Posted on behalf of Jen de Richemond, our former neighbor and current JMLA editorial board member.
The advent of both digital content and new forms of communication has made radical changes in the expectations of health science library users for access to information. At the same time, in response to concerns over the increasing cost of health care, government funding agencies have changed their expectations for how health-related research is conducted. Funding agencies look for translational medicine and dispersion of information across disciplines and institutions. Researchers and clinicians expect information at their desktop, 24 x 7, in a format that can be easily digested and used.
Responding to the opportunities provided by these changes, some librarians and libraries have changed their focus, no longer emphasizing libraries as keepers of the information universe but instead stressing their ability to provide expertise in support of those who work in the health information universe. A number of new paradigms have been reported at conferences and in the media: embedded librarians, e-science experts, support for translational medicine, and data curation and management. To help us gain a better understanding of these new paradigms, the Journal of the Medical Library Association is planning to devote our October 2013 issue to papers that focus on the outcomes experienced by those who have taken on these new roles.
Jo-Ann Babish, AHIP, has joined the staff at The Commonwealth Medical College library in Scranton, PA, as Head, Electronic Resources and Technical Services. She will be providing leadership in development, maintenance and support of high quality electronic resources, the library’s website and technical services. Previously, Jo-Ann was the Director of Library and CME Services at Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton, PA. The Commonwealth Medical College, one of the nation’s newest medical colleges, welcomed its charter class of sixty-five medical students and Masters of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) students in August 2009.
Gary E. Kaplan and Daniel G. Kipnis, of Thomas Jefferson University’s Scott Memorial Library, presented a poster at MLA’s TriChapter Conference, 3 by the Sea, held in Atlantic City October 5-8, 2009, entitled, Replacement for the 10 page paper? A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medical clerk
Nina Long of The Wistar Institute Library recently discovered a box full of 19th century personal papers and documents from Institute founder, Isaac J. Wistar (1827-1905) in the Wistar vault as some reorganizing was going on. Included in the box were 74 pieces of colonial currency dating from 1758-1777, thirteen printed by Benjamin Franklin. The money is from the colonies of PA, NJ and DE . It was accompanied by a note in Wistar’s handwriting that the currency came to him from Isaac Cooper Jones, his grandfather, who died in 1865. Jones was Mayor of Philadelphia from 1767-1769. In September the collection was appraised by John Kraljevich of JK America, New York at $14,500.
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