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May • Mai • No 55
Under the co-operation agreement between the Norwegian LibraryAssociation Section for Medicine and Health, the Union of Danish
Librarians and the Kaunas University of Medicine Library,the courses “Transfer of Knowledge” for Medical Librarians
in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were held in the Kaunas Universityof Medicine in March 20-24, 2000.
The production of this Newsletter was made possible by the generous sponsorship of:
La publication de ce Bulletin a pu être réalisée grâce au généraux parrainage de:
• ROWECOM, France
• EBSCO INFORMATION SERVICES, Aalsmeer, The Netherlands
• SWETS BLACKWELL, Lisse, The Netherlands
European Association
for Health Information and Libraries
Association Européenne
pour l’Information et les Bibliothèques de Santé
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EAHIL / AEIBS
EAHIL Executive Board:
Tony McSeán, PresidentBritish Medical Association,BMA House, LibraryTavistock SquareLondon WC1H9JP, England, UKtel.: +44 207 383 6036fax: +44 207 388 2544e-mail: [email protected]
Manuela Colombi, Past-PresidentJanssen-Cilag SpAVia Buonarroti, 23I-20093 Cologno Monzese (Milano), Italytel.: +39 02 2510 526fax: +39 02 2510 530e-mail: [email protected]
Linda Lisgarten, SecretaryThe school of Pharmacy LibraryUniversity of London23-39 Brunswick SquareLondon WC1N 1AX, England UKtel.: +44 207 753 5833fax: +44 207 753 5947e-mail: [email protected]
Arne Jakobsson, TreasurerThe University of Oslo LibraryLibrary of Medicine and Health SciencesPostboks 1113, BlindernN-0317 Oslo, Norwaytel.: +47 23 07 44 34fax: +47 23 07 44 30e-mail: [email protected]
Suzanne Bakker, 1st Vice President &Supervisor EAHIL SecreteriatCentral Cancer Library, The Netherlands Cancer InstitutePlesmanlaan 121NL-1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlandstel.: +31 20 512 2597fax: +31 20 512 2599e-mail: [email protected]
Gabriella Poppi, 2nd Vice PresidentIstituto Superiore di Sanità BibliotecaViale Regina Elena 299I-00161 Roma, Italytel.: +39 06 4990 2210fax: +39 06 4990 2591e-mail: [email protected]
Marta Viragos, Assistant-SecretaryMedical Universtity Debrecen Central LibraryNagyerdei krt, 98H-4012 Debrecen, Hungarytel.: +36 52 413 847fax: +36 52 413847e-mail: [email protected]
Meile Kretaviciene, 1st co-opted memberKaunas Medical Academy, LibraryMickeviciaus 73683 Kaunas, Lithuaniatel.: +370 7 22 13 31fax: +370 7 22 07 33e-mail: [email protected]
EAHIL website: http://www.eahil.orgDiscussion list: [email protected]
EAHIL Secretariat:c/o NVBPlompetorengracht 11, NL-3512 CA UtrechtThe Netherlandstel.: +31 30 261 9663fax: +31 30 231 1830e-mail: [email protected]
Postal bank account: 799 6024SWIFT code: INGBNL2ABank account: ABN-AMRO 53 03 64 697SWIFT code: ABNANL2A
Production: Drukkerij Peters Amsterdam b.v.Schepenbergweg 33 • NL-1105 AS Amsterdam
ISSN 1011-8454
Instructions for AuthorsManuscripts either in English or French should be about 3-4 standard (1.50 space) typewritten pages and provided bye-mail or on a diskette. Infomative title, short summary and keywords should be provided. References should beexpressed in Vancouver style. Authors of submitted papers accept editing and re-use of published material by EAHIL.
Les manuscrits, qu’ils soient rédigés en français ou en anglais, devront être présentés sous forme de pages dactylo-graphiées, de standard 3-4 (espace de 1.50) et fournis par e-mail ou sur disquettes. Le titre, un bref résumé ainsi que lesmots-clés devront également être joints. Les références devront etre formulées selon le “style de Vancouver”. Les auteursayant soumis des articles acceptent que ces derniers soient édités et utilisés à nouveau dans les publications pour l’EAHIL.
Editorial BoardCHIEF EDITOR : Sally Wood-Lamont, Biblioteca UMF, Str Avram Iancu 31, 3400 Cluj-Napoca, Romania •Tel. : +40 64 192 629 • Tel./Fax : +40 64 190 832 • e-mail: [email protected]
PUBLICATIONS & E VENTS: Giovanna F.Miranda, Sanofi Synthelabo, Scientific Information Department,Via Piranesi 38, I-20137 Milano, Italy • e-mail: [email protected]
ASSOCIATION NEWS: Marta Virtagos , Medical University Debrecen Central Library, Nagyerdei krt, 98, H-4012Debrecen, Hungary • Tel.: +36 52 413 847 • Fax: +36 52 413 847 • e-mail: [email protected]
FRENCH LANGUAGE EDITOR : Monique C. Cleland; PO Box 217 • 467 Campbell Flats Road Norwich, Vermont 05055,USA • Tel.: +1 802 649 1076 • e-mail : [email protected]
Joanne Dunham, Clinical Science Library, University of Leicester, Leicester Royal Infirmary, PO BOX 65,Leicester LE2 7LX, UK •Tel.: +44 116 252 31 02 • Fax: +44 116 252 31 07 • e-mail: [email protected]
Liisa Salmi, Kuopio University Hospital Medical Library, POB 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland • Tel.: +358 17 173 770 •Fax: +358 17 163 429 • e-mail: [email protected]
INTERNET PAGES & W EBSITES: Constantin Cazan, Schering Wien GmbH, Library & Doc. Dept., Scheringgasse 2, A-1147 Wien, Austria • Tel.: +431 97037 324 • Fax: +431 97037 399 • e-mail: [email protected]
Velta Poznaka, Medical Research Library of Latvia, 1 Sharlotes Street, LV-1001 Riga, Latvia • Tel.: +371 737 8321 •Fax: +371 737 3646 • e-mail: [email protected]
Maurella Della Seta & Annarita Barbano, Instituto Superiore di Sanità Biblioteca, Viale Regina Elena 299, I-00161 Roma, Italy • Tel.: +39 06 4990 2210 • Fax: +39 06 4990 2591 • e-mail: [email protected] & [email protected]
Whilst the Editorial Board endeavours to obtain items of interest, the facts and opinions expressed in those items are theresponsibility of the authors concerned. They do not necessarily reflect the policies and opinions of the Association.La Rédaction s’efforce d’obtenir des articles intéressants. Cependant, les faits et opinions exprimés dans ces articles sontde la responsabilité de leurs auteurs. Ils ne reflètent pas nécessairement les politiques et opinions de l’Association.
The full membership subscriptions including the subscription to our quarterly Newsletter remain unchanged for 2000Les cotisations de 2000 comprenant l’abonnement à notre Bulletin d’Information trimestriel restent inchangées.• Full information regarding the Association, membership fees and advertisements in the Newsletter, may be
obtained from the EAHIL secretariat in Utrecht.• Toute information concernant l’Association, les cotisations de membres et les annonces publicitaires dans la
Newsletter peut être obtenue au secrétariat de l’AEIBS à Utrecht.
