1. V OLUME 27 I SSUE 2
W I N TE R 2003
HLABC FORUM
Inside ...
Association
Presidency
MEMBERS’ FORUM ON:
changes hands.
Executive
reports
END USER
Web survey
results EDUCATION
AfterLife
Guest columnist
David Noble
2. Page 2 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
President’s Letter(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Treasure r’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
We bsite Up date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2003/2004 HLABC CHLA/ ABSC R eport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Executive Winter M eeting Rep ort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
End User Education Forum
Internet Classes & Unexpected Events - Marjory Jardine . 8
Introducing the 20th Century to the 21 st - Ruth R ochlin . . . 9
President
Train the Train er - B arb ara Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
to Dec 2003: End User Education Activities Web Survey . . . . . . 12
Tracy Havlin Afte rLife: David N oble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
after Jan 2004:
Shannon Long
Past President
Rebecca Raworth
Secretary
Mimi Doyle-Waters
The Forum is published quarterly by the Health Libraries Association of BC
Treasurer ISSN: 0826-0125
Marcia Bilinsky For membership information, visit our website at www.hlabc.bc.ca or write to:
Marcia Bilinsky, HLABC T reasurer
Medical Library Service
FORUM
College of Physicians & Surgeons of BC
Krista Clement / Pat 400 - 858 Bea tty St.
Boileau Vancouver BC V6B 1C1
Tel 604 733-6671, ext. 2296
Fax 604 737-8582
Website
em ail marciab@m ls.cpsbc.ca
Robert Melrose /
Mary-Doug Wright
Fees are $20.00 (regular) or $10.00 (student, maximum 2 years) and include the Forum.
Subm issions and story ide as are we lcom ed.
Publication is not guaranteed and manuscripts may be edited.
Contact the editors:
Krista Clement
Email: kristac@shaw.ca
Phone: 250-762-3700
Pat Boileau
Email: pboileau@vanhosp.bc.ca
Phone: 604-734-1313 ext. 2339
3. HLABC FORUM Page 3
EDITORIAL
Among our duties as librarians, is the duty to manage our time according to thoughtful
priorities. It is a lesson I have not finished learning. At work, I agonize over which task must
be done today, and which will wait for tomorrow’s attention. Inevitably, I am tempted to stay
at w ork just that “little bit longer” to com plete o ne last thing.
We are a ll so b usy, an d can see keenly the many im portant th ings wh ich m ust be done. This
is not only true in our working lives, our libraries, but also at home and in our other
involvem ents. It is not possible for you to acce pt eve ry opp ortunity, ag ree to every request,
and participate in every event. The day will still be only twenty-four hours long. But, then,
sleep is overrated and could readily be reduced, wouldn’t you agree?
The reality is that if we as professionals do no t set limits on our com mitme nts and take care
in selecting how to spend our time, we will become exhausted and fail to keep many
promises. It is not good practice to burn ourselves out and leave our libraries, our colleagues,
our fam ilies, a nd our friends wondering wh at happened.
The HLABC Forum , our website, and our listserv, should be tools which help in setting these
priorities. If we can pool our wisdom, offer help, and support each other in decision making,
the n each of us can sa ve a little time for what really m atte rs.
In this issue, the focus is on End-User Education, something which most of you agree is a
Tracy's Trail Pal - Spicey
significant priority. This ye ar I cam e hom e from the CH LA-ASBC co nferen ce de term ined to
make som e training h appen in m y ow n place , the Cancer C entre in the Southe rn In terior. I
thought to start small - with just our oncology nurses. I planned four topics to offer as quick
“brown b ag lunch” talks, one pe r mon th, and to follow each w ith a hands on worksh op. There
are only ab out a doze n nurs es at our fa cility.
When I brou ght it to the nursing prac tice leader, she aske d w hether I would give th e ta lks in
front of a camera, video-linked live to all four cancer centres in the province, so the other
oncology nurses could participate, too. I gulped and said, “Sure, why not?” When we
scheduled the times, the academic education committee asked if they could promote the
sessions across all the disciplines - in effect opening up my talks to the entire Cancer Agency
across the province. Again, I gulped and said, “Sounds great.” Instead of a cozy chat with my
own nurses here, I ended up presenting to a much wider audience. That commitment
pressed me in other areas of my work, certainly. But I initiated the project because of my
belief that it is a high priority. If I teach even three people at once, it reduces my total time
training, and maximizes what I can do for those three. I hope that the stories shared here,
the survey, and the various reports, will help you all in planning effectively and defending
your p riorities.
In the meantime, Tracy Havlin has set some fresh goals for herself - not only beyond her
current library, but
outside of this
continent! You can see
from the photo above
tha t Tra cy u ses tim e in
the outdoors to balance
her own personal and
professional pressures.
