MDMLG News

There are inherent advantages to concluding results from a large pool of data using consistent methodologies. Individual studies may not generate significant results, but they might if data are pooled. Statistics that were insignificant or inconclusive in an initial study may prove to have validity in larger groups.

The advantages review articles can give to clinicians and researchers are numerous. They can define what is known and not known (or not proven). Single studies are less likely to provide definitive answers. They can summarize existing data and help define future research needs. Properly conducted and analyzed reviews can give clinicians more clear guidance in terms of patient care. In turn, clinicians can write better patient care policies, and provide better guidelines for care.

However, review articles cannot take the place of sound clinical reasoning. They cannot eliminate risk. They cannot "fix" bad methodology or statistical compilation. They are by nature not cutting edge. It takes a little bit of time for there to exist a large enough group of studies for the reviews to be a valid representation of results. Because the review process itself (as with any research process) ⁴ can contain bias, reviews cannot entirely eliminate bias, but they can control it to a much larger degree than an individual study, particularly if it has a smaller sample population. It's always wisest to look at the results using best clinical judgment.

Review articles can be the most efficient routes to an answer for many clinical queries. They can summarize results of many studies so that the clinician can make treatment decisions and advise their patients. Currently, there is more coverage of reviews than at any time in the past, and this trend will more than likely continue as Evidence-Based Medicine and best nursing practices increase. It's even more crucial that we all look at how the review is undertaken in order to understand the results.

1. Greenhalgh, Trisha. How to Read a Paper: the basics of evidence based medicine. 2^nd ed. London: BMJ Books, 2001
2. Evidence-based Medicine Recap: Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis (last viewed 5/31/05)
3. How to Use a Review (Centre for Health Evidence-Users' Guides to Evidence-Based Practice) (last viewed 5/31/05)
4. Cook DJ, Mulrow CD, Haynes RB. Systematic reviews: synthesis of best evidence for clinical decisions. Ann Intern Med. 1997 Mar 1;126(5):376-80.

Juliet Mullenmeister 
St. Joseph Mercy of Macomb Medical Library

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The Michigan Library Association Annual Conference will be held October 25-28, 2005 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This year's theme "Libraries Helping Grow Minds" was inspired by the city's gardens and sculpture park.

The Banquet keynote speaker T.H. Baughman, professor of history at the University of Central Oklahoma, will talk about his research on polar history and the leadership lessons learned from historical and polar figures. Other keynote speakers include Chris Crutcher, a family therapist and banned author, whose topic is "When real life meets the censor". Miles Harvey will present his latest research on the 16th Century French artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. The Academic and Research Library Division is seeking proposals for the poster sessions. The flyer, guidelines and application form are available on the Program page of the Conference Website. The Librarian on the Loose is resuming her travel adventures in Michigan during the summer. This year she is "blogging" and her journal and pictures will be presented at the live auction. Area attractions and walking and driving tours are listed on the Special Events Web site. Conference participants will receive admission discounts to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, the Gerald R. Ford Museum, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Meyer May House, Van Andel Museum Center, and Voight House Victorian Museum. The division and round tables programs and the program booklet will be posted on the Web site.

Marie-Lise Shams 
University of Detroit Mercy Dental Library

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MLA '05 -- Futuro Magnifico!

The 2005 MLA Futuro Magnifico Conference in San Antonio was a huge success. There was a large turn-out and the sessions were extremely informative. Attending the conference was a perfect opportunity to network, collaborate, and discuss important initiatives that were in progress with colleagues. This avenue of communication proved to be invaluable. It was clear from the variety of projects being undertaken, that as health information professionals we are reaching out to provide vital services to our patrons.

The following paper and poster sessions were presented by the Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library at Wayne State University:

Nandita S. Mani & Wendy G. Wu "Delivering Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Information Alerts: AvantGo and Weblogs to the Rescue!"

Sandra I. Martin, Deborah H. Charbonneau & Ellen B. Marks "House Calls, Information Clinics, and Inquiry: Revitalizing and Marketing Library Services to Clinicians"

Deborah H. Charbonneau, Ellen B. Marks & Annette M. Healy "Collaborative Campus-Community Model to Provide Quality Health Information to Arabic-Speaking Providers and Consumers"

Nandita S. Mani and Wendy G. Wu "A Diverse Information Delivery Method: AvantGo Made Easy for Librarians"

Sandra I. Martin & Deborah H. Charbonneau "Roadmap to Service Redesign: Innovation in Library Staff Development and Accountability"

More information on the MLA'05 Conference proceedings can be found on the MLANET.org website or you can purchase a copy of the MLA 2005 CD-ROM which contains plenary sessions and section programs.

