Results: The curriculum focuses in nine areas: the data life cycle, data sharing requirements, naming conventions, metadata, storage, data ownership, security, privacy, and long-term access. Learning objectives were identified for each focus area and modified for the appropriate audience (undergraduate, graduate). Course content has been revised to be delivered in person over fifteen weeks in a classroom setting and also online in short self-paced modules.

Conclusion: The need for research data management curricula was confirmed by students, literature review and external experts we spoke to. Collaboration pointed to a need for differing strategies as to how this curriculum and repository might be implemented successfully at the partner schools. Collaborative planning process can be strengthened via formative evaluation techniques.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with librarians from three departments (clinical services, research, and technology initiatives) to gain an understanding of initial perceptions of the outreach function and work currently perceived as outreach. Findings from a cross-group analysis were validated with participants and used to inform a definition of outreach and a continuum of outreach activities requiring increasing skill levels. The skills and tools needed to perform outreach activities at each stage of the continuum were identified and cross-group collaboration will be used to develop tools and acquire needed skills.

Results: Using a working definition of outreach detailed in the continuum (basic, relationship building, and partnering), librarians tracked outreach activities and mapped them to the continuum for three months. Through discussion, it became clear to librarians where current activities fell, where they needed to concentrate future efforts, and what strategies to use to move from basic interactions to relationship building and then to partnering. The continuum and tracking logs served as a data source for strategic planning and to assist staff with individual goal setting. Librarians found the tracking log to be cumbersome, but the benefits to management were evident.

Conclusion: Tracking and categorizing the defined outreach activities is useful to raise awareness of the different types of outreach activity and identify areas for skill development. In the future tracking logs will be streamlined and automated.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting on May 23, 2010, in Washington, DC.

Methods: The ‘‘Web 2.0 101’’ online course was based loosely on the Learning 2.0 model. Content was provided through a course blog and covered a wide range of Web 2.0 tools. All Medical Library Association members were invited to participate. Participants were asked to complete a post-course survey. Respondents who completed the entire course or who completed part of the course self-evaluated their knowledge of nine social software tools and concepts prior to and after the course using a Likert scale. Additional qualitative information about course strengths and weaknesses was also gathered.

Results: Respondents’ self-ratings showed a significant change in perceived knowledge for each tool, using a matched pair Wilcoxon signed rank analysis (P,0.0001 for each tool/concept). Overall satisfaction with the course appeared high. Hands-on exercises were the most frequently identified strength of the course; the length and time-consuming nature of the course were considered weaknesses by some.

Conclusion: Learning 2.0-style courses, though demanding time and self-motivation from participants, can increase knowledge of Web 2.0 tools.

METHODOLOGY: Research articles were identified from the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association and Journal of the Medical Library Association (1991-2007). Using content analysis and bibliometric techniques, data were collected for each article on the (1) subject, (2) research method, (3) analytical technique used, (4) number of authors, (5) number of citations, (6) first author affiliation, and (7) funding source. The results were compared to a previous study, covering the period 1966 to 1990, to identify changes over time.

RESULTS: Of the 930 articles examined, 474 (51%) were identified as research articles. Survey (n = 174, 37.1%) was the most common methodology employed, quantitative descriptive statistics (n = 298, 63.5%) the most used analytical technique, and applied topics (n = 332, 70%) the most common type of subject studied. The majority of first authors were associated with an academic health sciences library (n = 264, 55.7%). Only 27.4% (n = 130) of studies identified a funding source.

CONCLUSION: This study's findings demonstrate that progress is being made in health sciences librarianship research. There is, however, room for improvement in terms of research methodologies used, proportion of applied versus theoretical research, and elimination of barriers to conducting research for practicing librarians.

Presented October 28, 2008 in Worcester, Mass., at the program "Introduction to Library Digitization" sponsored by the Massachusetts Library Association's Technical Services Section.

Methodology: Project tasks included identifying metadata elements, obtaining and tracking permissions, converting the dissertations to an electronic format, and coordinating workflow between library departments. Each dissertation was scanned, reviewed for quality control, enhanced with a table of contents, processed through an optical character recognition (OCR) function, and added to the institutional repository.