Let us wish Shannon Long, the new “Prez,” much
CHLA-ASBC conference Edmonton 2003
4. Page 4 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
succ ess a s she takes on this co mm itmen t - to give leadership to our m erry ba nd. M ay no ne of u s give he r caus e to regret it!
And m ay we all have a healthy, happy New Year.
Kris ta Clem ent,
Forum Editor
5. HLABC FORUM Page 5
PRESIDENT’S LETTER(s)
Tracy Havlin - Outgoing:
Cornell at Quatar For those of you that haven't heard through the grapevine yet (or don't read many
messages from the listserv), I'm resigning as HLABC president and leaving my current job
http://www.med.cornell.e at N RG H to move ove rse as and start a new position at Weill Co rne ll Me dical College in
Qatar. Shannon Lo ng will be re placing me on the HLABC executive.
du/qatar/
For the inevitably curious, some FAQs on my upcoming adventure:
Have a look at the image * Wh ere's Qatar? In the Middle East, a peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and North of
galleries linked at the Saudi Ara bia.
bottom right of the * When did Cornell set-up a medical college there and what are the facilities like? Check
homepage or find the out the website given in the side bar for details.
library under resources * What will you be doing and for how long? My position will be one of 4 reference librarians
tab. in the distributed e-library. I signed a contract for 3 years (until Jan. 13 th, 20 07 ).
Sinc e I'm writing this blurb o n w ork time, I sh ould cu t myse lf off here ...
I'd like to thank all the current and past HLABC executive members I've had the privilege of
working with. And, it's been really great working with so many of you HLABC'ers - truly a
wonderful bunch of dedicated health professionals! I hope you all enjoy the holiday season
and have a healthy New Year. If you want to keep in touch, please send a note to my
we b email ac count: gg_tracy@yahoo.ca
Shannon Long - Incoming:
I would like to start by thanking the HLABC members who gave me such a warm welcome
at the December meeting when my role change was announced. This year was supposed
to be one of "training" as Vice President; nonetheless, I feel quite confident in taking on the
increased responsibility albeit six months ahead of schedule. I have been on the exec utive
for severa l yea rs as the treasurer/m em bership co ord inator. During that tim e I learn ed (in
great detail) about our association and also about how executive boards function.
This year HLABC is involved in many exciting initiatives. The Electronic Health Library of
BC, led by the B C Ac ade mic He alth C oun cil, looks like it is rea lly taking off. Ya hoo !
Although our association itself is not directly involved, many of our members are and we
all look forward to hearing how the initiative is moving ever closer to its goal. On the home
front, the HLABC executive is working toward getting the new website up by late January or
early Februa ry. Keep an eye on the listse rv for an nouncements and links to th e site.
The executive is also busy planning continuing education events and guest speakers for
our spring and sum mer m eetings. At the bru nch earlier this month, interest was sho wn in
a variety of topics, from statistics to web based instruction design. We can’t cover all of
the topics this year but we will certainly do our best to encourage education of HLABC
mem bers through our own events and by informing you of learning opportunities through
other organ izations. If you are a m em ber BCLA , SLA, PNC/M LA, or CLA please share
details about courses and lectures, even those not directly related to health sciences
librarianship. The more we educate ourselves the stronger we become individually and as
an as sociation . Perha ps w e cou ld even start a re gular co lumn in the Forum ded icated to
educa tiona l opportunities!
Until next time,
Shannon Long
President, Health Libraries Association of BC
7. HLABC FORUM Page 7
TREASURER’S REPORT
Health Libraries Association of B.C.
Finances
Mutal Fund $1,569.65 (as of September 30, 2003)
Checking Account $6,730.38 (balance on November 7, 2003)
Total $8,300.03
Me m be rsh ip
79 regular (6 new)
1 student
6 lifetime
2 unpaid
Total of 88
W elcom e to ne w m em be rs:
Lisa Jane Watson, EBSCO
Christine Martin, SLAIS Instructor
Patricia Whittaker, VPL
Robyn Ingvallsen, BCCA, Surrey
Bette Reimer, Information/ Research Consultant
Sue Kurucz, Former member just back from 6 years in Dubai
Report submitted by : Marcia Bilinsky
WEBSITE UPDATE
The redesign of the HLABC web site was comp leted over the summer and the executive
committee selected the final look at the November 22 nd executive meeting. At the HLABC
general meeting Decem ber 6th, those involved in the website redesign met briefly to discuss
In case you’ve forgotten,
the next steps. We all agreed that Chris from Bedlamhotel has done a great job on giving our the website is at:
page a new look. http://www.hlabc.bc.ca/
In early January, the website committee will meet to discuss transferring the content of the (But you know that, because
old site to the new site. We will be collaborating with Chris to obtain training for the you’re reading the Forum
committee and to estab lish u ser ID a nd passw ord s for site security. O nce training in online now!)
complete the content will be transferred from the old site to our new site.
