European Association for Health Information and Libraries ...Thinking Globally - Acting Locally: Medical libraries at the Turn of an Era 8th European Conference for Medical and Health

1EAHIL NEWSLETTER TO EUROPEAN HEALTH LIBRARIANS, FEBRUARY 2002, NO 58

European Associationfor Health Informationand Libraries

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iansFebruary 2002 • No 58

The production of this Newsletter was made possible by the generous sponsorship of:

• EBSCO INFORMATION SERVICES, Aalsmeer, The Netherlands

• ROWECOM, France

• SWETS BLACKWELL, Lisse, The Netherlands

Groß St. Martin (© Koeln Tourismus)

Die Romanische Kirche überragt die Altstadt. The Roman Church in the Old City of Cologne.

EAHIL NEWSLETTER TO EUROPEAN HEALTH LIBRARIANS, FEBRUARY 2002, NO 582


Newsletter To European Health Librarians

Dear Everyone,

A very happy and successful 2002 to you all. In Romania we had awonderful white Christmas with temperatures of minus 20-25othroughout the festive period. Since then it has got a little warmeraveraging minus 10-12o but spring is a long way away yet.Newsletter 58 has some very interesting articles and I would like to thankeveryone who worked so hard to do this. The authors of the articles inHighlight on…Poland have demonstrated that their medical library andinformation network is one of, or possibly the most, developed in theformer Eastern European countries. A new feature entitled OurProfession has attracted an excellent study by Benoit Thirion and IoanaRobu on a current question today. Our regular contributors Eve-MarieLacroix , Giovanna Miranda and Constantin Cazan continue to offer avery high standard of medical library information.

I am also delighted to state that already I have a cache of promisedarticles for the next issue and as any Editor will tell you, this is anexcellent way to start a new year. Therefore I thought I would outline theNewsletter deadlines for 2002/2003 and a list of the already establishedHighlight on features.(You will notice that I have added extra time for the deadline for theNovember issue 2002 because of the date of the EAHIL Conference andalso for issue 64 because of the EAHIL Workshop in Oslo.)

At this point I also would be grateful for any further offers\suggestionsfor European countries that we could feature in the Highlight on…inissues 62 and 63 of the EAHIL Newsletter. I am sure you will agree thatwe have all learnt a great deal about our European colleagues throughthese past features.

Lastly I would like to ask you all totry and find a little time this year toparticipate in some of thediscussions that the Newsletterarticles strive to initiate.Unfortunately rarely does theEditorial Board receive anyresponses and for those that do takethe time to write these articles I feelit would encourage morecontributions if members didforward their opinions. As I have

said before there is no need for an essay, an e-mail message would begratefully received. These then can be arranged under the headingComments on….

I look forward to hearing from you all in 2002.

Sally Wood-Lamont

ISSN 1011-8454 No 58 February 2002

Newsletter To European Health Librarians

NEWSLETTER DEADLINE HIGHLIGHT ON….

No. 59- May 2002 30 Mar 2002 ITALY

No. 60- Aug 2002 30 Jun 2002 CZECH REPUBLIC

No. 61- Nov 2002 7 Oct 2002 8th EAHIL CONF. COLOGNE

No. 62- Feb 2003 7 Jan 2003 ??

No. 63- May 2003 30 Mar 2003 ??

No. 64- Aug 2003 14 Jul 2003 NORDIC-BALTIC EAHILWORKSHOP, OSLO


Highlight on.... Poland

13 The Status of Medical LibrariesEdward Pigon & Roslawa Ran-Rokicka

14 Conferences of Polish Medical LibrariesDagmara Budek & Jadwiga Plichta

Our Profession

10-12 Too many Discussion Lists?Benoit Thirion & Ioana Robu

9 The Question of Continuing EducationMarta Viragos

From Our Association

8 EAHIL News

9 News from EVLGTom Roper

Invitation to Cologne 6-7 8th European Conference of Medical and Health LibrariesCologne, Germany, September 16th - 21st, 2002

From Our Colleagues

21 From MLAEve-Marie Lacroix

Conference report 17 Italian Libraries AssociationManuela Colombi

Conference report 18-20 AGMB 2001 in HamburgUrsel Lux

From our column editors

INTERNET PAGE 22 Constantin Cazan

PUBLICATIONS AND 23-24 Giovanna F. MirandaNEW PRODUCTS

FORTHCOMING EVENTS 25

Table of Contents.....Table of Contents.....


Letter from the PresidentLetter from the President

Call to Köln

The first day back in the office after the Christmas break is never thehappiest day of the year — and this is particularly so in the UK wheremost people manage an extended holiday encompassing Christmas andthe New Year. This year, though, despite a horribly icy morning and linesof buses huddling motionless together for warmth like penguins, therewas one optimistic ray of sunshine: a report from Oliver Obst of the Kölnconference’s programme committee and a draft programme.

Our biennial conference remains EAHIL’s single most important activity;putting it together and making it work must be the worst and most nerve-shredding responsibility we can ask a member to take on. For the Kölnmeeting Oliver has gathered together an enthusiastic and experiencedteam which met just before Christmas in order to review the submittedpapers and to put together the invited speaker programme. By the timethis appears in print, the selected speakers should have confirmed that

they will be attending, and something approaching the finalprogramme should be available on the conference web site atwww.zbmed.de/eahil2002/ .

The scientific programme is, of course, the heart of our conferencesand workshops and in terms of quality and innovation our EAHILmeetings can bear comparison with the equivalent events in theother regions of the world. Another source of pleasure, though, isthe way that the structure and atmosphere of succeeding EAHILconferences has succeeded in reflecting the culture and

professional traditions of each host country in turn. In contrast, forexample, to the Eurovision Song Contest which always seems to reduceour amazing cultural diversity to an endless string of nonsense syllables!Köln will be no exception since many aspects of the conference(especially and most significantly the registration fee) will reflect theGerman professional tradition of keeping costs to a minimum and givingprimacy to the quality of the presentations.

Personally, I am very much looking forward to our Eighth conference: thevenue is excellent, the programme is as strong as any we have seen inprevious years, and above all Köln is a brilliantly young and exciting city.I look forward to seeing you there.

To conclude, I must say how much I have enjoyed reading preprints ofthe articles on medical librarianship in Poland. For the past twelve yearsthe BMA library has been twinned with the Glowna Biblioteka Lekarska(the central medical library in Warsaw), providing a back-up to theirnational document delivery service. This issue provides further evidencethat our profession is developing apace in Eastern and Central Europe.

Tony McSeán

Looking forward to see you all in:

KölnCologne

ColoniaKeulen

IPC meeting in Cologne, December

2001:From left to right: Rüdiger

Schneemann, Manuela Colombi,

Johnny Carlsson, Helena Bouzkova,

Ulrich Korwitz, Friedhelm Rump,

Oliver Obst, Anna Schlosser,

John van Loo (Not in this picture:

Suzanne Bakker, Peter Morgan)


EAHIL ConferenceEAHIL Conference

More than one year before the conference centre opens its doors, theLocal Organising Committee (LOC) has been founded. 15 employeesfrom the German National Library of Medicine are taking care ofeverything necessary in this preparatory stage of the conference:preparation of programme and exhibitor brochures, acquisition ofsponsors, booking of hotel options, of excursions and sightseeing events,planning of the conference dinner party and the catering. The conferenceweb page has been designed and requires weekly updates. Financing hasto be secured, bank accounts have to be opened and even matters oftaxation have to be considered. During the hot phase of the conferencepreparations the LOC will be augmented to secure a successfulconference.

On behalf of the LOC and IPC we would like to invite you cordially toparticipate in the EAHIL Conference 2002 in Cologne. Come to Cologneand see and hear the most recent developments in medical, pharmaceuticaland veterinary information and library science in theory and practice!Meet colleagues from all over Europe and overseas and share theirexperiences and opinions. And see the city of Cologne and feel itsspecific lifestyle. Cologne is one of the eldest Roman settlements north ofthe Alps. It has been a centre of Catholicism and Romanesquearchitecture in the Middle Ages and is a focal point of Modern Art andMedia development nowadays.

Since Alghero the International ProgrammeCommittee (IPC), which consisted of 19 librariansfrom 14 countries, have worked intensively togetheron the Call for Papers, the evaluation of the submitted

abstracts, and the programme schedule for the conference. Thanks to alively email discussion list and a web-based submission and scoringdatabase, the preliminary programme was able to be fixed at a meeting inDecember 2001 in Cologne. From 114 abstracts, 54 submissionsrepresenting 22 countries were chosen for oral presentation. Look for thecomplete conference programme in the next EAHIL Newsletter or in theprogramme brochure which will be sent out in February. A registrationform will be attached to the brochure.

