13th EAHIL Conference - Library development

Collaboration for the next-generation medical and health science library

astrid.kilvik — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:55:01 +0000

Authors:

Buset, Karen Johanne. NTNU University Library, Medical Library. Trondheim, Norway

Kilvik, Astrid. Sør-Trøndelag University College, Faculty of Nursing, The Library. Trondheim, Norway

Abstract:

Introduction

The Norwegian Ministry of Education has given NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and HiST (Sør-Trøndelag University College) a joint assignment to establish an integrated library for medicine and health science. The library will be situated in a new building at the university hospital area and it will open in 2014. This is a new and radical collaboration project in Norway, between different types of institutions; a university and a university college. NTNU and HiST are different regarding organizational structure, culture, economy and traditions. The user groups will differ from senior researchers and clinicians on different scholarly levels to bachelor students in e.g. occupational therapy, nursing and social work.

It is not planned a merger of the two institutions, but rather an organizational form, a community of practice, in which we cooperate on the physical library and the user services (1).

This collaboration project gives a unique opportunity to establish the next-generation library for research and learning, both a physical library and the library’s ability to offer new services.

Objectives

The objective of this poster is to present a project of library collaboration. The development of the integrated library for medicine and health science will be based on results from several user studies and also implies development of the two libraries as a community of practice.

Method

User behavior and demands change. It is important that the library is prepared and able to develop services to support their users’ workflow. So what will the user needs be in 2014? A number of former development projects in the existing libraries as well as research and our experience in general give us some ideas. We see that librarians’ expertise is less requested in the physical library, but students will use the physical library for group and individual study. Most users prefer search engines like Google and Google Scholar instead of the library catalogue. There will be an increased demand for user instruction and library courses and classes. Regarding staff and researchers, we see that they rarely visit the physical library, but they request new services, ask for library support at their workplaces and in the publishing process.

This year we have carried out a user study to increase and update our knowledge about behavior and needs of the different user groups. The study was designed as a focus group study with four group interviews, two groups consisting of students and two of staff from the two institutions. Trained moderators performed the interviews based on an interview guide (2).

Results

The results so far show some significant difference between students and staff, but minor differences between the two institutions. Students want in a way a traditional library; they want a quiet place for study, an alternative to the regular reading rooms. They want long opening hours, from 8 to 20, some even longer. Most important for this group is an area for study and access to literature. They also use the library to check out the recommended reading before they buy the literature. They want different areas in the library; quite areas for group and individual study and more noisy areas for relaxing together with their fellow students with possibilities to eat and drink. Good quality of air, light, large windows and spaciousness are keywords for designing the physical library. The students are also concerned about access to printers, copiers, computers and enough sockets. The students are self-reliant, but see the benefit from library courses and classes.

The study shows that the staff uses the library primarily to order books and articles. They rarely visit the library, but use mail or telephone to get in touch. For this group it is important that the library website is good and that librarians can assist if needed. They emphasize equal access for both institutions to information resources. Library courses and classes are also important for the staff both for themselves and for their students. Further the staff wants the library to be a place for dissemination of the institutions’ research - either by short presentations of current projects, or by exhibition and posters.

The study shows an interesting difference between staff and students regarding the library as an "interdisciplinary meeting place". Staff sees the library as a place where students can meet to discuss and share knowledge. Students, on the other hand, are less concerned about this and focus more on the library as a workplace.

Discussion

Results from this last study both supplement and overlap results from our former development projects. All this knowledge together will form the basis for the development of an integrated library for medicine and health science. In this developmental process library staff from two different institutions will cooperate and form a community of practice. A community of practice can be defined as a group of people who share interests, problems, or passion in an area and where they develop their knowledge in this area by sharing experiences and regularly interact or negotiate with each other (1). The library has to be established as a “learning organization”. This means an organization that is able to accept, adapt and continuously evaluate new ideas and changes and also is flexible and consciously improves its capacity to learn and develop (3). This organization has staff with focus on attitudes and relations. Staff members are involved and takes responsibility, have communication skills and are innovative and takes risks. Team work can be an effective and flexible working method for library staff and also make it easier for the two libraries to work together across institutional borders.