The Centre for He alth Services and Policy Researc h w ill continue to host th e HLABC we bsite. The mockup of the new
The new site will be running on the contents management system, Tyop3 which will allow design has been at:
remote access for comm ittee me mbers. http://www.bedlamhotel.c
om/114.html
Teresa Lee left the website committee this fall as she returned to university. We welcomed
aboard two new members, Robyn Ingvallsen from the BC Cancer Agency (Surrey) and Joyce
Constantine from the Vancouver Island Health Authority (Victoria). Please contact any of the
members of the committee with your ideas for content for the new website.
Curre nt m em bers are; M ary-Do ug W right (mdwright@chspr.ubc.ca), Robert Melrose
(Melrose@dsrf.org), Robyn Ingvallsen (ringvallsen@bccancer.bc.ca) and Joyce Constantine
(joyce.constantine@caphealth.org)
8. Page 8 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
Report submitted by Robert Melrose
9. HLABC FORUM Page 9
CHLA/ABSC REPORT
Cathy Rayment crayment@interchange.ubc.ca
Hamber Library, University of British Columbia / Children's & Women's Health Centre of BC
New Push E-Mail Service
CH LA/ABSC has started a new e -mail ne ws lette r for mem bers-only. It uses a "push-email"
delivery, and will be used to ensure that all members receive timely notice of association
news. In addition to the E-News, we'll be using it to send out Nomination forms,
mem bership renewals, notice of journal issue availability, etc.
Transition to Calendar Year Mem bership
The Board has decided to proceed with changing the Association’s membership year. (We
had started to do this last year, b ut hadn't conside red all the financial im plica tions).
Currently, mem bers join from June 1 to May 31 each year. The fiscal year, however, is the
calendar year. This has caused needless complications for our Treasurer and the budget
process, and also confusion at conference registrations, where people are unsure of which
year’s membership counts towards the member conference rate.
In orde r to ach ieve the chan ge, for on e ren ewal only, we are go ing to ask m em bers to
renew their membership for a year and a half. The renewals will be sent out for June 1 as
usual next year, but you will renew through December 31, 2005. For regular members, the
one tim e re newa l cos t will be $ 12 0.0 0 – one and a half tim es the usual $80.0 0 fee.
Similarly, all other categories of mem bership (except sustaining) will be renewed at one
and a half times their regular fees.
Me mbership
In conjunction with this transition, CHLA/ABSC is undertaking a mem bership drive. To
CHLA/ABSC
attract new members, we are offering a half-price mem bership for the 2004 calendar
Membership info year. New mem bers (individuals who have NOT held a CHLA/ABSC membership in the
http://www.chla- past 5 years ) can join for $40.0 0. Inform ation ca n be found on the Asso ciation w eb site
absc.ca/assoc/chlamem.h under “W hat’s N ew ” and on the m em bership page:
tml
BMC Transition to the Journal of the CHLA
For those of you who may have missed the news, beginning in 2004 the Journal of the
Canadian Health Lib raries Association/Journ al de l’Asso ciation des bibliothèques de la
santé du Canada will be published by the NRC Research Press, exclusively online. The
tables of contents will be freely available, and will be sent to mem bers via the new push
em ail se rvice w hen each iss ue is pu blish ed.
There was strong support, particularly from BC mem bers, to publish the journal as Open-
Access, and the Board studied this idea. A task group was formed and surveyed the
mem bership. Up to 10 % o f existing m em bers fe lt tha t the y would not re new their
memberships if the journal were freely available to them (in other words they maintained
mem bership because they felt the BMC was a significant benefit.) This would amount to a
significant enough drop in membership revenues that it is not a viable option. So for at
least th e first year, th e new Jou rna l CHLA wil continue to be ava ilable for m em bers-only.
The Board is investigating new ways to improve mem bership benefits, in the hopes of
retaining m em bership levels sh ould w e m ove to an open-acce ss m odel.
Upcoming CE Survey
10. Page 10 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
Continuing Education is one of the prime areas of focus for CHLA/ABSC. Members have said they need and want a wide array
of CE opp ortunities both at the ann ual conferenc e and locally. CE Coordinator Jud y Inglis, is planning a survey of m em bers
reg ard ing their
11. HLABC FORUM Page 11
professional deve lopme nt need s. The survey w ill help pinpoint subjects for wh ich mem bers
would like courses to be available, as well as preferred methods of course delivery. The
survey will arrive via e-mail, so watch for it and make your opinions known!