Ulrich KorwitzChair Local Organising Committee

Oliver ObstChair International Programme Committee

Thinking Globally - Acting Locally: Medical libraries at the Turn of an Era

8th European Conference for Medical and Health Libraries, Cologne, September 16-21, 2002E-Mail: [email protected]

The members of the LOC. From left

to right: Lydia Messing, Angelika

Walckhoff, Albert Sawatzky, Annette

Wölflinger, Simone Haas, Ulrich

Korwitz, Uta Heinecke, Kai Heßling,

Claudia Grimm, Stefan Schulte-

Hermann, Helmut Schmitz, Cornelia

Langer (Not in this picture: Luiza

Alonso-Ferreira, Jürgen Gärtner,

Christiane Haage)

ZBMed Cologne

And have a regular look at the conference website(http://www.zbmed.de/eahil2002)Bookmarking this URL will be very useful.


Cologne, September 16-21, 2001Cologne, September 16-21, 2001

Ulrich Korwitz and Eahil Executive Board

(January 2002) From left to right: Meile Kretaviciene,

Marta Viragos, Ulrich Korwitz, Linda Lisgarten,

Arne Jakobsson, Tony McSeán

Conference Extra:For early birds:Members and non-members of EAHIL can benefitby registering for the conference BEFORE APRIL15th. Registration fees for the conference (includingcoffee, tea, lunches and the conference dinner): forEAHIL members EUR 250 (early registration),EUR 300 (registration after April 15th) for non-members EUR 320 (early registration), EUR 370(registration after April 15th)

The preliminary programme, including an overviewof the plenary and parallel sessions and a two-and-a-half day programme of continuing educationcourses, will be sent out soon. In addition allinformation related to the conference will bepublished on the web; please bookmark http://www.zbmed.de/eahil2002/index.html and checkthe conference site for the latest information.


News from our AssociationNews from our Association

EAHIL Council

We are pleased to announce that MrsMaureen Forrest has agreed to replaceMs Gay Davis as the UK EAHILCouncil member for the duration ofwhat would have been Gay’s term ofoffice. Maureen is a very well known,active and respected UK medicallibrarian, and is currently ClairnsLibrarian at the John Radcliffe OxfordHospital at Oxford.

At December 17/18 the IPC met atCologne and decided finally aboutsubmitted papers. There were 114submissions, 80 for oral and 34 forposters. The IPC ended up with 55accepted oral presentations, where allcountries that submitted are representedand 58 posters.

Membership lists:In order to further reduce costs for theAssociation it has been decided thatcorrespondence and mailings to EAHILmembers both from the Board andSecretariat will be by electronic mail.In the coming month you can expect toreceive a PDF-version of themembership list. Please make sure thatyou have a correct and up-to-date e-mail address for EAHIL Secretariat,otherwise you may risk missingimportant news about the association.If you have not received an e-mail withthe 2002 membership list from theEAHIL secretariat by April 1st pleasesend a request to:[email protected]

Future events:

All members interested in organizing an EAHILevent (workshop or conference) in the near future(2005-2010) are invited to send their proposal tothe Executive Board before August 1st, 2002.Such a proposal must include:- name(s) of organizer(s)

(chair of local organizing committee andco-workers)

- institution(s) or group(s) responsible for finances and organization- expertise available- conference venue, place and possible dates- number of participants (expected/maximum capacity)- constituants of the programme- accommodation (hotel, restaurants, course rooms, lecture halls)

available- budget proposal (estimated pricing cf. 2002 price level)

EAHIL elections:Candidates wishing to stand for election as President or a Board member areinvited to contact the Election Committee (René Mertens & Oliver Obst) c/oEAHIL Secretariat, Plompetorengracht 11, 3512 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands,fax: +31.30.231 1830, e-mail: [email protected].

New Members:We welcome the following colleagues joining EAHIL in the last few months:• Lynette Cawthra, King’s Fund Information & Library Service, London, UKand from Italy:• Gaetana Cognetti, Istituto Regina Elena, Roma• Christina Ferri, Istituto Zooprofilattic Lazio e

Toscana, Roma• Saba Motta, Istituto Neurologica C. Besta, Roma• Enrica Veronesi, Fac. Di Medicina e Chirurgia/

Universita, Bresciaand form Istituto Superiore di Sanita:• Paola Ferrari• Paola de Castro• Laetizia Putti• Elisabetta Poltronieri

IPC in Cologne,December 2001

IPC in Cologne,December 2001

EAHIL Executive Board and IPC meetings took placein Cologne at the Zentral Bibliothek fuer Medizinenjoying the generous hospitality of Ulrich Korwitz.Staff members of ZBMed are very much involved inorganizing the conference. They are doing a greatjob! We all look forward to meet them again duringthe conference in September.

Board meeting in Cologne, January 2002


News from our AssociationNews from our Association

Can We Move A Step Further With The Question Of CME?

We are living in an age of unprecedented change. It is the time when informationhas become an increasingly valuable commodity and the means of accessing thatinformation is tied to rapid developments in technology. The question inevitablyarises how library staff can cope in such a shifting environment? This is a matterthat has serious ramifications for the profession.Continuing Education is a concept which can be defined in more than one way.Firstly, it could be defined as educational activities leading to an academic degree.The intention of being engaged in such activities maybe the means of gainingprofessional development. Secondly, it could be defined as educational activitiesprimarily designed to keep practising librarians and informational professionalsabreast of their particular domain in their respective library or information centreand a way of offering them supplementary training in new fields. In the latter case,the ultimate objective of continuing education is to improve library andinformation services.

Individual librarians are responsible fortheir own professional developmentand the Internet access gives eachlibrarian a platform for individualexpression, thus opening newopportunities for professionaldevelopment and collaboration, inaddition to the personal developmentbenefits gained by experiencing otherperspectives. A good example of this isthe use of listservers and WWW sitesfor special library groups.

The White Paper ”Towards theLearning Society” (Commission of theEuropean Communities, 1995)acknowledges the importance of

education and training in Europe in aperiod of rapid change. Within thisbroad context, the aim of this paper isto stress the significance of continuingeducation for the individual and tosuggest that developments ininformation technology inevitably tendto encourage more open approaches tolearning.

Health sciences librarians, like otherprofessionals, function under animplicit public assumption that theireducation will be continuous so long asthey are employed in informationservice. Our international partnerinstitution, the Medical Library

News from EVLG

The next focus for European Veterinary Libraries Group activity is the veterinary contribution to this autumn’s EAHILconference in Köln. Friedhelm Rump of the Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover Bibliothek, and EVLG Treasurer serves onthe programme committee. We understand that several papers with a veterinary content have been accepted and we lookforward to a scientifically and socially stimulating time in Germany. We look forward to meeting colleagues again, boththose in our own animal health subject area and in the wider biomedical information community.

The Köln conference will also provide a springboard for the organisation of the Fourth International Conference of AnimalHealth Information Specialists (4ICAHIS). The first ICAHIS took place in Reading, UK in 1992, the second in Copenhagen,Denmark in 1997 and the Third as part of the remarkably successful ICML8 in London in 2000. Details for 4ICAHIS are notyet finalised, but one possibility is a meeting in Budapest, Hungary, hosted by our colleagues at Veterinary Science Libraryof the Szent István University.

Our electronic list, EVLG-L, kindly hosted for us by the Karolinska Institute Library continues to grow and we also maintainclose contact with our US and other colleagues around the world.

Tom Roper

Association has been involved incontinuing education activities for thepast few years.At the council meeting of the 2001EAHIL Workshop in Alghero , Italy,it was decided that the Associationwould encourage and take initiatives ingenerating organised frameworks forcontinuing education projects on aEuropean scale. At the moment, as wesee it, the most essential task is toincrease the level of consciousness andefficiency of those involved in thismultinational program.

Marta Viragos


About our ProfessionAbout our Profession

TOO MANY DISCUSSION LISTS FOR HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIANS ?

Benoit Thirion (1) & Ioana Robu (2)

(1) Medical Library of the University Hospital Centre of Rouen, France

(2) Central Library of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The initial objective of this brief study was to see whether the number of “cross-postings” to the discussion lists for healthsciences librarians represented a real problem. Certain messages are indeed sent to two or more lists, according to theimportance attached to them by their authors. We wanted to examine this further by assessing the degree of overlapping inthese lists.

In the first stage a message was sent toMEDLIB-L on 30 November 2001with the aim to complete the number oflistservs already known. It was anexcellent move because with the helpof the MEDLIB-L members thenumber increased from 12 to 52.1

Through messages exchanged with thelist coordinators and commands sent tothe listservs we obtained theinformation regarding the numbers ofsubscribers to most of these lists.Seeing that the number of such listswas much higher than initially thought,it became obvious that the study couldnot be carried out in an exhaustivemanner, firstly because of the mass ofinformation to be processed and secondout of respect for the people receivingthe messages of this survey, who,indeed were at risk of receiving anoverwhelming number of copies.Therefore the decision was made toselect only the most general andrepresentative lists of a country orlanguage, in terms of the numbers ofmembers (Table 1). The a prioriassumption was that this limitationwould not alter the final resultssignificantly, as the general lists wouldinclude most of the subscribers to themore specialized lists.

