MIDDLE ATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE
Newsletter of the
National Network of Libraries of Medicine

Middle Atlantic Region
New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware

In This Issue...

New Outreach Strategies
New Look for Toxnet Interface
Fond Farewell
EFTS-L Discussion List
PubMed Tutorial
PubMed Central Pilot Project
Take a Byte out of Medical Misinformation
Library Closings
New Educational CD Available
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.

NEW OUTREACH STRATEGIES

Following is an article by Elaine Martin, Director of the New England Region of the NN/LM. Elaine presents strategies for new approaches to outreach, especially when dealing with community- based organizations. Thanks to Elaine for permission to reprint this article.

Mary Mylenki, Associate Director, NN/LM MAR

An important article on the subject of outreach by Carol Sherrer from the University of Illinois at Chicago was published in the July, 2002 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association. Unlike most "how we done it good articles," Carol provides an accurate account of lessons learned from a project that was not successful. Her premise is that the traditional models for providing outreach to health professionals in rural areas and to health professionals practicing in community-based HIV/AIDS clinics that have been so successful in the past, do not translate well to outreach to community-based agencies or volunteer organizations.

What is the traditional model for providing outreach to health professionals? There are four characteristics:

• Provide equipment and access to the Internet to each site
• Provide classroom training
• Provide document delivery
• Create a website or e-mail listserv linking participants

A fifth characteristic emphasizing the importance of a liaison at each site grew out of the outreach model for HIV/AIDS clinics.

Carol's article discusses in detail how following this model did not work in her experience with providing outreach to environmental health community-based groups in Chicago. So if this is not the model for providing outreach to these groups, what is the model?

My own experience in Chicago and Massachusetts suggests the following:

1. De-emphasize the computer. Since many of the organizations are run by volunteers, and funding fluctuates, the groups can not always guarantee the computer will be used for access to NLM services and products. Sometimes we use the computer as the "carrot" to entice groups to participate in our project. In the end this backfires, because once the computer is acquired, sometimes excuses are made to not attend training. In one of our outreach projects in Massachusetts, we provide a laptop to a church which runs a health clinic two nights a week. They lock the computer up in a secure location when the clinic is not in service.
2. Do not require people to come to traditional classroom training. Training needs to take place at the sites in small snippets; 20 minutes at a time. Busy health professionals do not have the time, with the change in health care reimbursement today, to travel to training or the financial incentive to cancel patient visits to attend a class. Volunteers sometimes do not have a mode of transportation to attend training classes at the university medical library. If training is done in groups, consider reimbursing participants for travel and babysitting services.
3. Emphasize the development of personal relationships between the library project personnel and project participants. This requires repeated contact over a long period of time.
4. Rethink our assumptions of a well-thought out budget for a winning, sustainable grant proposal. In the past, we have assumed that we should divide the budget amongst the participants in an effort to ensure equal collaboration and commitment between the sites and the library; and that too much money in support of project personnel showed lack of ability to sustain the project post-funding. I think we need to focus our efforts on funding personnel in order to develop the lasting relationships needed to ensure project success.
5. Acknowledge the fact that outreach to community-based groups is different than outreach to health professionals, a patron group we are familiar with in serving at our own libraries. We need to develop and provide training for librarians on how to provide this kind of outreach. Involve health educators, public health workers, etc. in library outreach projects to community groups. We can learn from them. An article in NER'eastah, [the newsletter of the NN/LM NER] by Barbara Winrich, a health educator on the Lamar Soutter Library staff, is a good example of what we need to consider when providing outreach to special populations in the community (see http://nnlm.gov/ner/newsletter/5/lessonslearned5.html ) We need to exchange more lessons from the field.

Finding the best model for providing outreach to community-based organizations and special populations is a challenge. The staff at your RML would love to hear from you on what has worked and what hasn't -- contact them.

by Elaine Martin, Director
NN/LM New England Region

If you would like to propose topics you feel should be covered in the Middle Atlantic Perspective, or, if you would like to write an article, please contact Joanne Jahr at jjahr@nyam.org. Your comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome.

NEW LOOK FOR TOXNET INTERFACE

The National Library of Medicine's SIS Division launched a new look for its TOXNET and DIRLINE search interfaces on May 8, 2002. Check out the new features at http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov

The revamping of the TOXNET system produced a number of enhancements. The new streamlined search interface provides for the following improvements.