CHLA/ABSC Conferences
The upcoming 2004 conference is in St. John's, Newfoundland and will undoubtedly be
another memorable conference. (The opening reception alone looks like it will be worth the
registration fee !)
Conference 2005 will be hosted by the Toronto chapter. And .... Conference 2006 will be
2004 CHLA/ABSC
back here in BC. A call for
volunteers went out after the HLABC December brunch, and many of the sub-committee
Conference Website:
chair positions have already been filled. There are a few spots left though, and most of the
com mittees can use extra h ands to he lp with the organizing, so please co ntact me if you're http ://w ww .med.mun.ca/ch la
interested in taking part in the planning. Taking part in a planning committee is a great way 2004/
to get involved with your professional association!
WINTER MEETING REPORT
Anne Allgaier, Libra rian fo r the N orthern H ealth Authority
REP ORT OF A M EET ING OF T HE H LAB C, Decemb er 6, 2003, hosted by Pat Bo ileau at the
G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre
I was very pleased to have been able to attend a Christmas meeting of the HLA BC, and wo uld like
to thank those respo nsible fo r putting in place a po licy to provide financial supp ort to o ut-of-
towners such as myself, making it possible to travel from the HeartLand to LotusLand, in order to
partake of intellectually stimulating interactions with co lleagues as well as gourmet delights.
Editor’s Note:
George Eisler, CEO of the BC Academic Health Council, and Sandra Morris, Senior Project Ask Anne about “other
Manager of the BC Academ ic He alth Co uncil, were the gu est speakers who b rought us up to date
details, such as getting
on the B C Academ ic Health Council’s initiative for an electronic health library for British
Columbia health professiona ls and students in the hea lth sciences. soaked in the rain and
losing a glove and having
The complete information sheet about the Electronic Health Library for BC (eHLbc) is listed on to buy new ones, and not
the web site of the B C Academic Health Co uncil. Please fee l free to m ake copies and distribute to knowing which bus to
staff at your w ork p lace - it is important for this initiative to have b road grass-ro ots sup port.
take.”
The eHLbc is one of several initiatives being undertaken by the BCAH C which is a fortuitous
amalgamation of health care facilities and educational institutions (and a successor of COUT H)
that are responsible for training health professionals in BC. The eHLbc may have a greater chance
of succ ess than other e fforts because of this.
BC Academic Health
The staff of the BCAHC and the W orking G roup, co nsisting of various educa tors, administrators,
and librarian s from universities, colleges, and health authorities, have b een working very hard to Council : eHLbc
develop a list of electronic resources that could be licensed for ALL health professionals and
students in BC, regardless of location. Other models for licensing are being examined and the http://www.bcahc.ca/BCAHC
know ledge gained will help m ake info rmed decisio ns about the final licensing model. _page.asp?pageid=700
News about the eHLbc will be posted on the HLAB C website in the New Year, so check there to
mon itor pro gress.
AA
12. Page 12 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
INTERNET CLASSES & UNEXPECTED EVENTS
Marjory Jardine writes from the Van couv er Coa stal Hea lth Auth ority (VCH A) Com mu nity
Library. She and Pat Young job-share the Librarian position and Paula Ludwig works .8 as a
SEEN ON THE WEB Library Technician.
-----Original Message----- Our library at VCH A offers "introduc tion to finding h ealth inform ation on the intern et," a
Forwarded From:Alanna "refresher" course for those who have taken the introduction, and we have just introduced
Aiko Moore, International "inte rne t searc hing for be ginn ers ".
Relations Office Intern
American Library We started offering demonstrations about 2-3 years ago. We went to various sites armed
Association with a laptop and an enormous lcd projector and gave demonstrations of Pubmed/
Sent: Thursday, December Medlineplus, plus other consumer health databases. More recently, we have offered
11, 2003 9:22 AM regular hands-on sessions for groups; the "internet for beginners" class is the newest
To: CANMEDLIB offering, and it seems to be very popu lar!
Subject: Fellowship
Deadline Approaching We are very fortunate to belong to a team of excellent educators and support staff. Our
classes are advertised in the "education services calendar" (online and in print); in addition,
The U.S. IFLA 2001 one of the support staff sends out workshop reminders to all staff every week. Registration
National Organizing is required and again, support staff look after this.
Committee is pleased to
announce that it will The classes are 2-3 hours and are held in a computer lab where each person has their own
compu ter. Class size ranges from 5-12 pe ople. Classes are generally offered every 2
support the participation of
weeks . In addition, we add extra classes for a group training session on request. For
20 librarians from the
examp le, speech- language pathologists, addictions counsellors.
