MAC Messages – Number 79

January/February 2000

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: MAC 2000 | MAC Nuggets | News from the States | Latvian Library Will Receive Support! | In Remembrance | Hospital Libraries | Technology Day 2000 | Employment Opportunities | MAC Messages Deadline | MAC/MLA AHIP Counselors | MAC Officers, Committee Chairs, Editor, and State Reporters

MAC 2000 will be held in the Star City, Roanoke, Virginia, on October 18-21, so mark your calendars now and get ready for some Star treatment!

We will be convening at the Hotel Roanoke which has a four diamond rating from AAA and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visit them at http://www.hotelroanoke.com/ to learn more about this magnificent hotel with its history of charming guests with service, style, and sophistication. Don’t forget your freshly baked chocolate chip cookie upon your arrival!

The Market Square Bridge connects the Hotel Roanoke facility to downtown Roanoke which is packed full of galleries, shops, restaurants and the famous Farmer’s Market. AKA Center in the Square, downtown Roanoke is a cultural mecca with professional theater, music and dance, art and science. For more information on this star attraction, visit them at http://www.downtownroanoke.org/.

Claire Meissner and Mary Alice Sherrard are the Co-Chairs and Guiding Stars of the Local Arrangements Committee. Let’s all follow them to the Star City!

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Happy New Year!!

Now that fears of a Y2K shutdown of the District of Columbia and threats of terrorist plots are behind us, we are breathing a big sigh of relief. Every area hospital was on high alert for both possibilities, but now our worries are about overflowing with flu victims. Hope you are all well.

All is calm; all is quiet, too, on the Hill, since Congress is still home. Some legislation was left pending about which I have written (database protection or anti-piracy legislation, Internet filtering or blocking requirements) and some like the closing of NTIS hasn’t been drafted yet. The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is conducting a rulemaking for access to copyrighted works that may change because of technological protection under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. I forwarded a survey to all MAC list members that ALA Washington Office is conducting which will be used to comment on the rulemaking process. I trust you responded by January 24th since ALA comments were due by February 10th.

Stay healthy!

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There are several new managers at the University of Maryland’s Health Sciences and Human Services Library. Alexa Mayo, Assistant Director for Information and Instructional Services (IIS), is now heading the IIS Division overseeing reference services and educational programming.

Jane Murray is the new Assistant Director for Resources Management. Jane oversees and coordinates the three departments that manage the library’s collections from selection through cataloging to preservation.

Robert Wittorf has been named Assistant Director for Computing and Technology Services. Robert will oversee internal and external computing networks and resources and the Commons Assistance Desk and HELP Desk.

Dale Prince has joined the Circulation Department as Circulation Librarian, responsible for circulation services, course reserve services, stack maintenance and in-house photocopy services.

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The International Cooperation Section has broadened the work of the Sister Library Committee. The New Sister Library Initiative is a combination of the efforts of several committees within the International Section. Committees comprising the Sister Library Initiative are the Job Exchange Committee, the Bilateral Agreements Committee, the Journal Exchange Committee, and the Sister Library Committee. The goal of the Sister Library Initiative is to select two libraries from outside the US to help, support, and cooperate with for the next 5 to 7 years. The Sister Library Initiative has already selected The Medical Research Library of Latvia. It is located in Latvia’s capital – Riga. This library serves as the National Medical Library of Latvia. The library’s URL is http://www.mzb.lv/, and it includes an English version. The Director of the library is Raisa Kazanina. Her email address is mzb@msb.lv. The Deputy Director of the Latvian Library, who will serve as the primary contact for this project, is Velta Poznaka (email at V.Poznaka@mzb.lv). The Medical Research Library of Latvia coordinates 9 branch libraries throughout Latvia. The library collects Latvian and Russian medical materials, and they try to collect materials in English, but currently they only have 22 English language medical journals. The Sister Library Initiative will also select a second sister library. We are seeking a hospital or medical library in the Caribbean or adjacent areas for the second library. Watch for further details and how you can become part of this project.

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Elizabeth (Betty) Bowes Myers, a Library of Congress librarian for more than 30 years and Northwest Hospital Center librarian, died of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in early January. She was 74 and lived in Rockdale, Maryland.

A Baltimore native, the former Elizabeth Anne Bowes graduated from Catholic High School in 1943. She earned a bachelor’s degree in modern languages, with a concentration in French, from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in 1947 and joined the Library of Congress as a researcher.

