UNC HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY HIGHLIGHTS ANNUAL REPORT 2001-2002

INTRODUCTION

During 2001-02 the HSL expanded its vision for the future. Our new vision states, "The Health Sciences Library will be an essential partner to the success of all health related programs and activities supported by the University. The Library's expertise will have high proven benefit to achieving the University's desired educational, research and health services outcomes."

We adopted five major goals to lead us toward achieving this vision: (1) to provide library users with the information they need when, where and how they need it; (2) to provide library users with beneficial information services at the right time and place; (3) to provide them with instruction and educational services needed to develop and maintain information competencies throughout their lifetimes; (4) to meet the health information needs of NC citizens through our community outreach services; (5) to provide useful knowledge management services to our academic and health care community. We made significant progress this past year toward achieving these goals.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Library has continued to evolve rapidly to provide access to information resources electronically

• HSL offers nearly 2,000 online journals (about half of our journal titles overall). HSL ranks 2nd nationally among 7 peers (1) in its electronic journal holdings. However, in a web survey of HSL primary users conducted in the spring, 2002, the greatest need expressed was for more electronic journals.
• HSL spent $331 per primary user this year (Health Affairs faculty, students and residents) on the collection in all formats, behind only University of Pittsburgh among 7 peers.
• Many e-resources are now available for mobile (PDA) access from HSL (http://www.hsl.unc.edu/pda/hslpda.cfm). HSL is in the forefront in providing library resources and services using this technology. Staff can "beam" library educational materials directly to a user's handheld computer; provide updated information on library hours and services, and more. In Health Affairs this mobile technology is so popular that PDAs are now required for several groups of medical and nursing students.
• HSL is assuming more of a publisher role. This year HSL began digitizing the highly used collection of community health assessment papers produced by students in the School of Public Health (http://www.hsl.unc.edu/phpapers/phpapers.cfm)
• HSL maintains an "ethnic health" collection and web site of Spanish language health information resources

Use of the Library's electronic resources has increased dramatically

• Use of UNCLE, HSL's Digital Library, increased 6.5% over last year. Digital library searches from off campus increased 12% over last year.
• Visits to the HSL web site (where users access library educational materials, information and services) increased 73.7% over last year.
• The number of repeat visitors to the HSL web site increased 76% over last year.
• The use of electronic resources is increasing dramatically, but the use of print resources is still high. Print circulation reversed its downward trend and increased 1% this year. There were slight declines in the number of library resources used on site and the number of photocopies made.
• Library users requested 6.85% more items not owned by HSL than last year, totaling 3,500 requests. The Library obtains these items for a fee, usually within several days. Many articles are sent directly to users' desktops electronically.

Library services have been extended to new users

• HSL electronic reference service is available as a link from UNC Health Care's web site as a special service for HSL's clinical clientele in the hospital and to North Carolina citizens.
• HSL librarians select electronic consumer health information resources for accessing from the UNC Womens and Childrens Hospitals web site.
• HSL gained funding from the Pediatrics Department to hire a half time clinical information specialist to provide information and education services to pediatrics faculty and residents.

Library services respond to more complex information needs

• HSL began planning how to provide advanced database search service and other information services to aid in research proposal development and IRB review processes.
• HSL is planning new bioinformatics information services to support faculty, staff and students. HSL coordinated offering a course this spring from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), with over 200 enrollees on campus.
• HSL librarians answered 22% more "expert level" questions for library users than last year. The trend is toward librarians answering more "expert" questions requiring extensive research or searches than "basic services" questions (last year the ratio was 50:50, this year it is 60:40).
• HSL librarians developed a popular "evidence-based medicine" web site that has seen over 3,000 visits since November 2001. This web site describes EBM classes and educational support, lists current EBM research, and links to EBM resources.
• HSL librarians agreed to work in partnership with UNC Family Medicine faculty to write evidence-based synopses of medical literature that answers typical primary care questions for clinicians. This is part of a national effort called Family Practice Information Network.

Services have been made more accessible electronically

• HSL led efforts to promote the use of mobile technologies campus wide by hosting a Mobile Technologies Fair with over 220 registrants; by hosting popular monthly PDA forums open to anyone on campus at which new mobile technologies are featured; and by developing special web guides for accessing PDA resources. HSL's Informatics Fellow is researching potential PDA applications on campus and is helping develop educational tools for medical students on PDAs. The Library developed the following PDA resource guide: http://www.hsl.unc.edu/guides/focusonpda.cfm
• HSL electronic services to distance education students and faculty in Health Affairs have grown dramatically. These services range from assisting faculty to select web resources to use in courses; obtaining copyright permission and paying royalties for use of e-resources in teaching; troubleshooting remote access problems; providing e-reserve copies of articles and documents students need; and more. The HSL provided access to nearly 3,000 documents for e-reserve for 117 classes this year, double the numbers from last year. The Distance Education Specialist promotes the services of all campus libraries to distance education programs, and has helped make the library services one of the most highly appreciated services by distance education faculty and students.
• HSL librarians are available to answer remote users' questions "Live and Online" via the Web. This new service will be heavily promoted during the upcoming HSL renovation and also is a service available to distance education students.