Keywords:

Library development, Integrated library, User needs, Learning organization, Community of practice

References:

Wenger E. Praksisfællesskaber: læring, mening og identitet. København: Reitzel; 2004
Puchta C, Potter J. Focus group practice. London: Sage Publications; 2004
Rennemo Ø. Levér og lær: aksjonsbasert utvikling i resultatorienterte organisasjoner. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget; 2006

Category:

Library development

Type of presentation:

Poster

E-books: what interest(s) in 2012 for life sciences library users?

s.vandenput — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:59:36 +0000

Authors:

Vandenput, Sandrine, University of Liège, Belgium

Detroz, Pascal, University of Liège, Belgium

Brouwir, Christine, University of Liège, Belgium

Durieux, Nancy, University of Liège, Belgium

Pasleau, Françoise, University of Liège, Belgium

Abstract:

Introduction

Over the last 10 years or so, print journals have been progressively replaced by electronic journals in academic libraries. This change has been readily embraced by users. As a comparison, we would like to address now the question of e-book availability and usage. Indeed, e-book supply is becoming increasingly important. Surprisingly, recent statistics regarding the usage of e-books purchased by University of Liège (Belgium) show relatively poor consultation rates. We decided to analyze this situation.

Objective

The main objectives of the following study were:

to identify the obstacles to using ebooks, as perceived by users;
to identify how the library can facilitate e-book usage.

Survey methods

An online user survey was conducted in March 2012. About 8000 members of the faculties of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Psychology and Science Education received by mail an invitation to participate. A reminder was sent after 2 weeks.

Participation was anonymous and voluntary.

The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part was the same for all participants and included 13 questions to gain general information about the respondent (gender, age, degree and faculty...), and to find out about the repondent’s information-seeking behavior and comfort level regarding computer use.

The second part of the questionnaire contained different questions depending on whether or not the user stated that they consulted books or e-books. Answering the whole survey took 10 minutes maximum. The questionnaire was designed so that some questions did not necessarily require a response.

Results

1140 questionnaires were returned (14% participation rate). Respondents belonged to the following user categories: bachelor’s or master’s students (75%), PhD students (6%) and university staff members (19%).

Generalist search engines such as Google were their favorite search tool and entry point to scientific information (87%). 68% of the respondents also referred to bibliographic databases. 57% referred to their personal library and 41% stated that they used books from the academic library.

Two sub-populations were considered in the following analysis: those who stated that they did not use scientific e-books and those who said that they did.

Characteristics of the non-user population (14%)

Three main reasons were advanced for not consulting e-books: discomfort of reading on screen (82%); preference for paper (59%); ignorance of e-book availability (40%).

The two major reported barriers to using e-books were poor advertising by the library of e-books available in the institution (51%), and the difficulties encountered in using the library catalog (47%). Not having a computer or internet connexion at their disposal was not mentioned as a barrier by this group.

Measures suggested to facilitate the use of e-books were to provide a better description of e-book content (44%) and to inform users about the potentialities of this type of electronic resource (56%). The possession of a tablet or an e-reader enabling more comfortable reading would also be of interest to 42% of the respondents.

Nevertheless respondents in this group were aware of advantages such as the “anywhere anytime” access (60%) or the power of full-text search (58%).

Characteristics of e-book users (86%)

Overall average usage by those who did use e-books was in the order of one or two consultations a month. Where a choice were available between print or electronic versions, the preference was for the electronic one (77%). However, the choice to use a book depended on its content and not the format in which it was presented (73%).