Contents
EDITORIALLetter from the Editor - Sally Wood-Lamont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
NEWS FROM OUR ASSOCIATIONLetter from the President - Tony McSeán . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Latest News from Sardinia - Manuela Colombi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6New members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
NEWS FROM MLAFarewell to EAHIL - Donna Flake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Welcome to the New MLA Representative - Eve-Marie Lacroix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
NEWS FROM EUROPENews from Finland- Liisa Salmi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10The TACIS Russia Health Care Project: Finland’s Contribution- Birgitta Järvinen . . . . 10
BOOK REVIEWEvidence Based Symptom Control in Palliative Care - A.P.E. Vielvoye-Kerkmeer
and Suzanne Bakker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
HIGHLIGHT ON ..... LITHUANIAStaff Professional Development and Training in Lithuania- Meile Kretaviciene . . . . . . . 12The Changing Library in the Changing Environment- Salvinija Kociene . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
INTERNET PAGE - Constantin Cazin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
PUBLICATIONS AND NEW PRODUCTS - Giovanna F. Miranda . . . . . . . . . . 17
FORTHCOMING EVENTS - Giovanna F. Miranda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
EAHIL Newsletter to European Health Librarians, May 2001, no 554
EDITORIAL
Dear ColleaguesFirst of all I would like to thank Anne Parrical from the University Medical Library, Lausanneand my colleague Denisa Marineanu for stepping in at the last moment to help with theFrench translations for this newsletter.
I do hope you all had a lovely Easter and for most of you there was time for some rest too.This issue features Highlight….. on Lithuania, comprising two very interesting articles onanother Baltic state. News from Finland also features an article about a joint Finnish\Russianproject, all three reflecting similar evolutional problems of post communist countries thatsadly will take possibly another decade, or more, to completely eradicate. These difficultiesand others permeate daily in my current work here in Romania but I would also like toreiterate along with all three writers that though the changes are slow and painful sometimes,the skills and the enthusiasm of the librarians themselves bring other dimensions to thefield of librarianship, consisting of courage, constancy and competiveness. Suzanne Bak-ker sent this quote to me. Johan Cruijff - the famous Dutch soccer player and trainer said
the following: Everything advantageoushas its disadvantages. I liked it for itssimplicity and for its irony as in today’sworld of high technology even thoughvast sums and people are expended in thename of progress, so much can still beuncountable.
In EAHIL Newsletter 56 we shall befeaturing Highlight on …… Iceland andI was pleased to see Margret Gunnarsottirfrom the University Hospital in Reykja-vik as a new member of EAHIL. I metMargret with five of her colleagues onthe Thames cruise last year at the ICMLconference and on that wonderful eveningthe decision was made to do this featurein issue 56 and I look forward to receivingtheir contributions.
We also say farewell to Donna Flake whohas been a valued and integral part ofEAHIL for the past six years. ManyEAHIL members will want to thankDonna for her dedication and her valuableassistance throughout her term of officeand for her work in the new BilateralAgreement between MLA and EAHIL. Iespecially have been grateful for herregular and interesting contributions tothis Newsletter over and above theimmediate friendship offered wheneverwe have met or corresponded by e-mail.
However I would now like to extend avery warm welcome to Eve-MarieLacroix as the new MLA representativewhom many of you will have heard of inher role as Chief of the Public Services
Division at the National Library ofMedicine. I look forward to working withyou!
Many of our members will be busypreparing their presentations for theEAHIL Workshop, Alghero. The ItalianOrganizing Committee has been workinghard to make the final arrangements. Iwish everyone success and look forwardto meeting you all in sunny Sardinia.
Sally Wood-Lamont
Tout d’abord j’aimerais remercier AnneParrical, du Centre Hospitalier Univer-sitaire Vaudois à Lausanne et macollegue, Denisa Marineanu d’avoiraccepté d’assurer au pied levé lestraductions en français du présent numérode notre bulletin. J’espère que vous aveztous passé des fêtes de Pâques agréableset que la plupart d’entre vous auront puégalement se reposer. Au sommaire de cenuméro « Pleins feux sur la Lithuanie »qui inclut deux articles dignes d’intérêtsur un autre état de la Baltique. «LesNouvelles de Finlande » nous présenteun projet conjoint entre la Finlande etl’URSS. Ces trois articles reflètent lesproblèmes d’évolution similaires quevivent les pays de l’après communisme ;problèmes qui, malheureusement,mettront probablement encore unedécénie ou davantage pour se résorber
complètement. Ces difficultés et d’autresencore imprègnent quotidiennement monactivité professionnelle en Roumanie.J’aimerais cependant ajouter ma voix àcelle des auteurs des trois articles pourdire que même si les changements sontlents et parfois douloureux, les talents etl’enthousiasme des bibliothécaires euxmêmes donnent à la profession desdimensions autres, faites de courage, deténacité et d’émulation.
Suzanne Baker m’a envoyé la citationsuivante : « Tout ce qui présente desavantages possède aussi ses revers. J’aiapprécié cette phrase pour sa simplicitéet aussi pour son ironie, car nous vivonsune époque de technologie avancée oumalgré les sommes colossales qui sontdépensées au nom du progrès, il reste tantet tant à faire.
Dans le bulletin numéro 56 il seraquestion d’un « Pleins feux sur l’Islande». C ‘est un plaisir de compter parmi nosnouveaux membres d’Eahil MargretGunnarsottir du Centre hospitalier Uni-versitaire de Reykjavik. Nous avons pufaire connaissance de même qu’avec cinqautres de ses collègues au cours de lacroisière sur la Tamise pendant le con-grès ICML de l’an passé. C’est alors qu’aété prise la décision de publier le numéro56 du bulletin sur l’Islande et je meréjouis à l’avance de leur contribution.
C’est un au revoir que nous disons àDonna Flake, membre de valeur qui a faitpartie intégrante tout au long de ces sixannées passées de la vie d’EAHIL. Denombreux membres aimeraient laremercier pour son dévouement, son aideprécieuse tout au long de son mandat,
❧Chers Collègues
5
Should EAHIL Set A Standard?
It seems that our whole professional world has changed since my first term as EAHIL president in the early 1990s. To give justone example, email has developed from a novelty into an everyday necessity and - to judge by the 327 unread emails that werewaiting for me after the Easter break - now is threatening to take over the whole day.It has transformed the way that EAHIL is managed. Ten years ago the Board met twice a year, meetings that would sometimes bea desperate scramble to cover all the important topics. In between meetings much of the decision-making had to be left to thediscretion of the president because there was no practical way of getting every Board member’s opinion in less than two weeksand no way at all to discuss things and arrive at a constructive consensus. In 2001 the Board meetings are still important, butwith the Board discussion list we are able, in effect, to be in constant session and to discuss ideas, see drafts of letters andgenerally share the responsibility. I enjoyed this while I was Board secretary, and am even more grateful now as president.
