Technology and Libraries - A new column
Technology and Libraries is a new feature on The Marquee that allows librarians to discuss their thoughts on how technology intertwines with a libraries functions - good or bad. Susan Robishaw, the chair of our technology committee, is our first poster.
My Historical Perspective
Susan Robishaw
Assistant Director Health Sciences Libraries
Geisenger Health System
We just moved into a new library a few months ago. It’s in a brand new, technologically sophisticated building. We had been in the old, “temporary” library for 25 years; the move gave us a much welcomed opportunity to integrate the patchwork of technology and machines that accumulated over the years.
The new library has 17 public access pcs, 7 staff pcs, including an Ariel workstation with a color scanner, and a wireless laptop. Our classroom is equipped with 1 instructor and 7 student pcs. Physicians can use the classroom pcs, but not the public ones, to access our EMR system. The meeting room has a computer-compatible plasma screen tv. Both rooms are equipped with “Wall-Talkers,” a gridded whiteboard cut to our specifications, and attached to the walls. The library has Geisinger wireless, public wireless and 10 stations for public cabled Internet access. Our state-of the-art multifunctional photocopiers serve as the default printers for the pcs as well as black & white scanners and fax machines.
When I came here 20 years ago this fall, the library had a photocopier, an OCLC terminal, and a TI Silent 700 terminal with an acoustic coupler. To receive or send a fax, we had to go the system administration headquarters, a ¼ of a mile away. This was quite a contrast to the corporate library where I worked in Texas before coming to Geisinger. There I had 2 IBM pcs, a fax, and access to company wide email on a DEC mainframe. (I also had the opportunity to participate in a beta test of the first Macs, though, ultimately, the company decided to follow the IBM path.)
As the reference librarian at Geisenger, I received the first library pc. It had a modem so I could use it to access NLM, BRS and DIALOG. Over the years we added newer pcs, one at a time. We kept the older ones, too, eventually, building a collection of 10 pcs all different brands and/or models. I was the pc person. I did the troubleshooting and even installed modems and additional memory cards.
Today, we have 4 IT people assigned to the library to manage our pcs and software, a help desk which is staffed 24 hours per day and a contract for hardware support. In 1993, we participated in a National Science Foundation grant to bring the Internet to Geisinger. In 1995, we introduced our locally hosted networked version of Ovid (then CD+), piggy-backing on the T1 and T3 lines that connected our hospitals and far-flung clinics in order to implement our EMR. In 1996, the library was one of the first departments to have a site on our company intranet.
In the last 12 years, we have increased our electronic collection, moved from a card catalog to an online one and transitioned to completely electronic document delivery to our customers. We really pound RefWorks/RefShare for individual and collaborative projects.
Yet I feel like I’m falling behind, technologically-speaking. We don’t have a blog or a wiki and we aren’t using Web 2.0. Should we be?
We still have the TI Silent 700, though.
Would you like to write an entry for Technology and Libraries?
Contact us!