During the first week of December2001 a message was sent to all the 12study lists by ourselves or by the listcoordinators, requesting all memberssubscribing to more than one of these12 to send a short reply specifying towhich lists they currently subscribe.2

Out of the total of 149 answersreceived, only 73 could be included inthe study, the remainder being frompeople subscribing to only one list or tolists other than the ones selected.The results were introduced manually,as the responses arrived, into a table/matrix, generated with theMicrosoftExcel (Table.2). The figuresin the highlighted cells, i.e. the crossingof the column and row of the same list,represent the number of subscribers tothat particular list, e.g. there were 25people stating they subscribed toCANMEDLIB-L. The figures in theother cells represent the number ofpeople subscribing to both the listscrossing at a particular cell, e.g. therewere 4 people stating they subscribedboth to CANMEDLIB-L and EAHIL-L. In other words, one person with asubscription to, for example, two lists,CANMEDLIB-L and EAHIL-L, wasrecorded in 3 cells, the 2 highlightedones, representing the lists as such andin another one, at the crossing of thetwo lists.

The proportion of members of one listalso subscribing to another list wasvery low (see calculated percentages inTable 3), the highest by far being in thecase of the EAHIL-L. The overlappingwas not significant either, the highestvalue being recorded betweenCANMEDLIB-L and MEDLIB-L.Translated into percentages, in relationto the total number of members of eachlist, this would mean that only 0.79%of Medlibbers also subscribe to

CANMEDLIB-L and 3.42% ofCanmedlibbers also subscribe toMEDLIB-L.

The extremely low figures are due ofcourse to the low response rate, andthere could be a number of reasons forthis: (a) our colleagues are too busymost of the time to respond to thesesurveys; (b) lack of interest in thesubject; (c) the presentation was notclear. However, a quick check of thesubscribers to MEDLIB-L whose emailaddress had the country code “.FR”yielded a total number of 2 (two), whilethe number of “.FR” addresses onBIBLIOSANTE, the French languagelist is 300! It was the same with the“.UK” addresses, which represent themajority of the 1195 subscribers to LISMEDICAL, but only 19 of MEDLIB-L. Therefore it cannot be ruled out thatthe small number of responses might,after all, reflect the real situation.A more thorough and in-depth studywould be to compare the names/addresses subscribing to these lists, butthis was far beyond the scope of thisstudy and it would involve a lot moretime. The offer remains open!

On the other hand, the meaningfulaspect of this study came through thecontent of the messages received. Inour eyes this was in the end moreimportant than the degree of listsoverlapping, and it refers to theaudience of MEDLIB-L among themembers of our professionalcommunity, given the fact that certain



information posted to MEDLIB-L andonly to MEDLIB-L is of majorimportance to us all.

A number of librarians have told usthey terminated their subscriptions withMEDLIB-L because of the greatnumber of messages. Others share thisworkload within their own community.Thus, Rhonda Mayberry, FremantleHospital and Health Service, WesternAustralia, in her quality of “list-mom”,selects for her list the importantmessages from MEDLIB-L: “I am onboth the aliahealth list and also themedlib-l list. As the list owner onaliahealth I read medlib-l and forwardon any postings that may be of interestto health librarians in Australia. Thisthen means that all the other healthlibrarians in Australia do not need to beon medlib-l. A colleague is oncanmedlib and lis-medical and theevidence based ones and forwardsanything of interest onto aliahealth.”Others do the same within their library,sharing the reading of messages thatseem important.

A remarkable achievement was that ofSylvia Patrick from LIS-MEDICAL,who was sending out weekly digests toall its members, making a copy also forthe German language list, MEDIBIB-L.This started in September 2000 butstopped unfortunately in June 20013

We have no knowledge of any similarsystematic action on any of the listswhose archives are available:BIBLIOSANTE (French),BIOMEDBIB (Dutch), CANMEDLIB-L, EAHIL, MEDBIBL (Scandinavian)or MEDIBIB (German).

It seems therefore very likely, which israther disturbing, that a large number ofour colleagues overlook someimportant information, and it does notappear that the situation will improve.No one doubts that a synthesis (inprogress on the 7th of December 2001)of the responses to a question regardingthe subscription to electronic alertservices with abstracts will be ofinterest to most of us. And no one willdoubt that the appearance of an articleon PubMed and electronic publishingin BMJ should be known which is truefor all the news regarding PubMed orMEDLINE.

What could we do to be betterinformed ? A careful, knowledgeableand rigorous selection, performedweekly and sent as one message to allthese lists or to their coordinators,would be enough to keep us to datewith what is important. It is not difficultto recognize the messages of generalinterest. On the other hand, it is ofgeneral interest to be distributedwidely. If Sylvia Patrick does not returnto her initiative, the position is open. Ifshe does, perhaps it is not too much toask her to make copies to other lists aswell.

Going back to our initial objective, itseems obvious that “cross-postings” donot represent a real danger, at least notacross (sic) the discussion lists forhealth sciences librarians. It might bethat a number of our colleaguesworldwide also subscribe to discussionlists for mainstream librarianship andinformation science or for health careas such, which also include, of course,pertinent information which then is

passed onto our more specialized lists.This fact may better explain the “Sorryfor cross-posting..” messagessometimes seen, on MEDLIB-Lespecially.

We would like to warmly thank all ourcolleagues for their help with thisinvestigation.

1. A complete updated list is to be found at: http://www.chu-rouen.fr/documed/lis.html#medlist

2. The text of the message may be found at:http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi?bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0112&L=lis?medical&F=&S=&P=1048

3. The last address: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi?bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0106&L=lis?medical&F=&S=&P=8911

Table 3. Percentage of list memberswho subscribed to more than theirown list

LISTS Total %no.

Ahila-net 200 3.5

aliaHEALTH 341 3.22

BIB_MED 491 0.81

BIBLIOMED 87 2.29

Bibliosante 406 3.94

BIOMEDBIB 139 2.15

CANMEDLIB-L 496 5.04

EAHIL-L 193 13.47

LIS-MEDICAL UK 1195 2.09

MEDBIBL 318 2.83

MEDIBIB-L 323 1.54

MEDLIB-L 2133 2.20



Table 1. Discussion lists included in the study and the number of membersNOTE: The list of URLs may be viewed at http://www.chu-rouen.fr/documed/lis.html#medlist

Lists Association Number of members

Ahila-net Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa 200

aliaHEALTH Health Libraries Australia 341

BIB-MED Documentación en Medicina en Ciencias de la Salud 491

BIBLIOMED Bibliotecas Biomedicas Argentinas 87

BIBLIOSANTE French language medical librarians 406

BIOMEDBIB Medical Libraries of The Netherlands 139

CANMEDLIB-L Canadian Medical Libraries 496

EAHIL-L European Association for Health Information and Libraries 193

LIS-MEDICAL UK medical libraries 1195

MEDBIBL Scandinavian Medical Librarians 318

MEDIBIB-L German Medical Librarians 323

MEDLIB-L Medical Library Association 2133

Table 2. Number of subscribers to the lists included in the study

LISTS (AN) (AH) (BM) (BLM) (BS) (BMB) (CAN) (EAH) (LISM) MED MEDI MED No. totalBIBL BIB-L LIB-L d�abonnes

Ahila-net (AN) 6 3 1 2 3 2 200

aliaHEALTH (AH) 11 1 2 4 10 341

BIB_MED (BM) 4 2 1 1 491

BIBLIOMED (BLM) 2 87

BIBLIOSANTE (BS) 16 8 4 2 6 406

BIOMEDBIB (BMB) 3 2 2 139

CANMEDLIB-L (CAN) 25 4 5 1 17 496

EAHIL-L (EAH) 26 10 6 1 14 193

LIS-MEDICAL UK (LISM) 25 4 1 17 1195

MEDBIBL 9 1 1 318

MEDIBIB-L 5 4 323

MEDLIB-L 47 2133


Highlight on... PolandHighlight on... Poland

The number of health care staff inPoland amounts to over 34,0000employees working for all types ofhealth care institutions plus ca. 80000students. The network of medicallibraries comprises the Central MedicalLibrary together with 16 regionalbranches and 12 University medicallibraries which also have theirdepartmental sites, 20 libraries frommedical sciences institutes and over200 small libraries at hospitals, healthspas etc. Moreover several medicallibraries are working for the PolishAcademy of Sciences andgovernmental departments of defence,administration, transportation andothers. This is the network fulfilling theinformation needs and deliveringlibrary services to Polish health carestaff and students.At most of the medical scientificlibraries, automated library systems areinstalled, mainly HORIZON, ALEPH,VTLS (VIRTUA), PROLIB. Thesesystems work for local networks ofuniversities and medical institutes etc.Those libraries’ OPAC catalogues andother local databases are also availablevia Internet home pages. The NationalUniversal Central Catalogue (NUKAT)was created in Poland by manyscientific libraries of different fieldscooperating with The Department ofFormat and Authority Files inWarsaw’s University Library. NUKATwill be a source of ready-to-usebibliographic records and willaccelerate cataloging procedures, lowercosts, and should make easier catalogueretroconversion. Bibliographicinformation in medical libraries inPoland is available online or on CDROM’s using most of the worldwide

