PubMed HealthSearch

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Library Collection Development”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Selective Medical Library on Microfiche. An international experiment supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Selective Medical Library on Microfiche (SMLM) project is designed to improve access to the world's significant biomedical literature in developing countries' medical school libraries through the provision of a first-rate, low-cost core collection of journals. One hundred and five journals representing thirty-six biomedical specialties were selected using a method designed specifically for SMLM. The journals are provided on microfiche because of its relative low cost, durability, easy reproduction, and rapid delivery by air mail. SMLMs have been established at test and demonstration sites in four medical schools in Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia. SMLMs are delivered as turnkey systems consisting of the microfiche collection, a reader-printer, four fiche readers, necessary furniture, and promotional and training materials. The project involves extensive evaluation.

Developing Countries

Editorial policy and the assessment of quality among medical journals.

Many factors are weighed in judging the quality of a journal. Editorial policies in the instructions to authors section offer an important, though often neglected, source of information. In addition to directions on formatting and style, this section often includes financial disclosures and policies on coverage, peer review, confidentiality, human experimentation and duplicate submissions. This study analyzes the contents of instructions sections from several categories of medical journals to determine their usefulness in making collection development decisions. Included are journals currently considered the most prestigious, indexed in Index Medicus and Abridged Index Medicus, and not indexed in Index Medicus or subscribed to by a typical large academic health sciences library. It was found that in a statistically significant number of journals, the instructions to authors section is more likely to be included and substantive in highly regarded journals than in less prestigious journals. It is concluded that the amount of information in the instructions section is related to the quality of the journal and that these sections are a useful collection development tool.

Libraries, Medical

Planning serials cancellations and cooperative collection development in the health sciences: methodology and background information.

In an era of steady-state budgets many research and academic libraries must cancel a significant number of current serials to maintain acquisitions of monographs. Thus paper reviews several techniques that have been used or that are of potential use in a rational selection of titles for cancellation. The context of the proposed methodology involves a network of libraries rather than an individual library. The methodology was tested with specific health sciences serial titles held by University of California libraries and resource libraries in NLM Region XI. As a test for the proposed methodology, background data were collected on 600 current foreign language serial titles included in SERLINE and held by at least one of the libraries in the networks of interest. Price, major secondary service coverage with productivity/impact factors, extent of holdings, and average number of recorded circulations per year in several of the libraries were recorded for each title. With the use of several different rules, estimates were made of the subscription savings that might be realized. It seems feasible to extend the same methodology to other groups of serial titles.

Abstracting and Indexing

Selected reference aids for small medical libraries.

This annotated list of 178 items is compiled as a guide to the development of the reference collection in a small medical library.Arrangement, following the pattern of the previous revision, is by broad subject groups. Titles are chiefly in English. Textbooks in subject fields have been omitted since these are covered adequately in several comprehensive guides to the literature.

Libraries, Medical

Research databases: a new direction in collection development.

A need for centralized access to biomedical databanks was identified at the Medical University of South Carolina. The library has taken a leadership role in administering selection, acquisition, storage, and dissemination of access to these databases. A discussion of established policies and procedures is included. The appendix describes the biomedical databanks and search software selected.

Humans

New library buildings. Part VI: Sciences Library, Brown University.

Brown was one of the first universities in the nation to combine its science collections into a single library in the interest of aiding interdisciplinary teaching and research. This paper discusses the evolution of the Sciences Library and its resources, the development of the medical education program, and the physical aspects of the new library building. A fifteen-story tower, housing the collections of the physical, biological, and medical sciences, symbolizes the interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research at Brown University.

Architecture

The reorganization of a monographic reference collection.

Reference monographs in the Health Sciences Library of the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey were reorganized recently according to form, in order to enable both librarians and patrons to utilize these materials more efficiently. This reorganization reflects the unique characteristics of reference books as differentiated from the regular monographic collection, since reference materials are frequently consulted for quick "look-ups." A reference category scheme was developed and implemented, based on observations of and comparisons with reference collections of eight medical libraries in the New York metropolitan area. The reorganization enhances the retrievability of materials from this collection.

Book Classification

Developing a preservation policy and procedure statement for a health sciences library.

The preconditions for creating a preservation policy document in a health sciences library are an existing preservation policy for the institution of which it is a part and administrative support for preservation. The assumption underlying preservation activity, from the formulation of general guidelines to the detail of operating procedure, is that collection development and preservation are complementary functions. Documentation of operational procedures in some detail should be a part of the statement. Since preservation activity cuts across functional library structures, all management staff should be involved in the planning process and be made aware of their responsibilities. The creation of a preservation policy statement will highlight unaddressed issues, procedural inadequacies, and differences in staff perceptions of priorities, but a written statement provides a framework for setting priorities and making decisions.

