After my “Grinch” column at the end of 2011, I vowed as my 2012 New Year’s resolution to have a kinder and gentler approach to my column writing…at least for the column title!

About two weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with a campus colleague on the very subject I wrote about in December: why not everyone can have access to our resources. This particular conversation had to do with expanding access to our resources to a broader state audience. Basically, the thought was that we wouldn’t need any more library staff to manage wider access to e-resources. The assumption was that we just “turn them on” and let them run. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I recommend the article by our Head of Collections Management, Steven Douglas, which follows this column, for a look at “The Care and Feeding of Electronic Resources.” Suffice it to say that the complexities of selecting, licensing, and assuring access to e-resources are many. When you can get to an article directly through a Google search, it may not be because it is free but because Steve and his team work diligently behind the scenes to make it as seamless and transparent to the user as possible. I am reminded of the Rice Krispies Treat television commercial a few years back where the mother threw flour on her face and looked stressed about producing those yummy treats. No one could believe something that good could be so effortless. Maybe we make it look too easy. Perhaps we need to throw some flour on our faces!

Of Interest: The 2012 NMC (New Media Consortium) Horizon Report has been released. This report examines key trend, challenges, and technologies to watch at the intersection of technology and teaching, and learning.

Electronic resources (e-journals, e-books, and databases) have revolutionized the way you can access information resources. No longer are you restricted by the Library’s operating hours. Instead, you can get the information you need when you need it, and from wherever you happen to be. While we hope that getting to the resources the Library licenses for the campus is a seamless process, there is quite a bit of work that goes on behind the scenes.

Selection – Relying on user recommendations, usage statistics, impact factor, and (unfortunately) budget information, librarians decide each year which resources to renew, add, or cancel. This complicated process takes several months and is concluded by September for the following year.

Licensing – We don’t purchase electronic resources – we license their use for our faculty, students, and staff. Costs are based on the size of the population that we serve, so we have to limit access to only those on our campus and at the UMMC. We do this by providing the publishers with our campus IP ranges, including those for a proxy server that verifies your right to access materials when you are off campus. Different publishers allow different uses. We work with Procurement Services to get the best access for our campus users and to insure that we can use the resources for e-reserves, scholarly sharing, and interlibrary loan. More user access costs more money.

Activation – When a new resource is licensed, we make it accessible to our users in several ways. The E-Journals, E-Books, and Databases lists make it easy to find a resource when you know the title. And we work with the librarians who manage the University of Maryland library consortia’s shared catalog and an outside vendor to make sure the "Find It" button appears when you discover a resource we license through the catalog or a database. Our holdings are also listed in the National Library of Medicine’s LinkOut system, enabling you to connect directly from PubMed and other National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases directly to the resources that we license on your behalf.

Maintenance – We strive to make sure that our licensed resources are always available when you need them, but problems can occur at the publisher’s site or ours. We respond to your trouble reports as quickly as we can and periodically check access to make sure our e-journals and databases are available when you need them.

Traditionally, the Library purchased a large number of books "just-in-case" someone wanted to use them. Many of the books that were housed in our stacks, and those of other libraries, were never used. As the cost of library resources has soared and our budget has stagnated, however, we are no longer able to follow this model. Instead we concentrate on buying core materials that we are sure will be used and responding quickly to your requests for specific titles in the hope that we can get them to you "
just-in-time."

The proliferation of e-books, however, has allowed us to begin to return to the model where the Library attempted to have every book our users might want waiting in the stacks. We have recently begun a User Driven Acquisition trial for e-books. Selected titles are in both the E-Book list and in the Catalog and appear just as our other e-books do. The difference is that these books won’t be purchased until they are used.

This allows the HS/HSL to provide access to a wide range of books that we think our users might be interested in without having to purchase them and place them on the shelf. The program allows users to browse through table of contents and indexes just as they would with a print book in hand to see if it fits their needs. But only when the book is substantially used is a purchase triggered and the Library charged. This new technology promises to help us toward our goal of having the resources you want available when you want them while staying within our budget.

