Poster Session

Poster session abstracts - pdf version

October 27, 2003
1:00 – 2:00 pm

A1/A2 and E1/E2 Hallways

#1 Reinventing the Library Orientation through Collaborations and Partnerships

Carlos Rodriguez, School of Medicine Liaison; Frank Campbell, Health Sciences Libraries Liaison; Melanie Cedrone, Biology and Biomedical Graduate Studies Liaison; D’Maris Coffman, IT Support Specialist; Bentley Jenson, Head of Access and Document Delivery Services; Varvara Kountouzi, Coordinator of Education and Research Services; Gretchen Kuntz, Clinical Liaison; Sherry Morgan, School of Nursing Liaison; Linda Rosenstein, Associate Director for Information Resource, Anne Seymour, Associate Director for Information Services; Biomedical Library, University of Pennsylvania; and Rod MacNeil, Manager of Customer Services, Department of Information Services, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Library orientations for entering first year medical students have traditionally been formal presentations. These orientations have been met with boredom and poor attendance; library orientations are not a high priority for students when compared to financial aid information or course-related orientations. In August, 2002, the Biomedical Library made a conscious decision to overcome these obstacles by reinventing the Library orientation. In collaboration with the Medical School's Office of Students Affairs and the Department of Information Services, the business community which serves the Penn campus, and library vendors, the Biomedical Library had a theme-based Information Fair entitled Passport to Information. The focus of Passport to Information was for the first year students to have fun and learn something about both the library and computing resources by visiting different "destinations" in the Library. The Biomedical Library provided free mugs and local businesses and library vendors provided raffle prizes and giveaways. Our goals were to increase attendance at the Library orientation and make the students active participants rather than passive tour attendees. Success! Our Information Fair was attended by 99% of the first year class and students remarked it was one of the best times they have had in a library. Library staff had a great time too. We're busy planning for our next fair, tentatively titled An Information Carnival, with a boardwalk/beach theme and information rides, sideshows, games, and an information fortune-teller. This poster explores the planning, logistics and implementation of an information fair.

#2 Collaborating with NN/LM in its EDD Project: The Weill Cornell Medical Library Experience

Sherisse Brown, Daniel Cleary, helen-ann brown, Weill Cornell Medical Library; and Grace Tellez-Cardona, Pratt Institute SILS Library Practicum Student, Weill Cornell Medical Library

Purpose of this poster: To display the results of the Weill Cornell Medical Library experience as part of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine EDD Project of electronic document delivery by PDF placed on a web server using Prospero compared to fax and courier/mail.

Background: The Weill Cornell Medical Library participated in the N/NLM EDD Project from August 2002 – January 2003.

Method: Partnering with 4 other institutions, Albany Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Westchester Division, Brooklyn Hospital and St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, we handled 435 ILL transactions according to the NN/LM EDD Project protocol. All requests were received by DOCLINE and according to protocol were processed by PDF placed on a web server using Prospero. In addition, the Weill Cornell Medical Library took advantage of the opportunity to also explore the transaction time of an ILL by fax or courier/mail.

Results: Overall average transaction time including all methods of document delivery was 66.89 hours. Overall average transaction time for the 153 courier/mail transactions was 63. 3 hours. Overall average transaction time for the 32 fax transactions was 63.5 hours with most transactions filled within 48 hours. Overall average transaction time for the 250 EDD transactions was 77.5 hours.

Conclusion: In some libraries, EDD is an emerging technology for ILL. When its learning curve is completed it shows great potential for speedy delivery of literature needed for patient care, research and education.

#3 Informal Relationships Between Researcher and Librarians Help to Establish the Utility of Access to a PDA Version of PubMed in a Clinical Setting

Cate Canevari, Head, Education Services, Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University; Paul Fontelo, MD, Research Scientist, Office of High Performing Computing and Communications, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; and Bradley Otterson, Biomedical Librarian, National Institutes of Health Library

An informal partnership formed between librarians and the research scientist who developed a PDA version of PubMed. The goal of developing the resource was to provide knowledge sources at the point of care that might improve patient care. A clinical setting was needed to test the resource, gather initial feedback, and gauge the feasibility of this goal. The libraries were used as sites for testing the search resource. Information about the resource was communicated to a limited group of academic librarians and clinicians. Librarians provided support by answering questions regarding accessing the resource, and encouraged users to submit feedback.