As part of her duties, she helped libraries around the country sort books before computers were in use. She would find catalog numbers of books written in French for local and university libraries.

In 1976, Ms. Myers earned a merit award for her work at the shared catalogs division of the Library of Congress. She retired in 1982 and joined Northwest Hospital Center as a library medical researcher, retiring again in April for health reasons.

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Improving DOCLINE Turnaround Time

Each of us possesses the power to improve the turnaround time of filling DOCLINE requests. You can make your contribution by:

1. Keeping your SERHOLD list up-to-date. (Someday, in the not too distant future, the National Library of Medicine will require each library to do its own updates to SERHOLD).
   
   
   
   1. Do an annual inventory of your holdings.
   2. Revise your journal holdings list.
      
      
      
      • Close entries for cancelled titles.
      • Add new titles.
      • Delete discarded materials.

   3. Report errors to your state/DC SERHOLD Coordinator.

2. Checking DOCLINE twice a day and responding quickly. If you cannot fill a request within 24 hours, it is better to REJECT the request and let DOCLINE route it to the next potential lender.
3. NOT indicating that you have filled a DOCLINE request before you have the requested material in your hand. When you indicate a request has been filled, this “kills” the request in the DOCLINE system. The request will NOT be routed to another lender. If you cannot fill the request after indicating that the request has been filled, contact the borrowing library. The borrower will need to reenter the request. This practice causes more work for everyone and adds time to the process!
4. Keeping your DOCLINE routing table up-to-date. Each cell holds up to 20 potential lending libraries. Fill the cells with lending partners that give you good service. Consider adding document delivery companies to your routing table.
5. Honoring any reciprocal trading agreements you have with other libraries and make sure your trading partners get good service from you. “Do unto others…”

Library: Arsenal of the Hospital?

On the academic campus, the library is referred to as “the arsenal of the university.” Scholars consider the library essential to their work. It seems that the more education someone has, the more inclined s/he is to use the library. How do the hospital and academic environments compare?

1. For the most part, hospital administrators are not scholars. Many do not have a graduate degree. They will never value library service like a college president or dean.
2. Few hospital jobs require a graduate degree. Many hospital department managers have a two-year degree from a community college. University department chairpersons are academically better prepared for their jobs.
3. There are no hospital job standards that require hospital employees to publish or do research. Tenure criteria on the academic campus require publication and/or research.

A hospital librarian with a professional degree frequently reports to a department manager or administrator that has little experience using the library. How supportive will a supervisor be if s/he is not a regular library user? No wonder hospital librarians are constantly frustrated by the lack of understanding they receive from hospital administrators and employees! Your boss may not see the relevance of what you do.

To promote the relevance of the library, it is important to foster good relationships with groups that frequently use the library:

1. Medical Staff and Psychologists
2. Education Department Staff and Nursing Clinical Instructors
3. Faculty from colleges that supervise students on rotation
4. AHEC Faculty, Residents and Staff
5. Hospital Board of Trustee Members and other Community Leaders

Whenever library staff receives an expression of gratitude, inform your supervisor. Sometimes it is necessary to toot your own horn. Let the folks who use the service convey the benefits they receive to your boss. When preparing surveys/need assessments about library service, include a question about “Is library service essential to your job?” The positive responses received are a testimony of the value of the library.

To cultivate a relationship with healthcare practitioners that might not come to the library, go to them. Offer in-services at department meetings, even at 7AM for the night shift. Request time at department and division meetings to share news and get feedback. Volunteer to be on committees, being careful to choose them wisely. Librarians are detail-oriented and have organizational skills that make them an asset to any team project.

When a hospital librarian does a good job of meeting the information needs of library users, the news will get back to the supervisor. It is possible for the boss to understand that the library offers a valuable service, without understanding how the service is provided. Be conscientious about educating your supervisor about who uses the library and why they use it. Any effort expended will have long-term dividends.

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Sponsored by: Maryland Chapter Special Libraries Association; Co-sponsored by Washington DC Chapter, Special libraries Association and the AIIP Service Corporation.

