DIRECTOR’S
MESSAGE
For the second year in a row, conditions were relatively stable with no major crises— fiscal, physical, or otherwise. We still are operating close to the edge, however, as support for expanded collection development, especially in the area of electronic resources, is insufficient for our need. We continue to operate in a transition period where electronic information is rapidly becoming available, but often only as an accompaniment to the print counterpart, requiring the purchase of both. At this stage of the electronic revolution, or transition to the digital library, the costs are increased rather than reduced. While this situation will undoubtedly change in the future, that future is several years away. Until that time, the Library needs even greater support for obtaining information resources. In addition, we also continue to face an inflation rate for print material that is higher than the general rate of inflation. Despite special attention to these needs by the College, our budget was barely sufficient to keep us at the same level as last year but at least no cutbacks in our program were necessary.
The changing nature of both the form and format of information, as well as the high cost of acquiring information, has had an effect on our programs which is exemplified in two ways. First is the completion of a major cooperative program among the 4-Corners libraries (Cornell Medical Library, Hospital for Special Surgery Library, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Library and Rockefeller University Library) to acquire a suite of electronic databases and make them available over our shared network. This allowed each of us to provide access to a greater number of resources than would have been possible if these resources had been acquired individually. In fact, Cornell could not have afforded to acquire some of them as an individual subscriber at all, so this cooperation with our 4-Corners partners was essential to our ability to expand access to information for our clientele. This latest accomplishment follows on the previous cooperative efforts by the libraries from these four institutions and demonstrates both the capability and the value of sharing access to electronic information. We will continue to explore additional electronic information resources that can be acquired cooperatively, although there are issues other than financial, such as copyright, licensing, and authorized users, that must be addressed.
While this cooperative access project is an example of how the cost of electronic information can be shared, the other side of the cost of information is reflected in our interlibrary loan and borrowing statistics. Over the past five years, a period that reflects major cutbacks in our acquisition budget, our lending volume has gone down 53.25%. Over this same time period, our borrowing from other libraries has gone up 44.9%. These figures represent not only a declining ability to meet our clients’ needs for information from our own collection, but also represent a potential financial problem. Since we pay for items we borrow and receive payment for items we loan, our revenues are affected by our net lending status. As the gap between what we lend and what we borrow narrows, we face declining revenue and increased expense. There is an additional expense associated with this trend in the requirement that we pay royalties for copies of articles that we receive when the number exceeds the allowable threshold established by the copyright legislation. This fee is in addition to what we pay the lending library. This year we will review what we are borrowing to see if there are gaps in our collection that would be less costly to fill by subscription than by borrowing.
These two examples reflect opposite directions in our ability to meet one of our prime service roles as determined by the last two years of planning activity by the Library Committee. That planning activity identified access to information as the first service role for the library. While the 4-Corners cooperative acquisition of electronic information is an improvement in our ability to meet this service role, the interlibrary lending and borrowing relationship is eroding it. This is an excellent example of how we must continue to live in both the electronic and print information worlds for a few more years.
There were two other activities that occupied our time this year that were somewhat out of the ordinary. The first was participation in the self-study in preparation for the LCME accreditation visit in March. The second was participation in the Research Strategic Planning effort of the College. The Librarian served as Chair of the Subcommittee on the Library for the self-study, as well as on the Steering Committee. He also served on the Research Services Subcommittee. Both activities provided an opportunity to examine the Library’s information delivery resources and capabilities. While the Library showed well in both areas, the chronic problems mentioned above, the high cost of informational materials and the need to manage the transition from print to electronic information resources, were visible.
The continuing explosion of information, especially electronic information, was reflected in other statistics. While the Library has always staffed an Information Desk, questions this year increased 33.5% over the average for the past two years and the classes on information retrieval and information management skills that the Library has offered for several years jumped from 36 classes to 165 with a corresponding increase in attendance from 173 to 812 or 369%; evidence of both the demand for information and the importance of the Library in assisting students, faculty, and staff in obtaining it.
