The message in this month’s column will be short and sweet – thank you! For almost a year, for four hours every month, our users have participated in the HS/HSL Usage Survey. Sometimes it meant a digital interruption when you were online. Sometimes you were barraged by paper if you entered the library during the survey times. Most of the time you were very gracious; and for those who were, a special thank you.

This survey was very important as it will help library staff gain a keener picture of who our users are and what they are using. As we embark on our new strategic plan taking us to our third century (2013 – mark your calendars now), this survey will provide critical, valuable, quantitative data to drive some of our decision making and direction.

We will be sharing some of the results in future HS/HSL Connective Issues.

Thanks again.

Check out the trial of Epocrates Online Premium, "continually updated, integrated drug and disease information."

The trial is running until November 13th.

With the loss of many key personnel from the Library’s softball team, there was a lot of concern about whether the Informers could repeat last year’s success as “B” Division champs. But as Woody Allen said, "80% of success is showing up." And show up they did! Adding some new players, the team showed up for every game and benefited from a forfeit or two. And when the plucky Informers showed up, they ground out every game with perseverance, passion, skill, intimidation when necessary, and blind luck! The championship game against the Dysfunctionals (16-13) was a study in classic softball strategies, using all the rules to the library team’s advantage.

Congratulations to the team!

The HS/HSL will be celebrating National Medical Librarians Month with a series of workshops focused on social networking. These workshops will illustrate some of the unique ways social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google can be used for academic and educational purposes.

The workshops included in this series are Facebook for Your Campus Group, Twitter: Tool or Time Waster?, 20 New Technologies in 30 Minutes, and Google: Beyond Searching.

For full course descriptions and registration visit our Workshops page.

Debra Berlanstein, MLS, AHIP has been named the Head of the Reference and Research Services Department at the HS/HSL. For the past three years Debra was a Liaison to the Schools of Medicine and Public Health at HS/HSL. She has over 25 years of experience as a reference librarian and served as Head of Reference at both the Towson University’s Cook Library and the Tufts University Hirsh Health Sciences Library in Boston. Debra has attended the National Library of Medicine’s Woods Hole Biomedical Informatics course and has expertise in biomedical informatics, expert searching, and systematic reviews. We wish her great success in her new position!

The National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit "Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health" will be in the Weise Gallery from September 28, 2009 through November 6, 2009.

On Monday, October 12, 2009 an event will be held to complement the exhibit. The theme of the event is "Students on the Ground: Highlighting UMB Global Health Experiences." Guest speakers Caroline Orwenyo, Irene Ekwede, Melanie Coffman, Ihuoma Ezebuihe, and Florence Nwoga will present on the School of Nursing Global Health Certificate program and their field experience with UMB’s Institute for Human Virology in Nigeria.

The presentation will be held at 1:00p.m. in the HS/HSL Distance Education Room, located on the Library’s Lower Level, Room LL02. A reception will follow in the 1st Floor Weise Gallery. RSVP by email with subject line "Against the Odds" by October 7, 2009

Activities for this event are co-sponsored by the Health Sciences and Human Services Library, School of Nursing Office of Global Health, and the Nurses for Global Health.

For more information about exhibits at the Library, please visit the Weise Gallery web page or call 410.706.8853.

IT and Reference staff at the Library have created an original application called Quick Help that allows us to expand reference service throughout the library building. Patrons using public computers on floors one through five of the Library can request assistance simply by clicking on the Quick Help icon. Once help is requested, an alert message containing the number/location of the computer from which the request originated appears on all Reference computers and a staff member responds by reporting to that location to provide in-person assistance.

In a 190,000 square foot library building, Quick Help has allowed us to offer convenient help to our in-house "remote" users. As opposed to other types of remote assistance, such as instant messaging and e-mail, Quick Help has proved uniquely useful for printing problems and software troubleshooting.

If you are interested in using Quick Help in your library, or if you have questions about Quick Help, contact Alexa Mayo.

National Medical Librarians Month

October is National Medical Librarians Month! The HS/HSL will be hosting an afternoon reception with refreshments. The date is yet to be determined, but be sure to check our web site for an announcement.

Open Access Week – October 19-23, 2009

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for FreeCulture have declared October 19-23 the first international Open Access Week. Libraries, universities, and student groups 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.

For more information and news about the open access movement, check out the article "5 Major Research Universities Endorse Open-Access Journals" from the Chronicle of Higher Education or visit the Open Access Week web site.

After the Library’s Tower Café closed this summer to make way for the new eateries in the Campus Center, crews began renovating the vacated space for other uses. Now, with the renovation complete, the 1st floor of the Library’s tower has been transformed into a lounge area with comfortable couches and candy-striped chairs. The high-ceilinged room is encircled by soaring windows that let in plenty of natural light while offering great views of the busy corner of Lombard and Greene Streets and of historic Davidge Hall. The Tower Lounge also features beverage and snack vending machines, café tables, a microwave oven, and a toaster. Come take a study break, eat your lunch, or just relax.

The new Southern Management Corporation (SMC) Campus Center quietly opened on August 3rd. After the campus center staff, I don’t think anyone is happier than the library staff that the building is complete. For over three years, HS/HSL staff have been doing their part in working towards this goal. Collections have been weeded and shifted. Staff have been moved. Five floors have been renovated. New cohabitants have been welcomed into the building. Now we are overjoyed that the two buildings are complete, reopened and rejoined. Not only is there a physical connection between the two buildings but there is a synergy of services and purpose as well. The energy generated by our reconnection and common purpose is almost palpable. We are practically glowing down here. And the coffee is good!

When new neighbors arrive or a friend moves into a new home, I usually take over a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, and flowers to welcome them. While those items might not be appropriate for a campus center opening, rest assured the staff of the HS/HSL heartily welcomes our neighbors back in their new beautiful building. The location of these two buildings together will be transformative for UMB. Congratulations to all involved.

The Library is using a new web 2.0 content management and publishing system to create discipline, subject, and course guides. This new system, LibGuides, allows us to easily create multimedia content, share knowledge and information, and promote library resources to the campus community.

The new guides incorporate RSS feeds, videos, chat, and more. Users can also receive email alerts every time a new guide is published. The library has guides on Statistics, Health Policy, Writing and Citing, H1N1 (Swine) Flu, and more.

You will be able to access the guides from the Library’s main website (Discipline/Subject Guides) or view them from the Library’s Facebook page by clicking on Boxes. From there you can go directly to the guides or add LibGuides to your Facebook page.

The new HS/HSL Guides will debut in early September! Watch for the announcement!

Note: If you have a specific discipline or subject guide already bookmarked, you will need to update your bookmarks.

The HS/HSL offers many workshops most Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the semester. Those offered this semester include: Creating Effective Presentations Using PowerPoint, RefWorks, Searching the Health Literature, and Journals: Finding Full Text. Registration is free for all UMB faculty, staff, and students. For full course descriptions and registration for Fall Workshops click here.

The Library also offers On Demand Workshops to individuals or small groups who cannot make one of our scheduled workshops or who would like instruction on a topic that is not part of the regular schedule. CINAHL, Westlaw Campus Research, and Ovid MEDLINE are some examples of On Demand Workshop offerings.

The HS/HSL has added the following new EBSCO databases to the Library’s Databases page:

• SocINDEX with Full Text
• Social Work Abstracts
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts
• Family Studies Abstracts
• LGBT Life with Full Text
• Race Relations Abstracts
• Abstracts in Social Gerontology
• Urban Studies Abstract
• Violence & Abuse Abstracts

SocINDEX with Full Text is the leading sociology database offering comprehensive coverage of sociology and related fields of study.

SocINDEX contains more than 1,200 core journals as well as many more selective journal titles in sociology with the majority linking to electronic full text. The database also includes over 900 electronic books. SocINDEX has replaced Sociological Abstracts.

Social Work Abstracts, produced by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), is the most well-known database providing scholarly, peer-reviewed resources specific to the theory and practice of social work and human services. Social Work Abstracts has replaced Social Service Abstracts.

Anna Tatro, Liaison to the School of Social Work, will be presenting a workshop focused on these new databases September 30, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm in Room LL03 on the Lower Level of the Library. You can register here. Please contact Anna by email if you have questions.

Dr. Malinda Orlin, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School, University of Maryland, Baltimore has announced the promotion, effective July 1, of M.J. Tooey to Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs and Executive Director, Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL). Ms. Tooey has served as the Executive Director of the HS/HSL since 2004. In her new role Tooey will expand upon responsibilities related to scholarly communication, academic information in the digital age, active engagement of HS/HSL supporting student success, and the broader issues surrounding information strategies and collaborative learning in the promotion of academic excellence.

Orlin says, "Over the past six years M.J. has thoroughly and continually impressed me with her evolving understanding of the impact on research libraries of the myriad, far-reaching changes in the scholarly/research environment. She is knowledgeable in the field and about how to work collaboratively with faculty and information technology experts to articulate strategies and tactical approaches to meet these challenges."

Tooey has worked at UMB in various library positions since 1986. She is also the Director of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Southeastern/Atlantic Region under contract to the National Library of Medicine, NIH. She received her MLS from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982 and her Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Clarion State University (formerly Clarion State College).

