DOCLINE System Updates

Medical Librarian's Month: Recap of a Successful Letter Campaign

The NER ran its first letter campaign last October in recognition of Medical Librarians Month. Letters were sent to hospital administrators across the New England Region, thanking them for their continued investment in the library and for their support of their librarians and librarianship as a profession. Letters were mailed out on request from the network membership. The campaign was a H-U-G-E success, with a total of 117 letters sent out to hospital administrators to 61 medical institutions. We hope to top those numbers next Medical Librarians Month -- in October, 2006!!

Here are the individual breakdowns by state:

Hospital Library Subcommittee (RAC-HLS) Embarks on New Projects

In October 2004, the NER established a group under the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) to specifically address issues dealing with hospital libraries and hospital librarians in the region. Originally, this group was formed as a task force, and later elevated to the role of a permanent (sub-) committee of the RAC. To ensure there was consistency with the most recent NLM contract language, the group is now referred to as the RAC Hospital Library Subcommittee (RAC-HLS).

All ten (10) members of the Subcommittee were present for the working meeting on October 28, 2005, which was held on the UMass-Shrewsbury campus. The meeting was largely taken up with a continuation to develop three interrelated projects that emerged from discussion in two previous meetings. All projects are expected to be completed by April 30, 2006, which is the end of NER's five-year contract.

These projects and their statements of work are:

Project 1: Hospital Librarian Orientation Packet

• An orientation packet will be sent to individuals who have accepted positions as a hospital librarian in the New England region.
• Packet contents will be reviewed on an annual basis by members of the Subcommittee.
• Distribution and maintenance will be performed by the NER.

Project 2: Hospital Library Invention Toolkit

• Create and develop a library intervention toolkit for the NER, which establishes a process through which each individual situation is assessed and appropriate level of intervention determined.
• Toolkit contents will be reviewed on an annual basis by members of the Subcommittee.
• Distribution and maintenance will be performed by the NER.

Project 3: Hospital Marketing Plan

• Create a sample hospital library marketing plan.
• Incorporate and integrate national, regional, and local marketing plans.

Testing Full-text Links with LinkOut

Already signed up for NCBI LinkOut?

If your response is "NO" -- why not?

It provides library patrons with links from PubMed (and other Entrez databases) to a wide variety of relevant web online resources. It will also provide the library with immediate visibility (i.e., becoming a positive marketing tool for library services), and will enable patrons to receive requested documents in a matter of hours (not days), bypassing wait times often associated with interlibrary lending (ILL).

If your response is "YES" -- when was the last time you wanted to test your full-text links, to ensure they were working properly?

To test those links, just follow seven simple steps:
Step 1. Go to the PubMed Home Page: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

Step 2. Enter the following URL in the Address bar:

http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov / entrez / query.fcgi? holding= xxxxlib where "xxxxlib" is your LinkOut User Name.

Ex. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=umasslib

Step 3. Then hit the Return key.

Step 4. In the Search box, enter the following: loprovxxxxlib [filter] where "xxxxlib " is your LinkOut User Name. Ex. loprovumasslib [filter]

Step 5. Hit the grey "GO" button.

Step 6. Next to the DISPLAY button, select "Abstract" in the drop-down box, where it
defaults on "Summary".

Step 7. Hit the grey DISPLAY button.

Let's welcome NER's Newest Members

Suggestion Box

The NER welcomes suggestions from network members. Your suggestions help the National Library of Medicine to constantly improve its offering of products and services, as well as assist the NN/LM in meeting the needs of its member network nationwide.

Please feel free to forward suggestions by e-mail or by phone:

mark.goldstein@umassmed.edu 508-856-5964

Help? Advice? Questions?

Please contact Mark at:
508-856-5964 -or- mark.goldstein@umassmed.edu.