December 01, 2008

Planned Power Outage Wed Dec 3rd from 6 - 10pm

We have received notice from the UCHC Facilities Dept that a planned power outage of non-emergency power and lighting will take place Wed Dec 3rd from 6pm – 10pm. Within the library, it is expected to affect only the staff areas on the top floor. The rest of the library should continue to have normal power and lighting, although printing may be somewhat slower than usual. The library will remain open. Power to all areas should be restored at 10pm that evening. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks.

Evelyn Morgen, MSLS, AHIP

Library Director

University of Connecticut Health Center

Farmington, CT 06034

emorgen@uchc.edu

(860) 679-3323

Posted by webmster at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)

May 01, 2008

Library Renovation begins May 1st

The library renovation is starting a couple of weeks earlier than we expected – and I apologize for the short notice. We understand the need to maintain as quiet a study space as possible so are making the following accommodations.

Noise Control:
· The contractors will be here from 7am to about 3pm Mon – Fri, so evenings and weekends will be the quietest times in the library.
· There is no major construction involved such as jack hammering or walls being removed.
· The construction people have been advised not to use radios and to keep their voices down.
· Earplugs will be available at the main library desk starting May 2nd.
· We are exploring alternative study spaces you can use during the morning and early afternoons and will post suggestions.

Books & Journals:
Half our books are in retrievable storage – we can get them twice a day, and on weekends – just ask for any title you’re looking for at the circulation desk or call us at X3808. Journals published in 2003 or earlier are all now in the subbasement. 2004 to date are on the main floor of the library. We apologize for this inconvenience, but the result will provide greatly improved study spaces.

Schedule:
· May 1 & 2 – Contractors will put up plastic sheeting on top floor between construction area and mezzanine
· May 1 & 2 – Spiral staircase nearest construction will be cordoned off
· May 1 & 2 --Contractors will begin dismantling wooden shelves on top floor (G) (ten days)
· May 2 – Locked study carrels will be moved to main floor (B)
· May 8 – Construction begins on top floor
· May 15 – Café area construction begins (outside main entrance to library)
· June 2 – July 18 – CEC air conditioning installed
· Aug 15 - Upper floor (G) finished - reference staff moved upstairs
· Aug 18 – Sep 17 – Shafer study rooms expanded into current reference offices

Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or comments. Thanks.

Evelyn Morgen, Director
LMStowe Library
UConn Health Center
emorgen@uchc.edu
(860) 679-3323

Posted by Robert at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2005

Director's Report - August, 2005

By Evelyn B. Morgen, MSLS, AHIP
Director, Lyman Maynard Stowe Library

This is an ideal time to be the new director of the Lyman Maynard Stowe Library, and I am honored to have this opportunity. Dr. Ralph Arcari left the library in excellent condition. We have just successfully completed a major library renovation that creates an attractive, comfortable and welcoming learning environment. We have an experienced staff poised to accept new challenges. Use of the library – both virtually and in person – is growing significantly. Access to our e-resources topped 900,000 in FY05 – the highest number in the history of the library. One of my first goals is to meet with as many people as possible to hear your assessments of the strengths and challenges for the library and the services we provide. What would you like to see us do differently? What shouldn’t be changed? How can we serve the research, clinical, educational, and public components of UCHC more directly? I look forward to hearing your answers. Meanwhile, here are some recent news items.

Ask a Librarian Page

To make it easier for you to contact us directly, we have added an “Ask a Librarian” button to the top of our home page. You can use this form to send us an email question, to schedule a consultation with a librarian, or to see when we’re at the reference desk.

Retirement of Ralph Arcari, Library Director

The Library hosted a gala farewell party for Dr. Ralph Arcari on June 30th, 2005 to honor his retirement. 200 people attended including librarians from Maine to Maryland and UCHC staff. Entertainment was provided by Len Paplauskas’ band “Seizure”, and remarks were made by faculty and peers. Ralph will continue to teach his History of Medicine class. A plaque honoring Dr Arcari’s 30 years as library director is mounted in the library.

