PSRML at the MLG Joint Meeting:
A New Team

by Beryl Glitz

PSRML staff were pleased to once again join members of the Northern California and Nevada Medical Library Group and the Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona at the Groups' annual Joint Meeting. The meeting for 1997, Innovations and Collaboration: Views of the Future, was held at Berkeley, CA in late January. In keeping with the meeting theme, PSRML highlighted their own contributions to innovation and collaboratio n with the introduction of a new "team" of librarians, new programs, and opportunities for working together with Network libraries.

PSRML had collaborated with the NCNMLG Program Committee in co-sponsoring the Monday morning plenary session, Electronic Publishing and Resource Sharing: How will our Document Delivery Models Change? (See page 6). Staff also taught a continui ng education course, Getting Started with the Internet and the World Wide Web, at UC Berkeley. A contributed paper presentation entitled, Focus Groups: The Importance of Listening to Our Users, featured some of the findings from our re cent focus groups with public health professionals.

The PSRML exhibit booth provided an opportunity for meeting attendees to talk with all the staff, including our newest members, Heidi Sandstrom and Jules Darren. Featured at the booth was information on a variety of new PSRML programs and services, in cluding demonstrations of BioSites, the newly released World Wide Web site, developed collaboratively with the region's 12 Resource Libraries (See Latitudes, vol. 6, no. 1), and the Windows version of Grateful Med.

In the annual RML Update, PSRML staff provided details of some of our recent activities:

• BioSites, a collaborative project to develop a Web site of evaluative information on quality Internet resources in biomedicine;
• An Evidence Based Medicine class being developed for end users to assist them in keeping up with the changing body of biomedical knowledge;
• The California Statewide Serials Project, a service of the Library of California which will incorporate SERHOLD information with serial holdings from California academic and public libraries to form one large database which will be available online;
• The PSRML Internet consulting and training program to assist regional librarians to gain access to and fully utilize Internet resources;
• Newly developed PSRML Outreach subcontracts for Network Libraries to assist institutions without professional library services in getting access to electronic services including Grateful Med searching, Loansome Doc, and Internet resources, through th e development of small consortia;
• The four versions of Grateful Med which are now available - DOC, Mac, Windows, and via the Internet;
• The Fixed Fee MEDLARS service which is still available for institutions who have access to the Internet;
• Various NLM grants available for libraries, including Internet Connection Grants and Resource Grants for single institutions and consortia;
• SERHOLD updating activities and information on how union list products will be handled for the region;
• The Library Improvement Project which will assist small hospitals to improve their library service component;
• PSRML planned experiments with distance education to teach health professionals in rural areas how to get access to and utilize the Internet;
• Focus group discussions with health professionals and health sciences librarians to learn more about their information needs and practices;
• PSRML sponsorship of the MLA/ALA/AALL videoconference in March.

PSRML staff always look forward to this Joint Meeting as an opportunity to meet with regional librarians. If you would like more information about any of these programs and activities please give us a call at (310) 825-1200 or (800) 338-7657