The Library faculty were active again this year in numerous local, regional, and national activities. Robert M. Braude, helen-ann brown, Mark Funk, Mira Myhre, Jacqueline Picciano, Carolyn Reid, Jeanne Strausman, and Patricia Tomasulo all were active participants in general professional association activities this year serving on a variety of committees or task forces. In addition to these activities, Robert M. Braude delivered the Janet Doe Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA) and received the Janet Doe Award. He was appointed to the Editorial Board of JAMIA, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. He was also appointed to the Project Advisory Committee of the New York Public Library’s Health Information Service Project.
helen-ann brown presented a poster at the Annual Meeting of the MLA, was appointed to the National Program Committee of the MLA for its 1997 Annual Meeting in Seattle, and Chaired the Member and Community Relations Committee of the New York/New Jersey Chapter of the Medical Library Association (NY/NJ Chapter MLA).
Mark Funk continued his service as Chairman of the Board of Directors, Documentation Abstracts, Inc., as a member of the Library Board of Advisors, Doody’s Health Sciences Book Review Journal, and as a member ofthe JAMA Journal Review Panel. In this capacity he published Annals of Improbable Research (journal review), JAMA 274#17: 1403, Nov. 1, 1995. He was elected to the 1996 Nominating Committee of the MLA, appointed to the MLA Centennial Coordinating Committee, and appointed Chair, MLA 1999 National Program Committee.
Mira Myhre continued her service as a member of the MLA Instructional Development Subcommittee of the Continuing Education Committee and served as Chair of the MLA Technical Services Section Membership Committee. She completed her year as Chair of NY/NJ Chapter MLA Continuing Education Committee.
Jacqueline Picciano served as Chair-Elect of the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section (NAHRS) of MLA including serving as Program Chair. As such, she arranged three programs, cosponsored with other Sections, and moderated the program, "Outreach Programs in Nursing" at the Annual Meeting of the MLA. She co-authored a poster session and was named a Fellow of the Medical Library Association at its Annual Meeting. She served on the Executive Board of the NY/NJ Chapter MLA as Parliamentarian and received the "Outstanding Contribution Award" at the Annual Meeting of the Chapter. She served on the Patient/Family Health Education Committee of the Nursing Department of the New York Hospital. She continued to serve on the executive boards of two Bloomfield groups, the Friends of the Library, Bloomfield Public Library, and the American Association of University Women.
Carolyn Reid served as Chair-Elect of Friends of [the Georgetown University™] Library Information System (FLIS) the user group for our integrated library system, and in that capacity, consulted with Georgetown University on six occasions on the development of LIS II. As a member of the American Medical Informatics Association’s Internet Working Group, she served as consultant to Slack, Inc. by demonstrating Medical Matrix World Wide Web-based information resources at the Organon booth during the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, New York City, May 4-7. She was an invited speaker to the local chapter of the Biological Photographic Association on January 18, 1996, presenting "The BPA Home Page: Your On-ramp to the Information Superhighway", including demonstrations of the internet and World Wide Web. She continued as Adjunct Associate Professor of the Graduate School of Information and Library Science of Pratt Institute and taught SILS 624: Database Retrieval in the Health Sciences. She served as a manuscript reviewer for the Medical Library Association and wrote a book review for Medical Spanish: The Instant Survival Guide, Third Edition. Wilber, Cynthia J. and Lister, Susan. Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995, Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 1996 Winter; 15(4):102-3.
Jeanne Strausman served on the NY/NJ Chapter MLA Continuing Education Committee and chaired its Hospitality Committee. For MLA, she completed her term on the Hospital Libraries Section, Membership Committee and was elected to serve on the Grants and Scholarship Committee, Continuing Education Grant Jury. She also collaborated on a poster presentation at the Annual Meeting.
Patricia Tomasulo was elected Secretary of the NY/NJ Chapter MLA for a two-year term and completed her three year-term as the Section Council Representative for the Mental Health Librarians Section of MLA. She collaborated on a poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of the MLA. She taught specialized internet resources classes for the Cornell General Clinical Research Center, the Department of Pathology residents, and the New York Hospital Human Resources Department. Additionally, she was invited to the Cornell Internal Medicine Associates (CIMA) weekly conference to do a series of training sessions on the Georgetown University™ Library Information System (LIS) and Knowledge Finder®.