Tooey served as president of the Medical Library Association (MLA) from 2005-2006 and was elected a Fellow of the association in 2009. She has also served on MLA’s Board of Directors and as the Chair of the 2004 National Program Committee for the MLA Annual Meeting held in May 2004 in Washington, DC. In 2001 she chaired the MLA committee that partnered with the Pew Internet and American Life Project to assess consumer health information needs and habits. In 1997 she received the MLA Estelle Brodman Award as Academic Medical Librarian of the Year. She has served as Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association and has received the chapter’s Librarian of the Year and the Marge Abel Service Recognition Award. She has also chaired the Public Services Section of the Medical Library Association.

An author or co-author of over 70 chapters, articles, presentations or posters, she currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries where she also chairs the Charting the Future Committee.

Tooey serves on the library advisory committees for FASEB and the New England Journal of Medicine. She is active in the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions Council of Library Directors where she has served on the budget and strategic planning committees. Additionally, she was a delegate to the 1991 White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services and she served on the Board of Trustees of Palinet from 2007-2009.

COMCAST has sponsored a public service announcement (PSA) for Maryland Health -> Go Local. They created the announcement with input from our Go Local team and aired it in August. It appeared 200 times in each of the following counties: Anne Arundel, Baltimore County, Carroll, Howard, and Harford, as well as Baltimore City. If you saw it, please let us know. Send us an email at golocal@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Maryland Health -> Go Local is a web-based statewide directory of health-related services and programs created to serve the citizens of Maryland. It was developed and is maintained by the Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL) in partnership with the National Library of Medicine. The directory listings link to reliable health information provided by the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus database.

To keep up to date on what is happening with Maryland Health -> Go Local, visit Maryland Health -> Go Local eUpdate, a blog that provides updates, news, and information about project developments and activities.

The Health Sciences and Human Services Library wishes to thank COMCAST for their sponsorship of the announcement. Click here to view the PSA. (Requires QuickTime)

The HS/HSL has created numerous online tutorials to help you navigate Library resources and search databases. Topics include: Creating an Interlibrary Loan Account, Subject Searching in CINAHL, and Creating an Account in RefWorks.

For the first time we are offering them on both YouTube and the University of Maryland’s iTunes U site. You can watch tutorials directly on your computer within YouTube or iTunes or download them to your iPhone or iPod for on-the-go instruction. Tutorials will also remain accessible through our Library Savvy page.

Google Docs is a free web application that allows you to create, share, and edit documents, presentations, and spreadsheets online.

Google Docs allows for "real time collaboration," where multiple users can open and edit a shared document simultaneously. Since Google Docs updates within seconds, collaborators can see and respond to each other’s edits in real time. A detailed revision history tracks changes made by each editor and allows you to revert to previous versions of your document.

For RefWorks users there is one caveat to Google Docs: Inserting citations into a Google document, while it is possible, is not as easy as it is in Word. If you need assistance using RefWorks with Google Docs, please contact the Reference Desk at 410.706.7996 or by e-mail.

Ryan Harris, Reference Librarian and Anna Tatro, Liaison to the School of Social Work, will be presenting a free workshop called Google: Beyond Searching, which will cover Google Docs and other Google products. The workshop will be held on October 22, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm in Room LL05 on the Lower Level of the Library. Click here to register.

If you would like to learn more about Google Docs right now, the following web resources can get you started:

• 6 Google Docs Features to Make Collaboration More Productive
• Google Docs in Plain English
• Google Docs Tour

If you returned books late and didn’t pay your overdue fines, you may have received an "Overdue Notice" in the mail. Please pay special attention to any notice you receive. Accounts with unpaid balances past 90 days will be blocked, which will prevent you from checking out additional books or receiving your diploma. Accounts with unpaid balances over $30 will be sent to collections.

You can avoid late fees by renewing your books online. If you renew your books late, you will still be responsible for fines accrued between the due date and the date of renewal.

Lost book notices were mailed to individuals who have not returned their overdue books. We would prefer to have the book returned, rather than charge a replacement fee, since so much more work is involved in locating and replacing the book. If you have found a book that was previously considered lost, please return it to the library so we can remove the replacement fine from your account. You will still be responsible for unpaid late fines, previously accrued, up to $14 per book.

For more information about overdue fines, see our Circulation Policies.

For questions about your library account call Circulation at 410.706.7995.

Three new photocopiers were installed at the Library; two are located on the 1st floor, Room 111, and one on the 3rd floor, Room 311.

Prices remain the same at 12 cents per copy with the UMB1 card or 15 cents if paying with change.

No, I didn’t write that. That is a quote from Adam Bly, who gave the keynote address at the Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Meeting in Baltimore a few weeks back. Bly is the editor-in-chief and founder of Seed Magazine and the CEO/Chairman of the Seed Media Group. According to Wikipedia, "Each issue [of Seed Magazine] looks at big ideas in science, important issues at the intersection of science and society, and the people driving global science culture." His talk, "Rearchitecting Science: A New Vision and Framework for STM in the 21st Century," made some key points that are important for UMB, libraries, scientists, social scientists, and those involved in scholarly communication. Some things from Bly’s talk that I particularly liked are highlighted below.

1. Science is not a closed system; it is interconnected.
2. Peer review still matters. Regardless of the format. Regardless of the platform. However, the methodology for peer review will change and become more organic and spontaneous.
3. Those "born digital" have come of age. New scientists are fluent in the use of technology and expect their work environment will support this fluency.
4. 34% of scientists responding to a recent survey use blogs to share information as an "open notebook" to the world.
5. Science is now global in nature and scientific communities are taking shape, thanks to technology, in developing countries. We need to continue to connect the developed to the developing world.
6. The importance of a Science Commons and the "research web" as discussed by John Willbanks (who spoke at UMB as part of the Ownership and Access in Scholarly Publishing symposium supported by the HS/HSL a few years back)
7. The need to extract knowledge from information creates a critical expert role for librarians. I liked this because he said it to a primarily non-librarian audience.
8. There is a continuing need to bring scientists together with each other and with resources. To this end, Seed has created ScienceBlogs and ResearchBlogging, which are online communities where scientists can share ideas and comment.

Your summer reading assignment? Connect to some of the links above. Join the blogs. Read Seed.

My assignment? Join the blogs (there is section for information professionals) and subscribe to Seed for the HS/HSL Kinnard Leisure Reading Collection. Look for it this fall.

Enjoy your summer!

It is the end of an era. Eleven years ago when the HS/HSL opened its doors, the idea of a café associated with a library was a new one. With the couches and Jetson-style furniture, the HS/HSL Tower Café was one of the first library cafes in the country. Having the café led the way for the HS/HSL to relax our food-phobic policies and eventually allow food throughout the building. And now, thousands of lattes later, the Tower Café will close its doors on June 30. With the new campus center opening next door in August, the café will move there, just a connecting hallway away. The vacated area will be spiffed up – cleaned and renovated to become a study lounge with wireless access and vending machines.

A lot of people will miss the café, not only for what it represented but for its congenial, collaborative atmosphere. And darn, they made good mochas!

Beginning July 1st, the library will have access to the following NEW databases:

• SocINDEX with Full Text
• Social Work Abstract
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts
• Family Studies Abstracts
• LGBT Life with Full Text
• Race Relations Abstracts
• Abstracts in Social Gerontology
• Urban Studies Abstract
• Violence & Abuse Abstracts

EBSCO provides details about these databases.

Access to Sociological Abstracts and Social Service Abstracts will be discontinued as of July 1st, 2009

Please look for more information in the next issue of Connective Issues

If you have questions, please contact Anna Tatro.

BMJ Group and McMaster University’s Health Information Research Unit are collaborating on a new service called Evidence Updates. The goal of Evidence Updates is to provide "access to current best evidence from research, tailored to your own health care interests, to support evidence-based clinical decisions." The service consists of both a searchable database with citations from over 170 premier clinical journals and an email alerting system with links to evidence-based resources. All citations are critically reviewed and pre-rated for quality by research staff then rated for clinical relevance and interest by at least 3 members of a worldwide panel of practicing physicians.

The service is free of charge, but registration is required.

Need a few pointers on getting your presentation "just right"? Want to get your point across quickly, easily, and with little effort? Join us for a session on how to create effective presentations using Microsoft PowerPoint. In this free library workshop, topics covered will include:

• Creating a basic slideshow
• Inserting graphics and hyperlinks
• Saving and presenting your slideshow
• Presenting visual and text-based information to make a strong impact

This workshops is just one of several free workshops offered throughout the summer by the HS/HSL . Registration and course descriptions are online.

This Fall, from September 28th through November 6th, the HS/HSL will be hosting a traveling exhibit entitled "Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health" in the library’s Weise Gallery. When the library hosts national exhibits such as this we like to add local flavor. We are looking for partners from UMB who can bring their perspectives on global health to enrich the exhibit and highlight their work. We seek suggestions for additional programming, such as speakers or programs reflecting on this topic. The Weise Gallery is also a great place to hold a special function during the exhibit, related to the theme.

