Who are the HS/HSL’s users? The easy answer is the faculty, staff, and students of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. But probing deeper, the answer becomes much more complex as the Library’s impact reaches beyond our walls and our campus community. On our campus, our services and resources support efforts at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and the VA Hospital as UMB faculty serve those institutions. Beyond the campus, our health information outreach extends across the state through exhibits, programs, and our Maryland Health → GoLocal web site.

People are often surprised when I tell them we receive no financial support from UMMC or from campus indirect cost allocations, other than our own contracts. Often the comment I receive is, "How can a major academic health center and research institution exist without a strong, sustained information base?" I would agree. And those of you who have known me for a long time know that I can have extensive conversations on this topic.

Who are our users, what are they using, for what purpose? In the old days, we surveyed people as they physically came to the Library. In today’s online information community our users continue to use the Library building but also access many of our services and most of our resources electronically. In order to make good data-driven decisions regarding the allocation of our sparse financial resources, we need to use an assessment tool that can provide that information.

We are in the process of procuring the services of a nationally recognized expert on these types of assessments. Later this fall we will begin applying the assessment tool. This survey will encompass both physical and virtual entrances to the library and its services and resources. The survey will take place over the course of a year and, yes, I expect it will be annoying and redundant at times. However, the results of the study are very important to future directions and support of the library. We were delighted with the input we received from the LibQual+ service improvement survey we did in spring 2007. We know we can count on you to support this new endeavor.

About 7.5% of the Library’s expenditures for research materials go towards books. Books remain a vital part of the research process and they are starting to make the transition towards online availability that journals did over the last decade. While researchers routinely visit the Library and leave with books in hand, the eBooks we make available online through MDConsult and Stat!Ref are growing increasingly popular with our users.

This year Springer, one the world’s best publisher of scientific, technical and medical literature, cut a deal with libraries across the country, offering them easy and relatively inexpensive access to its online collection of books. We reviewed the content and were hooked!

UMB community members now have access to more than 2,300 eBooks in the biomedical and life sciences, behavioral sciences, and medicine published by Springer within the last four years. More are coming.Titles include monographic series that many of you use, including Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Advances in Anatomy, Embryology and Cell Biology and Topics in Current Genetics.

For more information about Springer eBooks, contact Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management, or your subject liaison.

Did you know that each school has its own Library Liaison, a faculty librarian who fosters communication between a school and the HS/HSL? Your liaison brings a personal component to your relationship with the Library by representing you and your school to the HS/HSL and representing the Library to you.

Liaisons provide class-related instruction and orientation sessions to the departments and programs within UMB; share current information regarding Library programs, resources and services; support teaching, clinical, and research needs; assist with collection development for individual schools; and work collaboratively with the campus community and throughout Maryland to provide community-based health information outreach.

Below is a list of the schools and names of their Library liaisons. Click the link to find information about each liaison, including her photo and contact information.

The Library is pleased to announce that, as of January, 2009, UMB researchers will have online access to every Sage journal currently available through the Sage Premium package. In addition to the 53 journals the Library already receives, the package includes over 80 journals in health, nursing, medicine and the life sciences, 27 titles in psychology, psychiatry and counseling, and 35 journals in sociology, social work and social policy. In total, researchers will have online access to 435 new titles, over 70 of which have been requested through interlibrary loan in the last year, and 19 of which have been requested at least four times in the last year.

Among the new journals are titles requested by UMB users. They are: Action Research; Biological Research for Nursing; Journal of Mixed Methods Research; Policy, Politics, and Nursing Practice; Qualitative Inquiry; and Qualitative Social Work. All Sage titles will be available online only, though some titles may be added back as part of the core print collection in 2010.

In January 2009, 29 other journals will also be available online. Once these titles are added the Library will be very close to achieving its goal of 100% of all current journal subscriptions being available online. Four other titles are switching publishers and will only be available online in 2009. Once these titles are added the Library will be very close to achieving its goal of 100% of all current journal subscriptions being available online.

If you have questions or comments about the Library’s journal subscriptions, please contact Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management. If you wish to recommend a book or journal or digital resource for purchase, please use our Recommendation Form.

Auto Alert Service

Want to get current literature updates on a particular topic? Meet with a librarian to set up an auto alert search. With this service, you and a librarian will formulate a search strategy, set up the search in databases of your choosing, and create an email or RSS alert with the latest journal citations on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This service is free to all faculty, students, and staff. Request an auto alert search.

Literature Search Service

Reference librarians provide computerized literature searches in over 500 databases. These mediated searches are completed within 24 hours of the request. Results will include full citations and abstracts, when available. This service is available for a fee to UMB faculty, staff and affiliates. Request a literature search.

Looking for space to work with colleagues on a project or for faster wireless connections? Good news! The HS/HSL is upgrading seven, second floor study rooms to accommodate collaboration. The Library is mounting 37" and 42" LCD panels and replacing tables in rooms 214 – 220. The tables will be outfitted with power and a VGA cable to connect your laptop to the wall-mounted LCD. Viewing work on the larger screen should make it easier and more effective for groups to collaborate on presentations and projects.

The collaborative study rooms will be limited to groups working together. The Library is developing a simple sign-up mechanism for groups to schedule the rooms. The upgrades were made possible through the generous support of a private donation to the University of Maryland, Baltimore Foundation and should be completed in October 2008.

Additionally, the Library is working with the Center for Information Technology Services to upgrade the wireless connectivity in the building. Connection speed and capacity are being improved. As part of a plan for seamless wireless access across the Campus, users will be able to sign on to the wireless network with their myUMB credentials and move between UMB buildings without the need to authenticate again. Non-UMB users will be able to access non-secure wireless in some areas of the Library.

The HS/HSL offers a warm welcome to Student Accounting, the Office of the Registrar, the Office of International Services, and the Student Financial Aid Office as they relocate to 601 West Lombard.

These student services are relocating to the Library’s second floor on September 23; they may have partial or full day closures September 22-24. For information on hours and relocation closings, please check with the specific departments. Stop by in the coming weeks to say, "Hello!" to them in their new offices.

Although we expect noise in the building around their move-in date, it signifies the end of the year-long Library renovation. Thank you for your patience as we spruced up the building for colleagues and to improve collaborative and study space.

The HS/HSL is offering a full schedule of free workshops this semester to all UMB faculty, staff and students; UMMC staff; HS/HSL Resources Plus! Members; and HS/HSL Corporate Members. Brush up on your RefWorks, MEDLINE, or CINAHL skills, or try out one of our new workshops, such as Searching the Health Literature or Maryland Health Statistics. The new and improved Library Workshops web page now includes links to tutorials and handouts and a calendar view option that allows you to see all the available workshops in a given month. For detailed course descriptions and online registration, visit the Library Workshops page.

Thanks to 160 UMB faculty who participated in the HS/HSL’s Core Print survey. We greatly appreciate your thoughtful responses and comments.

Of the 160 respondents, approximately 56% of the respondents were from the SOM, 12% from the SON, 8% from DS, 6% from the SSW, 3% from the SOP and 15% from other/unknown.

The question "If the Library lost access to online journals for more than a day during an emergency situation, what journals would you need to perform your duties?" resulted in responses ranging from "none" to lists of ten or more journals, and will require a thorough evaluation.

Responses to questions three and four reflect the importance of online access to UMB journal subscriptions, but also indicate a continuing respect for retention of print journals by the Library. Nearly 82% of respondents were comfortable or somewhat comfortable with online only access to journals.

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Of the 160 respondents, 82 offered additional comments or questions which will be evaluated over the next few weeks. A cursory review of the comments indicates that expanded access to digital backfiles is important to many of you.

HS/HSL Fall Hours

Building entrance after 8:00pm is limited to current: UMB faculty, staff and students, UMB corporate and borrowing members; UMMC, UPI and VA staff; USMAI faculty, staff and students; JHMI faculty and students. Valid ID required.

Exceptions to our Fall Schedule:

"Positive Exposure, the Spirit of Difference"
September 1, 2008 – October 31, 2008

"Positive Exposure" by Rick Guidotti will be on display in the Gallery through the end of October. Don’t miss the exciting exhibit which combines genetics and medicine with photography. He brings together the beauty of genetic differences with photography. Guidotti’s exhibit challenges the stigma associated with difference by celebrating the beauty and richness of human diversity. His photography reflects his passion and support for genetic differences, highlighting a large number of genetic conditions including Albinism, Chromosome 13 & 18, Fragile X, 22 Q Deletion Syndrome, Sturge-Weber Syndrome and many others. For more information about the exhibit visit the HS/HSL Weise Gallery.

October is National Medical Librarians Month! The HS/HSL will be celebrating with coffee, bagels, and muffins at our Annual Student Breakfast. The date is yet to be determined, but be sure to check our web site for an announcement.

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for FreeCulture have declared October 14, 2008 the first international Open Access Day. Libraries around the world will be participating to raise awareness of open access publishing and its goal of promoting scientific advancement and cultural enrichment through the free exchange of information and ideas. Check our web site next month to see how the HS/HSL is getting involved.

In response to a recent question, Historical Librarian Rich Behles researched the symbolism of the UMB campus seal. Derived from the reverse side of the Great Seal of Maryland, the campus icon features a colonial farmer with a shovel and a fisherman holding his catch, both flanking the Calvert family crest. As archetypes, the farmer symbolizes the agricultural character of Maryland, and the fisherman represents the fishing traditions of Newfoundland.

In 1620, George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, bought a portion of Newfoundland as his first foray into the colonization efforts in English North America. In 1623, Calvert expanded his enterprise, securing a patent to the whole of Newfoundland and establishing a charter for the province of Avalon. That charter was the model for the one he later composed when paving the way for the colonization of Maryland. Because Calvert died before actually settling here, his eldest son and heir, Cecil, assumed the mantle of the second Lord Baltimore and actually founded Maryland.

Cecil Calvert devised the first seal in 1648. There were several changes through the years until the state readopted that original in 1874.

On June 20, the HS/HSL presented the Theodore E. Woodward Award to Dr. Charlotte Ferencz, in recognition of her outstanding support and service to the Library. Dr. Ferencz collaborated with the Library in 2005 by contributing her professional expertise and financial support to the development of the "Congenital Heart Disease: a Public Health Perspective" web site. More recently, she donated her personal book collection to the Library, allowing us to establish the Ferencz Historical Collection.

The Charlotte Ferencz Endowment Fund gave us the means to supplement that core collection with the purchase of three additional volumes. The books were selected for their relation to Dr. Ferencz’s teaching and research interests and were formally presented at the Woodward award luncheon. The new additions include Cardio-Vascular Diseases Since Harvey’s Discovery (1929) by Humphry Rolleston, The Heart In Early Life, (1914) by George Sutherland, and Manual of the Diseases of Infants and Children (1911) by John Ruhräh. As Ruhräh is a renowned former faculty member, his book holds a particular value for us, and its addition to our collection solidifies Dr. Ferencz’s association with our institutional history in a special way.

The summer is usually a quiet time on campus. However, here in the library we were getting some big things accomplished and planning for some big things to come. Our accomplishments were both physical and virtual.