The three groups communicated predominantly via email to review and revise the resource. PDA groups in the academic centers were informed of the resource. Users were assisted in configuring and accessing the tool. The developer received feedback from the librarians who were familiar with PDA users in clinical settings, and from users testing from a variety of devices and network configurations. This feedback was useful in designing the evaluation tool.

Overall, the partnership helped provide the developer feedback that otherwise would not have been available. Informal collaborations between librarians and developers are useful in assisting developers in designing tools for clinical settings. The librarians are often the source and expert in obtaining access to reference sources that might be useful in clinical practice. Informal relationships that could lead to research between developers of clinical tools and librarians should be encouraged.

#4 Old Partnership, New Technology

Linda J. Collins, User Services Librarian, Health Sciences Library; Eve Juliano, Director, Educational Technology Group; and Jamie Hahn, Manager, Multimedia Development, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Education Services Division of the UNC Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library has partnered for many years with the Office of Information Systems at our institution's School of Medicine to teach information literacy skills to first year medical students. While the nature of the collaboration remains the same, the instructional method has changed dramatically. This year, we are relying on an advanced software program to more effectively address the needs expressed by the students. In-class instruction for the "Pre-Clinical Informatics" course will be kept to a minimum. The majority of the course content will be presented online using SofTV (http://www.softv.net/Public/index.htm). This software blends PowerPoint lecture notes, live Internet linking, pre-recorded audio and streaming video into an integrated multimedia presentation. Lectures and class exercises are available anytime the students wish to access them. Linking through a table of contents gives students the ability to navigate through the course material at their own pace. Class assignments are correlated with clinical case conferences presented by School of Medicine faculty in a variety of basic science courses. This integration with other first year classes provides relevant applications for the information literacy training, as well as reinforcing the collaborative partnership between the library and the medical school. This poster will display the results of our team effort.

#5 Collaboration Grounds: Installing a Coffee Service with University Partners to Increase Library Usage and Generate Funding

Jean P. Shipman, Catharine S. Canevari, and Ramona H. Thiss, Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, VCU Libraries, Virginia Commonwealth University

This poster discusses the experiences and lessons learned from negotiating the installation of a coffee service in a library setting. Activities included contract negotiation, review of institutional policies, and other administrative aspects with members of university business and dining services. Input regarding campus support of a library coffee service and formal feedback was contributed by students and student leaders.

Why install coffee service? Gate counts had dwindled due to improved access to electronic resources and budgets were decreasing. To bring users back into the library, renovations occurred that included an area for coffee service. The library followed a detailed negotiation process to obtain a service. Topics to be discussed focus on user, vendor, staff and building issues, including the following:

• General project feasibility (cost and building design considerations)
• Profitability (price points, product line, projected revenues, and service hours)
• Design considerations (storage space, plumbing, electricity, furniture, location)
• Environmental concerns (housekeeping, aroma, food policy changes)
• Administration (liability, security, training)
• Marketing (naming, branding, merchandising, press releases, garnering feedback)

#6 Scanning the Environment for Ideas

Suzanne Cole and Bruce Compton, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Corporate librarians and information professionals provide a variety of services to their clients for scanning the environment and keeping up to date on developments in a field. But how do you track and monitor developments outside of your current lines of work, in order to anticipate your next opportunity? It was this more amorphous task the Research Services department (RS) of the Pew Charitable Trusts took on when we developed PewScan, an environmental scanning service meant to aid in idea generation for new programmatic lines of work. Working with our clients, we developed a core list of periodicals, databases and Web sites to monitor. We flagged articles showing a trend in policy, demographics, commerce or society, wrote short abstracts, and compiled them into a two- to three-page publication once every two weeks. "Subscribers" to the service were then freed from both the need to read each publication themselves, and the nagging sense that they might be missing something. The poster will describe the development and use of PewScan, including the collaboration between information professionals and users, the evolution of PewScan as institutional needs changed, and the use of technology to broaden the audience.

