MLA News Selected Articles

February 2001

Duke University Medical Center Library’s creative display, “Anatomy of a Medical Library,” captured patrons’ attention. The display featured a stylized anatomical model of a human body, with its many systems and organs, representing the functions of the various library departments.

Your efforts on behalf of the 2000 National Medical Librarians Month (NMLM) made it an extraordinary event! Many librarians began planning celebrations early last year for the big event in October, and all the hard work was evident in the many entries for the MLA-sponsored Creative Promotions Award.

Judged by Public Communications, Inc., MLA’s public relations consultant, the Creative Promotions Award contest recognizes the library with the most innovative and creative NMLM celebration. The winner receives $100 applicable toward MLA dues, meeting fees, or publications. Because of the great number of impressive entries this year, MLA decided to recognize two libraries for their NMLM celebrations, instead of just one.

NMLM was created by the MLA Board of Directors to provide a special time to promote medical librarians’ skills and contributions. Hundreds of members took advantage of this golden opportunity to get to know and understand their institutions’ staff better and, even more importantly, allowed staff to get to know them.

Scavenger Hunt Participants Vie for PalmPilot
One of this year’s recipients, Duke Medical Center Library, Durham, NC, welcomed visitors during NMLM to its library with a large outdoor banner, which read "Celebrating National Medical Librarians Month." The library staff also created and displayed an imaginative poster, titled "Anatomy of a Medical Library." The library staff celebrated NMLM throughout the month of October and helped to cure the medical center’s Monday morning blues with weekly scavenger hunts. Hunters were required to answer trivia questions about the library to win prizes such as copy cards, document delivery vouchers, and CINAHLdirect Online Service memberships. Contestants also had the chance to "win a librarian" for a limited time to provide either a mediated search or a Web-page design consultation. All participants in the scavenger hunt contests were entered in a grand prize drawing for a Palm
Pilot personal digital assistant!

"Fine-Free Week" Recovers Long-Overdue Books
The second winner of this year’s contest, the Virginia Funkhouser Health Sciences Library at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg, VA, planned an exceptional NMLM celebration. The staff also let everyone know that it was NMLM with a banner outside the library entrance for the entire month. Display boards containing pictures of the library
staff and volunteers were placed in various locations throughout the hospital, along with balloons and candy. Several handouts and bookmarks were also created and distributed.

A patron visiting the Virginia Funkhouser Health Sciences Library fills out her entry for door prizes during the library’s NMLM celebration.

In honor of the event, the library offered a "fine-free week" and recovered several long-overdue books. In the spirit of Halloween, library staff prepared approximately 140 bags of candy treats and hand delivered them to each department, unit, and office in the institution. Stapled to each bag was a fact sheet about the library. Also during the week-long celebration, patrons were entered in daily raffles for giveaways such as Chicken Soup for the Soul books; mystery books donated, signed, and authored by one of the hospital’s surgeons; and five-dollar coupons for the hospital cafeteria. Notices of daily winners were announced via the hospital’s email system.

Ilene N. Smith, AHIP, director of the library, stated that, during the library’s weeklong celebration, more than 110 patrons visited the library each day, compared to an average of sixty-nine for the rest of the month. Many hospital personnel had never been to the library before the NMLM celebration. Smith commented, "It was a lot of work but the many comments we received made it all worthwhile. Staff enjoyed the week as much as the many participants, and gained several new library users."

Other NMLM Celebrations

• The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia–Charlottesville, sponsored an open house with the theme, "Have You Hugged Your Medical Librarian Today?" The open house featured demonstrations, tours of the library’s newly renovated second floor, and giveaways of pens, library bookmarks, candy, and, of course, hugs. A local artist donated a ceramic pig for a fund-raising raffle for the library art fund. The library also celebrated by hanging flags that read "The Library: Your Link to Quality Resources," "The Library: Your Link to Health Information, "The Library: Your Link to Continued Learning," and "The Library: Your Link to Clinical Evidence." The staff used the graphics from MLA’s "On Site, On Line, and On Top of the Latest Information" poster to create their own banner, which was hung in the library’s entrance. Library employees ended the weeklong celebration by showing off their culinary skills in the library’s bake sale, from which close to $300.00 in proceeds were donated to the Charlottesville/Albemarle Mental Health Association.
  
