3. Users
• Main users are physicians and nurses
• Library is open to all staff members
– Our visit saw usage from physicians as well as a
maintenance staff member, obviously for differing
reasons
• Woman’s has around 2,500-3,000 staff members
• Library is not open to patients or family members
– Can be used by patients or family members upon
physician request
6. Print and electronic journals
• Primarily for doctors, nurses, current patients
• Subscriptions based on user needs
(nursing, reproductive medicine, fertility and
infertility issues, anesthesia and
surgery, pediatrics, and overall women’s
health)
• Off-site access available only to
doctors, nurses
• Library offers electronic reference
7. Interlibrary loan
• Member of the National Network of Libraries
of Medicine consortia
• Participates in document delivery and
sharing, DOCLINE interlibrary loan, and access
to other scholarly publishing resources
• NNLM membership saves cost and time of the
user
8. Patient Information Library
• Ready reference room
• Will offer brochures, journals, medical
reference books, and a computer terminal
equipped with appropriate medical databases
for users’ personal research
9. Nursing Reference Center
• ANA-granted magnet status for nurses
• Membership grants nurses research and
writing assistance, information discovery
services
11. Staffing
• One full time employee, one part time
employee
• FTE responsible for: interlibrary
loan, collection development, budget, and the
design of the new library room
• PTE responsible for: electronic records and
basic filing and organization of the collection
• Temporary/unpaid volunteer positions
13. Current location
• Inaccessible location
• Little parking
• High-congestion area
• Needs more space
for researchers
14. New location
• Room for Patient Information Library
• New reading chairs, study tables, book and
pamphlet displays, two employee offices
• Prime location near doctor/nurse offices and
delivery wing
• Small “archive” area
• Ample parking
16. Budgeting
• Medical Library is “blessed with a good
budget”
• “Size dictates what you can buy”
• Stretches budget to meet the library’s needs
• Has avoided budget cuts (so far), unlike other
medical libraries
• Bundles journal subscriptions to save money
17. Budgeting
• Collection Expense = $110,000
• Includes monographs, journals and database
subscriptions
• Interlibrary Loan Expenses = $4,300
• $3,000 for ILL purchases ($10-$12 per article)
• $1,300 for Ariel software (secure transfer of ILL docs)
• Integrated Library System = $3,400
• EOS (Electronic Online Systems) hosts:
– OPAC and modules for Cataloging, Circulation, & Serial
Acquisitions
18. Budgeting
• Office Supplies Expense = $1,300
• Minor Expenses- telephone, repairs & printing
• Expenses that Hospital pays (doesn’t come out
of Library’s Operational Budget):
• Capital budget items: new computers, printers, etc.
• Electricity, Insurance
• Salaries & benefits:
• Mean salary for medical librarians is $60,000 (MLA
2008 Salary Survey)
20. Collection Development
• Collection consists
mostly of medical
journals:
• Obstetrics, gynecology, pe
diatrics (infant) & general
women’s health
• Reference areas for both
physicians & nurses
• Minor collections:
• Pharmacology, anesthesia,
surgery and oncology
21. Collection Development
• Database subscriptions:
• CINAHL, nursing database
• DynaMed, evidence-based clinical reference database
• Cochrane Collaboration, full text reviews of evidence-
based medicine
• PubMed is great resource from NLM
• Collection is weeded annually
• Collection Development Policy overdue for
update; time constraints
23. Marketing
• Variety of marketing techniques
• Printed promotional materials:
• Bookmarks with Top Health Web Sites
• Instructions for using databases
• Monthly emails to physicians; includes
table of contents for latest medical
journals
• “elevator speech” about library’s
services; build relationships
• Host raffle fundraisers for charities
24. Proving Value within Hospital
• Tries to prove value everyday
• Goal: to provide answers to all research questions in
timely manner
• Provides annual report to VP & Board:
• Includes statistics on types of research
requests, database usage, interlibrary loans, variety of
users
• Demonstrates library’s value to upper management
• Lacks return on investment component
• Example of report on next slide
25. Proving Value within Hospital
• Woman’s Hospital Organizational Structure:
• Library reports to Senior VP of Medical Staff Services
(see next slide)
• Previously under IT, was “not a good fit”
• Medical Library is valued by Hospital:
• No recent budget cuts
• Providing larger space in new hospital
28. Typical Days
• There are no “typical days”
at the Medical Library
• Principle responsibility is
information requests
– The possibilities for
different requests is almost
infinite
• Rapid pace of change and
requests means that staff
must be adaptable and
ready for challenges
• “One does not schedule
emergencies”
29. Room For Improvement
• State of transition: preparing for new library
• State of flux leaves many opportunities and
issues for new location
• Most important is new patient library
• Marketing and staffing are other concerns
30. Problems and Difficulties
• Budgeting – specifically costly journal
subscriptions
• Staffing
• Physical space
– Somewhat helped in new location
– Many users prefer print
– Requires smart collection development
Editor's Notes
“These staffing arrangements seem to work well for the library, but Middleton said she would like to have another staff member available full time for busier periods”.
Woman’s most recent Organization Chart. Note the Medical Library is under the Senior Vice President of Medical Staff Services. Furthermore, the Medical Library is a part of the Regulatory Compliance department.