If you are interested in working with the library staff to develop programs or have suggestions regarding how we can enhance this exhibit, please email Aphrodite Bodycomb or call her at 410.706.8853

The Parish Nursing Health Information Resource website has a new name and an updated look. Faith Community Nursing Health Resources still brings together health information, referral information, Maryland regional information and other resources that support the profession of faith community nursing in one convenient place. A Disaster Planning section has been added and a more streamlined Health Information section is now available. Highlighted in this section are quality health information websites such as MedlinePlus, MayoClinic.com, and KidsHealth. The Content Team would love to have your comments and suggestions.

We want to thank the faith community nurses who helped with this redesign. We appreciate their time and suggestions. Please visit the new site and take a look. Also, remember to update your bookmarks!

Personal Electronic Health Records: From Biomedical Research to People’s Health was the theme of the 2009 Annual Conference of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine, co-sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. The conference addressed the implications of PEHRs for clinical care, public health, research, and the overall health care system. There were many outstanding speakers and thought provoking discussions. What follows are a few observations.

Rather than merely duplicating the paper medical record the PEHR should offer added value. Traditionally, health records have been used by health care providers to record examination data and lab results, but the advent of the PEHR provides an opportunity to emphasize the "personal health" of the patient. With PEHRs, patients will be able to keep a log of their own health information between episodic visits to their health care provider. Allowing patients to contribute to their own records will make patients more aware of their own health patterns while offering health care providers an additional source of information. PEHRs also provide a great opportunity for observational and interventional research, but with this come the issues of the quality and consistency of the information, ethics of use, and privacy.

The bottom line – PEHRs are here and have great potential to help improve the health of the nation. For the list of conference speakers and their PowerPoint presentations, visit the conference website.

Yunting Fu, Library Liaison to the School of Pharmacy, received a stipend from the Grace and Howard Sewell Memorial Fund to attend the July 2009 meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) in Boston. The mission of the Sewell Fund is to help librarians and information specialists gain a better understanding of their clients’ needs by providing funding for them to attend their clients’ national professional meetings. The stipend covers all travel and registration costs for either the AACP or the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting.

Congratulations, Ting!

To exchange ideas and find out how others on campus are using social media such as Facebook and iTunes U, stop by the Social Media User Group meeting on Tuesday, June 23rd, 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. in the Distance Education Room, Lower Level, HS/HSL. 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 Jaime Blanck or Toni Yancey

According to The Horizon Report, mentioned last month as one of the trend documents I read regularly, mobile devices are one of the trends that will have a significant impact on “learning-focused” organizations. And an explosive trend it is. Mobiles are becoming must-have, ubiquitous devices that can do everything: communication, connectivity, music downloads, applications, and geo-positioning. The iPhone “turned the smartphone concept from a businessperson’s badge into a cool tool for everyone.” (Fast Company, March 2009, p. 61)

How does this translate into usability for our health sciences and human services campus? Instant connectivity to and sharing of information from the classroom or the lab, regardless of location or time/Access to a variety of rapidly emerging applications for these devices developed as open source software/Instant burst communication via mechanisms such as Twitter/The ability to manipulate graphical information with just a touch of a finger in the palm of your hand/Speech recognition software. There’s a lot to think about.

Some experts believe mobile devices will eventually replace the personal computer. The Pew Internet and American Life Project report, The Future of the Internet III, predicts that by the year 2020, most people will be using a mobile device to access the Internet.

Check out the following web resources for more on the mobile device trend:

• Pew Internet & American Life Project: The Mobile Difference
• YouTube: iPhone in medicine
• Vagus Surgicalis: iPhone in medicine

A workshop on the NIH Public Access Mandate will be offered on April 21 at Noon. We will discuss the requirement that NIH-funded investigators make their peer-reviewed final manuscripts publicly available by submitting them to the PubMed Central digital archive. We will also address mandate requirements, identify helpful resources, and demonstrate the submission process.

Registration and additional information about all HS/HSL workshops is available on our workshops page.

Check out the new and expanded Databases by Subject page.

This guide is an excellent jumping off point to get to the appropriate databases for your research. Categories include the major disciplines of our schools: Allied Health, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Social Work. Also included are some popular topic areas such as Evidence Based Practice and Tests and Measurements.

The Library is always trying to create new ways to show patrons how to effectively use Library resources and develop their research skills. We are offering three new tutorials that will help you use the catalog and request materials through interlibrary loan. The new tutorials include: Library Catalog: Searching for Books, Library Catalog: Placing a Book on Hold, and Interlibrary Loan: Creating a Student Account. These informative tutorials are all brief at less than four minutes each!

Visit the Library Savvy page to see all of our tutorials.

Fred Smith of Computing and Information Technology Services (CITS) had just one request. “When we finish the wireless upgrade, please can I rip the ‘having trouble connecting’ signs down from the elevators?” Fred got his wish a few weeks ago as the new information technology infrastructure was completed. What began with a request over a year ago to upgrade the wireless connectivity turned into a complex infrastructure upgrade. New state-of-the art switches were installed. Additional access points and reconfigured wiring were also part of the project.

Library users will notice increased speed, bandwidth, access and a login procedure. In the past, all access to the Library’s wireless was open. The sophisticated switches, installed as part of the upgrade, will allow both open and restricted, secure access to the network. The restricted access will allow library users to authenticate and use secure resources across the campus. However, this will take some time to program correctly. So, for the time being, select the UMB Guest option and enter your email address. If you choose to use UMB Student or UMB Faculty/Staff you will have to go through a configuration and authentication process for your laptop. By May 31, we should have a finalized set of instructions.

If you have any questions, stop by or call the Reference Desk at 410.706.7996.

This month the library offers a new workshop entitled Multicultural Health Information. Attendees will learn how to locate patient education materials in languages other than English. We will also highlight a number of web resources that provide quality health information for specific immigrant or minority populations. Resources covered will include MedlinePlus and Maryland Health > Go Local.

Join us for the workshop on Wednesday March 25th from 12-1pm. For a full course description and registration, visit the Library Workshops page.

I will admit it, I am a trend geek. I love reading about all kinds of trends – information, demographic, economic, sociological, political, environmental, fashion, food… just about anything. I think the reason I am fascinated by trends is that, if you study them enough, you start to identify connections and interrelationships across disciplines. You develop a broader perspective that can more effectively inform your decision making and planning.

One of the trend resources I eagerly await every January is The Horizon Report, a collaborative publication from the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Each year, the authors of the report identify emerging technologies they predict will reach mainstream use in educational organizations within the next five years. If you have limited time, the sections Technologies to Watch and Key Trends offer plenty to ponder in a very clear and concise presentation. I read these sections first, as I begin looking for connections and relationships to the work we do. The body of the report expands on the technologies to watch, offering an overview of each new technology; its relevance for teaching, learning, research, or creative expression; online links to examples of the technology; and links to further reading on the topic.

Are any of the trends directly linked to health sciences or human services academic interests, the future of libraries, medical schools, or hospitals? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s up to us to link these trends to our current issues and concerns and use them to inform our next moves.

It is with great delight that we share the news that M.J. Tooey, executive director of the HS/HSL, has been honored as a Fellow of the Medical Library Association (MLA).

MLA Fellows are elected by the Board of Directors in recognition of their sustained and outstanding contributions to health sciences librarianship and to the advancement of the purposes of MLA. M.J. comments, “Having been a member of the Medical Library Association for over 25 years, I know many who have achieved Fellow status. I feel so honored to be part of this group.”

It is a well deserved honor recognizing her many contributions to the organization and health sciences librarianship.

Congratulations M.J.!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 PL 111-5 (HR 1) was successfully passed in February 2009 and became law. Westlaw Campus Research, available from the Library’s databases list, offers an extensive collection of information resources that you can use to track the progress of this important new legislation.

Newspaper coverage: Westlaw provides access to hundreds of local, national, and international newspapers to keep you abreast of current news related to the Act.

Television and radio coverage: Broadcast transcripts from over 900 television and radio stations are indexed within Westlaw, including full-text transcripts of popular political shows like The Charlie Rose Show, Anderson Cooper 360°, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

Legal journals and law reviews: As time lapses, law reviews will be written to discuss and analyze the current issues and trends associated with the stimulus plan. Westlaw offers full-text of over 700 law reviews and journals, as well as access to the comprehensive U.S. legal encyclopedia, American Jurisprudence.

Amendments and related legislation: You can find bill drafts, reports, testimony, the Congressional Record, and the statutes affected by doing a citation search in Westlaw for PL 111-5.

Some additional websites to keep up with the current congress are: Recover.gov, Annenberg Political Fact Check, Thomas (legislative information from the Library of Congress), and Michie Legal Resources.

Librarian Liaisons at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library offer a wide variety of services to assist you in your work. You may already know that we are here to answer many of your library and research questions. However, we can also assist with other useful services. Below is a list of some options, but please feel free to contact us for more specialized assistance that can be tailored to the needs of your department or group.

