MIDDLE ATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE
Newsletter of the
National Network of Libraries of Medicine
Middle Atlantic Region
New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware
| The New York Academy of Medicine - 1216 Fifth Avenue - New York, NY 10029 |
| Volume 12 Number 1 | January - February 2002 |
In This Issue...
Last Call
Library Improvement Program
NTCC Clearinghouse Coming
Soon
We Can Help You With Your
Computer
The End of One Era; The Dawn
of Another
How Consumers Search
Network Dropout
PubMed Search Strategy
Selection Tips
NLM Technical Bulletin
Note: This is a newsletter. The Links and information are up-to-date when published and are not updated after the published date.
Reminder:
What We See is What You'll Get
We will be ordering Network certificates by the end of February. The institution and library names will be taken directly from your DOCUSER record.
If your institution has undergone a name change and it is not reflected in your DOCUSER record, please make any necessary changes no later than February 15, 2002.
To update your record:
From the home page select DOCUSER > Update.
The first screen to come up will be your Document Delivery
screen. Make any necessary corrections and click on SAVE.
Click the back button on your browser and, back on the
Document Delivery screen, click on the arrow in the small grey
box in the left hand corner and select INSTITUTION. Again,
make any necessary changes on that screen and click on SAVE.
As you are no doubt aware, the RML had several new computers with which to play "Santa Claus." After a message was posted to MARL, "Santa" received over 30 requests for the PCs we had available.
Based on need, the following libraries are the lucky recipients:
Ellis Hospital, Schnectady, NY
Forbes Regional Hospital, Monroeville, PA
Sharon Regional Health System, Sharon, PA
Susquehanna Health System, Williamsport, PA
The Matheny School and Hospital, Peapack, NJ
Western NY Library Resource Council Circuit
We wish them good luck and trust that they will now be better able to fill DOCLINE requests for members of the Network as well as fill patron requests more expeditiously.
We hope we will be able to fund additional library improvement hardware in the future. If that happens, an announcement will be posted to MARL. At that time we shall reevaluate the requests of those who did not "make the cut" this time as well as entertain additional requests from anyone who did not apply this go round.
Maureen Czujak, Assistant Director for the National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC), has been working with NLM staff in designing the new Clearinghouse web site. We look forward to making that site available in the near future.
NTCC staff are very grateful for the assistance of Michael Boer, Technology Coordinator for the Seattle RML, and Chris Shaffer, Technology Coordinator for the Chicago RML, for creating the Clearinghouse database. The database will be subjected to thorough testing by staff from both the National Library of Medicine and all the Regional Medical Libraries prior to limited field-testing. Ms. Czujak is entering the educational data that will be used for testing purposes.
Once launched, the Clearinghouse site will contain a form by which users may make suggestions for additional materials to be considered for inclusion to the Clearinghouse database. More information will be forthcoming as this exciting project develops.
by George Constance, Technology and Education Programs Coordinator
In these difficult economic times, the Information Services Department at many hospitals and medical centers are being downsized. As a result, the computer problems of medical libraries are often placed on the back burner or wait-listed. There is an alternative to waiting; you can contact the RML.
While some of the problems may require actual hardware swapping of parts in the computer, entailing the need for on-site personnel, there are many other problems that can be solved over the phone or through e-mail correspondence. For example, if your computer freezes up, do you know what you can do besides turning the computer on and off and rebooting? Or, the printer has registered a paper feed error? Or your monitor is not properly displaying the content? What steps can you take to solve the problem? We can walk you through the necessary steps to fix the problem.
We can also assist you with any difficulties you may encounter while using various software packages such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. If you have computer related problems and your IS department seems to be ignoring you, contact me, and we will work to resolve them in a timely manner.
by Joanne Jahr, Network Programs Coordinator
As of December 31, 2001, the Medical Library Center of New York discontinued the UCMP system and, with it, all SERHOLD updating by MLCNY. From now on, all DOCLINE libraries are responsible for their own serials updating through the SERHOLD module in DOCLINE.