Letter from our President
So email has made great and beneficialchanges to the way the Board and Councilfunction, but for me one of the benefits ofthe internet is the opportunities it providesfor organisations like ours to become muchmore democratic and participatory. At themoment we have the EAHIL-L email list,and I would urge every member with inter-net access to surf over to www.eahil.organd sign up to EAHIL-L. But this is oneexample where technology is runningahead of our ability to get the best out ofit and, like every list I belong to, EAHIL-L is taking longer to warm up than an oldfashioned television.So EAHIL’s elected representatives dostill find it difficult to find ways to findout the opinion of the whole membershipon new ideas and initiatives that maycome forward for consideration from timeto time. This is an importantconsideration in any organisation butespecially so in EAHIL, which fullyreflects the cultural and economicdiversity of a region that encompassesLapland and the Canarias, Iceland andKazakhstan. There are many, many valid
definitions of what constitutes “profes-sional conduct” amongst EAHILmembers and only the naive and the daftwill try to ignore this. Which brings us tothe point of this column:Should EAHIL “Certify” Members?One of EAHIL’s main objectives is tofoster the development of professionalismin European health information services.One way we could do this is by definingthe minimum levels of qualification andexperience necessary to deliver a goodprofessional standard of work and thenacknowledge those members who haveachieved that standard through someprocess of official certification. Usefulparallels to this are the UK LibraryAssociation’s Charter scheme and MLA’sAcademy.As I mentioned in the last Newsletter, theBoard is looking for ways to makeEAHIL more relevant and valuable to usas members, and the questions I want toask here is would this be useful to you inyour professional life and would you likethe Board to set up a project team to lookat the feasibility. To set up such a scheme
would take up a lot of the limitedvolunteer time available to EAHIL sowhat we need to do more than anythingis to make sure that we don’t pour a lotof energy into something that would bean irrelevance or even an definite turn-off for a significant part of our membersand potential members..Please let me know what you think,positive and negative. I would suggestusing EAHIL-L if you can get access toit, since this might get a constructivediscussion going. Otherwise please writeto me at EAHIL or the BMA, or interceptme during the workshop in Alghero and,as we say, bend my ear with your views.As I write this in mid-April, wet snow isfalling onto the streets of London andmelting miserably. England has had thewettest winter in living memory, geese areswimming on the cricket grounds ofLondon and an exrended bout of SAD isleaving me without any professionalinspiration. Believe me, Alghero cannotcome too soon for me.
Tony McSeán
NEWS FROM OUR ASSOCIATION
ainsi que pour le travail qu’elle a effectuéen vue d’élaborer l’accord bilatéral entrela MLA et EAHIL. Je suis pour ma partspécialement reconnaissante à Donna deses contributions régulières etintéressantes à notre bulletin et surtoutdu lien amical qui s’est établispontanément au travers de nos rencon-tres et de nos échanges par courrierélectronique.
J’aimerais également offrir unechaleureuse bienvenue à Eve MarieLacroix, notre nouvelle déléguée MLA,que beaucoup d’entre vous connaissentdéjà grace à son travail de Chef des Ser-vices Publics à la NLM. Je me réjouis detravailler avec Eve Marie.
Beaucoup de nos membres sontactuellement en pleine rédaction de leur
communication pour les ateliers EAHILd’Alghero.Le comité d’organisationitalien a travaillé de façon soutenue envue des derniers préparatifs. Je souhaiteà chacun un franc succès et me réjouis devous retrouver tous sous le soleil de laSardaigne.
Sally Wood-Lamont
EAHIL Newsletter to European Health Librarians, May 2001, no 556
NEWS FROM OUR ASSOCIATION
On March 30, there were 153 registeredparticipants!
The Local Organizing Committee hasordered : sunny weather, mild wind and acalm sea.
The scientific presentations are undercontrol, and we expect the full text of thepresentations and posters by May 2nd.
See you all in Alghero at the CalabonaHotel!
Manuela Colombi
LATEST NEWSFROM SARDINIA!
Lettre du PresidentL’EAHIL devrait-elle fixer un étalon?
Il semble que tout notre environnement professionnel ait changé depuis le début des années 1990, où j’ai été pour la première fois présidentde l’EAHIL. Pour donner juste un exemple, le courrier électronique s’est transformé d’une nouveauté en une nécessité et maintenant – à enjuger d’après les 327 messages qui m’attendaient à la fin des vacances de Pâques – il menace d’occuper toute la journée.Il a transformé la manière dont est gérée l’EAHIL. Il y a dix ans, le Comité se réunissait deux fois par an, réunions qui devenaientparfois un combat désespéré pour couvrir tous les sujets importants. Entre les réunions, beaucoup de décisions devaient être laisséesà la discrétion du président car il n’y avait aucun moyen d’avoir l’opinion de chaque membre du Comité en moins de deux semaines,aucun moyen de discuter des problèmes ou d’arriver à un consensus constructif. En 2001, les réunions du Comité sont encoreimportantes mais, grâce à la liste de discussions du Comité, nous sommes capables de maintenir un contact permanent et de débattre,de voir les brouillons des lettres et de partager les responsabilités. J’ai apprécié cela lorsque j’étais secrétaire du Comité et j’en suisencore plus reconnaissant maintenant, comme président.
Donc le courriel a apporté deschangements importants et profitables aufonctionnement du Comité et du Conseil,mais pour moi l’un des bénéfices del’Internet est dans la possibilité qu’il offreà des organisations comme la nôtre dedevenir beaucoup plus active etdémocratique. A présent, nous disposonsde la liste e-mail EAHIL-L et je voudraisinviter chaque membre ayant accès àl’Internet à naviguer sur www.eahil.org età s’abonner à EAHIL-L. Mais c’est unexemple où la technologie dépasse notrecapacité à l’exploiter au maximum et,comme toute autre liste à laquelle jesouscris, EAHIL-L met plus de temps às’échauffer qu’une télévision démodée.Donc, les représentants élus de l’EAHILéprouvent encore des difficultés à connaîtrel’opinion des membres à propos d’initiativesou d’idées nouvelles. C’est une considérationimportante dans toute organisation maissurtout dans l’EAHIL, qui reflète toute ladiversité culturelle et économique d’unerégion qui comprend la Laponie et lesCanaries, l’Islande et le Kazakhstan. Il y a
New Members
Individual Membership:
1. Ms. D. GENTILI (Donateua), Instituto Superiore de Sanita, ROME, Italy
2. Ms. M. ZEDDA (Monica), Instituto Superiore de Sanita, Rome, Italy
3. Mr. M.E. MUTKA (Martin), Library Consortium of Health Institutions inBuffalo (LCHIB) Health Sciences Library, University at Buffalo, Buffalo,NY, U.S.A.
4. Ms. J.A. SIESS (Judith), Information Bridges International, Inc. / The OnePerson Librarian Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A
Institutional Membership:
1. Mr. J. BEATON (James), The Royal College of Physicians andSurgeons of Glasgow, GLASGOW, Scotland (U.K.)
de nombreuses définitions valables de la“pratique professionnelle” parmi lesmembres de l’EAHIL et seuls les naïfs et lesfous pourraient chercher à l’ignorer. Ce quinous amène au sujet suivant :L’EAHIL devrait-elle “certifier” ses membres?L’un des objectifs principaux de l’EAHILest d’encourager le développement duprofessionnalisme dans les serviceseuropéens de l’information de santé. Unesolution serait de définir les niveauxminimums de qualification et l’expériencenécessaire pour acquérir un niveauprofessionnel satisfaisant et ensuite decertifier les membres qui ont obtenu ce ni-veau par un processus de certificationofficielle. Deux exemples similaires sont lesprojets Charter de l’UK LibraryAssociation et l’Academy de MLA.Comme je l’ai mentionné dans le dernierbulletin d’informations, le Comité souhaiteque l’EAHIL réponde mieux aux besoinsde ses membres aussi je voudrais vousdemander si une certification vous seraitutile dans votre vie professionnelle et sivous souhaiteriez que le Comité crée un
projet pour en examiner la faisabilité. Lacréation d’un tel projet prendrait une placeimportante du temps limité dont disposel’EAHIL ; il nous faut donc être certainque l’on n’investira pas d’énergie dansquelque chose d’inutile ou dépourvud’intérêt pour une partie significative denos membres et membres potentiels…Je vous prie de me faire connaître vosopinions, positives et négatives. Je voussuggère d’utiliser EAHIL-L si vous y avezaccès, car cela pourrait générer un débatconstructif. Sinon, je vous prie de m’écrire àl’EAHIL ou à la BMA ou de me contacterpendant le séminaire d’Alghero et, comme ondit, rebattez-moi les oreilles de vos opinions.Pendant que j’écris à la mi-avril, la neigetombe sur les rues de Londres et fondmisérablement. L’Angleterre a eu l’hiver leplus pluvieux de mémoire d’homme, les oiesnagent sur les terrains de cricket et une crisede mélancolie me laisse sans aucuneinspiration professionnelle. Croyez-moi,Alghero arrive à temps pour moi.
