SRVPHS, VETS, DEPP, Break!

Dr. Garcia’s Town Hall

On Tuesday Dr. Joe, “Skip” Garcia, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, hosted a Town Hall meeting.  To summarize, Dr. Garcia is very optimistic, yet realistic, about the opportunities and challenges that face the AHSC.  The UofA is underperforming in research funding when compared to our peers.  However he plans to build on the foundation that we have created to increase research in the coming years.  He has already recruited “thought leaders” who will move us ahead.  He has created four advisory councils that will develop strategies to excel in four areas: population health and health outcomes, health disparities, precision health and neuroscience.  It’s clear that both President Hart and Dr. Garcia see research as the primary focus for the institution.  We will be working to be sure that the university libraries are a vital part of this effort.  Next year my personal goal and that of the ATeam members will be to develop a strategy for improving our support for research on the AHSC.  Everyone will have a chance to help to shape this strategy.

Welcome gift to the VETS Center

This week we delivered a printer to the VETS Center as a welcome gift from the library.  The wireless printer will allow all of the computers in the VETS Center to do color printing.  The printer also supports scanning and copying.

Thanks to DEPP!

DEPP stands for Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Planning and is one of our hard-working committees.  Over the past several years DEPP has completed an Emergency Response and Disaster Recovery Plan.  They have made it easy for us to get fire extinguisher training.  They have set up a plan to regularly review the contents of our first aid kits.  They have worked with the library staff at the Oregon Health and Sciences University to serve as each other’s backups in the event of loss of access to ILL or searching capabilities.  Thanks to DEPP (Brooke, Cindy, Javad and Kathy) we join a small number of health sciences libraries that have taken emergency preparedness seriously and that are ready for those situations that we hope will never occur.

Break time!

I hope that all of you enjoy the holiday break whatever your plans.  A special thanks to those who will be keeping the library open during the next two weeks.  I wish you all good things in 2014!

Justin Bieber? Not!

Progress on the recording studio has been hard to see but will become evident in January.  Facilities Management will be working in the first AV listening room to remove the counter and to paint the room.  That work is scheduled to finish by January 17th.  Soon after that (we hope), equipment and soundproofing will be installed and we will have an operational recording studio.  BioCommunications will provide training to our desk staff and to the ITS staff at the Help Desk.  Training will be very basic as users of the room will be expected to know how to run the equipment or to bring someone who does.  The studio will be on the campus room scheduling system and available to AHSC faculty and students.

Staff Lounge

We have invited the STAFF of the VETS Center to feel free to use our staff lounge, as we have with other groups sharing space in the building.  It seems that most of the VETS Center staff are undergraduate veterans.

VETS!

The VETS Center will have a “soft” opening next week.  It will be staffed and open to veterans.  However the grand opening with dignitaries, etc. won’t happen until January.  VETS staff members are working on ordering furniture so we will be loaning them some tables and chairs until theirs arrive.

NYT, Carol and the LAC

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Congratulations Carol

An article in the New York Times refers to work that Carol did.  She is the anonymous “medical librarian” mentioned in the article.  The story also links to an article in The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society for which Carol is a co-author.

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/hiring-an-end-of-life-enforcer/?_r=0

Library Advisory Committee

Our Library Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting of the year on Monday.  We have faculty and student representatives from each of the AHSC colleges on the committee.  They serve as a vehicle for communication with the colleges and offer feedback from the students and faculty members that we serve.  Our new student representative from the College of Pharmacy has already distributed a survey to classmates asking about the library.  We’ll hear the results on Monday.

Lights! Camera! Action! Chairs! Tables!

Recording Studio

We are partnering with BioCommunications on planning and constructing the new mini-recording studio (any ideas for what we should call this room?) which will be created in the first AV listening room as you enter Java City.  BioComm has worked up the specifications for equipment and will handle ordering it.  Facilities Management will be taking out the counter and repainting the inside of the room to provide good color balance for videos.  Professional lighting will be installed as well as a high definition camera and computer controls.  We already have people who want to sign up to use the room.  Once the equipment is ready for use BioComm will offer some training for our staff so that we can answer basic questions.  Anything beyond basic questions will be handled by BioComm.

