Journal Cancellations for 2003

The Health Sciences Library will cancel 66 journal titles for 2003. Despite a 10% annual increase in the average cost of subscriptions, the Library’s budget allocation for FY 2002-2003 remained flat. In addition to the journal cancellations, a number of reference texts will be eliminated and the purchase of new monographs and audiovisuals will be greatly reduced.

To determine which journals to cancel, Library staff developed a “cost per use” for all current titles derived from the 2003 subscription cost and average usage numbers for the past two years. Barcodes are scanned for all journals that are removed from the shelves, giving staff data on usage of print volumes. Usage of electronic versions was also included. An initial list of 206 titles was developed to meet a target of $200,000. It contained titles that cost more than $20 per use, the average cost of acquiring an article through interlibrary loan. The list was circulated to faculty for comments.

During the comment period, the Library was notified of an additional $200,000 allocation, allowing the reduction of the initial list. Any title that was requested to be saved by a faculty member was removed from consideration, as were titles available in both print and electronic format. The final list is below.

As journal prices continue to rise and the state budget situation worsens, the Library will be developing budget strategies for FY 2003-2004. The current subscription and licensing environment has become very complex, with a multitude of options for acquiring many titles. For more information about the issues facing higher education, please visit Create Change at <www.createchange.org>. Created by the Association of Research Libraries <www.arl.org>, this site details the complexities of scholarly communication in academia.

Laurie L. Thompson
Librarian and Director

NLM's Frankenstein Coming to Upstate

Everyone knows the story of Frankenstein. Or do they? One of the most enduring myths of the Western world -- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- is the focus of an exciting new traveling exhibit that will visit the Health Sciences Library from April 2 to May 16, 2003.

"Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature," based on a major exhibit of original materials mounted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in 1997-1998, was organized by NLM and the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office. Because of major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and NLM, it will be able to visit about 80 libraries throughout the nation.

"We are delighted to have been selected as a site for this exhibition," said Library Director Laurie Thompson. "Frankenstein is truly a story for twenty-first-century America. It is not simply a story about an out-of-control scientist. It is a human interest tale of ambition, idealism, revenge, and forgiveness. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein to show society what happens when power is abused, knowledge is hidden, and members of a community do not take responsibility for one another."

Over the decades, the monster has also been a symbol for fears about cutting-edge scientific techniques and research which often challenge the public's understanding of what is "natural" and what it means to be human. Frankenstein is frequently mentioned in media accounts of developments such as cloning, gene manipulation, and organ transplants.

The Health Sciences Library is sponsoring free programs and other events for the public in connection with this exhibit. If you are interested in any of the various aspects of the Frankenstein story or would like additional information, please call Peter Uva at 464-7112 or e-mail him at <uvap@upstate.edu>. You can also keep abreast of Frankenstein developments through the Library home page <www.upstate.edu/library>.

Heralding the coming of Frankenstein is the Library's current display, "Medical Electricity in the 19th Century," on the first floor between the InterLibrary Loan office and the HIC, as well as Circuit Librarian Kathy Hughes's own Frankenstein Web page <web.upstate.edu/hugheskd/index.html>. You may also wish to visit "Online Frankenstein" at <www.thebakken.org/Frankenstein/intro.htm>, a virtual display prepared by the Bakken Library and Museum of Electricity in Life, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Library Resumes 1:00 AM Closing Time

On Sunday, November 3, 2002 the Health Sciences Library returned to its regular 1:00 AM closing time, which had been briefly suspended because of a staffing shortage. The Library's hours are now:

Sunday: 11:00 AM - 1:00 AM
Monday - Thursday: 8:00 AM - 1:00 AM
Friday: 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Welcome Lori Morales!

The longer hours became possible when the Library hired Lori J. Morales as its new night circulation clerk. Her hours are Sunday to Thursday from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM.

Lori J. Morales was born and raised in Waterloo, N.Y. She served in the Air Force for eight years and in the Reserves for two, stationed in Maryland, Montana, and Texas. She also worked at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas for five years before moving back to Central New York in January 1994 with her husband Michael and their two children, Nicole and Jared. Some of her hobbies are music, gardening, yardwork, and reading. She looks forward to many happy years here in the Health Sciences Library.

Welcome, Lori!

Thank You All!

