Furniture!

Office desk is finished!

Stop by to see the new reception desk in the office.  With the installation of the counters this morning Linda’s desk is now finished and it looks great!

4th floor project

This project is consuming a lot of time right now and probably will for the next several months.  As you’ve read in the update on Wednesday, we are taking several actions to preserve as much study seating as possible.  Over the break we’ll be making some changes to the old media listening rooms (see below) and staff from the main library will be coming over to move most of the study tables from the 4th floor down onto the 3rd and 2nd floors.

“Media listening rooms”

Over the break the built-in desks will be removed from the old media listening rooms.  These rooms have been used as group studies for many years and this should help to make them more useful for larger groups.

Javad, 4th floor

Javad is home!

Dave learned this morning that Javad has been released from the hospital.  We will keep you informed as we follow his progress!

4th floor project

Here is the text of an email that will go out to the AHSC students this week and again after the break.  A similar message will go out as an AHSC memo after the break.  We will host a session for students to express their concerns and to hear about our plans.

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AHSC Offices to Move into 4th Floor of Library

Effective December 19th, the 4th floor of the library will close and offices for the Arizona Health Sciences Center will be built in the space.  According to Facilities Management, construction will begin in early 2015 with completion of the offices expected in April.  The 4th floor has primarily been used as study space for AHSC students and includes 8 group study rooms and a large silent study room.

The director of the Arizona Health Sciences Library, Gary Freiburger, stated that his main concern is reducing the impact this change has on AHSC students and their ability to study in the library. Working with the Library Advisory Council, library staff and Facilities Management, he has quickly identified several short and long-term strategies to create additional study space on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the library.

As part of the construction project, eleven study rooms--9 individual and 2 group study rooms--will be built on the 3rd floor to replace the rooms on the 4th floor.  Current study space will be reconfigured to accommodate furniture from the 4th floor to be distributed throughout the 2nd and 3rd floors.  Some library staff will be relocated and office space converted to study rooms. Longer term strategies include reducing the print collection to free up additional study space.  Where possible print journals will be replaced with electronic holdings and lesser used materials identified and moved into off-site storage. 

AHSL is committed to making the library a great place for serious study. Your ideas and suggestions are important.  Join us on January 16th at a time to be announced in Room 2150M in the library so we can share our ideas and listen to yours. You can also use the contact form at: http://ahsl.arizona.edu/contact and choose "Give us feedback" from the dropdown menu.

Space, Space, Space

Student services in the library

The Graduate and Professional Student Council offers counseling to students regarding professional development, job hunting, etc.  They are looking for a space where they can meet with AHSC students.  We are currently talking with them about their specific needs but anticipate that they will use a group study room one or two half-days a week.

4th floor

Thanks to Dean Williams we have come to an agreement with the Dr. Garcia regarding library space.  The Vice President’s office will be taking responsibility for the entire 4th floor, including the silent study space.  In return the library will not face the loss of other space in the library, will get new group and individual study spaces built on the third floor and will have some voice in the planning of the HEAT building.  We believe that the opportunities for us in the HEAT building are tremendous and look forward to involvement with this planning.

Work on the 4th floor may begin any day in the form of architects, engineers and space planners doing measurements.  We have asked that they remember that students are studying for exams on that floor through Friday, December 19th.  We should be able to keep access to the eight group study rooms open for a while longer.  However, the floor will probably be closed to all early in January as work progresses.  The ambitious timeline for completion is April 2015.

The Administrative Team, Dean Williams and others will be meeting soon to discuss issues, ramifications and solutions.  We will keep you informed!

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers . . .

Each year we submit statistics to both the Association of Research Libraries and to the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries.  When added to the counts from other libraries these statistics allow us to see how we compare to other libraries, to see trends and to learn about new services being offered by others.  Every year Jeanette, with help from many of you, compiles all of these statistics.  She is close to finishing this year and I want to thank her and those who contribute statistics for the huge amount of work involved in gathering, collating and reporting these numbers.