1. We introduced our newly redesigned Web site to much critical acclaim, further expanding our online information community.
2. Our Resources Division moved into one office suite from three separate areas. The move has been a year in the making and clears the way for the final phases of construction, which will enable the move of Financial Aid, Student Accounts, the Registrar’s Office, and International Students into the Libray’s second floor on September 23.
3. At a luncheon in mid-June we gave the Library’s highest honor, the Woodward Award, to Dr. Charlotte Ferencz for her longstanding support of the HS/HSL.

On the planning side I am delighted to report:

1. The campus is supporting a total upgrade to the Library building technology infrastructure, including the enhancement to wireless connectivity requested by our users.
2. A safety study of the Library has been initiated to ensure we are doing everything possible to keep users safe. The study is a precursor to planning for limited 24 hour access in Fall 2009.
3. Planning has begun for the upgrade of the 11 study rooms on the second floor with flat panel screens, shades, and other enhancements to support collaborative work has begun.

On behalf of the HS/HSL staff, welcome to those who are new to campus, and welcome back to our returning friends. If there is anything we can do to help, just ask.

Talk to us via Reference Desk Chat – receive real-time assistance
Health information for the campus – visit HealthyMe@UMB
Electronic resources abound – locate Databases, E-Journals, E-books, E-Reserve

Learn new research skills – use online tutorials through Library Savvy
Inform colleagues about a Subject Guide – social bookmark it using Share
Blog with us – comment on items in the Suggestion Box
Receive emails or an RSS feed on a topic of interest to you – request an Auto Alert
Articles to your desktop – use Article Express
Review current health news or HS/HSL updates – subscribe to our RSS feeds
Your connection for online information and assistance – The Library

Visit us at our Website, and on Facebook and Flickr.

EBSCO has recently launched its new interface, changing the appearance and functionality of several of the Library’s databases including CINAHL, Academic Search Premiere, and Business Source Premiere. The 2.0 interface improves ease of use and adds new features. Additions include a CINAHL peer-reviewed limit, citation formats for each article, navigable breadcrumb trail, and an abstract preview by mouseover. Enhancements available in Academic Search Premiere and soon available in CINAHL include related images preview and a date slider that easily limits publication years searched. This EBSCOhost 2.0 video provides a brief demo of the changes.

Do you use Skype™, Flickr™, Meebo™ or other social media in your work? Social networking tools offer colleagues, students and instructors new ways to collaborate and communicate. If you would like to exchange ideas and find out how others on campus are incorporating these tools into professional and academic settings, come to the first meeting of the Social Media Users Group. It’s on September 25th, 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. in the Library’s Distance Education Room on the lower level.
The formation of the group was inspired by the success of the Social Networking Symposium that the library hosted in April 2008.

For more information, contact Alexa Mayo, Associate Director, Services.

The Library is pleased to announce two collaborative efforts between UMB schools and the Library that have resulted in ongoing access to research tools for UMB researchers. Enjoy!

RefWorks is a tool that aids researchers in keeping their citations current and organized, collaborating with on- or off-campus colleagues, and saving time when generating bibliographies for course assignments, dissertations, or manuscripts. It is being funded by contributions from Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Pharmacy, the Dental School and the Graduate School.

NetAnatomy is a web site designed to teach human anatomy to students of the health professions including undergraduate medical, health sciences, and nursing students. It is being funded by contributions from Medicine, Pharmacy, the Department of Physical Therapy and the Dental School.

On July 1, 2008 the HS/HSL added Westlaw’s Campus Research to the Library’s database list, replacing last year’s subscription to Lexis-Nexis Academic. Westlaw Campus covers much of the same subject matter as Lexis-Nexis but has the benefit of an easier-to-use interface. Westlaw’s content includes full-text articles from national and international newspapers, as well as magazines and trade publications; extensive business and company information; and access to a comprehensive collection of primary law sources. Learn more about searching Westlaw with this Quick Reference Guide.

You can now search the Community Of Science (COS) Funding Opportunities directly through the CSA databases: Sociological Abstracts, Social Service Abstracts, ERIC, and PILOTS. The new funding presents more than 22,000 records representing more than $33 billion in grants, fellowships, and prizes. It is international in content and audience, providing access to monies from public and private sponsors. This version is optimized to serve large research organizations, such as university research departments and independent research institutions.

In fiscal year 2008, the Library provided access to Primal Pictures, an interactive multi-media overview of human anatomy, in a pilot project designed to give UMB students and faculty the opportunity to explore these new tools for teaching and learning.

While many found the product useful, the schools ultimately decided that its price outweighed its usefulness, and they opted to subscribe to NetAnatomy instead.

Important Note: Anyone who has used images from Primal Pictures in his or her teaching materials must remove them immediately, per our contract with Primal Pictures.

Questions or comments can be sent to Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management.

If you visited the Library over the past year, you probably saw renovation work taking place on several floors. For our users who visit less often, you may be surprised to find that the Reference Desk moved to a more convenient location, some computers were relocated, and public computers now feature an application to request assistance. We freshened up the Library by recovering chairs, replacing carpet on the first floor, and adding a fresh coat of paint where it was needed.

These improvements were completed as part of a renovation to accommodate some student services in the building. In late September, Student Accounting, the Office of the Registrar, the Office of International Services, and Financial Aid will move to the second floor. The relocation of these services will make them more convenient and will be a great complement to the new Campus Center.

The renovation gave the Library the opportunity to consolidate three departments that make up our Resources Division into a single location on the third floor. Users in need of services such as interlibrary loan or document delivery, or with questions about donating items to the Library, books "in process" in the catalog, or with general questions about the Library’s collections should feel free to stop in as well. The relocated division is currently planning an Open House Celebration to show off its new digs, so keep an eye out.

Through August 29, 2008, visit the Weise Gallery, located on the first floor of the Library, to see the current photography exhibit capturing underwater creatures and other nature scenes with the common theme of water. The photographer, Dr. Adam Puche, is a faculty member in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology. He has a long standing passion for the natural world and nature photography, including an exploration of underwater photography over the last 5 years. His scientific photography has appeared on the covers of seven international journals and his nature photography has been featured in several calendars and individual pieces in juried shows.

Visit the Gallery website for more information about this exhibit or other upcoming exhibits.

On August 8, the Library announced an online survey of UMB faculty aimed at determining which journals, if any, the Library should continue to receive in print to support researchers and clinicians when online access is not available due to an emergency, and to gauge the faculty’s comfort level with a completely electronic journal collection. We’re pleased to report that the response has been excellent so far.

A link to the survey was sent to Department Chairs via email with the request that they send it on to their department faculty. Results of the survey will be shared in an upcoming Connective Issues. If you have not yet received the survey, and are interested in participating, please contact Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management via email, or at 410.706.1345. The survey will close Monday, August 25, 2008.

On July 1st the Library will launch a redesigned website. The organization provides quick access to important resources and services. A new section, Assistance, links you to research help including a new “How do I…” section. You can easily bookmark and share pages to a variety of social media tools and rate pages using a star rating system.

The new SEARCH feature allows you to quickly access some of our most used resources. Pull down the SEARCH menu and choose from the following: Library Website, the Library Catalog, Journals, Databases, PubMed or Newspapers.

Please note that some pages will have new URLs – please update your bookmarks. On July 1st the URL for the home page of the library will be http://www.hshsl.umaryland.edu.

A new HS/HSL toolbar will also be launched on July 1st. Unlike the current toolbar, the new toolbar can be updated seamlessly, and allows to send notifications about new resources and services. You install it once and we can keep it up-to-date.

We wish to thank the faculty, staff and students who provided us with comments and suggestions as we redesigned the website.

One of the most common questions or requests that our staff receives is how to get access to the resources of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library. When we still lived in a primarily print environment, the solution was fairly simple: If you came to the library with a valid picture ID you could use the databases or search the catalog, and could use the books and journals onsite. If you were really needy, you could become a member which would allow you to borrow books. An online environment increasingly linked to full text has made the desire to access our resources from offsite even greater. Because of licensing restrictions our response has been, unless you are paid by the University of Maryland, Baltimore or enrolled, offsite access to our resources was not permitted.

Well, we decided to try to do something about it, and for the past year have been working on a solution.

I am very pleased to announce the availability, on July 1, of Resources Plus!, a full-service research package that includes online full-text journals, databases and more for UMB alumni, volunteer faculty and clinical instructors as well as other associates. Through Resources Plus!, users search in one of four ProQuest databases – Health and Medical Complete™, Nursing & Allied Health Source™, Social Science Journals™, and Medline®/Medline with Full Text® – or search them all simultaneously using the 360 searching feature. Resources Plus! includes coverage from over 7,000 publications, many available in full-text. In July 2008, subscribers to Resources Plus! will also have the opportunity to schedule a consultation with a research librarian, borrow books, and register for any of the HS/HSL’s information management workshops.

The cost of Resources Plus! is $150 per year, but group discounts are available. For more information, email the Resources Plus! team.

Friday, May 16, 2007 – Tuesday, September 2, 2007

Holiday Hours

We’re excited to announce that, for the first time ever, the Library will be hosting workshops throughout the summer.

Workshops are free for all UMB faculty, staff, and students and are held every Tuesday and Wednesday from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Topics covered will include RefWorks, PubMed Advanced, Grant Writing, Navigating the Library and NIH Public Access Mandate.

We hope to see you there! [Full description, schedule, & registration]

New Programs and Resources from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Undiagnosed Diseases Program

The Undiagnosed Diseases Program pursues two goals: To provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis and to advance medical knowledge about rare and common diseases.

The program is organized by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the NIH Office of Rare Diseases (ORD), and the NIH Clinical Center. Senior physicians representing many medical specialties will contribute their expertise to the program’s clinical research.

For more information visit: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/Undiagnosed

Drug Portal

The NLM Drug Information Portal gives the public, healthcare professionals, and researchers a gateway to current, accurate drug information from the NLM and other government agencies.

Over 12,000 drug records are available. The interface is straightforward, requiring only a drug name as a search term, and successful searching is enhanced by the assistance of a spellchecker.

For more information visit: http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov

Disaster Management Resources: Focus on WISER and REMM

The NLM is developing a Disaster Information Management Research Center to ensure the effective use of libraries in the nation’s disaster management efforts. The Center will collect, organize, and disseminate information resources as part of the Federal effort to prepare for, respond to, and reduce the adverse health effects of disasters.

The following two resources are particularly helpful for first responders:

• Wireless Information System for Emergency Responder (WISER), a system designed to assist first responders in hazardous material incidents
  
• Radiation Event Medical Management (REMM), a web site providing guidance to physicians concerning clinical diagnosis and treatment during mass casualty radiological/nuclear events

PubMed has been modified frequently over the years to optimize retrieval or provide features that lead searchers to additional information. PubMed is undergoing two changes which continue this trend. One change is in the way Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) works and the other is a new feature called Citation Sensor.

The Automatic Term Mapping feature was developed to enable PubMed to recognize author names, journal titles, and MeSH vocabulary terms that are used in searches without search tags. In the past when an author name or journal title was the same as a MeSH term, ATM performed a subject search. This caused many searches to fail – especially those looking for a specific article.