Library education helped Health Affairs students and health care providers develop information management competencies

• HSL librarians created and revised online learning modules that were used on the Library's web site more than 10,000 times during the year. There currently are ten online modules covering topics ranging from Finding Health Statistics, Finding Drug Information, and basic database searching.
• HSL librarians provided information management instruction to 4,397 persons in 264 classes, an increase over last year. Students demonstrate their competence in database searching, use of the Web, and knowledge of health information resources typically by completing assignments graded by library faculty. HSL provides instruction in all five Health Affairs schools, to freshman science majors taking English 12, and on demand to hospital residents and other student groups.

Library outreach services to health care providers and citizens throughout North Carolina improved their access to health information

• The AHEC Digital Library (ADL) based in HSL nearly doubled its membership to 8,892 registered "members" this year spread throughout every county in NC. HSL began marketing the ADL to Health Affairs alumni as a benefit of joining the Friends of the Health Sciences Library. The e-resources available on the ADL grew to 1,280 online databases, books, and journals accessible to health care providers, residents and preceptors. ADL has become a cornerstone of the statewide AHEC program and a model that has received national acclaim. Its use grew by over 500% this year. ADL's development is funded jointly by the Duke Endowment and NC AHEC.
• HSL and SILS won federal funding as the sole contractor working with the National Library of Medicine to develop NC Health Info, a web database of local health information resources. Scheduled to become "live" later this fall, NC Health Info will also provide direct links to MedlinePlus, the NLM database of health information for the public (http://www.nchealthinfo.org/). Senator John Edwards' Washington office has already linked to this resource from their web site.
• HSL librarians taught 180 public and community college librarians in nine sessions across the State about the health information resources available through the State's digital library, NC-LIVE.
• HSL acted quickly following Sept. 11 to create a section for terrorism, bioterrorism, and biopreparedness on the Library's web site. Some of these sources, like anthrax symptoms, are accessible by hand held PDAs so clinicians can always have the information at hand. The Library's web site continues to provide up to date alerts on the latest new information in these critical areas.
• The Library provided 8.10% more articles to users in other libraries than last year (requests totaled 23,854), most within North Carolina.
• Carol Jenkins joined the Carolina Speakers Bureau and gave two talks to community groups on "Wired for Health: Finding Health Answers on the Internet", assisted by HSL librarians.
• Librarians at the HSL are training members of the NC Chapter of the International Mine Safety Professionals to use health databases to help them address safety concerns such as occupational falls. Other groups, businesses, and researchers across the state also call on the Health Sciences Library for its expertise.
• The HSL issues borrowers cards to any resident in NC who wants one. More than 130 library cards to members of the public were issued this year. About 20% of these were for persons outside the Triangle area.
• The HSL librarians this past year answered about 200 health related questions over the Internet for people in NC communities. The library also offers many health resources written for the public freely accessible via its web site: http://www.hsl.unc.edu.

The Library completed its pre-construction planning and began preparation for the first major renovation of its building in over twenty years

• Several hundred thousand volumes of books and journals were moved into temporary storage, from which items can be retrieved on demand. Library staff and user services will be compacted onto three floors, allowing demolition and reconstruction to take place on the lower three floors during the coming year. The Library will remain open to users during a two-year construction period. A federally funded Postgraduate Fellow assisted with renovation preparations this year.

FACULTY SERVICE, AWARDS and REWARDS

Francesca Allegri served on the editorial board of Medical Reference Services Quarterly. Linda Collins received a Continuing Education Award from the Medical Library Association (MLA). Jim Curtis served on the editorial board of the Journal of the Medical Library Association. Christie Degener served on the editorial board of Serials Review. Pinkey DuBose, Business Manager, received the Chancellors Award in 2001. Lynn Eades received the Marguerite Abel Service Award from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, MLA. Scott Garrison is the Editor of MLANET, MLA's website. Barrie Hayes was awarded a Fellowship from the National Library of Medicine to attend the Woods Hole Institute in Medical Informatics. Brian Hilligoss was awarded Beta Phi Mu's Achievement Award; and the ASIST Pratt-Severn Best Student Research Award.

