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Books & Bytes

Volume 3, Number 6    April 1991

Books & Bytes is produced by the HSLIC Library Staff for Health Sciences Center personnel. Copyright University of Washington.

Table of Contents

  1. Administrative Services
  2. Clinical Alerts Available on MEDLARS Network
  3. HSLIC on Display
  4. Harborview Library Access After Hours
  5. Alert Service for Retracted Publications
  6. Recent Gifts
  7. Curious About our Fireworks?
  8. New Serials Additions, March 1991

Administrative Services

by Kathleen

In the last two issues of Books & Bytes, we introduced the HSLIC units and staff which are responsible for delivering user services and acquiring and managing the collection. This month the focus is on Administrative Services, which works behind the scenes in supporting library operations.

Lead by Carolyn Weaver, Associate Director for Administration, Administrative Services is responsible for providing a wide variety of general office services to library staff and users, including secretarial support, personnel services, purchasing, travel, billing for services and products, facilities maintenance, security oversight, and public relations.

Sara Yashar, Administrative Secretary, both supervises section operations and serves as the confidential secretary to the Director. Among other tasks, she is the production manager for Books & Bytes and oversees annual sales and distribution of the HSLIC Serials Holdings List.

Louise Lippmann, the Library's receptionist, is the voice on most Audio Library recordings and the person most likely to answer the phone when you call the Administrative Services number. Susan Meyers has a split assignment as budget and purchasing technician for Administrative Services and Program Assistant to the State Resource Service. Amy Jones provides general secretarial support.

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Clinical Alerts Available on MEDLARS Network

by Carolyn Weaver, Associate Director for Administration

In a move designed to accelerate the distribution of potentially life-saving medical information from NIH to health professionals, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) now transmits clinical alerts over its MEDLARS network. The first alert, issued on January 18, was a 74-line statement by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development regarding the efficacy of a drug used to treat HIV-infected children.

The Health Sciences Library immediately receives a full-text copy of each Clinical Alert via Internet, which we will forward to appropriate individuals and departments via email. We are also exploring options for posting alerts on UW REFERENCE LIBRARY.

Printed copies of alerts are available both at the HSLIC Reference Desk and at the K.K. Sherwood Library at Harborview. Library liaisons will routinely send copies of new alerts to the departments or schools for which they are responsible. GRATEFUL MED users will find a summary of the clinical findings in the online news file, along with a phone number at NLM to call for the complete version of the alert.

For further information about the Clinical Alert program, contact Elaine Martin at HSLIC (phone 543-3408 or email to mickey@u.washington.edu) or Ellen Howard at K.K. Sherwood (phone 223- 3360 or email to ehh@u.washington.edu).

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HSLIC on Display

by Elaine Martin, Associate Director for Education, Clinical, and Research Services

Health Sciences Open House, April 12-13

Two exhibits from the Health Sciences Library will featured at the 24th Health Sciences Open House, April 12-13, Room T-485. "Need Information? Contact a Health Sciences Librarian," focuses on health sciences librarianship as a career. The exhibit illustrates the role of the librarian on the health care team and shows how librarians are trained to locate a variety of information resources.

The second exhibit, "Partners in Health Care," showcases the Health Sciences Library as a resource in the strategic management of biomedical information, aiding UW health care professionals and their patients in making informed health care decisions. Visitors can get hands-on experience with a variety of computer information retrieval systems and educational software packages.

National Library Week, April 15-19

April 15-19 is National Library Week. "Partners in Health Care," HSLIC's Health Sciences Open House exhibit focusing on the role of the library in the health care delivery process at UW, will be on display all week in the Library.

Other National Library Week activities include new-user demonstrations of UW Reference Library (UWREFLIB) in the U-Search Center from 10 am - noon Monday thru Thursday. UW faculty, staff, and students are urged to use this opportunity to learn to search this free bibliographic retrieval system, which includes the complete MEDLINE database from 1986 to the present.. Experienced users can get assistance with UWREFLIB search strategy from 1-3 p.m. daily in the U-Search Center.

Watch for additional information about HSLIC's National Library Week celebration.

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Harborview Library Access After Hours

by Ellen Howard, K.K. Sherwood Librarian

The K.K. Sherwood Library (KKS) reading room, journal collection and photocopier are accessible to Harborview faculty, staff and students even when the library is not staffed, including nights, weekends and university holidays. For access when the door is locked, call Harborview Security, 223-3193, and a guard will open the door.

Now that all UW affiliates can easily access the current five years of MEDLINE using UWREFLIB via personal computer, most Harborview users can conduct their own literature searches from office locations. The printed Index Medicus can also be used in the Library to locate articles of interest. For security reasons, the KKS computer terminals are available only when the Library is staffed. The Security guard can provide access to the textbook collection in order to photocopy information to be used for patient care.