Tony McSeán
7
NEWS FROM MLA
Farewell To Donna Flake, MLA Representative to EAHIL, 1996-2001As of May 2001, my term as your MLARepresentative will come to an end. I wantto express my thoughts on serving in thatrole for the last six years. First, let me saythis role has indeed been an absolutehighlight for me. EAHIL is a superb andinspiring organization. It is impossible forme to tell you the joy, adventure, anddelight in fulfilling my duties, doing thisimportant work and getting to know thefabulous librarians of EAHIL. Yourorganization helps European medicallibrarians in so many ways. Some of theways include:w European librarians belong to the wider
global village of Europew Librarians within EAHIL feel a profes-
sional identityw Librarians network and are willing to
help each other (many of you haveanswered reference questions for methat deal with your individual countries).w Librarians of EAHIL make friends with
librarians in many European countriesw Librarians of EAHIL support one
anotherw EAHIL’s wonderful continuing education
coursesWe made some significant progress in thelast 6 years in furthering the communi-cation and commitment between MLA andEAHIL. One example of this is the newBilateral Agreement between MLA andEAHIL which allows MLA members toattend EAHIL at EAHIL member rates,and also allows EAHIL members to attendMLA at MLA member rates.
I have attended every annual EAHIL work-shop and every EAHIL conference duringmy six years as your representative fromMLA.
Here are some of my very favorite memo-ries of my term as your representative:1. * Otokar Pinkas meeting Shane God-
bolt and me at the airport as soon aswe arrived in Prague and giving us thetour of Prague.
* At the EAHIL workshop in Prague,all of us singing the songs of manycountries and dancing at the beautifulCzech Academy of Sciences.
* Arne Jakobsson taking me to thePrague castle.
* Seeing Elizabeth Husem’s smile!2. * At the Coimbia, Portugal conference
closing session the male universitystudents dressed in traditional universitydress singing Portuguese folk songs.
* Dancing to music of the PortugueseFolk band in that huge tent at the party.
* Ending the Coimbra conference witha feeling of affection among all of uscolleagues, and a certainty that wewould meet again.
* The Gala Dinner at the former royalpalace with Fado music.
3. * At the Budapest workshop, taking thefunicular up the 130 foot-high plateauto Castle Hill and seeing gorgeousfountains, and often fierce warriorstatues on our way to the meeting inthe National Library.
* Celebrating EAHIL’s 10th birthday ata huge party as we drank the potentPalinka. There were many toasts toEAHIL that night! Again, I felt sucha feeling of warmth and caring amongall EAHIL members.
* Arriving in Budapest on the Danubeon a 6-hour boat trip from Vienna.
* So many friendly Hungarian faces!* Having a great Hungarian dinner
under the stars with Ioana Robu andSally Wood-Lamont
4. * At the Utrecht conference, walkingthe quaint Dutch streets with myfamily.
* As soon as I arrived at the conferencesite to pick up my registration, I sawso many EAHIL friends and I musthave received 15 hugs! These arefriends and colleagues of mine whomI care about and our lives linkedtogether. I recall feeling so very thank-ful for my role as MLA Representativeto EAHIL and to have the great bene-fit of attending EAHIL and getting toknow all of you wonderful Europeans!
* Going to Sieb Bohiken’s house for tea.* The farewell party at the Romanesque
basilica dating from 1050, talking toAnita Verhoeven and so many EAHILmembers, and enjoying the warmhospitality.
5. * The most adventurous and unusualEAHIL workshop was certainly the“travelling meeting”, which startedwith tours in Helsinki, continued asEAHIL members enjoyed each other’scompany on the ship - The Fantasia -as we traveled to Tallinn, Estonia. Thecaring and generous Estonian Librariansgreeted us with smiles and welcomebanner as we exited passport control.
* This particular EAHIL workshopmeant so much to me because I metVelta Poznaka from the MedicalResearch Library of Latvia and visited
her library in Riga. After returning tothe US, when the International Sectionof MLA was looking for a sisterlibrary, I recalled the Latvian library’sneeds and, now MLA is linkedto Velta’s library in a partnershipprogram.
* I must not leave off one last specialmemory of this trip and it was ShaneGodbolt, Liisa Salmi, Liisa’s husband,and me visiting St. Petersburg, andthen spending several days on Liisa’sisland in the Finnish Archipelago.
6. * EAHIL met during the course of the8th International Congress of MedicalLibrarianship. Again, here I had theopportunity to visit with EAHILcolleagues and renew friendships.
So, as my time as your MLA representativeends, I must tell you I believe in EAHILand its goals and endeavors. I adorespending time in Europe and seeing yourwonderful countries. I will foreverremember the wonderful librarians ofEAHIL and treasure the friendships Imade. I look forward to being an EAHILmember and hope to be able to attend someof your EAHIL meetings in the future….
Your new MLA Representative to EAHILis Eve-Marie LaCroix from the USNational Library of Medicine. She shareswith me a keen interest in internationalmedical librarianship. She will do a greatjob in this role.
So I now say au revoir my dear colleaguesand friends.
Donna Flake Director, Coastal AHEC Library
EAHIL Newsletter to European Health Librarians, May 2001, no 558
NEWS FROM MLA
A la date de mai 2001 mon mandat en tantque déléguée de la MLA auprès de EAHILtouchera à son terme.
J’aimerais vous exprimer ce que j’airessenti en accomplissant mes fonctionspendant ces six années :En premier lieu cerôle a été pour moi une source permanented’enrichissement.
EAHIL est une formidable association ,également porteuse d’idées
Il m’est presque impossible de trouver desmots pour exprimer les joies, les sentimentsd’aventure et de bonheur que j’ai ressentisen accomplissant mes tâches, et en faisantcet important travail qui m’a donnél’occasion de rencontrer les bibliothécairestalentueux d’EAHIL
Votre association apporte une aide auxbibliothécaires médicaux d’Europe demultiples manières:
Voici quelques exemples:
w Les bibliothécaires européens appar-tiennent au village global le plus grandd’ Europew Au sein d’EAHIL ils et elles ont conscience
d’une véritable identité professionnelle:w Les bibliothécaires travaillent en réseau
et sont désireux de s’entraider.(Beaucoup d’entre vous m’ont procuréles réponses aux questions de référenceque j’ai posées sur les différents pays)w Les bibliothécaires d’EAHILse font des
amis parmi leurs nombreux collègues depays d’Europe.w Les bibliothécaires d’EAHIL se
soutiennent.w Les cours de formation d’EAHIL sont
très intéressants.
Au cours de ces six dernières années, nousavons réalisé des progrès significatifs afinde resserrer les liens entre la MLA etEAHIL. J’en veux pour exemple l’accordbilatéral MLA/EAHIL qui permet auxmembres de la MLA d’assister aux con-grès EAHIL au tarif des membres EAHILde même que les membres de EAHILpeuvent assister aux congrès de la MLAau même tarif que les membres de cetteassociation.
J’ai participé à chacun des congrès et ate-liers EAHIL durant les 6 années de monmandat.
J’aimerais évoquer ici mes souvenirspréférés de cette époque:
1.* Dès notre arrivée à Prague, OtokarPinkas est venu nous chercher ShaneGodbolt et moi même à l’aéroport,puis nous a montré la ville
* Au cours de l’atelier de Prague, tousnous avons entonné des chants denombreux pays et avons dansé dansla magnifique académie des sciencestchèque.