After EPIC

We are getting price quotes for new study cubes for the 4th floor and new study tables for the 3rd and 4th floors.  With those in hand we will be ordering chairs for the new tables and to replace many of our older, deteriorating chairs.  I think we will be asking for volunteers in the future to form teams to deploy our new chairs and to redistribute some of the other chairs that have wandered around the building.

More EPIC

The EPIC “command center” is scheduled to cease operations on the 4th floor on Friday, November 29.  After that all EPIC help desk questions will go to UAHN staff in their regular offices.  The schedule calls for computers to be removed during the week of December 2nd and for the walls to come down the following week.  We have asked for 20 of the tables to be gifted to us to be used for student study.

The College of Medicine accreditation team will be here in mid-January.  Our goal is to have the 4th floor useful for study and looking nice before the visit!  There are 24 of the new study cubes currently at the UA warehouse.  We are hoping to have these installed on the 4th floor beginning in the third week of December.  We also hope to purchase 24 additional cubes (using the rent money from EPIC) that will be installed at the same time.  The remainder of the floor will be filled with study tables, also to be purchased with EPIC rent money.

EPIC Update

EPIC training is scheduled to end around October 25th.  During the following week phones will be installed to convert the 4th floor into a “command center” for the EPIC launch.  At 3 AM on November 1st (Halloween night!) EPIC will “go live”.  The command center will be in operation 24/7 through the month of November.  About 150 employees will be there at one time or another to provide help desk services to UAHN.  Security guards will be stationed at the front door during hours when the library is closed.  We will be meeting with UAHN soon to discuss plans for their exit from the floor!

New Guide, Happy Anniversary!

NIH Policy Guide

Many of you know that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) now requires all NIH funded researchers to make their research publications available to the public through PubMed Central.  Joan has developed a guide to help researchers understand how to submit their articles.  The campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) staff has already publicized the guide through an email to all researchers.  You can see this extensive guide at http://azhin.org/nihpublicaccess

AZHIN’s 20th Anniversary

2013 is the 20th anniversary of the Arizona Health Information Network.  AZHIN is a consortium of over 30 hospital, clinic and academic libraries around the state that originally joined together to provide MEDLINE access.  Over the past 20 years AZHIN has evolved into an organization that not only jointly purchases access to electronic information but also provides web and authentication tools to it’s members and employs a librarian, Brooke Billman, to train members, to troubleshoot and to negotiate with vendors.  AZHIN has won awards and is a major force in ensuring that healthcare providers around the state have access to the latest and most reliable biomedical information.  Today AZHIN members, including founder Rachel Anderson, will be meeting at the Arizona Inn for a celebratory luncheon.

New baby, Yamila, Dave, Hawaii and a gift

Congratulations to Jennifer and Jim Martin!
Jennifer gave birth to a baby girl at 1 AM this morning.  Details later!

Yamila explains it all

Last week Yamila presented a webinar on the Affordable Care Act on behalf of the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records.  There were 119 people signed up – the largest attendance that the State Library has ever had for a webinar.  They are putting links up on their website so that others can view the presentation.  A representative of the state library said, “Yamila did an exemplary job in putting together the information and presenting it clearly. We are very grateful for the knowledge, skills, and abilities which she brought to bear in creating and presenting this webinar and others like it.”

Dave recognized

Dave’s work on the “Prescription for Health” video digitization project was recognized in Sombrero, the official publication of the Pima County Medical Society (PCMS) (Aug-Sept 2013, 46:7 p. 11).  The PCMS created a 30-minute television show for public access cable television that ran from 1983 until 1997.  Dave worked with BioCommunications to organize the digitization of 218 of the 284 known episodes.  You can search these episodes by date, topic or speaker and watch them online.  See http://ahsl.arizona.edu/spec-coll/pcms-pfh for the indexes.