Americas (South America,
Central America, North
The bulk of a hands-on intern et session is sp ent on Pubm ed, with lots of tim e for practice.
America, and the
Medlineplus and o ther co nsum er he alth sites are also c overe d. We use th e opportunity to
Caribbean) to IFLA's let staff know about the available library services (e.g. document delivery, e-mail tables of
World Library and contents services, online library catalogue, how to request material from the library etc etc)
Information Conference,
August 22-27, We de finitely had to learn new skills for this course, particularly the use of technology -
2004 in Buenos Aires. lcd/laptop/pc connections. And, "how to teach"! We do use lots of both computer
technology for the hands-on classes, but also paper materials - lots of fluorescent-coloured
The fellowship will cover "how to" hand-outs.
air travel, shared
accommodation, a per diem This is most de finitely a collabora tive effort -- library staff toge ther and in co njunction with
food allowance, and education services support staff. For a group of 6 or more, we try to have two librarians on
conference registration hand (a definite advantage of job-sharing - one person splits into two!). One to demo/teach
fees. and the other to be available to help participants.
The deadline for The biggest challenge could be described as "unexpected events” – usually technology-
applications is January 15, driven, but sometimes weather-related! Each session brings its own challenges. A bent or
2004. Applications in broken plug; a missing cable; a dripping ceiling; a code blue announcement over the P.A.
Spanish and English can be system ; the interne t is dow n city-wide; Pubm ed is ex perien cing technical d ifficulties; old
found at com pute rs; teeny tiny font.
https://cs.ala.org/ifla2004/
Another challenge is teaching a hands-on class to people with varying degrees of
"computer-comfort" - we have tried sending o ut a pre -assessm ent questionnaire, b ut th is
does not alw ays work .
13. HLABC FORUM Page 13
An education services "evaluation form" is included in each hand-out package. Participants rate several aspects of the
sess ion on a scale o f 1 (poor) to 4 (excellent). For exam ple, "overa ll rating of work shop " "learning need s we re m et"
"usefulness of hand-outs"
14. Page 14 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
"usefulness to work " etc etc. There a re also s everal questions w hich allow participan ts to
make further comm ents.
These sessions are very well received. Staff leave the sessions knowing that they have the
skills to do basic literature searc hes. And,the y als o know that the y ca n ca ll us fo r he lp
before, during or after a search. They also know that the librarians are on deck to do
literature searches. Eq ually imp ortantly, staff now k now of resources to sho w or to
recomm end to their clients (in particular consumer health resources such as medlineplus,
merck manuals etc) SEEN ON THE WEB
If you visit no other links in
One way we know that staff mem bers are using what they learn is that they sometimes send this issue, go to:
in requests for articles, via the e-mail feature in pubmed. And, in addition, they do call us for
help and re minde rs about things they learned.The library is busier than eve r, doing literature
http://www.pubmedcentral
searc hes an d filling document de livery requests.
.gov/picrender.fcgi?action
=stream&blobtype=pdf&ar
Has it been worth the effort? Do w e plan to continue the se classes? Would I recomm end it to
tid=234463
colleagues? Yes, yes and yes.
The whole URL is required
INTRODUCING THE 20TH CENTURY TO THE 21ST to find the article.
Alternately, search PubMed
Ru th R och lin is librarian at Kelo wn a Ge nera l Hospital. Alon g with Fra ncin e Re nau d in Central for “Medical
Vernon, and Anita Skinner their clerk, they serve the Okanagan Service area within the Librarian”[TITLE] and look
Interior Health Authority. Teresa Prior is their third colleague, librarian at Royal Inland for the Jan 1929 article
Hospital in Kamloops.
With the advent of our new Ebsco online library package, I have begun regular education
sessions. Rathe r than doing in-depth res earch skills training in our com puter lab with 6 o r 7
people per class, which I have done in the past, I have been holding open sessions in our
conferenc e room . I use a live dem o with projection and p rovide hand outs. All staff are
we lcom e, no re gistration, only 45 m inutes. People w ith pagers sit at the back a nd run out if
they need to. Free, cheery, come on in.
The intention of all of the teaching strategies is to disseminate not only search skills, but the
scope and practice of library services. Within Interior Health we are working hard towards
regional collaboration. The librarians in both Kamloops and Vernon are similarly presenting
the new online library package, while letting people know of our regional aspirations.
Promoting and advertising were taken on aggressively in all sites. In Kelowna General and
the Kelow na Health Unit, our inte rna l information sy stem, Me dite ch, wa s used to rea ch all
staff with a brief ad about 2 weeks prior. Reminders were sent around by this method as
well. Posters were put up in strategic places, including the elevators, which catch just about
everyone. Managers were contacted separately, and a CME event for the docs was
advertised separately. I made good use of the CME admin assistant and the Education
department to disseminate information about the sessions.
