The Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Program is specifically designed to meet the educational and health care needs of rural America through the use of advanced telecommunications technologies. In the Grant Program, the focus is on funding end-user equipment that operates via telecommunications to connect students and teachers or medical providers and patients in separate rural locations. http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/dlt/dlt.htm [posted on Grants.gov Opportunities Posting Update] scb

Study looking at academic library ROI is underway
By Judy Luther, Informed Strategies, Ardmore, PA, USA

Value, or return on investment (ROI), in many forms has long been a topic of interest among the library community. While value has been a recurring theme in recent trade literature and on conference agendas, much of what has been written and discussed has centered on the cost-justifications of collections or the relative time-savings of electronic literature in research processes.

The demand for academic libraries to justify their expenditures continues to grow. As University of Alabama at Birmingham Librarian T. Scott Plutchak has commented, “It used to be that the way you put together a library budget was to look at like institutions and then argue for a little more. Now my provost is saying to me, ‘If I give you X dollars, what is the return on investment to the University?’”

Given the increasing interest in the ROI for academic libraries, in early 2007, Elsevier’s Global Customer Marketing team partnered with the library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, information sciences researcher Dr. Carol Tenopir and me to develop a new model for quantifying the return on an academic institution’s investment in its library. The goal for this study, now underway, is to determine an ROI that extends beyond the usual assessment of the value of academic library resources and encompasses the contributions a library makes in the revenue-generating activities within its university.

“If I give you X dollars, what is the return on investment to the University?”

As a single-institution case study, what differentiates this ROI project from others done in the public and corporate library sectors is its focus on how an academic institution benefits from library investments that are, in turn, used in revenue-generating activities. In particular, the study delves into the role that library collections play in the generation of grant funding. The study’s results may help academic library directors calculate their libraries’ ROI to their institutions. Doing so may, in turn, open discussions with university administrators interested in how libraries support their institutions’ priorities in the areas of research and grant funding.

UIUC Library Director Paula Kaufman is presenting the findings of this study, including its ROI model, at Elsevier’s Digital Libraries Symposium during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia. A white paper detailing the study results is being published soon in print and in PDF at www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect. (bbj)

A new Web page that addresses emergency and disaster preparedness and special populations has been added to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Enviro-Health Links. “Special Populations: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness” http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outreach/specialpopulationsanddisasters.html provides links to selected Web sites featuring emergency preparedness for special populations. This includes people with disabilities, people with visual or hearing impairments, senior citizens, children, and women. Links to information in languages other than English are also provided. [scb]

An article in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association details a study of whether case discussion at residents’ morning report, accompanied by a computerized literature search and librarian support, affects hospital charges, length of stay and thirty-day readmission rate. Read the article at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2000787 (bbj)

Over the past seven years, dozens of medical librarians (among others) have participated in a two-part marketing program that has helped them improve their libraries’ impact, and their personal influence, among co-workers, library users and decision-makers. Learn the basic marketing model - and why it is more than brochures and branding. Also, find out how to create effective marketing projects that can be implemented on small budgets and hear about some of the success stories from the most recent 2007 multi-state CE class.

Pat Wagner will present a brief overview of her Marketing As If Your Life Depended On It class along with success stories from the recent classes held in Denver and Kansas City on a Breezing Along with the RML presentation on Friday, February 8, 9:30 AM CT, 8:30 AM MT. Join us to hear about the great projects happening in our region! (bbj)

Demo Girl creates 2-3 minute screencast demos that let you see for yourself if you want to try a new online service before registering. The Demo Girl web site contains no ads…very nice. http://demogirl.com/ [rb]

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine MidContinental Region (NN/LM MCR) announces the availability of a Hospital Library Award.

The purpose of this award is to provide support for projects that hospital librarians can use to demonstrate their value to and increase their visibility in their institution.

One award of up to $8,000 will be granted. Proposals are due by February 1, 2008. For further information and an application, please email Barb Jones at jonesbarb@health.missouri.edu. (bbj)

The upcoming SirsiDynix Institute webinar is open to the public. Attend the seminar on using technology in our libraries, given by Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix VP of Innovation, on January 31st, 2008 11 a.m. ET http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/ [scb]

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-08-080.html
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) offers support for basic and applied research in biomedical informatics and bioinformatics. The scope of NLM’s interest in the research domain of informatics is interdisciplinary, encompassing basic informatics problem areas in the application domains of health care and health administration, public health, basic biomedical research, clinical translational research and health information management in disasters. Thus, in most instances, informatics projects of interest to NLM involve the application of computer and information sciences to information problems in a biomedical domain.

NLM defines biomedical informatics as the science of optimal organization, management, presentation and utililization of information relevant to medicine and biology. Informatics research produces concepts, tools and approaches that contribute to what is known about the capture, storage, integration, representation, management, dissemination and use of data, information and knowledge. NLM also supports research projects focused on biomedical (rather than informatics) research questions, but approached exclusively by novel or advanced informatics techniques applied to information and data produced by others. [scb]

Now contributors to MedlinePlus Go Local will be eligible to earn AHIP points, “eligible for five points per year under Section II Part 1 B (Editing: Web Sites, Mailing Lists, Listservs) of the Point Index. The online version of the Point Index will be updated to include this activity in the spring.”

Please note: if working on Go Local is part of your job, as it is for the coordinators and a few others, you are not eligible for these points. Others of you may be eligible, and volunteers definitely are.

For more about the Academy of Health Information Professionals and the points, please see the MLA Web site at http://www.mlanet.org/academy/pointindex.html and http://www.mlanet.org/academy/acadfaq2.html. [da]