For example, a search using citation data: Burns 2005 31 145, where Burns is the journal title, fails with old ATM because "burns" mapped to a MeSH heading and Text Word search of that word. To address this problem, Automatic Term Mapping has been modified to make it more inclusive. With new ATM, the same search retrieves the record in PubMed for the article in Burns.

The MeSH and journals translations of new ATM have been augmented to include “All Fields” searching. Individual words are searched using the All Fields search tag, and, in the case of multi-word terms, those words are ANDed together. This broadens the search considerably by including citations with relevant terms that are not retrieved using old ATM.

For example, with new ATM a search for gene therapy can retrieve an in process record with the phrase, “…clinical application of gene silencing therapy…” which is not retrieved with old ATM. New ATM also searches multi-word terms with the All Fields tag. This allows retrieval of journal names which can only be retrieved using the complete name or abbreviation. It’s a good idea to check Details to verify how your terms have been translated. New ATM retrieves more citations than old ATM and searchers may notice more citations in the retrieval (and saved search updates) that are not of interest.

Citation Sensor is a new PubMed feature that matches searches with citations. It recognizes combinations of search terms that are characteristic of citation searching, e.g., volume/issue numbers, author names, journal titles, and publication dates, which it then matches to citations. If your search invokes the Citation Sensor, you will see a yellow area above the retrieval with links to one or more citations for your consideration. Please note: the Citation Sensor will not work with terms entered with search tags, e.g., chen [au].

For more information about these and other new PubMed features, visit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/feed/rss.cgi?ChanKey=PubMedNews

For instruction about this and other advanced searching techniques in PubMed, sign up for our July 16 PubMed Advanced Workshop.

GreenFILE offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 295,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,600 records.

GreenFILE is a resource designed to help individuals and organizations interested in reducing the negative impact and increasing the positive impact they have on the environment. The database includes information for individuals, such as installing solar panels and recycling; for corporation needing information on green agriculture, hybrid cars or waste management; as well as, environmental laws, regulations and studies. The goal is for GreenFILE to be a practical tool for everyday information and a resource for academic study and classroom activities.

GreenFILE covers content going back more than 35 years. Journal articles unique to GreenFILE include: Bioscience, Journal of Environmental Planning & Management, Journal of Ecology, and Conservation Biology. The database also contains bibliographic information for key non-scholarly titles such as: E-The Environmental Magazine, Natural Life, and Mother Earth News.

To access GreenFILE, go to http://www.greeninfoonline.com.

HS/HSL faculty presentations at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, May 2008.

"Community Connections through Collaboration: Social Workers and Health Science Librarians," Anna Tatro. Poster Presentation.

• Discussed the efficacy of collaboration between social workers and health sciences librarians in providing health information outreach to underserved populations.

"Connecting with Remote Patrons using 2.0 Widget and Knowledgebase," Ryan Harris and Tierney Lyons. Poster Presentation.

• Reference staff implemented Meebo and MediaWiki both free web-based software to create a virtual reference chat service for patrons and to improve communication among reference staff during building renovations.

"Connecting the Campus: Library Leadership in Social Networking," Alexa Mayo, Stefanie Warlick and M.J. Tooey. Poster Presentation.

• This poster reports on planning efforts for a Web 2.0 symposium in an academic health sciences setting, participation of a campus-wide advisory group and feedback from attendees.

"Creative Partnerships: Collaborative Approaches to Cost," Eric Rector and Alexa Mayo. Poster Presentation.

• By developing campus partnerships, the library is able to share the costs of licensing campus-wide resources and identify new avenues for marketing.

"Examining the Connections: Uses of Emerging Technologies for Web-based Instruction," Jaime Blanck, Anna Tatro, and Stefanie Warlick. Paper Presentation.

• Reported on a survey conducted to gather data on the emerging technologies and logistics involved in delivering innovative web-based education.

At the Library’s June staff meeting, Harriet Mandell-Olson from the Department of Family Medicine thanked the HS/HSL staff for their donation of books and funds. In December, 2007, Library staff held a raffle that raised $383.00 for the Reach Out and Read program. The money will be used to purchase books for children visiting Family Practice physicians.

The HS/HSL has once again fielded a team in the UMB Recreation & Wellness Services league. The team is made up of library staff and friends from UMB, UMBC, and Coppin State University. We’d love to see you at the games and encourage you to enjoy the blogged reports and pictures of our exploits.

Informers Softball … Where it doesn’t always hurt to catch.

On April 10th the HS/HSL hosted the symposium Are You Connect.ed? Social Networking Tools for Collaborating, Teaching & Learning. Our simple goal was to introduce attendees to social networking technologies and the possibilities for use in our various communities. By all accounts it was an incredibly successful day, with literally hundreds of people attending presentations, classes, vendor sessions and playing in a technology sandbox.

Andy Carvin, our keynote speaker and NPR’s senior strategist for social media and senior product manager for online communities, commented that we shouldn’t get caught up in labels and terms like social networking or Web 2.0. The "web" is the "web" – it doesn’t have versions. And he prefers "social media" to the term "social networking," as it allows us to think more inclusively about this wide variety of social tools. I think he is right. We use terms to compartmentalize and organize ideas, but this can be a narrow way of thinking and may even slow us down. Users of social media need to evolve – to become people who go with the flow – and I have vowed to erase these terms from my vocabulary!

Other things I learned:

• Focus on what you want to accomplish. Don’t just use social media because you can. Use it because it enhances and supports your goals.
• Experiment. We won’t always get things right the first time, and we will have to modify and occasionally admit that things aren’t working as well as we hoped. Failure is an option and taking risks is important.
• Go where our users are. For a good while to come, we will need to exist in communities that are in multiple places with multiple needs and multiple learning styles. We need to meet our community wherever we can.

Over the course of the next few days and weeks we will be linking the presentations, making the social networking sandbox available, posting podcasts, and meeting with colleagues to build some next-step partnerships. As libraries evolve to more closely meet the needs of our communities, some of these social media tools may be just what we need. We look forward to this evolution.

Social media enables students and patients to become educators and influence policy, and educators and clinicians must learn to facilitate their contributions by becoming an active presence in online communities. This was the underlying theme of the HS/HSL’s "Are You Connect.ed?" symposium on April 10th.

The keynote address was given by Andy Carvin, NPR’s senior strategist for social media and senior product manager for online communities. In it, he discussed how today’s educators might harness social media for teaching and learning, much as they had past technologies. A podcast of his address is available online.

During the morning session, a panel of experts presented these issues. In addressing teaching and learning, Greg Walsh reviewed how instructors could work together in an online community of practice and could teach through gaming and student-generated content.

Dr. Jean Jeudy focused on the clinical setting, emphasizing that online tools create a synergy by bringing together community and knowledge with patients and clinicians. Dr. Jeudy pointed out that social media can help alleviate patients’ fears by enabling them to work with teams of specialists and to find support groups using the "wisdom of the crowd."

Additionally, social media allows clinicians to learn in virtual hospitals and to participate in peer review by community in order to advance scholarly communication, thus lessening the information lag caused by distance or the traditional scholarly communications model.

Melanie Moran, the final speaker of the morning, discussed how students are already using social networking to tell their stories through short videos posted to YouTube, and urged the audience to harness social media as a way to communicate information about their institutions or organizations to their user communities.

Symposium attendees appreciated how they could apply these technologies in their work. Vinay Vaidya, MD found the day’s sessions both "practical and useful" and deemed iTunes U and YouTube in particular to be "rapid, low cost solutions" for using IT in education and clinical environments.

If you missed the event, you can access podcasts, presentations, and the social networking sandbox on the Are You Connect.ed? site. To hear what others are saying about the day, see Clarence Lam’s excellent article in Campus Connections. Photos of the day are also available on the HS/HSL’s Flickr page.

We hope you will be pleased to learn that the HS/HSL has recently created a presence on each of these social networking sites. You can find information about new events on our Facebook page, view pictures of Library events, construction, and the like at our Flickr site and check out our videos at You Tube (in the works).

The HS/HSL is excited about these new avenues to connect to you, our users. Feel free to virtually drop by, become a fan on Facebook, or comment on what we post.

We’re here for you!

As of March 4, 2008, the HS/HSL ceased its membership with the open access journal publisher BioMed Central. The change in our membership status does not affect our access to BMC journals.

As structured, the membership required the Library to fully subsidize UMB affiliate and faculty publications. That model proved unsustainable given the Library’s funding levels. Additionally, the BioMed Central membership was unique in our Library, in that it was the only instance where the Library funded faculty publications. Besides being cost-prohibitive, we believe it is more appropriate for that funding to come from grants or departmental research budgets.

UMB faculty and researchers may want to investigate writing publication costs into their grants. In particular, the NIH is encouraging researchers to include publication costs in grant applications to help defray the additional labor required by the NIH Public Access mandate. Another option may be to work with your department to establish funding streams that help offset article publication costs.

Any articles submitted to BioMed Central before March 4, 2008, will be subsidized if published.

As always, the HS/HSL’s goal is to support our researchers by purchasing or licensing the best and most appropriate resources. For more information, or to offer comments or suggestions, please contact Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management via email, or at 410.706.1345.

HS/HSL librarians are reviewing a resource that could help students and clinicians prepare for USMLE steps 1-3, board certifications, and other professional exams. It’s called Exam Master, and we encourage you to take a peek, too.

Exam Master content includes practice tests and review materials for USMLE, PANCE, NAPLEX, and NBDE, as well as certification reviews and medical subject reviews in anatomy, biochemistry, cytology and histology, medical microbiology, pathology, physiology, and psychiatry.

Trial users need to create a login, and should contact the vendor’s helpdesk with problems or questions. The trial is available through May 31, 2008.

While it’s doubtful we’ll be adding Exam Master to the Library’s resources this year, we are interested in your assessment of it as a potential future offering. Please send your comments and suggestions through the Library’s resource request form.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), a network of health related libraries and organizations across the U.S., has developed a national preparedness plan to ensure the continuity of health information services anywhere in the country should an emergency or disaster occur. The plan encourages Network libraries to develop a comprehensive emergency plan that covers service provision and resource recovery. It also establishes procedures for communication with back-up partners and the regional Network office before, during and after a disaster.

To assist Network libraries, the planning team developed the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response Toolkit, which contains links to disaster plan templates, recovery companies and more.

The regional Network office for the Southeastern/Atlantic Region (SE/A), housed at the HS/HSL, has developed a standing advisory committee comprised of a member from each state in the region. The SE/A staff have also developed a web resource of regional and local emergency resources. Future plans include training Network members on developing continuity of service plans and assisting with the establishment of back-up library relationships.

By preparing for potential disasters, Network libraries will help to mitigate the impact of disasters on the health care team by ensuring access to needed health information. For more information about the NN/LM plan, contact Janice E Kelly, Executive Director, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region.

Original Question:

I find it hard to believe the limited electronic resources available. Every article I have requested through free of charge ILL has been denied. The articles were all after the year 1990, so not something too obscure. At my past University, this was never a problem and articles requested did not cost anything to be obtained. The $8 fee seems a bit high…

As I work on my PhD, these limited resources are hindering my completion. I am extremely disappointed in this aspect of the University of Maryland. I would think Interlibrary loan articles should be covered under student fees.

Response:

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns. We value the input we receive directly from the community we serve and take it to heart. Our goal is to be an asset – not a hindrance – to our students as they pursue their education.