* Anna Jakobsson m’a accompagnéefaire la visite du château de Prague.
* Et Elizabeth Husem souriait.
2 * Lors de la séance de clôture de la Con-férence de Coimbra au Portugal, mousavons entendu des étudiants habillésen costume universitaire traditionnelnous chanter des chants du répertoiretraditionnel portugais
* Nous avons dansé sous cette immensetente à la réception au son d’unorchestre traditionnel
* La conférence de Coimbra s’estterminée dans un sentimentchaleureux général et nous étionscertains que nous nous retrouverions.
* Le repas de gala à l’ancien palaisprésidentiel et la musique de fado sontd’excellents souvenirs
3 * L’atelier de Budapest a été l’occasionde prendre le funiculaire jusqu’àCastle Hill colline d’une hauteur de130 pieds et de voir ses magnifiquesfontaines. De même en me rendant aulieu de travail - la BibliothèqueNationale- j’ai pu admirer souvent lesstatues de fiers guerriers.
* Le dixième anniversaire d’EAHIL aété célébré au cours d’une granderéception ou l’on a servi la puisssantepalinka: de nombreux toasts ont étéportés à EAHIL ce soir là. A nouveauj’ai ressenti beaucoup de chaleur etde gentillesse parmi les membres.
* Il m’a été possible d’arriver àBudapest par le Danube en six heuresdans un bateau en provenance deVienne
* Il y avait tant de visages hongrois amis* Souvenir d’un souper hongrois délicieux
sous les étoiles en compagnie de IoanaRobu et de Sally Wood-Lamont.
4 * A la conférence d’Utrecht, j’ai puparcourir en famille les pittoresquesrues hollandaises.
* Ce fut un plaisir à mon arrivée à labanque d’enregistrement du congrèsde voir tant de visages amisd’EAHIL .J’ai reçu au moins quinzeaccolades à ce moment la venantd’amis et de collègues quej’apprécie beaucoup et avec lesquelsje sens mon existence liée.
* Je me suis sentie très reconnaissantedu mandat qui m’avait été confié dereprésenter la MLA auprès del’EAHIL. C’est ce qui m’a permisd’assister à tous les congrès et defaire la connaissance de vous touset toutes, bibliothécaires hors paird’Europe.
* Souvenir d’un thé à la maison de SiebBohiken
* La réception d’adieu à la basiliqueromane -datant de 1050- était pleined’hospitalité et de chaleur et m’adonné l’occasion de parler à AnitaVerhoeven ainsi qu’à d’autresmembres d’EAHIL
5 * Parmi les ateliers de travaux EAHIL,le plus inhabituel et aventureux fut trèscertainement la “réunion en voyage”qui démarra avec la visite d’Helsinkiet se poursuivit avec les retrouvaillesdes membres d’EAHIL sur le bateaule Fantasia qui naviguait vers Tallinnen Estonie.
* Là, les bibliothécaires estoniens nousaccueillirent avec sourires etbanderole de bienvenue à la sortie ducontrôle des passeports.
* Cet atelier EAHIL fut particulièrementsignificatif pour moi car j’y fisconnaissance de Velta Poznaka de laBibliothèque Médicale de recherchede Latvia et visitais sa bibliothèque àRiga.
* De retour aux Etats Unis, quand lasection internationale de la MLA semit à chercher une bibliothèque“sœur”, je me suis souvenue desbesoins de la bibliothèque de Latviaet, à présent, la MLA est reliée à labibliothèque de Velta par unprogramme de partenariat.
* Il m’appartient de ne pas laisser decôté un souvenir particulier de cevoyage: Nous avons, ShaneGotbold, Liisa Salmi ,son mari etmoi même visité ensemble SaintPétersbourg. Ensuite nous avonsfait un séjour de quelques joursdans l’î le de Liisa située dansl’Archipel Finnois.
Donna Flake, déléguée de la MLA auprès d’EAHIL 1995-2001
9
NEWS FROM MLA
6 * Pendant le 8ème Congrès Internatio-nal des Bibliothèques médicales lesmembres de EAHIL purent tenir uneréunion. J’ai pu à nouveau à cetteoccasion rencontrer des collègues deEAHIL et entretenir nos liens amicaux.
Maintenant que mon mandat de DéléguéeMLA auprès d’EAHIL touche à son terme,je peux vous dire ceci: je fais confiance àEAHIL, à ses objectifs et aux effortsentrepris.
J’adore venir en Europe et visiter vosmagnifiques contrées.
Welcome to Eve-Marie Lacroix,M.L.A. Representative to EAHIL, 2001-2004Eve-Marie Lacroix is Chief of the PublicServices Division of the National Libraryof Medicine. She directs NLM’s programsto provide access to the extensive NLMcollection including the onsite ReadingRoom and the DOCLINE interlibrary loannetwork, centralized Reference andCustomer Services, and NLM’s main Webservice. Most recently she has led thedevelopment of MEDLINEplus.gov, anextensive Web resource organizing healthinformation for consumers. Eve-Marie has
Je me souviendrai toujours desbibliothécaires épatant(e)s d’EAHIL etentretiendrai les amitiés créées.
Je me réjouis de devenir membre d’EAHILet espère pouvoir participer à quelquesunes de vos futures conférences.
Votre nouvelle Déléguée de la MLA auprèsd’EAHIL se nomme Eve Marie LACROIX,de la National Library of Medicine, EtatsUnis.
Elle partage avec moi le même intérêtsoutenu pour la profession de
Bibliothécaire Médical(e)vue sous sonaspect international.
Elle fera du très bon travail dans ce poste.
Il est temps maintenant de vous dire aurevoir mes chers collègues et ami(e)s.
Donna [email protected]
P. O. Box 9025, Wilmington,North Carolina 28402, USA
phone (910) 343-2180,fax (910) 762-7600
email: [email protected]
Eve-Marie Lacroix est Chef de laDivision des Services Publics de laNational Library of Medicine. Elle gèreles programmes NLM pour assurerl’accès à la collection étendue de laNLM comprenant la Salle de Lectureonsite et le réseau de prêt entrebibliothèques DOCLINE, les Servicescentralisés de Référence et des RelationsPubliques aussi bien que le serviceprincipal Internet de la NLM. Trèsrécemment elle a dirigé le développe-ment de MEDLINEplus.gov, uneressource Internet étendue organisant
Chers Collègues,
C’est un honneur et un plaisir pour moid’être nommée représentante de la MLAauprès de l’EAHIL pour les troisprochaines années. J’ai eu la chance departiciper à la réunion de l’EAHIL deTartu, en Estonie, aussi bien qu’à la pré-conférence d’Helsinki en 1999, où j’ai jouinon seulement d’une excellente réunionmais aussi de la merveilleuse hospitalitéde nombreuses bibliothèques européennes.Je suis impatiente de travailler avec vouspour trouver de nouveaux moyens de con-solider les liens entre l’EAHIL et la MLA.
Eve-Marie
Eve-Marie Lacroix, représentante de laMLA auprès de l’EAHIL 2001-2004
l’information dans le domaine de lasanté au service des clients. Eve-Marietravaille à la bibliothèque depuis 1985et elle vient du Canada Institute forScientific and Technical Information(CISTI) d’Ottawa.
Eve-Marie est membre de longue date dela Medical Library Association et del’International Cooperation Section et deSister Libraries Committee. Elle a jointl’EAHIL en 1999 et elle a participé auSéminaire de l’EAHIL de Tartu, Estonie,aussi bien qu’au 81e CML de Londres.
been at NLM since 1985, coming to NLMfrom the Canada Institute for Scientificand Technical Information (CISTI) inOttawa.