Join us for Technology Day, featuring some of the foremost experts in the fields of Intelligent Agents, Portals, and related topics. In addition to a stellar cast of keynote speakers, the program features morning and afternoon sessions on Digital Asset Managers, Text Mining, Portals and Vortals, Intelligent Agents for Competitive Intelligence, and many other topics of current importance and interest to information professionals.

Keynote Speakers: Marcus P. Zillman, Founder/Creator of Botspot and Internet 101 Host; Steve Arnold, ArnoldIT, Consultant, writer and information technology seer; Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. Some of the other speakers include Gary Price of GW University,creator of the Price Lists, Mick O’Leary, Frederick Community College and the Data Brokers and Ronen Feldman of Instinct Software.

Early Bird Registration (Feb 22)  –  $125
Regular Registration (March 10)   –  $150
Late Registration                 –  $175

Includes food, exhibits, free parking and excellent information!

For more information or to have a detail flyer mailed contact:

Peggy Carr – pcarr@carr-research.com

OR

Sally Riley – sally_Riley@mccormick.com

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The Health Sciences Library seeks a service-oriented librarian to join our 5 member team of professional librarians. The team provides in-depth reference service and user education to a wide range of clients who use the professional and consumer health libraries.

Responsibilities include: provide reference services using print resources, multi-platform databases, and Internet resources, develop instructional materials and present classes, develop, evaluate, and maintain subject-specific directories of Internet resources.

Qualifications: Graduate degree in Library or Information Science or equivalent. Experience: Internet and computer skills. Teaching, presentation skills and medical database searching.

The position is 32 hours/week with 1 evening shift. Benefits include: paid time-off program, medical/dental insurance, retirement and 401K plans, and on-site child care center.

Applications should reference job # 99-05197 and be sent to:

Inova Employment Center

2990 Telestar Court
Falls Church, VA 22042

Fax: (703) 205-2381
e-mail: jobs@inova.com

Alice Sheridan
Health Sciences Library
Inova Fairfax Hospital
3300 Gallows Road
Falls Church, VA 22042
alice.sheridan@inova.com

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Virginia Commonwealth University seeks an energetic, knowledgeable, and creative individual to manage library resources and to participate in the delivery of information and instructional services in the health sciences. The Collection Management Librarian for the Health Sciences takes the lead role in developing, managing, and promoting the University’s health sciences collections. This position reports to the Director of TML. It works closely with other collection managers in the VCU Libraries to implement collection and budget policy formulated by Collection Management for the VCU Libraries, under the direction of the Head of Collection Management. The incumbent will coordinate the work of other professionals who select resources in the health sciences, will prepare statistical analyses, and will formulate goals, procedures, and strategies relative to health sciences collections. Subject responsibilities may include medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and allied health. The position offers opportunities to participate in state and regional initiatives for developing electronic resources and digital collections. Working closely with the other health science librarians, the individual will also participate in the delivery of information and instructional services.

QUALIFICATIONS: An ALA accredited MLS is required. An academic background in the health sciences with two or more years experience developing collections and selecting electronic resources in the health sciences in an academic medical library is preferred. Experience working in a culturally diverse environment highly preferred.

ENVIRONMENT: Virginia Commonwealth University is a Carnegie-I research university located in Richmond, Virginia. The VCU Libraries advances the university’s teaching and research mission with holdings that exceed 1.5 million volumes, over 2.8 million microforms, and 260,000 government documents, with a staff of 170 FTE and an annual budget of $10 million, including nearly $5 million for collections. Further information about the Libraries may be found at http://www.library.vcu.edu; additional information about the University may be found at http://www.vcu.edu. SALARY: $32,000 minimum. Complete requirements and description available at http://www.library.vcu.edu/admin/jobopens.html.

APPLICATION: Submit a letter of application, resume, and the names and phone numbers for three current references to: Ken Hopson, University Library Services, Virginia Commonwealth University, P.O. Box 980582, Richmond, Virginia 23298-0582, email: kwhopso1@vcu.edu, phone: (804) 828-4640, fax: (804) 828-6089. Review of applications will begin on January 31, 2000. Virginia Commonwealth University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution providing access to education and employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, veteran’s status, political affiliation or disability.

–submitted by Barbara Wright (bawright@hsc.vcu.edu)

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Note this important date! Newsworthy items for the MAC Messages March/April issue may be submitted to the editor (macmessages@angelfire.com) until March 15, 2000. Remember to include “MAC” in your subject line.

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