We know that many, if not most, of you are already updating your holdings information in SERHOLD. For those of you who are not, we are here to answer any questions you might have and to walk you through the process. It�s not difficult and all changes take effect immediately. If you need assistance, give us a call or send an email SOS.
At this time we would like to alert you to a service we are offering:
Most libraries have one user id and password which gives the entire staff access to every module within DOCLINE. Large libraries with technical service/ cataloguing departments might not want the ILL/ Document Delivery department or the Reference Desk to be able to edit/update SERHOLD. At the same time, the ILL Department might not want the Technical Services and Reference departments to have access to the Borrow and Lend modules. We can provide a user id and password to the Technical Services department, which would give them access to SERHOLD and DOCUSER Search while denying access to DOCLINE Borrow and Lend. We can also provide a user id and password to the Reference Desk with access to SERHOLD and DOCUSER Search only. Finally, if the Technical Services department, which would be responsible for updating SERHOLD, wants to deny the ILL and Reference departments access to SERHOLD Update, we can also arrange that as well.
Please call or email Joanne Jahr with your specific requests (212) 822-7352 or jjahr@nyam.org
by Gretchen Schweiger, Consumer Health Coordinator, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region
MEDLINEplus, now in its third year, passed a milestone by containing more than 500 health topics, with more being added every month. Most library professionals know about MEDLINEplus and its usefulness, but who are the consumers that use it and what do they think?
This past February 2001, an online survey was conducted with users as they came to MEDLINEplus. The results of the survey are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ survey/msurveyresults.html. One interesting highlight from the survey was that the majority of users, including first timers, either found MEDLINEplus through a Web search engine or linked to it from another site. The vast majority of respondents accessed the Internet from home. The MEDLINEplus user type was well divided, but most respondents were at the site to research a specific condition. Of those questioned, 86% either "always" or "frequently" found what they were searching for. Most were "very satisfied" with their visit and would return to MEDLINEplus. The total number of those responding to the survey was 2,969 and they were randomly prompted to take the survey. Any one user had a one in 20 chance of being asked to take the survey.
It might be useful to compare the MEDLINEplus survey with some other data. The Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org) also conducted a survey of health consumers using the Internet. This study, which was released in October 2000, has some commonalties with the MEDLINEplus survey plus some other interesting statistics about "health information seekers." For instance the Pew survey also found that the majority of those searching for health information on the Internet did so to find information on a specific disease or condition. 35% of the respondents felt that how they cared for themselves had been improved some by going online. A majority, 83%, conducted their searches from home, just as was shown in the MEDLINEplus survey. Interestingly, 62% had NOT previously heard of the Web site from which they retrieved information, and the largest group, 49%, used only two or three Web sites in their health information search. The survey also had some questions that touched on evaluation of Web sites accessed. 75% of users questioned had not read the Web sites� privacy policy and 42% had not checked to see who was providing the information. On the other hand, a large majority felt that health Web sites should NOT be allowed to store users� personal information or track their activities.
What can we learn from these two surveys? The results reinforce the importance of educating consumers on how to evaluate health Web sites. With so many users accessing the sites through search engines or links from other pages, and searching from home, we should explore ways to promote the Web visibility of MEDLINEplus and other consumer health Web sites. We cannot create a Web site and just imagine consumers will find it and that they will use it. A good start may be to make sure our Webmasters encode appropriate meta-tags on our consumer health Web sites and attempt to have other sites link back to us. Finally, while continuing to perform outreach in a traditional manner, we should examine other methods that take these results of how consumers actually access health information into consideration.
Reprinted with permission from the November/December 2001 issue of Network News, the bimonthly newsletter of the NN/LM SCR
We regret to report that Pfizer (NYUPFN) has withdrawn from DOCLINE (and the Network) on the advice of legal counsel. Please remove Pfizer from your Routing Table.
by Andrew Hamilton, Online Analyst, NN/LM National Training Center & Clearinghouse
Our problem: How to teach effective use of PubMed?
