, CA. Mr. Wood also completed his Master's degree in Library Science. Ms. Savage-Branch was co-chair of the program committee for the New York State Library Assistants' Association annual conference held June 13-15. Mr. Funk and Mr. Wood continue their membership on the library's Web committee. Mr. Wood, Ms. Savage-Branch, and Mr. Funk are also each a member of one of three library planning task forces. Finally, Collection Development was fully staffed this year with the hiring of Richard Reyes as the Acquisitions Assistant, effective January 3.
Mark E. Funk
Associate Librarian and Head, Collection Development
Cataloging continues to provide bibliographic organization and online retrieval for material acquired by Weill Cornell Medical Library and by the libraries of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Westchester Division of the Department of Psychiatry. This program area maintains name authority work and subject authority work in our on-line catalog (Tri-Cat) for all three libraries.
We have started to make a complete inventory of the preclinical sciences monographic collection. The procedure involves scanning the barcodes on the books, getting a printout of bibliographic information about each resource, verifying that each book is in Tri-Cat, and correcting any errors or deficiencies.
Cataloging has also volunteered to participate in the creation of records for the Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC), which is a Web-based service being developed by OCLC in partnership with volunteer libraries. The databases and tools that compose CORC are designed to assist libraries in providing their users with well-guided access to Web resources.
Mira Myhre
Associate Librarian and Head, Cataloging
INFORMATION AND ACCESS SERVICES
Faculty. Patricia Tomasulo, Information Services Librarian, resigned effective April 20. A successful search resulted in the appointment of Mary Jo Dorsey, effective July 9, 2001.
Circulation. 36,815 items circulated during the 2001 fiscal year or approximately 100 items per day. This is a 5% drop from the previous year. However, use of electronic materials (course reserves and electronic books and journals) is quite heavy. The following is a short break down of all types of materials usage.
Use of Materials:
Longtime staff member Lenise Corsi resigned her position effective July 21, and was replaced by John McCauley who had been working at the Circulation Desk part time on the weekends. Antonio Ramos transferred to the vacant position in Information Services effective October 16, and Magdalena Rivera was hired effective November 8.
The circulation of wireless laptop computers began in the middle of March and they have already been used over 1,000 times. These laptop computers offer full access to the Internet, and to office applications (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and they are set to direct printing requests to the laser printer in the Computer Commons. Users can choose from among comfortable lounge chairs, study carrels, or standard tables and chairs at which to work. The Circulation staff has been very successful in promoting the usage of the laptops as a backup to the still very popular Computer Commons. The staff also assists Library users in overcoming technical problems as well as instructing novices in the use of both the wireless laptops and the workstations in the Computer Commons.
Under the direction of Danita Norville-DeFreitas and the supervision of Loretta Merlo, Head, Circulation Services, the transfer of almost all of the Electronic Reserve procedures to Circulation Services has been completed with remarkable performance improvements in timeliness and communication. Ms. Merlo continues to serve on the Library Web Team, contributing a perspective of public service that can only be acquired from a long tenure of direct exposure to the problems and needs of Library users.
Ms. Merlo has been instrumental in planning for the Library's adaptation to the renovation of the College Lobby. Upon consultation with Circulation staff Ms. Merlo was active in the conception of an expanded role for Circulation Services when the Lobby renovation is completed. This new role will consist of providing college information services to visitors who approach the new Lobby Courtesy Desk located just outside the entrance to the Library. Ms. Merlo also participated fully in planning and scheduling for the carpet installation to be completed early next year.
Interlibrary Services. This year Interlibrary Services obtained 5,753 items to fulfill the needs of library users. An additional 9,212 items were provided to other libraries from our collection.
Interlibrary Services began accepting internet-transmitted requests this year, most of which are generated by a Web-based request form available on the Library's Web site. The submission of ILL requests via this form has proved to be very popular. Furthermore, on a case-by-case basis, Interlibrary Services will also accept cut-and-paste bibliographies from electronic databases submitted via e-mail as an ILL request. This remarkable flexibility provides library users with greatly expanded access to ILL service.
Interlibrary Services also started using the Prospero system in conjunction with our Ariel service, which enables the Library to post articles electronically to a Web site for retrieval by library users from their home or office computer.
Library Workshops, Instruction & Orientation Sessions. Information Services Librarians conducted 117 sessions of general library orientation, workshops on specific information resources or subjects, or individual consultation for a total of 642 participants. The most popular workshops for the year were Molecular Biology Resourses, PubMed, Alternative Medicine, and Ovid. New classes this year were Molecular Biology Searching Tools--Advanced developed by Kristine A. Alpi, Information Services Librarian, and Literature Searching Formulation developed by helen-ann brown, Information Services Librarian. Ms. Alpi also created Introduction to Aging Resources; and Finding Health Statistics on the Web--a class for searching the ISI product Web of Science which she will expand early next year to include methods for analyzing the electronic data from Journal Citation Reports. Two of these new classes have their handouts posted on the Library's Web site in PDF format linked to the class description which provides our users with additional information very easily.
At the beginning of the year, Dr. Phyllis Supino, Weill Cornell Department of Public Health (DPH), approached Ms. brown to help prepare a four-session course on Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) for first-year medical students. Ms. brown suggested that Dr. Supino attend a three-day course on teaching EBM offered by the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians held in September, for which Ms. brown served as a facilitator. Dr. Madelon Finkel, DPH, was chosen as course director, the course was heartily accepted by DPH, and a prototype was developed to be tested with volunteer second-year students. The course is offered as a partnership between faculty in the Library and DPH. For each of the four sessions there is a lecture for the whole class followed by small group labs led by a Public Health faculty member and a librarian. Ms. brown, Ms. Alpi, Mr. Cleary, and Ms. Reid represented the Library. Evaluations and feedback from the prototype course lead to improvements made before the course was presented to the entire first-year class in March and April. This will become a regular part of the first-year curriculum next year.
