Deborah Charbonneau:

Charbonneau, Deborah H. (Ed.). (2008). Global information inequalities: Bridging the information gap. Oxford: Chandos Publishing (Oxford) Limited. (forthcoming, September 2008)

Description:

The disparity in access to information is a worldwide phenomenon. Global Information Inequalities offers a captivating look into problems of information access across the world today. One of the unique strengths of the book is the use of examples of library initiatives from around the world to illustrate the range of possibilities for equitable access and library service delivery in a global context. It contains numerous examples of a wide variety of information problems and solutions ranging from developing literacy programs in rural communities in Tanzania, building school libraries in China, making government-related information more transparent in Chile, to exploring how digital technologies have the potential to revolutionize the lives of people with sensory-disabilities. The contributions in Global Information Inequalities address a number of core professional issues, including access to information, library services, collection development, global collaboration, intellectual property, and digital information. The contributors are from Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Iceland, Malaysia, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania, United States, and Zambia, thereby providing a wide range of perspectives on librarianship. Written in a simple, thorough, and multidisciplinary approach, the book presents and discusses key issues in various library settings and from different perspectives. Overall, this work contributes to a global examination and exploration of libraries in various parts of the world. This book has a wide appeal and is applicable to various library environments (including academic, public, and special libraries).

Additional information is available from the publisher’s web site: http://www.chandospublishing.com

Annette Healy:

MedlinePlus Go Local: The Librarian’s Tool for Promoting Hospital Services to the Community

Journal of Hospital Librarianship
Volume: 8 Issue: 3
ISSN: 1532-3269 Pub Date: 8/11/2008
Page Range: 344 - 351
DOI: 10.1080/15323260802209518
Copyright Year: 2008
Contributors: Annette M. Healy

Abstract: Healthcare systems are complex organizations that patients and families may find difficult to navigate. MedlinePlus Go Local projects are assisting consumers in this navigation by developing directories of health services that are indexed by geographic area, types of services provided, and associated health issues. Librarians affiliated with healthcare systems can play a critical role in promoting their organization and assisting healthcare consumers in locating needed services by assisting Go Local projects in accurately indexing their organization and assisting with keeping the information up-to-date.

Nancy Beals:
Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship (ISSN: 1941-126X)
Volume: 20 Issue: 1
Cover Date: 2008
Publication Date: 2008
Copyright Date: 2008

Selecting and Implementing an ERMS at Wayne State University: A Case Study
Page Range: 62 - 69
DOI: 10.1080/08963570802157420
Nancy Beals

The successful development and implementation of an electronic resources management (ERM) system depends on an undertaking that includes many key factors. Some of these key factors include determining user groups and their needs, evaluating implementation and technical issues, testing the system, exploring how the system will be used, setting future goals for the system’s use, and acknowledging other outside considerations that need to be addressed regarding the deployment of an ERM system. Within each of these factors lies critical decision making and goal evaluation. Learn about how Wayne State University applied these factors, underwent the steps toward this endeavor, and developed the ongoing evaluation of the selected ERM system.

Nancy Wilmes:

Oermann, M.H., Nordstrom, C.K., Wilmes, N.A., Denison, D., Webb, S.A., Featherston, D.E., Bednarz, H. and Striz, P. (2008) Information sources for developing the nursing literature.
International Journal of Nursing Studies. 45(4), 580-587. Online only in Science Direct.

MeLCat will be performing a system update on Thursday August 14th. It is only expected to last for a few hours, and should be available again the same day.

Effective in the 2008/09 academic school year Wayne State University’s David Adamany Undergraduate Library (UGL) and Science and Engineering Library (SEL) will limit the purchases of textbooks to undergraduate introductory (100-300 level) courses only. Textbooks are rising at nearly twice the rate of inflation at 6% a year, thus making this service impossible to continue.
Our new policy will not withdraw or limit any textbooks previously purchased in the Textbook and Reserve collection that are currently for the 2008/2009 fall and winters semesters.

UGL and SEL will provide as part of its Textbook and Reserve Collection the following;
• One circulating Undergraduate introductory textbook copy.
• Faculty is allowed to request one copy of a textbook, coursepack and additional material that are not owned by the Library System to be made available on course reserve for any of their respective classes.

FAQ

What classes will the Library System support?
We will purchase one (1) copy of a textbook for undergraduate introductory (100-300 level) courses only.

What defines an introductory course?
We are using the criteria as specified in Wayne State University’s class description online bulletin. http://www.classschedule.wayne.edu/course_web/schedule/drilldown_new.cfm

What if I am in a large class of 100 or more students?
A student should notify and discuss his or her needs with the instructor of the course. A faculty member who finds that the Textbook and Reserve Collection does not satisfactorily support a course can bring extra (department or personal) copies of the textbook to the library and we will place those items on course reserve.

What is course reserve?
The library’s course reserve collection services Wayne State faculty. If a faculty member makes a request for an textbook that the Library System does not own, we will purchase one copy and place it on reserve under the instructor’s name and course.(In addition, faculty can bring any number of extra department or personal copies of a textbook that they wish to place on reserve.) If we already own the material in another collection, we will pull that book and place it on course reserve under the instructor’s name and course. If the item is already in the combined Textbook and Reserve Collection, we will attach the instructor’s name and course to the textbook.

What happens if a library textbook is stolen or damaged?
The Library System will incur the replacement cost of another copy.

Are there any other alternatives available to me instead of buying a textbook?
Yes, there is a popular services you can use to try to find your textbooks called MeLcat. http://elibrary.mel.org There are no guarantees that the item(s) will be available through this service, however, if they are available you will have a 21 day loan period and a possible renewal.