The Status of Medical Libraries in Poland

Edward Pigon and Roslawa Ran-Rokicka, Central Medical Library [email protected]

Biomedical science development, mass input of clinical data, introduction of new drugs and technologies, medical education,changes and transformation of health care structures, along with topical and reliable information in line with evidence basedmedicine are just some of the new fields confronting efficient medical information searches and supply in medical librariestoday. Medical libraries in Poland are striving to address these tasks in which new computer technology is assisting but poorfinancial resources is the principal problem.

medical databases such as MEDLINE,EMBASE, CURRENT CONTENTSLife Science and Clinical Medicine, theCOCHRANE LIBRARY, CINAHL andmany others.Polish medical literature, which is onlypartly represented in the internationaldatabases, is fully indexed in the PolishMedical Bibliography whoseheadquarters have been at the CentralMedical Library since 1979. The PolishMedical Bibliography databasecontains 260,000 bibliographic records.The Tezaurus Medyczny (MedicalThesaurus) database which is thePolish version of MeSH, cooperateswith PMB, controlling subject headingsinput and information searching tools.At the same time all of the medicallibraries universities and institutes runtheir own bibliographic databaseswhich complete the Polish MedicalBibliography.Polish medical literature iscontinuously under bibliometricanalysis. The publication and authordata provided by medical libraries forthe Central Medical Library areanalysed in conjunction with theScience Citation Index and SC JournalCitation Reports’ Impact Factor lists.The results of the bibliometric analysishave become the base evaluation ofPolish medical society activity and areused by the Ministry of HealthDepartment of Science in the decisionmaking process regarding distributionof grants.When it comes to quick access to fulltext documents, information on thelocation of the library collection is avery important factor. The CentralMedical Library together with others,maintain the Union Catalogue of

Foreign Journals whereby data on thosejournals are added to the UnionCatalogue Foreign Journals databasevia Internet by 57 medical libraries inthe country. This database includesover 3700 journal titles, over 1000supplements and is available on theCML’s home page.The UCFJ database in addition ensuresmore efficient interlibrary loans.However for medical library users,quick access to many necessarydocuments is still a problem. As asolution, Poznan Medical UniversityLibrary has established a nationalelectronic document delivery system,which is customised according to thespecific medical libraries in thecountry. The system enables quicklocalization and access to journalarticles offering a 48 hour service.Articles from journals unavailable inPolish libraries are ordered throughforeign documents supply services asSubito or direct cooperation partners.For a number of years Polish medicallibraries have had online access tomany full text journal databasesservices thanks to EBSCO SubscriptionService, Swets Blackwell and others,which strengthen individual libraryinformation performance and enablequick and easy access to necessarydocuments.For many years medical libraries inPoland have had their own journal“Biuletyn GBL”, (The CML Bulletin)issued twice a year consisting ofarticles, reports, conferences papersetc. demonstrating the experiences anddevelopment of our and foreignmedical libraries.



Conferences of the Polish Medical Libraries

Dagmara Budek and Jadwiga PlichtaThe Main Library of the Pomeranian Academy of Medicine in Szczecin, Poland

The XX Jubilee Conference of theMedical Libraries in Poland was heldon 6-8 June 2001. This meeting wasorganised by the Main Library of thePomeranian Academy of Medicine inSzczecin and the host was the Director,Danuta Jaworska. The first two days ofthe conference took place inMidzyzdroje - a well-known resort onthe Baltic Sea coast.The main subjects of the Conferencewere as follows:· Library co-operation in the field ofdocument exchange in Poland andworldwide· Electronic document delivery· Projects of consortium solutions in themedical environment· Jubilee Session - 20 years of co-operation between medical librariesThere were 90 participants comprisingstaff from the Central Medical Libraryin Warsaw, Directors and librariansfrom other medical university librariesand medical and scientific institutesincluding representatives of differentcompanies who cooperate with themedical libraries group in such areas assoftware, hardware and libraryequipment. In addition publishers,library services related companies andguests from Germany, Netherlands andUnited Kingdom took part.The program consisted of 14 Polishpresentations as well as 4 internationalpapers. The Conference included alsoexhibitions and presentations from thecompanies, a social program andmeetings and an exhibition of picturesfrom all the medical libraryconferences that had been organisedover the last 20 years. The last day of

the conference took place in Szczecin,in the building of the Main Library ofthe Pomeranian Academy of Medicine.The Conference participants weredivided into two groups. The firstgroup attended a meeting of Directorsof the Polish Medical UniversitiesLibraries as is customary. For the firsttime, in such a meeting, Dr AleksanderTulczynski the new Director of theCentral Medical Library in Warsawwas invited. The main topic of thismeeting was the development oflibraries: how to make the work of thelibraries more efficient and how tomodernise workplaces in a medicalenvironment. The second group ofparticipants were involved in practicalpresentations concerning electronicdocument delivery and direct co-operation of the integrated librarysystems Horizon and Aleph with theZ39.50 protocol application.In the age of global access to Internet,information services and databasessuch as MEDLINE, EMBASE or otherspecialist databases,one of the mostimportant problemsfor a modernscientific library ishow to get access tosource materials -full text journalarticles. Nowadaystraditional methodsof receiving copiesof articles by post isnot fast enough forclients of medicallibraries. Systems of electronicdocument delivery already exist in theworld e.g. BLDSC (British LibraryDocument Supply Centre) or SUBITOin Germany. At present some of thePolish medical libraries have started touse Internet for their services and it isobvious that Poland requires a similar

system to be set up. The result of thedebates at the last Conference was apilot project for document distributionof foreign journal articles included inPolish medical library collectionscalled the doc@med system whichstarted in September 2001. Thisprogram was initiated by the MainLibrary of the Karol MarcinkowskiUniversity of Medical Sciences inPoznan and it was based on their owndata about Polish medical librariesresources. The system is localised intheir server in the library in Poznan andit is available at http://www2.bg.am.poznan.pl:8585/ Atpresent three libraries in Poznan,Szczecin and Wroczaw have succeededin using this system where over 1800foreign medical journals are available.Currently the biggest problem has beento supply libraries with proper, highquality equipment for scanningdocuments and this proves that librariesshould overcome their financialproblems first initially. This system can

be used by registeredlibraries and also byindividuals users: itis available at theInternet medicalportal - Clinika.plwww.clinika.plThe principalconclusion of theconference was themodernization oflibrary services. Allparticipants of themeeting received

conference information including fulltext articles of all presentations. Ahistorical photogallery from allconferences of the Medical Libraries inPoland can be easily found on the MainLibrary of the Pomeranian Academy ofMedicine homepage http://sci.pam.szczecin.pl/~bgpam .

Organizing Committee

Scanning of documents for the

SUBITO service by the ZBMed



As is customary therefore at themeeting in Szczecin it was decided thatthe next XXI conference would beorganized on 12-14 June 2002 inKatowice. Its theme will be: FinancialProblems in the Medical Library, inStaff and User Training and also in theBibliometric Analysis of MedicalPublications.Such conferences are a beneficialsource to all medical libraries and it isimportant to stress that this was the XXJubilee Conference so we shouldremember the first time an annualmeeting of medical librarians wasthought of which was in 1981. Thatwas a memorable year of considerablechanges in all areas of daily life inPoland as well as in medicaluniversities as well. The Rectors ofmedical universities who assembled inLódz in October 1981 decided toorganise a team of library directors andask them to coordinate co-operationbetween medical libraries. The firstmeeting of this group took place on 6December 1981 in Gdansk and this wasthe start of co-operation betweenmedical universities libraries. Othermedical libraries (e.g. medicalscientific institutes) were included inthis group only later. It was also thebeginning of annual meetings ofmedical librarians, too. The meetingsenabled personal contacts which wasespecially important in these difficulttimes in Poland. In addition itfacilitated the exchange of informationregarding basic functions of the library.The subject of the first Conferencewas: “The Exchange of InformationWith Special Regard to Holdings inMedical Libraries” and due to politicaland social problems (martial law), themeeting only lasted several hours.Libraries did not have computers thenand the printing of the union catalogueof foreign journals had been delayedterribly. The hosts of the subsequentconferences were the eleven libraries ofthe medical universities. During eachmeeting it was decided what would bethe next topic and which library would

organize the following meeting. Thefollowing are just some of the subjectswhich have been discussed over these20 years: interlibrary loans of medicalcollections, bibliography and scientificinformation in medicine, librarytraining for students, specialization oflibrary collections.From 1988 the main fields of concernwere the usage of computers in medicallibraries, integrated library systems,possibilities of medical library co-operation in the new technology age,on-line journals and network databases,medical information services andeducational tools, electronic system of

document distribution, library co-operation in the field of documentexchange in Poland and worldwide.Reprints from each conference areavailable and the presentations usuallyappear in separate publications or inthe “Biuletyn GBL” (Journal of thePolish Medical Libraries) published inWarsaw. An account of the XVIIIConference of Medical Libraries heldin Kraków in 1999 can be found inEAHIL Newletter no.51. We arehopeful that information about PolishMedical Libraries conferences mightappear more frequently in the EAHILNewsletter.