Does Maryland need a statewide health information network? A committee within the HS/HSL is investigating this question. Such a network could consist of core collections of e-journals, e-books and databases specifically for health care providers and public health professionals. The HS/HSL is conducting a feasibility study, funded through a planning award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region. The Library will be hosting discussion sessions on campus and in various locations throughout the state, as well as requesting feedback via an electronic survey and a webinar. Our goal is to identify health care providers and public health professionals who would be interested in participating. In particular, we are looking for health professionals who do not have access to information resources but would be interested in using such resources to enhance patient care and reduce health disparities. If you are aware of an individual or group that might benefit from access to databases, e-journals, e-books, and possibly other evidence-based decision making tools, please contact Patricia Hinegardner, project manager, at 410.706.6849 or by email.

The Baltimore discussion session will be held on March 21, 2012 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in
the Distance Education Room of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library. The meeting will consist of an overview of health information networks in other states and a guided discussion of the issues. A continental breakfast and lunch will be served. If you are interested in attending, please contact Patricia Hinegardner.

You’ve seen those square images, like the one to the right, everywhere. Now you’ll be seeing them in the HS/HSL as well. They are known as QR (Quick Reference) Codes. They’re designed for you to easily access a website or app from your smartphone. The QR code in this article will take you to the HS/HSL homepage.

If your phone or tablet is equipped with a camera and a QR reader, you can point it at the QR code and connect directly to an app you might want to download, or a website you need to access. You can find free or low-cost readers at the App Store on iTunes or Android Market. For more information about QR codes, visit the Mobile Barcodes web site.

Look for posters featuring QR codes throughout the building, as well as on the Library’s Mobile Apps Resources Guide. We also have handouts available at the Reference Desk.

The NPA of the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recognized the HS/HSL as a partner in their program, which focuses on the elimination of health disparities affecting racial and ethnic minority populations. The HS/HSL’s three-year, NLM/NIH funded Information Resource Grant to Reduce Health Disparities was the impetus for seeking this partnership. This grant, renamed Project SHARE (Student Health Advocates Redefining Empowerment), has three aims. The first aim is to build capacity/skills by empowering high school students as community health advocates. The second aim focuses on student health advocates and HS/HSL program staff promoting improved health by designing student-initiated activities and outreach events in communities throughout Baltimore. The final aim of the project is to develop a replicable student health advocacy program that can be used by community-academic partnerships nationwide to sustain the project. Since September 2011, the library team has worked toward those aims with 12 students from Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy (VTTMAA). "This is a great affirmation of the focus and quality of our program," says M.J. Tooey, Library Director and Principal Investigator for the project. For more information about the NPA, visit their website.

If you are a student interested in research, here are some resources the Library offers to support your work.

Reviewing the Literature: The Library offers many subject databases with links to full-text articles.

Designing a Search Strategy: Getting help with developing an effective literature search can be as easy as arranging for a consultation with a librarian, attending a free workshop, or accessing one of the many tutorials available from the Library’s website.

Interlibrary Loan: If an article is not available from the HS/HSL, students can request a copy free-of-charge through interlibrary loan.

Citation Management: Keeping track of citations and generating a reference list in a specific style can be daunting – but not with RefWorks, a web-based citation manager. Write-N-Cite, a RefWorks add-on, can be used to make inserting citations within the paper a breeze.

Presentations: When it is time to present research, students can reserve the Presentation Practice Studio to tape, review, and refine their presentation skills.

Library Liaisons: Students are encouraged to discuss the many resources and help options with their school’s library liaison. Also, stop by the Library’s exhibit at the Annual Graduate Research Conference in April.

January 3, 2012 – May 18, 2012

Exceptions to Regular Hours:

Summer hours will begin on Saturday, May 19, 2012

The HS/HSL is offering free workshops throughout the Spring 2012 semester for all UM faculty, students, and staff, and UMMC staff. HS/HSL workshops cover a broad range of topics, including database searching, RefWorks, and copyright.

