McGraw Hill’s AccessMedicine® will be added to the collection in support of our education mission. This collection of over 85 e-books and other online tools contains standard texts including Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine and CURRENT Medical Diagnosis & Treatment. In addition to e-books the database also includes 250 examination and procedural videos, quick reference tools, and more.

This valuable resource allows an unlimited number of users and is available both on and off campus through the HS/HSL’s Databases list. Individual books will be added to the Library Catalog and the E-Book list. A mobile version optimized for use with handheld devices is also available.

AccessMedicine® will be available January 2016.

Funding for the MPower Virtual Research Library will cease on July 1. This collaborative effort among the libraries at UMB and College Park received $750,000 in the first year of its existence. This funding number has been decreased in the subsequent years to $440,000 and then $200,000. The $200,000 in funding for FY16 was then greatly reduced, resulting in only enough money to support Scopus®, which has become a major research support resource for both universities. At this time, It is not clear how Scopus will be retained for FY17.

JoVE and ProQuest Dissertation and Theses will be continued for another year due to collaborations with the University of Maryland College Park and USMAI. The remaining MPower resources (Wiley journals and Taylor & Francis journals, Embase and BioMed Central) became part of the HS/HSL’s resource evaluation process. With an already flat resources budget and MPower funding destined for elimination, cuts needed to be made (see HS/HSL Flat Funded = 1600 Journals Cancelled). Wiley, and Taylor and Francis journals were integrated into the HS/HSL collection as was Embase.

Continued increases in journal prices combined with a flat resources budget have resulted in difficult collection decisions. Faculty librarians spent several months evaluating the HS/HSL’s journal collection based on data (cost per use) and the need to ensure the provision of we provide a balanced collection addressing and supporting UMB’s mission.

Journal prices increased 6% to 7% making it necessary to take apart one of our “big deal” journal packages, sometimes known as “bundles,” this year. One way many libraries, including the HS/HSL, have extended their budgets is by participating in publishers’ offers of bundles or “big deals.” Under this model libraries commit to maintaining their current subscriptions with a publisher. In exchange, for a relatively modest fee, the publisher will allow the library access to many more of its titles. The HS/HSL currently participates in big deals with Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, Sage, and Taylor & Francis, giving the UMB community access to considerably more journals than single subscriptions would allow. However, steady increases in journal prices while the Library’s resources budget remains flat have made our continued participation in all of these deals unsustainable.

The Springer package was identified as the least well-performing on a cost-per-use . Consequently, the package is being “unbundled.” High-use Springer journals were evaluated on an individual basis, and thirty-one were selected for retention. Journals were evaluated for both their cost effectiveness and their fit with UMB’s research and educational missions. All other individual (non-bundled) subscriptions were also evaluated, and nine of them were selected for cancellation.

The cancellation of the Springer package was a difficult decision to make. Without the favorable pricing that comes with participation in the publisher’s bundle, the UMB community will lose access to over 1,600 Springer journals, including 372 that had twenty or more uses last year. But the HS/HSL must remain within its resources budget.

Access to the cancelled journals will be lost on January 1, 2016. Individual articles from any journal not subscribed to by the HS/HSL are available through Interlibrary Loan.

If the HS/HSL resources budget remains flat and journal costs continue to rise, we will unfortunately need to make more cancellation decisions next year.

HS/HSL’s Christmas and New Year’s Holiday Hours

Consider attending the first of a six-part seminar series commemorating the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Human Genome Project (HGP) in October 1990. The series, organized by the NHGRI History of Genomics Program (http://www.genome.gov/27557501), features HGP participants who will be sharing their perspectives about the HGP and how it affected their careers.

The series kicks off this Thursday, December 3, 2015 with a panel discussion that includes key HGP leadership: Francis Collins (NIH Director and Former NHGRI Director) as well as Elke Jordan and Mark Guyer (Former NHGRI Deputy Directors). The panel will take place from 2:00 to 3:00 PM in Lipsett Amphitheater in Building 10.

Additional details are provided below and at http://www.genome.gov/27562713.  Please note that if you cannot join us in person, the panel will be video recorded and made available on our GenomeTV channel of YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/GenomeTV#p/u) after December 3.

SPEAKERS:

Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Institutes of Health.

Elke Jordan, Ph.D., Former Deputy Director, National Human Genome Research Institute.

Mark Guyer, Ph.D., Former Deputy Director, National Human Genome Research Institute.

Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Human Genome Research Institute.
TITLE: “A Quarter Century after the Human Genome Project’s Launch: Lessons Beyond the Base Pairs”
DATE: Thursday, December 3, 2015
TIME: 2:00-3:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Building 10, Lipsett Amphitheater
SPONSOR:  NHGRI History of Genomics Program