Posters, posters, posters, 24/7, Reception

Research Day
On Wednesday the AHSC presented the “Frontiers in Biomedical Research” Poster Forum on the AHSC plaza. AHSL was represented by two very nice poster presentations. Jennifer Martin and Sandy Kramer displayed their poster describing a literature-searching project in the College of Pharmacy. Our second poster presented work done on the Frontera Collaboration for border health by Annabelle, Brooke, Yamila and Jeanette. You can see Jennifer and Sandy’s poster on our website at:
http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/about/presentations.cfm and I’m sure that any member of the Frontera team will be happy to share their poster with you. Thanks to everyone who made this event a success!

Collegiate Showcase
As part of Homecoming weekend the Health Sciences Center is presenting a “collegiate showcase” on the AHSC plaza today from 1-3:30 PM. The exhibit will feature posters from many organizations on the AHSC including the library. With short notice Yamila and Mary R. put together a beautiful poster representing the library. Stop by the plaza after our staff appreciation luncheon to see it. Thanks to everyone involved in getting this done!

Dr. John Palmer
Thanks to Nga for putting together a wonderful poster celebrating the life and career of Dr. John Palmer. Dr. Palmer will be receiving the UA Honorary Alumnus Award over Homecoming Weekend. You can see the poster in the glass cases, just outside the library entrance, near the doors at the top of the exterior stairway.

24/7 study area?
The request we get most from students is for longer hours. Many newer library buildings include a room with a separate entrance that is available 24/7 with no supervision. We are starting to explore the possibility of creating a 24/7 study area in room 2101, the Java City area. By closing off the room with a movable partition across the library side in the evenings and giving access from the hallway with a card swipe we may be able to meet the student’s needs. We are considering installing security cameras and perhaps employing a staff person if additional security is needed. We are working with Facilities, Risk Management, UAPD, UMC Security and ITS on this proposal. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please pass them along to any ATeam member.

Exhibit reception
Dr. Witte will be hosting another reception to publicize the exhibit, Creating a Community of Questioners for the Future. The reception will be held on Wednesday, October 27 from 4-6 PM. I’m sure that library staff will be welcome to attend.

Global Health Exhibit

Now on display in the Java City area of the Library (Room 2101) through May 31 is In Small Corners: Capturing Moments of Global Health, an exhibit of photographs presented by the Global Health Forum (GHF). The Global Health Forum is a College of Medicine student club, promoting awareness of health and medicine transcending borders, cultures, and languages. GHF presents the exhibit in conjunction with the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Arizona Health Sciences Library. Photographs were solicited from any student, faculty or staff member at the Arizona Health Sciences Center. CoM second year students Shreya Patel and Emily Wilkinson served as coordinators for the exhibit.

Strategic planning, Leave balances, Java City

Strategic planning – Values
What’s happening with the values statements? The Administrative Team met last Friday and again this past Wednesday. We have taken all of the comments and come up with a close to final version. Later today or early next week you’ll have one more chance to comment via an online survey. Next week we hope to send out a draft mission statement for you to look at. Please check with any ATeam member if you have questions.

Your leave balances
There are two ways to find out your vacation and sick leave balances. One is on your online paystub and the other is on your online timesheet. SOME of the balances on the paychecks are not correct right now. We are working with payroll on this. However the balance on your timesheet should be correct. Sign on the UAccess and go to “My Timesheet”. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see: “Balances – click to view”. Remember that the balances on your timesheet change instantly when you enter leave time on the sheet – even if you haven’t taken the leave yet.

Java City
On Monday I met with Craig Eickmeyer and Glenda Hughes who are the managers in charge of Java City. We’ve heard concerns from students about Java City’s shorter hours.
Craig and Glenda explained that they track their sales very carefully and that sales drop off drastically after 2 PM. They also said that they’ve had to cut back on costs since sales have been declining in general. They are trying to tailor their menu to students’ pocketbooks and appetites and will soon be doing a survey of their customers. They hope to increase sales and then increase hours. I explained to them how to find out when spring break and other down times will occur and also told them about the plans to re-carpet.

Innovative migration, Visitor and Space

Thank you!

Our migration from SIRSI to Innovative Interfaces, Inc. (“Triple I”) and our move from an in-house database to Serials Solutions are pretty much complete. There is still clean-up and learning going on but the actual transfers of data and setup are done. I know that many people contributed in many ways to these projects. I’d like to especially thank Joan for overseeing two very complex operations. I’d also like to thank Mary Holcomb, Amanda, Javad and Nga for their work on the triple I migration. Andrew See also worked on this and, of course, Robin Sewell did an enormous amount of work and saved us a lot of money. Thanks also to Dave Piper, Marcus and Mary Holcomb (and to Robin) for their past and ongoing work with Serials Solutions!

Visitor

On Thursday, Carolyn Reid, Director of the medical library at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City visited AHSL. Their library has many interesting similarities to our library. They license materials through a multi-university consortium, similar to AULC, they have no systems personnel in the library, relying on a College of Medicine IT unit, and they have a remote site, although theirs is 6700 miles away in Doha, Qatar!

Space

We all know that space is a very valuable commodity on a university campus. A recent email discussion among health sciences library directors shows that almost every library has been asked to give up space – often for offices or other non-academic uses. In reality the library of the future will not need as much space as we have in the past. Our future lies in providing service, developing partnerships and in making sure that space in the library building contributes to the mission of the university.

In this spirit we have been continuing to look at our space situation. Two transitions are taking place that offer us a great opportunity to bring more people into the building, to show that we are aware of the needs of our users and for us to continue to provide attractive workspaces for our staff. The first transition is Marcus and Stef moving upstairs. (Run up and say “hello” when you get a chance!) The second is the early planning stages for a computer help desk that Jose is working on.

The library has offered the old ITC desk (outside of Pat Auflick’s current office) as a space for a help desk. This would be a place where COM students and faculty could bring computers or just questions and get help. It would augment a phone-in help desk.

Under the new IT reorganization, Spencer and Jose (and perhaps others from other COM computer support departments) will likely be helping to support this desk. It would seem natural that their office should be located close to the desk. After talking with everyone involved we have offered to move Pat, Mary Riordan, Annabelle and Jennifer downstairs and to make their current offices available to the new IT organization. This is still in the very early discussion phase but I want to give everyone a “head’s up.” I will do my best to keep you informed about any decisions or action on this matter.

Summertime . . . and the living is easy?

Summer is finishing with a real “bang!” (that’s not just the thunder.)

UpToDate, First Consult and MD-Consult, three important clinical information tools, are now available to our users. Look for the links on the home page and the banner announcement. We’ve also got announcements posted on the TV monitor in the lobby.

New tables and chairs were delivered this morning in 2101 (“Java City”) and are being installed as part of the continuing “make-over” of this area. (Thanks to Linda, Andrew and Javad for working as furniture movers to make room!) Earlier this summer all of the wooden tables were refinished. As the year progresses we will be reupholstering many of the chairs in this area.

The Java City contract has been signed by all parties and is good for another two years.

Last but not least, thanks to all who have moved their offices or who have helped with the moving. The first floor is looking completely full and busy for the first time in quite awhile. We added five group study rooms on the second floor over the summer. Eventually these rooms will be painted and whiteboards will be added. Construction in the old Information Desk Staff offices is tentatively scheduled to begin in October.

As usual, it’s been a very busy summer for us all. I’m starting to see students coming into the bookstore outside my window. Pretty soon the library will be filled with students and our “restful” summer will just be a memory!