• Users can now search multiple TOXNET databases simultaneously. This feature functions in a fashion not unlike the NLM Gateway where users can see a tabular listing of the results of their queries, and can navigate to a specific resource of interest from the result summary page.
• Users can now modify their search strategies from the results page instead of having to return to the TOXNET home page.
• There is now a new Limits page for HSDB customized searches. These limits allow a user to be able to focus their search upon specific sections within HSDB records such as Human Health Effects or Occupational Exposure Standards.
• With the updating of the TOXNET interface, a new resource called Haz-Map was made available within TOXNET. It can be found at http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov Haz-Map is an occupational toxicology database designed to link industries to the hazardous tasks and materials encountered by workers performing work associated with that industry. The hazardous tasks are then linked to related occupational diseases and their symptoms. Users may search for chemical agents, activities, professions, and occupational disorders.

Training for the New TOXNET interface is being offered by the National Training Center and Clearinghouse. The next class being held in this region will take place at the New York Academy of Medicine on November 22nd, 2002. A listing of scheduled classes is available via the NTCC website at http://nnlm.gov/mar/online/index.html. Registration for this class is free and can be done via the NTCC web site.

"IF AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT....

For Andrew it is a homecoming; for us, a very reluctant farewell. We wish him all of the very best of luck in his new endeavor and look forward to periodic updates on what is brewing.

EFTS-L DISCUSSION LIST

For information about the EFTS-L list, see http://efts.uchc.edu/efts/listserv.html and to sign on, go to http://list.umassmed.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=efts-l&text_mode=0&lang=english

PUBMED TUTORIAL

The PubMed Tutorial is a Web-based learning program that will show you how to search PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) journal literature search system. The PubMed Tutorial is based on the one-day PubMed training course that NLM teaches across the United States. The tutorial can be found on the PubMed sidebar at http://pubmed.gov

The tutorial has been designed to work with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4+ and Netscape version 4+. It contains animated demonstrations of procedures, for which you need the Macromedia Flash player. The Flash player can be downloaded and installed for free from Macromedia. For detailed documentation of the system requirements and known incompatibilities, please see the Tutorial FAQ.

The PubMed Tutorial includes several different types of links that may be used to play the animations, popup glossary terms, or visit another web page.

There are two different kinds of animation links--"Show Me" and Demonstration "Steps." When clicked, Show Me will produce an animation of the process just discussed.http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_tutorial/m3003.html

Demonstration Steps will take you through the process step-by-step. You do not have to click on the Steps in chronological order, although it will make more sense to do so the first time around.http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_tutorial/m4009.html

Words and phrases that appear in bold blue are glossary items and can be clicked to open a secondary window containing a definition. Should you want to view the entire Glossary, click the Glossary link in the Tutorial sidebar.

Words and phrases that appear in blue and are underlined, are links to web sites such as other pages of the Tutorial or PubMed.

Click Next in the sidebar to learn how to navigate through the modules of the PubMed Tutorial or click on the PubMed Overview tab above to jump right into learning about PubMed.

The PubMed Tutorial does not have a text-only version. You can use the PubMed Tutorial without viewing the Flash animations as the steps for the demonstrations are described in detail in the text content of the pages. You may use other text-based resources for learning about PubMed. Training Manuals are available for download in both PDF and Microsoft Word formats. For quick reference on specific features, try PubMed Help.

With the exception of the Overview module, there are review questions at the end of each module. The review questions include multiple choice questions as well as practice exercises you can try in PubMed. The last module, the Final Review, includes five practice exercises for you to do in PubMed. We ask for your feedback at the end of the Final Review module. If your Web browser is configured to send email, click on the Contact Us link within the tutorial. Otherwise, send a message to NLM's Customer Service at custserv@nlm.nih.gov.

PUBMED CENTRAL TO PROVIDE FREE ACCESS TO BACK RUNS OF SELECTED JOURNALS

NLM is pleased to announce the start-up of an exciting pilot project involving PubMed Central that will provide free access to back runs of a set of important biomedical journals.

Although this project does not directly involve DOCLINE, it will change the way many users get access to these journals in the future. In addition, we hope some readers can help by supplying needed issues for scanning.

On September 9th, 2002, Progressive Technology Federal Systems Inc. in Bethesda MD, in partnership with Apex ePublishing Data Services in Herndon, Virginia, was awarded a one-year contract to perform high-speed scanning of back issues of about 50 journals that have current content in PubMed Central.