Campus Building Plans

There are plans for a Medical Research Building (MRB) 2.  The building will sit between Cherry Ave and the two existing research buildings – MRB and Bio5.  It will create a “horseshoe” shape with those buildings and will go up on top of the long, thin parking lot that currently occupies the space.  Ground is scheduled to be broken sometime between March and May 2015.

The “HEAT” (Health Education and Advanced Technology) building planning was stalled but may now move ahead.  It is still probably 3-5 years in the future but may include a move of the library into that space.  Current thinking is that the new building will occupy a portion of the parking lot across the traffic circle from the current AHSL.

"Quint" Meeting

Ahlam, Annabelle, Brooke, Mari, Kathleen Carlson (AHSL-Phoenix) and Gary all attended the five-chapter MLA meeting in Denver this week.  Librarians from almost everywhere west of the Mississippi were there.  AHSL and AHSL-P had four posters and two presentations and one CE course at the meeting: 

Nurturing STEM seeds to MedStart trees: Fundamentals of health care education by Kathleen,

Encouraging Sex & Gender Differences Research and Cross-Campus Collaboration at the University of Arizona by Brooke, Yamila, Annabelle, 
Jeanette, and Ahlam,

Health Sciences Consortia: A Benchmarking Data Survey by Brooke, Evonda Copeland, Scottsdale Lincoln Health Network- Scottsdale Healthcare, Scottsdale, AZ; Molly Harrington, Dignity Health- St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ; Bryan Nugent, Banner Health- Good Samaritan Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ; Sue Shelly, Scottsdale Lincoln Health Network- John C. Lincoln Health Network, Phoenix, AZ,

Healthy Pima! Health Literacy: A Collaborative Initiative to Improve Health by Yamila, Annabelle, Amber Mathewson, Deputy Director Pima County Public Library; Susannah Connor, Librarian, Pima County Public Library, Tucson, AZ.

 

Ahlam was the co-author and co-presenter with Margaret Foster of Texas A&M University of a paper entitled, Immersion in a Workshop with Nursing Professionals: Collaboration through learning at the Joanna Briggs Institute Comprehensive Systematic Review Training Course. 

Gary presented a 5-minute, “lightening” talk entitled, An Embedded Librarian Program, Seven Years Out.

Ahlam also co-taught a CE course, "Librarians' Roles in Systematic Reviews: A Step by Step Approach".

Planning, money and content

Strategic Planning

Joan, Yamila and Gary are still spending a lot of time working on the libraries’ strategic plan. There will be another open house on 9/23 on the 4th floor to gather input from everyone.

Financial operations

Cindy is part of a small group who will be looking at the financial operations of the libraries with help from two consultants.  Mary Holcomb will be available to the group to discuss collection expenditures.  The group will begin meeting in early October.

Collection Budget

UAL will be covering our projected deficit in the collections budget and they have also given us a 6% increase in funding - equal to the estimated rate of inflation.  This process (with UAL covering some of our costs, etc.) is complicated and will require coordination between Collections and Cindy but also between our folks and Steve Bosch (Collections at UAL) and Virginia Valenzuela (Business Manager for UAL).  Cindy, Mary, Amanda, Steve and Virginia met this week to begin working out the details.

Searches and new staff member

Searches

We have posted ads for three positions in the library, a Technology Librarian (Nicole’s position), a Liaison Librarian to focus on the College of Nursing (Sandy will be focusing more on support of research), and a new Bioinformationist.  A search to fill Hannah’s vacant line will be put off until we conclude these searches.  Two search committees have been formed and they will begin reviewing applications on September 24.

