Jacque, DuVal papers, computers

Congratulations Jacque!
Congratulations to Jacque who has been elected to serve on the MLA Nominating Committee for 2010. We should also note that Jerry Perry, our former Head of Information Services, has been elected MLA President-elect.

DuVal Papers
The library has received a donation from Mrs. Ruth DuVal, widow of the founding dean of the College of Medicine, Dr. Merlin K. (Monte) DuVal. The donation consists of papers, photographs and some memorabilia of Dr. DuVal’s. These include records relating to the founding of the College and to Dr. DuVal’s service as Assistant Secretary of Health in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now HHS). We hope to be able to organize and preserve these valuable papers for the use of future scholars.

Computer equipment
This week we signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ITS (the College of Medicine Information Technology Services.) This document clarifies the service that we can expect from the computer support people and specifies that we will have a say in how certain funds are spent. We hope to have some new staff computers coming soon in addition to large flat screen monitors in two of the group study rooms. Older staff computers will be “trickled down” to the lab with some additional memory to make them more useable.

Happy Holidays and New Year!
This will probably be the last Update until after the break. I hope that you and yours enjoy a peaceful and enjoyable holiday season and that the coming year brings you happiness and contentment.

Visitors, Space Committee, Archives

4 Corners Directors
Last Thursday and Friday the directors of the health sciences libraries at the universities of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah visited the library. We met to discuss issues of mutual interest and to learn from each other. The group toured the library and the AHSC. Some of the topics discussed were a renovation at Utah, an upcoming Tribal Connections 4 Corners meeting, and an Evidence-Based Scholarly Communication (EBSC) Conference in Albuquerque in March designed to highlight strategies promoting open access publication at Clinical and Translational Science Award- minded (CTSA) institutions. Thanks to our Liaison Librarians who met with the group. The other directors were VERY impressed with the work of the liaisons and with the presentations that they did.

Space Committee
The Space Committee had its second meeting on Thursday, 12/3. Each of the visiting 4 Corners directors gave a brief presentation and answered questions. They all stressed the need for a variety of meeting and classroom spaces in the library of the future or in education buildings. The next meeting will concentrate on the practical aspects of renovation and reuse of library space with a presentation by Facilities Management. I have asked Javad to join the space committee because of his knowledge of the use of the building.

Digitizing archives
The AHSL is home to the archives of the STARPAHC project. The collection, consisting of reports, correspondence and photographs, details the workings of a NASA telemedicine project on the Tohono O’Odham reservation during the 1970’s. Early next year staff members from the Tohono O'odham Nation Cultural Center & Museum in Sells will be in the library to digitize portions of the archive for their own collection. The AHSL will get digital copies of these documents. The museum hopes to build an exhibit based on these materials and has agreed to share the exhibit if possible.

Email, calendars

Email and Calendaring
UITS (campus computing) has issued an update . . . they are negotiating with vendors and still hope to make an announcement before the end of the year and to begin implementation next semester.

LAC, HTG!

Library Advisory Committee

The LAC met on Monday afternoon. They heard updates on offsite access, the budget situation, the “space committee”, AHSL website statistics and our goals for the coming year. There was good discussion and we got some good suggestions for budget negotiations and for our communications plan.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This will probably be the last update until after the holiday. I hope that everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Contributing to the AHSL Facebook Fan Page

All librarians and staff of AHSL Tucson & Phoenix are eligible to post to the AHSL Fan Page. The Web Committee may grant permission to others on a case by case basis.

To post to the Wall or create Events, you must:

• Have a Facebook account
• Become a Fan of the Arizona Health Sciences Library Fan Page
• Request administrator privileges from a Web Committee Member: Joan, Brooke, Jennifer & Lindsey.
• Observe guidelines for postings.

Guidelines for postings

• Restrict postings to library-related activities, services, resources, etc. or to relevant news items.
• Target material to the Fan Page audience, particularly AHSC faculty, staff, students and outreach clients rather than other librarians.
• Check to be sure it is not a duplicate posting.
• If there are questions on the suitability of a post, check with a Web Committee member.
• Be clear & concise—less is more.
• Use links to web pages if possible, rather than including lengthy descriptions.
• Carefully check for typos, misspellings and grammatical errors.
• Upload relevant photos and graphics to increase visual appeal.
• Restrict number of postings to one per day so as not to overwhelm our audience. Some exceptions may be necessary.
• Post to “Wall” or create an event by opening the Facebook tab, “Events,” then clicking “Create an Event.” Your event will also automatically post info to the wall if you click on the button, “Save & Continue,” then “Publish.”
• Web Committee members will correct postings or delete those that are considered inappropriate.