Journals on the list include: the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (1911-2000); Canadian Medical Association Journal (1911-2000); British Medical Journal (1857-1998); and journals published by the American Society for Microbiology, such as Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

All journal volumes for this project are being donated by publishers or associations. We thank Carla Funk and others at the Medical Library Association for supplying a back run of BMLA, the first journal that will be scanned. Since the scanning involves unbinding and ultimately discarding the originals, no volumes from NLM's collection will be used for the project, other than for fill-in from photocopies or microfilm.

Sometime in the next month, we expect to start the scanning process. Currently, we are seeking one each of the following issues of BMLA to donate to the project:

vol. 20, no. 1, 1931
vol. 21, no. 2, 1932
vol. 26, nos. 1 and 2, 1937

Potential donors may contact Mary Kate Dugan in NLM's Preservation and Collection Management Section at: pmcscan@mail.nlm.nih.gov Please provide your name, institution, telephone number, and an indication of which issues you have to offer.

As the project progresses, we will keep you informed of the status of which journals have back runs available on PubMed Central. We thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

TAKE A BYTE OUT OF MEDICAL MISINFORMATION

Libraries in this region responded to our call for interesting projects for submission to NLM to be featured on the NLM web site in honor of National Medical Librarians Month. We are pleased that the following Network libraries in the Middle Atlantic Region were among those chosen to be showcased: New York Methodist Hospital; Roswell Park Cancer Institute; State University of New York at Buffalo; and SUNY Upstate Medical University. These and other projects submitted to NLM can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/lo/profiles02/

We hope that the suggestions offered at the MLA web site and the projects submitted to NLM will spur you to consider submitting a project of your own for October 2003.

LIBRARY CLOSINGS

NEW EDUCATIONAL CD: MEDLINEplus:HEALTH INFORMATION

If you would like to borrow this short, fast-paced CD, you may do so through a DOCLINE® request to the New York Academy of Medicine Library (NYUNYA). When ordering, please note in the Comments Field, "Available from the RML." There is no charge for borrowing this CD. If you prefer to make your request by phone, call us at (800) 338-7657 (press 1 at the prompt) or at (212) 822-7351.

NLM TECHNICAL BULLETIN 2002

The following articles from the current Technical Bulletin are available on the Web at:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/tb.html

2002 July - August; 327

Educational Clearinghouse Database: A Service of the National Training Center and Clearinghouse - e2
Migration of Monographic Citations to Locatorplus: Merge Project - e3
PubMed®'s LinkOut-SERHOLD® Interface - e4
Update: Expanded ClinicalTrials.gov Search Capabilities - e5
Links Pull-down Menu on PubMed® Citations - e6
MLA 2002 - e7a-b
NLM Online Users' Meeting 2002: Remarks - 7a
NLM Online Users' Meeting 2002: Questions and Answers - 7b

Technical Notes: - e1

• New Table G Classification Numbers Added
• New Clinical Alert Issued
• NCBI Announces New Entrez Programming Utilities
• UMLS® Moves to Quarterly Releases
• PubMed Search Statistics
• New Search Engine on NLM Web Site
• UI List - New Display Format in PubMed
• August 2002 PubMed, NLM Gateway, and ClinicalTrials.gov
  Training Manuals Now Available
• URLF and URLS Data to be Deleted in PubMed
• UMLS Basics Class Offered

Middle Atlantic Perspective, the newsletter of the Middle Atlantic Region, National Network of Libraries of Medicine is published bi-monthly by the NN/LM MAR and funded by the National Library of Medicine under a contract (# N01-LM-1-3521) with the New York Academy of Medicine.

Contact Information:

NN/LM, Middle Atlantic Region
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029-5293

Toll-Free Telephone: 800-338-7657
Telephone: 212-822-7396, FAX: 212-534-7042

Email: user name (first initial last name) followed by @nyam.org

URL: http://nnlm.gov/mar

NN/LM Staff

Maxine L. Rockoff, Ph.D., Director
Mary Mylenki, Associate Director
Rhonda Allard, Consumer Health Coordinator
Education Programs Coordinator VACANT
Joanne Jahr, Network Programs Coordinator
Peggy Falls, Outreach Programs Coordinator
Technical Coordinator VACANT
Dorothy Weyeneth, RML Assistant

National Training Center & Clearinghouse Staff

Maureen Czujak, Assistant Director
Mary Van Antwerp, Online Analyst
Online Analyst VACANT
Charles Rapisarda, NTCC Assistant

Middle Atlantic Perspective Index | NN/LM

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