School of Medicine Library
University of South Carolina
Communications
Spring 2000
Table of Contents
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From the Director's Desk
by Ruth Riley
Spring greetings. At this writing, I am preparing to depart for the Annual Meeting of the
Medical Library Association, May 5-11, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Of particular
interest will be the day long symposium entitled "Dragon by the Tail: the Myth and
Reality of Electronic Journals." As you know, the Library's collection is becoming
increasingly electronic in nature. At present the Library provides access to over 100
electronic textbooks and 400 electronic journals from its web page.
The Library recently completed its 2000-2001 Strategic Plan with the assistance of the
Library Committee. A draft of the plan was provided to the School of Medicine
Executive Committee and made available on the Library's web page for comment. The
Library faculty and staff are already starting to move ahead on many of the strategic
initiatives. Please take a minute to review the plan on the Library's web page (http://uscm.med.sc.edu/LIBRARY/PLAN.SHTML). I welcome your continued comments and ideas on the
plan.
Speaking of the Library Committee, let me take this opportunity to thank this year's
committee members for their service to date. Chair, Kim Creek (Pathology/Pediatrics),
Joel Atance (Graduate Student), Margaret Hunt (Microbiology/Immunology), Laura
Kane (Library), Suzanne McDermott (Family & Preventive Medicine), James McNamee
(Computer & Communication Resources), Anna-Kathryn Rye (Medical Student),
Margaret Shugart (Neuropsychiatry & Behavioral Science), and Gail Whitman-Elia
(Obstetrics & Gynecology). The Library Committee roster and meeting minutes are
available for viewing on the Library's web page under Library Information.
As noted in a later article in this issue, the Library will likely be renovating
the first floor this summer. Pending the receipt of acceptable bids in mid-May,
renovation will begin in early June and likely extend into early September. The
Library faculty and staff will be working earnestly to provide as near to normal as
possible service on the second floor throughout the summer. I thank you in advance for
your patience during the renovation work. We will be providing regular renovation
updates on our web page to keep you apprised of the progress on the project.
I have almost completed my meetings with the department chairs. I do appreciate their
willingness to invite me to their departmental faculty meetings and grand rounds and
allow me to talk about the Library's resources and services. Overall, I am hearing very
positive comments about the Library. The primary concerns voiced to date are the
inadequate book and journal holdings to support the School of Medicine's educational
and research missions and lack of access to some of the Library's electronic resources
for some faculty and departments housed on the Palmetto Richland campus. These
are both high priority areas of focus in the Library's 2000-2001 strategic plan.
Ruth Riley
Director of Library Services
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Library Renovations
Although the Library's resources are becoming increasingly electronic and accessible
from users' offices and homes, it is vital that the Library's physical space remain a
comfortable and inviting place for users to study individually and in groups, interact with
colleagues, conduct research, browse the collection, and participate in classes in how
to use the Library's resources. With the support of the School of Medicine
administration and pending the receipt of acceptable bids from contractors in mid-May,
renovation of the Library's first floor will begin in early June. The renovation will result
in the following changes:
- The main entrance of the Library will be relocated to the Garners Ferry Road side
of the building, adjoining School of Medicine Buildings 1 and 4.
- The Library's space will expand into the adjoining hallways on the first floor of the
building.
- The computer classroom will move from the second floor to the first floor.
- The circulation desk will be relocated and redesigned to include a reference desk
area that will be regularly staffed by Library faculty and staff for those users needing
reference assistance.
- Numerous cosmetic improvements will include painting and new ceilings, lighting,
and carpet.
During the renovation project, the Library will make the following changes to ensure
uninterrupted service to users:
- The main entrance will be relocated to the second floor. Users will enter the library
on the second floor via the lobby elevator and stairwell.
- The computer classroom on the second floor will be opened up for general use.
- The circulation desk will be relocated to the second floor.
- The book collection will be placed in temporary storage. The Library will provide
complimentary interlibrary loan (ILL) service for books during this time.
- Library staff offices will be relocated to the second and third floors of the building.
The construction is likely to be noisy and disruptive in general to users. We will be
pushing to have construction completed as early as possible to minimize disruption to
services during the fall semester. We thank you in advance for your patience and
tolerance as we complete these important improvements to the Library's environment.
We'll be providing regular updates on the Library's web page to keep you updated on
the status of the renovation.
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Getting to Know
You....
The School of Medicine Library newsletter is introducing a new "staff spotlight" feature
designed to help students and faculty members get to know more about the SOM
Library staff. The SOM Library is divided into six departments: Administration,
Reference, Circulation, Cataloging & Acquisitions, Serials, and Interlibrary Loan. In the
last issue, readers were introduced to Ruth Riley, the school's new Director of Library
Services. This month we'd like to introduce Mary Helen Sinclair, Administrative
Assistant to the Director, and general "keeper of the library!"