In reviewing your specific interlibrary loan requests, the reason for those cancellations was that the journal titles requested were not held in the USMAI system of 16 libraries across our 14 campuses. If they were, they would be provided free of charge as part of our consortial agreement. When we receive a request with the billing option, "Obtain at No Charge," we search USMAI holdings only and cancel the request if the article cannot be obtained through the consortium. When we borrow outside of the USMAI libraries, we will pay up to $20 per request so the $8.00 fee we charge for that service is actually subsidized.

You are correct that many universities are funded at a level which enables them to provide interlibrary loan service at no charge across the board. We aspire to be among them one day. Currently, the portion of instructional resource fees that the library receives covers only a fraction of our expenses. Thus, it is necessary for the HS/HSL to charge fees for certain services.

Thank you for your valued input and the chance to answer these important questions.

Each semester the Library offers a series of workshops covering a wide range of topics. Registration is free to all UMB students, faculty and staff. While the semester is coming to an end, the Library is still offering many exciting workshops, including:

African American Community Health April 29, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

African Americans see diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease affecting their friends and families every day. Free online resources from the National Library of Medicine and other reliable sources are available to help. This two hour class will provide participants with some basic health information as well as information specific to the African American community.

The Library will also be offering summer workshops this year, so be on the lookout for our summer workshop schedule.

As the Library continues its move towards providing online access to all the journals needed by our students, faculty and staff, we are also investigating which journals, if any, we should receive in print to support researchers and clinicians in the event of an emergency.

Over the next month department heads will be contacted with more information about the “Core Print” project, and will be asked to pass some information onto their faculty, including a brief survey designed to collect input about those titles necessary to receive in print as well as electronic form.

Over the summer, the Library will review the data collected and will follow-up with researchers to assure a good understanding of their needs for hardcopy journals. During this time, we will also be investigating how to continue providing access to electronic content in emergency situations.

For more information, or to offer comments or suggestions, please contact Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management via email, or at 410.706.1345.

Has the HS/HSL positively influenced your health? Has this or another library provided resources that helped you learn more about an illness or provided information that improved your emotional, mental, or physical well-being? If so, consider telling your story in a contest sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and Woman’s Day magazine.

Sorry guys, but this contest is restricted to women residing in the United States. Up to four women will have their essays of 700 words or less featured in an issue of Woman’s Day. For more information, see the official rules. Entries can be emailed to womansday@ala.org between February 12 and May 11, 2008.

Join us on April 10, 2008!

Explore social networking technologies in collaboration, teaching, and learning at the Library-hosted Social Networking Symposium.

Breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m. and will be followed with a keynote address in the School of Nursing auditorium. Keynote speaker, Andy Carvin, National Public Radio’s senior product manager for online communities will present. Mr. Carvin hosts a PBS blog, learning.now, serves as a field correspondent for the vlog, Rocketboom, and has a personal blog, Andy Carvin’s Waste of Bandwidth.

After Mr. Carvin’s address, join us for presentations on how social networking technologies are employed in an academic and clinical environment by an esteemed panel that includes Dr. Jean Jeudy, Assistant Professor, Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, UMB, Melanie Moran, Assistant Director for Web Communications, Department of Public Affairs, Vanderbilt University, and Greg Walsh, Senior Instructional Technologist at Black & Decker, e-Learning Consultant, and UMBC Adjunct Professor.

The afternoon will begin with a Brownbag Lunch Discussion entitled Privacy in a Web 2.0 World, presented by Raylene Thompson, Center for Information and Technology, the Catholic University of America, and will continue with presentations and hands-on sessions of social networking technologies. Throughout the day, exhibitors will be demonstrating their products in the Library’s Weise Gallery and presenting more in-depth resource introductions in the Library’s Family Room. A reception in the Gladhill Boardroom will wrap up proceedings.

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us!

Visit the official Are You Connect.ed? website for complete details and updates. For more information, contact Alexa Mayo.

The last few months have been heady ones for the open access movement. First, the NIH Public Access Policy was signed into law. Second, the European Research Council Scientific Council issued its statement on open access. And finally, in mid-February, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University voted "to give the University a worldwide license to make each faculty member’s scholarly articles available and to exercise the copyright in the articles, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit." These articles will be deposited in a repository maintained by Harvard and will be freely accessible through search engines such as Google.

Harvard’s bold move has caused quite a stir in the publishing, scholarly communications, and library communities because, well, Harvard is Harvard. When an elite research university and its faculty actively support a major open access initiative and opts to control its own scholarly capital, the initiative obviously has traction and momentum.

What does this mean for the HS/HSL and UMB? Right now, we are actively observing Harvard’s project. There are still many questions about just how this will work. (For a taste of the issues, see blog comments in the Chronicle of Higher Education and The Scientist.com.) We currently support open access through workshops on public access and copyright, the generation of a UMB copyright addendum to publisher agreements, our scholarly communication web page, and our partnership with the Office of Research and Development in support of the NIH Public Access Policy.

Long term, the open access conversation needs to take place at the highest levels of UMB. From a practical standpoint, the development of a UMB repository requires a philosophical and financial commitment. Librarians are uniquely positioned to develop repositories because of their training and skill in building scholarly databases and using sophisticated metadata tools, as well as their understanding of the scholarly publishing process. However, these projects require funding and staffing. Perhaps philosophical support is actually the bigger issue as universities, including UMB, examine what scholarly publication means, especially in an academic community dependent on promotion and tenure. In addition, this is not the type of project that can be started and stopped – support must be ongoing and enduring. These conversations need to happen sooner rather than later, and the Library staff would be delighted to be part of them.

As of April 7, 2008, all peer-reviewed articles arising from NIH funds are required to be submitted to PubMed Central no later than 12 months after date of publication. The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. It requires investigators to submit journal articles from NIH-funded research efforts to the digital archive PubMed Central.

When submitting articles for publication, authors of articles that arise from NIH funding must inform the journal that the article is subject to the policy. They must also be sure that the publication agreement allows the article to be submitted in accordance with the policy. Selected journals submit articles directly to PubMed Central. See http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm for a list of these journals. For other journals, authors will need to negotiate their copyrights to allow submission.

The Library’s Scholarly Communication web page has information to support the policy including publication transfer agreements. Workshops on the article submission process to PubMed Central are offered through the library.

For more information, see the NIH’s Public Access FAQ or Ask Us!

Get to know Library resources on Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. and Wednesdays from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. through the end of April. We are once again awarding prizes to workshop attendees this semester. To be eligible for these prizes simply attend a workshop and fill out an entry form.

Prizes include:

• Library Coffee Mug ($4 value plus discounted refills at the Tower Cafe)
• Library Print/Copy Card with a $10.00 value
• 1 GB USB Drive ($15 value)
• Grand Prize – Reserved Study Room During Finals Week! Get your own quiet study space. HS/HSL will supply the room as well as coffee and bagels to help you get through your finals. Coffee & Bagels ($25 value) — Room to Study (priceless)

Upcoming workshops include:

• NIH Public Access Mandate: Submitting to PubMed Central, Monday, March 24th
• Psychosocial Instruments, Tuesday, March 25th
• RefWorks, Wednesday, April 1st
• Locating the Evidence, Wednesday, April 2nd
• Finding Drug Information, Tuesday, April 8th
• PubMed Advanced, Wednesday, April 9th
• SciFinder Scholar, April 15th

Register now!

Now Library "friends" can become fans! Chat with reference staff to get live research help, search for our books and journals using WorldCat, search PubMed without opening a new browser, receive invitations to Library events, stay updated with newsfeeds about the latest workshops and happenings, view photos of renovations, and more.

Being a fan is another way to keep track of the Library home page. If you happen to forget our web address and lack access to your bookmarks, you can still easily access the Library from your Facebook account. In addition, you’ll get updates about Library programs in your profile and have the opportunity to share in discussions about enhancing your library experience.

Become a fan of the HS/HSL!

Please join us in welcoming our new Cataloging Librarian, María Fernández, to the HS/HSL.

María has a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. She has held positions as a high school librarian, a public library director, and an academic librarian at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, where she served as Cataloging Librarian, Reference Librarian, and a Library Instructor.

We are confident that María’s varied experience will be an asset as the Library explores the future of the library catalog.

We are pleased to announce that users now have the option to print on both sides of the paper, thanks to the addition of a duplex printer. Print jobs can be sent from computers on any floor in the library building, cost 10 cents per side, and can be picked up in the first floor copier room. Don’t forget, the Library also has a color printer, scanners, and software for creating PDFs from scanned materials.

We are in the final stages of developing a suite of databases with full-text online journals for alumni and associates (volunteer and clinical faculty) that we call Resources Plus!. We are releasing it for testing purposes and are inviting alumni and associates to use Resources Plus! and serve as beta testers.

Here is a link to registration forms to beta test Resources Plus!: http://www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/alumni/beta.html

Membership is free during beta testing, which runs through June 2008. During that period we will ask our beta testers to give us feedback on Resources Plus! so that we may make improvements to it. After this initial testing period, Resources Plus! will be available to UMB alumni and associates for an annual membership fee. Beta tester participants will receive a discount.

If you have any questions about Resources Plus!, please contact Alexa Mayo.

This past year the Library has been providing access to two anatomy databases – Primal Pictures and NetAnatomy – in a pilot project designed to give UMB students and faculty the opportunity to explore these new tools for teaching and learning. We are now in the process of evaluating usage and collecting feedback from interested parties. Once the information is collected, we will pass it on to UMB Departments so they can decide if they would like to fund continued access.

Primal Pictures is a dynamic interactive multi-media overview of human anatomy, featuring 3-D animations showing function, biomechanics, and surgical procedures. NetAnatomy is a web site designed to teach human anatomy to students of the health professions including undergraduate medical, health sciences, and nursing students.

If these resources are important to you, we would like to hear about how they impact your teaching and learning. Please send your comments and suggestions to Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management.

In January 2007, the HS/HSL and the Social Work Community Outreach Services (SWCOS) formed a partnership to spread the word about consumer health information and health resources to members of the greater Baltimore community. We received an award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine to train professionals and members of the general public to use MedlinePlus and Maryland Health → Go Local.

During 2007, the partnership trained almost 1,000 individuals to use these valuable resources. Approximately half of those trained were health or social services professionals, and the other half were members of the general public. The training took place at large events, like the African-American and Native American Heritage Festivals, and at smaller, community functions like the Washington Village Pigtown Center meeting. Members of the partnership worked with groups of elderly citizens, Schweitzer Fellows, and parents of elementary school students; they trained members of the Baltimore County Health Department and the Peoples’ Community Health Center. By all accounts, the training was a success. Attendees were enthusiastic about Maryland Health → Go Local and MedlinePlus. Many said they would recommend the class to a friend.

While the project ended in December 2007, the Library continues to seek campus partnerships that will allow us to increase awareness of the excellent health information resources available to the Baltimore community and the state of Maryland.

For more information, please contact Paula Raimondo, Head, Liaison & Outreach Services.

In honor of Dr. John Crawford, founder of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library, and in celebration of Irish American history, the Library is highlighting aspects of his life on our digital display in March.