Participants at the Polish Conference

EAHIL members in Poland:K. Czujkowska, Institute of Oncology, WarsawJ. Leowski, School of Public Health, WarsawB. Mauer-Górska, Jagiellonian University, KrakowJ. Przyluska, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, LodzM.Z. Styblinska, University of Silezia, SosnowlecA. Uryga, Colegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University, KrakowAnna Uryga repesents Poland in the EAHIL Council


Advertentie OvidAdvertentie Ovid


From our ColleaguesFrom our Colleagues

During the first week of October the Italian Libraries Association (AIB)had its annual conference in Rome. During one of the sessions theorganizers planned to hold a “round table” open to different librariesassociations. Some were formally invited, such as EAHIL, and othersjoined spontaneously. As we had been invited, EAHIL was given a smallshared space within the booth of AIB to exhibit its publications.Moreover some Board members also prepared a poster to be exhibited atthe booth. Thanks are due to the Italian National Institute of Health inRome, the institution for which Gabriella Poppi is working, forsupporting the graphics and poster printing. Unfortunately, due to thelarge number of convened associations and subsequent lack of time, itwas not possible to run a real round table discussion, and so the sessionbecame more of a sequence of presentations.

First we listened to therepresentatives of foreignassociations: SLA (SchoolLibraries Association), LIBER(Association of European ResearchLibraries), EAHIL, BIB (GermanLibraries Association), and tofinish with, the BelgianAssociation of Archivists.

Then different Italian associationsintroduced themselves: the ItalianAssociation for AdvancedDocumentation, the Association ofItalian Archivists, the Associationof Librarians and InformationOfficers for Health, theAssociation of architecturelibrarians, the Association of musiclibrarians, the association oflibrarians working for prisons.

Some of these associations are verysmall (not more than 40 members,but all except one are managed byvolunteers, receiving funds mainlyfrom subscriptions, and runningtheir own conferences. All sufferfrom similar problems and concerns- especially money and keeping upthe membership levels! For thesmall Italian associations there

could be the possibility to work assubgroups under the AIB umbrella,but nothing was said about theother organizations. Thus a matterfor consideration by EAHILmembers should be whether wecould promote a wider cooperation,at least with those associationsworking in the Health/Scientificenvironment? There was certainly alevel of interest in EAHIL fromvisitors to the AIB booth, andseveral copies of our literature andposter printouts were taken.

Finally I would like to thank LindaLisgarten and her husband forspending some of their holidayleave in Rome to be at theconference.

Manuela Colombi

The Annual Conference of the Italian Libraries Association

�Linda Lisgarten, Honorary Secretary of the Executive Board

was very pleased to be able to attend the Bibliocom meeting

in Rome, and was greatly encouraged by the degree of

interest shown in our Association by delegates and

members of other European library associations. Hopefully

we made some useful contacts for the future, and all Board

members are keen to continue this kind of professional

interaction whenever possible.�

Gabriella Poppi arranged for the

EAHIL-poster to be presented at

the meeting



This year the Annual Conference of theMedical Libraries Association(AGMB) was held at the UniversityHospital, Hamburg-Eppendorf on 17 -19 September. It was organised by theUniversity’s Central Medical Library.The main theme of the conference was“Medical Libraries: ActivelyChanging”. It was attended by 170delegates, from Germany, Italy, theNetherlands, Austria and Switzerland.In parallel with a specialist exhibitionin which 25 companies took part, thevisitors were offered an extensive andprofession-oriented programme oflectures in plenary sessions, workinggroups and company presentations.

In addition there was an opportunity totake part in two Workshops “ChangeManagement in Medical Libraries” and“Creating Websites”. As is traditional,the three working groups of the AGMBmet on the afternoon of the first day ofthe conference.Alena Ittner (Berlin-Buch Hospital)chaired the meeting of 55 hospitallibrarians for the last time. Hersuccessor is Ingeborg Rosenfeld(Scientific Library of the PsychiatricCentre, Bad Schussenried). First M.A.Neitzke and Dr Udo Riege(Information Centre, Social Sciences,Bonn) reported on “Using informationtechnology to support the work

processes in an OPL –the TORTOISEproject”. In her talkBrigitte Hayn(Hospital Library ofthe UniversityHospital Charité,Berlin) presented“The Working Group‘Patient Libraries’ ofSection 8 of the DBV(German LibraryAssociation)”. Finally,Alena Ittner describedthe first consequencesof the privatisation ofBerlin-Buch Hospital

for the specialist andpatient libraries.This year thePharmaceuticalLibraries WorkingGroup attracted over50 delegates. DrThies-PeterEngelhardt (BayerAG, Wuppertal)described the progressin “Setting up thedigital scientificlibrary of thePharmaceuticalResearch Centre ofBayer AG”.In her talk entitled“Copyright problems in pharmaceuticallibraries” Cornelia Rickert (UniversityLibrary, Würzburg) presented certainregulations contained in German andinternational copyright laws, withspecial regard to the electronicmedium. In future Dr Thies-PeterEngelhardt (Bayer AG) will take overthe chairmanship of the PharmaceuticalLibraries Working Group fromWolfgang Kosten (Scientific Library,Bayer AG, Wuppertal).

Ralf Brugbauer (University Library,Marburg) similarly chaired theUniversity Medical Libraries WorkingGroup for the last time. The first

lecture was by Sabine Buroh (Libraryof the University Surgical Hospital,Freiburg) who described the project“Freiburg Virtual Medical Library”.http://www.ub.uni-freiburg.de/virlib/med/index.htmlIn the session devoted to “Financingmedical libraries at universities anduniversity hospitals” the increasingeffects on library budgets as a result ofthe privatisation of hospitals werediscussed. In his lecture “Subito and E-Journals: a Münster Update” Dr OliverObst (Medical Branch Library of theUniversity and Regional Library (ULB)Münster) reported on an analysis of theuse of e-journals.

The Annual Conference was officiallyopened on 18 September by UlrichKorwitz who took the opportunity toexpress the AGMB governing body’sshock at the terrorist attacks in theUSA.The theme of this year’s conference“Medical Libraries: ActivelyChanging“ demands that we changeourselves and our work and developfrom a “fetch to a bring library” for ourusers.In his welcoming speech Prof. Dr HansDieter Jüde, Vice-Dean of the Facultyof Medicine and acting MedicalDirector at the University Hospital,Hamburg-Eppendorf, supported the

Medical Libraries Association (AGMB): Annual Conference 2001 in Hamburg

Exhibition at the AgmB confernce in Hamburg

Oliver Obst


Letter from the PresidentLetter from the President

active change in libraries to morecustomer-orientation.Prof. Dr Peter Riedesser, Director ofthe Dept. of Juvenile and ChildPsychiatry gave a fascinating lectureentitled “On the way to child- andfamily-oriented medicine: perspectivesof an extensive concept of psychosocialcare”, in which he presented a modelfor medicine that is more child- andfamily-friendly.Heidemarie Stahl (Central MedicalLibrary, Hamburg) reported on “TheCentral Medical Library and the

development of the supply ofdocuments at the University HospitalEppendorf”. Milestones in thedevelopment of the document supply atthe UHE were the combination of allthe institute and hospital libraries inMarch 2000, together with thereorganisation of all work processes inthe libraries which this required, andthe offer of new electronic services.Prof. Dr Konrad Umlauf discussed thespecial value of “PersonnelDevelopment in Libraries” in hislecture. The determination of thedevelopment required and thepreparation and evaluation of apersonnel development plan shouldlead to an improvement in professional,social and personal skills.Ulrike Lang (State and UniversityLibrary, Hamburg) reported on “BI