In Penticton Regional Hospital, Meditech is not universally used, so I made m ore use of
posters and flyers, and engaged the help of the staff development educator and the
physicians’ se cre tary to sprea d th e w ord .
The biggest challenge remains the electronic equipment. I book the space, a laptop, an LCD
projector, leave an hour for set-up. What can go wrong? Well, for example:
1.)The laptop I booked had no port for an internet connection (they still make those??? No -
this one is obsolete)
15. HLABC FORUM Page 15
ROCHLIN CONT...
No problem, I will get a long cord and hook the projector into the PC in the room. It will be fine. (run, it’s 5 floors and 6
corridors away, but I have time)
2.) Som ehow the PC and th e LC D proje ctor are incompatible. Screen w ill not p roje ct.
No pro blem, I will find anoth er p roje ctor. On ly on e left on sho rt no tice is the oldest one in the building - I’ll ta ke it. (run , 5
floors, 6 corridors, barely enough time)
16. Page 16 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
ODD Internet Addresses
& other references go in
the margin.
Garamond 12 pt - not
Small Cap.
SEEN ON THE WEB
Library Humour Online
Library! The Musical
http://www.prangstgrup.co
m /lm/lm.htm
Library Song (UK)
http://www.che ekybeef.co.u
k/library.htm l
Librarian T-Shirt
graphics (also make good
wallpaper)
http://is2.dal.ca/~mdelia/tee
s/inde x.htm l
17. HLABC FORUM Page 17
All is set up and ready with 3 minutes to spare. Only a little perspiration on my brow.
3.) Audience com plains o f poor, b lurry proje ction quality.
Resist the urge to tell them to suck it up.
Oth er issues on other d ays, but you get the general picture.
The strategy described above is more cost effective/time effective and reaches a larger audience than my traditional
approach of 1-2 hour small group sessions in a compu ter lab. I have had a few requests that I run the small research classes,
but I have de cided not to do that until everyone has had a ch ance to co me to the brief introductory sessions. Interfaces are
getting easier and the users are becoming more computer savvy and I have great faith in most of them figuring it out as they
go along. They’ve had an introduction, they have instructional handouts, they have the library contact information - “Off you go
now, you’ll be fine” is my attitude.
With the increas e in access to P Cs, we in Interior Health have been a ble to put a link to the e-library package on our library
intranet page, as well as the instructional handout. This is light years from handing out paper! As well, Krista has come up
with a clever little bookmark, small and handy, with access and searching instructions. The librarians needed to do the initial
instructional sessions to introduce the new services and to remind users of all of the wonderful things we do. Once they have
had the intro, they can try out the system and use the link to the online handout on their own.
This project has definitely been a collaboration among the 3 libraries. We each planned and promoted our own areas, but we
shared experiences, handouts and workload to get the information out to as much of the population as possible in the same
time fra me.
There was a fairly big learning curve involved for all of us, to learn the Ebsco system well enough to teach it, and to learn the
administrative side and handle security issues. This was made m ore difficult when Ebsco chang ed the adm inistrative
software after about 6 weeks. We were warned it was going to happen, but it was discouraging to have learned the
pro cedures to set th ings up, the n not to rec ognize the screen one day.
Previously, I have only attempted small group education sessions. This was my first foray into mass education. It’s been fun
and easy and everybody can find 45 minutes to get to an info session. Because of the number of clients the library now
serves, I will use this format again.
For the sessions I ran in KGH, my home base, I used the standard education evaluations. All surveyed thought it was fun and
interesting, except those w ho attend ed the se ssion with the bad projector, who com plained en m asse ab out the blurry
projection.
I did not have the other sites evaluate the sessions.
Response has been overwhelmingly positive that our sleepy little valley has finally entered the 20th century (I haven’t pointed
out that it is too late). Most users were well pleased with the introductory sessions and went off with their usernames and
passwords to try it on their own. However, there are still some who want small in-depth sessions, which I will not be offering
anytime soon. It is far better for me to teach 30 p eople in 1 hour than 6 people in 2 hours.
I am finding n ow , that in spite of the session s an d th e handouts, som e people still think that we have purchased electro nic
access to everything indexed in Medline and CINAHL. They fight the good fight with Ebsco, then call me in frustration that
the y ca nnot get to the full text and can’t unders tan d w hat the y are doing w ron g. Ah we ll, it’s a le arn ing c urve for every one.