Technology Librarian

Annabelle Nunez, Co-chair

Jeanette Ryan, Co-chair

Mikel Bates

Joan Schlimgen

Mary Holcomb

Leslie Sult (UAL)

College of Nursing Liaison and Bioinformatician

Jennifer Martin, Co-chair

Jeanette Ryan, Co-chair

Mikel Bates

Sandy Kramer

Ahlam Saleh

Jeanne Pfander (UAL)

Welcome Phil Brown!         

A reminder that Phil will be joining us on September 15 in the position previously held by Steve McClain.  Phil has lots of library experience including work in circulation, ILL and reference.  Please join me in welcoming him.

New staff member, Town Hall

Welcome Phil Brown!         

Phil will be joining us on September 15 in the position previously held by Steve McClain.  Phil has lots of library experience including work in circulation, ILL and reference.  Please join me in welcoming him.

Town Hall with Dr. Garcia

Yesterday Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Joe “Skip” Garcia presided over a Town Hall meeting in DuVal Auditorium.  The full session can be viewed at: https://streaming.biocom.arizona.edu/event/?id=25406

To summarize, Dr. Garcia reviewed his one and five year goals for the AHSC.  His one year goals consisted primarily of filling key vacant positions.  He has hired a new director of the UA Cancer Center, new chairs of Surgery and Medicine, an Associate Vice President for Research and a new Executive Director for Research Administration in addition to new Associate VPs for Precision Health and Translational Medicine.  He discussed progress on five of his long-term goals: increasing research revenue, improving national rankings, obtaining a CTSA grant, increasing diversity among students, trainees and faculty and improving philanthropy and public/private partnerships.

Email and calendar migration

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You may know that our Outlook email and calendar system is running on College of Medicine servers.  COM Information Technology Services (ITS) is planning to migrate all email and calendars to UITS (main campus IT) servers over the next year.  Current plans are that AHSL will be migrated sometime this fall.  ITS is talking with UITS to find a time when both groups will be able to take this on.  We will share details as they become clear.

Planning, party and polishing

Strategic Planning

Thanks to all of you who came to the strategic planning open session on Tuesday.  As a member of the “Innovating” group I know that we are finding your comments very helpful.  As this process progresses there will be other opportunities for you to hear about our progress and to participate and to provide feedback.

Hannah’s Party

Don’t forget about Hannah’s retirement party on Monday at 10:30 on the 4th floor!

New look in the office

Remodeling projects always seem to take longer than we would like!  We are close to selecting the final layout and finishes for the new reception desk in the library office.  Once that is done we’ll still have about 60 days before installation.  At this point I’m hoping that we can see a new desk by January 1st!

AED

An automated external defibrillator (AED) has been installed on the second floor, across from the elevators, to the left of the stairway entrance.  The device, to be used to treat sudden cardiac arrest, will “speak” directions to you if you use it.  However, the DEPP committee is talking to personnel at the Sarver Heart Center about getting some training for the staff.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Retirement

It is with mixed emotions that I have to tell you that Hannah has decided to retire after more than 25 years at the AHSL.  Hannah’s last day at work will be Saturday, July 26.  I hope that you will join me in wishing Hannah all the best in her retirement!

New Look

In another month or two the library office will take on a new look.  We will be replacing the old built-in reception counter with a nice new desk.  We hope to get some concept drawings early next week that I will share with you.  We expect it will be about 60 days before the old desk is removed and the new one delivered.

Update on new positions

As I announced previously, we will soon be advertising to fill three vacancies.  Nicole’s position has a working title of “Technology Librarian.”  New funding from the main library is allowing us to create a new position with a working title of “Bioinformationist.”  Lastly, Sandy will be easing out of her responsibilities as College of Nursing liaison to concentrate on supporting research.  We will open a new position, funded mostly by Kathy Tower’s salary, to fill the College of Nursing liaison position.

