Biomedical subjects
V M Pings
Publications and source records attributed to V M Pings.
A study of the access to the scholarly record from a hospital health science core collection.
This study is an effort to determine possible service performance levels in hospital libraries based on access to the scholarly record of medicine through selected lists of clinical journals and indexing and abstracting journals. The study was designed to test a methodology as well as to provide data for planning and management decisions for health science libraries. Findings and conclusions cover the value of a core collection of journals, length of journal files, performance of certain bibliographic instruments in citation verification, and the implications of study data for library planning and management.
MLA committee membership.
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Planning and designing hospital health science libraries.
The people who plan and design hospital libraries must be aware of the environment in which the library functions. The hospital health science library operates under a different set of values and priorities from an academic library. Three methodologic studies are reported to determine hospital health science functions with comments on the significance of the data for designing: (i) the extent and possible use of books and journal collections makes it evident a hospital must act as an access point to the scholarly record; (ii) a survey of 41 hospitals shows a wide variety and combination of 33 user services; obviously what services are to be given should be decided before design; (iii) observing how different areas are used by a library's clientele shows that groups use the library differently and within certain time patterns; the arrangement of the functional areas can be better designed if quantitative data on the use of space are available.
Regional medical libraries: a concept and a necessity.
The Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan Regional Medical Library (KOMRML) consists of ten academic libraries, the first of the RML's to be decentralized.This paper considers early conceptions of RML's, their relationship with the National Library of Medicine, their hierarchical structure, and their function as a social agency.
New medical library buildings. II. Wayne State University School of Medicine Library.
A history of the Wayne State University College of Medicine and its library is given along with a description and specifications of the new library building.
Access to the scholarly record of medicine by the osteopathic physicians of southeastern Michigan.
This paper is one part of a continuing study to determine the availability of library service to physicians in southeastern Michigan not associated with academic institutions. The institutional affiliations of the 800 osteopathic physician community of the area were identified. As the availability of library service at these institutions was known, the conclusion is patent that 60 percent of these physicians do not have dependable access to the library resources of the area. Further, it is apparent from the way the institutions are distributed and the responsibilities physicians have, that the only hope of providing library service to the practicing physician is through hospitals.
Summary report of a study of academic medical library statistics.
Common statistical analyses were applied to the statistics on medical school libraries published in 1964 and 1966 in the Bulletin to assess the potential utility of such survey data. The major conclusions of the study are that these statistics (1) are highly redundant; (2) are essentially descriptive and not amenable to analysis for predictive purposes; (3) are of questionable reliability; (4) are of minimal utility for library investigators and managers, and of doubtful value for establishing standards. The authors believe that, rather than continuing to collect similar statistics in the future, we need a systematic program to define specific requirements of data use and to design survey methods that will produce data meeting these requirements.
Building precepts and library programs.
The quality of a library's design can often be determined by the amount of preplanning done before it was built. The paper discusses three components of a library: the users, staff, and materials. Before any design is contemplated for new or additional space, a philosophy or purpose of the library must be determined. Some questions that need to be asked about users are used as an illustration to show the kinds of information that is needed before a librarian can begin to write a program. Only after such information has been gathered can textbook formulas be applied. The librarian will have to synthesize general purposes and facts into a functional program which the architect can use as a basis for design. A common way to demonstrate how space should be utilized is through diagrams. The determination of why one building is better than another for a specific environment is not a matter of guess work or applying formulas, but a matter of intellectual work.
Access to the scholarly record of medicine: the library's challenge.
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Library service for health care.
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Development of methodologic tools for planning and managing library services. I. Project goals and approach.
In July 1966, the Institute for Advancement of Medical Communication began work on a project aimed at developing methods for collecting objective data suitable for planning and guiding local, regional, and national programs to improve biomedical libraries and the biomedical information complex. This article constitutes an introduction to a series of reports on the methodologic tools that have been developed. It describes the overall purpose and initial goals of the project, gives the general plan of the work, and presents five basic concepts that underlie the project's approach and structure the entire effort.
Development of methodologic tools for planning and managing library services. II. Measuring a library's capability for providing documents.
A method of measuring a library's capability for providing the documents its users need has been developed. The library is tested with a representative sample of such documents to determine how long would be required for users to obtain these documents. Test results are expressed in terms of a Capability Index, which has a maximal value of 100 only if all the sample documents are found "on shelf." Specific tests employing samples of 300 documents have been developed that are appropriate for academic and for "reservoir" biomedical libraries. Realistic field trials have demonstrated that these two tests are practical to administer and that test results are adequately reproducible. When strict comparability is not important, a library can test itself. In assessing a reservoir library, test results are supplemented by data on its typical processing time for interlibrary loan requests. Currently these tests are being used in a national survey. The general method is applicable to other types of libraries, provided appropriate test samples are established. If their limitations are clearly understood, these "Document Delivery Tests" can be valuable tools for planning and managing library services.
Developing of methodologic tools for planning and managing library services: 3. Standardized inventories of library services.
A standardized procedure was developed for eliciting those details of a library's service policies that are important to its users and for recording the data by checking appropriate categories on a form. This inventory procedure covers the entire spectrum of user services and accommodates a wide range of policies. The inventory was originally designed for use by trained interviewers in largescale surveys of academic medical libraries. However, it is also suitable for other kinds of libraries, and the Interview Guide and Checklist can be used for a self-survey by library staff. In addition to survey use, the inventory has a variety of educational, administrative, managerial, and research applications. A method for weighting the categorical inventory data to reflect the relative desirability of different policies makes it possible to calculate scores indicating how a library's policies compare with those of an "optimal" library. An analogous inventory of the services a library provides to other libraries was developed for surveying major backup resources in the medical library system.
Obstacles in automating the health science library.
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Revision of the Wayne State University Medical Library subject catalog using the 1966 Medical Subject Heading system.
Wayne State University Medical Library (WSUML) revised its monograph subject catalog in 1961 utilizing the 1960 edition of MeSH as an authority list. With the introduction of MEDLARS in 1963 by NLM, all topical subheadings were omitted from MeSH. Inasmuch as this omission could not accommodate the needs of WSUML, the 1960 edition of MeSH was retained as a guideline. In January 1966, when MeSH resumed the incorporation of topical subheadings, WSUML was faced with a decision whether to continue the current policy or to adopt the form as presented in the latest edition of MeSH. This report describes the methodology employed in adopting a new policy, the findings which resulted from the change, and an evaluation of this reorganization.
Nursing libraries in historical perspective.
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