18. Page 18 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
After the sessions, library use in general has gone up. Interlibrary loan use soared in the
mo nths follow ing - as pe ople d iscovered that, hey - no t every thing is full text!
I will run a second set of sessions in the same format in the coming months. Even when
peop le did not mak e it to the sessions, they saw all of the adve rtising and c am e to the library
to ask abo ut it. Now that the hand out is on the intranet site, people arou nd the reg ion are
referred there and for many that will be enough.
I use d th ese session s to advertise wh at w e have purchased, how to get to it, how to do basic
research, how to contact the library for more information and help. I also used it as a venue
to re mind people of the gre at serv ices we offer.
TRAIN THE TRAINER
Bar bara Trip is Librarian at the Patient & Family Learning Centre (PFLC), Vancouver General
Hospital (VGH).
As librarian in the Patient & Family Learning Centre, I have been involved in end user
education in s evera l wa ys. O n a rou ghly m onthly basis I te ach a clas s entitle d E-Library Tou r.
This class looks at the UBC Library web site and some of the resources that are available for
VGH staff. Spec ifically it covers how to access jou rnals, Boo ks@ OVID M D Co nsult, He alth
Refere nce Centre and th e grea t subject re sourc es pages developed by the UBC librarian s.
This class is one of several that are organized by the Vancouver Coastal Health Research
Institute. It is held in a computer lab so there is hands-on participation.
In the past ye ar, the P FLC also offered its own end-user e duca tion sessions. From Janua ry to
May, we offered monthly classes on resources that are available to staff from the Vancouver
Hospital Intranet. This included looking at the Patient Care Guidelines, Books@OVID, MD
Consult and Hea lth Refere nce C entre . These classes we re he ld in com pute r labs at b oth
VGH and UBC Hospital.
As an outcome of these classes, we produced a small booklet with the instructions for using
these resources as well as instructions for searching with OVID and PubMed. We offered
these to the units as a resource that they could have handy at their computer stations.
Another ou tcom e of offering these classes wa s a req uest from th e Inten sive Ca re Unit to
come and do classes on the unit because it was difficult for their staff to get away to attend
the clas ses. So me of the se sessio ns we re h eld right at the nursing station w ith 3 or 4 people
gathe red aro und 1 terminal. At tim es this wa s a b it chaotic as people wo uld com e and go if
they w ere n eed ed on the u nit.
The ICU also had anothe r project to help the staff b ecom e m ore com puter litera te. For th is
project they used a train-the-trainer approach. Again I covered with these trainers the
resources available on the Intranet. The trainers then held their own classes in the ICU for
their staff.
We did evaluations of the classes and those seemed well received. I did not do evaluations
of th e ICU se ssio ns, but I have had feedback that the train -the -trainer project w ork ed we ll.
I wo uld hope to do m ore unit specific tra ining and re ally like th e idea of tra ining the train er.
However I think we are fortunate at VGH to be able to provide a variety of methods of end
user education
19. HLABC FORUM Page 19
SEEN ON THE WEB
WEB SURVEY: END USER EDUCATION
Report by Krista Clem ent.
FROM : "David S. Crawford"
TO : CANM EDL IB
I hope you find these quick snapshots of how we all practice, both inspiring and reassuring -
Subject:
M argaret Charlton oh, and maybe spark a debate or two. We had 24 respondents this time, up from 16 on
Date sent: the first survey. All were HLABC m em bers (th e w ebsite is no t closed to non-m em bers).
Tue, 2 Sep 2003
Dear Colleagues:
It gives me great pleasure
to announce that the
Canadian government has
just
designated Margaret Ridley
Charlton as a "person of
national significance".
Miss Charlton was the first More than half of us do end-user training less than once per week : 62%. Only 17% do such
"real" librarian at the training three or more times per week. I didn’t include “never” as an option (oops) and
McGill University Medical nobody wrote it in... so I guess we are all doing something!
(now Health Sciences)
Library (1895-1914). She
was also one of the
founders of the Medical
Library Association
(1898), with Osler and
Gould.
The proposal was
supported by the CHLA
and the ACMC - though it
took such a long time that
Patrick (who was CHLA I admit to being surprised at the high level of formal instruction we do. I was also surprised
President at the time) may that none of those responding are teaching courses or course components with a graded
not remember! com ponent. I thought m aybe som e of the acad em ic wing m ight?
Further information is
available at:
http://www.health.library.
mcgill.ca/osler/charlton/ind
ex.htm
Cheers
David S. Crawford, FCLIP
Emeritus Librarian, McGill
University.
