Going Electronic

Many of DML's journals will become “Online-Only” in 2008:

Approximately half of the Denver Medical Library’s over 450 journals will be converted to electronic or “Online-Only” subscriptions next year and we want to hear what you think about it.

Here are some reasons we are making this change:

Electronic journals mean greater access for more people:

While a print journal provides a great browsing experience for one person at a time, in the library, an electronic subscription can be used by multiple people in multiple locations. It also allows for greater searching ability, and faster retrieval and delivery for our staff and searchers. Statistics gathered at the library show a higher demand for electronic articles than print articles.

Electronic journals ease the library’s costs and affords more subscriptions:

Most electronic subscriptions are either less expensive or the same price as their print-only counterparts. Many of the library’s subscriptions at this point are print and electronic, the most expensive option of all. Print journals also require more staff time, for checking in, claiming, shelving, re-shelving, photocopying, and binding.

Some questions you may have:

What about the journals you like to browse?

We’re aware that many of our patrons prefer to browse journals in their paper form, and we are working on ways to facilitate browsing. We encourage you to come and talk to the librarians about your browsing needs. We want to hear ideas you have on how this can work for you and others.

Which journals will be in print, and which will be “Online-Only”?

We strive to have online access to all of our paid subscriptions, but those showing low print use over the last year will become online only subscriptions. The current issues of those journals will be marked with a bright sticker until the end of the year. We will also post a final list of these changes on our website as soon as possible.

For more information, visit our website: http://www.denvermedlib.org/, or call the library at 303.839.6670, Monday through Friday.

Where have all the JAMAs gone?

To India to be digitized!

We have sacrificed some of our very old JAMAs and Archives volumes for a digitization effort by the American Medical Association. In return for those beloved, historic volumes we get something great: Permanent electronic access to JAMA and 7 Archives titles from their first volumes to 1997. This will make those collections much more accessible than ever before, and preserve them while the paper copies will one day deteriorate beyond use. We will not get the donated volumes back, but in the mean time, before they are digitized, we will be able to borrow the articles they contain from other libraries. Let us know if something you need is not on the shelf.

Congratulations Contest Winners!

We had six winners in our two National Medical Librarians' Month Contests:

1. For the Barnes & Noble gift cards: Kristi Stasinos guessed correctly that 25% of Americans check the source and date of health information they find online. Susie Leach won second for guessing 26%, and Mary Shippey was next at 23%.

2. For Free Remote Access to the DML Portal: All entrants answered the three quiz questions correctly, and the names drawn were: Julie Burke, PSL Employee, 1 year free access; Pat Sheehan DMS Physician, 6 months free access; and Mary Jensen, PSL Nurse, 3 months free access.

Congrats to all, and thanks to everyone for playing!

One week left to win free remote access!

Our contest for free remote access to the library will end next Wednesday the 31st when we draw three winners! To enter the contest click the orange banner on the homepage and follow the links to a 3-question quiz.

We have over 200 Electronic Books!

You can view all of our Electronic Text Books by clicking Ejournals/Ebooks and selecting the first option "All Ebooks @ DML" on the drop down menu. This new page contains all of the books we get from three different publishers (Stat!Ref, Ovid and MD Consult) in one convenient place. You can view the books in subject or alphabetical order. There is something for everyone!

Attention Article Borrowers - CU Interlibrary loan unvailable 10/1-10/21

Due to the relocation of University Hospital and the Denison Memorial Library to Aurora, their interlibrary loan department is temporarily shut down. Starting Oct.1 through Oct. 21, we will be unable to order/borrow any journal articles or books from the university’s Health Sciences Library.

That library is the only place within Colorado holding many books and journal titles requested by our patrons. Since all out-of-state loans carry a charge of $10.00 per item, many requests previously obtainable free from the university will now incur this standard out-of-state charge. Although, as usual, we will not order any chargeable items without prior authorization from the requestor, please be advised that between Oct. 1-21, many titles normally available quickly and for free may take longer to obtain and incur unexpected costs.

We will try to let you know in advance if atypical charges might apply in order to save time and frustration during these temporary limitations. We will always try to fill your requests from local and free sources as best we can. Please be aware, also, that the Health Sciences Library will be open to live customers starting Oct. 15. Their new address on the Anschutz Medical Campus is: 12950 E. Montview Blvd in Aurora.

Thank you for your patience during this transitional period.