Users can turn on the photocopier,which is operated with cash or Copy Quick Cards. If KKS staff are not available, users may call the HSLIC Reference Desk at 543-3394 during regular reference hours and ask for assistance. Users should tell the Reference staff if a question is related to patient care, as clinical questions get top priority. Depending upon the urgency of the problem, copies of materials in HSLIC can be sent to Harborview via fax.

While the library is regularly open 8 am - 5 pm, Monday through Friday, the facility may occasionally be unstaffed for a brief period while staff members are engaged elsewhere. Users with urgent questions are urged to call the HSLIC Reference Desk for assistance. Or leave a note on the desk or a message on the answering machine (223-3360) and the KKS staff will handle the question when they return.

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Alert Service for Retracted Publications

by Molly Bernard, IME Coordinator

An Alert Service for Retracted Publications is now available at HSLIC. This service can be used for preparing or revising scientific bibliographies, or for identifying retracted articles in personal reprint files.

Publications are retracted for various reasons, including post- publication discovery of errors, contaminated reagents, or scientific fraud. However, as the National Library of Medicine (NLM) notes, "Some articles that report results...based on fraudulent data are not formally retracted. For some of these only a comment exists." NLM continues to cooperate with journal editors to improve reporting methods for retracted publications.

The HSLIC's Alert Service for Retracted Publications identifies only those articles which have been reported by NLM's MEDLINE database and may not be comprehensive. The Library assumes no liability for retracted information not reported through this mechanism.

A comprehensive list of retracted publications included in MEDLINE is maintained in a binder at the Reference Desk labeled"MEDLINE-Published Retractions, 1966-present." The list is updated each month with a printout of citations indexed with the subject heading, "Retraction of Publication."

Retracted articles on this list which appear in HSLIC-owned serials are stamped in blue ink with the message:

This article has been retracted, according to data published in the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database. A comprehensive list of MEDLINE-published retractions is available at the UW HSLIC Reference Desk.

The Alert Service for Retracted Publications is one of many services provided by the HSLIC to support the patient care, research, and educational missions of its clientele.

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Recent Gifts

We wish to gratefully acknowledge monetary donations recently made to the K.K. Sherwood Library Fund in memory of Mrs. Ruth Sherwood Elder. The memorials from Ms. Barbara L. Ratcliffe, Mr. Lawrence L. Sherwood, and Dr. and Mrs. Wade W. Sherwood will be used to enhance library services for the Harborview facility.

Acknowledgment and appreciation is also extended to the following individuals and organizations who have recently donated materials or funds to HSLIC:

Dr. Thomas Bell; Dr. B. Raymond Fink; Dr. Hjordis M. Foy; Dr. Sherrilynne Fuller; Dr. John Glomset; Mr. Blake Marcus Harrison; Mrs. Frances Honeycutt; Dr. Kathi Kemper; Dr. John Kobayashi; Mrs. Paul Nemours; Dr. Russell Ross; Mr. Jaroslaw Saikewicz; Dr. Craig Scott; Dr. Ron Singler; Dr. Jack M. Snyder; Dr. Susan L. Woods; Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute; Department of Epidemiology; Health Sciences News and Information Services; Medex Northwest; Department of Medical Education; Division of Metabolism; Nursing Education Department; Department of Opthamology; Department of Periodontics; Department of Pharmaceutics; Department of Physiological Nursing; Department of Radiology; Division of Rheumatology; Department of Urology.

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Curious About our Fireworks?

Explosiv is the shareware screen saving utility used on HSLIC computers to prevent pixel burn-in on the video display. Rather than simply blanking the screen when the computer is not in use, Explosiv displays always-moving fireworks which indicate that the computer is turned on though inactive. The user can specify the number of minutes of inactivity before Explosiv is invoked, and it is not affected by resident clocks. It works only on DOS-based machines.

Explosiv is copyrighted by Reidar Gresseth and Chris Hook. You can get a copy from the MicroLab in HSLIC by providing a formatted diskette. As shareware the program may be distributed freely; but a payment of $5 is expected from those who use it. Direct inquiries to: Reidar Gresseth, #207 - 2345 W. 5th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6K 1S6.

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New Serials Additions, March 1991

A A C N's clinical issues in critical care nursing, v.2(1991)--.

Biological mass spectrometry,v.20(1991)--.

Coronary artery disease,v.1(1990)--.

Critical reviews in clinical laboratory sciences, v.12:n.3(1980)--.

Genetic counseling (Geneva, Switzerland), v.1(1990)--.

Harvard mental health letter, v.7(1990/1991)--.

Journal of adolescent health, v.12(1991)--.

Perspectives in clinical pharmacy, v.9(1991)--.

Reports on H I V/A I D S, 1988--.

Syllabus for the Macintosh, Latest 3 years only.
Teaching Learning Center.

U S P D I. Special state supplement, Washington,1990-.
Reference Book Stacks: QV 740 AA1 U487

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