Satisfaction in using scientific e-books was nevertheless mitigated (5.8 on a scale ranging from 1 to 10). Restricted consultation was the major reported criticism (64%). Other frequently cited drawbacks were: eyestrain generated by reading on a screen (61%) and the difficulty of finding an e-book corresponding to one’s needs (46%). Respondents also reported rather frequent difficulties in using the catalog to find e-books of interest.

The survey ended with questions to all respondents adressing user perceptions of the future. 60% of participants believed that e-books would never completely replace print versions, and that both types would continue to coexist. Nevertheless, the remaining 40% were convinced that the electronic version would definitively replace the print version in the short- to medium-term (5 to 15 years).
Only 9% considered the shift from paper to electronic as totally positive; 27% were clearly against. The remaining respondents reported mixed feelings on the matter.

Discussion

The survey launched in March 2012 at the University of Liège with the users of the Life Sciences Library indicates that the users are well informed of the existence of scientific e-books. The majority of the respondents (75%) were bachelor's and master's students in the fields of medicine, veterinary medicine, psychology and education sciences. The other participants (25%) were PhD students, researchers and other faculty members.

A general and reassuring observation is that there does not seem to be any insuperable obstacle for any of the surveyed groups to access e-books. Almost 100% of the respondents had a computer at disposal, not only on the campus but also at home. Tablets, smart phones and other e-readers are still infrequent in this population, but decreasing costs will quickly make these devices affordable for the majority of consumers.

As with the populations studied by Dewan (1), the participants in the present survey appreciated being able to consult documents online without any spatial or temporal constraints and being able to escape the stress related to loan procedures (bringing books back in time or incurring fines).

In spite of these positive considerations, user satisfaction regarding e-books remained mitigated (5.8/10).
The moderate success of e-books may be explained by technical and personal reasons that were to be expected and have already been described by others. Although our survey did not reveal any new data, it did have the advantage of characterizing precisely the population of our library users. Moreover, the measures and observations collected corroborate the findings of a recent analysis carried out at the University of Pittsburgh (2).

At this stage of our analysis, we are convinced that librarians are in a position to remove most of the barriers and drawbacks reported by users. Several actions can easily be undertaken to facilitate e-book usage. They rely on user education and training on matters such as catalog searching or understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the different strategies that are commonly adopted to access scientific information. In particular, users need to be made aware that the majority of e-books are not free, but only available if purchased by academic institutions. Once users know this, they can then be encouraged to learn how to use the library catalog efficiently to locate books of interest instead of turning to Google Scholar or any kind of generalist search engines. Our library has a long term experience of user education and we are confident that we could easily act at this level.

Unfortunately, all the ways we have considered to enhance e-book usage are not so easy to implement. The librarians encounter other obstacles that are related to both acquisition policies at the university level and the commercial practices of e-book editors and suppliers. A major pitfall is the acquisition by local managers of large packages of e-books offered by e-book editors at dumped prices. Two problems arise from these practices: the impossibility for the librarians to process thousands of e-books in reasonable time and the risk of purchasing resources unsuited to users' needs.

We all know that the efficacy and the precision of catalog searching depend on the quality of the indexation of the recorded documents. It is technically easy to import a large batch of bibliographic references into a catalog. But the indexing that needs to be performed next by librarians is a time-consuming process, also requiring knowledge, skills and careful analysis of the scientific content of e-books. An alternative approach would be to entrust the indexation task to the e-book editors themselves. But, on this point, experience has shown that the results are of very poor quality.

Price is the primary argument used at present in our institution to guide e-book acquisition. The content of the packages is decided by the e-book editors or suppliers alone and cannot be customized by the librarians according to user needs. On the one hand, we have the feeling that the textbooks that are necessary for bachelor's and master's students are underrepresented in the packages, or lost in the middle of highly specialized books. On the other hand, many of these specialized books are not directly useful for our researchers, though their interest and their scientific quality are not in doubt. Essentially, they cover research fields that are not developed in our university.