Eve-Marie is a long time member of theMedical Library Association, and is amember of the International CooperationSection and Sister Libraries Committee.She joined EAHIL in 1999 and attendedthe EAHIL Workshop in Tartu, Estonia,and the 8ICML in London.
It is both an honor and a pleasure to havebeen appointed as the MLArepresentative to EAHIL for the nextthree years. I was fortunate to attend theEAHIL meeting in Tartu, Estonia and pre-conference in Helsinki in 1999 where Ienjoyed not only an excellent meeting,
Dear Colleagues,but also the wonderful hospitality ofmany European librarians. I am lookingforward to working with you to find newways to strengthen the bonds betweenEAHIL and MLA.
Eve-Marie
EAHIL Newsletter to European Health Librarians, May 2001, no 5510
NEWS FROM FINLAND
Bibliothecarii Medicinae Fenniaereorganised its spring meeting. Inaddition to the annual meeting, a seminarwas held for the hospital libraries’subgroup. This seminar and the annualmeeting of BMF were held in Mikkeli,central eastern Finland, and the homepages and portals of the North KareliaHospital District in easternmost and theVaasa Hospital District in westernmostFinland were presented. In Finland thereare five university hospitals, some 20central hospitals and the remainder areeither regional or special hospitals. Allthese hospitals have current and commonquestions for the acquisition of databa-ses and e-journals through consortia andjoint licenses. The Ministry of Educationstrongly supports the university hospitals,but the Ministry of Social Affairs andHealth has not been very enthusiastic infinancing or supporting these acquisitionsin the hospital libraries, which are itsresponsibility.
Librarians’ Professional Skills Acknowledged At Last?The Finnish Medical Society Duodecim isbuilding a portal of its own, offering itsmembers access to a couple of e-journals.This portal has also been sold to hospitals,and some 20 e-journals are included in theprice, most of them in medicine but also afew in nursing. So it seems for the timebeing that the hospital libraries are buyingtheir e-journals through a society forphysicians. The National Health SciencesLibrary in Helsinki collaboratestechnically in a sophisticated way withDuodecim in offering these e-journals andthey have also organised an accessibledocument supply service from the libraryvia the same portal.
There are two big book store chains in Fin-land, and their representatives presentedtheir latest developments in database supplyand ordering tools. The most popular ven-dors of health sciences databases in Fin-land are SilverPlatter and Ovid, thoughMedline is mostly accessed via PubMed.
In this time of vigorous networking, it wasvery interesting to hear a user’s point ofview at the seminar. One of the hospitalphysicians pointed out that their biggestproblem is the conflict between the vastamount of information and the very limitedamount of time they have for searching re-levant information. He stressed theimportance of the librarians’ role inselecting and organising the best andreliable sources for the hospital staff’s use.There is a strong trend now to network alldocuments and information sources inhospital districts, and the value of librariansas specialists in acquiring, organising anddistributing relevant information is nowbeing acknowledged. Therefore it is ourchance now to make ourselvesindispensable, after a period when all otherprofessionals thought that Internet mightreplace libraries and librarians!
Liisa [email protected]
The European Union has financed a pro-ject in Russia called “The TACIS RussiaHealth Care Project” since 1998. Thereare a number of subcomponents in theproject, comprising experts from manycountries, including Finland who wasinvited as a short-term expert for plan-ning health promotion networking inRussia. The aim is to establish aninformation centre for health promotionin Moscow. The Institute for PreventiveMedicine there has a library and the newcentre was established in connection withit. Although the location is physically atthis institute, the ultimate aim was tocreate a network by looking for interestedlibraries. The network facilitates theexchange of information between allinstitutes in the field and also contributesto all forms of collaboration. The time forthe subproject runs out this spring, so itis time to evaluate the results.
NetworkI made three trips to Moscow during1998-2001 and worked for two weeks inFinland for the project. There were alsotwo other experts from Finland, and thethree of us worked together with thelibrarian of the Institute of Preventive
NEWS FROM FINLANDMedicine, Ms. Natalia Kisseleva inMoscow. In addition to this, we tried toinvolve other health science libraries inMoscow in the project, but this turned outto be rather difficult. There are, however,two other institutes now cooperating inthe network: the Semashko ResearchInstitute of Social Hygiene, Economicsand Health Management has alreadyagreed and negotiations with the RussianMedical Academy Resource Center arestill going on.
ActivitiesDuring the project, the TACIS Pro-gramme by the EU acquired some 80books on health promotion, public health,epidemiology and prevention of diseasesand subscriptions of 10 scientific journalsfor 1999-2001. Two PCs were bought aswell, and one Internet connection wassubscribed to the end of 2001. A Russianlibrary system software was purchased,after testing some international software.This turned out to be the only solutionbecause of linguistic and translitterationproblems.
Representatives of the Russian participatinginstitutes visited Finland for a week to
become acquainted with the Finnishhealth sciences information systems inTampere and Helsinki. The FinnishElectronic Library system, where materialis bought by joint licences for library con-sortia with the support of the Ministry ofEducation, especially aroused their inte-rest. In March 2000 the home page of theinstitute, designed by Finns, was openedat http://webcenter.ru/~infcent/en/index.html After the project is complete,the institute will continue by developingthe web pages themselves. The staff ofthe participating institutes were alsotrained in Internet searching.
The current year has been used todisseminate information about the newcentre in the form of brochures andpresentations, and some further taskshave already been outlined.
Over the three year period, the centre hasreceived a lot of visitors not only fromthe participating institutes but also fromother parts of Russia. This is a very goodthing because in the beginning, “outsi-ders” were not very well received. Thelibrarian is carrying out searches onPubMed and on the Ebsco medical data-
11
NEWS FROM FINLAND
bases, which are free for some time forthe institute.
ConclusionIt was not very easy to “intrude” into theRussian library community. The Nordicidea of the open-to-all library was notself-evident, information was consideredsomeone’s property, and the idea ofnetworking was considered odd and acertain competitiveness was realised. The
basic work is, however, the same all overand the librarians are highly skilled andenthusiastic. Although the time was brief,links were forged and at least a model hasbeen constructed as a base on which afuture might be built. The lack ofeverything remains the greatest concern,and the future of the health promotioninformation centre after the TACIS pro-ject is completed is worrying. There is apossibility of future cooperation with the
American International Health Alliance(www.aiha.com).
Birgitta JärvinenInformation Specialist
UKK Institute for Health PromotionResearch
Tampere, [email protected]
Evidence based symptom control in palliative care:systematic reviews and validated clinical practice guidelines for15 common problems in patients with life limiting disease
Arthur G. Lipman, Kenneth C. Jackson II, Linda S. Tyler (eds). - New York; London; Oxford: Haworth Press, 2000(co-publ. as: J Pharm Care Pain Symptom Contr 0 1999;7(4)+2000;8(1))
ISBN 0-7890-1014-3 (pb) / 0-7890-1013-5 (hb) . - Outside USA: $36.00 (pb) / $72.00 (hb)
BOOK REVIEW
Evidence based medicine is sometimescalled “cook book” medicine: guidelinesand decision trees must be followed, andthese will be replaced by computer aidedprograms in the near future.
This mechanistic view of medicine ismisleading many people and is under-mining the faith and trust in the medicalprofession. Doctors base their decisionson the best evidence available, whichsometimes is no more than pathophysio-logical understanding, clinical insight,case reports and professional experience.
Symptom control in palliative care ispredominantly individual oriented andnot an easy subject for methodologicalfull-proof studies. The book presents anoverview of studies collected, whichhave several degrees of evidential value.