Searc hing data bases an d answe ring questions m ay be thought of as “real libraria nship,”
along with cataloguing and collection development. However, sober second thought made
me agree with the majority of you that, in the long term, teaching our patrons to use
20. Page 20 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
information and tools to access it, is also essential. By increasing our users abilities, we free them and we also free up our
own time for other things like tricky reference.
21. HLABC FORUM Page 21
On the other hand, as Ruth Rochlin points out in her article (this issue), training can consume
your time. Nearly a third of you would not give instruction too high a priority, lest it displace
other work. Debate, anyone?
You may want to spend a few minutes contemplating question 5 - a sneaky omnibus number
wh ich is rea lly 9 s epara te q uestions.
Highlights: The most frequent sort of training is certainly searching journal indices (you know,
Me dline etc.). Th e ne xt m ost com mon to pics are “circulation” and “othe r high level info
skills” - by which I hoped to capture something more than the location of the restrooms.
Circulation is also the most likely not to be offered at all! I suspect that the split reflects a
difference in our libraries - perhaps larger versus smaller, the type of circulation system or
policy, or even the presence of regular circ staff? The use of computer hardware and non-
computer equipment is also, thankfully, n ot a large part of our instru ctional duties.
Looking at the middle columns, we do steady training about the Internet and other software.
No matter how much of our information migrates to web or CD-Rom based formats, our
assistance continues to be needed in learning how to access and apply the knowledge.
Thanks once again to every librarian who participated. Keep your eyes open for the next
survey, in 2004.
22. Page 22 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 2
N OTES FROM THE AFTERLIFE
R E T IR E M E N T : IT T AKES G E T T IN G U SED TO
Dav id No ble retired as Chief Librarian at the BC Cancer Agency in 2002.
I know it's hard to believe, but be ing retired does take getting u sed to.
For the first few months, you feel you are on vacation; your mind can't fully accept the fact
that after 46 years of summer and career jobs through the years, this is it! You are now
retired . Your m ind is sort of in a s tate of sh ock w hich only tim e w ill cure.
SEEN ON THE WEB
After the vacation stage comes the guilt stage where you feel a little guilty that you are no
> -----Original Message----- longer nose to the grind ston e. You he ar from collea gue s of deve lopm ents sinc e yo u've left
> From: CHLA/ABSC
> Sent: 2003 December 18 work, but it's no longer your concern, and many of your long-time friends are still working,
> To: tracy.havlin@cvihr.bc.ca hence the guilty twinge. For me, the tiny feeling of guilt lasted 2 or 3 months until my mind
> Subject: Important accepted the fact that I really did deserve to be retired after working a fifty five hour week
Information on the next issue of for 2 6 years.
BMC
“Starting volume 25, issue 1, Then com es the "It's time I started doing a ll those things I have put off un til retirement"
the JCHLA/JABSC (Journal stage. You've sort of taken it easy, added a few pounds, even w atched a little daytime TV
of the Canadian Health until you are thoroughly sick of it, and now are ready for some self improvement. You sign up
Libraries Association/ for c ourse s, ha ve you r piano tuned, haul out your old wa ter colo ur set a nd old Chopin
Journal de l'Association des preludes, build an improved sea wall, do some landscaping of the yard and painting of the
bibliothèques de la santé du house, and generally get more organized and productive. There is time also to improve your
Canada) will be available in golf pitch and chip shots. It seemed I had to go through the vacation stage and the guilt/non-
an electronic only (PDF) productive stages to feel thoroughly ready for the self improvement stage, and really get
format... down to th e true retirem ent sta ge. The true re tirement sta ge is when yo u have little tim e it
seem s to laze about as your calenda r is fully booked w ith all your activities, just like before
You can access the Journal you re tired, exce pt it's on you r ow n te rm s.
in two ways: either through
the publisher, NRC Research
Press, under Affiliated No complaints, this true retirement stage is the fun part, and how wonderful it is for us to be
Journals free of the daily work grind, even though I was one of the lucky ones, as I really loved my job.
<http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/> I think we librarians are truly fortunate to be doing what we do. We tend to get thanked a lot
or through the association for our services, and it's interesting to boot. We m ay not get paid as much as we like, but our
website occupation is supposed to be second from the top on the list of "best occupations" in terms
<http://www.chla-absc.ca/> of job satisfaction. Tha t makes up for a lot.
“
This is my sense of experience since my retirement. Yours will be different but then again,
may b e a little s imilar. It does take time to ge t use d to!
I send m y best wishe s to you all. Drop in and see us here in Qu alicum Bea ch next time you're
passin g by.
David.
_____________________________________________________________________
No tes Fr om The A fterlife is a continuing feature. We welcome your ideas. Phone
ElsieWollaston at (604) 684-3036, fax (604) 685-9335, or e-mail elbruijn@interchange.ubc.ca.