For all these reasons, we would recommend applying to e-books the same selection criteria as those that have been used to date for print monographs. Limited and targeted choices should prevail over quantity. Dumped prices should not interfere in the decision making. Instead, acquisitions should be tailored to the exact needs of all the categories of end users. If the number of books is limited, the librarians will be able to process them carefully at the catalog level and the end-users will experience good working conditions in which to exploit this wealth of information.

A side effect of the disappearance of printed books will be the release of space inside libraries. Another challenge facing librarians will then be to preserve the physical identity of the library while promoting learning activities and scientific thinking.

We believe that if we can put all these measures in place, e-books will soon be a tool of choice in the Life Sciences libraries. As always, user education and dialogue among all the stakeholders will be the keys to success.

Keywords:

Book selection, Library collection development, Library surveys, Information Literacy

References:

Dewan P. Are books becoming extinct in academic libraries? N Libr World. 2012; 113: 27-37.
Fold BL, Wessel CB, Czechowski LJ. Clinical and academic use of electronic and print books: the Health Sciences Library system e-book study at the University of Pittsburgh. J Med Libr Assoc. 2011; 99:218-28.

Session:

Session D. Global aspects of information

Ref:

Category:

Library development

Type of presentation:

Oral presentation

The digital Reference Service: an essential element of the virtual library.

afgomez — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:38:42 +0000

Authors:

Gómez-Sánchez, Alicia-Fátima , Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Spain

Isabel-Gómez, Rebeca, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain

Abstract:

Introduction

A key consideration in the successful implementation of a virtual library is the provision of quality user services appropriate to the resources available and to users’ levels of training and skills.

Virtual health libraries have begun to facilitate access to collection contents and publications in a convenient and efficient manner for the user and at the lowest possible cost for the institution. In addition to access to collections, a library has to provide a support service to resolve user queries.

The traditional provision of reference services on an informal basis (personal or library e-mail, phone, etc.) is difficult to monitor. The creation of the structured Reference Service turns out very important because it allows measurement and evaluation of the resources used and also the impact on the user, thus enabling rational design and resourcing and efficient evaluation of the digitalized service.

Nowadays, efforts are underway to consolidate these costs by adapting budgets to the limited funding in the current uncertain economic climate so that services are unaffected and the supply of quality content can be maintained.

In this context of limited resources, it is essential to take special care to maintain the level of user satisfaction with the Reference Service. Libraries therefore need to aim to provide a quality digital Reference Service without increasing institution expenses, in the interests of librarians, users and, of course, of managers.

Objectives

This communication has two main objectives:

First, to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the various tools on the market for managing a digital reference service, including proprietary and open source software.

Second, to survey the current status of the Reference Services in the major Spanish Regional Virtual Health Libraries.

Methods

This study was undertaken by examining the regional virtual health libraries websites to verify the simplicity of accessing resources, services, availability, etc. In addition, a questionnaire was circulated to the library managers of the main virtual libraries in Spain in order to assess current status, trends, common and distinguishing features, problems and solutions. The questionnaire was sent to 18 organizations and in some cases mail exchanges were also conducted in order to complete the information needed. We received information from almost 70% of the libraries. Data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Results

For this study only those virtual libraries serving healthcare professionals and health services in the different regions were selected.

The web sites of all regional virtual libraries were analyzed and very different development levels regarding the Reference Services were found. The results are as follows:

Around 20% doesn’t permit access to the subscribed resources or contacting them without authentication.
Around 50% allows contacting the library through e-mail or contact form.
Around 20% permits the access to specific requests as document supply services, bibliographic searches, education, etc. through e-mail or contact form
Almost 20% provides an access to an Ask a librarian service, an online reference service that allows researchers to submit reference questions.

Furthermore 30% of the web sites have a FAQs section that allows users or researchers to find an answer to common questions in a highly efficient manner.

Following the analysis of the websites, the use of different software applications and providing this type of service were shown. Most offer forms to fill in the web itself, but the software used for its development has variations.