Results: Three hundred and twenty dissertations were digitized and added to the repository for a cost of $23,562, or $0.28 per page. Seventy-four percent of the authors who were contacted (n=282) granted permission to digitize their dissertations. Processing time per title was 170 minutes, for a total processing time of 906 hours. In the first 17 months, full-text dissertations in the collection were downloaded 17,555 times.

Conclusion: Locally digitizing dissertations or other scholarly works for inclusion into institutional repositories can be cost effective, especially if small defined projects are chosen. A successful project serves as an excellent recruitment strategy for the institutional repository and helps libraries build new relationships. Challenges include workflow, cost, developing policies, and obtaining copyright permissions.

Methods The Management Team gathered information from library literature and business and government sources as a starting point. In the development phase, the team posed questions as the foundation for developing a competency-based program to manage support staff development. e.g., What will support staff be doing in the future? Can we define the competencies staff will need? How do we create a flexible system that keeps us poised to respond to change? How do we build a skilled work force and prepare current staff to take on new tasks? How do we develop a measurement framework for objective employee evaluation? In the approval phase, the emphasis was on educating the university’s administration, HR, and the union about the library’s strategic direction and the benefits of the plan to staff. The implementation phase focused on staff buy-in, roll-out timing, and developing training to ensure success for current and future staff.

Results and Conclusions Competencies, education, and years of service formed the promotion plan’s basis. Managers identified task-based areas of responsibility, divided into achievement stages with frameworks detailed for objective employee evaluation. A policy for advancement, based on performance in multiple areas of responsibility, was developed. The plan allows for growth and promotion, and encourages staff to build a knowledge base across library departments.

Throughout the planning process the team met with human resources, the union, and administration to explain program goals, as well as to address their concerns and incorporate their input as we developed the program details, resulting in a smooth approval process.

For implementation, one manager assumed responsibility for coordinating orientation and training development. The team was surprised by initial negative staff reaction to increased responsibility and the certification/testing requirements. The team continues to face implementation challenges and issues.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting on May 18, 2008, in Chicago, IL.

Method: A content analysis of research articles published in Bulletin of the Medical Library Association and Journal of the Medical Library Association during the time span of 1991-2007 will be performed. For those articles that are classified as research, the subjects, research methodologies and analytical techniques employed will be identified, as well as bibliometric characteristics, institutional affiliation, and research funding source. The data will be analyzed using descriptive and quantitative inferential statistics to identify trends and/or gaps in the literature. The subject, research method, and analytical classification schema used throughout the study will be based on the work of Alexandra Dimitroff.

Results & Conclusion: Preliminary findings reflect articles published from 1991-1996 (n = 310). Forty six percent of the articles reviewed were defined as research. The most predominant research methodology employed was survey (47%) and the most prevalent techniques used to analyze findings were quantitative descriptive statistics (62%). Studies examining subjects related to library users accounted for the greatest number of published research articles (20%), followed in popularity by public services (15%), and materials and/or collection development (9%). Sixty five percent of articles were authored by individuals affiliated with an academic health sciences library. The majority of studies (65%) stated no funding source, while 17% reported government support for the research carried out. New areas of research observed to date include consumer health, outreach, and the internet; an emerging research method is focus groups. Additional data on the findings will be presented in May.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting on May 19, 2008, in Chicago, IL.

Method: In the summer of 2004, a core group of library staff gathered to prepare the application to host the ALA/NLM traveling exhibit, “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians.” Once selected as a host site, the group reached out to a diverse mix of academic and administrative staff from across the Medical School, as well as members of the local community. This group became the formal steering committee to plan programming to accompany the exhibit, helping meet the educational and promotional goals set forth in the initial application. Some outreach events included movie nights at the public library, an essay contest for grade school students, a career day with Girl Scouts, a review of research in women’s health (WHI), etc. Promotional methods/vehicles included “save the date” postcards, flyers, posters, and coverage through area radio, television, and newspapers.

Results: Seventeen events were held in conjunction with the Library’s hosting of the exhibit. During the six-week period, approximately 60,000 individuals visited the Library, more than 750 specifically devoted to viewing the display. Two hundred people from the medical school community and the public at large attended the opening ceremony, 100 area Girl Scout members participated in multiple educational events, local middle and high school students took part in an essay contest, and more than 100 people attended book signings, film screenings, and a dramatic performance about Elizabeth Blackwell. Six groups provided financial support of the exhibit, totaling more than $7,000.