Compliment and Meetings

Compliment
The other day, on my way into the building, I was chatting with a faculty member. As we each went our separate ways, he turned and said, “You know you have the most helpful staff I’ve ever worked with. They all go out of their way to be helpful.” I thanked him for passing that on to me and now I want to pass it on to you. Thanks everyone for treating our users so well!

AAHSL/AAMC meetings
Last Saturday through Tuesday Jeanette and I attended the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries held in conjunction with the meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges. It was a great opportunity to talk with our library colleagues, College of Medicine folks from UA and other universities and to learn about national trends that may affect the library. Some of the interesting speakers included Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts, former Senator Tom Daschle, and form NIH Director Harold Varmus. Patrick has led Mass. in healthcare reform, Daschle gave us the national perspective on healthcare reform and Varmus is the creator of PubMed Central, an open-access repository for the results of NIH research.

Space Committee, Goals, Meetings

Space Committee
The Advisory Committee on Library Space met on Monday afternoon. All of the AHSC Colleges were represented. This first meeting provided background information on the current uses of the library building, the recent history of the building and some thoughts about the future. There were good questions from committee members and everyone is compiling a list of things that they like and dislike about the building and preliminary suggestions for the future. Our next meeting is in early December.

2010 Goals
The Administrative Team has been working on defining library wide goals for the coming calendar year. Some of the overarching goals relate to creating and implementing a communications plan, a staffing plan, and a plan to educate faculty and to support new models of scholarly communication. Some of the other, more focused, goals range from working on an archive of the history of the Phoenix campus to working on a Code of Conduct to long-range budget planning. We hope to have a final version of these goals completed as soon as possible.

Meetings
Jeanette and I will be attending the annual meeting of the AAMC (Assn. of American Medical Colleges) and AAHSL (Assn. of Academic Health Sciences Libraries) in Boston over the next several days. Jeanette is on the AAHSL Statistics Committee and we’ll both be connecting with colleagues, exchanging ideas and getting better insight into the issues facing medical schools.

Jennifer M, PR, book signing

Welcome back Jennifer
Please join me in welcoming Jennifer Martin back to full-time work in the library and the College of Pharmacy. Jennifer has been working part-time from home but we’re glad to have her back among us!

The Library Minute
We recently discovered ASU’s series of one-minute videos promoting their library. The intent of these short announcements is not to teach users in depth, but just to introduce them to library resources. As we look at promoting the library in the coming year, something like this might fit into our plans. We will be working with Biomedical Communications to produce a sample video for AHSL so that we can learn how much time it takes to write a script and produce the video. You can see a sample from ASU at:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ASU#p/search/0/DcwC1Q_krS0

You can see a more comprehensive list of their videos at:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ASU#g/u

Book signing
Please try to attend the “Meet the Authors” event in the library from 3:30-4:30 PM on Friday, November 6. Former COM Dean James Dalen, MD, MPH and Linda Valdez along with the family of founding COM Dean Merlin K. DuVal will be celebrating the release of two new books. “University Hospitals: Doctors and Patients” and “A Doctor’s Legacy; A Memoir of Merlin K. DuVal, Founding Dean of Arizona’s First Medical School” have just been released. Please make the authors and those attending feel welcome in the library.

Research support, Harmony

AHSL support for research
Many of you know that we have been distributing surveys as part of a campus wide project to determine the support that various units give to research. This process lasts a full year but we just heard that, during the first quarter, 82% of our surveys were returned (that’s an excellent return rate.) In addition, 27% of AHSL use was in support of funded research. This is a measure of our value to the campus and is also an excellent number.

Recognition for our “artists”
The 2009 issue of Harmony, the humanities magazine of the College of Medicine has been issued. The library is well represented. Jennifer Lee has three poems in this issue, Tessie has three photographs, Gary has one photograph and Stef Walz has a piece of visual art. Take a look if you can find a copy of the magazine. All of the contributors have copies.

Health Literacy Display

Pat Auflick has coordinated the development a poster for Health Literacy Month. Others involved include Tessie, Ramona Romandia, Mary Riordan, Annabelle, Jeanette, Joan, Yamila El-khayat and Nga. Take a look at this attractive and informative display on the bulletin board near the public computers. There is a test you can take to see if you are information literate.

Health information in other languages, etc.