#7 The Library and the Foundation: Perfect Together

Catherine Boss, Coordinator, Library Services, Booker Health Sciences Library, Jersey Shore University Medical Center

Raising money is never an easy job - even when it's for your own library. Monies for construction or renovation projects, new services, new collections are often beyond the scope of a library's operating or capital budget and need to be found through outside sources. Happily, we at the Booker Health Sciences Library have developed a successful partnership with our Foundation Office. My poster will illustrate the successes this partnership has had over the years, including a new $1.2 million, 5000 sq. ft. library, complete with a new integrated library system, built totally with private monies, a six-week Nurses for Knowledge pledge campaign that yielded over $30,000 and more recently involvement with the Medical Center's Employee Annual Fund Campaign. Darlene Robertelli, librarian, is a member of the Fund's Committee. In this employee-giving campaign, contributors are able to earmark their contributions for specific purposes, including the Library, lauded by the Foundation as a "real benefit for our employees, physicians and the community we serve." Over $2600 was raised in 2001 and 2002, the latter of which will be used for the development of a consumer health collection for children. I have also begun to work with the Foundation and Administration in creating an endowment for the library. The poster will show how the Booker Library and the Foundation Office are perfect together and have made the difference in enhancing library services.

#8 Touchdown Suite

Willard F. Bryant, Jr., Associate Director, Finance and Administration, William H. Welch Medical Library, Johns Hopkins University

The touchdown suite is a new model for the delivery of library services. The poster will focus on planning, design, and implementation efforts surrounding the “touchdown suite” concept.

The touchdown suite approach is geared to provide convenient services and resources where the patron is located and is part of a three-phase library strategic plan. The touchdown suite is not a traditional departmental or satellite library. There is no full-time staffing and no print books or journals. It is also not dedicated library space, but flexible multi-purpose space providing for library needs as well as other departmental purposes.

Core services include collaborative information services from a liaison librarian, content-specific electronic resources, customized training classes, tailored technology systems and toolkits as well as suite configuration and set-up (if required). It is envisioned that the services will ultimately provide program support through a fully functioning content partner.

Poster information will also highlight the relationship of touchdown suites to a recently completed library master plan describing the library of 2015. Establishing touchdown suites is an integral part of a broad goal to balance the need for the library to be viewed as a “place” or “destination” versus the library as a series of virtual services and resources. The multi-dimensional planning approach further describes efforts to create physical and virtual library space that better serves a dynamic and expanding user community.

#9 Connecting with Communities: Migrant Workers Learn to Access Online Health Information

Gabriel Rios, Assistant Director for Information Services and Technology; and Kelly Near, Outreach Librarian, University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

This poster focuses on lessons learned during a project initiated to teach health information skills to volunteer peer educators from the migrant worker community in eastern Virginia. The project, funded by a grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, was a collaborative effort between the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library at the University of Virginia and the Blue Ridge Area Health Education Center (AHEC). The grant allowed the enhancement of a lay health promoters project (Promotoras de Salud) already in place through the AHEC. Health Sciences Library staff concentrated on training these peer educators in the use of computers and the Internet to promote better access to health care information. Classes were taught at a local adult education center near the project site and utilized both English and Spanish language materials and resources. Funding was also provided to purchase three computer workstations which were placed in convenient locations in the community. The poster will examine the process, evaluation, and outcome of the project in an effort to help others libraries gain valuable insight as they consider initiating similar projects.