Voyage to Health

Take a few minutes to visit this new exhibit that describes the Pacific voyages of native islanders, gives insight into native culture and has examples of medicinal herbs and plants from the College of Pharmacy collection.  Although small, this is a fascinating exhibit and the AHSL exhibits committee has done a great job of supplementing the NLM-provided banners with items in the display cases.

“New” map cases

Thanks to the main library we now have two new map cases.  Although gently used they are just what we need to store flat materials such as blueprints, some older diplomas, and other large format items.

Congratulations!, Building changes?

Congratulations Sandy!

The College of Nursing has approved a joint appointment for Sandy as an Adjunct Instructor.  This is in recognition of all of the support she provides to nursing students through classes and one on one assistance.

Possible small renovation projects

Two projects are being discussed but have not been decided upon.

Veterans’ Center in the library

The Board of Regents and the AHSC are both interested in providing better service for Veterans who are continuing their education at UA.  The Veterans Education and Transition Services program has student veterans’ center in the student union on main campus.  They would like to be able to offer counseling, assistance and a place for vets on the AHSC to meet.  We are exploring creating, using “office landscaping” type walls (like those in the EPIC training classrooms on the 4th floor) to create a small area in Java City.  The new “room” would be just past the 3 group study rooms across from the ITS Help Desk.  This is still in the early planning stages and would be funded by the VETS program.

Recording studio

Last December I mentioned that we are looking at creating a small recording studio in the library.  This project is starting to move forward supported by one-time temporary funds.  Last summer during the meetings of the Library of the Future Task Force we heard that faculty members are being asked to create more and more online content, either for distance education students or for their on-campus classes.  Most often this is audio in the form of podcasts or tutorials with voice over screen shots or Powerpoint presentations.  After meetings with technical and educational staff from all of the AHSC colleges and BioCommunications, we are exploring the possibility of creating a small recording studio in the library for the use of AHSC faculty and students.  The most likely location would be the first of the three rooms across from the IT Help Desk in Java City.  We have a price on the equipment but still need to work out many details such as how the room will be reserved, how much support BioComm and the library staff will be expected to provide, how faculty and students will be trained to use the room, etc.

Authors!

Library authors had two articles published in the July issue of JMLA: The Journal of the Medical Library Association.  Nicole’s article describes our iPad lending program.  Gary and Jacque provided a section on the Phoenix library in an article describing four new approaches to library space.

Both articles are available at PubMed Central.

Feeling the HEAT

The HEAT Building

Yesterday Gary met with Angie Souza, Assistant Dean for Planning and Facilities, to discuss the planning process and timeline for the Health Education and Advanced Technology Building.

Negotiations are underway with an architectural consulting firm for a contract to begin on September first.  Dr. Garcia, the new Vice President for Health Sciences, will be starting work on September first and it will be his decision whether or not to push forward with the building.  The AHSL’s planning will continue on two fronts – brainstorming “big picture” ideas and listing specific needs such as how many offices and other types of space are needed.  If the building is going to move forward the architects will meet with us to discuss our needs.  If the building is cancelled the entire AHSC will likely begin looking closely at space.  In that case our brainstorming and specific needs will still be useful as we will be looking at the future allocation of space in the building.

Water and VIPs

H2O

We now have a new water fountain, with water bottle filler, on the first floor.  Come and have a drink on us!

New VPHS

On Thursday Gary was one of a group to meet with Dr. Joe “Skip” Garcia, the new Vice President for Health Sciences.  Gary had about three minutes to talk about the library.  He mentioned the liaison/embedded librarian program, the Outreach program and the HEAT building.  He also talked about his new reporting relationship to the Dean of Libraries and explained that this would provide opportunities to collaborate on projects of interest to the entire campus.

Senator

On Wednesday Gary visited Phoenix with members of the Arizona Telemedicine Program.  He met State Senator Gail Griffin from Hereford (near Sierra Vista) and offered her the services of the library.