• Conference presentations or small group instruction. Example of past topics include:
  • PubMed/Medline searching strategies refresher
  • RefWorks (bibliographic software) overview
  • Strategies and tools for staying current with the research literature- RSS Feeds, auto alerts
• Developing effective search strategies for grants, IRB submissions, and systematic reviews
• Orientation for new faculty and staff (groups or one on one) to familiarize them with the resources of the HS/HSL

Learn more from your school’s liaison.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

If you use SciFinder, please don’t forget: the Library will switch to the new web-based version on March 20th. Our SciFinder page provides tutorials and instructions on switching to the new version.

Need Help?

For more information about or assistance with SciFinder, please contact the liaison to the School of Pharmacy, Yunting Fu, at 410.706.8865 or yfu@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Last month the Library taught a workshop series on evidence-based practice searching skills. The series included a general session and two others focusing on public health and social work. Each session covered primary and secondary sources, including Cochrane Systematic Reviews, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, Campbell Collaboration, and the Trip Database. We had a good turn out with positive feedback.

We plan to hold another Evidence Based Practice Week during the Fall semester. However, if you missed this one and would like to learn strategies for finding the best clinical evidence, please request a workshop on-demand for yourself or a group!

Having a hard time keeping up in this progressive information world? Wonder which social media tools to use? Twitter is a social media tool that helps to manage various types of information.

There are many uses for this free, open source tool. You can use it as a personal microblog to post brief updates about your activities while following your colleagues’ postings in real time. The updates, or tweets, are text-based posts up to 140 characters in length. Their brevity allows you to stay connected without investing a lot of time.

News breaks fast on Twitter making it great for current awareness. CNN, the New York Times, the Cochrane Collaboration, and the National Institute of Health provide up-to-the-minute information via this medium.

Unlike RSS feeds, the information stays in the site indefinitely so you catch up on tweets at any time. Accessible via phone, web, email, and Facebook, Twitter provides a wealth of information. As with all web resources, remember to consider the source of the information and to evaluate content for quality and credibility before using it.

Heres are examples of academic classroom uses, a doctor’s feed from the operating room, and live conference updates.

If you have questions/comments or would like assistance contact Anna Tatro. If you would to find others on campus who are using this tool, consider attending the Social Media User Group (SMUG) meeting.

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From April 9th through June 30th, the Library’s Weise Gallery will exhibit “Learned in Science, Explored in Art” by Dr. Wolfgang Ritschel, Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Ritschel’s vibrant paintings brilliantly combine expressionism and fauvism to explore the world of medicine through visual art.

For more information about the exhibit visit the Library’s Weise Gallery web page.

The Library will host a gallery reception and opening on Thursday, April 16 from 4:30 – 6:00 pm.

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Dr. Nathaniel Potter co-founded our School of Medicine over 200 years ago, yet we have just been given a new opportunity to benefit from his wisdom. We recently received a volume of class notes taken from lectures Potter delivered between 1827 and 1829 and inscribed by Thomas Munroe, class of 1829. The Potter lectures include discussions of a variety of disorders such as fever, dysentery, cholera, hepatitis, and phthisis pulmonalis – the condition we now know as tuberculosis.

The volume had been in the possession of Dr. Ian R. Anderson, School of Medicine class of 1962. In the process of settling the late Dr. Anderson’s estate, his representative contacted us and offered to donate the item to our collection. Thanks to that generous forethought, this unique item has found its way from Dr. Anderson’s care back to the institution of its origin.

For more information about this new addition to the Library’s Cordell Historical Collection, please contact Historical Librarian, Rich Behles.

On March 9th at 6:15 a.m., fourteen HS/HSL staff members braved the first Monday of Daylight Savings Time to sing “Manic Monday” live on WJZ television. By all accounts we were great! See for yourself.

In preparation, we held two rehearsals and mailed the hosts of the show, Marty Bass, Ron Matz, and Don Scott, Maryland Health > Go Local baseball caps, mugs, and brochures. We made a super duper banner that hid our smallest singer because it was so big. And we had a great time promoting Maryland Health > Go Local. By the end of the day and through the viral nature of information sharing, congratulatory emails had been received from across the U.S.

What a great way to start the week!

To exchange ideas and find out how others on campus are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and iTunes U, stop by the Social Media User Group meeting on Tuesday, March 24th, 12:00-1:00 p.m. in the Library’s Distance Education Room.

For more information, contact Jaime Blanck or Toni Yancey.

In mid-January Educause released its “Top Teaching and Learning Challenges, 2009.” These challenges were identified over a period of four months by Educause’s teaching and learning community who started the discussion at their annual meeting last fall. The top teaching and learning challenges are:

1. Creating learning environments promoting active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and knowledge creation.
2. Developing 21st century literacies (information, digital, and visual) among students and faculty.
3. Reaching and engaging today’s learner.
4. Encouraging faculty adoption and innovation in teaching and learning with IT.
5. Advancing innovation in teaching and learning with technology in an era of budget cuts.

When I read lists like this I automatically do an inventory: What is the library doing? What more could we do? Where can we grow?

We are continuously improving the library building by enhancing our space to support active, technology enhanced, collaborative learning. Through our liaison and education programs, we advocate for information literacy; knowing that asking the right question, evaluating the literature, and acquiring the best evidence to shape knowledge creation is the key to success. I am pleased to say we are investigating a program where our liaisons will work directly with our users to integrate innovative information technology into their teaching strategies.

Let us know where else we can help with your teaching and learning goals.

The Library has declared the third week in February Evidence-Based Practice Week! To celebrate, we are offering a series of workshops that review the principles of evidence-based health care and social work. Librarians will recommend strategies for finding the best clinical evidence.

Each 50-minute session will cover primary and secondary sources, including Cochrane Systematic Reviews, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, Campbell Collaboration, and the Trip Database. Workshops offered during this week include:

• Locating the Evidence Tuesday February 24th
• Evidence-Based Public Health Wednesday February 25th
• Evidence-Based Social Work Thursday February 26th

All workshops are held from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. in the Library’s computer classroom LL03 on the lower level. Drop in during your lunch break!

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) has been enhanced! It now provides more extensive analysis of research journals’ impact on the global research community. JCR currently includes data on the citation performance of more than 10,000 journals across a broad range of disciplines.

In addition to the Journal Impact Factor annual report, JCR now includes the Eigenfactor Metrics report. Eigenfactor Metrics calculates a journal’s influence using an algorithm similar to the one Google’s PageRank uses for web pages. The Eigenfactor Method employs a modified version of the basic eigenvector centrality algorithm to calculate the amount of time researchers spend with a particular journal as a measure of its importance. For more detailed information about how these calculations work, please visit the Eigenfactor web site or read Carl T. Bergstrom’s 2008 article on Eingenfactor Metrics.

Other new features include: Five-Year Impact Factor, Journal Self Citations, graphic displays of the impact factor report, and Rank-in-Category for multi-discipline journals.

To access JCR and explore these useful tools, please visit the Library’s Databases page and select the Web of Science database. Next, click on the yellow Additional Resources tab and select Journal Citation Reports.

Brush up on your library and research skills or learn to use a new resource with the HS/HSL’s collection of Library Savvy Tutorials. The Library is now offering a selection of on-demand, self-paced tutorials that cover a variety of topics and range from 2 to 30 minutes in length.

Select video tutorials were created by HS/HSL librarians, while others are available online through database providers or other universities. Topics include Subject Searching in CINAHL, Introduction to PsycInfo, Creating a RefWorks Account, and Designing Effective Poster Presentations, to name but a few.

If you think there is a need for a tutorial not included on the Library Savvy Tutorials page, please send suggestions to hshsl@umaryland.edu.

We are pleased to introduce Yunting Fu, MLIS, Library Liaison to the School of Pharmacy.

Ting received her Master of Science in Library and Information Studies from the State University of New York, Buffalo in 2008. She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmaceutical Information Management from China Pharmaceutical University, in Nanjing, China.

HS/HSL liaisons work closely with their individual schools, participating in orientations, guest lecturing in classes and presenting at conferences, assisting with faculty grants, developing the resources in our collection, and conducting individual research consults with students, faculty, and staff. In addition to these traditional duties, the liaisons have recently begun to expand their roles by becoming involved in the outreach activities of the UMB campus. We would be happy to discuss any new activities where you think our liaisons could contribute.

Please email Ting or call 410.706.8865 to talk about how she can help support your informational and instructional needs or outreach projects.

Maryland Health -> Go Local is a statewide web-based directory of health services and programs that was designed to improve public access to health services, programs, and information. The HS/HSL partnered with the National Library of Medicine to create this valuable resource, which was launched in February 2006. Since that time the Library has introduced Maryland Health -> Go Local to many communities and organizations throughout the state. Now, on the second anniversary of Maryland Health -> Go Local, Library is presenting a new blog, Maryland Health -> Go Local eUpdate, containing updates, news, and information about project developments and activities.