Banner and UAHN

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Although not final, the stage seems set for Banner Health to purchase the University of Arizona Health Network that includes both UAHN Tucson hospitals and the physician practice plan along with various clinics around the city.  The proposal would also make Banner Good Samaritan hospital in Phoenix the primary teaching hospital for the College of Medicine – Phoenix.  This merger will have an affect on our ability to license information resources for the two Tucson hospitals.  However there are many details to work out and we will be working closely with the Phoenix campus library, the UA main library and the university administration to address the complexities.  I will do my best to keep you informed as we learn more but feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

Sandy

Congratulations Sandy!

Sandy has won the Lois Olsrud Library Faculty Excellence Award!  Announced today at the University Libraries’ Library Faculty Assembly meeting, this award recognizes a library faculty member who has demonstrated sustained excellence in service to and/or collaboration with the primary customers of the Libraries resulting in significant benefit to the faculty, students research and/or other primary customers.  The award comes with a significant honorarium that can be used for professional enrichment such as workshops or other training opportunities, visits to other institutions, or travel to conferences.  As no award was given last year, two awards were given this year.  The other winner is Leslie Sult of the main library.

Diana, Research Support Report, Passing

Congratulations Diana

On Tuesday Diana and Jeanette were in Bethesda, MD at the National Library of Medicine for the capstone event of Diana’s Associate Fellowship, the 2nd Year Colloquium.  Diana presented a talk on her Fellowship project, “Outreach to the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona:  Bringing Health Information to a Behavioral health Community.”  This event brought the four Fellows and their preceptors together with staff from the NLM to review their projects and discuss the Associate Fellowship Program.

Research support planning

The research support planning group (Gary, Jeanette, Joan and Ahlam) continues to meet with researchers to gain a deeper understanding of their needs.  This week we met with the director of a Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP) and a basic science researcher in Pharmacy.

Dr. Krutzsch

We were sorry to learn of the passing of Dorothy Krutzsch, wife of Dr. Philip Krutzsch, one of the founding faculty members of the UA College of Medicine.  Dr. Krutzsch has remained a friend to the library in retirement.  We sent a condolence card on behalf of the entire staff.

Award, Conference and Thanks

Eleanor Johnson Award

Yesterday I was honored to present the Eleanor Johnson Award for Academic Excellence at the College of Medicine Awards Brunch at the University Marriott.  This year the award was given posthumously to Zachary Orman.  Zach died following a paragliding accident last year.  He has been described as one of the college’s finest students who hoped to become an emergency room physician.  His grandparents accepted the award and the stipend was deposited in the Orman Scholarship Fund.

Eleanor Johnson was a librarian here in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.  She had a long-standing interest in encouraging students and this award was established in her memory.

MLA

Gary, Jeanette, Mary R., Annabelle, Brooke, Diana, and Margot Natividad (KRI student) will be attending the annual meeting of the Medical Library Association now through Wednesday in Chicago.

Thanks Javad

Thanks to Javad for coming in at 6 AM on Tuesday to take delivery on new chairs.  The chairs were purchased with EPIC rent money and have been placed on the second through fourth floors.

Congratulations Jennifer!

Please join me in congratulating Jennifer Martin who has been promoted to Associate Librarian with Continuing status effective July 1.

Grand Opening Gala

Thanks to everyone who chipped in to make the VETS Center Grand Opening a success.  I think that we had between 75-100 people attending.  Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly took the time to stop and chat with a number of people including library staff.  All of the remarks were short and the ribbon cutting went without a hitch. Special thanks to Javad for working on the room setup, Linda for last minute sign design and printing and Tessie for photography. (my photos below)

Massive project completed!

In January, Dr. Garcia’s office asked us to compile a list of all of the journal publications coming out of the AHSC during 2013.  This was a massive and complex project.  Many thanks go to Ahlam for coordinating.  Nga, Mary Riordan, Hannah, Annabelle, Jennifer, Mari, Jeanette, Brooke, and Christy Wiles (a SIRLS student who works at the desk) all took certain colleges and/or departments and worked on significant portions of the overall project.  The results, 1545 article citations, were sent out on Tuesday.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to this project!