MD Consult - Find The Answer

Judith Barnes, Medical Librarian
Ingham Regional Medical Center
John W. Chi Memorial Medical Library
Lansing, MI

1. How are you effectively marketing your library and library holdings among your patrons? What tips can you share with your colleagues that you found to be successful?
The Chi Memorial Medical Library at Ingham Regional Medical Center held a lunchtime conference with a live demonstration of the system. Attending were the Director of Medical Education, Coordinator of Continuing Medical Education and Andrew Borgschulte, my Elsevier Customer Engagement Specialist. (We suggest that the old saying “if you feed them, they will come” would have gone a long way to pull more people into the demonstration: i.e. cookies, punch, pretzels, cheese, vegetable platter, dip, etc.) After the lunch session, Andrew Borgschulte met with attending physicians as they came to the Physicians’ Lounge. There he was able to speak with several physicians who could not attend the lunch session.

On day two, Andrew took up a position in the Library and spoke with physicians, nurses and ancillary personnel coming to the library.

We continue to display posters and have the Quick Reference Cards at each computer workstation (16) enabling users to sign up for mobile access.

Next we will advertise the Webinars to spark additional interest.

As users approach the Librarian for assistance with the computers, First Consult and MD Consult will be the first demonstration and users will be referred to it when they ask for “point-of-care” or “evidence-based” resources.

We plan to put a small article in the Physicians Newsletter in October to continue promoting the resources.

2. If you weren’t a medical librarian, what would you be?
I suppose I would have turned out to be a computer geek of some kind. My background includes training in computer programming. READ MORE >>

Meet August’s Medical Librarian of the Month:

Rebecca A. Caton, MLIS

Assistant Director of Library Services – Midwestern University

Downers Grove, IL and Glendale, AZ

1. How are you effectively marketing your library and library holdings among your patrons?  What tips can you share with your colleagues that you found to be successful?
   Our library staff does a great job of marketing on each of our campuses. We lecture in academic classes, offer library savvy and other helpful classes to new employees, attend campus lectures and functions, and visit faculty and staff in their offices.  Providing “office-calls” for assistance with searching a database or program allows us to show our capabilities, strengths and value.  We also provide community guides on our website to help our users find the most useful databases (including MD Consult), holdings and resources for their profession.  In general, our library staff is trained to help answer any question someone has, whether it is directing someone to the nearest vending machine on campus or helping guide our users to finding evidence-based literature.  In our specialized health care university setting, it certainly helps to be friendly and supportive.
2. If you weren’t a medical librarian, what would you be?
   I would be a systems librarian.  I enjoy helping troubleshoot the intricacies of the library systems.  If not in the library field, I suppose I would be a nutritionist.  In general, I enjoy teaching and helping people as well as exploring information, especially in the healthcare environment… READ MORE >>

Meet July’s Medical Librarian of the Month:

Jane D. Saxton, MLIS

Director, Library Services

Bastyr University

1. How are you effectively marketing your library and library holdings among your patrons? What tips can you share with your colleagues that you found to be successful?

Excellent service is the best way to market a library. Library staff members also participate in university affairs, conduct faculty development sessions and teach information literacy classes, all of which offer outreach opportunities. Food is a good way to get students interested in what you have to say. Our quarterly Q&E (E for Eat) sessions are very popular. Librarians bring healthy snacks, such as Peacamole dip (fresh green peas, cilantro, almond butter) and veggies, and set up laptops in the Dining Commons. Needless to say, we field many questions on effective database and journal searching.

2. If you weren’t a medical librarian, what would you be?

I would be a paleoanthropologist, tromping over hill and dale in the glaring sun searching for fossilized clues to long lost ancestors.

3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

On the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, near Tofino. This is a remote and pristine realm of first growth forests, birds, bears and other wild creatures, and stretches sandy beach; the quiet is a presence in itself. But it’s not too remote for reading the daily New York Times on my iPhone!

4. If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?

A superpower? Definitely perfect recall—the Fantastic Four missed out on this one. Think of the languages I could learn, the vistas that would open in perceiving the world from multiple perspectives embedded in the deep structure of linguistic expression!

If you’d like to be considered for a feature, answer the same questions as Jane above and send them to c.sahrmann@elsevier.com.  Please also include your name, institution, city, state and a photo of yourself.

Each month we are going to feature one of the hundreds of medical librarians who provide MD Consult to their patrons.

I am proud to present our first featured medical librarian:

Leslie Pirl-Roth, MLS

Director of Library Services @ WeSH

PaSILC Central Services Librarian

WeSH LEP Coordinator

Wernersville, PA

Get to know Leslie as she shares her answers to the  questions we posed to her.

1.How are you effectively marketing your library and library holdings among your patrons? What tips can you share with your colleagues that you found to be successful?

I am constantly sending emails to all my staff about the new items we have or the research I’ve done. I am part of the orientation of new RNs and show them our library resources webpage (which now includes your link) on the Smart Board that we received in a LSTA grant that I wrote in 2008. Another thing is that it’s important to display our new materials. Last but not least, I always have CHOCOLATE in the staff Library and remind our folks to help themselves to a little piece of “bliss…” or at least some “kisses!” (we are very close to Chocolatetown (Hershey) PA).

2.If you weren’t a medical librarian, what would you be?

A researcher!!!! I love doing research and that’s one of my favorite jobs. My second favorite is a Cataloger.I love adding bib records to our database and put in all access points and describing the new item available in our collections to entice our users to borrow the item!

3.If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Walt Disney World all year round. It is the happiest place on earth and my favorite thing to do is plan for our next trip (2012 for our 20th wedding anniversary!)

4.If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?

FLYING! I wish I could fly, but when I dream about it, I always hit those telephone wires! (yes, they still exist in my dreams!)

If you’d like to be considered for a feature, answer the same questions as Leslie above and send them to me at c.sahrmann@elsevier.com.  Please also include your name, institution, city, state and a photo of yourself.