The SUNY Upstate Health Sciences Library thanks all the thoughtful and generous people and organizations who made gifts to our collections in 2002 We are especially grateful in these times of budget cuts and uncertainty:

Without such supporters our Library could not perform at its best. Gifts enlarge and enhance the services we can offer in this age of shrinking budgets. The Library deeply appreciates all sorts of donations to help its mission of supporting Upstate in teaching, research, and patient care.

• To donate recent books or journals, please contact the Collection Development Librarian, Rosemarie Bundy, 464-7109 or <bundyr@upstate.edu>.
• To donate rare, scarce, "old," or historical books, journals, instruments, or artifacts, please contact the Curator of Historical Collections, Eric Luft, 464-4585 or <lufte@upstate.edu>.
• To donate money, please contact the Director of the Library, Laurie Thompson, 464-4582 or <thompsol@upstate.edu>.

Your donation may be tax deductible. Check with your accountant or attorney.

For Consumers and Patients: HIC News

Tools for Evaluating New York State Hospitals

Hospital Quality Reports is a new Web site at <www.bcbscny.org/apps/HospitalQuality/introduction.jsp> for evaluating hospitals in New York State. The site is sponsored by Excellus, Inc., the company that incorporates Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Central New York, Rochester, and Utica-Watertown. Here prospective patients can view mortality, patient volume, and utilization rates for certain medical procedures in Upstate New York hospitals that contract with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Data used to create the reports comes from the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS). In New York State, all hospitals send data to SPARCS for every patient hospitalized.

New York State Hospital Quality Indicators 2002 Report Card is available at <www.myhealthfinder.com/>. The Alliance for Quality Health Care (AQHC) and the Niagara Health Quality Coalition (NHQC) released this information. It compares hospital performance in twenty-five categories, based on indicators of hospital quality developed by the federal government. At this site consumers can find reliable and comparable data on nearly 300 New York State hospitals grouped by metropolitan area.

New Medicaid Mandatory Generic Drug Program

A new federal law requires that, when FDA-approved generic drug equivalents are available, all Medicaid recipients must receive generics instead of brand name drugs. Physicians may apply for prior approval to use a brand-name medication. At least nine medications with generic versions, e.g., Coumadin, are exempted from the requirement for prior approval. The law and exceptions are explained at the New York State Health Department Web site: <www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/medicaid/ptcommittee/mandatorygen.htm>. To find out which brand-name drugs have FDA-approved generic equivalents, see the FDA's "Electronic Orange Book" at <www.fda.gov/cder/ob/default.htm>.

Community Outreach

Health Information Center (HIC) staff recently participated in a variety of community outreach programs:

• Health Career Awareness, an eight-week program sponsored by SUNY Upstate's Organizational Training and Development Department and Syracuse City Schools.
• Breast Cancer Support Group, coordinated by the University Health Care Center (UHCC) Breast Care Center.
• Health Fair at Upstate's HealthLink site in Shoppingtown Mall.
• Annual Health and Screening Fair at Southwest Community Health Center in Syracuse.

Patient Education Web Site Redesigned

Upstate's Patient Education Web site, maintained by the HIC, now has separate professional and public pages. The professional pages at <www.upstate.edu/pated/> contain specialized resources for the exclusive use of Upstate staff, including Micromedex, Health Reference Center, community resource referrals, and the patient education database, a catalog of resources available in various clinical departments on campus. The public pages at <www.upstate.edu/uhpated/> feature widely available educational materials and other resources created by Upstate clinical staff, organized by topic or service line. The public pages were developed to offer a positive presentation to consumers, listing only materials approved for general access. Resources on both the professional and the public pages have been approved by the Patient Education Council of Upstate Medical University.

Friend in Deed Grant

Thanks to generous funding from the Friend in Deed program of the SUNY Upstate Medical University Foundation, the HIC has purchased over forty videos on timely health topics. Anyone from the Upstate community or the general public may borrow these videos. Titles include Atrial Fibrillation, Uterine Fibroids, Endometrial Ablation, Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Pain Management: The Three R's, Chemotherapy: An Introduction to Treatment, Radiation Therapy, After Mastectomy, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Nasal and Septal Surgery, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, The New Living Body Series [ten videos], Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis, Early Childhood Health Issues, Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Coping with Crohn's and Colitis, Epilepsy: The Storm Within, Migraine Headaches, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C [three videos], Food-Borne Illnesses and Their Prevention, Struggling With Life: Asperger's Syndrome, Autism: The Child Who Couldn't Play, Depression and Manic Depression, Advancements in Traumatic Brain Injury, The Injured Brain: Closed Head Trauma, BPH [Benign Prostate Hypertrophy]: Aging and the Enlarged Prostate, Back Microsurgery, Prostate Surgery, Chronic Heartburn, and Pain Management.