Dr. Crawford was born in northern Ireland on May 3, 1746. As the son of a clergyman, his upbringing infused him with a refined sense of conduct and a respect for all creation. These principles were essential in framing his outlook on life and helped energize his professional practice.

At the age of seventeen, Crawford began his formal education at Trinity College in Dublin. This experience nurtured his desire to study medicine. Later, as ship’s surgeon aboard the East India Company’s Marquis of Rockingham, he was afforded many opportunities to observe the local flora and fauna, which inspired his radical opinions about parasitic microorganisms or "animalculae" as the root cause of diseases. At the time his ideas were dismissed by his contemporaries, most of whom supported the theory that disease resulted from the atmospheric vapors of decomposing effluvial matter.

As a faculty member in our School of Medicine, he published A Lecture, Introductory to a Course of Lectures on the Cause, Seat and Cure of Diseases. Unfortunately, his beliefs would not receive their proper acceptance until many decades after his death on May 9, 1813. As an avid book collector, Crawford owned a private library of over 600 volumes.

Following his death, colleagues on the faculty purchased his library from his family’s estate and established the University of Maryland Library. Dr. Crawford is buried in the Westminster Hall cemetery, but his legacy lives on through his original book collection and the Library it founded.

For more information, see Dr. John Crawford’s Biography on the Library’s website.

We invite you to join us in an exploration of social networking. Are you connect.ed? is a day long, community-wide symposium bringing together experts on technologies such as Facebook, YouTube, and Connotea.

The April 10, 2008 symposium will feature a morning session with a keynote speaker followed by a panel of experts. Panelists will discuss practical applications of Social Networking tools for collaborating, teaching & learning. The afternoon will feature hands-on sessions that allow time for experimentation in an informal setting. A reception at the Library will wrap up this thought-provoking event.

For more information visit http://www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/areyouconnected/

For many years we have wanted to produce a public annual report to let our constituents, colleagues, customers, and supporters know what we’ve been up to. This year we finally met that goal with the publication of Partnering Throughout the Campus and Beyond: The HS/HSL Annual Report 2006-2007. We struggled with what we wanted the report to be. All of us had seen reports we didn’t like but it was hard to nail down exactly what would convey the energy and excitement we feel within the HS/HSL as we work toward a new definition of what it means to be a library. As we reflected on our previous fiscal year, we discovered many of our activities embodied, at their core, partnerships. We will never lose sight of the fact our excellent staff, innovative services, and the quality information resources we provide underpin the education, research, and service programs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Our strength and future lies in the partnerships, connections, and collaborations we establish with our faculty, staff, students, and beyond. Although the report includes some standard facts and figures, we chose to focus on stories that illustrate the variety of our partnerships ranging from supporting new resources to supporting the greater community.

The annual report is available online. If you would like a print copy, please contact Library Administration at 410.706.7545 with your request and we will mail one to you. Enjoy!

The Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL) is conducting a usability study to examine navigation, organization and content of a new prototype of the HS/HSL web site. We want to know what our users think and how we can make our site a better resource. The Library is looking for volunteers to participate in the study. It requires a one-hour time commitment.

The study requires that a volunteer come to the Library and search for several items (tasks) on the HS/HSL web site. Participants are asked to verbalize what they are thinking as they try to locate requested information. Screen activity and the participant’s voice will be recorded. Two library staff members will observe the progress. There will be an opportunity for discussion after the tasks have been completed. The study will run from March 3rd through March14th.

Please take this opportunity to let us know what you think about this new prototype of the HS/HSL web site. If you are interested in participating, contact Patricia Hinegardner at 410.706.8863 or phinegar@umaryland.edu.

From the Women’s Medical College of Baltimore to modern movers and shakers, the story of medical women in Maryland is rich and varied. The forthcoming exhibit – Maryland Women in Medicine – celebrates the contributions of the women who have made medicine in Maryland what it is today. This exhibit, running March 3 through June 13, was developed to complement the very successful Changing the Face of Medicine, which the Library presented this past fall.

The exhibit is based upon an essay written by Larry Pitrof, Executive Director of the Medical Alumni Association of the University of Maryland, Inc., and was generously underwritten by the Alumni Association.

Please join us for the opening reception, held Wednesday, March 12, from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. All are welcome.

For more information about upcoming exhibits and opening receptions please visit the Weise Gallery page.

A new suite of resources for volunteer faculty, clinical instructors, and alumni of the UMB Medical Campus is available for preview now through June 2008. It’s called Resources Plus!

Resources Plus! members can search Medline or full-text databases in medicine, nursing allied health, and the social sciences, or can search across them all using the 360 search! Beginning in July 2008, Resources Plus! members will also be able to schedule a consultation with a research librarian, borrow books, and register for any of the HS/HSL’s information management workshops.

The Library is eager to hear what potential Resources Plus! users think, and is currently recruiting volunteer faculty, clinical instructor, and alumnus to beta test the databases and web site. Beta testers will have free access to the databases and online journals through June 2008 and will receive a reduced subscription rate for the following year. In July 2008, Resources Plus! will be available by paid subscription only. For more information, or to register as a beta tester, contact Alexa Mayo, 410.706.1316.

If you haven’t visited the Library lately, you’re in for a surprise. Renovations on the first floor are complete, resulting in a beautifully transformed space. The reference desk is now conveniently located by the front elevators, with the current journals just a few steps away. The reconfigured space provides easier, more pleasant access to our computers, tables, carrels, and comfortable seating.

On the second and third floors you’ll find that construction is well underway, and should be completed by summer 2008. During this time, study rooms will remain available, as will the computers located above the art gallery and the circulation desk. Additionally, Resource Sharing Services will temporarily relocate from the third to the second floor during construction.

For your convenience, we will be offering construction updates on the Library website, signs throughout the Library, and the first floor digital display. Thanks for your patience!

With so much information available at our fingertips, it is important for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other biomedical professionals to have the most appropriate tools available on their PDAs. Below you’ll find information on three drug information resources you may find useful.

Thomson Clinical Xpert (formally known as Mobile Micromedex)

FREE to all UMB students, faculty, and staff, Clinical Xpert provides quick drug look-ups and clinical references and tools. This on-the-go, evidence-based application comes complete with clinical references and tools. You’ll also find access to lab test information, a disease database, toxicology information, and handy medical calculators.

Access instructions

ePocrates Rx

This FREE program provides a clinical drug database with approximately 3,300 drug monographs for the PDA. Each monograph includes information on pricing, adverse reactions, contraindications, and pharmacokinetics. The auto-update function, provides information on new drugs, new indications, and recalls.

Access instructions

Lexi-Comp PDA Software

A fee-based package, Lexi-Select is a comprehensive package of 17 Lexi-Comp brand-named databases and modules including Lexi-Drugs, Lexi-Interact, and Lexi-Natural Products. This package covers topics such as pharmacology, drug interactions, patient education, laboratory/diagnostic tests, and natural products.

Access & purchase instructions

Visit the HS/HSL PDA Resources page for additional information and a comparison chart of these three tools.

Interested in finding Open Access (OA) venues for submitting your manuscripts? Do you have a favorite BioMed Central (BMC) journal such as BMC Genetics or Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations? If so, we have good news!

The HS/HSL is committed to supporting UMB authors who choose OA publications. One of the many ways we accomplish this is by covering article processing charges for manuscripts accepted by BMC journals.

Visit our Scholarly Communication page to learn more about OA initiatives and opportunities, and to see where your UMB colleagues are publishing.

Evidence-Based Public Health has been defined as the use of current best evidence in making decisions about the health of communities or populations. This workshop will focus on defining clear questions and tips for finding the best evidence using a variety of online resources that address the multidisciplinary nature of public health. Resources covered will expand beyond the traditional journal databases to include grey literature from government documents, technical reports and other alternative sources. The workshop will take place Wednesday, February 27, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Workshops are held on Tuesdays from 10:00 p.m. – 11:00 a.m. and Wednesdays from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. all semester. You can view the schedule or register for classes online.

We hope to see you there!

As many of you know, RefWorks is a fantastic tool that helps you keep your literature citations current and organized, collaborate with your on- or off-campus colleagues, and serves as a time saver when generating bibliographies for your course assignments, dissertations, or manuscripts. Recent RefWorks enhancements to Write-N-Cite and RefShare make it even easier to integrate RefWorks into your workflow.

As a UMB student, faculty, or staff member, RefWorks is FREE to use and can be accessed anywhere you can find an internet connection.

Visit the HS/HSL guide to RefWorks to learn more. Don’t forget, we offer free workshops for both new and more advanced RefWorks users.

Register Now!

January expects to be a busy month for Library construction as crews make way for the Registrar’s Office, Records and Registration, and Student Accounting, all of which will be relocating to the Library building. During this month, floors one, two, and three are under construction.

Even as this article is being written, carpet is being removed and replaced, current journal shelving is being shifted, and the new reference desk is being built on the first floor (conveniently located near the elevators). The first floor renovations are scheduled for completion by the end of January 2008 after which users will again have access to comfortable seating, computer workstations, and tables for the quiet study and collaboration previously enjoyed.

Over the course of the spring semester, new offices will be built on the second and third floors. This construction is also underway. Library users will be happy to know that 40 plus study rooms and the beautiful public spaces that encourage study and research are being retained.

Early in the semester, users will almost certainly find that the fourth and fifth floors are the best places to study quietly. For your convenience, we will be offering construction updates on the Library website, signs throughout the Library, and the first floor digital display.

Thank you for your patience as we work to improve both the Library and services to UMB students, faculty, and staff. We think you’ll be pleased with the results!

The day after Christmas, President Bush signed an omnibus spending bill that included a provision requiring the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to mandate public access for NIH-funded research. The language says:

"The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law."

This is a huge step in the right direction. We have been following the intertwined issues of public and open access for years as the landscape of scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing has changed dramatically. This legislation is important for a number of reasons. First, it is the first public access mandate for a government funding agency supported by Congress. Second, it may set the stage for other government funding agencies to pursue similar public access strategies for their funded research. Third, since the NIH is so big, a tremendous amount of biomedical research findings will be freed up. One estimate is that NIH-funded research results in 65,000 peer reviewed articles per year. And finally, although many would have preferred articles to be publicly available in six months rather than 12, it was felt that having a strong mandatory policy was more important.

The National Library of Medicine has published information regarding the details and procedures related to this policy. To review this information, please go to NIH Public Access Policy Details site.

Library staff will be monitoring developments in this area and providing support for researchers to help navigate the submission process. Please stay tuned for updates as this information and new services come available.

On April 10, 2008 the Health Sciences & Human Services Library will host a campus-wide event exploring the use of social networking tools such as Facebook, YouTube, and digg in an academic environment. The event, entitled "Are you connect.ed? Social networking tools for collaboration, teaching, & learning," will address new technologies and trends affecting the academic research and clinical work on the academic campus today.

Planning for the symposium is well underway and we are looking for experienced users from our campus and beyond to lead afternoon sessions in which they’ll share their interest, experience, or expertise with social networking tools. If you would like to be involved, please contact Teresa Knott, tknott@hshsl.umaryland.edu for more information.

Reference and Research Services has added instant messaging to its suite of AskUs services.