However, the analysis of the service provided through the study of these web pages, only allows a very superficial approach in most cases, so we proceeded to send a questionnaire to all the head of the regional health virtual libraries, asking a series of questions to complete and clarify the points of interest in this study.

Regarding the results of the survey, the responses have been varied.

40% of the libraries that responded contemplated a structured Virtual Reference Service, but only 20% have a specific budget for this. The rest is raised by the traditional reference service, incorporating some of the advantages offered by new technologies. A lack of specific policy of the service was found in about 85% of cases.

In cases where specific software was chosen, free software has been selected in order to cut costs of the reference service implementation. In either case, libraries have specific reference librarians, who work only in this field, normally the work is distributed between the librarians by topics or projects.

Another similar point between the libraries observed is conducting an evaluation of the service, which includes the number of requests managed and also in a lesser extent the degree of user satisfaction, the type of consultations made, the time response and the volume served by each library or librarian. Nearly 20% of virtual libraries surveyed do not perform any evaluation of reference service.

Finally, the treatment provided to the data generated in these assessments is very different, since the range covers from no storage of the dates to the storage of all transactions and conversations. There has also been little uniformity in the time of data storage and monitoring of the established policies of data protection.

Conclusions

Some differences and heterogeneity by different virtual libraries have been observed and as we thought at the beginning of the study, the development of an independent or differentiated Reference Service in the Spanish Regional Virtual Libraries is quite uneven. Nevertheless, this study might conclude that until the present moment all of them have focused their efforts on providing other services, such as the remote access of electronic resources (databases, publications) to all users from any computer connected to the web or the development of institutional repositories, which is shown in most of the cases.

The Reference Service is in general still developing, although it is remarkable to notice the big advances being made by regions such as Andalusia or Balearic Islands, which are pioneers in the implementation of this kind of service.

Regarding the technical tools used for managing the Reference Service, all libraries that replied to the survey mostly use the e-mail to respond to requests for information from its users in most cases are received through e-mail or a web form available at the library. In short, the implementation of specific software is still at a very starting point, because a comparative study of the software had to be postponed until more libraries have it implanted, so that it could be performed in a more comprehensive and comparative way.

Finally, the introduction of a digitalized Reference Service in a virtual library would be essential in order to centralize and quantify the work done by librarians, and could have a marked positive effect on user satisfaction, but the results of this study show that there is still a lot of work to do in the Regional Virtual Libraries in Spain.

Keywords:

Library Services, Health Science Libraries, Health Information Technologies, Digital Reference Service, Reference Desk

References:

Session:

Session I. Library Management

Ref:

Category:

Library development

Type of presentation:

Oral presentation

Getting Started – how to start and increase the outreach activity at a hospital library

karin.bystrom — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:29:21 +0000

Authors:

Byström, Karin, Uppsala university library, Sweden

Jakobsson, Ulla, Uppsala university library, Sweden

Sjöstrand, Karin , Uppsala university library, Sweden

Willén, Niklas , Uppsala university library, Sweden

Abstract:

Introduction

The Medical library at Uppsala university library is a combined library for both Uppsala University and for Uppsala University hospital and the Uppsala County Council. In the past, much of the focus of the library has been towards the university and the needs of the researchers and students. The library and the hospital belong to different organizations, and therefore it has been difficult to get information about their organization, and getting in contact with the right people. Much of our work towards hospital staff, though much appreciated, was done ad hoc and with no evaluation.

Objectives

In January 2010 we started a project to investigate and evaluate new ways to reach the hospital staff, and get a better understanding of their library and information needs. The goal was to have a number of well working methods to incorporate in our normal day-to-day work, based on our deepened knowledge of our users' needs.

Methods

Initially we gathered information and experiences from other hospital libraries, mostly through reading articles and conference presentations. We chose a number of methods suggested in earlier studies, and our approach was to test as many new activities as possible, to see which was right for us.