Health information in other languages
Mary Riordan has compiled a collection of health topics in a variety of languages common to refugees in the U.S. Links to these documents appear on AZHealthInfo and copies have gone out to many public health and library groups in Arizona. You can see these documents by going to http://azhealthinfo.org, selecting “Local or State” next to Health Topics and then browsing for items such as “Cancer Resources for Refugees”. An example is: http://www.healthinfotranslations.com/pdfDocs/angina-Hindi-Fin.pdf

A few items from the Administrative Team
The “ATeam” is reviewing possible library-wide goals and projects for the coming year. A few of the possibilities are the “space committee”, increased public relations/awareness, working closely with the new Dean in the College of Nursing on her initiatives, review of and possible redesign of the web site and exploring a partnership with the College of Pharmacy and TGen around their recent grant.

On November 6, 2009 the College of Medicine and the University Press will be having a reception in the library for the release of a memoir of Dr. Merlin K. “Monte” DuVal, first Dean of the College of Medicine. Dr. Duval’s family has been invited.

Gary will be in Washington, DC during the week of October 19th to attend the “capstone”/graduation for this year’s class of AAHSL/NLM Leadership Fellows, including Sandra Martin. The week will involve visits to the National Library of Medicine, the NIH library, the Association of Research Libraries and the Association of American Medical Colleges with panel discussions at each site. Sandra is so appreciative of the welcome that she received at AHSL. This will be a proud moment for her and an educational experience for all in attendance.

AHSC Memo Generator

The AHSC Office of Public Affairs has a new tool that makes it easy to design and send AHSC memos.

The AHSC Memo Generator allows you to choose the specific audience you want your memo to be distributed to, with choices ranging from a single building to all of AHSC. There is a general AHSC template that makes it easy to design the memo without knowledge of html. Several departments have developed their own templates with their logos, including AHSL. The AHSL template is set up for events -- another template for memos has been requested.

Appropriate use guidelines are posted at the site. Once you've completed your memo, you must submit it for approval before it can be distributed.

AV Weeding Project

Most of our audio-visual materials are shelved in the compact shelving on the third floor. Many of these items contain old, out-of-date information or are in formats that are rarely, if ever, used these days (slide tape shows for example). We have started a project to review these items and to remove those that have no archival or educational value. Dave will be reviewing these titles and many will be weeded with help from the IS Desk Staff and our shelvers, our Knowledge River students and the Collection Services Department. Dave estimates that as much as 80% of these items will be weeded. We hope to recycle much of the paper and plastic.

Congrats Jennifer L, Paula Maez

Congratulations to Jennifer Lee!
Jennifer’s poem, “Whiskey, flight, and lost girls” has been awarded a 2009 Mathiasen Written Arts Prize from the College of Medicine Medical Humanities Program. The award comes with a substantial cash prize and her poem will be published in this year’s Harmony magazine. Jennifer will be reading her poem at the magazine launch party (invitation only) on October 17. You should be able to pick up a copy of Harmony a few days after that.

Paula Maez
Many of us remember Paula Maez, a Knowledge River student who did an internship at the AHSL. Last year Paula was accepted into the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Associate Fellowship Program where she spent a year at the NLM learning more about health sciences librarianship and the workings of the national library. This year she has been accepted into the second year internship. She will spend the year at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center – San Antonio working on a variety of projects.

Budget News

I hope that everyone saw the news that there will be no furloughs this year! In other “good” news, we’ve been notified that the library will take only a 5.8% cut this year. This is a big relief after some of the numbers that had been floating around earlier. This budget will allow us to add a few titles to the collection, to take care of some maintenance items, possibly cleaning or reupholstering chairs, etc. and to save a little for the next fiscal year when we expect more cuts.

Code, Space Committee

Code of Conduct
The University Library has created a Code of Conduct for those using the library. The code has been reviewed and approved by the legal affairs office and by campus police. Sandy and Javad will be reviewing this document and making changes that apply to the AHSL. After that it will be reviewed and approved by the Administrative Team. Having this policy in place should be a help to the folks on the Information Desk who have to deal with many “situations” at the desk. We will share it with you after it’s been revised.

Library Space Committee
Letters have gone out to the Deans on the Health Sciences Campus asking them to appoint a faculty and student representative to the Advisory Committee on Library Space. I hope to be able to convene the first meeting before Thanksgiving.

Candidate(s), Flu, Budget, Nursing Dean

Candidate
Congratulations to Jacque who has been selected as a candidate for the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nominating Committee. (“Our own” Jerry Perry is a candidate for MLA President!)

Pandemic planning
The H1N1 virus or swine flu has been in the news a lot lately. Last May the campus asked each unit to develop a plan for dealing with a possible outbreak. Our plan is focused on providing services that might be needed by medical professionals and also addresses how we would continue to function if many of the staff became ill. You can expect to be hearing more about campus planning and our plans if the outbreak becomes more widespread.

Budget non-news
We still have no definitive news on our budget for the year. However Dr. Crist has asked me to be prepared for a 5 to 7% cut. I have been planning for various contingencies since last spring and have plans in place for a 7% cut. We have slowed our spending until we know what the exact figures will be.