(Library & Information) Internationaland its programme for medicallibrarians”. As the successororganisation to the Office forInternational Library Coordination ofthe Federation of German LibraryAssociations, BI Internationalcoordinates the transfer of internationalknow-how concerning librarianship andinformation science and related fieldshttp://www.bi-international.de.The conference delegates were visiblyimpressed by Eva-Maria Oldenburger(St. Joseph Hospital, Berlin) and her

practice-based report“I set up a library:experience in settingup the specialist andpatient library inBerlin”. It took a greatdeal of personalcommitment andunconventional actionto establish a patientlibrary at the St.Joseph Hospital inBerlin.In his lecture“Management Stafffor Libraries andInformation Science:the Cologne Master

course compared with similar coursesin Germany” Prof. Dr Achim Oßwald(University for Applied Science,Cologne) informed the delegates aboutthe new additional study course“Library and Information Science” atthe University for Applied Science,Cologne, http://www.fbi.fh-koeln.de/studium/reform/master.htm which willreplace the previous advanced trainingin 2002. At the end of the course thesuccessful student will be awarded theinternationally recognised degree“Master of Library and InformationScience (MLIS)”.Ulrike Scholle (University andRegional Library, Münster) opened theafternoon’s proceedings with herlecture on “User training courses:previous concepts and new approachesat the University and Regional Library,

Münster”. The new project, LOTSE(Library Online Tour & Self-pacedEducation), of the promotionalprogramme Global Info of the FederalMinistry for Education and Research isto be used in addition to the previousindividual training courses round theclock at the scientist’s work place as anavigation system for locatingconventional and printed information.Stefan Müllenbruck (UniversityLibrary, Trier) described thepossibilities of “Online-information bymeans of Chat – Experience andPerspectives” and the use of thesoftware Humanclick/Lifeperson http://www.lifeperson.com. This Internet-Service was often used at theUniversity Library, Trier, forcomplaints, for help with technicalproblems and as a supplement to theconventional information services,telephone and e-mail.In his talk entitled “Data Mining inLiterature Databases: methods forgenerating hypotheses for biomedicalresearch” Dr Johannes Stegmann(Medical Library, Benjamin-FranklinHospital, Free University, Berlin)explained in detail Don Swanson’smethod of establishing links betweensets of documents which are isolatedwith respect to one another and soproducing new (unpublished)hypotheses.Ursel Lux (Central Library, BoehringerIngelheim Pharma KG) opened the lastday of the conference with herpresentation entitled “Introduction ofglobal electronic services - Experienceand problems using e-journals as anexample”. The global licensing of e-journals, the updating of the stock of e-journals (at present approx. 1,000) andthe technical support for the group ofcompanies mostly take place centrallyin Ingelheim. The use of LitLink makeit possible to link up internal andexternal databases with e-journals.In her lecture describing “A quick scanfor uncited titles: a possibility to tracethe (last?) few low usage journal titlesin the collection of a research institute

Heidemarie Stahl



library” Suzanne Bakker (CancerResearch Institute of the Netherlands)explained the need for a cost/useranalysis of current journalsubscriptions. Price increases of 10 % ayear for printed journals, additionalcosts for electronic access andstagnating library budgets require anobjective evaluation of the printedstock.In his paper on “Cochrane-Update andthe function of a Cochrane TrialsSearch Coordinator” http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/MedFak/MDN/Cochrane/ Dr Bernd Richter(University of Düsseldorf) describedthe special functions of a Trials SearchCoordinator within a Cochrane ReviewGroup. These include the developmentof search strategies in databases and inthe Internet, the coordination of thehand searching procedure and thecreation of a group-specific databasewith relevant literature references ofpublished and unpublished information.The medical libraries could take oversome of these important activities ofevidence-based medicine in future.In his annual survey “Report from theGerman Institute for Medical

Documentation and Information” DrWerner Stöber (German Institute forMedical Documentation and Information(DIMDI), Cologne) described how theDIMDI took an active part in changingthe information scene and the provisionof medical information.

Together with the Central MedicalLibrary and the publishers Kluwer andSpringer the DIMDI is making 800 full-text e-journals available via astandardised portal. The DIMDI is alsoinvolved in the European system E-BIOSCI for the provision of full texts inlife sciences.Yasemin El-Menouar (Cologne)presented a national study “What do ourusers expect from the Internet range ofmedical libraries? Results of an Internet-based survey” carried out on behalf ofthe German Central Medical Library inCologne. The evaluation of the answersto almost 2,000 questionnaires collectedover a period of 5 weeks revealeddetailed requirements with regard to thecontent, preparation, and the technicalform of medical Internet information.Ulrich Korwitz (German CentralMedical Library, Cologne) gave histraditional annual “Report of theGerman Central Medical Library”. Mainactivities over the last year were thecollaboration with the DIMDI on theprovision of full texts of medicaljournals via a pay-per-view service, thepreliminary preparations for theestablishment of a Virtual Medical

Library and the takingover of the combined fieldNutrition andEnvironment. In the yearcovered in this report theCentral Medical Librarydealt with 530,000 orders,manyrequestersusing theSubitodocumentdeliveryservice. Thisvolume ofordersmakes the

Central Library the largestsuppliers of documents incontinental Europe.In his closing remarks MrKorwitz, the Chairman ofthe AGMB, summarisedthe main points arising

from the conference and thanked MsStahl and her colleagues for theexcellent organisation of this year’sAGMB conference in Hamburg.

At the General Meeting of the AGMBe.V. the Chairman’s report for the periodOctober 2000 to August 2001, theminutes of the previous year’s GeneralMeeting in Vienna, the financial reportand the budget for 2001/2002 wereadopted. In accordance with the articlesof the Association a new executiveCommittee of the AGMB e.V. waselected comprising the followingmembers:- Ulrich Korwitz (German CentralMedical Library, Cologne): Chairman- Dr Oliver Obst (University andRegional Library, Münster, MedicalBranch Library): 1st Deputy Chairman- Ingeborg Rosenfeld (PsychiatricCentre, Bad Schussenried): 2nd DeputyChairman- Dr Thies-Peter Engelhardt (ScientificLibrary of Bayer AG, Wuppertal):Secretary- Dr Angelika Weiß (Otto-von-GuerickeUniversity, Magdeburg): Treasurer

The next meeting of the AGMB willtake place during the EAHIL conferencein Cologne on 16 - 21.02.2002. Therewill be no separate AGMB AnnualConference next year.

Ursel Lux

Werner Stöber (DIMDI)

At the conference dinner; in front (left)Suzanne Bakker and (right) Ursel Lux


From MLAFrom MLA

As we start the new year, MLA members are planning the trip to Texas for theMLA ’02 “Big D” Annual Meeting in Dallas May 17-23 . EAHIL members areinvited to attend the meeting at MLA member rates. Visit the MLA Web site atwww.mlanet.org for more information.

Cunningham FellowshipMLA’s Cunningham Fellowship is a four-month fellowship for health scienceslibrarians from countries outside the United States and Canada. Beginning in1972, 32 librarians have come from all parts of the world to spend time in avariety of medical libraries in the US and Canada, both observing and working onprojects of particular interest to the Fellow. Recent recipients have hailed fromSouth Africa, Moscow, Nigeria, The Netherlands, and Romania. The award for thefour-months is US$6,000 with $2,000 additional for travel with the two countries.

The Fellow for 2002 is Yuan Lin , whois Chief Librarian, Central Library ofWest China University of MedicalScience, Changdu City, SichuanProvince, China. Yuan Lin isparticularly interested in Evidence-Based Medicine, search engines andgateways to knowledge, and standards.Ms. Lin will arrive in the US in lateJanuary and will visit 8 librariesincluding university medical centerlibraries, special libraries, and theNational Library of Medicine. The tourends in May, when Ms. Lin will attendthe MLA Annual Meeting in Dallas,Texas.This is a wonderful opportunity for anylibrarian outside the US and Canadawith a Master’s level degree andworking or preparing to work in ahealth sciences organization.Applications for the MLA CunninghamFellowship are now invited for 2004.Detailed requirements and the completeapplication form are available on theMLA Web site at http://www.mlanet.org under “Scholarships.”Though the deadline for application isDecember 1, 2002, it is not too early toget started, as there are many elementsto be submitted.Sister Library InitiativeMLA’s International CooperationSection initiated the Sister LibraryInitiative (SLI) in 2000. Donna Flake,who now Chairs the SLI Committee,wrote about the new program in theAugust 2000 issue of the EAHILNewsletter in an article describing theMedical Research Library of Latvia,

one of the first two libraries selectedfor this initiative. I am happy to reportthat there have been tangibleaccomplishments with both libraries,and will summarize the status of thisencouraging program.- The Medical Research Library ofLatvia was the first to get off the mark,as the library had Internet access andgood computer support for librarysystems. An American of Latviandescent, Livija Carlson, visited thelibrary early on to do a needsassessment. NLM provided DOCLINEaccess to the library so that requestscould be input and routed to libraries inthe US and Canada that owned thejournal and could supply the article.The Research Libraries Group (RLG)donated a copy of the Ariel software sothat articles could be transmittedelectronically. Over 40 librariesvolunteered to donate 30 articles eachto the Latvian library during the year,and most have agreed to supply anequal number in the second year of theproject. STAT!Ref donated their CD-Rom product containing 32 medicaltextbooks and MD Consult donatedtheir database for the Medical Libraryof Latvia’s primary location in Riga, aswell as one of the satellite libraries inJurmala. Health professionals who arenow able to use these electronicresources are understandably verypleased. Other important contributionshave been made by Latvianorganizations in the US who havedonated money and have paid to shipbooks and journals to the library. These