Reference Questions and Mediated Searches. There was a 4.9% increase in reference questions from last year for a total of 18,881. The Circulation staff handled 1395 (7.4%) of these questions during hours when the Information Services Desk was unstaffed. Approximately 200 e-mail questions were answered by Information Services. Information Services also performed 208 mediated searches.
Library Web Presence & Electronic Resources. The Library's Web page has gone through many changes during the year to improve its effectiveness. The Web-based forms for interlibrary loan requests and reference queries have proved to be extremely popular and are heavily used. A Web-based form for making comments was also developed which, although rarely used, has resulted in initiating new public service policies and procedures. Web site announcements have kept our patrons current on library access issues, new electronic products, and topics related to the NewYork Weill Cornell Center. Even more significant is the completely new Web design that will be implemented early next year which follows the college template developed by the Office of Academic Computing.
The electronic resources of the library now includes online access to:
Art Shows. Special shows this year included art works of the National League of American Pen Women and the New York Society of Women Artists. Anatomy of Anatomy, a traveling photography exhibition documenting a group of Weill Cornell medical students dissecting of cadavers in the study of gross anatomy, was created by Meryl Levin, whose book includes essays written by the students. The Tenth Medical Complex Art Show included an assorted group of 77 works by NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center students, faculty, and employees. The award for First Runner Up went to Jimmy Wright and the award for Best of Show went to Lynn Siemers for a work in oil entitled Columbus Avenue V.
Special Information Services. The Information Services Librarians continue to market and deliver valuable information services outside the Library. In July, new housestaff received printed information about the Library with an open invitation for tours and customized information workshops. Ms. brown continues to attend Gynecologic Oncology Tumor Board each week and always prepares an annotated bibliography pertaining to one of the cases presented. Ms. Alpi taught MEDLINEplus workshops with Virginia Forbes for staff nurses and members of the Patient and Family Education Committee. Ms. Reid and Information Services faculty provided hands-on workshops for community physicians as part of the Update Your Medicine program.
Ms. brown and Ms. Alpi created a poster based on data collected about the timeliness of bibliographic information from various electronic services entitled Accessing the Most Recent Information. With the assistance of Anny Khoubesserian, Information Services Coordinator, and the Art and Photography Department, the poster was excellent and the Medical Library Association recognized the quality of the work with the Research Honorable Mention Award.
Daniel E. Cleary
Associate Librarian and Head, Information and Access Services
As represented in the chart above, the estimated total number of visits to the library this year was 292,229. Unfortunately, technical difficulties with the gate counter again precluded a completely accurate count so the total for the year was extrapolated from available data.
The Computer Services staff worked throughout the year to install and maintain new computers added for staff and users. As mentioned previously, 10 iBook computers were purchased and Computer Services staff configured them with appropriate software. Octavio Morales, Head, Computer Services, worked diligently with OAC to install network connections and telecommunications lines for the wireless transmitters to be used with the laptops. In addition, new computers were installed at the Circulation Desk, the Information Desk, and in two user areas (near the current journals shelves and opposite the photocopy room). Other staff computers were also replaced and machines moved to other locations to optimize the workstation access by all library staff.
Mr. Morales continued to work closely with his counterparts at Rockefeller University and MSKCC to maintain and improve our shared services (Tri-Cat, Ovid, and MicroMedex). He also worked with Cataloging to develop procedures and provide computing support for the inventory of the preclinical sciences collection.
Octavio Morales
Head, Computer Services
The Heberden Society scheduled two lectures during the academic year as part of the Dean's Hour. Two interesting and enlightening speakers lectured to Weill/Cornell students, faculty, and staff (see Table I below). The Dean provided the Society with the funds for this year's lecture series as he has in the past, and that assistance is acknowledged with thanks. The Heberden Society Advisory Committee is likewise acknowledged for its valuable support and advice.
TABLE I
HEBERDEN SOCIETY LECTURE SERIES
2000-01
January 24, 2001
Nancy Tomes, Ph.D.
The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
April 11, 2001
Jeffrey D. Fisher, M.D.
Lewis A. Conner: Cornell's Osler
The Library Committee, again this year, provided valuable assistance in the area of policy and the FY02 budget request. The contributions of the members are gratefully acknowledged.
The members of the Library Committee for 2000-01 were:
Robert M. Braude, Ph.D.
Library, Ex Officio
Garrett J. Day Jr. Graduate Student Representative
Daniel Gardner, Ph.D., Chairman Basic Sciences
Antonio Gotto, M.D. Dean, Ex Officio
Bernice Grafstein, Ph.D. Basic Sciences Representative
William Lane Medical Student Representative
Carolyn Anne Reid, M.A.L.S. Library, Ex Officio
Lilly Wang Medical Student Representative (alternate)
David A. Zackson, M.D. Clinical Sciences Representative
.............................................................................
Carolyn Anne Reid, M.A., AHIP
Acting Director
Questions: Email the infodesk@med.cornell.edu | Created on Friday, July 25, 2003 by Diana Delgado
The
Samuel J. Wood Library | The
C.V. Starr Biomedical Information Center |
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