Diana returns!

Diana Almadar-Douglas, who worked in our Interlibrary Loan Department while she was in library school, will be returning to us for one year.  Diana has spent the last year as an NLM Associate Fellow, working at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD.  She is taking advantage of their 2nd year internship program to work at AHSL.  She will start with us on September 2nd.

From the NLM website:

Diana Almader-Douglas

University of Arizona, Tucson, 2011

Diana Almader-Douglas received her MA in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 2011. Ms. Almader-Douglas was awarded a Knowledge River Scholarship, which focuses on educating information professionals on issues pertaining to Latino and Native American populations. While completing her degree, she was employed as a Graduate Assistant at the Arizona Health Sciences Library, where she provided document delivery and reference services. During her program, she also worked as a student affiliate at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System’s medical library, where she provided reference services and assisted with collection development projects. Ms. Almader-Douglas earned a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from Webster University in 1998. As a licensed professional counselor, she assisted state-funded behavioral health recipients throughout her career. Ms. Almader-Douglas’ undergraduate degree is from Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, where she majored in psychology.

Outreach article

Jeanette and Yamila have had an article published in Latitudes, the newsletter of the Pacific Southwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.  Their article is titled Arizona Outreach Highlights 2012-2013 and describes some of the great outreach activities sponsored by the Regional Medical Library and carried out by AHSL staff.  You can read the article online here: http://nnlm.gov/psr/newsletter/2013/05/31/arizona-outreach-highlights-for-2012-2013/

New Building, 4th Floor

HEAT Building

This building is now on a “fast track” with the university.  An architect will be chosen today.  Planning will continue until groundbreaking in 2015 and occupancy in 2017.  There is a very high probability that the library will be moving into this building.

EPIC Training

Large groups of UAHN employees will be using the new training rooms on the 4th floor Monday-Saturday from June 3-August 31st, 7AM-10PM.  In addition they will be using this space also for their command center/help desk during the month of September 24/7.  You can expect to see folks coming and going throughout the day and evening.  During times when the library is closed a UAHN security guard will be on duty to let authorized trainers and trainees in and out of the building.

Construction, Selection

3rd & 4th Floor projects

We 99% finished upstairs.  The new glass walls on the 4th floor now provide some soundproofing between the floors.  The scaffolding has been removed.  There is some touchup painting going on and soon the drop cloths will be gone.  It will take a few more weeks we think before the newest study cubes are wired for electricity.  Installation of a new large study table on the 3rd floor is scheduled for Tuesday, June 18th.  We will be reopening the 4th floor for study this weekend.

UAL Dean Candidates

Our first candidate spoke to library faculty, classified staff and to the campus this week.  Those who attended know that she answered many questions and there was plenty of time allotted for her to answer additional questions from the audience.  I encourage you to attend the presentations from our final two candidates next week and to submit your comments online.  As a member of the search committee I assure you that we are planning to pay a lot of attention to the response from the campus.  I’ll send out the schedules again later today.

Space . . .

More study space!

Installers are finishing up our 30 new study cubes on the third floor.  This is in addition to the 12 that were installed in April.  A new study table, like the ones already sitting in the middle of the third floor, will be installed between the new cubes in the next month or two.

4th floor after EPIC

The AHSC is going to be doing a campus-wide space inventory.  This may begin before the new Senior Vice President for Health Sciences arrives but will not end without his input.  It will look at the need for and possible uses for a new health education building.  The eventual use of the 4th floor will be under consideration during the inventory.  Our current plan is to install more study cubes on the 4th floor once the EPIC project finishes.  These cubes can be dismantled and rebuilt somewhere else if the university decides to make other use of the floor.

Health Education and Advanced Technology (HEAT) Building

On Wednesday Gary made a presentation to the AHSC Deans describing why it might make sense to move the library into the new building and what the new library might look like.  He joined presenters from BioComm, Simulation, Telemedicine and IPEP (Interprofessional Education and Practice.)  The vision of all of these units was remarkably similar and there are plans to meet regularly to look at a comprehensive plan for the new building.

