Here at HS/HSL we are always looking for ways to improve our service to the campus community. Within the next few weeks, staff will be introducing a fax service at the Circulation Desk. We will also be extending evening hours during study week, May 2nd to May 18th (more details follow below on these two new services), and prompted by a suggestion made by students in the Dental School, we are aiming to extend our Saturday hours. In mid-February look for an announcement about the Library’s new presentation practice studio. This new space will allow any member of the campus community to capture a presentation in a sound proof studio and play back the audio and video.

As staff continues to design new services and make changes to the library, we are eager to hear from all of you. Please feel free to share your ideas!

Welcome, Spring 2011!

Beginning February 1, 2011, the UMB community can send and receive faxes at the HS/HSL Circulation Desk. The service will be available during the hours the Library is open (up to 20 minutes before closing during regular hours). The first page will cost $1.50 with each additional page costing 50 cents.

Each semester the HS/HSL offers a wide range of workshops to help you make better use of library resources and technology. Workshops are free to all UMB faculty, staff, and students, UMMC staff, and HS/HSL Corporate Members. Topics covered include RefWorks, PubMed, Basic and Advanced Searching for Nursing, and Grant Proposal Writing. This semester the HS/HSL is offering several new workshops including Social Policy, which will address researching statutes and regulations, and PubGet, a tool that allows quick access to full text PDFs from PubMed.

For the full schedule, course descriptions, and registration, please visit our Spring 2011 Workshop Schedule webpage.

Can’t make one of our regularly scheduled workshops? Sign up for an On Demand Workshop. On Demand Workshops are offered to individuals or small groups who cannot make one of our scheduled workshops or would like instruction on a topic that is not part of the regular schedule.

Before you buy a subscription to a journal for you or your department, always check the HS/HSL Journals list or our Catalog to see a complete list of journals along with coverage dates. A large portion of our budget is used to provide electronic and print access to many journal titles for our users, so always remember to begin your searches from the Library’s Database list. Doing so will allow you to link out to the full text of many articles for free. If you have questions, please contact the Reference Department at 410.706.7996 or through the Ask Us! link.

Independent International study, funded by Elsevier, finds university library collections and services lead to better research articles and grant proposals

This past summer, Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information announced the results of a new study that “demonstrates the value of the academic library to the institution in improving grant proposal and report writing and in helping researchers attract grant income. Of the eight institutions participating from around the globe, six demonstrated a greater than one-to-one (1:1) return in grant funding, with results ranging from 15.54:1 to 0.64:1. Equally significant is the result that two institutions showed a significant positive correlation between an increase in library investment over time and an increase in grant funding to the university.”

Dr. Carol Tenopir, Director of the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee, who led a team of investigators over a 16-month period stated, “our research shows that the collections and services of all university libraries help faculty write better grant proposals and articles and help them do better research.”

The results of the study are listed in the Elsevier Library Connect White Paper, University Investment in the Library: Part II.

Please consider including the HS/HSL when planning and writing your grant. When submitting a grant proposal to a federal agency like the NIH, consider including a request for support from the Library. Services we provide include expert searching of databases like MEDLINE, CINAHL and Web of Science, and assistance with constructing meta-analyses and systematic reviews.

Please contact Alexa Mayo at 410.706.1316, or by email, if you would like more information on including the Library in your grant proposals.

More than 72,000 clinical photographs illustrate age-related eye disease progression

The National Institutes of Health has expanded a genetic and clinical research database to give researchers access to the first digital study images. The National Eye Institute (NEI), in collaboration with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), has made available more than 72,000 lens photographs and fundus photographs of the back of the eye, collected from the participants of the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS).

These images are now accessible to scientists through NCBI’s online database of Genotypes and Phenotypes, known as dbGaP, which archives data from studies that explore the relationship between genetic variations (genotype) and observable traits (phenotype).

Complete information is available from NIH News.

The President’s Outreach Council is sponsoring its 3rd Annual Art Exhibit & Silent Auction. The exhibit will run from Friday, February 4th, through Friday, February 25th, and will feature original artwork from students attending George Washington Elementary School and Southwest Baltimore Charter School.

All artwork will be available for auction, so visit the Weise Gallery inside the HS/HSL during the month of February and bid on your favorite pieces of art. You just might win! All proceeds go to support CLUB UMD, a youth leadership program supported by mentors from among the University of Maryland students, staff and faculty.

We are pleased to announce that the HS/HSL building will be open until 2:00 a.m. during the spring semester final exam period, Monday, May 2, 2011 through Wednesday, May 18, 2011. Library staff will leave at midnight on nights with extended hours; therefore, staff assisted services will not be available after that time. The building will remain secure with front door access restricted to those with campus ID badges and campus security at the front desk and patrolling the building.

Extended Hours
May 2, 2011 – May 18, 2011

Monday – Thursday: 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m.
Friday: 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m.

Missing an earring, your umbrella, sunglasses, a thumb drive, etc.? The HS/HSL Circulation Desk may have your lost item. Stop by any time or call 410.706.7995 with a description, and we will be happy to check to see if we have your property.