Carol Jenkins was made a lifetime Fellow of the Medical Library Association in 2001 and served the association as Board Member and President for 2002. She served as Past President of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries through November 2001. Wallace McLendon served on the Board of North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance. Margaret Moore and Julia Shaw-Kokot co-edited a column in Medical Reference Services Quarterly and with Kathleen McGraw they co-authored a chapter in the text, Health Care Informatics: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Marjory Waite served on the editorial boards of Internet Medicine and Nursing Research. Eight library faculty have attained membership in the Academy of Health Information Professionals, recognition of professional accomplishment from the Medical Library Association.

HSL's accomplishments over the past year are primarily the work of a dedicated, expert, and enthusiastic staff. In addition to these successes, staff serve the University on the Faculty Council (Kathleen McGraw), Employee Forum (Linda Collins), University Manager's Association (Jim Curtis, Francesca Allegri), Women's Center (Lisa Rae) and numerous other committees and groups. They are very active professionally, giving numerous guest lectures and with more than forty publications and presentations over the past year. We have strived to recruit the best, and reward them appropriately through salaries, time for research and professional development, and recognition for excellence and teamwork. Our goal is for our librarians' salaries to be in the top (fourth) quartile of peer academic health sciences libraries nationally. Overall this year our salaries were in the third quartile among our peers (defined for these purposes as those research libraries supporting a four year medical school as well as other health sciences professional schools). Despite recent salary increases, the Library has not advanced in this standing.

NEW FACULTY HIRES

Lisa Rae became the Library's new Director of Development and Communications in 2001. Brian Hilligoss was hired as Database Developer for the grant funded project, North Carolina Health Information Online. The Health Sciences Library experienced a very unusual year, with no other faculty vacancies occurring. The Library was chosen in a national competition to be the host library in 2002 for a Postgraduate Fellow from the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The Library also hosted two Postgraduate Informatics Fellows supported by NLM funding.

FUNDRAISING DEVELOPMENTS

HSL has raised nearly one million dollars to supplement our current renovation project budget. This goal was met primarily from numerous relatively small gifts. Renovation gifts are included in the Library's $5 million goal in the Carolina First Campaign. With our own young fundraising program, it is a challenge for HSL to gain access to corporate and foundation prospects and to develop collaborative proposals with other schools. HSL is fortunate to have the support of Charles Hamner, Retired President of the NC Biotechnology Center, as a new member of our Board, and the support of an active Friends of the Health Sciences Library organization. A significant gift this year from Francine Netter Carlson enabled the Library to mount an exhibit of selected works of the noted medical artist Frank Netter. The Library is currently recruiting for a new position in communications and annual giving.

FUTURE PLANS

Our main goal for this coming year is to support the renovation of our facility, which has been on the drawing board for over four years. Construction begins this fall with bond-financed state funds augmented by private support. The total project budget is about $12 million. This renovation is an extremely complex process because the library staff and users will occupy the building throughout the renovation (24 months).

We have just relocated staff and services to the upper floors of the library so that construction can begin below. In approximately a year's time, when this stage is completed, we will reverse the process and occupy the lower floors. All the while we will dodge construction workers to provide services meeting students' needs according to various student calendars, last minute needs of faculty, grant writers and clinicians, the walk-in public and the growing number of users in locations around the state and globe. At the same time, construction will be underway in nearly every other Health Affairs building that faces on Columbia Street. Among other things, this means that there are virtually no "escape" spaces for anyone. We are hoping to promote electronic services as much as possible, but we do expect that our users will be inconvenienced at times.

We are motivated now by the dream of the 21st century Health Sciences Library that we will have when renovation is complete. It will provide attractive, comfortable surroundings for reflection, study, conversation and learning. It will house leading edge technology to encourage educational innovation by faculty and support lifelong learning through outreach; discovery by scientists and students working collaboratively with hi-tech tools; and the development of the latest information services to improve health and health care. It will probably be the only facility, old or new, in Health Affairs that actively encourages the informal mingling of faculty and students from all the health disciplines.

In addition to renovating our building, we will continue to develop the innovative services described earlier. In particular we will focus on providing more "expert" level information services for clinicians and bioinformaticians; expanding health information services to the public; developing a strong digital library of web based health information and services; increasing access to e-resources as much as possible; and continuing to promote our educational role to build lifelong information management competencies among faculty and students in all health disciplines. We want to be seen as an information technology "think tank" where innovative applications can be developed and tested; as well as a reliable library services provider.

CONCLUSION

On the whole the HSL has enjoyed excellent support during the past year. We ended the year with a small net increase in our base budget and sustained temporary and permanent budget reductions without cutting permanent positions. The same was true for the Distance Education funds that we administer on behalf of all the libraries. Our staff is highly regarded on and off campus for their expertise, service and innovation. Our library is considered to be one of the best in the nation. I am grateful for the opportunity to provide leadership under such circumstances. I appreciate the support we have received consistently from campus administration and look forward to a continuation of this positive relationship.