Meeting with Dean
On Wednesday Jeanette, Sandy and I met with Joan Shaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, the new Dean in the College of Nursing. We described AHSL services with an emphasis on the liaison program and outreach. The Dean described her plans that include more distance education and an emphasis on graduate education. We look forward to partnering with the CON in the future.

Congratulations to Tessie

Congratulations to Tessie, who had one of her photos published in the Arizona Daily Star last Saturday (in the A section near the back).  The photo was taken at the Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin Texas.   Here's link:

 http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/gallery/view/43098

She also has photos in the Wildlife gallery.

Three cheers for Tessie!!

Jeanette

Teaching and teaching!

WeSearch
Last week Pat and Annabelle again taught the We Search students and SIRLS Knowledge River mentors. The students, from Sunnyside High School, learned about finding reliable health information and created their own digital stories about a personal healthcare experience.

Prologue
On Wednesday AHSL librarians took over the “Prologue” - orientation for incoming College of Medicine students. Annabelle took on the classroom session – co-teaching with Dr. Sean Eliot about the principles and practice of Evidence-based medicine. Meanwhile the other half of the student group was in our lab, searching for the answers to their first clinical questions with help from Mari, Carol and Sandy. After an hour the groups switched places. Sandra Martin and I observed both sessions and it was great to see the new students so engaged in learning. They got a wonderful introduction to library resources and to our staff.

Congratulations Mary R! Visitor

Congratulations Mary Riordan!
Late-breaking news. We just learned that Mary is the recipient of the Martha Ortiz Volunteer of the Year Award from the Arizona Rural Health Association. Mary served several terms as the secretary of the association. In addition she has represented the library at past meetings and exhibited both on AHSL and AZHIN. Congratulations Mary for a well-deserved award.

Visitor
Sandra Martin, Interim Director of the Shiffman Medical Library at Wayne State University in Detroit will be visiting the library next week (August 3-7). Many of you met Sandra, who is an NLM/AAHSL Fellow, when she visited us in February. Sandra will again be meeting with people around the library to ask questions and to learn about our operations. This will be her last visit before she graduates from the program in November.

Meeting of reps of the 4 Corners Health Sciences Libraries

Gary and I were fortunate to attend a gathering of librarians from the 4 Corners region, a tradition begun by Rachael Anderson a number of years ago. This year we met at the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Library in Aurora. Our gracious host was our (formerly) own Jerry Perry! I took a ton of pictures and they are posted HERE.

Guiding principles behind the library’s design:
1. Natural light
2. Beautiful Colorado (brought inside)
3. Library faculty have windowed private offices; staff, substantial cubicles with direct and indirect natural light

Things that got my attention:
1. Evidence of the above 3 was present
2. Large faculty and staff offices and cubicles
3. Spaciousness all around
4. High, large windows and gorgeous views
5. 5 patios! (wipes everywhere)
6. Colors were very Colorado!
7. Lots of study rooms and other collaborative space (get #s)
8. Wonderful re-use of beautiful old furniture (Stickley and ?)
9. JP’s patio veggie starter garden
10. Permanent art and plenty of space for periodic displays of arts, see: http://hslibrary.ucdenver.edu/on-display/#PERMANENTexhibit --Humanescence by Rae Douglass
11. Lots of interesting public art on campus
12. Spacious and functional IT staff work and storage space
13. Plenty of space on campus and in the library for student hangout and collaboration

Since we in Phoenix continue to plan (and wish) for a version 2.0 of AHSL-P, this visit was especially useful to me!

We also discussed a number of agenda items, including budgets, CTSA activity, institutional repositories, use of space, engagement with social media tools, outreach, informatics and scholarly communication.

Reporting, Surveys, Email and Calendars

New Reporting Structure
As I mentioned in the April 23rd posting, as of July 1 the AHSL now reports to Dr. William Crist, Vice President for Health Affairs. I have met with Dr. Crist and expect to meet with him as needed to keep him informed about library issues. Mary Holcomb, Cindy Steber and I recently met with Jerry Miron, the Chief Financial Officer of the AHSC (who also reports to Dr. Crist) to explain the library’s financial situation and unique needs.

In addition, Biomedical Communications and the “software side” of Information Technology Services will now report to the Vice President. This means that Marcus will continue to report to Mike Griffith who will now report to Rick McNeely. As most of you know, Stef Walz has left the university. Other staff in Biomedical Communications will now support our website.

