School of Medicine Library

University of South Carolina


Communications

Spring 2000


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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:

During the renovation project, the Library will make the following changes to ensure uninterrupted service to users:

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

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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

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