Conclusion: The exhibit encouraged new experiences for Library staff including collaboration, marketing and outreach to a wider audience. It introduced many first-time Library visitors to a valued local resource, helped develop relationships between medical school students and the public, and introduced a different and important historical perspective on medicine to all.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting on May 20, 2007, in Philadelphia, PA.

Method:The Library Director established a team to investigate institutional repository products. The team created a chart assigning weights to important criteria in order to evaluate various systems. In 2006 the Library purchased a license for ProQuest Digital Commons, a hosted system. As a manageable first project, the team focused on digitizing the 300 dissertations produced by one of the graduate schools. The intent was to populate the repository quickly, generate visibility, and gain support across the medical school. The team worked with the graduate school to develop a permissions form and a process to contact alumni. The Library Director decided to scan the dissertations in-house rather than outsource. The team made technical decisions about software and equipment for scanning and creating searchable text, using OCR technology, deciding what metadata to collect, and how to reuse data from the library’s OPAC.

Results:The project is currently well under budget. As of February 2007, more than 65% of the alumni contacted have given permission for their dissertations to be digitized. The 247 dissertations added to the repository have been downloaded more than 6300 times in just eight months. The project was profiled in the school’s internal newsletter, leading to increased visibility and interest. Another graduate school recently agreed to deposit their dissertations in the repository. Continued challenges include workflow, documenting policies and procedures, managing copyright issues, and creating a plan to market and promote the repository on campus.

Conclusion:The Library’s first digitization project has been successful due to library funding, support, and management; the skills of team members; the purchase of a hosted product; and the partnership with the graduate school. Future success will be indicated by continued funding, increased faculty and department participation, and greater campus awareness.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, on May 20, 2007.

Presented November 6, 2006, at Scanning Forum 2006 meeting, Charlottesville, VA.

Methodology (including study design, analysis, and evaluation): The UMass Medical School Women’s Faculty Committee (WFC) initiated a partnership with the medical library to compete successfully to host the traveling exhibition “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians.” Concurrent with the 6-week exhibition, fifteen events brought local and nationally prominent women together for mentoring activities, an original dramatic production, and an awards luncheon for women faculty. Women featured in the exhibit as well as its Visiting Curator spoke at UMMS about their research and career challenges, read from their published works, and were featured at graduation and a regional medical society event.

Results: Application-writing and event planning sessions forged robust working relationships among top-ranking administrators, senior and junior faculty, and staff. The exhibition increased opportunities for administration, faculty, and students to understand the impact of women in medicine, their leadership potential, and historical contributions. It also generated new mentor/mentee relationships and grant-writing collaborations. The exhibition’s national recognition helped draw a larger, more diverse and gender-balanced audience (575+ people) to the events enhancing the visibility of the WFC, as evidenced by institutional funding for women faculty to attend the AAMC WIM professional development workshops and ELAM for the first time.

Conclusion(s): Creative partnerships, motivated by the opportunity to host “Changing the Face of Medicine,” produced greater than expected gains for women faculty, generating new awareness and understanding of women’s accomplishments and leadership potential. This partnership allowed for a wide range of multi-disciplinary efforts, strengthening networking across silos, and advancing the goals of women in an academic medical center.

Presented October 29, 2006 at AAMC 2006 Annaul Meeting, Seattle, WA.

Setting/Resources: The Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts - Worcester is an academic health sciences library located in a thirty-year-old building. With funds from the President’s Office the Library was able to implement a wireless network to support laptop computing in the Library.

Brief Description: Phase I of this project is completed. Activities included selection and purchase of hardware, installation of network, development of policies and procedures, and training. The Circulation Department manages loaning, storage and maintenance, and the Reference Department provides training and support. Staff monitors usage and identifies policies and procedures that require change.

Results/Outcomes: Laptops are available for checkout to students within the Library. The wireless network has increased the total number of devices from 59 to 84 without impacting the building’s structure.

Evaluation Methods: Usage statistics and anecdotes provide library staff with positive feedback.

Presented at the Medical Library Association and the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada (CHLA/ABSC), HLA 2000 May 5-11, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Section Title: Growth and Harmony, Part 1: Innovative Solutions to Networking Issues.