partnerships are perhaps the mostimportant outcome of the project, asthey yield the promise of continuingassistance.- The partnership with the MedicalLibrary of the Holberton Hospital,St. John’s, Antigua required that theSLI Committee members first focus onprocuring a computer and facilitatingInternet access for the Library. Elsevierdonated funds for the computer and anAntiguan Internet service providerdonated free Internet service. AvrilReid from Trinidad, Chair of theAntiguan subcommittee, traveled toAntigua in late December to install thecomputer and provide training to thelibrarian at Holberton Hospital. Duringthe year, libraries have filledinterlibrary loan requests for theHospital and donated print materials. In2002, it will be possible to set up aDOCLINE network of libraries willingto provide articles, and committeemembers will solicit donations ofelectronic resources as was done forLatvia.MLA had approved the Sister LibraryInitiative for two years on a pilotproject basis. The SLI Committee hasrecently submitted a motion to extendthe partnership with these two librariesfor three years, to end in April 2003.The SLI has also proposed that thisprogram become a continuing one, witha new sister library selected every threeyears.

EveEveEveEveEve-Marie Lacroix-Marie Lacroix-Marie Lacroix-Marie Lacroix-Marie LacroixMLA Representative to EAHIL


Internet PageInternet Page

This Year I used the days betweenXmas and New Year to take a lookat the journals I subscribe toregarding what has been publishedon internet issues and which topicshave been discussed and reported.Indeed what are the trends andissues a librarian or informationspecialist in the medical field hasto cope with?Though the web is still growingmany analysts and writers tell usthat the acceleration is slowingdown, possibly due to the fact thatmany dot.coms have crashed and asit turns out, many ideas and projectsfor turning internet technology intomoney machines have failed.It might have been just luck for thewhole scene of the “give awaysociety” that made the internetinitially succeed but now themoney-knights have lost a littleground - giving way to more seriouswork towards a global informationinfrastructure on solid businessmodels, slower but steady.The wider recognition of the GNU/Open Software people in the successof the Linux-club may be indicationsthat business models in our worldare still an open course. This mixof new business models has manyfaces. Just think of Napster/ mp3 orthe ejournal or full-text-Linking-issues. Open Directory and PublicLibrary of Science are otherencouraging and stimulating pathsto businesses serving people insteadof stocks.Napster and e-publishing alsorepresent the very big sales area ofcontent, econtent, evolved over thelast 1-2 years. Ebooks, Portals,Vortals, communities, repurposing,micropayment are some of the

To Google Or Not To Google - A Look Back ......

keywords on this issue. And againit turns out it is not that easy togenerate money from theseapplications. Only those contentproviders that have some standingin the older traditional markets orchannels survive either bythemselves or indeed only bymergers and alliances.The search for profitability of thee-content area is reflected in the re-purpose issue facilitated by SGML/XML, meta data and CSS develop-ments and we as a professionalcommunity may have to be muchmore involved in the near future.Some investment in this area ishighly recommended.There has been a lot of talk andwork already done especially in themedical field on the developmentof bringing the information/contentbusiness to the mobile technology.Within the physicians’ communityoften mentioned as “ bedsideinformation “ through pda andhandheld-devices, which alsoimplies other approaches tooperating systems such as those weare accustomed to these days. Thedawn of the desktop computingwindows operating system mayhave come.It might be only curbed by the thelimited acceptability of people tolive within forests of communicationtowers and the frequencies aroundthem. Another bottleneck might bethe usability and functionality, thatalready has become a buzzword inthe website-managing field wheremany of us are implicatednowadays.

The internet for many years hasbecome more and more an

important infrastructure and toolfor our daily (not only professional)lives. Even though more specialisedtopics have arisen in the past yearor so, the invisible web andhistorical/disappearing sites are ofsome concern to many colleagues.The vanishing character ofdynamically generated content hasenabled continous efforts by manyof us to handle search engineseffectively and to develop solidknowledge in this traditional coreof our business.Everything old is new again saysMarydee Ojala in one of herEditorials this year. It turns out thatthe new ebusiness nonetheless isembedded in very old andtraditional issues of which the metaname issue, for example, is just anew cloak for the indexing,thesaurus business, which all of usknow as a hard but efficientapproach for better precision andrecall. Many of these topics cometogether in the Intranet businessthat is still of growing interest toour profession. This is enhanced bymanagement developments towardevidence based research andenterprises which portrayslibrarians, documentalists andinformation professionals as theideal knowledge managers.It’s an exciting area to work in.Let´s try and make things better.All the best in 2002.

Constantin CazanConstantin CazanConstantin CazanConstantin CazanConstantin Cazan

(By the time of publication.. youwill find this text on the web withsome functional links underhttp://www.cazan.at )


Publications & ProductsPublications & Products

JOURNAL ISSUES

Since the Newsletter of November2001, the following journal issue ofHealth Information and LibrariesJournal has been received: vol. 18,2001, no. 4

A. Coomarasamy, H. Gee, M.Publicover, K.S. Khan. Medicaljournals and effective disseminationof health research. p. 183-191.The article explores why journalsare ineffective in bringing usefulstudies to clinicians’ attention andsuggests strategies for effectivedissemination and implementation.

D. Pearson and H. Rossall.Developing a general practice library:a collaborative project between aGP and librarian. p. 192-202.Collaboration between clinicians andlibrarians is an effective approachto the successful development andmaintenance of a practice library.

N. Blackburn. Building bridges:towards integrated library andinformation services for mentalhealth and social care. p. 203-212.

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays there are two important points under discussion: the future ofscience journals and the future of peer review of biomedical journals.Today, almost two-thirds of scientific journals are available bothelectronically and in print, and there are more than 1000 electronically-only peer-reviewed journals. Despite the fact that the proportion ofreading electronic versions is increasing rapidly, the journal system hasremained surprisingly stable.According to the authors and publishers, scientists and librarians need tobase their actions on facts, not emotions (Nature, 2001, 413, 672).Regarding the second point, journals have to improve the process of peerreview; researchers found little evidence that peer-review actuallyimproves the quality of research papers (Science, 2001, 293, 2187).

Open peer review and electronic publication of additional material available to readers, such as raw data,detailed results of analyses and postpublication comments and criticisms of the study can help to improve thequality of research papers (JAMA, 2001, 286, 2931).

Giovanna F. Miranda

The research focuses on identifyingthe information needs of healthprofessionals, social workers andstaff from voluntary agencies.

D. Nicholas, P. Huntington, P.Williams, P. Vickery. Healthinformation: an evaluation of theuse of touch screen kiosks in twohospitals. p. 213-219.This study evaluates kiosks in useand determines whether the infor-mation obtained meets patients’information needs.

J.G. Shaw. Health library partner-ship programmes betweenresource-poor countries andWestern Europe. p. 220-228.A survey of health library partner-ships between the UK and northernEuropean countries and African oreastern European countries.

Innovations online series (B.Anagnostelis). p. 229Research (A.Booth). p. 238

EAHIL members who are individual members of our Associationare entitled to subscribe to HILJ by credit card or giro transferpayment through EAHIL secretariat at the reduced rate of EUR 70.Please contact the secretariat at:[email protected]

The table of contents of the journal is available on the Internet at URL:http://www.blackwell-science.com/~cgilib/jnlpage.asp?journal=hlr&file=hlr&page=contents


Publications & ProductsPublications & Products

BOOKS REVIEW

Digital future: strategies for theinformation age. Eds. M. Deegan andS. Tanner. Library AssociationPublishing, London. ISBN 1-85604-411-4. £ 39.95, pp. 288A guide for information managers andarchivists facing change in the libraryenvironment on how to implement newmodes and methods of resourcemanagement. The book includesguidance on developing collections inthe digital world and designing systemsfor sharing digital resources, economicfactors, portals and personalization,mechanisms for end-user access.

Internet Blue Pages: The guide toFederal Government Web Sites. 2001-2002 Edition. Ed. L. Andriot,Information Today, Medford, NJ, ISBN0-91096-543-9, $ 34.95 pp. 476.A reference to almost 1900 US Federalweb sites with a lot of informationavailable on policy releases, laws,regulation and licences, health advice,etc.

The desktop guide to complementaryand alternative medicine: an evidence-based approach. Eds. E. Ernst, M.H.Pittler, C. Stevinson and A. White,Harcourt Publishers, London, 2001,ISBN 0-7234-3207-4, $ 34.95, pp. 440.The authors describe complementaryand alternative medicine therapies andthe diagnostic techniques. Moreoverthey cite the scientific basis and theevidence for their use, if any.

