Librarians' Journal Club Article for 9/18/2008 Meeting

Here is the citation for the librarians' journal club article for the September 18th, 2008 AHSLC meeting at CHOA:

Med Ref Serv Q. 2007 Winter;26(4):27-44.

Migration to an electronic journal collection in a hospital library: implications for reference service.

Bardyn TP, Young CS.

NYU Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.

bardyn@library.med.nyu.edu

This article provides a perspective on the migration to an electronic-only journal collection in a hospital library and its effect on reference services, information-seeking, and library use patterns. Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, NY is one of the first major teaching hospitals in the United States to begin a fundamental shift to a current, electronic-only journal collection. This article describes the process and develops a model for use by other hospital libraries, with commentary on the impact on reference services to library users. Key findings are that physicians, residents, and nurses have come to expect electronic journal collections and use the Internet in the hospital library to access electronic journals. Similar to many academic health sciences libraries, the reference desk in a hospital library has become more like a technical support desk. Users who contact the library have questions about access to the library's electronic resources or about searching techniques. In the future, medical reference librarians will continue to assist searchers who cannot find what they are looking for and will assist those who repeatedly get results that do not match their information needs.

PMID: 18086640

Please note:

Hello everyone-

Here’s the article for next week’s AHSLC Journal Club. Even though the article title says “hospital library”, I believe this one could be relevant to everyone as we are all learning how to make the transition to a more electronic environment. (If you need a copy of the article, just send me a Docline request as we do have it.)

Thanks,

Emily