The new service uses meebo, a web-based chat client that allows you to communicate with reference staff in real-time with nothing more than a browser and an internet connection. It’s pretty nifty!

Simply visit the AskUs page and you’ll be connected.

On February 4, 2008 the Library will switch to the new Ovid interface, called OvidSP, and users will notice a change in both the design and the search features for all resources subscribed through Ovid (e.g., Medline, PsycInfo, and Evidenced Based Medicine Reviews). The new interface allows for multiple search modes, including a basic text word search, a controlled vocabulary search called Ovid Syntax, and a more efficient citation search. But don’t wait until February, try it today! When using any of the HS/HSL Ovid databases just select the "Try OVIDSP" link.

To learn more about the new Interface, please attend one of our Ovid Medline workshops, Ovid’s live online trainings, or view their instructional materials.

In spring 2007, the HS/HSL was one of 246 libraries, including 11 members of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL), to administer the LibQUAL+ survey to assess how well library users’ needs are being met.

Overall, the HS/HSL is doing well when compared against other AAHSL survey participants and users are more satisfied with service and information resources than they were in 2002, even as their expectations have increased in both areas. All UMB respondents rate the Library highly on the quality of the building, which is viewed as comfortable, inviting, and a good space for group learning and study. The Library also receives high ratings for its staff who are viewed as attentive, caring, knowledgeable, and confidence instilling.

While the results indicate that users find information using internet search engines such as Google, it also shows that a majority of respondents rely heavily on the Library to meet their needs. Eighty-one percent of faculty and students access library resources through our website daily or weekly and half of all students come into the building on a daily or weekly basis.

The survey results highlight areas that need further investigation. Respondents from all user groups indicated areas where the Library can improve including better offsite access and larger electronic journal collections.

For more information, see the LibQual+ result summary pdf.

Once again, the Library is offering free workshops on a broad range of topics this semester. They will be held on Tuesdays from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. and Wednesdays from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. This semester’s line-up includes Google Scholar, Journals: Finding Full Text, RefWorks Basics and Advanced, as well as a new workshop called Navigating the Library: Making Resources Work for You.

Check out the schedule and register for classes online. Hope to see you there!

The Weise Gallery presents "Pixels at an Exhibition," featuring the photography of Dr. Barry Handwerger. Dr. Handwerger is a longtime friend of the Library and recently retired University of Maryland Rheumatologist/Immunologist. This is his third Weise Gallery showing of unique digital photography.

Photography has become a passion for Handwerger, who delights in the nuances he can achieve by modifying digital images. With an eye for unusual angles and composition, he focuses on diverse subjects that reflect his avid interests in world travel, nature, and architecture. This exhibit showcases these themes.

"I bought my first real camera, a single lens reflex, in 1970 shortly after my first child arrived on the scene. With a good camera, I grew excited about the creative aspects of photography. In my own darkroom I spent whole evenings experimenting with image-enhancing techniques. About six years ago, I purchased my first digital camera and I was hooked!"

Co-founder of Digi-Docs, a local photography group, Handwerger contributed to its Weise Gallery show in 2006. His pictures adorn the walls of many UMB campus rooms.

A celebration of the exhibit opening was held on Thursday, January 10, 2008 from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

This was a great study break! Thank you! from Alissa Zingman, SOM

Students flocked to the HS/HSL on December 12th and 13th to take a break from studying for finals. They enjoyed snacks provided by the Library and local businesses Salsarita’s, California Tortilla, Peace and a Cup of Joe, and Jay’s Deli and Catering.

Students also took advantage of fun and relaxing activities such as yoga instruction and playing a Nintendo Wii, both generously supplied by the Student Athletic Center.

As part of the event, participating students were entered in a raffle. Kristina Fragle was the lucky grand prize winner. She took home an iPod shuffle donated by the HS/HSL executive director, M.J. Tooey. "Wow, I never win anything! Finals week activities were really a stress reliever… I come to the library all the time to study. It’s my second home," said Kristina. Other raffle prizes included gourmet caramels and merino wool socks provided by Ma Petit Shoe.

Both students and librarians had a great time at the event and we look forward to hosting other similar events in the future!

As part of its Food for Fines program, the Library collected seven book trucks of non-perishable food items for the Maryland Food Bank between November 21st and December 21st. $10 in overdue fines were waived for each item donated. 215 people dontated items and $4,164.60 in fines were forgiven. Your contributions made this program a true success and provided timely aid to Maryland families over the holiday season.

Library staff also collected 28 books and $334 from a holiday raffle that went to UMMC’s Reach Out & Read Program at the Pediatric Ambulatory Center.

Reach Out & Read uses donations in several ways: For every $27.50 donated, 10 new books can be purchased that will provide a new book for each check-up visit from 6 months to 5 years; $55 will provide the first board book for 20 babies at the 6 month check-up; $110 will provide books for a young family with 4 small children.

The UMB chapter of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) is proud to sponsor a second visit from Dr. Vivian W. Pinn who was recently honored in the “Changing The Face of Medicine” exhibit at HS/HSL.

On January 30, 2008 at 12:00 p.m., Dr. Pinn will speak on “Women in Medicine: The Challenges and The Future.” The event will take place in the Sophomore Lecture Hall of the Bressler building. Please join us!

For a full listing of Library hours including Reference Desk hours, please visit our website.

January 22, 2008 – May 16, 2008

Holiday Hours

I have been bemused by some of the reactions to the HS/HSL’s Food for Fines program during which the Library will forgive $10 in fines for each donation of a non-perishable item to be donated to the Maryland Food Bank. Reactions have ranged from concern over us giving up a huge income stream from fines (not!) to simply "why"?

Well, we say "why not?" During this traditional season of giving we don’t have hoards of students to send out to serve dinners or collect toys or build houses. And, if you know anything about how library staff are paid or how the library is funded, you know we don’t have millions of dollars to donate to worthy causes. However, we still feel it is important for the library staff to be engaged in the good work of UMB.

This year we chose two projects, the aforementioned Food for Fines and Reach Out and Read. At the time of this newsletter’s publication, we have collected hundreds of items. We won’t know how many fines were forgiven because we have found that, in the spirit of giving, people have been dropping off items or contributing beyond their one item to $10 ratio. That’s pretty great.

Reach Out and Read is a national non-profit organization promoting early literacy by giving new books to pediatric patients in doctors’ offices. In addition to collecting age appropriate children’s books, Library staff donated over $300 to support the purchase of new books for the program.

It is good for the Library to be part of UMB’s community outreach efforts not only at the holidays but during the rest of the year as well. Please accept our best wishes for this holiday season and on into 2008.

Looking to curl up with a good book over the winter break? Or maybe a light read while you recover from exams? Then look no further than the Kinnard Leisure Collection, located on the Library’s first floor near the digital display.

If you have used our leisure collection in the past, you will be happy to hear that we now allow leisure books to be renewed up to three times – that means you can borrow a leisure book for up to three months! You can also place a hold on a book that is currently checked out by someone else, and we’ll notify you when it’s available.

This collection is made possible through a generous gift from Dr. & Mrs. William Kinnard and has a rotating selection of recent fiction, biography and history, as well as over thirty popular magazine subscriptions.? We’re confident you’ll find something that appeals to you, but we’re also looking for suggestions of what you like to read for pleasure.? Simply drop a note in the HS/HSL suggestion box if there’s something you’d like to read, and we’ll see what we can do.

Formerly known as "Document Delivery Management," "Interlibrary Loan" or "The Ones Who Get Stuff for Us," the Resource Sharing Services department will begin 2008 with a new name. We do more than document delivery, more than interlibrary loan and, while we ARE the ones who get stuff for you, we think that Resource Sharing Services has a nicer ring to it. Please let us continue to share the world?s educational resources with you in 2008 and beyond!

Phone: 410.706.3239
Email: rs@hshsl.umaryland.edu

Information about our Services:
Document Delivery
Interlibrary Loan

Hours:
Monday-Friday: 8:00 am ? 4:30 pm

Have you noticed those big red buttons on the public computers? They are part of the new QuickHelp service brought to you by the Library Reference staff.

When you click the QuickHelp button, your computer sends a message to the Reference Desk, alerting the staff that you need assistance.

This new, convenient service is available during reference hours and is installed on all public computers, floors 2-5.

Debbie Berlanstein, Liaison & Outreach Services Librarian, recently had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA).

Ms. Berlanstein reported to Connective Issues that the "breadth of the APHA program was truly impressive," and included sessions on the history and future of public health in the U.S. and a "heated" overview of the national healthcare debate. When asked what the best part of the meeting was, she replied that she was most impressed with the "dedication to their work that was evident among the wide range of public health professionals in attendance."

Her attendance was generously funded through a stipend from the Sewell Memorial Fund of the Medical Library Association, whose mission is to increase librarians’ identification with medical and health care professionals so that they may better serve their clients’ needs.

For select public health resources, see the following:

• CDC RSS Feeds
• Advancing the Nation’s Health: A Guide to Public Health Research Needs, 2006-2015
• HS/HSL Public Health Resources Page

"Hi, I am a graduate student. I brought my laptop to work on my studying. During my studying, I wanted to connect to the internet, but unfortunately, the wireless network is really weak! I have tried to many, many times, but it has never worked. This library is great, but not for [the] internet connection. Please increase connectivity. It is very important to students here. Thank you."

We’re glad you think the Library is great, but very sorry you have had difficulties with our wireless connectivity. Your problem is not uncommon, as the increasing popularity of wireless computing has stretched our network access to the limit. Unfortunately, there is only so much wireless bandwidth to go around and, the more users there are on the system, the weaker and slower the connection becomes.

The good news is that the Library’s wireless network is due for an overhaul.? We are proud of the fact that we were one of the first campus buildings to install wireless over four years ago, and pleased to announce that we are not only planning to improve the strength of the signal, but also on connecting to the emerging campus wireless network.? There are still a few technical issues to resolve, and we are awaiting a cost estimate.? Our hope is that the wireless upgrade will take place along with our other Spring renovations, so stay tuned.

This semester, the Library awarded prizes to workshop attendees. As if learning weren’t enough! To be eligible, faculty, staff, and students needed only to attend a workshop and complete an entry form.

Winners:

• Janet Clarke, School of Nursing – Library mug
• Valerie Rogers, School of Nursing – 1 GB USB drive
• Johnnie Holmes, School of Nursing – $10 Library printing card

Grand Prize Winner:

• Ying Tang, School of Medicine – Reserved study room plus coffee and bagels during finals week.

Congratulations to the winners! We look forward to seeing you in the workshops next semester, where you will once again have the chance to learn and win! Keep an eye out for the Spring Workshop offerings.

In an effort to aid students and faculty in browsing our journals by subject, the Library has created links to the major headings of Health & Biological Sciences or Social Sciences on our journal collections webpage.

We have also launched ArticleFinder, a new service that allows you to look up a specific article in the Library’s electronic journal collections using the article’s citation information. Check it out!

Publications

Robin Klein, Patricia Hinegardner, Alexa Mayo and former staff member Jane Murray published a chapter, "Serials Management in an Academic Health Sciences Library," in Lightman & Blosser’s Perspectives on Serials in the Hybrid Environment (ALCTS Papers on Library Technical Services and Collections, #15). Chicago: American Library Association, 2007.