Included with the 1988 Annual Report was an Appendix on the State of the Library. Given some of the issues identified above, it seemedworth repeating that analysis this year. During the past seven years we completed our addition and remodeling, moved into our expanded quarters, and have had major changes in our program as a result of new technology. Appendix II, the State of the Library 1995-96, provides an analysis of where we stand in relation to other academic health sciences libraries and how well positioned we are to move into the 21st Century.
The activities of each Program Area follow as reported by the Heads. Although this year was characterized as stable, there continued to be a substantial amount of activity and expansion of services as indicated by both the reports and the statistics. The entire Library staff deserve credit for continuing this forward movement of the Library towards its goals of excellence in the delivery of information services. They continue to make a maximum effort and that effort and their dedication is greatly appreciated and hereby acknowledged.
Robert M. Braude, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Frances and John Loeb Librarian
ADMINISTRATION
Human Resources. Jacqueline Picciano was reassigned from Access Services to a new position on the Information Services Team. Loretta Merlo was promoted to Head of Circulation Services and Stephen Bright was promoted to Head of InterLibrary Services. Additional changes in personnel are described in the reports of each program area.
Finances. The Library participated in an internal audit conducted by the Accounting Department. Only a few minor deficiencies were noted. Most were corrected immediately and plans for the others were developed for implementation over time. The Library prepared a supplemental budget request for funding to maintain current programs, specifically hardware to implement the upgrade of the Library’s computer system; to expand services by the addition of staff and the replacement of outdated computers; and to increase the purchase of electronic information resources. The request was submitted to Dean Michels on January 17, 1996. In anticipation of preparing the fiscal year 1997 (FY97) budget, the Library requested that the Budget Office make changes in the Budget Development System (BDS) to improve our cooperation with Archives and Biomedical Communications. The requested changes were implemented in a timely fashion and provided for much more effective budget preparation. A meeting with the Director of Risk Management gave us the opportunity to review the Library’s insurance needs and provide for possible changes. The Library’s 1996-1997 budget was approved at the budget hearing on June 19.
Facilities. Carolyn Reid regularly attended weekly job meetings for the construction of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Education Center, being built in remodeled space located directly above the Library. Regular presence at these meetings allowed for easy flow of communication between the Library, CUMC Facilities Department, and the construction contractors to facilitate completion of the project with the least disruption in Library services. However, on August 17, a serious, potentially life-threatening accident occurred in the Library. Immediately following the incident, Facilities, Life Safety, and the contractors participated with the library in a re-evaluation of procedures of notification and coordination of access to areas in and above the Library. With new procedures in place, the project continues toward completion. Regular interaction between the contractors and the Library has assured that there be no repeat of the incident in August.
Other facilities-related activities included the visit by a team from New York University who came to see the Media/Microcomputer Center and Group Study Room Area, and to hear about the new Education Center. CUMC Facilities Department completed an improvement project for fire alarms throughout the Library including visual and audible alarms as well as a speaker system for instructions. Carolyn Reid prepared a complete review of study facilities (tables, carrels, chairs, computer equipment) for presentation to the Library Committee at its January 23 meeting. Also in January, the Director invited first-year and second-year students to meet to discuss facilities and how the needs of student users can better be met.
Planning. Carolyn Reid, in her position as Chair-Elect of FLIS, traveled regularly to Washington, D. C. on six occasions this fiscal year (August 30-31, October 2-3, October 26-28, December 15, March 1, and March 28-29), to meet with programmers and discuss the development of the new system, LIS II. Additionally, Loretta Merlo participated in the December 15th meeting to discuss circulation and the OPAC. We anticipate implementing the new system during the coming year or early in FY98. Such working visits will continue next year and provide Cornell with a unique opportunity to shape the new system more closely to our needs.