Surveys
As mentioned several weeks ago, we will be surveying our users once or twice a month for the next year. Surveys will be handed out during one or two two-hour windows each month. You’ll see a desk at the entrance during those time periods with library staff handing out questionnaires. There will be box near the exit for people to return their survey forms. Those who view electronic journals will be given an online version of the survey during those same time periods. We are also asking our liaison librarians in the Colleges of Pharmacy, Public Health and Nursing to distribute (or fill out for phone and email questions) surveys to their users.

Email and Calendars
This morning’s Wildcat reported that the decision has been made to move students to the Google calendar and Gmail. However, CIO Michelle Norin is still looking at the pros and cons of moving faculty and staff to the Google products. The paper reports that she is leaning toward Google. She is quoted as saying that UITS will provide an easy way to migrate email to any new system and that users will choose when to make the move. AHSL will follow the university decision on this. For more details see my post from June 16.

Hannah Recognized

Congratulations to Hannah. Ernesto Molmenti, MD and two others, acknowledge her help in the front of a new book, “Intestinal and Multivisceral Transplantation.” Hannah is recognized for insuring the accuracy of the book. She worked on the glossary and other facts throughout the work.

Surveys, State Budget

Surveys
Just about every grant from a federal agency to the university comes with an extra amount of money called “Indirect Costs”. This is to cover the support that the university supplies to researchers such as buildings, heat and light, library services, etc. Every 3-5 years the university must conduct a cost study to determine how researchers are using the library in order to justify this charge. Some of this money comes back to the library so it’s important to get an accurate idea of library use.

Beginning in late July and continuing on and off during the next year, we will be giving out survey forms and turning on web surveys to count use by researchers. A consultant who is working with us is developing survey forms and the procedures. I’ll keep you posted as we get more details.

State Budget
Late word is that there may be state budget deal in the works that will keep the state “open” after July 1. I have learned that the university has retained a reserve fund to keep the doors open for about 45 days if there is no budget agreement. Please plan to come to work next Wednesday! ☺

Remote Access for Students during Summer

There have been a few inquiries from continuing UA students, who are reporting that they no longer have remote access to the library's eResources. After some investigation, we've found that our implementation of Single SignOn (NetID) last October, which uses the University's WebAuth software, has had an unforeseen consequence. The definition of a "current student" in WebAuth is one who is enrolled in the current or a future semester, which means that students enrolled in Spring Semester do not have summer access until they enroll in a summer or fall course.

It turns out the solution is simple: most students can use Student Link--WebReg to register for Fall 2009 when it is available on the web: . No payment is required until the first day of class and it’s a fairly simple procedure on the web. Once registered, it may take about 2 business days for WebAuth to be updated and remote access to be restored.

Incoming students will be added to WebAuth when they've had their orientation and received their NetID. We anticipate that incoming medical students will have their access established in time for the start of the Bridge program on July 22.

Announcements will be put on the web and on AHSC-Memo. Liaison Librarians may want to pass this information on to their College's administration.

Exceptions:

• We have been told that CoM-Phx students have their registrations processed by their admin staff, who are now aware of the access problems. Tara Cunningham, Director, CoM-Phx Academic Services, has indicated that registrations with be prioritized and processed this week.
• Registration (WebReg) -- is shut down for several hours at a time during summer orientation to allow new students and their advisers to process their registrations. Students may have to wait until WebReg is available.

For questions, contact:
Joan Schlimgen

Calendars and Email

Yesterday Cindy and I attended a UITS (campus computing) presentation on the future of email and calendars at UA and the Google Enterprise Applications for Education. Last week we attended a similar session on Microsoft Outlook/Exchange.

Here is the “bottom line” for AHSL first, followed by the details for those who are interested. We started a move toward the Outlook calendar before the campus began looking at Google Calendar/Gmail and before our change in reporting. At the time, a move toward Outlook made sense since the College of Medicine (COM) was using it and it provided more features than Meeting Maker – a system that the campus was moving away from. Since we are well down that road, we will continue. ITS (COM computing) will soon be connecting all of our Outlook calendars to the server to allow us to view each other’s calendars. If the university decides to move away from Outlook we will have to re-evaluate what makes sense for us. We can do what the rest of the university is doing or continue to use the COM system.

Now the details. The campus is going to move away from its existing email system and from Meeting Maker. There are two choices: Microsoft Outlook and Google Enterprise Applications for Education. The Microsoft choice will cost about $1,500,000; Google is free (although UA will purchase some additional archiving space for about $150,000). The current plan is to explore if there are any compelling reasons not to go with Google. All of the basic features of email and calendars are pretty much the same with both systems. Microsoft offers some nice bells and whistles, but they don’t seem to be anything that would get much use. Google email offers 7.6 gigabytes of storage to each user compared with Microsoft’s 500 MB.