Teresa Knott, AHIP, reviewed Evolving Internet Reference Resources in the July 2007 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association.

Promotions and Appointments

Eric Rector was promoted to Head, Collections Management on August 1, 2007. In his new position, Eric is responsible for leading and overseeing the selection, acquisitions, processing and maintenance activities of the Library’s collections in all formats.

Steven Douglas was appointed as Acquisitions Librarian on September 17, 2007. He manages the ordering, processing and maintenance activities of all monographs and serials acquisitions and collaborates with the Digital Resources Librarian to acquire all electronic resources.

Awards

Paula Raimondo, Head, Outreach & Liaisons Services was named Librarian of the Year by the Medical Library Association’s Mid-Atlantic Chapter (MAC) in October 2006 – September 2007.

This award is presented to a MAC member for outstanding contributions in health sciences librarianship. Criteria for the award include, but are not limited to: leadership in the profession, scholarship/publications/research, teaching/training/mentoring, professional activity, and service to the health profession.

This October, the Library once again hosted a student breakfast in the Weise Gallery to celebrate National Medical Librarians Month.

In addition to bagels and coffee, the breakfast attendees were treated to a three minute video featuring HS/HSL Librarians discussing the challenges and rewards of medical librarianship, and also had the opportunity to attend fun, informal workshops on Flickr, Bloglines, and Google Docs.

Filling both minds and stomachs, the student breakfast was hailed as a success.

Historical Highlights focuses on some of the unique materials available for viewing in the Historical Collections department, located on the fifth floor of the HS/HSL. For more information on the materials you read about, contact Rich Behles, the library’s Historical Librarian and author of our series, at (410) 706-5048 or rbehles@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Sometimes called the "Christmas star," the vibrant poinsettia flower (Poinsettia pulcherrima) is a popular Christmas decoration. While it is commonly believed that the plant is highly toxic, and it is true that its milky sap has been known to cause allergic reactions, modern researchers have proven that we can enjoy this holiday centerpiece without fear of its sting.

Unlike the poinsettia, whose value is merely aesthetic, another popular flower of the season does have some medicinal properties. That flower, sometimes dubbed the "Christmas rose," is the black hellebore (Helleborus niger), and its Latin name is derived from its knotty black root. The flower?s popular name, and its popularity during the season, comes from its tendency to bloom in December. This species is both demon and delight, and enjoys a history of curative properties, though it can be dangerous.

As described in Thomas Green?s Universal Herbal, shown here, medical writers through the centuries cautioned that the use of black hellebore should be guarded. At higher dosage levels, it functions as a violent cathartic purgative, which is the very characteristic giving it merit under controlled dosages. Its ability to promote evacuations made it useful, for example, in releasing uterine or urinary obstructions. Its history dates back to the earliest millennia, as the ancients in the Hippocratic tradition prescribed it favorably in the treatment of mania and melancholy. The early authorities believed that hellebore?s evacuative power facilitated the release of black bile, which was blamed for the presence of such mental maladies.

On a lighter note, for centuries festive folk have played at seeking or eluding a quick smooch under the mistletoe during the Christmas and New Year?s season. Green?s book describes the Viscum album, or common white mistletoe. Traditions surrounding the mistletoe arose from the Druids, who viewed both it and the oak tree upon which it grew as sacred. Druid celebrations included scattering countless mistletoe branches as an announcement of the new year. Over time, the plant increasingly found its way into houses, hung in conjunction with other Christmas evergreens. However, it too has medicinal uses, as its dried and powdered leaves enjoyed a great reputation for curing epilepsy and other convulsive disorders. Though many a timid youth might disagree, as the very sight of mistletoe might have triggered the most terrified trembling as it encouraged the unwelcome advances of some not-so-winsome lad or lass.

Recently, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the value of HS/HSL’s many friends. Our friends come in all shapes and sizes, from a variety of places. They are all friends for different reasons too. For example, during the Changing the Face of Medicine exhibit, we had a committee of volunteers and supporters, including President and Mrs. Ramsay, the Helena Foundation, and the Medical Alumni Association. Without them, we never would have been able to support the exhibit. Other friends include those of you who filled out our LibQual+ survey earlier this year. Your input will help us improve our services and resources.

We have friends who enrich our resources by donating rare books and materials to our historical collections. We have friends like Charlotte Ferencz, who has enriched the library by contributing her time and talent to the creation of Congenital Heart Disease, a website currently used as a textbook in remote areas of the world. Our Library Board of Visitors and the Library Advisory Committee have provided sage advice regarding strategic direction for the library’s future. We also have a cadre of dedicated donors who contribute money to us yearly through United Charities and through the University of Maryland at Baltimore Foundation (UMBF) to support the work we do, remembering that a gift to the library is a gift to everyone. At this season of Thanksgiving, we are grateful for every one of the friends we have. Thank you!

Learn more about giving gifts to the library.

Love to give and receive – A Food for Fines program will take place from Monday, November 21st to Friday, December 21st. The Library will collect non-perishable food items at the Circulation Desk during HS/HSL’s open hours. We will waive $10 in HS/HSL overdue fines when you donate one non-perishable food item, $20 for two items, etc. This offer does not apply to lost book charges. The goods collected will be donated to the Maryland Food Bank.

What are you waiting for?

With the recent addition of Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database and Lexi-Comp Online to HS/HSL’s database collection, the UMB community now has an even wider range of resources in which to find evidence-based information on complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). Here is a list of resources that we highly recommend using to answer your questions regarding natural products and supplements:

Subscription Databases

• 
  Facts and Comparisons lets you search for natural product summaries as well as information on effectiveness, adverse reactions, and possible interactions. Within the database you can also access "The Review of Natural Products," a section designed to help you find detailed information on the history, chemistry, pharmacology, medicinal uses, and toxicology of products, as well as useful patient information.

  Access: On and off campus

• 
  This database contains over 1,000 evidence-based monographs on natural medicines. Within the database you can find information on natural product uses, safety, effectiveness, pharmacological actions, adverse reactions, possible interactions, and much more. The database also lets you search topics such as obesity, depression, and influenza to see which natural products are being used as treatments.

  Access: Within the library building for users not affiliated with the School of Pharmacy, on and off campus access for School of Pharmacy students, faculty, and staff.

• 
  This database lets you search for natural product summaries as well as information on natural product effectiveness, adverse reactions, and possible interactions. Because it is designed to be used at the point-of-care, its information is concise and easy to read. This resource also provides links to research articles at the end of product summaries when possible.

  Access: On and off campus

For additional links to online CAM resources, visit our CAM e-resource page.

Some of HS/HSL’s older books and directories are currently stored in compact shelving, located in the Library’s lower level. If you cannot find a book on the 5th floor shelves, or if the online catalog says, "Closed Stacks: Ask at Circulation Desk," just inquire at the Circulation Desk by the Library’s front door. A staff member will pull the book for you.

New PubMed Features

Finding the full-text of articles is now even easier in PubMed! – Here at the HS/HSL we have been working behind the scenes to save you time by making it faster for you to locate the full-text of articles from their citation in PubMed. We’ve made several changes. Check it out:

• 
  Directly below many PubMed abstracts to which HS/HSL users have access, you will see a link reading: "University of MD HS/HSL (online)". Click on this link to be taken directly to the full-text article.

• 
  Print journals still exist – not everything is digital quite yet! For some citations, HS/HSL will have the full-text of the article in a print copy of the journal at the library. Clicking on this link will show you HS/HSL’s active subscription range for the journal.

• 
  No HS/HSL links under the abstract? Look to the right of the article’s title. You will see the "Find It" link. Click on this link to find out if the HS/HSL has either a print or electronic subscription to the article. If there is no active subscription listed, you can also use "Find It" to automatically generate an interlibrary loan request for borrowing from another library.

• In a hurry? – Try the "University of Maryland, Baltimore" tab. – Clicking the tab in PubMed labeled "University of Maryland, Baltimore" will limit the results displayed to only those citations that HS/HSL has either an electronic or print subscription.

Did you know that many UMB authors are publishing in Open Access (OA) journals? These publications are freely accessible and provide the world with electronic access to important and often publicly funded research. The HS/HSL has been a vocal supporter of OA publishing models and is interested in promoting OA as an alternative to the UMB community.

If you’d like to check out OA articles from UMB authors, we’ve been collecting citations in one easily accessible database. Maintained using RefWorks, articles collected in the Open Access @ UMB database all have at least one UMB affiliate listed as an author. New items are added on a monthly basis and the database currently contains 138 articles.

To find out more, visit the HS/HSL Scholarly Communication information page or attend the upcoming Scholarly Publishing and Open Access Webcast.

HS/HSL workshops are still being offered as the semester comes to a close. Don’t forget, if you attend workshops you are eligible for prizes, including our grand prize of a reserved study room with bagels and coffee during Finals Week!

Upcoming workshops include:

• RefWorks Advanced, Tuesday, November 27th
• PubMed Advanced, Wednesday, November 28th
• Google Scholar, Wednesday, December, 5th
• E-Journals, Tuesday, December, 11th
• Lexis Nexis, Wednesday, December 12th

Register now!

On November 20th, HS/HSL will play host to a webcast entitled "Scholarly Publishing and Open Access: Straight Talk," produced by the Medical Library Association.

Objectives of the webcast include:

• Introducing, defining, and explaining significant models of scholarly publishing
• Exploring the impact of open access on hospital libraries, academic libraries, and authors
• Discussing university and hospital perspectives to support new approaches

The webcast will air from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in Room LL05. Information about webcast presenters is available. To register, contact Teresa Knott at tknott@hshsl.umaryland.edu before November 19th.

We always welcome suggestions from patrons on ways to improve the Library. Here’s a recent submission from HS/HSL’s Suggestion Box.

Furniture Question from a Student:

The condition of the upholstery on the furniture is very poor in the library, especially on the second floor, one of the more high traffic areas of the library. A significant number of the floor chairs are torn from natural use. As a student paying services for my education, I would expect that re-upholstering these chairs would be done for the benefit of students’ use and for general respect to those who use this library, which consists of doctors, faculty researchers, guest researchers, and other dignitaries that come visit our campus. The appearance, quite frankly, is appalling; more so, the usability of the upholstery of the chairs is undesirable. I rarely see people sitting in these very comfortable chairs. I am asking for a response [from] the University [regarding] the plan for reupholstering these chairs. Sincerely, Concerned Student

Library Response from Assistant Director for Business Development & Operations:

Thank you for your concern. Recently the campus approved funding to repair the chairs and I am currently working with the Library Director and fabric vendors to select fabrics to be used to reupholster the chairs. You can look forward to clean new fabric on these chairs within the next few months.

Giving a gift to HS/HSL is a great way to support everyone associated with HS/HSL, from our faculty, staff, and students to the larger community of users in the city, across the state, and around the region. Gifts to the HS/HSL support technology renewal, digital collections, and special programming.

Most gifts come to HS/HSL through the University of Maryland at Baltimore Foundation. A gift can be donated online or with a check made payable to the UMBF, with a note indicating the donation is intended for the Health Sciences and Human Services Library. Donations can be mailed directly to the Health Sciences and Human Services Library, Library Administration, UMB, 601 W. Lombard St., Baltimore, MD 21201, or to the Foundation office at 660 W. Redwood St., Rm. 021, Baltimore, MD 21201.

