Digital Commons Network^™

Trends In Health Sciences Library And Information Science Research: An Analysis Of Research Publications In The Bulletin Of The Medical Library Association And Journal Of The Medical Library Association From 1991 To 2007, Sally A. Gore, Judy M. Nordberg, Lisa A. Palmer, Mary E. Piorun

Lisa A. Palmer

OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed trends in research activity as represented in the published research in the leading peer-reviewed professional journal for health sciences librarianship.

METHODOLOGY: Research articles were identified from the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association and Journal of the Medical Library Association (1991-2007). Using content analysis and bibliometric techniques, data were collected for each article on the (1) subject, (2) research method, (3) analytical technique used, (4) number of authors, (5) number of citations, (6) first author affiliation, and (7) funding source. The results were compared to a previous study, covering the period 1966 to 1990, to identify …

Anatomy Of A Digitization Project: Dissecting The Process, Mary E. Piorun, Lisa A. Palmer

Lisa A. Palmer

Objective:This poster describes the Library’s first digitization project: digitizing 300 doctoral dissertations in-house for an institutional repository. The Library hopes to provide a showcase for the medical school’s research, teaching, and scholarship; promote open access to research; and make available an easy way for faculty and researchers to promote and distribute their work. Method:The Library Director established a team to investigate institutional repository products. The team created a chart assigning weights to important criteria in order to evaluate various systems. In 2006 the Library purchased a license for ProQuest Digital Commons, a hosted system. As a manageable first project, the …

Digitizing Dissertations For An Institutional Repository: A Process And Cost Analysis, Mary E. Piorun, Lisa A. Palmer

Lisa A. Palmer

Objective: This paper describes the Lamar Soutter Library’s process and costs associated with digitizing 300 doctoral dissertations for a newly implemented institutional repository at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Methodology: Project tasks included identifying metadata elements, obtaining and tracking permissions, converting the dissertations to an electronic format, and coordinating workflow between library departments. Each dissertation was scanned, reviewed for quality control, enhanced with a table of contents, processed through an optical character recognition (OCR) function, and added to the institutional repository.

Results: Three hundred and twenty dissertations were digitized and added to the repository for a cost of $23,562, …

Anatomy Of An Institutional Repository: Dissecting The Metadata Process, Lisa A. Palmer

Lisa A. Palmer

In 2006 the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School licensed ProQuest’s Digital Commons institutional repository (IR) software and launched eScholarship@UMMS. The goals were to provide a showcase for the medical school’s research, teaching, and scholarship; promote open access to research; and make available an easy way for faculty and researchers to promote and distribute their work. To date the Library has established five distinct collections. Each collection varies in scope and in the way the Library acquires the content. This variation poses many challenges for metadata creation and maintenance. Each collection entails the establishment of record …

Digitizing Dissertations For The Escholarship@Umms Institutional Repository, Mary E. Piorun, Lisa A. Palmer

Lisa A. Palmer

Our presentation will describe the process and costs associated with our first digitization project: digitizing 300 doctoral dissertations for a newly implemented institutional repository at UMass Medical School. We will start at the beginning: selecting team members and identifying their roles, choosing the right repository system, and identifying a manageable first project. We will explain how we partnered with our Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and contacted alumni for permission to digitize their dissertations. We will also discuss technical information and decisions such as software and equipment used to scan and create searchable text, using OCR technology to convert abstracts, …

Levels Program: A Career Ladder For Support Staff, Jane Fama, James F. Comes, Vivian (Frempong) Okyere, Barbara Ingrassia, Kerry Mayotte, Lisa A. Palmer, Mary E. Piorun

Lisa A. Palmer

ObjectiveHow do we manage support staff development in the modern health sciences library? Increasingly, the need for more highly skilled staff is evident. This poster describes a three phase project encompassing the development, approval, and implementation processes necessary to make a career ladder a reality in a medium-sized academic health sciences library.

MethodsThe Management Team gathered information from library literature and business and government sources as a starting point. In the development phase, the team posed questions as the foundation for developing a competency-based program to manage support staff development. e.g., What will support staff be doing in …

Trends In Health Sciences Library And Information Science Research, Sally A. Gore, Judy Nordberg, Lisa A. Palmer, Mary E. Piorun

Lisa A. Palmer

Objective: Determine if the profession of health librarianship has matured over recent years as defined by the level of sophistication found in the published research in the leading peer-reviewed, professional journal.

Method: A content analysis of research articles published in Bulletin of the Medical Library Association and Journal of the Medical Library Association during the time span of 1991-2007 will be performed. For those articles that are classified as research, the subjects, research methodologies and analytical techniques employed will be identified, as well as bibliometric characteristics, institutional affiliation, and research funding source. The data will be analyzed using descriptive and …

Coming Out Of The Back Room: Technical Services Breaks Loose, Lisa A. Palmer, Barbara C. Ingrassia

Lisa A. Palmer

Objective: Describe how technical services librarians at an academic medical center have embraced opportunities for campus outreach. The Library has long been committed to teamwork. As members of cross-departmental Library teams and campus-wide task forces, technical services librarians have utilized skills in information organization, integrated library systems, and problem solving to benefit colleagues, faculty, clinicians, students, and the public. Methods: Case study: Since the arrival of a new Director in 1998, much of the work of the Library is accomplished through cross-functional teams. Technical services librarians have contributed significantly to these teams and to campus-wide task forces. For a project …

Dr. Samuel B. Woodward: A 19th Century Pioneer In American Psychiatric Care, Janet L. Dadoly, Len Levin, Lisa A. Palmer

Lisa A. Palmer

Objective: Showcase the life and work of Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, the medical superintendent of one of the first public hospitals for the mentally ill in the U.S., the Worcester State Hospital in Worcester, Mass. Dr. Woodward overcame then-popular views of mental illness to champion compassionate, optimistic, and individualized treatment for patients.

Methods: Dr. Samuel B. Woodward brought a significant paradigm shift to the dark world of mentally ill indigent citizens of Massachusetts in the early 19th century. When Dr. Woodward became the first superintendent of Worcester State Hospital in 1833, mentally ill patients were viewed with suspicion and fear …

Challenges And Lessons Learned: Moving From Image Database To Institutional Repository, Mary E. Piorun, Lisa A. Palmer, James F. Comes

Lisa A. Palmer

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to chronicle the Lamar Soutter Library's effort to build an educational image database, and how the project developed into an institutional repository.

Design/methodology/approach– The paper is divided into three phases and highlights the organizational, political, technological and resource issues that are unique to a specialized library with a medium-sized staff, lacking the resources of a traditional university campus. The case concludes with a list of barriers and facilitators to success and a summary of lessons learned.

Findings– The paper finds that a library with limited staff, funding, and systems development …