The campus arrangement with Google would create a UA “space” on Google that would provide security and would not include the advertising that often accompanies Google’s open Gmail and calendar.

On July 10, all UA students will move to Gmail and will have access to Google calendar, Google documents and a variety of other Google applications. The students will be in the UA “space” at Google. Their email addresses will remain “X@email.arizona.edu”.

The campus is pilot testing Google with 200 faculty and staff and they are looking for 200 more. If you would like to test the Google products you can write to: googlepilot@listserv.arizona.edu You will keep your existing email account. If the campus goes with Google your pilot account will be rolled over into the new system. If the campus doesn’t, your calendar will disappear and you can continue to use your UA mail. More information about the pilot and the whole Google offer is available at: googlepilot.arizona.edu

Paper Presented at Annual Meeting

Congratulations to Pat and Annabelle who presented their paper, “Coalition for Change” at the Medical Library Association annual meeting in Honolulu on May 20. The paper was presented in a session on new partnerships for libraries and described their work with the Pima County Community Health Task Force.

Furloughs, All Staff Meeting

Furloughs
We have still not received any more information about furloughs other than what is available on the Human Resources web page: http://www.hr.arizona.edu/furlough_faq

If you are starting to plan your time off for the coming year, consider waiting to schedule furlough until we get more definite policies from the university. The budget for the coming year could affect how furloughs are implemented.

All Staff Meeting
This is a reminder about our All Staff Meeting on Thursday, June 11 from 2-3 in the large classroom. Let me know if you have any issues or questions that you would like discussed. I will give an update on the security cameras, the new hours, any budget news and report on a meeting with Dr. Crist’s Chief Financial Officer.

AHSL on Facebook

The Web Committee (Jennifer Martin, Brooke Billman, Lindsey Greene and Joan Schlimgen) decided it was high time for AHSL-Tucson to join AHSL-Phx on Facebook after Jennifer shared results from a survey that the College of Pharmacy did with their undergraduate students in November 2008 about their use of social media. Here are some highlights showing what these students use:

• Facebook 75%
• MySpace 30%
• Read blogs 14%
• Write blogs 6%
• Almost no use of Twitter
• No use of RSS feeds, Delicious, Digg
• When limited to the younger students, results showed even greater use of social networking sites.

It's clear that an increasing number of our students are using Facebook as their primary communications tool and that having a presence there will enable the library to more effectively serve them. When we post announcements on the AHSL website, we will also put them on our Facebook page. We are also hoping to create an application that will enable users to search the library catalog from within their Facebook account. There are lots of options. So become a fan of the Arizona Health Sciences Library and encourage faculty and students to do the same!

Arrest

On Wednesday a man suspected in the theft of books from the AHSL as well as both campus bookstores was arrested here in the library. Thanks to help from security staff from the main campus bookstore, the man, who had been seen several times on our security camera system, and an accomplice were taken into custody. The man was booked into the Pima County jail and had several outstanding warrants for his arrest. Our camera system alerted us to the fact that this man had repeatedly exited through the 1st floor fire doors. We can’t say that this will end our book theft problem, but we’re relieved that this particular threat has passed.

Pandemic preparations

Last week I attended two meetings regarding campus planning for a possible pandemic. On Friday afternoon the Administrative Team met to talk about reasonable plans. Given the current situation we drafted a plan for “significant absenteeism” among library staff. We don’t feel that a total closure of the library is likely, but we want to be ready in case large numbers of staff members (or members of their families) are ill and unable to come to work. We have also talked about a total closure and have identified a strategy to handle this situation.
We will be creating signs for the offices of library liaisons in the Colleges listing who to call if the liaison is out. We will also create signs for the library entrance in the event that we are closed.
We will encourage everyone who has a need to use VPN in order to work from home, to test out the software. We will work with you if you have problems.
We will be talking to the College of Medicine Information Technology Services (ITS) to 1) get an emergency phone number, 2) stress the importance to the library (and campus and UMC) of keeping library servers and network service up and running and 3) stress the importance to hospitals and clinics around the state of keeping the AZHIN server up and running.
We are revising our phone tree and creating quick lists of staff phone numbers for ATeam members.
We have created a new reporting procedure for ATeam members to track the number of absentees in each department so staff can substitute in other departments if needed.
Obviously we hope that none of these procedures is necessary!

Continuing Education Opportunities

A reminder that the University offers a variety of opportunities for professional development: the Professional Success Institute, the University Leadership Institute, the Successful Supervisor Series, Career Success Strategies Workshops and other general HR courses are all available to UA employees. You can get more information at:
http://www.hr.arizona.edu/08_o/development3/

Congratulations Cindy!