Ms. Sinclair has been with the University system and the School of Medicine for 21
years. In March, she received her 20-year service pin for all her hard work and
dedication to the library. A valuable asset to the library, Ms. Sinclair has worked in the
serials, cataloging & acquisitions, and circulation departments. As Administrative
Assistant, she is responsible for managing the materials and operating budget for the
library, assisting with the overall operation of the library, coordinating personnel
matters, and preparing statistical reports. A native of Manning, S.C., Ms. Sinclair
enjoys gardening, snow skiing, playing bridge, taking care of her pet boxer, Priss, and
working as an interior designer. She is married to Darby B. Hiott, owner of Brandt-Andrew
Furnishings.
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Electronic Resources
News
Electronic
Textbooks
Over 90 new electronic textbooks have been added to the E-Textbooks
section of the Library's home page. These textbooks have been made available to the
general public from various publisher and academic web sites. They have been
reviewed for informational integrity and relevance to the Library's collection and are
arranged by subject. To access these textbooks, click on "E-Textbooks" under the
heading "Electronic Resources" on our home page http://uscm.med.sc.edu/LIBRARY/LIBRARY.SHTML
Please check the E-Textbooks page periodically. We will be adding new titles on an
ongoing basis. If you're using Netscape, remember to clear your memory and disk
cache in order to see the most recent version of the web page (contact Ed Sperr at 733-3347 for more information on
how to do this).
If you frequently use our online catalog, SCarlit, you will be pleased to know that we are
in the process of adding hotlinks directly to the electronic textbooks from the catalog. If
you encounter any problems with this process, please call Laura Kane at 733-3352.
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New Workstations!
The Library has installed four new public workstations in the computing area on the first
floor. The workstations include 17" monitors and 500 MHz processors. We hope that
these new workstations will impove our user's access to the Library's numerous
electronic information resources.
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Highwire Press Offers Free Fulltext
to 148,000 Articles
Highwire Press from Stanford University (http://highwire.stanford.edu) announced a
month ago that 53 of the 200 journals it publishes will allow free fulltext access,
not for the most recent issues, but for title backfiles. Each title
offers its own free backfile time frames, starting with some titles as soon as issues are
only 11 months old, up to five years old for other titles. Titles offering free backfiles are
listed on the SOM
journal webpage.
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PUBMED Links with MDConsult
Journals!
If you are a PUBMED user you may have noticed that there are now links to all articles
appearing in the journals offered by MDConsult. SOM users will be asked to enter their
MDConsult username/password and, after doing so, the system will link you directly to
the desired article text.
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RETRACTION
The PUBMED Clipboard allows addition of up to 500 citations. It was previously
reported in the newsletter that the Clipboard allowed only 50 citations.
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Staff News
- The library faculty recently provided a series of lectures on Computers in Medicine
for ten M-4 students during Capstone Week, April 10-14. The lectures and instructors
included Microsoft PowerPoint (Victor Jenkinson & Laura Kane), Advanced MEDLINE
and PUBMED (Sarah Gable), Fulltext Journal Resources (Karen Rosati), and Medical
Web Sites (Ed Sperr & Ruth Riley).
- Laura Kane and Victor Jenkinson taught sessions on PowerPoint and Adobe
Acrobat in a TEC workshop for faculty on April 26, 2000.
- Sarah Gable has been promoted to the position of Associate Director/Head of
Public Services.
- Karen Rosati was appointed to the Thomas Cooper Library/University Libraries
Electronic Resources Forum.
- Ruth Riley was elected Secretary of the Consortium of Biomedical Libraries in the
South at the consortium's spring retreat. She has also been appointed ot the Future
Leadership for Academic Health Sciences Libraries Task Force of the Association of
Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL).
- Laura Kane has become a participant in CORC, a national effort to create a
database of web resources.
- Rhonda Green has resigned to take a position at DHEC.
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Library Departments
Administration (Director, Ruth Riley): |
733-3350 |
Circulation (Head, Victor Jenkinson): |
733-3344 |
Reference (Head, Sarah Gable): |
733-3351 |
Cataloging (Head, Laura Kane): |
733-3352 |
Acquisitions (Head, Laura Kane): |
733-3352 |
Serials (Head, Karen Rosati): |
733-3355 |
Systems (Head, Ed Sperr): |
733-3347 |
Interlibrary Loan (Head, Sarah Gable): |
733-3347 |
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Library Hours and General Information
Hours:
Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. to midnight
Saturday - 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday - 1 p.m. to midnight
Telephone Number: (803) 733-3344
Fax Number: (803) 733-1509
Address:
School of Medicine Library
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
Home Page:
http://uscm.med.sc.edu/LIBRARY/LIBRARY.SHTML
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Newsletter Committee
- Karen Rosati, Chair
- Lisa Antley-Hearn
- Victor Jenkinson
- Laura Kane
- Carol Witzell
For comments or suggestions regarding the newsletter, please call Karen
Rosati at
733-3355.
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Report any problems to Lisa Antley-Hearn,
epeake@med.sc.edu
This page updated on 26 June 2000.
This page copyright 2000, The Board of Trustees of the University of South
Carolina.
URL: http://uscm.med.sc.edu/LIBRARY/COM21.SHTML