Library Renovation Completed

The library renovation was dedicated on May 13, 2005, and has been very successful. Our study areas and computers have been busy all summer long, and we hear many compliments about the attractive environment and the increased technology available. Reading tables and carrels have secure wireless and cable access to our electronic resources for people with UCHC logon privileges. Our public computers are available to everyone using the library including the general public.

School of Medicine PDA Initiative

The School of Medicine’s class of 2007 is the second class required to purchase handheld computers as they begin their third year. The library has played a key role by purchasing databases they can download, helping to teach students and faculty to use PDAs, and providing support to students. The databases we purchased include InfoRetriever, and LexiDrugs. We also recommend two free programs – Shots 2005 with immunization tables, and Archimedes, a clinical calculator database from Skyscape. Our PDA Resources page provides more detailed descriptions and instructions. http://library.uchc.edu/pda/ The Computer Education Center has a PDA Syncing station students can use if they are unable to download programs from their home. In addition, library staff helped create tutorials for the students with step-by-step answers to specific clinical cases.

Library Resources

One of our major challenges is to choose resources that best meet your needs in a manner that is proactive and yet fiscally responsible. Toward that end, we are asking you to help us choose a database that will provide excellent clinical support to our students, residents, fellows, and community faculty when they are off-campus. The news item about databases trials explains this issue in more detail. Please use our new “Ask a Librarian” page to email us your comments.

EBM
30 August 2005

Posted by Robert at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2005

Director's Report - January, 2005

by Ralph D. Arcari, Ph.D
Director, Lyman Maynard Stowe Library

Renovation
The Library renovation project begun in March, 2004, is approaching its final stages. Already completed and open for patron use are the Computer Education Center, the single point of service desk combining both circulation and reference functions, the patron self-service room and restrooms. Final project work includes a new reading area, a 24 hour study room and the offices for the staff of the Library Information and Education Services Department. Already the new reading tables adjacent to the single point of service desk appear to attract consistent use even though they are close to a public service desk where staff answer in-person and telephone inquiries.

The 24 hour study room is scheduled to be available for use by January 31, 2005. This area contains six rooms each of which can accommodate four persons. There are data connections in each room and wireless internet access is also available. The room is monitored at all times on a television monitor in the UCHC Public Safety Department. There is also a house phone in this study. During Library business hours, the 24 hour study will be accessible from a door inside the Library. When the Library is closed, this interior door will be locked and this study can be entered through an outside door equipped with a swipe card and keypad lock for which UCHC students will have access codes.

Completion of this renovation program is expected in February, 2005, a year after this project began. Planning for a rededication of the Library and reception is now underway.

Library Budget
Library journals in general are in transition from print to electronic formats. This is especially true in the life sciences where rapid access to research results and clinical studies is a significant consideration. The transition to electronic formats raises the cost for a journal subscription. The New England Journal of Medicine, for example, cost approximately $400 a year for an institutional print subscription. The electronic equivalent is $5,400.

Also, a large percentage of health sciences journals are obtained through publishers located in Europe. Sixty percent of the UCHC Library journals are obtained through commercial companies with headquarters in European Union countries. Because of the strength of the euro compared to the dollar, it is a sufficient challenge to simply retain the number of journals for which subscriptions are already in place, much less add new titles.

The Library budget proposal for FY 2005/2006 will request additional funding for new journal titles to respond to faculty requests as well as for increased capacity for certain commercial databases which receive such extensive use that our licensed maximum number of users is reached on a regular basis.

Indirect Cost Study
Library staff cooperated in a study to determine the amount of usage the library receives by those engaged in research sponsored by the Federal government. The results of this study provide data that assist in determining the indirect cost rate that UCHC can charge the Federal government based on the use of institutional resources, like the Library, by Federally supported grant programs. However, an added outcome of this study is a determination of Library usage by board categories of users.

Questionnaires, both print and electronic, were used over a series of survey days, to determine who was using the library and for what purpose. The results are noted below:
User Category Percentage of usage
School of Medicine 48%
School of Dental Medicine 24%
Graduate School, Basic Sciences 9%
Graduate School, Public Health 5%
John Dempsey Hospital 5%
Other 9%
Total 100%

This survey documents the Library as a service provider to a wide range of institutional functions.

RDA
20 January 2005

Posted by Robert at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)