Nandita Mani
Wayne State University / Shiffman Medical Library

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Pack your bags and head North for "Camp MHSLA: E-Ventures in Learning", the Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association Fall Conference. The 2005 Conference will be held at the beautiful Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville Michigan, thirty miles southwest of Traverse City, Michigan.

Programming for the three day conference will include an opening keynote address by Jean Chabut, Chief Administrative Officer of the Michigan Department of Community Health and a closing keynote address by clinical psychologist, Vince Cornellier, Ph.D. entitled: Information as energy - from Dewey Decimal to Quantum: Is the Librarian the motherboard?

MLA continuing education courses are scheduled for Wednesday, September 21:

1. Recreating services with New Technologies: Service strategies for the millennium (#2004, 8 contact hours), Stephen Abram, Dysart & Jones Associates, Toronto, ON
2. Copyright and electronic licensing issues (#4021, 4 contact hours), Marilu Goodyear, Lawrence, KS
3. Teaching evidence-based health care resources (#6611, 4 contact hours), Jan Glover

Other sessions include: Link Resolver, Technologies for Personal Information Management, Human Animal Bond, GMR Update and Contributed Posters and Papers.

In addition to networking, education and speakers, special events centered around the outdoor beauty of Fall in Northern Michigan will be part of the experience. Mark your calendars and plan to attend an exciting and stimulating conference. Registration materials will be mailed in early June.

For more information and registration packets, consult the MHSLA website ( http://www.mhsla.org ) or contact

Munson Medical Center
Department of Library Services
1105 Sixth Street, Traverse City, MI 49684
231-935-6170

Library-HealthSciences@mhc.net

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In a time of budget cuts, reduced government funding, and library closures, everyone has a responsibility to the hospital board to justify expenses. However, during this time when door counts mean little and many administrators believe everything to be free on the Internet, it is the health sciences librarian's responsibility to communicate the value and worth of the library resources. Whether it is fair or not, 'worth' and 'value' are often tied up with 'usage.' Usage statistics are tangibles that non-librarians, such as hospital boards, can understand. But what is the best way to communicate usage for the majority of our resources which are electronic? The MDMLG News has touched on this topic in the past. Reports and Statistics: Communicating the Value of Health Sciences Libraries appeared in the June 2004 issue (Vol. 30 #5). However, as a group, MDMLG has not undertaken a recent survey to see how medical librarians are maintaining statistics for e-resources. With many single-librarian libraries as MDMLG members, it is important to share knowledge about communicating our value, and with such rapidly changing technology, it is difficult to keep up on your own.

Coming soon to the MDMLG website will be a survey to determine how we keep track of our electronic resources as a group. The survey will be anonymous and the results will be published in the next issue of the MDMLG News with an analysis. Please participate if possible. Also, if you know of any good materials on the subject of keeping statistics on electronic resources such as books, websites, articles, software, etc., please send a list of suggested resources to Christina Wallace via email. The collated list will also appear in the next issue of the MDMLG News.

Brief Web-liography -- Electronic Resources and Usage Monitoring

Abels, EG., Cogdill, KW., Zach, L. "Identifying and communicating the contributions of library and information services in hospitals and academic health sciences centers." J Med Libr Assoc. 2004 January; 92(1): 46-55. 
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=314102

Bracke, PJ. "Web usage mining at an academic health sciences library: an exploratory study." J Med Libr Assoc. 2004 October; 92(4): 421-428.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=521513

Covey, Denise. (2002). Usage and Usability Assessment: Library Practices and Concerns.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub105/contents.html

Davis, P.M., Solla, L.R. "An IP-level analysis of usage statistics for electronic journals in chemistry: Making inferences about user behavior." Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Volume 54, Issue 11, Pages 1062-1068.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/104537254/ABSTRACT