Ongoing features of eUpdate include Featured Sites, which highlights a different program or service each month; By the Numbers, which provides monthly statistics, including how many people visited Maryland Health -> Go Local and how many pages were viewed; and Where in Maryland is Meredith?, which tracks Meredith Solomon, Outreach Librarian, as she travels throughout Maryland promoting health information resources designed for the public. If you know of any outreach opportunities to present at a community meeting or school, or exhibit resources at a conference, festival or fair, please email Meredith or call 410.706.1551.

eUpdate also allows you to request a speaker or training session, suggest a resource, or provide us with a testimonial about how Maryland Health -> Go Local helped you.

Stay informed! Add Maryland Health -> Go Local eUpdate to your RSS reader!

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Southeastern/Atlantic Region (SE/A) recently received its mid-contract review report. The review team lauded UMB for its “strong institutional commitment to the library and its outreach function through the NN/LM.” Library Director M.J. Tooey was recognized for her leadership and participation in SE/A programs.

Additionally, the site team recognized the “creative and energetic” SE/A staff for building the capacity of its Network members to provide outreach and services to health professionals and the public through its many and varied programs. In particular, the team cited SE/A’s commitment to outreach, responsiveness to member needs, strong community and network partnerships, and leadership in emergency preparedness.

In the report, the team recognized the many challenges of working in a large, ethnically and racially diverse region. The team recommended that the growing number of unaffiliated health professionals working in rural areas and primary care, a continued and strong hospital library advocacy program, and more and varied local collaborations and partnerships should be a focus in the future.

Janice Kelly, Executive Director, said, “The report confirms that our staff is doing a great job in meeting Network member needs and that our programs and funding are making a difference in local communities.”

Have you ever wished you could show your students how to perform a search, use software, or access an online resource instead of trying to explain it in an email? Well, now you can. The free screen-capturing and casting tool Jing makes it easy to create instructional videos you can share with your students.

This open source software requires a broadband Internet connection and about 1 GB of memory. You can choose to capture an entire window or a portion of it as either a video or image. Jing uploads your capture to the web and generates a URL that can be pasted into an email or posted on Blackboard. Your videos or images can be viewed online or downloaded to your computer. This brief tutorial offers a demonstration of the capture-and-share process.

To get started, you will need to download the software and set up a user account.

Due to program restrictions, videos are limited to a maximum of five minutes in length and files can only be saved in two formats (.png and .swf). Also be aware that the free online file storage may become subscription-based in the future.

For questions about Jing, please email the Liaison to the School of Nursing, Kristen Young, or call 410.706.8868.

Teresa Knott, currently deputy director at the HS/HSL, has been named Director, Tompkins-McCaw Library (TML) for the Health Sciences and Associate University Librarian, VCU Libraries, at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. For over 4 years, Teresa has served not only as deputy director, but as head of Computing and Technology Services (CATS). Her accomplishments as deputy director included participation in the design of the Library’s strategic plan, Library reorganization, and building renovations. – She oversaw the Library’s committee structure, and staffed the Library Advisory Committee. As the head of CATS, she provided direction for the redesigned Library web site, the Library content management system, and other technology issues including the new collaborative spaces.

“Teresa’s accomplishments are too numerous to mention. In addition to her many contributions to library operations, she will be missed for her enthusiasm, her friendliness, not to mention her scorekeeping at the Informers softball games!” said M.J. Tooey, Executive Director. “She’s a great colleague and friend. We will miss her but, of course, wish her all the best."

Teresa’s last day is February 28th. Following her departure, Alexa Mayo, Associate Director for Services, will serve as acting deputy director, and Aphrodite Bodycomb, Assistant Director for Business Development and Operations, will serve as the acting head of CATS.

In January the HS/HSL partnered with the Community Outreach Council and Diggs-Johnson Middle School to host the Urban Art Exhibition in the Library’s Weise Gallery.

Students of the middle school created vibrant paintings for the exhibit following the urban pop art and graffiti-inspired style of Keith Haring. The January 9th opening reception was a lively event with the jazz band Kemet 3 performing in the library cafe and student artists on hand to discuss their work. Two weeks later, a silent auction of the artwork marked the close of the exhibit. The auction raised over $1300 with proceeds benefiting the Diggs-Johnson Art Department.

Currently on display in the Weise Gallery is an exhibit of photography by Seema Modi. Dr. Modi is a private practitioner in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at a local outpatient clinic. For more information about the exhibit visit the Library’s Weise Gallery web page.

Join HS/HSL staff on March 9th as they sing “Manic Monday!”

Every Monday morning at approximately 6:00 a.m., some intrepid group appears live from Fells Point on WJZ television to promote a cause and sing the Bangles 1980’s hit “Manic Monday.” On March 9th, HS/HSL staff will be that intrepid group as they promote Maryland Health -> GoLocal an online resource developed by staff at the HS/HSL that provides links to health resources in local communities in Maryland.

Come join us and support the library team! Be in front of Jimmy’s Restaurant in Fells Point by 5:45 a.m. UMB participants will receive a Maryland Health -> GoLocal baseball cap and breakfast at Jimmy’s! To get you in the appropriate spirit, here are links to the Bangles singing “Manic Monday”, the lyrics to the song, and a link to the WJZ web page where you can see previous manic groups performing.

Come be part of the fun and help promote Maryland Health -> GoLocal! Email Ashley Cuffia if you will join us so we can get a head count for the caps.

Effective Thursday, January 22nd, all UMB students will receive interlibrary loan and document delivery requests electronically and free of charge. Interlibrary loans are items borrowed from other libraries while document delivery refers to items that are held in the HS/HSL collection. Be advised that, due to the increase in the number of requests we’ll be processing, it may be faster for students on campus to photocopy items from HS/HSL holdings themselves.

Students will continue to be registered in our ILLiad request management system and will make their requests in the same way, via ILLiad. For more about registering and using ILLiad, please visit the ILLiad Information page of our web site.

We are excited to offer free services to UMB students and ask for your patience as we navigate this new territory. The turnaround time for document delivery requests may be longer depending on the number of requests we receive. Also, libraries we borrow from on your behalf will send PDF articles directly to you to expedite the process, so you may find a lack of uniformity in some aspects of your documents. Overall, we expect the changes to be very positive, and we look forward to serving you in 2009. Be sure to contact the Resource Sharing department with any questions or concerns: 410.706.3239 or rs@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

SciFinder is now available on the web! Unlike earlier versions of SciFinder, which required users to install the SciFinder Scholar client, the new web version requires no installation and can be accessed from any computer with a compatible browser.

To begin using the web version, you must complete a one-time registration form and include your “umaryland.edu” email address. If you are a previous user of the SciFinder client, you will also need to uninstall the client to allow for better access to the web version. The client will cease to function after March 20, 2009, when the Library switches to the web-based version of SciFinder. If you would like to register and begin using the new version now, please visit the SciFinder page of our web site.

The new features of SciFinder include:

• Up to 10 previous searching history are available for download.
• Index terms are linked for faster exploring
• Files are available in PDF format for saving
• “Keep Me Posted” lets you set up alerts for references of interest.
• Direct links to data make it easier to share information.

Need Help?

For more information about or assistance with SciFinder, please contact the liaison to the School of Pharmacy, Yunting Fu, at 410.706.8865 or yfu@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

In January the HS/HSL administrative team meets for a midyear strategic plan review. We look at our priorities, progress, and challenges for the fiscal year. The economic climate for the January meeting will be markedly different than it was during the initial planning held last June. We approach every year with optimism in spite of our perennially bad budget situation. We acknowledge the reality of the situation and move on. We’re used to financial hardship. We make progress in areas where we can make a difference – our programs and services. Innovation and responsiveness are the hallmarks of our success.

Along with everyone else at UMB, our open positions are frozen and we won’t be filling them. The furlough policy affects us as well. There is a temptation to think of this as “down time” and an opportunity to “tread water” until things gets better. While the HS/HSL does need to survive, we also believe we can thrive. In the upcoming year we will expand our collaborative spaces in support of teaching and learning; we will investigate pilot projects for a repository and digital historical archive; we will explore discovery tools to help users find resources and information effectively and efficiently; and we will seize grant and outreach opportunities whenever possible. Survival mode is not good enough. We need to cast our vision beyond the recession and build a foundation for our future success.

Happy New Year to all!

Original Suggestions:

1) There is no “sign in” bar on the home page, please add one. This will definitely improve the efficiency of the website when searching/borrowing/reviewing/renewing books…

2) Having a link to sign in on the main page would make the site so much more user friendly to staff. I help about 15 physicians here in the Medical School. We seem to all have a book or two out at a time and in order to renew loans you must first log into your account. It is not obvious to most that they must first click on Library Catalog before they can go to the sign in link.

Response:

Thank you for sending in your comments concerning the Library Catalog’s My Account. We have added a new link on the Library’s homepage in the Services menu called My Account (Renew Books). This account can be used to renew books and check due dates. We appreciate your taking the time to let us know how we can make improvements to our website.

Thank you again for your feedback.

Although the Library has long offered literature search services to faculty and staff, we are now enhancing that service with the option to have your search results delivered via RefWorks. RefWorks is a web-based personal citation manager. Thanks to support from all of the schools on campus, it is available free to UMB students, faculty and staff. Receiving search results in RefWorks will make it much easier for you to sort and organize citations and to locate full-text.