At a lovely ceremony this morning, attended by all of the AHSC Deans and Vice President Crist, Cindy was awarded the College of Medicine Staff Award for Excellence. Cindy was selected from eight nominees from the College – a very impressive group of people. She received a gift bag, a certificate, a plaque and a substantial cash award. Please join me in congratulating Cindy!

Troubleshooting Access to RefWorks

The good news is that more and more students are using RefWorks, but there's still a lot of confusion on how to access this resource. Annabelle and I worked together and solicited help from the folks from UAL to understand some of the problems that our students were having. While UAL's "RefWorks Guide" provides the most complete instructions, we designed a quick troubleshooting page on access issues that are causing most of the problems for our students. Click on RefWorks on the AHSL home page and "Troubleshooting Remote Access" is a link on the page about RefWorks. Please let Joan or Annabelle know if you have questions or suggestions.

Reporting, Outlook

Change in reporting
There has still been no official announcement, but I can tell you that the library will be reporting to Dr. William Crist, Vice President for Health Affairs as of July 1. This structure recognizes that we serve the entire AHSC. There are still some details to be worked out regarding computing support. Librarians’ appointments will still be through the College of Medicine. I don’t expect this change to have any immediate effect on our day-to-day operations and will keep you posted.

Outlook Calendar
Because of the uncertainty involved in our change of reporting, our switch to Outlook is temporarily on hold. I can’t say when or if it will start up again but will try to resolve this question as soon as possible. Outlook is a College of Medicine solution and we are weighing whether we should be moving to a COM “domain” when we will be an AHSC/campus unit.

In the meantime, a few people around the library have also exported their calendars to Google Calendar ( www.google.com/calendar ). If you create a Google calendar you can share it with anyone else who has a Google calendar and “synch” it with Outlook. This is NOT an “official” move to Google calendar at the moment – but a possible work-around if you are feeling isolated by not having your Outlook calendar connected to everyone else’s. Cindy and Linda have some experience with this and would be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Article published

Congratulations to Sandy and me. We’ve had an article published in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association. The article is called, “Embedded librarians: one library’s model for decentralized service” and describes the library liaison model at the AHSL. If you can’t wait to read it, the library, as well as many librarians, have subscriptions. It should appear in Pubmed Central soon at:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=archive&journal=93

Minutes for the All Staff meeting April 7, 2009

All Staff Meeting
Minutes
April 7, 2009

Staff Service Awards

Gary announced that this year we had quite a few staff members receiving service awards a combined total of 205 years of service. The following people received services pins from AHSL in appreciation for all their hard work:

Kramer, Sandra 5
Nunez, Annabelle 5
Bates, Mikel 10
Lee, Jennifer 10
O'Talley, Tessie 10
Fisher, Hannah 20
Holcomb, Mary 20
Basij, Javad 25
Godinez, Vera 25
Ryan, Jeanette 35
Riordan, Mary 40

WE Search and Digital Stories

WE (Wellness Education) is a collaboration between the Arizona Health Sciences Library, the College of Medicine Women’s Center on Excellence and the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona and Sunnyside High located in south Tucson. At the beginning of fall semester 2008, three Knowledge River* graduate assistants received 20 hours of training on how to create a digital story.** They, in turn, trained Sunnyside High School students who were participants in the WE Search program. Students were asked to pick a health topic that affected them or a family member and create a 3-5 minute story talking about the disease or condition, how it has affected the individuals and/or family, health information resources that have provided them with information to help make medical decisions and what the family has learned going through the experience. Some topics included diabetes, breast cancer, diabetes, cervical cancer and cocaine/substance abuse.

*Knowledge River – A scholarship program of the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona for students who are of Hispanic or Native American descent.

**Digital stories - use new digital tools to help ordinary people tell their own 'true stories' in a compelling and emotionally engaging form

Go to the G drive to find the two digital stories which were played during the meeting. They can be found at: G:\KnowledgeRiver\Presentation\ and then either america or Annie's ...

Library Cameras

Cindy gave a brief demonstration of the library security cameras.

News of Note from Outreach, AZHIN, and the Deputy Director – March 2009

 

AzHealthINFO

• Continued to identify and add new news content as needed.
  
• Finished reviewing all AZHI topic pages to identify and repair broken links.
  
• Learned that AZ2-1-1- has been defunded and is no longer available
  

 

AZHIN

2009 AZHIN Dues – Still working with three members to acquire their dues. All vendors have been paid, as well as first installment of Admin Contract. (Athens is due mid-year)

Invoiced HRAA for April thru Dec 2009 at Regular 8 membership level

On-going Athens account set-ups and renewals

Mayo Clinic will not be renewing as a Friend for 2009

Brooke's first trip will be to Cobre Valley Medical Center in the Miami/Globe area. They are investigating AZHIN membership.