The authors are all pharmacists, thereforeit is not surprising that all interventionsreviewed are pharmaceutical, but thebook includes references to thecircumstances of the terminally ill patient.Each chapter starts with an evaluation ofpossible underlying causes, andimplementation of supportive therapy.
The symptoms discussed in this book are:anorexia & cachexia, anxiety, bleeding,constipation, delirium, depression,diarrhea, dyspnea, fatigue, oral mucosalproblems, nausea & vomiting, nutrition& hydration problems.
In their preface the authors underline that:“the research findings and the guidelinespresented here must be integrated withclinical experience and patient and familywishes. This includes considering total
care, physical, emotional, social andspiritual, and including the family and laycarers as part of the unit of care.” Therecognition of the latter century shift fromcare to medical techniques, has led to thedevelopment of hospice and palliativecare.
With this book the editors certainly havedone a good job in reviewing theevidence available in a sensible andpractical way, in order to aid the physicianin practising supportive care.
A.P.E. Vielvoye-Kerkmeer andSuzanne Bakker
EAHIL Newsletter to European Health Librarians, May 2001, no 5512
Staff Professional Development and Training in LithuaniaIn this time of rapid change in academicLibrary and Information Services, staffdevelopment and training is increasinglyrecognized as a key tool in enabling staffto cope with the changes they are facingin order to keep abreast of their users.
Inevitably, as information technology useincreases, more reference queries relate tothe use of electronic information sources.Librarians are required to have skills inthe use of electronic information sources,to be able to create an electronic resourcethemselves, to produce teaching materialsand provide training for staff and users
Staff professional development andtraining has many different facets:-conferences, short courses, seminars,training programs, publication ofprofessional journals and provision ofstudy grant opportunities.
Because of the restricted budget situationin Lithuania participation at conferencesand seminars or subscription to westernprofessional periodicals can beproblematic.
Courses and seminars which have beenorganized in Lithuania until now have notmet the specific requirements of medicallibrary information services. Therefore inorder to keep abreast of changes ininformation technology the libraryadministration of the Kaunas Universityof Medicine developed its own library staffeducation program.Under the project“Medicine and Internet” of the OpenLithuanian Fund, two web-based trainingprograms were issued by library staff. :The Course “Medicine and Internet” http://medint.osf. lt/kursai/InfoInternete/index.htm and “Medical databases on theInternet:”, http://www.info.kma.lt/kma/biblioteka/projekta/pradzia.htm
The first one was designed primarily tomeet the needs of medical librarians andinformation specialists and provides themeans for learning about and accessingrelevant information sources. Hyperlinkswithin the courseware itself provide aninteractive and flexible learning tool.
“Medical databases on the Internet”course material was designed for a widevariety of medical information users:physicians, healthworkers, students,teachers, scientists, nurses, medical
librarians. Usingweb-based coursematerial describedabove, ‘hands on’courses for Librarystaff were organizedat the Library.
Training of libraryusers in informationtechnology becameinevitable becauselibrary informationservices and help-desks are capable ofconsulting indivi-dually only a limited number of users. Thecourses on “Medical databases andsearching” were held for over 1000Physicians from 26 Health Institutions inKaunas and its surroundings. Now we havea new training programme for Public Healthspecialists, which is sponsored by theGeorge Soros Foundation and in fact wemust complete courses for 550 specialistsbefore the summer holidays. User trainingnaturally encourages staff to take greaterresponsibility for their own personaldevelopment. Under the Open LithuanianFund program “New InformationTechnology for Public Health” we are busyin creating a Virtual Library for .PublicHealth, which will be published in May.
The stimulation of our professionaldevelopment has been on account of thecollaboration agreement with the NordicAssociation for Medical Information andLithuanian medical libraries. We havehad a close relationship since 1994, when2 of our librarians attended the EAHILConference in Oslo. In addition underthe co-operation agreement between theNorwegian Library Association Sectionfor Medicine and Health, the Union ofDanish Librarians and the KaunasUniversity of Medicine Library, thecontinuing educational courses“Transfer of Knowledge” for MedicalLibrarians in Lithuania, Latvia andEstonia were held in the KaunasUniversity of Medicine in March 20-24,2000. These courses were sponsored bya grant from the Nordic Council ofMinistry. Courses were held on thefollowing topics which are consideredcurrent for medical librarians: Evidence-Based Medicine /Cochrane Library,Reference Manager, PubMed, freeMedline on the Internet, and Medical
Internet Resources. In order to make thecourse material more available to allmedical librarians it has been translatedinto Lithuanian and put on the Libraryhomepage.
The project “Knowledge Transfer” II iscontinuing also and Librarians fromLithuania have been invited for a studytour to Norway for a week in order to visitmedical libraries, meet colleagues andobtain professional knowledge. Amongimportant aspects of the tour, makingpersonal contacts with the libraries,providing free article copies and visitingtheir interlibrary loans departments wouldbe of great value and interest to us.
As participants of the first program haveexpressed a great need for furthereducation we are hoping to organizetogether with the Nordic Association SMHand Union of Danish Librarians,continuing educational courses in autumnin Lithuania for medical librarians fromEstonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Such cooperation is extremely useful forall Lithuanian librarians, because we candisseminate our newly acquiredknowledge ourselves, running courses forcolleagues unable to participate in theeducational program. Finally we hope tobecome competent in teaching importantsubjects to medical professionals, enablinghealth specialists to find and use currentand correct medical information in theirresearch and clinical practice.
Meile KretavicieneDirector of the Kaunas
University [email protected]
HIGHLIGHT ON LITHUANIA
13
The winds of freedom that began blowingat the start of the last decade of theprevious century brought great hopes forpositive changes in the social andeconomical life of each country and theindividual. Open borders, freedom ofexpression and movement were new, freshand so exciting for us – two generationsthat had lived in a totally controllablesociety for about fifty years.
Hunger for all kinds of information wasfelt in all spheres of life. In the middle ofall this the Western world initiateddiscussion of problems relating to theInformation Society. For us, living in thecentre of Europe, the first personalcomputers arriving at our workplaces filledus with enthusiasm.
Between 1995 – 98, some computerizationprojects in the Lithuanian Library ofMedicine enabled us to quicken our stepstowards attaining links with theInformation Society. The most importantone was full internet access – a jointproject with NLM, the Vilnius Universityand our library. Full internet and onlineaccess to medical and health – relateddatabases markedly improved healthscience information services with regardto the speed and quality of services.
The second important step was theprogram of the Lithuanian IntegratedLibrary Information System (LIBIS), themain objective of which was to create aUnion Catalogue (UC) of the country, asa combined effort with research andacademic libraries to develop localautomated networks in every collaboratinglibrary. Acquisition, cataloguing andinterlibrary loan subsystems had beenalready put into operation. Since 1999 ourlibrary has been exporting electronicbibliographic records to UC in UNIMARCformat following the cataloguing rulesbased on ISBD’s and conforming to theEuropean cataloguing tradition. The sameyear computerized subject indexing wasintroduced, based on our own vocabularyarrangement under MeSH. The ultimatestep is an automated circulation subsystemwhich will be put into practice this year.
An interlibrary loan subsystem helps to fillthe gaps in the supply of primary sourceswhen annual subscriptions for periodicalsand book acquisition continue to decrease.In addition users are not always satisfied
The Changing Library in the Changing Environmentwith receiving onlyabstracts frommedical databases -they require fulltext information.Last year we had1032 internationalloan requests forjournal articles andbooks: this figurewould be increasedtenfold if our userswere able to pay forthe service. TheBaltic-Nordic inter-library loan projectensures that Norwegian libraries sends usarticles free of charge and this service andthe constant support of Nordic librariesin further education and qualificationimprovement including participation inconferences and in other spheres of libraryactivities, is very much appreciated.