Franklin, B., Plum, T. "Library usage patterns in the electronic information environment." Information Research, Vol. 9 No. 4, July 2004.
http://informationr.net/ir/9-4/paper187.html

Franklin B., Plum T. "Networked electronic services usage patterns at four academic health sciences libraries." Performance Measurement and Metrics, November 2002, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 123-133(11).
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/expand?pub=infobike://mcb/279/2002/00000003/00000003/art00002

ICOLC Issues Guidelines on Web Usage Statistics (1998).
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/9811/msg00005.html

ICOLC Release - Preferred Practices & Web Statistics Updated (2001).
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0112/msg00014.html

Luther, Judy. (2001). White Paper on Electronic Journal usage. Accessed May 24, 2005 at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub94/pub94.pdf

Rozic-Hristovski, A., Hristovski, D., Todorovski L. "Users' information-seeking behavior on a medical library Website." J Med Libr Assoc. 2002 April; 90(2): 210-217.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=100766

Shepherd, PT. "COUNTER: towards reliable vendor usage statistics." VINE, April 2004, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 184-189(6).
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/287/2004/00000034/00000004/art00008

Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
http://www.clir.org/index.html

Christina Wallace 
JSTOR

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Recently there was a great series of articles in the Journal of the Medical Library Association on the topic of expert searching. The following list, while not comprehensive, represents many aspects of expert searching.

Systematic reviews need systematic searchers
Jessie McGowan, Margaret Sampson
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 74-80.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545125

An evolution of experts: MEDLINE in the library school
Catherine Arnott Smith
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 53-60.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545122

Role of expert searching in health sciences libraries
Policy Statement by the Medical Library Association adopted September 2003
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 42-44.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545120

State of the art of expert searching: results of a Medical Library Association survey
Ruth Holst, Carla J. Funk
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 45-52.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545121

Peer training in expert searching: the observation effect
Dorice L. Vieira
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 69-73.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545124

Expert searching
Ruth Holst
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 41.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545119

The role of expert searching in the Family Physicians' Inquiries Network (FPIN)
Deborah Ward, Susan E. Meadows, and Joan E. Nashelsky
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 88-96.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545127

The librarian's roles in the systematic review process: a case study
Martha R. Harris
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 81-87.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545126

Understanding the foundation: the state of generalist search education in library schools as related to the needs of expert searchers in medical libraries
Scott Nicholson
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 January; 93(1): 61-68.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=545123

Christina Wallace 
JSTOR

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Congratulations to Jill Turner, the first recipient of the MDMLG Scholarship. She received a one-year membership to MDMLG, an invitation to the Summer Luncheon, an award certificate, her name on a plaque displayed in the LISP department, and a monetary award.

The ceremony on May 5^th went very well. Lynda Baker and Marilyn Kostrzewski presented the award. Photographs were taken to memorialize the event. Dr. Mika was very verbose in his appreciation for the support of our organization and establishing a new scholarship.

In addition, Doris Blauet and all her staff were there to celebrate the graduation and awards to Melanie Bednarski.

The award is great PR for our organization and a great opportunity for LIS students.

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Maureen LeLacheur passed away on April 13, 2005 after a long battle with cancer. She was 61 years old, and had been married to her husband, Bill, for 41 years.

Before becoming a librarian, Maureen was an English instructor at the Detroit Bible College. She started her librarian career working at Metropolitan Hospital, which turned into the Detroit Northwest Clinic Library. Her next job was at Mercy Hospital Library on Conner on the east side of Detroit. When that library closed in 2000, she transferred to the Henry Ford Hospital Sladen Library. She retired in 2002, but maintained her MDMLG membership. Most recently, she was able to attend the December MDMLG Meeting at Henry Ford Hospital. Her home address is listed in the MDMLG Directory, should you want to send a card to her husband.

Memorials, in lieu of flowers, should be sent to either:

Jews for Jesus
60 Haight Street
San Francisco, California 94102-5895

or

Michigan Theological Seminary
41550 Ann Arbor Trail
Plymouth, MI 48170

Valerie Reid
Henry Ford Hospital Sladen Library

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Karen Tubolino is pleased to announce that Christine Miller has accepted the position of MDMLG Secretary to complete Dee Callaway's term of office. Christine began taking minutes at our April 4^th meeting and we are all very grateful.

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Communications Committee 2004-2005

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