You can also donate through the United Charities Campaign by designating HS/HSL on the supplemental card after selecting the UMB Foundation (Code 9695). It is important that you check "I do want my name and address released to the agencies I have designated to receive my gift" on the United Charities main form or the donation will go to the UMBF general fund and not the library. There are complete instructions on the reverse of the supplemental form.

Please consider giving a gift that supports everyone!

Exceptions to the Library’s regular hours during the Thanksgiving and December holidays are as follows:

Fall term ends December 22, 2006.
We will resume regular hours on Tuesday, January 2, 2007.

Historical Highlights focuses on some of the unique materials available for viewing in the Historical Collections department, located on the fifth floor of the HS/HSL. For more information on the materials you read about, contact Rich Behles, the library’s Historical Librarian and author of our series, at 410.706.5048 or rbehles@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

First Librarian Restored To Life

Through the generous support of the Medical Alumni Association, the Library’s restored portrait of Eugene F. Cordell now hangs on the fifth floor, adjacent to the elevator lobby. The painting and its frame both sustained extensive water damage several years ago. Historical Librarian Rich Behles recently mentioned its condition to Medical Alumni Executive Director Larry Pitrof, who graciously offered to fund its restoration. Sian Jones of Art Conservation Services expertly completed the painstaking project at a cost of $10,000.

Born on June 25, 1843 in Charlestown, West Virginia (then part of Virginia), Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell went on to serve in the Confederate army, and later entered our School of Medicine after the war. He graduated in 1868, later founded the Woman’s Medical College of Baltimore, and went on to write his Historical Sketch of the University of Maryland in 1891. His Medical Annals of Maryland appeared in 1903, a monumental compendium of the history of the medical profession in Maryland up to that time. In 1907 he published his two-volume set, University of Maryland, 1807-1907: Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics, With Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Its Founders, Benefactors, Regents, Faculty and Alumni.

Cordell became the University of Maryland’s first Professor of the History of Medicine in 1903, as well as the first to bear the title "Librarian." Before that time, the Library had languished under dire circumstances, and Cordell brought the scholarly stature of his professional position to its proper care and development. The largest of the Library’s Historical Collections is the Cordell Collection, named for him.

Learn more about Cordell and the Cordell Collection

October is a busy month for health-related celebrations. Tucked in with Physical Therapy Month, American Pharmacists Month, and Health Literacy Month is another little known celebration – National Medical Librarians Month (NMLM). Some of my colleagues in medical libraries across the U.S. have elevated this celebration to an art. They even win prizes for the cleverness of their events and promotions. Here at the HS/HSL we joke about our National Medical Librarians Month carols and decorating an NMLM tree (old catalog cards strung together, anyone?). We return to our work as liaisons, teachers, collection developers, resource managers, outreach workers, researchers, web designers and administrators, and do our best to make sure we are meeting the information needs of all our constituents.

Let me be the first to wish you a happy NMLM. Come to our celebratory breakfast on Halloween at 8:00am, have a bagel on the library, and see your favorite librarian celebrity. Let us know what else we can do to help. See you there!

Read more about our plans for NMLM.

Science Resource Center, a new database from Thomson Gale, is now available from the HS/HSL Database page.

Science Resource Center offers abstracts and full text articles covering a wide range of scientific topics, including aviation, genetic disorders, natural disasters, and physiology. Articles are drawn from reference works, popular magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers, multimedia, and websites. Helpful resource tools, such as links to information on how to cite sources are included. It’s also easy to incorporate found articles into your online lesson plans by using SRC’s InfoMark tool. Take the guided tour, accessible from the Toolbox, to find out more. Try it today!

Twice each year 30 professionals are selected to attend the week-long BioMedical Informatics course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The course is a fellowship program sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. This competitive program accepts less than 25% of applicants for each session. The participants come from a variety of backgrounds – nursing, medicine, computing, and library science.

The course is a survey of current research areas in biomedical informatics and is taught by informatics leaders. Key topics include human-computer interfaces, medical vocabularies and coding systems, medical decision analysis methods, evaluation methods in medical informatics, and strategies for designing and managing clinical information systems. Students gain practical skills such as web page development and database design through hands-on workshops.

Three HSHSL librarians, Jaime Blanck (SOM liaison), Teresa Knott (Deputy Director), and Tierney Lyons (Head of Reference), have had the opportunity to attend in recent years.

If you have ideas or questions about how the Library can be integrated into your Informatics project, please Ask us!

For more information or to apply, please visit: http://courses.mbl.edu/mi/

Photo Credit: Nadine Ellero

October has been named Medical Librarians month by the Medical Library Association. With the explosion and increased accessibility of health related information, biomedical librarians are more valuable than ever to health professionals, patients, and the community.

Come celebrate our month with us! Please join us for one (or all) of the following events scheduled for the last week in October.

Meet your Librarians Breakfast
October 31st 8-9 am, HS/HSL Lobby

Fun & Informal Workshops – 11-11:30 on October 29, 30, & 31

Flickr – Monday, October 29th (Room LL05)
Instructor: Julie Nanavati

RSS feeds & Bloglines – Tuesday, October 30th (Room LL04)
Instructor: Jaime Blanck

Google Docs & Google Calendar – Wednesday, October 31st (Room LL03)
Instructors: Debra Berlanstein & Stefanie Warlick?????????????????

Register now or just stop by!

We’d like to welcome our new Outreach Librarian, Meredith Solomon to HS/HSL. Meredith is here to support the Library in its mission to meet the health information needs of our diverse constituents throughout the state.

Meredith comes to us from the National Library of Medicine, where she participated in the Associate Fellowship program from 2006 – 2007. She received her Masters degree in Library Science from Emporia State University in August 2006.

While at the National Library of Medicine, Meredith volunteered with LifeGuard D.C., an AIDS prevention organization. She was also a technical assistant at a community hospital library in Oregon for eight years. Meredith spent a portion of her time working in the Consumer Health Library, and focused on providing patients and community members with health and nutrition information. She is currently working on becoming a certified Level One Consumer Health Information Specialist.

Meredith is looking forward to getting to know the citizens of Maryland and assisting them with their health information needs. She can also help support your school?s outreach projects. Please call her at 410.706.1551, or email her at msolomon@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Hello, HS/HSL Connective Issue readers. My name is Meredith Solomon and I am excited to be the new Outreach Librarian for the library. Since I have been employed at HS/HSL I have had the chance to participate in two outreach events.

My first opportunity came during my second week at HS/HSL. Stefanie Warlick, HS/HSL’s Nursing Liaison, and I exhibited at the Leadership Pathways to Nursing Excellence Conference held in Cumberland, MD. Here, we promoted Maryland Health → GoLocal and MedlinePlus. Maryland Health → GoLocal is a link to local Maryland health programs and services maintained in partnership with the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) consumer health information website, MedlinePlus. Maryland citizens can link directly to support services in their local community, without special training or assistance. It is a joint project of the HS/HSL, NIH, and the NLM.

We had a great response from the conference attendees. My hope is that we can collaborate with community organizations, hospitals, and public libraries in western Maryland to promote health related information resources and health literacy.

My second outreach opportunity came at the Maryland Academy of Physician Assistants conference in Ocean City. About 400 PA’s from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and even New Jersey were in attendance. Our exhibit promoted consumer health resources PA’s can use to educate their patients.

On the whole, my goal is to connect with UMB’s many schools, collaborate on projects, and grant awards that promote not only HS/HSL’s services but those of the NLM as well. I want to empower our users to be well informed, health literate patients. So, if you have any ideas or would like to just introduce yourself to me, please e-mail me at msolomon@hshsl.umaryland.edu or call me at 410.706.1551.

Photographer Eric Randolph will be exhibiting his work at HS/HSL October 9-December 9, 2007. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 11 from 5:00? 8:00 p.m. in the Frieda Weise Gallery.

Randolph’s collection of work focuses on unique Baltimore locales and scenic areas from surrounding counties. His photographs are taken with digital cameras as well as traditional film. Some of his work is even created with a plastic Diana toy camera. For more information about the artist and the exhibit visit the gallery website.

OvidSP, the new look and feel, will be available beginning October 25th. At that time, we will have "dual" access to the current version of the Ovid interface and OvidSP. Access to both versions will continue until February 4, 2008.

According to product announcements, OvidSP will showcase multiple enhancements including a clean look and multiple search modes (beginner to more advanced).

For those Ovid users who prefer the current version, you will still be able to access "Classic Ovid" through the new version.

We will keep you updated as we receive more information and modify our training materials.

Linda Gray Kelley performed A Lady Alone on September 11, 2007 to celebrate the Changing the Face of Medicine exhibit and the 200th Anniversary of the School of Medicine.

Linda Gray Kelley’s portrayal of Elizabeth Blackwell was engaging, informative, and provided a closer look into what life was like for young women who aspired to become physicians and work in the medical profession in the late 1800s. A reception followed the play where attendees viewed the exhibit firsthand and gained a greater appreciation of the accomplishments of women physicians.

Historical Highlights focuses on some of the unique materials available for viewing in the Historical Collections department, located on the fifth floor of the HS/HSL. For more information on the materials you read about, contact Rich Behles, the library’s Historical Librarian and author of our series, at 410.706.5048 or rbehles@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

The Lighter Side of Dark: The Mysteries of Opium

No doubt the word "Opium" here, in all its inky blackness, conjures up images of downtrodden addicts slumped in dank alleyways. Likewise, "Mysteries" suggests the aura of a desensitized stupor. Opium certainly does possess such sinister narcotic qualities, yet physicians have documented its therapeutic characteristics for millennia, dating back to the formulary of Scribonius Largus, written in about 43 A.D.

The New London Dispensatory of 1682 attests that "The best Opium is a Medicine to be prized, if it fall into the hand of a wise man…. It eases all manner of pains almost in a moment, whether inward or outward…." Further, "It helps in most diseases of the Breast and Lungs, as Coughs, Colds, Hoarsness, Asthma’s; stops all Fluxes, helps spitting of Blood, and is an excellent thing in Consumptions, if given by a prudent hand."

This 1700 book by Dr. John Jones attempts to guide the caution of that prudent hand, separating myth from truth, and shedding the Light from God (A Deo Lux) onto the murky therapeutics of a dangerous substance. Jones cites the ill effects of opium as "Nauseas, Vomitings, which are generally very dismal, with great distress, and sometimes dangerous ; Swimming in the head, Hiccoughs, Distresses, Anxieties, Convulsions, Faintings, Leipothymies, Syncopes, &c." Attempting to debunk previous misconceptions, Jones states that the trick to successful administration of opium is in its preparation. One must be extremely careful to separate off its "Earthy or Phlegmatick parts." In particular, he blames the "Rosin" for being the chief source of the drug’s dangerous narcotic tendencies. In other words, Jones will have us believe that one need not fear the ingestion of opium, so long as its composition and dosage are correctly proportionate.

Jones’ book enjoys a place in our Crawford Collection, the Library’s original founding collection. John Crawford’s own inscription on the title page adds special merit to the piece.