Attention Podiatrists: Foot & Ankle International is Online

Foot & Ankle International is now available online through the library! Go to www.denvermedlib.org and type "Foot" into the "Find a Journal" box. Coverage is from 1999-Present.

What you think of us

In June we surveyed our patrons about the library's services and collection. Here are the results (click here for the full report):

Surveys returned: 137

Evaluation of existing services:

		Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor	Don't Know
Information desk service		73%	18%	0%	0%	10%
Literature search by a librarian		71%	12%	1%	0%	17%
Article Request		73%	10%	2%	0%	15%
Classes or one-on-one training		16%	9%	2%	1%	73%

Our comments: It is encouraging to know our existing services are well recieved. It is now obvious to us that our clients are either unaware that we provide training or they have not had a chance to take advantage of it . We teach classes on request and we are always willing to provide one-on-one training as needed. If you would like to brush up on your literature searching skills, or if you just need a little help with common computer applications, just let us know!


Likeliness to use possible new services:

		Very Likely	Likely	Un-likely	Very Unlikely	Not Sure
Chat/Instant Message reference		7%	22%	20%	36%	16%
Reservable meeting/training room		12%	24%	18%	35%	7%
Online tutorials		27%	38%	17%	11%	7%
Refer a patient to the library for info		33%	35%	17%	9%	6%
Remote login to library content		60%	21%	9%	4%	6%

Our Comments: Your input suggests we may not pursue all of these services at this time, however, we will definitely pursue a way to extend electronic access to more of our library patrons. Currently this service is limited to physicians. If you are interested in having remote access to the library electronically, please come speak with us! In addition, we have always been a place to refer patients to the library for more health related information. We will continue to provide this service, but we would like to encourage more of our caregivers to take advantage of the service. If you would like a free "Info Rx" pad to direct your patients to the library after a visit, you need only ask us!


Electronic versus print materials:

We asked whether you agreed with the following statement:

"It would be okay with me if most of the library's content were availble electronically rather than in print"

38% of respondents said they strongly agreed, and 31% agreed, while 16% and 9% disagreed or strongly disagreed. 6% were neutral.

Our Comments: We feel that because only 25% (16+9%) responded negatively to the idea, a transition to a more electronic library environment is definitely in our future. We will certainly maintain a small browsing collection of our most important journals in print and online, but the majority will become "online-only". If you didn't already tell us, please let us know which journals we ought keep in their print formats for easy browsing.


Journal suggestions:

Along those lines, we asked you to list journals of importance to you and your profession. More than 270 total titles were given, resulting in a list of 163 individual titles, many of which we already subscribe to. As we renew our existing collection, we will incoroporate some new titles to reflect user demand. We cannot afford to subscribe to every title nominated, so we apologize if we do not obtain your favorite title. Please don't hesitate to talk to us about it, though!


Your Comments:

We asked how we could help make your job easier, and you gave us great feedback! We are heartened to have so many positive compliments for the library. We also hear that you would like more afterhours access to the library. We were unfortuntaly required to end the former method of afterhours access via a keypad on the back door after we experienced several thefts. We will take your comments to our leadership to see if we can find another way to allow access to our patrons while the library is not staffed. We welcome your ideas! For a full listing of comments, click here. You can also read and download the full survey report here, and copies are available at the information desk in the library.


Demographics:

Administration- 3%, Allied Health Professionals- 12%, Department Heads/Managers- 10%, Interns/Residents- 3%, Nurses- 22%, Physicians- 42%, Other- 8%.


We thank you for your input!

Download Full Report (Word)

P/SL Author: LisaMarie Martinez

LisaMarie Martinez, P/SL Day Surgery RN, has published many health related newspaper articles. Her latest, "Body Watch: Docs Prescribe Summer Rx" appears in Denver's Urban Spectrum. We're proud to call LisaMarie one of DML's best patrons. Have you or someone you know published recently? Let us know!

DML Survey Closes

Thanks to the more than 130 people who participated in our user survey! We look forward to sharing the results of the survey as soon as we can tabulate them.

Survey time!

Employees and affiliates of P/SL: Please take a moment to answer our survey (click on the "DML Survey" button on our homepage). This will help us keep our services and subscriptions current and relevant to you. It is seven questions long and only takes a few minutes to complete. Thank you!

Denver Medical Library Blog

The Denver Medical Library has created this blog as a way to keep our clients informed of changes at the library, new services, and news that affects: Denver Medical Society members, Presbyterian/St. Luke's employees and affiliates, Colorado Medical Society members, and our consumer health patrons.

We hope you find it useful!