Congrats, Magical Medicine, Fourth Floor updates

Congratulations Kathleen

Kathleen has been recognized as a Senior Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.  This credentialing body of the Medical Library Association has strict standards, not unlike those for continuing status.  Congratulations to Kathleen for fulfilling the requirements for membership at this level!

Muggles beware!

“Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine”, a traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine will open in our own Java City area next Wednesday.  Some of the magical potions and apparatus are already making an appearance in our exhibit cases.  Watch for further announcements about this enchanting exhibit!

The Purple Room

Recently CatCard readers were installed on the two entrances to the “Purple Room” on the fourth floor.  They are not yet operational but should be shortly.  Until then, the room is locked electronically and can only be opened with a key.  Once the readers are up and running, only cards from AHSC faculty, staff and students will open the doors.

Fourth Floor Study Area

On Wednesday, August 8th Angie Souza from AHSC Facilities Management and I will present the plan for the fourth floor study carrels to the AHSC Deans.  We are hoping that this final approval will bring funding for the project and that we will be able to move ahead quickly after that.  Delivery of the materials will take six weeks and we will want to allow another two weeks for setup and installation.  Keep your fingers crossed for a new look by the new year!

A Systematic Approach, Phoenix, Our New Entrance

Systematic Reviews

Sandy, Annabelle and Carol joined 19 other librarians for three days this week to attend a workshop on systematic reviews in Pittsburgh.  “A systematic review is a literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question.” (Wikipedia)  Systematic reviews are recognized as an important tool in evidence-based healthcare.  When Ahlam was working at the Health Sciences Library System at the University of Pittsburgh she was one of the instructors for this course!

New Phoenix library facility 
Jacque and Kathleen are busy settling in to the beautiful new library located in the Health Sciences Education Building on the Phoenix campus.

Front doors

If you haven’t come in the main entrance to the library this week you may be surprised to see that our new front doors have been installed.  The drop in noise from the hallway is very noticeable.  We have gained a small amount of space in the area where the single door used to be.

Phoenix Library Move, New Front Doors

Phoenix move!
Next week is moving week for Jacque and Kathleen.  In preparation Kathleen boxed the entire book collection!  As computers and phones will be moving communication with the AHSL-Phoenix may be on and off during the week.  I hope that you’ve taken a look at the photos of the beautiful new library space in the Health Sciences Education Building.  You can see them at:  http://ahslphoenix.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/hseb-and-new-library-tour-june-22-2012-thanks-ceil/

Front door project
Installation of our new front doors is scheduled to start on Tuesday, July 10.  We will be getting glass doors in the main entrance with the security gates and the single entrance will be closed off.  This will allow us to lock the doors when we close rather than wrestle with the gate/fence, which is not working properly.  In addition the doors will serve as a sound block between the outer lobby and the library.   Work is estimated to take two days.  While the installers are working on the double doors we will be using the current single opening.  We will go without a security gate for the duration of the work.

Thanks, TV, Study space, Streetcars, etc.

Transforming Services Committee

  After much consideration we have decided to disband this group and to look for other ways to encourage innovation in the library.  As always I urge you to share your ideas to improve library service.  Thanks to all of the members of this committee!

Conference room improvements

  The Administrative Conference room now has a flat-screen TV monitor on the wall.  This can be used instead of the projector and screen.  It can be connected to a computer, iPad or iPhone.  We will soon be adding a webcam to allow Skype meetings.  As before you can reserve the room by contacting Linda.

Fourth floor plans

  We are continuing to plan for changes to the fourth floor that should make it a much better study space for students.  With luck we should have some very nice study carrels installed sometime in early fall.  Some DRAFT plans are on the table in the office.

Facilities Notes

  The modern streetcar project is now scheduled to close the Warren Ave. underpass for six months starting on July 2.

  The decision on a campus no-smoking policy, which was recently turned down, will now be reopened when President Weaver arrives.  Not sure where this will be on her list of priorities.

  There is now outdoor wireless in the area south of Drachman Hall and between Drachman, Keating (Bio5), and the MRB (Medical Research Building.)

Carol! Videos!

Congratulations Carol!
Congratulations to Carol who has been elected to serve as a member of the College of Medicine Admissions Committee.

Video Tutorials
We have started a project to create short (in the 30 second to 2 minute range) video tutorials that will explain basic library topics.  Some examples might be how to locate an electronic journal, how to do a subject search in PubMed, etc.  Links to the tutorials will appear on the website.  Joan and Nicole will be taking the lead on this project but will be requesting help from many around the library. The Information Services librarians will be generating a list of possible topics to start with.  Our goal is to have 10 to 15 of these available by the winter break.

Offices, New Date, TV, Lifts, Hope?

Office Moves

With Brooke moving to a more remote office, Nicole will be moving downstairs into 1149C, Brooke’s current office, and Ahlam will be moving into the office that Nicole currently occupies.  All of this will happen late in June prior to Ahlam’s arrival on June 25^th.

Hold the date

The date for the AHSL reception to honor campus authors has been changed to Wednesday, September 12^th at 4 PM.  Dr. Bootman will be here and more details will be available as we get closer to the date.  Please plan to attend!

Changes to the conference room

We have ordered a wall-mounted TV monitor and webcam for the conference room in the library office.  In most cases this should take the place of the current projector and screen and will also be useful for videoconferencing.  We hope that the monitor will be available by the end of June.

Elevators

Work on our elevators is scheduled to begin on June 11.

Hope for the 4^th floor

There is now a chance that we will get funding to refurnish the 4^th floor of the library.  This is not a “done deal” but Senior Vice President Bootman will be trying to secure funding to add attractive study carrels on the floor and to add other furnishings to make it a more useful space for our students.  I will keep you posted on any progress.

Past, Future, Facilities

New Exhibit
Stop by Java City to see our new exhibit, “Early Hospitals in Arizona with Diploma Schools of Nursing”.  Hannah did the research for this exhibit and Nga and Dave Cantrell from Biomed did the layout on the posters.  There are two exhibit cases near the entrance and posters on the north wall.  In addition to the interesting narrative history there are some wonderful photographs from “the old days”.

Library of the Future
Sr. Vice President Bootman has formed a task force to discuss what health sciences libraries will look like 10-20 years in the future.  He has asked Gary to Chair the group, which will write a brief report in the fall.  This is one of several task forces that Dr. Bootman has created.  The purpose of the groups is to help in planning what goes into different buildings, how resources are allocated, how priorities are ordered and what reorganizing/restructuring is needed to create better efficiencies.  The Library of the Future Task Force met for the first time yesterday.  It consists of faculty and student representatives from each of the AHSC colleges and from the COM-Phoenix.  The group is very engaged and thoughtful and their thoughts should be very valuable to us.

Facilities news
Fire drills are planned for our building sometime between July 16th and 20th.

The University is NOT going to implement a no smoking policy on the AHSC beyond what is mandated by state law.  HOWEVER state law does allow us to ban smoking in open areas where it could be drawn into windows or vents.  So, the Hippocrates area and the area west of the AHSL next to the Comstock Building and the lower open area of the College of Pharmacy are going to be designated as non-smoking.  “Ashtrays” (actually tin cans with gravel in them) will be removed.  Signs need to be posted in order to ban smoking.  Facilities will be working with the Colleges to obtain funding.

The Warren St. underpass will be closed at the end of June (plus or minus 3 months!) for 6-8 months and single lanes of Speedway will be closed during the work on the modern streetcar.  Portions of Cherry and Helen will be closed for a couple of weeks at a time this summer.  Signs will be posted with alternate routes to the Zone 1 parking lot at Cherry and Mabel.