#10 A Unique Partnership: Medical Librarian & Teaching Resident, Evidence Based Medicine Team Collaboration: “Using Informatics to Improve Information Retrieval Skills and Clinical Care”

Sharon Easterby-Gannett, Medical Librarian; Ellen Justice, Medical Librarian; and Shkelzen Hoxhaj, MD, Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, DE

Brief Description: In 1999 the Department of Medicine created a teaching rotation with the goal of having a senior resident available for morning report and floor rounds to teach and answer any clinical questions that arose. Simultaneously, two days a week a Medical Librarian attended medicine morning report and performed literature searches on topics pertinent to the daily cases. Subsequently, what emerged was a Teaching Resident and Medical Librarian team approach to identifying and answering clinical questions using a variety of medical databases and resources.

Evaluation Methods: Pre-assessment and post-assessment is done using a Likert scale to assess TRs perceived searching skills. An initial search is given to the TR during his/her first week of the block to determine baseline-searching skills of each individual. This allows the Librarians to customize informatics instruction to the individual’s information searching needs. One-on-one interactions with a Medical Librarian give the resident personalized instructions geared to his/her informatics needs giving the Librarian an opportunity to observe the progress of the TR’s searching techniques.

Conclusions: TRs find clinically relevant and evidence-based information to support patient care decision-making after the informatics intervention. Our data indicates an 80% improvement in the TRs’ application of advanced limits. We feel that the team model pairing a TR and Medical Librarian has helped by creating a venue in which senior residents have the opportunity for one on one teaching with medical librarians experienced in advanced search techniques and the instructional interactions strengthen the relationship between TRs and librarians.

#11 Integrating Librarians, Faculty, and Technology to Support Student Research: The Special Case of the Physician Assistant (PA)

David A. Nolfi, Health Sciences Librarian, Gumberg Library; and Martha E. Petersen, MPH, CHES, PA-C, Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, Rangos School of Health Sciences, Duquesne University

Research is an increasingly essential aspect of the PA’s professional education, and therefore increasingly essential in library support for PA education. Conducting research represents a new challenge for students and faculty in a clinically based and focused profession. PA students are presented with a bewildering array of choices of free and subscription-based online medical information resources, which they need to complete assigned course and research tasks and to support clinical practice.

The presenters created a portal especially for PA students that brings together key resources, including: research databases, electronic journals, clinical practice guidelines, educational websites, government resources, citation guides and style manuals, career information, and more. The site provides instruction modules covering the essentials of literature searching and evaluation. The overarching project goal is to increase students’ comfort and skills in working with information resources and encourage them to find, recognize, and utilize a variety of high quality information sources.

The portal has been integrated into course instruction for fourth (didactic) and fifth (clinical) year students and has experienced immediate success. It rapidly became the sixth most frequently used page on the Library’s website even though PA students and faculty represent less than one percent of the entire university community.

The poster will illustrate the collaboration between librarians and faculty to create and implement the portal as well as assess its impact on student learning. Additionally, the poster will explain how this initial collaboration led to similar projects for Speech Language Pathology and Athletic Training.

#12 Partnering with the Community: A Women’s Health Network for Multicultural Communities

Jean P. Shipman, Coleman E. Rose, Denise C. Daly, JoAnne K. Henry, Catharine S. Canevari, and Barbara A. Wright, Virginia Commonwealth University

The Women’s Health Network for Consumer Health Outreach (WHN) assists women in the community with their health information needs and those of their families. WHN provides culturally relevant women’s health educational materials. WHN is a partnership between a university health system, a health sciences library, a school of nursing, a coalition of health centers serving uninsured patients and a Hispanic chamber of commerce. Also included are public libraries, health advocacy organizations, women’s shelters and health departments.

Through contract funding, computers were placed in community locations including community-based health centers and the chamber of commerce. Staff from partner organizations are trained to use the Internet, various search engines, evaluate Web health sites, and learn how to use PubMed and MEDLINEPlus. Regularly scheduled advisory committee meetings provide significant input in project development, including the Web site and community health education lectures. A Web site was created to provide health information specific to minority women and their families. Multilingual and low literacy links are key elements of the Web site. Exhibits and promotional material distribution at community partner sites, ethnic cultural fairs, state fairs and women’s shows have helped to promote the project.