The Shiffman Medical Library has arranged a free trial of Lexi-Comp Online, a comprehensive resource of drug information, for health sciences students and faculty. The institution-wide trial will run through September 30, 2008.

Lexi-Comp provides access to pharmacological information, drug interactions, formulary services, information on natural products, poisoning and toxicology, nuclear, biological and chemical agent exposures, infectious diseases, lab tests, diagnostic procedures and more. You can search or browse databases to obtain clinical decision support information at the point of care. Lexi-Comp content can also be downloaded to your PDA.

Help us evaluate this new resource by filling out the form below. We’d like to have your comments by September 30, 2008.

Connect to the Lexi-Comp Online at: http://proxy.lib.wayne.edu/login?url=http://online.lexi.com/

Click here to view a brochure [PDF,615 KB] on how to search and navigate through Lexi-Comp Online.

Sandra Martin
Interim Director of Shiffman Medical Library

Email Address (optional)

Are you looking for sources for grant funding for your school, lab or community organization? Trying to write a grant to fund a special project? Or supporting administrators or researchers who are applying for federal or foundation funding? Plan to attend “Grant Writing Basics For All” on Saturday, August 23rd at Wayne State’s David Adamany Undergraduate Library.

The Wayne State University Library System is pleased to sponsor “Grant Writing Basics For All” – a one-day workshop to provide participants with the skills to identify funding sources and write good grants. The programming includes:
• A keynote lecture on the grant-writing process
• Hands-on workshops to locate grant resources
• A lecture on grant-writing techniques
• Break out sessions on grant-writing for community organizations, researchers and K-12 educators
• An open lab for assistance with grants in progress or general questions

The workshop will be held from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 23, 2008 at the David Adamany Undergraduate Library, in the heart of Wayne State’s Detroit campus. The cost is $45 or $20 for students.

Click Here to register

*If you have difficulty with the link, please post this address into your browser:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=olRb1GYvtEVRu62SuRcXJg_3d_3d

For more information, contact Lothar Spang at 313-577-3367 or by e-mail at lothar.spang@wayne.edu.

The Shiffman Medical Library has arranged a free trial of R2 Digital Library, the web-based e-book collection for medicine, nursing, and allied health from Rittenhouse Book Distributors, Inc . The institution-wide trial will run through August 31, 2008.

R2 Digital Library provides access to electronic content from multiple publishers and offers more than 700 electronic health science resources in a topic-based searchable database. Full text access is available for all titles.

Some important features of the R2 library include integration with Blackboard and Endnote, linkout to CINAHL, PubMed, and AccessMedicine, the capability to support multimedia and to use tables, graphs, charts, illustrations and photographs.

You can customize the R2 Library by adding a personal login so that you are able to save images, searches, references, and other files.

Help us evaluate this new resource by filling out the form below. We’d like to have your comments by August 31, 2008.

Connect to the R2 Digital Library Trial Page at: http://www.r2library.com/

Click here to view a brochure [PDF, 1.15MB] on how to search and navigate through R2 Digital Library electronic books on health sciences.

Sandra Martin
Interim Director of Shiffman Medical Library

The Wayne State University Libraries will be closed on Friday, July 4 for the Independence Day holiday. Regular hours will resume on Saturday, July 5.

The Technology Resource Center of the Wayne State University Library System recently announced the selection of Ian Chapp as its 2008-2009 Wayne State University Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) Scholar. The HASTAC Scholars fellowship recognizes students who are engaged in innovative work with technologies. They will bring the work on their campuses to national attention and participate with other Scholars in an online forum on the HASTAC 2.0 Web site.

Chapp is a graduate student in the Wayne State Library and Information Science Program and was selected last fall as one of sixteen recipients of an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant that allows students to earn master’s degrees in library and information science while receiving practical training though local partners that include the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Michigan Opera Theater and the Wayne State University Libraries.

Chapp is also involved in the LUNA Art History project, a digital asset management system that incorporates images and faculty contributions with department specific holdings for classroom use. He is working to develop a Web interfaced archive/ library at the Michigan Opera Theater with access to images and audio and is also assisting Art and Art History faculty with planning and establishing NUMINOUS, an online research forum. In the fall he will collaborate with the Wayne State Photography department on “Woodward Avenue Rephotographic Project Online: Motorcity Metropolis Matrix.”

Year 3 TimeSaver: Clinical Decision Support Tools

Local governments in Michigan are in fiscal crisis. But less money does not always have to mean less service, especially if governments and public agencies collaborate.

A group of Macomb County commissioners and Wayne State University administrators have hatched such an effort to save the county library in Clinton Township, as well as create a facility where WSU can offer classes. County commissioners on a community service committee ought to approve the partnership Friday so Macomb and WSU can work out a contract to take effect this fall.

Facing a $10-million budget shortfall next year, Macomb commissioners have considered closing the library to save $2.7 million a year. That’s not smart. Smaller, local libraries can’t provide the legal or research material offered at the Macomb County Library, which already has been cut nearly 30% over the last two years. The county library also serves the visually impaired and disabled.

A plan to lease the library to Wayne State University would maintain library services while lowering costs by $400,000 the first year. It calls for Wayne State to lease and manage the library, covering building and maintenance costs. Macomb County would retain its library employees, except for the director, but would not replace those employees if they leave or retire. Wayne State would hire any new employees.

Wayne State would offer classes at the site in its library science program. Commissioner Paul Gieleghem, D-Clinton Township, who helped negotiate the plan, said the deal would take Macomb County one step closer to a much needed four-year university.

A library contract with Wayne State University would enable Macomb County to expand service and save money. That’s something no one should oppose.