Pain Management Resources

The HIC presented a poster at the Pain Resource Nurse Educational Program held recently in Weiskotten Hall. Here are some of the newest HIC resources on pain management that were displayed at the program:

• Pain Management: The Three R's: A Patient's Guide to Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities [video] (Timonium, Md.: Milner-Fenwick, 2001). 14 minutes.
  Consumer Health Video WL 704 P144 2001
• Pain Management [video] (Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 2000). 30 minutes.
  Consumer Health Video WL 704 P144 2000
• Margaret A. Caudill, Managing Pain Before it Manages You -- revised edition -- (New York: Guilford, 2002).
  Consumer Health WL 704 C371m 2002
• Jim Johnson, The Multifidus Back Pain Solution: Simple Exercises that Target the Muscles that Count (Oakland, Calif.: New Harbinger, 2002.).
  Consumer Health WE 720 J67m 2002
• Angela J. Koestler and Ann Myers, Understanding Chronic Pain (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002).
  Consumer Health WL 704 K78u 2002

Visit the HIC pathfinder at <www.upstate.edu/library/healthinfo/pathfind/pain.php> to see a complete listing of books, videos, Web sites, associations, support groups, and other information about pain management.

James A. Capodagli
Head, Health Information Center
464-4410 or <hic@upstate.edu>
<www.upstate.edu/library/healthinfo/>

The Top Ten New Titles

• Greenfield's Neuropathology -- 7th edition -- edited by David I. Graham and Peter L. Lantos (London; New York: Arnold, 2002).
  WL 140 G812 2002
• Human Papillomaviruses: Clinical and Scientific Advances, edited by Jane C. Sterling and Stephen K. Tyring (London; New York: Arnold, 2001).
  QW 165.5 P2 H9184 2001
• Evidence-Based Herbal Medicine, edited by Michael Rotblatt and Irwin Ziment (Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus, 2002).
  WB 925 E935 2002
• Ben A. Rich, Strange Bedfellows: How Medical Jurisprudence has Influenced Medical Ethics and Medical Practice (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2001).
  W 32.5 AA1 R5572s 2001
• Hutchison's Clinical Methods -- 21st edition -- edited by Michael Swash (Edinburgh; New York: W.B. Saunders, 2002).
  WB 141 H978c 2002
• Ethics, Medical Research, and Medicine: Commercialism Versus Environmentalism and Social Justice, edited by Andrew Thompson and Norman J. Temple (Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2001).
  W 50 E8442 2001
• Recognition of Child Abuse for the Mandated Reporter -- 3rd edition -- edited by Angelo P. Giardino and Eileen R. Giardino (St. Louis: G.W. Medical, 2002).
  WA 320 R311 2002
• Pediatric Injectable Drugs -- 6th edition -- edited by Stephanie J. Phelps (Bethesda, Md.: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, 2002).
  WB 354 P371 2002
• Embryonic Stem Cells: Methods and Protocols, edited by Kursad Turksen (Totowa, N.J.: Humana, 2002).
  QH 581.2 E53 2002
  Online Table of Contents: <www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy02/2001026459.html>
• Sleep Medicine, edited by Teofilo L. Lee-Chiong, Jr., Michael J. Sateia, and Mary A. Carskadon (Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus, 2002).
  WM 188 S63238 2002

Rosemarie Bundy
Head, Collection Development
464-7109 or <bundyr@upstate.edu>

Library Contracts with Auburn Memorial Hospital

The Health Sciences Library has contracted with Auburn Memorial Hospital to provide circuit library services. Kathy Hughes, Circuit Librarian, will visit the hospital every two weeks, as well as coordinate with a hospital liaison to provide day-to-day library assistance. In addition to Auburn Memorial, the Library also provides circuit services to four other hospitals in Upstate New York: Little Falls Hospital, Rome Memorial Hospital, Community Memorial Hospital in Hamilton, and Oneida Healthcare Center.