WHN’s objective is to address the health education needs of women through a variety of strategies including:

• providing training on accessing electronic health information
• identifying culturally and linguistically-appropriate educational materials
• collecting relevant print and online resource materials

#13 Taking the QandA NJ Plunge: A Health Sciences Academic in a Public Library Project

Cynthia S. McClellan and Janice K. Skica, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) Health Sciences Library at Stratford

Virtual Reference is an innovative approach to the delivery of traditional library services, with public libraries leading the way in adapting this new interactive technology. The “QandA NJ” Service, administered by the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative (SJRLC), serves the state of New Jersey, providing live “24/7” professional reference service to all citizens. Support of this project has been overwhelmingly positive. The UMDNJ Health Sciences Library at Stratford has participated in QandA NJ for the past two years. As an academic as well as a health sciences library, our perspective is unique. The reasons for the UMDNJ Health Sciences Library’s decision to participate, including benefits, drawbacks, and future potential of our partnership with QandA NJ, will be outlined in this poster.

The SJRLC, a multidisciplinary library consortium, serves the seven southern counties of New Jersey, and has organized and administered this collaborative project from its inception. While it began with local member libraries, the Project continues to expand and recruit additional libraries statewide. Currently, thirty-three libraries participate (twenty-eight public, five academic). VALE (“Virtual Academic Library Environment”, a consortium of New Jersey academic libraries) conducted a review of virtual reference models, including issues involved in academic participation QandA NJ. The outcome was the recent endorsement of the Project, and recommendation that academics interested in instituting live, real time reference within their own institutions participate in this exciting project.

#14 The Day that Comet Died: The Demise of Paper and the Rise of Electronic Document Delivery in NJ ~ The HSLANJ Solution

Barbara S. Reich, Director, Medical Library, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ; Elaine Goldman, Medical Librarian, Pascack Valley Hospital, Westwood, NJ; Robb Mackes, Medical Librarian, Union Hospital, Union, NJ; Pat Regenberg, Manager, Health Sciences Library, Mountainside Hospital, Montclair, NJ; and Michele M. Volesko, Director, Library & Corporate Information Services, New Jersey Hospital Association, Princeton, NJ

In the spring of 2002, New Jersey’s interlibrary courier service abruptly went bankrupt. Health Sciences Library Association of New Jersey (HSLANJ) members realized it was time to pursue creative alternatives to the outdated courier service and established the Electronic Document Delivery (EDD) Task Force. The task force was charged with investigating technology issues, implementation and funding with the ultimate goal being total electronic delivery of interlibrary loans between HSLANJ members.

This poster will chronicle the work of the EDD Task Force. The project began with a survey of the HSLANJ membership to determine how libraries were currently handling electronic document delivery or what plans were in place for instituting electronic document delivery. The task force received an astounding 76% return rate on the surveys. A report based on the survey responses was compiled and presented to the HSLANJ Board in August 2002. Based on the task force report the HSLANJ Board passed a resolution that “90% of all Interlibrary Loan transactions between our members will be in digital format by the end of 2004.” An education program titled “Technology in Small Bytes” was presented in February 2003 because of clear knowledge gap issues that came to light through the survey.

In the Spring of 2003, three of the four New Jersey Regional Library Cooperatives became involved and group pricing and subsidies for a scanner were offered. Total electronic delivery of interlibrary loans is not only an achievable goal but will be accomplished well ahead of the established time frame.

#15 Cheaper by the Dozen: New Jersey’s Statewide Group Licensing Initiative Blends Consortia Need, Cooperative Tradition and Purchasing Value

Michelle Volesko, Director, Library & Corporate Information Services, New Jersey Hospital Association; Judith Cohn, Associate Vice President for Scholarly Information/University Librarian; and Kerry O'Rourke, Campus Library Director, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - University Libraries

Purpose: This poster describes development and benefits of a statewide group licensing initiative for N.J. health sciences libraries. It charts project inception from a 2002 Board Retreat of the Health Sciences Library Association of New Jersey (HSLANJ) through implementation in 2003, concluding with future goals for 2003-04. The vision of this group licensing initiative is for wide-availability to electronic, full-text clinical resources for hospitals at affordable prices, regardless of institution size or affiliation.