Here’s how it works. Once a literature search has been completed, it can be exported to a RefWorks folder and shared using RefShare. You will not need a RefWorks account to view the article citations and, with this new delivery method, you can access full-text articles that the Library subscribes to via the Find It buttons. Literature searches are provided to UMB faculty and staff for a small fee. You may also have your results delivered by email or in print.

Request a Literature Search

The Library is very close to achieving its goal of 100% of all current journal subscriptions being available online.

As of this month, UMB has online access to every Sage journal currently available through the Sage Premium package. In total, students, faculty, and staff have online access to 435 NEW titles.

Working with the publisher over the summer, we were able to make this collection available by substituting the electronic journals for our print subscriptions to the titles. A few of the new Sage online only titles include:

• Pathology
• Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology
• Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice
• Journal of Transcultural Nursing

If you wish to recommend a book or journal or digital resource for purchase, please use our Recommendation Form.

During the 2009 Spring Semester, the Library is offering a series of free workshops on a variety of topics to all faculty, staff, and students. Workshops are offered most Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Please visit the Spring 2009 Workshop Schedule on our web site for workshop descriptions and dates, and to register.

From February 24th to 26th, we will feature Evidence-Based Practice Week with a series of workshops that review the principles of evidence-based health care and social work and offer strategies for finding the best clinical and practice evidence. We will cover primary and secondary sources, including the Cochrane Systematic Reviews, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, Campbell Collaboration, Trip Database, and other best evidence databases.

The Library will also be offering several workshops “On Demand.” These workshops, while not part of our regular schedule, are available for you to request as a one-on-one consultation or a group session. Workshops “On Demand” include Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, Science Citation Index, Staying Current with the Literature, and Introduction to Library Resources.

For the second consecutive year, the Library collected non-perishable food items as part of its Food for Fines program. This year more than 500 pounds of non-perishable food items were collected for the Maryland Food Bank between December 1st and December 19th. For each food item donated, the Library waived $1 in overdue fines. In all, $698 in fines were forgiven. The program was a terrific success with well over 700 food items being donated to needy Maryland families.

In addition, the staff of the Library made a separate monetary contribution of $312 to the Maryland Food Bank. This money was raised through the annual library staff holiday raffle. According to the Maryland Food Bank, every $1 that is contributed allows them to provide 3 meals – so, the staff donation translates to an additional 936 meals that the Maryland Food Bank can provide. HS/HSL staff donated additional canned goods that were incorporated with the Food for Fines donation.

Congratulations to Erika!

To thank our users for participating in a library usage survey, the HS/HSL is awarding an iPod Shuffle on a quarterly basis to four randomly selected participants. The winner of our first drawing is Erika Ruddie, a second year PharmD student who also teaches an aerobics class at the Athletic Center. Erika plans to give her new iPod Shuffle a workout by loading it with high-energy music for her class.

The library usage survey is conducted twice a month, now through September 2009, during random two-hour periods. We appreciate the valuable input of everyone who completed questionnaires during past survey periods. If you enter the library while a survey is in session, remember—it only takes a few minutes to complete the questionnaire, and your participation will earn you a chance to win one of three remaining iPod shuffles!

HS/HSL’s Finals Week Events for the Fall 2008 semester was a huge success! Around 600 students dropped in to participate over the two-week period. Some students came solely for the caffeine; others came for a real break in their studies. We offered a variety of games to play, with Wii and Jenga being the most popular.

Many thanks to the USGA for providing the funds for coffee and snacks and to the Student Center for promoting our events; we couldn’t have done it without you.

December 31, 2008 will mark the end of my fifth year as Executive Director. Although I have been at UMB for over 20 years, and jokingly tell people I clawed my way to the top, I can honestly say the past five years have flown by. During that time, Library staff have made great progress in advancing our programs, resources, and services. We started by building our foundation with a new strategic plan, and we haven’t looked back. We are committed to meeting our users wherever they are – at the bench, in the community, around the state, throughout the region, across the country, and even in remote and exotic locations such as Africa and Shady Grove. We serve on IRBs. We go to health fairs. We partner with educators in the classroom and online. We advance new technologies through tech fairs and our web sites. We remodel entire floors and welcome new uses from the physical space of the Library. We build digital collections. There are very few opportunities on which we pass.

We do this work with you and for you. Thanks for pushing us, challenging us, and inspiring us to be the best we can be. All the best in 2009.

To fulfill campus insurance requirements, the HS/HSL recently contracted a certified appraiser to survey our collections. Mr. Willis Van Devanter, who has appraised collections for the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the White House, the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University, and many other renowned institutions, made several visits here.

A specialist equally conversant with books and works of art, Mr. Van Devanter approached our collections with an insider’s keen awareness of the marketplace. He was particularly impressed with a number of items in our Historical Collections. Mr. Van Devanter’s estimation of these holdings was especially gratifying to us since it officially validated the high esteem we have always had for them. He also examined our reference, circulating, and journal collections, as well as various pieces of art displayed in the building.

The exciting result of this project is that Mr. Van Devanter valued our entire collections at $33,770,800.00. Most libraries take pride in touting the treasures within their walls. It is reassuring to know that our claim in that regard is particularly well-founded.

In November, two of our four librarians who serve as non-scientists on the Institutional Review Board (IRB) attended the Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) Conference. The conference, which was attended by many IRB members, was funded by the UMB Human Research Protections Office.

The conference theme this year was Advancing Ethical Research, Balancing the Needs of Human Subject and Science. The keynote speakers and panelists discussed the balance between regulations and ethics. Tierney Lyons and Paula Raimondo attended classes in the non-scientist track to develop a better understanding of the research process and of scientific terminology. The presenters specialized in a range of fields, from medicine to philosophy to law, bringing many different perspectives to the discussion.

The attendees agreed that the conference benefitted them on both a professional and personal level. In addition to gaining valuable knowledge that will help them review IRB protocols more effectively, the attendees also enjoyed an exciting opportunity to broaden their understanding of gene therapy and genome testing, particularly in cancer research.

On December 2, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region (SE/A) hosted a mid-contract review. This visit was an opportunity to assess the progress to date on the HS/HSL’s five year, $11.5 million contract with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) of the National Institutes of Health. The contract supports health information outreach across 10 southeastern states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The site visit team, lead by John Frey III, M.D. of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, met with University of Maryland, Baltimore administration and SE/A staff to review the accomplishments, challenges, and future directions of the five-year contract. Prior to the site visit SE/A member libraries, healthcare professionals, and community organizations responded to a questionnaire. In addition, 33 members from across the region came to Baltimore to meet with the eight-person team to provide feedback on the programs and services of the NN/LM and NLM. The team will issue a report on their visit in the coming weeks.

A new face joined the Resources Division team during the months of September and October. Andrew Pope, a Project SEARCH intern, worked four hours a day in the Cataloging Department re-integrating optical disks with books.

Project SEARCH interns are students with special needs who are completing high school certificates and are focusing on the transition from school to employment through real-life work experience.

Our intern matched the disks originally in the Media Collection with books on the shelves, adhered disk pockets to books, and added security devices to disks, among other tasks. Without our intern’s help the project would have taken an indefinite time to accomplish.

We were very happy to have Andrew as part of our team and encourage all who can help other Project SEARCH interns to gain work experiences to do so!

Project SEARCH is a collaboration project between the ARC of Baltimore, UMB, Baltimore City Public Schools, and the Division of Rehabilitation Services. This is the first time that HS/HSL participated in this project. The Library’s Administration Department will soon be hosting an intern in the Mail Room.

Only 1 day left! Come on down to HS/HSL for a study break! You know your brain needs a break from all of that reading. Why not head down to the lower level of HS/HSL for snacks and coffee?

Relieve some stress playing a quick board game or the Wii! Enter to win a Peace & a Cup of Joe $10.00 gift card to be raffled off at the end of the week. It’s all sponsored by USGA, local restaurants, and the Library.

With up to 100 students a day stopping by, it’s been a great success. We’ve heard plenty of positive comments including, “A beautiful Library and now free food… I love this place!”

The Food for Fines program is ongoing! The Library will collect canned food items at the Circulation Desk during HS/HSL’s open hours until Friday, December 19th. We will waive $1 in HS/HSL overdue fines when you donate one canned food item, $2 for two items, etc. This offer does not apply to lost book charges. The goods collected will be donated to the Maryland Food Bank.

Note: only canned food items will be accepted.

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Every December the Library sponsors a holiday door decorating contest and invites departments from throughout the building to compete for the title of most festive door and for the prized “Door d’Or” award. This year’s door decorating theme, “Holidays Recycled,” inspired staff to create wreaths out of colorful plastic bags and 7-up cans, build evergreen trees from empty soda cans, and construct holiday scenes from old CDs, punch cards, discarded paper products, and other recyclables. Eleven units within the building went head-to-head in this friendly competition.

Winner of this year’s Door d’Or goes to “Home Goods for the Holidays,” a wintry scene assembled by the crew in Room 130 – “building a dynasty one door at a time.”