All regular statistical reports were completed and submitted in a timely
fashion and one special survey was completed and submitted to the National
Library of Medicine on our use of MEDLINE®. A proposal was prepared for
The Boston Consulting Group at the request of a librarian on their staff
for document delivery services. Regular Web Development Team meetings
proceeded throughout the year and the Library web pages,
Carolyn Anne Reid
Budget. Budgetary issues were primary considerations for Collection
Development this year. While consumer inflation rates remained fairly low,
prices for foreign books and journals continued to increase at a much
higher rate. The average price for our journal subscriptions was $438.31.
Two foreign publishers, Elsevier and Springer-Verlag, set very high prices
for their journals, averaging $1,144.22 for our 1996 subscriptions. We are
particularly susceptible to price increases with these expensive foreign
journals, since the dollar has recently been falling against the German
mark and the Dutch guilder.
Journal Subscriptions. Even while the Library struggled to maintain
its current journal subscriptions, there was increased pressure to
subscribe to new journals. During the year, the Medical Library subscribed
to 13 new journals. In addition, the library has been purchasing electronic
publications, and making them accessible over the school’s network.
Notable electronic purchases this year included Harrison’s
Principles of Internal Medicine, Stedman’s Electronic Medical
Dictionary, and The Merck Manual.
Journal Holdings. Our limited stack space means that periodic
weeding of the collection musttake place, particularly in the rapidly
expanding journal shelves. This year, over 1,500 journal volumes were
weeded from the collection, with many of these volumes being sent to the
Medical Library Center (MLC) to be added to their collection. We continue
to have 24-hour access to materials in the MLC collection through
InterLibrary Services.
The Union Catalog of Medical Periodicals became available in an online
version this year. Michael Wood and Vergie Savage-Branch attended a class
on using UCMP online. This will greatly speed up our ability to update our
journal holdings in this database. The serials division also visited our
journal vendor, EBSCO, in New Jersey this year, in order to learn how our
orders and claims are handled.
Staffing and Other Activities. In other departmental activities,
Yonghong Yang resigned her position in the Acquisitions division, and we
hosted a Pratt library school intern, Marina Zaytseva, for 31 hours,
teaching and demonstrating the principles of acquisitions, serials, and
collection development.
Mark Funk
Preparation of Pamphlets and Other Activities. Besides our regular
work of cataloging and classifying acquired material, the Cataloging
Program Area initiated cataloging patient education pamphlets for different
departments of New York Hospital; completed an analysis of work flow; and
initiated the provision of original cataloging services to Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Additionally, the department also began
reclassification of the electronic collection and computer files.
New Technology and Software. Throughout the year, we have continued
to keep abreast of new technology and have made preparation for use of
Windows in FY97.
Mira Myhre
Staffing. Staffing changes had a major impact on Circulation
Services this year. Jacqueline Picciano, formerly Head of Access Services
(Circulation Services and InterLibrary Services) was reassigned to the
Information Services Team, and Loretta Merlo became Head of Circulation
Services. Bruce Silberman, longtime Evening Supervisor of the Circulation
Desk, was relocated to InterLibrary Services (ILS), and Jacqueline Hutton,
an ILS veteran out on maternity leave last year, became the new evening
supervisor. Melinda Buckwalter resigned her position as evening Media Desk
assistant, and was replaced by John McCauley, previously a temporary staff
member.
Service and Improvements. At the present time, we have a solid day
staff and have opened the Library on time every day this past year,
including all snow days during the winter. We have reinstated shelf-reading
as a regular task and have improved our service delivery of hold items by
calling patrons as soon as a requested item is returned to the Circulation
Desk.
Use of the Library. Use of the Library is difficult to document
accurately this year, as major hardware replacements resulted in the
suspension of our recording methods. Estimates put our statistics within
parameters previously established. The Circulation Department continues to
provide staffing back-up and support for the annual Library Use Survey, all
Art Shows, and Match Day.
Hospital Affiliations and The Health Professionals Access Program.