Background: N.J. has 117 hospitals and 20 systems. HSLANJ represents 170 N.J. health science librarians; 125 members are primarily hospital libraries with 50 percent solo-librarians at non-profit institutions with limited budgets.

Results/Outcomes: A five-member HSLANJ Task Force, led by the University Libraries of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and the New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA) Library oversee efforts and surveyed statewide needs. 22 of 43 survey respondents were interested in purchasing licensed resources immediately. Needs ranged from no current electronic resources to wanting expansion of electronic collections at reduced costs. Members evaluated product trials, made collection development decisions and secured financial commitment from their institutions. Communications to hospital administrators and meetings, phone, e-mail, and fax for librarians addressed concerns and assisted in decision-making. UMDNJ libraries serve as contract negotiator and NJHA as fiduciary agent. From May invoices, 20 institutions began group licenses on July 1, 2003. Future goals underway are training, promotion, additional participants and licensed resources-- at six-month intervals.

#16 Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce

Marjorie A. Cahn, National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology, National Library of Medicine; Keith W. Cogdill, PhD, National Network Office, National Library of Medicine; Catherine R. Selden, Ione Auston, Lisa Sedlar, National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology, National Library of Medicine; Angela Ruffin, PhD, National Network Office, National Library of Medicine; Greg Bodin, South Central Region, National Network of Libraries of Medicine; Jennifer Marill, Public Services Division, National Library of Medicine; Michael Miller, BA, Pacific Southwest Region, National Network of Libraries of Medicine; and Jocelyn Rankin, PhD, CDC Information Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Partners is a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries, including the:

American Public Health Association (APHA) Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) National Library of Medicine (NLM) National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Public Health Foundation (PHF) Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE)

Since its formation in 1999, this partnership has worked to provide the public health workforce with timely, convenient access to information resources, through coordination on five objectives:

• Increase PH workforce awareness and use of distributed learning resources;
• Assist the PH workforce in obtaining the infrastructure needed for effective access to information resources;
• Train the PH workforce to use the technology required for effective access to information resources;
• Train the PH workforce to identify and use pertinent information resources and services; and
• Increase health sciences librarians’ awareness of the needs of and resources within the PH workforce.

• The Partners website (http://phpartners.org).
• The Healthy People 2010 Information Access Project (http://phpartners.org/hp).
• The Health Services and Sciences Research Resources (HSRR) database (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/hsrr_search).

#17 Finding the Silver Lining: What “Crisis Management” Can Teach Us

Elaine Wells, Library Director, State University of New York College of Optometry

Summary: This poster will outline the organizational opportunities uncovered by the disruption in our subscription service, steps taken to improve the journal management and collection development processes, the benefits that came from having to start the process from scratch, and the use of this “crisis” as a management tool.

Background: The Kohn Library’s response to the bankruptcy of our subscription company taught us “volumes” about our journal management process, uncovering areas for improvement and highlighting opportunities for positive procedural change. Benefits gained from weathering the crisis include better tools for analyzing our journal collection, improved information sharing practices among staff, and a positive perception of the Library as responsive to patron needs.

Problems: Our journal management process had been on “automatic pilot”. Information was maintained in a database that was difficult to navigate and accessed primarily by one staff member. Faculty preferences for certain journals had not been measured for several years, and requests for additional journals were routinely turned down because of lack of funds. Electronic journals made up only a small part of our collection, since we thought most patrons preferred print.

Solutions: All subscription information will be moved to a new system easily accessible by all staff. Journals not graced by publishers (and not missed by patrons) will be cancelled. Journals graced in electronic format will be maintained electronically, thereby saving space and costs. Most importantly, funds made available through cancellations will be used to purchase additional journals in electronic format identified through a patron user survey.