1) How have advances in web technologies influenced the “look and feel” of the web site?

2) What other developments contributed to the evolution of medical library web sites?

3) How has the librarian's role in web development changed in the last ten years?

Method: Reviewing the history of the web and developments in new technology, we will note significant turning points in the design of our own library web site and that of other institutions of a similar size and mission. Using data and images from the Way Back Machine at www.archive.org we will plot how changes in technology effect: what information is presented, page layout and usability. We will examine how changes in librarianship and the “information explosion” have helped the medical library web site progress.

Results: From examining our own web site history we have determined that we were slow to implement new design technologies. Many of the technologies that were initially incorporated into the web page design improved on graphical elements at first. Improvements on layout, searching and form design soon followed. In 2000 a new underlining database structure (Cold Fusion) was added to the web site that allowed staff to better manage the large number of e-resources the Library provided. Once a full time position dedicated to web management was created our web site was able to focus on layout and usability.

Conclusion: From looking at other web sites of similar size we have determined that many Libraries web sites progressed first as an “online directory” providing basic information, to a page that started to offer services such as request forms and links to an OPAC and/or Medline, to finally a dynamic page with electronic books, journals and databases. Many institutions offer customized pages for individual users. Additional research is recommended.

Setting/Participants/Resources: The Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts is a mid-sized, academic health sciences library. The library holds a small collection of original research in genetics and reproductive studies carried out by Gregory Pincus, Sc.D., in the mid-twentieth century. The Library Systems Department and Technical Services Department worked together to obtain funding to digitize the special collection.

Brief Description: The library received funding that would allow archival material to be scanned using an outside vendor. After interviewing a number of state contractors, the library realized it would need to write a request for proposal (RFP) and bid the work to handle unique materials. At the same time, the library partnered with two other libraries in the state university system to obtain university funding that would pay salaries for a graphic editor and cataloger to process the digitized collection. In deciding how to store the images for search and retrieval, the library looked at other imaging projects already in progress in the university and chose to use the same software, Cumulus. This poster will cover the issues of defining the scope of the project, obtaining funding, choosing scanning options and formats, deciding whether to enhance images or note or to use watermarking options, dealing with cataloging and indexing issues, and evaluating the options for presenting a digital collection to the public.

Results/Outcomes: Six hundred slides have been scanned, enhanced, watermarked, cataloged, and indexed. By using Cumulus software, the collection was made available for faculty and student use.

Evaluation Method: Comments from faculty and students were gathered to determine if digitizing special collection is worth the cost and effort associated with such projects.

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX, May 19, 2002.

The first part of the presentation will explore the changing landscape of scholarly publishing such as author’s rights, open access, copyright, preservation of digital scholarly materials, and the creation of digital journals. The repository system has proven to be an effective tool in all of these areas including preserving the scholarly record. The efficiencies of a repository will be described to faculty in the context of giving them more control, visibility and a forum to share their research with colleagues and fellow researchers.

The second half will be a demonstration of the institutional digital repository software, showcasing a number of projects from each campus:

Department Collections(Amherst)
Description: More academic departments are creating scholarly materials online and need a centralized place to store, preserve, and access their journals, projects, databases and other collections. See how the UMass Amherst digital repository is providing a place to showcase this work.

Personal Researcher Pages (Amherst)
Description: Individual faculty members can easily create their own web pages to showcase their scholarly works, including journal articles, book chapters, supplemental materials in a variety of digital formats, without having to learn html. The library will ensure their long-term preservation and access.

Senior Scholars (Worcester)
Description: Through the Office of Medical Education, the Senior Scholars program encourages students to take on a research project and submit their findings to a conference. The abstracts from these research projects are being added to the repository to preserve the work and provide the students with a forum to display their work.

International Medical Education Program (Worcester)
Description: Many of the medical students spend time working abroad as part of their medical education. In order to increase access to their trip reports the Library has added the full text of trip reports, personal reflections, photos and even trip blogs. The students use the collection to search and plan future trips.

Presented April 5, 2007 at the Instructional Technology Conference: The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning: Technology & Reflective Practice, University of Massachusetts, April 5, 2007 Sturbridge, MA.