The International Center for the Disabled became a new affiliate and North
Shore University ceased its affiliation with us on June 30. The Health
Professionals Access Program (HPA) currently has five institutional members
and 30 individuals. Changes in our eligibility requirements account for the
reduction in the number of individual members.
Loretta Merlo
Procurement and Loans to Other Libraries. InterLibrary Service (ILS)
procured 6,287 items for our patrons from other libraries, representing an
increase of 686 (12.%) more items than in FY95 and 1,643 (35%) more
items than in FY94.
The ILS department supplied 7,575 items to other libraries during the
1995-1996 year; 817 (12%) more items than in FY95 and 743 (11%) more items
than in FY94.
Staffing. Bruce Silberman was relocated from Circulation Services to
ILS and Edsel Watkins became a permanent member of the ILS staff, replacing
Gregory Pinney, in October 1995.
Photocopy Service. A total of 6,596 items were copied and delivered
to users as part of this regular service.
Stephen Bright
Staffing. The I-Team has been in place since May 1994. Two new
members, Jacqueline Picciano, formerly the Head of Access Services, and
McEvoy Campbell joined the Team in the fall.
Classes and Instruction. Information Services staff conducted 137
scheduled class sessions for 632 participants. In addition, the I-Team
taught 28 specially scheduled sessions for 180 participants. Information
Services developed new classes on the use of Netscape, evaluation of Web
Sites, basic library skills, and searching the 4-Corners databases.
Tours/Orientation. The I-Team continued the practice of offering
tours for the incoming medical and graduate students. The I-Team conducted
27 tours for a total of 169 users. Tours were given to dietetic interns,
surgery interns, pharmacy students, summer minority students, cytology
students, and pastoral care students.
Reference. Traffic at the Information Desk was brisk. The total of
walk-in, telephone, and electronic inquiries increased to 13,595. Students,
staff, and faculty conduct searches on the four workstations in the
Electronic Reference Center (ERC). On many days there is a waiting line.
In November 1995, the 4-Corners databases replaced the OVID® and
CINAHL™ workstation in the Electronic Reference Area, and the
miniMEDLINE SYSTEM™ was discontinued through LIS. The 4-Corners
databases — a cooperative effort of the Cornell Medical Library,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, and
Hospital for Special Surgery Libraries — offer access to full
MEDLINE®, CINAHL™, CANCERLIT, HealthSTAR, and Current Contents. The
4-Corners databases are also available on terminals throughout the Library,
the College network, and on a link from the Library’s Web site. Since
we encourage our patrons to do their own searches, the number of mediated
searches continued to decline (357 mediated searches) and the I-Team did a
great deal of individual coaching on Knowledge Finder® and OVID®.
Special Information Services. helen-ann brown continues to attend
Tumor Board meetings each week, bringing bibliographies on the topics that
are to be discussed at each session. The I-Team also continues to prepare
bibliographies to support topics in the High Risk Pregnancy Conferences.
Jacqueline Picciano visited our colleagues in Ithaca to strengthen our
communication channels and work toward the completion of the Cornell
Virtual Library. Ms. Picciano also continues to serve on the Patient/Family
Health Education Committee of the Department of Nursing, New York Hospital.
The I-Team presented two special sessions to the Core Methodology Research
Group: resources in epidemiology and the Cochrane Collaboration,
evidence-based medicine. Periodically, Kevin Pain featured a new electronic
resource on a bulletin board near the new books. Kevin Pain and McEvoy
Campbell evaluated the Web sites selected for the monthly guide to Internet
Resources of Interest.
Match Day. The Library again hosted the Match Day ceremony on March 20.
Art Shows. The Fifth Medical Complex Art Show adorned the Library
walls late Fall 1995 through early Winter 1996. More than sixty artists
participated. Rosita Maldonado, a NYH volunteer for more than twenty years,
received the Golden Harvest Award for "Best of Show." A one-person show of
Leon Graff’s works and a group show from the Metropolitan Painters and
Sculptors completed the calendar of art shows.
helen-ann brown, Associate Librarian
Major Changes. One major change for FY96 was the acquisition of the
IBM RS/6000 computer, running the AIX operating system, which replaced the
DEC VAX 6220 for the operation of the Library Information System.