#18 Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness: Bridging Communities and Knowledge Domains

Paolina Taglienti, Constance Malpas, The New York Academy of Medicine; and Lisa Mack, Center for Public Health Preparedness, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

This poster session will document development and continued progress of the Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness project at the New York Academy of Medicine. The project seeks to improve electronic access to essential information resources for public health preparedness by producing a web-accessible bibliographic database and suite of machine-readable “finding aids.” The project is funded by the National Library of Medicine and carried out in partnership with the Center for Public Health Preparedness at the Mailman School of Public Health.

Collaborative resource sharing is at the heart of the Resource Guide project. From its inception, the project has sought to leverage existing institutional networks, including the CDC-funded Centers for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP), in support of project goals. Strong partnerships with the CPHP have made it possible to reach out to a broad range of public health professionals to assess information needs and identify content areas most in need of abstracting/indexing.

Technologies adopted in the project have been selected to facilitate information exchange and promote cross-disciplinary integration of knowledge domains. A community-specific metadata format has been devised to describe and index resources; a commonly used XML metadata model is being implemented to facilitate data exchange between the Resource Guide and other applications.

In a live demonstration, users will be encouraged to provide feedback on the application’s design and functionality. Librarians with a subject specialty or special interest in public health will be invited to contribute to the project as content editors or by providing abstracts of selected resources.

#19 Access to “Fugitive” Literature in Health Care: The New York Academy of Medicine’s Grey Literature Project

Ying Jia, Janie Kaplan, Latrina Keith, Lea Myohanen, and Elizabeth Taylor, The New York Academy of Medicine

The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature (GL '99) in Washington, DC, in October 1999 defined grey literature as follows:

“That which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers.”

The Grey Literature Project at the New York Academy of Medicine was started in 1999 as an effort to better meet in-house research needs. It identifies and provides access to information not available through traditional abstracting and indexing sources in the areas of health and science policy, public health, and health of special populations. Much of this literature is published by non-profit research organizations, advocacy groups and federal and state agencies and consists of research reports, occasional papers, issue briefs and technical reports. This literature may be available in print or only on the World Wide Web. The Grey Literature Report, a major component of the project, now has a subscriber list of almost 200 people.

This poster presents an overview of this ongoing innovative project, including:

• Definitions of grey literature as used in health and other disciplines
• Selection and acquisition criteria for print and digital resources
• The identified issues of cataloging “grey literature”
• Strategies for preservation of its digital resources
• Options for sustaining access to traditional and non-traditional items
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• The evolution and future direction of the quarterly Grey Literature Report

#20 Establishing the Center for Healthcare Informatics Education: Mission Evolution of the Academic Health Sciences Library

Guillaume Van Moorsel, Assistant Director for Development, Health Sciences Center Library, and Clinical Assistant Professor, Health Policy & Management; Colleen Kenefick, Director, Center for Healthcare Informatics Education, Health Sciences Center Library; Spencer Marsh, Director, Health Sciences Center Library; and Jane Yahil, Assistant Vice-President, Health Sciences Center, Stony Brook University

The poster presentation will address how growing recognition at Stony Brook University of the need to provide informatics training to healthcare professionals, combined with the success of the Health Sciences Center Library's education services program, led to the establishment in 2001 of the Center for Healthcare Informatics Education. Working in close collaboration with clinical faculty, members of this library-based unit are charged with integrating core informatics training across the curricula of the entire academic health sciences center, to host continuing education programs in informatics training for practicing health professionals, and to assist faculty to implement technology tools/resources in support of student learning. Organizational benefits derived from the situation of the unit in the library will be presented, along with an examination of outcome-based evaluations that suggest strongly the effectiveness of librarian-educator and the important role librarians have to play in supporting the educational missions of their host institutions.

QuintEssential Poster Session Committee
Beverly Murphy, Chair
Duke University Medical Center Library, Durham, NC

Christine Chastain-Warheit
Medical Libraries, Christiana Hospital, Christiana Care Health System, Newark, DE

Patricia Gallagher
New York Academy of Medicine Library, New York, NY

Ann Koopman
Scott Memorial Library, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA

Melanie Norton
Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Nancy Spears
The Children’s Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA

Revised September 12, 2003