PAPERS REVIEW

Lessons for the future of journals.C. Tenopir and D.V. King. Nature,2001, 413, 672

Peer review and quality: a dubiousconnection?M. Euserink. Science, 2001, 293, 2187.

Biomedical Journals ponder thefailures and remedies of peer review.J. Stephenson. JAMA, 2001, 286, 2931.

World Wide Web in slowdown.G. Smith. Information World Reviewn.175, December 2001

INFORMATION SOURCES

....... Web-based

Science Directory. A selected list offederal government Web sites offeringall kind of scientific and technicalinformation. The site also gives accessto many government reports andstudies.www.scitechresources.gov

Stem Cells Registry. The US NationalInstitutes of Health has posted on itswebsite the registry of stem cells eligiblefor federal research funding. It includes72 stem cell colonies available at 11institutions in five countries.http://escr.nih.gov

SciDev.Net. The site funded by UK,Swedish, and Canadian developmentagencies, is sponsored by the journalsNature and Science. Its aim is to bridgethe divide between knowledge richdeveloped countries and the knowledgepoor developing countries.The project is based on the premisethat those who stand to benefit mostfrom modern science and technologyare also those who have least access toinformation about it. The main goal ofthe website is to enhance the ability ofall its users to engage in informeddebate on ways of applying science andtechnology to social and economicdevelopment in an environmentallyresponsible way.www.scidev.net

Faculty of 1000. This site is a newonline literature awareness tool thatwill systematically highlight and review

the most interesting papers published inthe biological sciences, based on therecommendations of over 1000 selectedleading scientists. Online subscriptionsare available for individuals, laboratoriesand institutions.www.facultyof1000.com

NEWS FROM EDITORS

Biomed Central is introducing amembership scheme that will move thecost of publication from individual($500 per paper published) to theirinstitution. Membership will allow allresearch staff and students within aninstitution to submit an unlimited amountof research papers to the journalscurrently published by Biomed Central.For further information: [email protected]

Ebsco Subscription Services have signedan agreement with seven leadingpublishers to allow access of theirpublications through Ebsco Online, inparticular scientific, medical andtechnical subjects with The PharmaceuticalPress and Radcliffe Medical Press.www.ebsco.com

OVID Technologies announces theavailability of the Cochrane ControlledTrials Register at no extra charge to allcurrent subscribers to Ovid’s Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews database.www.ovid.com

UKSG launch Serials news service.The service is structured as a bi-weeklyemailed newsletter with an asociatedweb service. The service is onlyavailable to UKSG members and themembership fee for 2002 is 76.19 GBPwww.biblio-tech.com/UKSG/demo.cfm


Forthcoming eventsForthcoming events

13-15 March, 2002, Washington DC, USAComputers in librariesFor further information: www.infotoday.com/cil2002/program.htm

18-20 March, 2002, London, UKLondon Book FairFor further information: www.internet-librarian.com/bookfair02

18-20 March, 2002, London, UKInternet librarian International 2002For further information: www.internet-librarian.com

17-19 April, 2002, Rome, ItalySemantic WEB and libraries.European Library Automation GroupFor further information: www.ifnet.it/elag2002

22-26 April, 2002, La Habana, CubaInformacion, conocimiento y sociedad. Retos de una nueva era.Congreso Internacional di Informacion.For further information: www.congreso-info.cu/index.htm

17-23 May, 2002 Dallas, USABig “D”Medical Library Associationwww.mlanet.org/am/am2002/index .html

22-24 July, 2002, Mannheim, GermanyBetween data science and everyday Web practice26th Annual Conference Gesellschaft fur KlassifikationFor further information: www.gfkl.de/gfk12002

68th IFLA General Conference and CouncilLibraries for Life: Democracy, Diversity, DeliveryAugust 18th - 24th 2002, Glasgow, Scotlandhttp://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla68/index.htm

16-21 September, 2002 Cologne: 8th ECMHLEAHIL Conference: Thinking globally - acting locally

For further information: www.zbmed.de/eahil2002/index.html


ColofonColofon

EAHILEAHIL Executive Board:

Tony McSeán, PresidentBritish Medical Association, BMA House, LibraryTavistock Square, London WC1H9JP, England, UKtel.: +44 207 383 6036 ,fax: +44 207 388 2544e-mail: [email protected]

Manuela Colombi, Past-PresidentJanssen-Cilag SpAVia Buonarroti, 23, I-20093 Cologno Monzese (Milano), Italytel.: +39 02 2510 526, fax: +39 02 2510 530e-mail: [email protected]

Linda Lisgarten, SecretaryThe school of Pharmacy Library, University of London23-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, England UKtel.: +44 207 753 5833, fax: +44 207 753 5947e-mail: [email protected]

Arne Jakobsson, TreasurerThe University of Oslo Library,Library of Medicine and Health SciencesPostboks 1113, Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norwaytel.: +47 23 07 44 34, fax: +47 23 07 44 30e-mail: [email protected]

Suzanne Bakker, 1st Vice President &Supervisor EAHIL SecreteriatCentral Cancer Library, The Netherlands Cancer InstitutePlesmanlaan 121, NL-1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlandstel.: +31 20 512 2597, fax: +31 20 512 2599e-mail: [email protected]

Gabriella Poppi, 2nd Vice PresidentIstituto Superiore di Sanità BibliotecaViale Regina Elena 299, I-00161 Roma, Italytel.: +39 06 4990 2210, fax: +39 06 4990 2591e-mail: [email protected]

Marta Viragos, Assistant-SecretaryMedical Universtity Debrecen Central LibraryNagyerdei krt, 98, H-4012 Debrecen, Hungarytel.: +36 52 413 847, fax: +36 52 413847e-mail: [email protected]

Meile Kretaviciene, 1st co-opted memberKaunas Medical Academy, LibraryMickeviciaus 7, 3683 Kaunas, Lithuaniatel.: +370 7 22 13 31, fax: +370 7 22 07 33e-mail: [email protected]

EAHIL Secretariat:c/o NVB BureauPlompetorengracht 11, NL-3512 CA Utrecht, The Netherlandstel.: +31 30 261 9663, fax: +31 30 231 1830e-mail: [email protected]

Postal bank account: 799 6024SWIFT code: INGBNL2ABank account: ABN-AMRO 53 03 64 697SWIFT code: ABNANL2A

Production: Drukkerij Peters Amsterdam b.v.Schepenbergweg 33 • NL-1105 AS Amsterdam

Distribution: EBSCO Information ServicesAalsmeer, The Netherlands

Editorial Board

CHIEF EDITOR: Sally Wood-Lamont, Biblioteca UMF, Str AvramIancu 31, 3400 Cluj-Napoca, Romania • Tel. : +40 64 192 629 •Tel./Fax : +40 64 460 106 • e-mail: [email protected]

PUBLICATIONS & E VENTS: Giovanna F.Miranda, SanofiSynthelabo, Scientific Information Department, Via Piranesi 38,I-20137 Milano, Italy • e-mail: [email protected]

ASSOCIATION NEWS: Marta Viragos , Medical UniversityDebrecen Central Library, Nagyerdei krt, 98, H-4012 Debrecen,Hungary • Tel.: +36 52 413 847 • Fax: +36 52 413 847 • e-mail:[email protected]

Liisa Salmi, Kuopio University Hospital Medical Library, POB1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland • Tel.: +358 17 173 770 •Fax: +358 17 163 429 • e-mail: [email protected]

INTERNET PAGES & W EBSITES: Constantin Cazan, Schering WienGmbH, Library & Doc. Dept., Scheringgasse 2, A-1147 Wien,Austria • Tel.: +431 97037 324 • Fax: +431 97037 399 • e-mail:[email protected]

Velta Poznaka, Medical Research Library of Latvia, 1 SharlotesStreet, LV-1001 Riga, Latvia • Tel.: +371 737 8321 • Fax: +371 7373646 • e-mail: [email protected]

Maurella Della Seta & Annarita Barbaro, Instituto Superiore diSanità Biblioteca, Viale Regina Elena 299, I-00161 Roma, Italy •Tel.: +39 06 4990 2426 • Fax: +39 06 4938 7117 • e-mail:[email protected] & [email protected]

Whilst the Editorial Board endeavours to obtain items of interest, thefacts and opinions expressed in those items are the responsibility ofthe authors concerned. They do not necessarily reflect the policiesand opinions of the Association.

Instructions for Authors

Manuscripts either in English or French should be about 3-4standard (1.50 space) typewritten pages and provided by e-mailor on a diskette. Infomative title, short summary and keywordsshould be provided. References should be expressed in Vancouverstyle. Authors of submitted papers accept editing and re-use ofpublished material by EAHIL.



Documents

European Association for Health Information and Libraries ...Thinking Globally - Acting Locally: Medical libraries at the Turn of an Era 8th European Conference for Medical and Health