Corrosion

Health sciences librarians and mental health laws.

Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, O'Connor v. Donaldson and Bounds v. Smith, hold important implications for health sciences librarians serving in mental health facilities. The first, O'Connor, with its many ancillary holdings, puts mental health personnel on notice that patients have certain basic rights, which courts all over the country will now be required to enforce. In Bounds the court has ruled that prison authorities must assist prison inmates in preparing and filing legal papers. The ruling will most likely benefit all mentally disabled prisoners, and future litigation may expand this category to include: (1) persons committed under the criminal code, (2) persons under involuntary commitment not related to the criminal code, and (3) persons voluntarily committed. A selective annotated bibliography, consisting of background readings in mental health and the law, basic rights, law library materials, and mental health legal services, has been compiled to help librarians establish and develop legal collections in anticipation of court decisions that will expand the conditions of Bounds to include all mentally disabled patients.

Bibliographies as Topic

International programs of the National Library of Medicine.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has a broad mission in biomedical information service. There are three major reasons for NLM, as a national institution, having an international program: first, the global nature of disease; second, the international scope of medical literature; and third, the universal goal of better communication. This paper reviews NLM's programs in relation to international medical information exchange: International MEDLARS Centers, collaboration with WHO and PAHO, NLM Special Foreign Currency Program, and development of the NLM collection.

International Cooperation

THIS is where it's at.

The Medical Center Library contracted to provide bibliographic information services for the Tobacco and Health Research Institute of the University of Kentucky. This new department is now an integral part of the Medical Center Library providing reference and literature services in the tobacco and health area. Operating as a quasi-independent unit of the Medical Center Library, THIS (Tobacco and Health Information Services) functions separately in all areas of library operations, or more specifically, as a special library within a library. Its collection differs from that of most libraries in that it consists almost solely of periodical reprints instead of books and journals. The diversity of disciplines which tobacco and health literature encompasses has created the need for the development of a current awareness service for researchers. It is the belief of the author that there is a definite trend toward library collections such as THIS within larger medical libraries, as more institutes with special areas of interest are being formed.

Bibliographies as Topic

Journal selection decisions: a biomedical library operations research model. I. The framework.

The problem of deciding which journal titles to select for acquisition in a biomedical library is modeled. The approach taken is based on cost/benefit ratios. Measures of journal worth, methods of data collection, and journal cost data are considered. The emphasis is on the development of a practical process for selecting journal titles, based on the objectivity and rationality of the model; and on the collection of the approprate data and library statistics in a reasonable manner. The implications of this process towards an overall management information system (MIS) for biomedical serials handling are discussed.

Book Selection

The National Library of Medicine. Evolution of a premier information center.

From a small collection of medical publications in the Surgeon General's Office in 1836, the National Library of Medicine has developed into the leading repository of medical information in the world. Despite strong opposition and impediments from certain quarters, involving considerable machinations and intrigue, the determination of interested medical leaders and sympathetic members of Congress triumphed in having this remarkable institution established on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. As a participant in many of the negotiations preceding that decision, I have happily witnessed the transformation of the Library, long housed in cramped, makeshift quarters, to its present magnificent structures in the heart of our nation's foremost medical research center. Its prodigious collection of print, audiovisual, and electronic information; its imaginative research projects; its excellent outreach program; and its innovative services and products are indispensable to all practicing health professionals, scientists, and medical educators, as well as to journalists, government officials, and others. The ultimate beneficiary, of course, is the patient.

History, 19th Century

The history of medical libraries from 2000 B.C. to 1900 A.D.

Tablets said to date back to 2000 b.c. represent the earliest medical writings so far discovered. The history of the medical library (defined as a place where a collection of medical writings is kept) is traced through ancient and medieval civilizations, and the dependence of advancement or decline on the attitude toward learning and knowledge is demonstrated.The change in structure of medical libraries that took place around the 1500s with the development of scientific societies is discussed. Medical libraries of Colonial America are described and the history is brought forward to the era of public library collections of medical material in the early 1900s.

American Medical Association

Sensory organization of the human thalamus.

A computerized program has been developed for on-line display and tape-library storage of stimulation-mapping data collected during stereotactic procedures. Using computer-generated displays of pooled clinical physiological data it has been possible to map through the upper midbrain and thalamus the lemniscal, spinoquintothalamic, auditory, vestibular, visual, extrapyramidal, and motor pathways, as well as the location of the pia. Each system is recognizable by a stereotyped, artificial, somatotopically organized stimulation-induced response that is devoid of modality information and independent of the site and parameters of stimulation.

Auditory Pathways