Our main idea was the "Info-point". It is a portable table that can be set up anywhere, as a way to make the library more visible. This type of activity has been tried at other libraries before, and we thought it would be a good thing to try. We first set up the "Info-point" outside of the hospital restaurant and later at local hospital conferences.(1)

Before starting with the “Info-point” we prepared a small brochure, pens with the library name and e-mail and a roll-up. We also had other information on library resources, lap top with internet connection and candy. With the lap top we got an opportunity to show library website and online resources. During "Info-point" sessions we also promoted in-library activities such as lunch-time information meetings and our facebook page.

As a part of the project we organized lunch meetings for hospital staff with a free lunch sandwich, on such topics as standards, EBM, reference management and clinical support tools, such as UpToDate.

We re-named our information sessions for clinics "15 minutes", inspired by Karolinska University hospital (2), and set up an easy form on the library web page on the hospital intranet. Unfortunately, the form didn’t work at first, so we haven’t seen the full effect of these changes.

The whole intranet web page was improved and updated, and we also had a Facebook page to reach staff.

One important part of the project was to get more knowledge about the information needs and work situation of hospital staff. In order to get that, we organized small "reference groups" meetings. We invited a few people on key positions, such as the coordinators and educators. In total we met with seven people at two occasions, offering a free lunch sandwich.

Results

After testing many new activities we found a few that worked really well. Our most successful activity was the Info-point which proved to be an easy way to let the library be visible and to connect with the staff. We found that even a brief meeting can be an important to spread a positive image of the library. During the first 8 sessions, we spoke to over 200 users, with a longer talk to 25% of them. Many appreciated to see us outside of the library and many were reminded of questions they “planned to ask”. We will continue to use the Info-point, and especially to look for hospital conferences that could be relevant.

Our reference groups showed that our users are really glad to give their opinions. The meetings gave us a better understanding of their information needs, but also about the organization and names of important key people. We also got detailed tips on changes to the website and other services, like a suggestion to add short instructional films on searching to the website. A concrete result of these discussions is that the library is now involved in an in-house training program for physical therapists.

Lunch meetings in the library were appreciated, but didn’t get so many attendees as we hoped. The problem was to get out with the information, and we didn’t quite succeed. In the future we will coordinate hospital and university lunch meetings to get a higher attendance rate. Lunch meetings is a good way to get users into the library, and also being able to inform about relevant resources.

The short 15-minutes information sessions haven’t quite taken off yet, but we will continue to use the web form and to increase the marketing. The delay in getting the form to work was due to the fact that the library and hospital are in different organizations. Our university e-mail was not accepted as a recipient of the form. We ended up having to make a separate form on the university web site, with a link from the hospital intranet.

Facebook didn't work well as an information channel; the page got very few followers (mostly librarians) and it was discontinued after the project.

Conclusions

There is a multitude of different ways for libraries to increase outreach activities, but which will suite your library? We decided to try many different methods, and to evaluate which methods were good for us. The project also put the focus on hospital staff and all the different ways we serve them.

The remaining problem for us is to find the right information channels for distributing information about news and events. This is a key issue for us and crucial for succeeding in our outreach ambitions. Our plan is to set up a flow chart with recommended steps when trying to market an event or distribute news. We will also list key people and positions to contact.

After the project we now have a road plan ahead. We have a few functioning and well tested activities to use in the future. Of course we realize that we haven't taken any giant leaps, but for us the many small steps have taken us a long way.

Keywords:

Hospital library, outreach activities

References:

Schack C, Patridge E. Promoting the Medical Library on the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Campus Through Outreach. Journal of Hospital Librarianship. 2010 Jan 27;10(1):100–4.
Källberg M. The Menu – not to eat but good to digest. - How to improve hospital staff information literacy. Estoril,Portugal. Available from: http://www.apdis.pt/eahil2010/en/images/stories/docs/abstracts/b1_05_kallberg.pdf

Category:

Library development

Type of presentation:

Poster