Brooke is doing much of the trouble-shooting technical work for AZHIN with Dave and Mikel backing her up. A lot of time has been spent trying to understand the turnaways that are occurring with Stat!Ref.

 

OUTREACH - EXHIBITS

Changing the Face: Celebrating America's Women Physicians, our exhibit from ALA and NLM has been packed up and is on its way to Albuquerque. By all accounts the exhibit was a resounding success. The play about Elizabeth Blackwell was very well received. Many women were clearly moved by the stories. Several receptions were arranged by other departments. One person wanted to pick up the entire exhibit and include it in an event being planned for mid- April. Several school groups visited as well. Much thanks goes to the group planning for the exhibit – Nga Nguyen, Mary Riordan, Jose Solorzano, Mikel Bates, and Gary Freiburger. And to our partners – COM Kenneth Hill Fund, ITS/Biomedical Communications, Michael Stoklos, Office of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs, and Office of Public Affairs.

 

OUTREACH - GENERAL

Several of us attended Jane Kolbe's retirement party this month. Jane was the director of library development for the State Library and was instrumental in our becoming involved in the Turning Point project (one outcome was AZHealthINfo) and with the tribal librarians. The entire state library community will miss her.

As mentioned in an earlier report, Outreach is investigating whether there's a role for the library when new refugees come to town. Do they have access to health information, is it in a form that is easily understood, etc.? Members of the PCCHTF (Pima County Community Health Taskforce) worked with Jean McClelland from the College of Public Health to get a grant funded which looks into the health information needs of both refugees and their providers. Pat is participating in the grant. Mary R will also be a part of the project as it moves along, and is also investigating other ways where we might make a contribution.

Later this year we'll be investigating ways in which we might do presentations with Outreach clients over the Internet. It's likely we'll be focusing on what the university already supports - COM ITS supports WebEx COM ITS) and Breeze/Adobe (or Web) Connect (Learning Teaching Center). Pat and Jeanette attended an ACRL/ALA webinar on how to give a webinar during March.

The library exhibited at the Not Simply Red HIV/AIDS Native American Conference in Tucson, the Women's Health Expo (College of Pharmacy students hold this event), and the Walking in Wellness event.

The MLA Webcast on March 25, 2009 was organized – Finding Work-Life Balance: Strategies for You and Your Institution. . There were 9 attendees and 3 requests for on demand viewing when it becomes available –

OUTREACH - GRANTS -

PSR Outreach subcontract ended March 31. Quarterly and final reports, plus a report on the Tribal Librarians' conference are due soon.

 

 

Administrative Office

Cindy attended two important meetings this month with valuable information for Library employees.

The first meeting for People soft the software that will replace employee link and eventually career tracks. Implementation of the first phase will be in October 2009; creating a self-serve employee link that will include benefits enrollment and time/attendance. The program is web-based which means time recording will be done online, no more paper time sheets. Supervisors will be able to submit time for employees who do not have access to a computer at home or on vacation. The employee will get a message telling them what was recorded if there are problems they can request a change.

The Second was a COM pilot for HR liaisons; this group will focus on HR policy. Our first meeting was for introductions; the following is contact information you may already know, however you may not know what each person specialty is:

Director, AHSC Human Resources

Cathy Nicholson
520-626-4650

• Employee Relations/Management Advising
• Workplace Violence Concerns/Reports
• Management and Organizational Consulting (Strategic Planning, Conflict Management, Performance Management, Unit Effectiveness, Management & Leadership Development, Organization/Reorganization)
• Compensation

HR Generalist, AHSC

Pam Jones
520-626-6765

• Employee Relations/Employee Advising
• Recruitment, Advertising and Job Postings
• Policy Interpretation & Application

HR Consultant, AHSC

Charles Hester
520-626-2234

• Employee Relations/Management Advising
• Professional Development
• Performance Management Consulting
• Employee Orientation/On-Boarding

HR Specialist Sr., AHSC

Candace Downard
520-626-2600

• Recruitment/Job Postings
• Policy Application & Interpretation
• Employee Advising
• Benefits (Qualified Tuition Reduction, medical, etc.)

Students

Esther Pullido
520-626-5593

Gandessa Orteza
520-626-5593

Our Benefits contact is located on Main Campus her name is Melissa Beard, you can contact her at 626-1708.

Cathy announced that there will soon be a new AHSC HR website.

Our next meeting will focus on furloughs "Everything About the Darn Furloughs You Need To Know to Help Your Folks!" So if you have any questions please let me know before April 13^th.