Acquisition of the RS/6000 represents a savings in terms of maintenance as
well as superior computing power and speed. Additionally, the RS/6000
represented a needed change in the Library’s network architecture. Old
DEC terminal servers were replaced with terminal servers that recognize IP
addresses.
A second major change was the development of a user-friendly interface
between OVID® and Vital Signs/LIS. This interface made it possible for
patrons to use the OVID®/4-Corners databases without having to memorize
another login ID and password, and was done with no compromise to
Rockefeller University’s security. Valid registration for each user is
done internally at the time of login with no interaction needed by the
user. Properly registered users are immediately allowed access to the
4-Corners databases through this interface.
A third major change was to our web server which was migrated to a PowerMac
in order to increase its response time. As the HTML coding language kept
advancing, from version 1 to version 3, the server was also kept up-to-date.
Lastly, one microcomputer was placed in the public terminal area as well as
one at the Circulation Desk. This change represents work towards our goal
to maintain the library with current technology as we move towards LIS II.
Hardware requirements for LIS II include microcomputer capabilities for all
staff, as well as client/server software.
Staffing. Roberto Capungcol replaced Michael Greenidge in October.
Octavio Morales
The Heberden Society once again scheduled its regular series of
three lectures during the academic year as part of the Dean’s Hour.
Three interesting and enlightening speakers lectured to 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.
Sheila M. Rothman, M.D.
The Library Committee, again this year, provided valuable assistance
in the area of policy and the FY97 budget request. The contributions of the
members are gratefully acknowledged.
The members of the Library Committee for 1995-1996 were:
The Medical Library in 1995-96 is a modern, up-to-date facility providing a
full range of informational materials and information management services
to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (NYH-CMC). The Library has
arrived at this position through a combination of institutional leadership
and support along with substantial private funding, specifically for the
new facility. But this position is precarious and the final steps
necessary to achieve our goals of excellent service to NYH-CMC are still to
be taken. If we do not move steadily forward, we face the real risk of
significant deterioration in our existing level of service.
The two major factors creating stress on our operation are the high cost of
information, the 12-15% per year average inflation in the price we pay for
the biomedical literature, and the additional costs of managing the
transition to electronic information. The higher than average inflation in
the cost of journals is historical and has been going on for so long that
it is no longer surprising. The transition to electronic information is
new and presents several problems. The greatest problem is the lack of
uniformity in both product and pricing by the publishers. This has
resulted in electronic resources being made available in different formats
with different interfaces for different platforms which severely limits the
Library’s ability to acquire them. Equal to the technology problem is
the pricing problem. The publishers are neither sufficiently experienced
nor comfortable to arrive at a subscription and pricing strategy that
addresses lower costs, shared access, archival capability, or a host of
other issues that are taken for granted in the print world. Consequently,
the cost of subscribing to electronic journals is anywhere from 15-20%
higher than the cost of the print counterpart. Librarians from all types
of libraries report similar experiences and currently estimate that it will
be several years before some of these issues are decided. In biomedicine,
I still estimate the year 2000 as the point at which the industry will have
stabilized sufficiently for electronic resources to begin to make a
difference. Even then there will be a need for a substantial collection of
print material since electronic publishing will initially cover only
current material. It is also important to understand that, as the
transition from print to electronic occurs, the Medical Center must have an
electronic infrastructure capable of accessing these resources and, if that
is not fully in place, then the Library must continue to acquire print
materials to meet all of its users’ needs.
Finally, the library of today, and the library of tomorrow, will still
require a highly competent staff both to manage electronic information
resources as well as to lead users to the most effective ways of accessing
and evaluating them. Like medicine itself, technology does not reduce the
need for expert knowledge, rather it changes the role of the expert. That
is happening in libraries now, has been happening for several years, and
will continue to happen. What is critical, however, is the recognition
that it is neither technology nor collections alone that make a library
great, but a staff that is knowledgeable, competent, and accessible.