You are invited to cast your vote for best door in the Library’s Campus Choice Awards. Voting ends January 5, 2009. Join in the festivities… VOTE NOW!

Publications

• Paula Raimondo, Anna Tatro, and Alexa Mayo published a chapter, “Health information outreach to underserved populations in Baltimore, Maryland,” in Courtney, N. (ed.) Academic library outreach: Beyond the campus walls. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2008.

Presentations

• Anna Tatro and Meredith Solomon presented “Web-based health information resources for immigrants and providers” at the bi-annual Baltimore Immigration Summit, Towson, MD, November 2008.
• Library staff presented 6 posters at the Annual Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association, Morgantown, WV, October 2008.

Offices held in professional and campus organizations:

• Debra Berlanstein was appointed as a Jury Chair of the Medical Library Association
• Aphrodite Bodycomb was appointed as UMB representative for the University System of Maryland Women’s Forum
• Patty Hinegardner and Mary Ann Williams are co-editors of the Maryland Association Health Sciences Librarians newsletter and website
• Teresa L. Knott was elected Secretary of the Leadership and Management Section, Medical Library Association.
• Terri Ottosen was elected Secretary of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association
• Dale Prince was elected Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association
• Paula Raimondo was elected Chair of the Medical Library Association Chapter Council
• Meredith Solomon appointed Co-Chair of the Health Interest Group of the Maryland Library Association and appointed Membership Chair of the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Maryland Library Association
• Library Director, M.J. Tooey, was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries

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We recently received a reference question from a Baltimore Museum of Industry staff member doing background research for one of the museum’s planned exhibits. The researcher had heard that in early pharmaceutical business practice it was common for ice cream manufacturers to purchase soda fountain equipment for a drug store in exchange for the store’s pledge to exclusively sell their brand of ice cream. However, since she did not have a reliable source for this information, she requested our help in finding printed verification.

Historical Librarian Rich Behles located among our journals a 1933 article in American Druggist, entitled “Youth of the Fountain.” The anonymous author presents a lively historical sketch of soda fountain operations, beginning with the first experimentations with carbonated water in the late eighteenth century. Continuing developments in the early 1800’s included the addition of enticing flavors and ice cream, along with the proliferation of the sophisticated apparatus necessary for creating such refreshing concoctions.

The author delineates four factors responsible for the successful heyday of soda fountains in the early twentieth century, including the claim that “… competition among ice cream manufacturers induced them to carry on large scale financing of soda fountain purchases for retailers.” ¹

¹ Youth of the fountain. American Druggist 1933 Oct;88:214.

We are pleased to introduce Kristen Young, MLIS, Library Liaison to the School of Nursing.

Kristen received her Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008. During her graduate work, she served as an intern at the Falk Medical Library at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

HS/HSL liaisons work closely with their individual schools, participating in orientations, guest lecturing in classes and presenting at conferences, assisting with faculty grants, developing the resources in our collection, and conducting individual research consults with faculty, staff, and students. In addition to these traditional duties, the liaisons have recently begun to expand their roles by becoming involved in the outreach activities of the UMB campus. We would be happy to discuss any new activities where you think our liaisons could contribute.

Please email Kristen or call 410.706.8868 if you would like to discuss how she can help support your informational or instructional needs or outreach projects.

I recently returned from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) meeting on the evening of the presidential election. Carrying forward the excitement of the election and the stimulation of wonderful speakers and new ideas, I returned to find the same piles of work, unrealistic deadlines, reports of a raw sewage leak, the usual complaints about too hot, too cold, too noisy, and the ongoing concern about our lack of resources. Coming home could have been a downer, but a meeting with colleagues at AAMC shifted my frame of reference.

I am working with two colleagues on a CE course entitled “So, You Want to Be a Director.” While working we asked ourselves the question, “why did you want to be a library director?” My answer didn’t have anything to do with glamour or monetary gain but instead focused on wanting to make a difference and on being part of something bigger than myself. Every day I have an opportunity through the staff, services, and resources of the Library to be part of the greater purpose of UMB. Whether we are at the bench or bedside, out in the community or working with students, we support that purpose. And that drives our creativity and our passion for what we do. We get excited about our opportunities. I love to bring together ideas and expertise. I practically jumped out of my seat at the Library Advisory Committee earlier this month as one of the members mentioned a nascent bioinformatics program. We can help with that, having had four staff attend the Woods Hole Bioinformatics Institute over the past few years. Opportunity knocks!

So, when you are thinking about your share of the greater purpose, please keep in mind that you may have an eager, willing, and knowledgeable partner who shares your mission and your passion. Think of the Library.

The Food for Fines program is back!

The Library will collect canned food items at the Circulation Desk during HS/HSL’s open hours from Monday, December 1st to Friday, December 19th. We will waive $1 in HS/HSL overdue fines when you donate one canned food item, $2 for two items, etc. This offer does not apply to lost book charges. The goods collected will be donated to the Maryland Food Bank.

Note: only canned food items will be accepted.

In September, we began reporting the results of the Core Print survey sent to UMB faculty. This article continues that report.

Question two of the survey was: “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?” Respondents suggested 258 distinct titles, of which 68 titles were cited two or more times. Seventy (70) respondents indicated that the would not need access to journals in that situation, many with the caveat that down-time exceeding a couple of days would create a different scenario.

In addition to individual journals, several journal packages were also mentioned: ASM (3) ACS (3) Nature (2) ASPET (1) RSC (1), as well as two databases: UpToDate (1) Drug Facts and Comparisons (1).

Of the 160 respondents, 82 offered additional comments, the most common of which were requests for digital backfiles (older journals in electronic form), more journal subscriptions, more training in using the Library, and requests that journal cancellations not be undertaken without consulting the faculty.

Future steps include recording suggested new titles in our ongoing list of potential new titles, following up with faculty who may desire additional training, and evaluating the suggested critical titles for inclusion on our Core Print list. A similarly brief survey may also be run in the spring with UMB Graduate students.

If you have questions or suggestions about the survey, please contact Eric Rector, Head, Collections Management via email, or at 410.706.1345.

Each week the HS/HSL offers free workshops to UMB faculty, staff, and students; UMMC staff; HS/HSL Resources Plus! Members; and HS/HSL corporate members.

The Grant Proposal Writing workshop is designed for beginning grant proposal writers. It presents a general overview of grant and funding processes and addresses the level of detail required in a successful proposal. Each component of the grant writing process will be covered, including: documenting the need, identifying the target population, writing measurable objectives, developing a work plan, an evaluation plan, and a dissemination plan.

The Grant Proposal Writing workshop will be offered December 4th from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. For additional information about this and other Library workshops and to register online, visit the Library workshops page.

Winter hours will begin on Friday, January 2, 2009

Need to relax a bit during exams? Of course you do!

The USGA and the HS/HSL are partnering to provide finals snacks to students from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. on December 8 – 19. Be on the lookout for more information about upcoming finals fun. Events will include snacks, board games, puzzles and Wii play.

All events will be held on the Lower Level of the Library (one floor down from main entrance) and sponsored by the USGA, HS/HSL and the UMB Athletic Center.

Since many dissertations and theses produced at UMB are now available online, the Library determined that the HS/HSL only needed to retain one print copy in our collections. This summer, Library staff created a database of dissertation and theses authors with their most current addresses.

In August, 507 postcards were mailed to UMB graduates offering them copies of their dissertations or theses. Of those graduates contacted, 138 responded favorably, and were mailed bound copies of their work.

Questions or comments about this project? Please contact Teresa L. Knott – Deputy Director.

October was National Medical Librarians Month. To mark the event, Thom Pinho, IT Support Specialist, converted a poster created by the Medical Library Association (MLA) to a format compatible with the HS/HSL’s digital sign with MLA’s permission. The image ran on our digital sign throughout October.

The HS/HSL offered to share the image with other health sciences libraries and, we’re happy to report that twenty-four libraries took us up on the offer. Requests came from academic and hospital libraries across the United States and from as far away as Beirut and Guam.

Original Question:

I am writing because many of the students, particularly those in the study rooms, have been incredibly loud despite repeated requests to be quiet. This is not only an issue I am having but one that several of my fellow students have had as well.

While I don’t think it’s possible to regulate a person’s behavior, it seems to be a significant problem this semester, particularly on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors.

Is there any advice you can offer or something that you can do?

Response:

Thank you for sending in your comment concerning noise in the library. I appreciate your taking the time to let us know how we can make improvements.

The next time you are bothered by noise, please let someone know, either at the Circulation Desk or Reference Desk. We will follow up directly with the loud group. The third, fourth, and fifth floors, including the study rooms, are supposed to be quiet study floors. We may ask people to leave if they continue to disrupt the people around them.

We will be putting up signs within the library to remind people of the need for quiet – especially in our upper floors.

Thank you again for your feedback. We’ll get to work right now on those signs.

To exchange ideas and find out how others on campus are using social media such as Flickr™ and Meebo™, stop by the Social Media User Group meeting on December 10th, 12:00 p.m. -1:00 p.m. in the Library’s Distance Education Room. 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.

There is a buzz in the air at the HS/HSL. It’s time for the Library’s 4th annual holiday door decorating contest.