  
• To help patrons become more familiar with their library and its staff, Sutter Health Resource Library in Sacramento, CA, observed the month by creating a display in the lobby of their building filled with pictures of staff members and volunteers, as well as a calendar of the library’s activities and services. The library also bought "Read" posters from the American Library Association and held a drawing on Halloween night. To enter the drawing for the posters, patrons were required to complete a short survey about the library’s services. During the month, the library also gained media attention when their local NBC affiliate visited the library during a reception for Healing Images, an art therapy group for cancer patients. The artists displayed their artwork in the library throughout NMLM.
  
  
• The University of Florida (UF)–Gainesville celebrated by holding weekly raffles. Participants entered the drawings by successfully completing a medical trivia quiz. Each weekly winner received a five-dollar gift certificate redeemable at the campus’s cafeterias. The grand prize was a twenty-five dollar gift certificate to the UF Health Science Center (HSC) Bookstore. Library staff distributed posters throughout the UF HSC and placed tent cards on cafeteria tables. The HSC weekly newsletter also featured an article promoting the library’s NMLM activities.
  
  
• Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, Burbank, CA, observed the month by hosting an open house, held on one day at two separate times to accommodate the medical center’s morning and evening shifts. Staff publicized the event with posters, flyers, displays, and email. A raffle was also held for various donated gifts including books, magazine subscriptions, and mugs filled with candy. Approximately 175 people attended the NMLM event.

MLA congratulates and applauds the Creative Promotions Award winners and all members who participated in the NMLM celebration. Your efforts do make a difference!

The library is an essential component of medical education. At the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, the newly adopted, problem-based Curriculum 2000 emphasizes the importance of self-directed learning. Students work in small groups with a faculty facilitator to develop learning issues for research and further study.

In 1999, a Website was created for the Medical Resource Center (MRC), the library for first-year medical students who are located on the Carbondale campus. The Website has now been expanded to represent a collaborative effort of the library and medical education in providing information essential to successful progress through the first-year curriculum.

There are four components to the Website: MRC General Information, Curriculum 2000, Research and Library Links, and News and Events. The first component provides information about library hours and schedules, circulation periods, and special services. Curriculum 2000 offers information about the curriculum and enables tutor groups to submit learning issues and individual students to submit program evaluations for the current unit. This component is password protected because of the sensitivity of information.

Research and Library Links, the third component, connects to other libraries in the Southern Illinois University system. Research links include: MRC vertical file; medical databases, such as MD Consult, EBSCO, and MEDLINE; online journals; and Websites related to Curriculum 2000. Links are organized by basic and clinical science disciplines for ease of location. News and Events provides information about MRC exhibits and acquisitions. Graphics featuring students appear throughout the Web pages and are changed frequently to highlight students.

A committee of library and curriculum staff, initially inexperienced in technical aspects of Web page development, designed and implemented the original site. The process was labor intensive as the committee brainstormed about content and design, selected links appropriate to curriculum needs, and learned the basics of hypertext markup language (HTML) and Netscape Composer. As members became more knowledgeable, they changed to Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and PHP for interactive forms. They continue to learn new technologies as they become available. Maintenance of the site is an ongoing process with revisions reflecting changes in curriculum, yet it has required significantly less time than initial development did.

Student input has been considered in revising the site. At the end of each of the first-year units, students complete an interactive survey in which they evaluate the site and recommend additional resources for the library’s collection. Of the sixty-eight students who responded to the initial survey in fall 2000, sixty-two indicated they had used the Website prior to matriculation. Following the first unit, sixty-six students indicated that the site provided useful information for the unit.

Students commented that they particularly liked and used links to faculty-developed pages and to reference databases. Faculty suggestions for new links are solicited through electronic memoranda. Both student and faculty comments are considered as the site design evolves.

Sports Medicine

Submitted by Mary Anne Hansen, The Libraries, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT; edited by Kristine M. Alpi, AHIP