Although we recognize that the major changes in the ways in which
biomedical information is both acquired and used will occur in the
beginning of the 21st Century, it is important to use these last few years
of the 20th Century to position the library to take full advantage of them.
This positioning should take the form of a collection of substantial
breadth and depth to meet the major information needs of our constituents,
a highly trained staff of sufficient size to provide expert assistance on
demand as well as to provide education in the use of electronic resources,
and the technological infrastructure both to insure a baseline capability
to use new electronic resources, as well as to exploit the latest
applications for improving the daily work of the staff and increasing their
productivity.
Despite all of our efforts and the support we have received, we are not yet
positioned to take full advantage of the changes that are taking place.
Although we are not that far away from this position, we have not made much
progress in the past few years due primarily to economic factors. And our
current position is becoming precarious — there is a real possibility
that we will begin to slip and lose the advantage we have now. We are
still within reach of a baseline of excellence and a small amount of
incremental funding will ensure our achieving that level. Further years of
economic restrictions, however, will erode our position substantially and
it will be much more difficult to make up.
Although all of the issues we face and the factors related to them are well
known to us, it is useful from time-to-time to look at where we stand with
the libraries of our peer institutions. Although all of our peers are not
directly comparable, the analysis does serve to put our program into a
context and provide a somewhat larger perspective. The standard
compilation of data on academic health sciences libraries is produced each
year by the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, a component
society of the AAMC. They publish this compilation annually and the data
that follows is from the latest edition: Annual Statistics of Medical
School Libraries in the United States and Canada, 19th ed., 1995-96. A
part of the publication is the presentation of selected data in the form of
graphs and charts representing the Composite Library, i.e., the mean value
for all libraries reporting. In the analysis that follows, we have
provided the data for the Composite Library, data for the Composite of our
peer institutions, the 13 private medical schools consortium, and data for
our library. In this way, our position relative to both our peer group,
and all academic health sciences libraries, can be viewed.
There are six different analyses provided and the variables along with an
explanation of significant variances follow. Only variances from the
Private Medical Schools Consortium value are discussed.
1. Distribution of Expenditures by Category. The significant
variances here are in the per cent expended for Salary, Serials, and Other;
we are slightly lower in the per cent we spend on Serials and Other and
slightly greater in Salaries. This undoubtedly has more to do with our
total budget than it does to how we allocate our resources. Obviously, it
is also influenced by the higher salaries paid in the New York City area.
2. Distribution of Personnel by Class. This graph reveals major
differences in the staffing of our library. Not only are we considerably
smaller than our peers, 34.4 FTE compared to 46.3 FTE, we rely more heavily
on support staff and less on student or hourly staff. We use full-time
support staff more heavily both because we have had limited success in
recruiting hourly staff and because full-time staff have proven to be both
more effective and efficient.
3. Distribution of Personnel by Function. The major variances
here are in the areas of Information Services and Access Services. Again,
this may be due solely to the base number of staff.
4. Rank by Serials Expenditures. Here the rank is represented in
the first graph with only our expenditures data included. In the second
graph we have included the expenditures from our 4-Corners partners in
order to provide a more complete picture. Since we have reciprocal
arrangements, including a cooperative collection development program, it
seems reasonable to include data from these partners. The change in
position is readily seen.
5. Rank of Current Serials Titles. Here we also include data from
the 4-Corners partners. It is interesting to note that the relative
position does not change as dramatically in this area as it did in the
previous area of expenditures. There are two reasons for this. The first
is the fact that many of the titles subscribed to by the 4-Corners
libraries are specialized, high cost titles which causes our expenditures
to increase but not necessarily our title count. Second, we have very few
free titles in our collection unlike many of our counterparts. Acquiring
free titles adds significantly to title count regardless of whether or not
it increases the amount of substantive information available.