This year’s theme is “Holidays Recycled.” Volunteer judges from across the campus will make their decisions December 10th and 11th, with the winners announced on December 12th.

Please stop by on or after December 10th to share in the festivities, and keep an eye open for your chance to vote for Campus Choice Award!

In my last column, I expressed the Library’s need to better understand who our users are and what resources they are using both virtually and on-site. I am pleased to report that, starting in late October, we will launch a year-long study on library resource and service usage, ending in September 2009. This anonymous survey will be distributed in the Library and online at random two-hour intervals, twice a month. We have hired Brinley Franklin, Vice Provost for University Libraries at the University of Connecticut, as our consultant on this project. Mr. Franklin has over 20 years of experience with studies of this type, and his methodology is considered the “gold standard” in this area. Since 1982, he has implemented these studies at dozens of universities, including two UMB peer institutions: the University of California, San Francisco and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

It is essential to the Health Sciences and Human Services Library’s future effectiveness and ongoing transformation that this survey be taken seriously and be answered thoughtfully and thoroughly. At times during the four hours per month, the survey will seem intrusive, but I ask your patience as we gather this very important information. The staff of the HS/HSL is very grateful to Dr. Malinda Orlin, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, for her support and her vision in seeing the importance of this study. We thank you very much for your support and time in giving us this important data.

You asked for it, you got it! Located to the right of the guard’s desk upon entering the building is a brand new snack vending machine. It’s in the hall between the Library and the soon-to-be Campus Center.

Enjoy trail mix, pop tarts, gum, chips, and gummy fruit for prices ranging from $0.60 to $1.00. The machine accepts dollar bills and coins, and soon will accept the campus ID One1Card.

Next to the snacks is a soda machine where you can purchase bottled water, iced tea, and a variety of soda pops for $1.25 per 20 oz bottle. Enjoy!

The Medical Library Association has designated October as National Medical Librarians Month. 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! We will be providing a casual continental breakfast with bagels and coffee, plus a chance to mingle with librarians and Library staff.

Meet your Librarians Breakfast

Thursday, October 23rd at 8 am, HS/HSL Weise Gallery

Have a group assignment and need to display your laptop for all to see? On October 13th, seven study rooms re-opened on the HSHSL’s 2nd floor, newly equipped with 37″- 42″ LCD panels and study tables to plug in your laptop. No need to crowd around a small screen; the large, wall-mounted LCD panels provide a comfortable way to collaborate. Read more details on the rooms here.

Here are the guidelines for use:

• Priority for use of this room is given to study groups of two or more people utilizing the audio-visual equipment.
• Audio-visual equipment is for educational purposes only.
• Please be courteous and keep volume set below 25.

Questions? Ask at a Service Desk (410-706-7995/410-706-7996)

The HS/HSL recently received an award for an AIDS Community Outreach Project for 2008-2009 from the Office of Outreach and Specialized Populations at the National Library of Medicine. The Library will be working closely with the STAR TRACK (Special Teens At Risk-Together Reaching Access, Care, and Knowledge) Program through the School of Medicine’s Adolescent and Young Adult Center.

The goals of this outreach project are to improve access to health information for STAR TRACK clients, to enable STAR TRACK staff to communicate more effectively with at-risk youth, and to increase access to and awareness of health resources in an effort to reduce the number of teens infected.

If you have further questions, please contact Meredith Solomon via email or at 410-706-1551.

Did you know that you can designate the HS/HSL as a recipient of Maryland Charities funds? And what a great investment it is! A gift to the HS/HSL truly is a gift to everyone at UMB, across the State, and in these difficult financial times a way to stretch your giving dollars.

The Library supports everyone at UMB – faculty, students and staff – through:

• Access, both virtually and on-site, to an array of excellent resources and services selected to meet all users’ health/human service research, education, service or personal needs.
• Access to the vast resources of the USM library system. If you need a book or article from another USM library, whether you are a researcher or a student, you can have it delivered here for free – saving you time and money.
• HealthyMe@UMB – a customized portal to quality health information for our UMB community.
• Maryland Health > Go Local. The HS/HSL is the host and developer of Maryland Health> Go Local – a statewide database of resources for all citizens that helps them meet their health needs right where they live. The Maryland Health > Go Local site is ranked 4th in the United States for visits to Go Local sites.

Simply…

• Designate your Maryland Charities contribution to the University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation (#9695).
• Make sure to check the “Release my name” box.
• Fill out a Supplemental Form, available from your Maryland Charities representative, and designate the Health Sciences and Human Services Library as the recipient of your contribution.

Thank you!

Do you work with diverse or specific populations? In addition to their free classes on finding health information for specific populations, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) offer a variety of quality health resources.

MedlinePlus – Population Groups Every racial, ethnic, GLBT, veteran, or age group has specific health concerns. Differences in the health of groups can result from genetics, environmental factors, access to care, and cultural factors. On these pages, you’ll find links to health issues that affect special populations.

American Indian Health and Asian American Health are designed to bring together health and medical resources pertinent to these populations including policies, consumer health information, and research.

HIV/AIDS Resources offers information on treatment, prevention, and research.

NIHSeniorHealth features health and wellness information for older adults from the National Institutes of Health.

NN/LM Maryland Resources provides State-level information on emergency preparedness & disaster recovery, demographics & statistics, and diverse population tools.

Public Libraries and Community Partners is a guide to encourage health information partnerships between public libraries, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and local health or community-based organizations.

Looking for resources written in Spanish? Check out these sites: InfoSIDA (HIV/AIDS), MedlinePlus, Tox Town, and ToxMystery.

For other free resources and classes, visit the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Southeastern/ Atlantic Region website.

Finding funding can be stressful, tedious, and sometimes downright difficult. HS/HSL has put together a research funding subject guide to help you locate funding opportunities, news about funding, grant writing guidelines, and funding policies. Some resources are specifically for scientific research while others are for improving the health of our local communities. We plan to add Maryland-specific resources in the very near future and welcome any suggestions.

If you would like to recommend a specific funding source for inclusion, please contact Meredith Solomon via email or 410-706-1551. Please remember that the Library is always willing to be a partner on a grant to help with your information/searching needs.

Happy hunting – we look forward to working with you in the future.

These resources available from the HSHSL can help you quickly and easily find relevant practice guidelines.

• MD Consult: Select the Guideline tab, then run a keyword search on your topic or browse by specialty
• National Guideline Clearinghouse: Comprehensive database of guidelines maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Ovid MEDLINE: Click on the Additional Limits button to see a full list of the limits available in this database. Under Publication Type, select Practice Guideline
• PubMed: Click on the “Limits” tab. Under Type of Article, select Practice Guideline
• TRIP: Do your keyword search from the homepage. On the results page, under Filter By, click on North America under GuidelinesExample of finding Guidelines in TRIP:

Each week the HS/HSL offers free workshops to UMB faculty, staff and students; UMMC staff; HS/HSL Resources Plus! Members, and HS/HSL corporate members.

This semester we are offering a new workshop entitled Maryland Health Statistics. During this workshop you will learn where to find Maryland-specific statistics to get a sense of a community’s characteristics, to locate at-risk or underserved populations, or to find out about the health status of a community in the state. This class will provide a hands-on opportunity to search statistics websites.

The Maryland Health Statistics Workshop will be held on Thursday November 13th from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. For additional information about this and other library workshops and to register online, visit the Library Workshops page.

Maryland Health > Go Local is making a difference in Maryland. In a recent customer service survey (American Customer Satisfaction Index) of the 31 Go Local sites around the nation, Maryland Health > Go Local ranked 4th in use, as measured in web page views.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Health Sciences and Human Services Library sponsor Maryland Health > Go Local, a web-based directory of health-related services and programs in local communities. It links to MedlinePlus, a web site that offers free, high quality health information. Use Go Local to search by location, health condition or service and link to web sites.

Interested in other Go Local projects around the nation? Check out http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/golocalcontacts.html

Are you feeling guilty about those library fines you owe? Please take a moment to check your account for fines and make sure you take care of them. In an effort to clear-up debts owed to the Library, we are sending email notifications to patrons who have overdue fines. All accounts with more than $30 owed and delinquent for over 90-days will be sent to the State of Maryland Collection agency. Once an account is sent to collections, a 17% fee is charged in addition to the amount owed and payment must be made to the collection agency.

Remember, lost books and materials returned late not only cost you money but prevent others from accessing valuable library resources. Call Circulation at 410-706-7995 to see if you owe fines or stop by the Circulation Desk.

Thank you!

“A Line in the Sand” is a photographic exhibit chronicling Maryland’s fight against domestic violence and the people who have made a significant contribution to fight domestic violence. The exhibit was conceived and organized by the House of Ruth Maryland and features 20 interpretive portraits and essays of people who have been influential in the fight against domestic violence. Fine art photographers from around the U.S. were invited to shoot the portraits that make up the exhibit. The exhibit will be on display in the Library from November 3 through December 1. The opening reception will be held on November 13, 2008 in the Library. For more information about the exhibit, check the Weise Gallery webpage.