From March 6 to March 8, we will feature a series of workshops focusing on mobile devices and apps. Workshops offered during this Mobile Technologies Week include, Medical Apps for Mobile Technology, Productivity Apps, and QR Codes. To register, and to see a full list of course offerings, visit the Library’s workshops page.

If you can’t make one of our regularly scheduled workshops, consider requesting an On Demand Workshop. We will cover the same course content at a time that’s convenient for you.

The Association of Research Libraries recently published Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, a useful tool aimed at giving academic libraries commonly agreed upon guidelines for utilizing the fair use principle in questions of copyright. The practices were distilled from information gathered from working academic librarians and a panel of outside copyright experts. The practices were distilled from information gathered from working academic librarians and a panel of outside copyright experts.

Do you have questions about applying fair use while teaching and learning in today’s digital environment? For expert advice, contact Ryan Harris at 410.706.1315 or by email.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine Southeastern/Atlantic Region (NN/LM SE/A) welcomes Andrew Youngkin, formerly a reference librarian at the EPA Headquarters and Chemical Libraries in Washington, DC as our new Emerging Technologies/Evaluation Coordinator.

Andrew earned an MLS from Emporia State University in 2005 and a B.A. from the University of Utah in 2002. Prior to his work with the EPA, Andrew served a mid-sized community hospital for three years as a senior medical librarian, managing day-to-day library operations, teaching information literacy, and providing reference and research aid to hospital staff, patients, and administrators. Andrew enjoys teaching and writing, with professional interests that include new and emerging technologies, assessment and evaluation, and health information literacy. When not working, Andrew pursues a range of outdoor activities, traveling, and keeping up with his kids, ages five and seven.

We are excited that Andrew will be putting his experience to use furthering the goals of the NN/LM SE/A, promoting new technologies for health information delivery, and conducting training in and encouraging project and process evaluation.

The HS/HSL develops online tutorials to help our community use our resources more effectively and efficiently. Our convenient collection of "Library Savvy Tutorials" allows you to get help when and where you need it on topics ranging from database searching to RefWorks. Each video tutorial is only a few minutes long, and you can fast forward to get to the information you need.

We’ve recently added a number of new tutorials, including Finding a Journal’s Impact Factor, RefWorks: Creating and Managing Folders, and RefWorks: Importing from PubMed.

For the full listing of our Library Savvy Tutorials, visit the web page, and learn how to make the make the most of the Library’s resources!

A new collection, Early Dissertations of the University of Maryland 1813-1887, is being digitized and added to the Archive. The School of Medicine required a dissertation as partial fulfillment of the M.D. degree from the school’s early years through 1887. The HS/HSL holds an extensive collection of these original manuscripts. Typically, they are referred to as "Inaugural Dissertation" or "Inaugural Essay" and were written on a subject of the student’s choosing. Visit the collection.

If you have content that you would like to contribute or questions about the UM Digital Archive, please email us.

Exhibit K
Katie Klos
Feb. 27, 2012 – March 30, 2012

We are excited to announce a photography exhibit by Katie Klos that will be coming to the Library’s Weise Gallery from February 27, 2012 to March 30, 2012. Some of us on campus know Katie’s father, Mike Klos, who works for the UM Center for Information Technology Services (CITS). He certainly has wonderful things to say about Katie’s photography, and with good reason. "My wife and I are very proud of Katie and all of her accomplishments in art and music, but her photography work is where she really shines. She has learned it all on her own through trial and error and a little research. She has a great eye for the subject matter and is especially good at capturing the interaction of light and shadow. We have high hopes for her success as a photographer, if that is what she decides to pursue in the future."

After Katie sent a sample of her photography to the Library, it did not take long to discover that the Liberty High School Student did indeed have a talent. We are more than happy to display her beautiful photographs. The exhibit will be located on the First floor of the Library in the Frieda O. Weise Gallery. We invite you to stop by and see Katie’s work!