6. Rank by Book Expenditures and Rank by Books Added. The
4-Corners data is not available for these two tables, but since books are a
minor part of our collection, we did not feel that the effort to obtain
this information would be worth the value of it. These graphs are the only
ones that indicate a reasonable position for our library. The position of
Harvard at the bottom of the expenditure graph is solely due to the fact
that they receive every book sent to the New England Journal of
Medicine for review so need purchase fewer books. This is reflected in
their position in the Books Added graph.
This analysis does not provide the definitive picture of our position in
respect to our responsibilities within the Medical Center since that is
more a function of our specific environment; our needs are based more on
the expectations of our constituents than on comparative rankings.
Nevertheless, this analysis does provide a perspective within which to view
our needs. That perspective reveals that, for most variables, we are not
much different from our peers in the allocation of our resources. This
implies that the differences are based on the total amount of resources we
have rather than on some unusual program or service that we operate, and
that with some modest increases in our overall resources, we would probably
look exactly like our peer group.
Librarian and Associate Director
COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT
Head, Collection Development
CATALOGING
Head, Cataloging
CIRCULATION
SERVICES
Head, Circulation Services
INTERLIBRARY
SERVICES
Head, Interlibrary Services
INFORMATION
SERVICES
Jacqueline Picciano, Librarian
Jeanne Strausman, Associate Librarian
Patricia A. Tomasulo, Associate Librarian
Information Services Team
COMPUTER
SERVICES
Head, Computer Services
HEBERDEN
SOCIETYTABLE I
HEBERDEN SOCIETY LECTURE SERIES
1995-1996
Top
October 25, 1995
February 14, 1996
May 1, 1996
Confronting Mortality: Narratives from Patients with Tuberculosis
Allan Brandt, M.D.
The Tuskegee Experiment in Perspective: Race, Sexuality and the Ethics of
Human Experimentation
Gerald N. Grob, Ph.D.
Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill: The Illusion of Policy
LIBRARY
COMMITTEE
Jeanne Becker, M.L.S.
Elizabeth Bolan
Robert M. Braude, Ph.D.
Antonio L. Davila
John Davis, M.D.
William Frosch, M.D.
Daniel Gardner, Ph.D.
Todd Gorman
Nikki Janzen
Paul Kligfield, M.D., Chair
Abigail Kristt, R.N., M.S.
Patricia Mackey, M.L.S.
Robert Michels, M.D.
Arvind Narayana
Lisa Staiano-Coico
Carolyn Anne Reid, M.A.L.S
Suzanne Stensaas, Ph.D.
MSKCC Library, Ex Officio
General Student Council
Library, Ex Officio
Medical Student, 2nd Year
General Faculty Council
Clinical Sciences
Basic Sciences
Medical Student, 4th Year
Medical Student, 1st Year
Clinical Sciences
Nursing Education
Rockefeller University Library, Ex Officio
Dean, Ex Officio
Medical Student, 3rd Year
Graduate School Medical Science
Library, Ex Officio
Pathology/Education Center
Robert M. Braude, Ph.D.
Frances and John Loeb Librarian
Assistant Dean for Information Resources
APPENDIX I
CORNELL MEDICAL LIBRARY
STATISTICS
1995-1996
COLLECTIONS
Total Volumes
Total Subscriptions
ACCESS SERVICES
Number of Users (Entries)
Total Collection Use
• Items Circulated
• Items Used in Library
Loans to Other Libraries
Photocopies for Individuals
Items Borrowed from Other Libraries
INFORMATION SERVICES
Reference Questions
Computer-Assisted Searches
Tours
• Attendance
Classes
• Attendance
1993-94
160,710
1,557
475,173
206,626
73,818
132,808
6,832
5,545
4,644
11,431
584
27
164
9
54
ACADEMIC YEAR
1994-95
164,357
1,584
479,796
255,528
67,284
188,244
6,758
7,636
5,601
8,944
430
22
212
36
173
1995-96
167,912
1,594
480,423
252,775
51,483
201,292
7,575
6,596
6,287
13,595
357
27
169
165
812
THE STATE OF THE LIBRARY
1995-96Created February 10, 1998, by Camille Campbell, ccampbel@mail.med.cornell.edu.