Our strategy: Use interesting examples to illustrate the mechanics of how the system searches for material and displays the results.
Creating original examples that are both instructive as well as interesting is often the most difficult part of preparing for a class on PubMed. As the teacher, you can take advantage of putting the cart in front of the horse: Find an interesting article, and then tailor a search strategy to find that citation.
One of the best ways to do this is to keep an eye on national Internet news sites (such as CNN and MSNBC, which often rely on AP and Reuters sources) for stories announcing medical breakthroughs or scientific discoveries.
For example, scanning the Web on the morning of January 11, 2002, provided the following headlines that suggested possible PubMed search examples:
Low-salt, Low-meat Diet can Prevent Kidney Stones
Both of these news items discuss the imminent publication of research in a major journal. These news items provide you with the name of the researchers and the journals in which their respective works will be published. Using this information, I could construct citation-oriented searches on penninger j [au] AND cell [ta] to retrieve the Protein-Pain article and borghi l [au] AND n engl j med [ta] to retrieve the Salt-Meat-Kidney Stone article.
Care must be used if you use this type of citation-focused search. The timing of the news announcement quite often precedes the acquisition and inclusion of the original article within PubMed.
Check to be sure that the article is actually in PubMed before you do the search before an audience. Nothing is more embarrassing than to sell an audience on a search strategy only to have it pull up no hits. On the morning of January 11, 2002, neither of the searches listed above retrieved the desired citations. If you are patient, you�ll find within a few days that these citations have been added to PubMed. At this point they are fair game for serving as a search example, so long as you do not try to retrieve them using any of the fields that are only available after the record has been fully indexed.
Health-related Internet news stories do much more than simply herald the publication of new research. Recent events will often cause news sources to revisit issues that have been the subject of previous research. This type of article often leads to a controversial or surprising topic that is quite suitable to serve as the subject of an effective PubMed search example.
The article reaffirms the risk of developing food poisoning from eating uncooked alfalfa and bean sprouts. This easily translates to the simple query food poisoning AND sprouts and retrieves 25 hits. Taking the example one step further, you can substitute sprout* for sprouts to demonstrate how truncation picks up six additional records when compared to the original search.
On January 5th, 2002, a small plane was flown into a Tampa, FL, high-rise. The 15-year-old pilot was taking the drug Accutane to treat his acne. There have been questions in the past about a possible association between the use of Accutane and suicidal behavior. This story can be translated using the MeSH browser. The resulting PubMed search strategy of Isotretinoin/adverse effects [MESH] AND suicide[MESH] would retrieve a total of 11 hits.
Today�s medical and scientific breakthroughs serve as the inspiration for future research. Each day provides a fresh supply of potential examples for the database instructor. The four examples above were derived from a single morning of skimming the newswires. If you use current news items to serve as the subjects for your search examples, you�ll have no trouble capturing and holding the attention of your audience at your next presentation.
The following articles from the current Technical Bulletin are available on the Web at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/tb.html.
2001 November - December; 323
MEDLINE�/PubMed� End-of-Year Activities - e2
Hands On: Sending NLM Gateway Results via
Email - e3
Indexing the Events of September 11, 2001 and
Bioterrorism for MEDLINE - e4
History of Medicine � New PubMed� Subset - e5
Searchable Online Books Linked to PubMed� - e6
Changes in the Treatment of Chemical Data
in MEDLINE� - e7
Smallpox Preparedness - e8
What's New for 2002 MeSH� - e9
Hands-On: Revising PubMed� Cubby Stored
Searches - e10
MEDLINE Data Changes � 2002 - e11
Cataloging News - e12
Technical Notes: - e1
Middle Atlantic Perspective Index | NN/LM
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NN/LM-
Middle Atlantic
Region New York Academy of Medicine 1216 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10029 Site maintained by MAR STAFF Revised: February 8, 2002 URL: http://www.nnlm.gov/mar/perspec/2002/0001.html |