HIC Librarian Wins President's Award

Congratulations to Jim Capodagli for winning the 2002 President's Award for Excellence in Library Science, which he received at the Fall Faculty Convocation. Jim brought the Health Information Center (HIC) from a drawing-board idea for patient education and consumer health in the mid-1990s to a well-established, heavily used, and widely respected component of the Library today. Good job!

New Blackwell Resources in Historical Collections

According to its Mission Statement, the Department of Historical Collections strives "To create, maintain, and preserve a broadly based historical record of SUNY Upstate Medical University, its precursor institutions, and the individuals associated with them, in order to develop a primary resource for scholars of the history, biography, genealogy, and sociology of medicine in Central New York. To educate the public about the rich legacy of SUNY Upstate Medical University in the history of medicine, e.g., its graduation in 1849 of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman M.D. of modern times ..."

In keeping with these purposes, the Library has recently acquired two rare books with important connections to Elizabeth Blackwell: Howard Atwood Kelly's copy of Blackwell's autobiography, Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (London: 1895); and Joseph Warrington's The Nurse's Guide: Containing a Series of Instructions to Females Who Wish to Engage in the Important Business of Nursing Mother and Child in the Lying-In Chamber (Philadelphia: 1839).

Kelly (1858-1943) was the leading American gynecologist of his day, a friend of the medical women's movement, a prolific medical historian and biographer, and a mainstay of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His copy of Blackwell's book contains his bookplate, his handwritten inscription, "The Eternal feminine is always interesting," and his inserted newspaper clipping of an obituary of another famous early woman physican, Sophia Jex-Blake (1840-1912).

Warrington (1805-1888) was a prominent liberal Quaker obstetrician, an 1828 medical graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Along with John Dickson in North Carolina, Samuel Dickson in South Carolina, and William Elder in Philadelphia, he risked his career by giving Blackwell private lessons in medicine while strongly supporting her quest to be admitted to medical school. He signed and presented this copy of his maternity manual to another famous Philadelphia physician, Thomas Tickell Hewson (1773-1848).

New Equipment for John Bernard Henry, M.D. Microcomputer Learning Center

The Health Sciences Library is pleased to announce the updating of the PCs and Macs in its second-floor Media Services computer lab. The John Bernard Henry, M.D. Microcomputer Learning Center is now equipped with 23 new Dell computers with DVD/CD drives, Zip drives, and floppy drives, as well as five new Macs with 17-inch flat screens, CD-RW drives, and Zip drives. All of these machines connect to both the Internet and internal servers, providing a full spectrum of software applications as well as curriculum-related materials.

Two new laser printers are in place for black-and-white print jobs. In addition, a Xerox color printer which gives photo-quality color prints is available. Library copy cards are used to print, with color prints charged at a higher rate. A new scanner is also available at one PC workstation.

The lab is for Upstate students, faculty, and staff only. Visitors may use computers in the first-floor Reference area of the Library.

"AskaLibrarian" Anytime

More and more users access Library materials online at all hours of the day and night and frequently have questions about Library services or resources when they are not physically present in the Library. To make it easier for remote users to get help, the Library has created a new service, a GroupWise e-mail account called "AskaLibrarian."

Users can send e-mail to "AskaLibrarian@upstate.edu" for any Library-related question, without having to know a specific person's e-mail address. Questions will be monitored by Reference librarians, referred to other Library staff as appropriate, and will normally be answered by the next business day. In addition to accessing "AskaLibrarian" via e-mail, users may also use the "AskaLibrarian" button on the Library home page <www.upstate.edu/library>.

New Online System in Library

On July 24, 2002, Upstate joined eleven other SUNY campuses in migrating to a new online library catalog. The new "Aleph" catalog, produced by ExLibris, is popular in academic libraries worldwide because of its sophisticated functionality and flexibility. The catalog provides an easy-to-navigate interface with multiple options for searching, saving, and e-mailing results, and for linking to full text.

The online catalog is accessible from the Library home page <www.upstate.edu/library> through "Quick Links" on the left, by clicking on "Upstate Catalog." Online help is available from each screen. You can search the catalog anytime from anywhere (a LEAP account is not required). It works best with Internet Explorer. For more information, please contact the Reference Desk at 4-4581.