Awards and Recognition

On Thursday the University celebrated its 25th Awards for Excellence presentation.  The AHSL was honored as Kathy Tower was recognized as a Nominee for the Awards for Excellence and Jeanette as her nominator.  As you know the AHSL Exhibits Committee was chosen from eight nominated teams to win the Team Award for Excellence. 

 

Today at our All Staff meeting we’ll be recognizing these colleagues with service pins.

Joan – 15 years, Laura – 15 years, Cindy – 35 years, Nga – 35 years

Congratulations to all!

Third floor activity

Things are going to get busy and possibly noisy on the 3rd floor next week.  We need to be able to explain to our users what is going on.  The hospital’s EPIC training will be taking place on the 4th floor from June through September, with some installation in April and May.  So we want to maximize the available study space by adding it to the third floor.  Twelve new study cubicles are being added to the SE and SW corners of the floor.  Installation will start on Tuesday and may take several days.  In addition we’ll start shifting the journal collection on Monday to make room for even more study cubicles.  I will try to keep you up to date on all of this work.  The Marketing & Promotion Committee is working on a poster for the lobby that will explain all of this to our users.

Welcome Bryan, Latest on EPIC

Welcome Bryan!

  Bryan Nugent is our newest Clinical Education Librarian.  Bryan works at the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix.  Welcome Bryan!

EPIC training project

 We’re finally starting to get a clearer picture of what will be happening on the 3rd and 4th floors to support the EPIC training.  The current plans are to use temporary walls and rented tables and chairs to create training spaces on the 4th floor.  These will all be removed when the project ends.

  We will be shifting portions of the print journal collection in order to make room for more study space on the 3rd floor.  We will get some funding to add additional study seating to the 3rd floor and I hope that you will see work starting on this in the next couple of weeks.  Be prepared for lots of people coming and going and for some noise as furniture and equipment are delivered and installed.

  The Marketing and Promotions committee is working on “talking points” so that we can give a consistent message to our users who may have questions.

Rennovation/training, print, NGLMS

EPIC training project

Plans are still not settled for the hospital’s use of the 4th floor for training.  At the moment it looks as if they will build us five new classrooms, twelve single-person study rooms and enclose the stairwell and pass-through on the north and south sides of the third and fourth floors with glass enclosures.  If this comes to pass, UAHN will be conducting training classes on the fourth floor beginning in June (construction to begin as soon as possible) and will finish up around the third week in September.

Reviewing the print collection

Use of the print collection has dropped off rapidly over the last several years.  Older, out-dated texts have never been removed from the collection.  We may be moving into a new building sometime in the next five years.  All of these facts have led us to begin looking at a change in our retention policies, a review of our holdings and a possible weeding of the monograph collection.  We are currently removing print copies of journal titles for which we have access to electronic backfiles.  Yesterday Joan, Mary H., Dave, Sandy, Jeanette and Gary met to discuss this project.  I will be passing along updates.

Next Generation Library Management System (NGLMS) Project

Joan has been working with our colleagues in the University Library to look at possible replacements for our Innovative Interfaces (Triple “I”) library system.  After carefully investigating the available next generation library management systems (Alma – Ex Libris, Sierra – III, Intota – Serials Solutions), the NGLMS Project Team recommended that an RFP not be issued at this time and instead to wait 12-18 months in order to monitor advances in the systems as well as  the how new implementations go as other libraries migrate.  In the meantime, the team’s charge was amended.  The team is now assessing what the libraries can be doing to get ready for a new system in the following areas:

        I.                        Immediate Actions

      II.                        Establishing Guidelines and Best Practices

    III.                        Interoperability

    IV.                        Reporting & Analytics

      V.                        Training & Documentation

    VI.                        Data Remediation

The assessment will be submitted to UAL Cabinet when it is completed.