The Public Medical Internet Reading Hallwith six workstations, a local Windows NTnetwork, a server and four remoteworkstations in major hospitals in Vilnius,funded by the Open Lithuanian Foundation,is very popular and always filled withyounger library users, students andphysicians, who can navigate in Interneton their own. Users who require staffassistance are served by the InformationDivision where searches are made onInternet and CD databases and searchresults are downloaded on diskettes orprinted on paper.
From 1999 the library created its WWWsite, which has become the nucleus ofall kinds of useful information for users:new acquisitions, available services andevents: http://www.lmb.lt
Health care reforms, that began at thestart of nineties, required a sol idinformation base showing how servicesare organized, how doctors practice andpatients are treated and what medicaltechnology is available worldwide. Moresophisticated information searches arenow being performed in evidence–basedmedicine and health technologyassessment databases.
An increasing need became obvious foraccurate, relevant and information forhealth pol icy makers on resourcemanagement, legislat ion, quali ty
indicators, standards and guides forgood practice. The library benefitedmuch from becoming a WHODocumentation Centre and depository.We started to form and enlarge thecollection of WHO – produceddocuments, a continual source ofinformation for policy makers andadministrative workers bearing in mindthat Health for All policy served as abasis for the Lithuanian Health Concept,the backbone document of all reforms.
Information l i teracy of users andmedical librarians is a principal concernin a library’ s performance. Variousforms of professional development arenow normal practice: workshops,courses, part icipation in differentprograms. In a three-year period about60% of all our staff were involved incontinuing education programs.
We have experienced the benefits of newtechnology and rapid access to globalinformation. In the constant search forinformation resources, we understandthat our future developments depend notonly on the institution’s financialsituation, but on our resourcefulness tooas well as our professional skills andcapability to change in the changingenvironment.
Salvinija Kociene, DirectorLithuanian Library of Medicine
HIGHLIGHT ON LITHUANIA
EAHIL Newsletter to European Health Librarians, May 2001, no 5514
It is common knowledge in the sociologyof science, that current journals are acompelling indicator for the establishingof new specialities and subjects. Thus itis interesting to see that despite themultiple tools for the distribution ofinformation within the internet, a growingnumber of printed journals and letters andnewsletters are appearing. I shallconcentrate on these this time .
When initiating presentations on medicalinformation on the internet a few years agojust one publication was available withinmy distributed bibliography. This was insome way the forebear of the well knownnewsletter by Luis Pareras InternetMedicine (http://www.internetmedicine.com/). This Newsletter published bywww.lww.com is now in its 6th year. Stilledited by Luis Pareras of Barcelona, Spainit has set more or less the standard for thissort of publication. In addition it not onlyrefers to medicine but deliberately viewsthe implications of new technologies forthe medical field thus stimulatingphysicians to cope actively withcontemporary applications (e.g.web radio,page design, wireless etc) A very nicefeature for those working as, or talking to,subspecialists in medicine are articlessummarizing 10-12 top sources in an area(e.g. 12 clicks to neurology sources)facilitating the possibility to quicklypromote the importance of the internet forCLINICAL information needs. Theregular reader may notice one thing whichseems to be imminently characteristic ofnew and growing fields like this still verynew subject: the somewhat lack of topicsand contributions. Putting it down to factsand professionalism, it is clear that stillmost of the content presented is only aboutthe repackaging of information. Still it isobvious that most people writing aboutand engaged in medical issues ANDinternet are educated “paper-ies” whoseintellectual approach to electronicpresentation is guided by our all paperfocused culture.
Medicine on the Net by http://www.corhealth.com/motn/MOTNHome4.asphas an approach quite comparable tothese above, possibly distinguished by
presenting more sites, drift ing tosomething like a printed version of acommented link list supplemented by acover topic that will be discussed in moredetail in the future. This feature is quiteimportant as it alerts the reader toimportant issues worth dealing with andthinking of. Its advantages and drawbacksat the same time is something which isquite common for all of the serialspresented here. In contradiction to theWorld-Wide-Web-spirit, many of us arefascinated with the many publishedsources in this field as they are veryclosely linked to their own languagelandscape. The enforced language bias ofthe Anglo-American world seems not bechallenged by the world-wide approach.As Healthcare on the Internet bywww.haworthpressinc.com, these serialsseem to be limited by an invisible linkborder creeping into the world-web.While this journal frequently publishesvery voluminous issues on highlyinteresting topics like spinal cord injuries,HIV or female healthcare and theircoverage on the net, its value is limitedby its US bias. In addition though it isdefined even more by its many pages asa proceedings, it clearly is possibly placedas a review journal to readers
He@lth Information on the Internet(http://www.rsm.ac.uk/hii/toc20.htm)sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, UK andpublished by the Royal Society ofMedicine Press Ltd. is a well-written andcompact newsletter for people withlimited-time. Closer to the Europeanaudience and affected by the samelanguage bias and constraints for a wideraudience, its direction might have beensimply as a tool to stimulate and informthe members of the Royal Society ofMedicine, UK physicians and interestedpeople to cope and use these newtechnologies thus preparing the ground inthis field. In addition to the topical rangeof the lww-title, it reviews articles withmedical internet contents in the commoneveryday medical journals and featuresinternet related topics like how to copewith email, viruses or homepage design.Not for the information professional, it isvery much targeted to the time limited UK
based physician but thus also of value tothose who like the practical approachthough they are physicians or not. It maybe subscribed to in print form but its backissues are available free on the net in PDF.
There is another newsletter Health on theInternet: the Newsletter of HealthInformation Sources,of which I only havecopies from October and November 2000and which now is also already in its sixthvolume. It is published bywww.medecal.com and seems to have aslight different pattern than the othersources discussed. Covering also onlyEnglish language sources it offers a wealthof different short articles on diverse medicalsub specialties, possibly targeted to peopleworking or dealing more professionallywith the internet itself, like medicalwebmasters or physicians or managerswriting for marketing such sites. It mightalso be an interesting title for a medicallibrary to offer a journal in this field to abroader range of medical sub specialties.
Finally there is a German title originallyoffered as a regular free supplement fromthe German publisher Springer inHeidelberg with its medical journals.Medizin Online. Beilage für Ärzte givesbasic clearly written introductions tomedical sources on the internet enrichedwith well edited and coloured screenshotsof medical sites. It offers a long list of linksto diverse general and medical-pharmaceutical topics. As far as Iunderstand it appears four times a year,each number dedicated to a specificsubject and separately charged (?).References, ordering and pricing???
It must be emphasized that all sourcesmentioned above are not very cheap.Nonetheless people professionally involvedin this domain should have access to one orother of those titles. It seems reasonable thatthere are a wealth of other printedpublications/serials in this field in othercountries. Readers are invited and welcomedeither to e-mail information on such titles [email protected] for reviewor submit their reviews themselves(particularly if these are NOT in German,French, English or Romanian).
Serial Information Sources For The Medical Internet
INTERNET PAGE
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INTERNET PAGE
Internet Medicine: A Critical GuideVol.6 (2001) 12 p. ISSN 1086-5691monthly from Lippincott Williams &Wilkins - www.lww.com .Subscription rate US$ 115 (pers.) US$171 (inst.) US and foreign
Medicine on the Net Vol.7 (2001)28 p. ISSN 1085-3502 monthly fromCOR Healthcare Resources -www.corhealth.comSubscription rate US$ 147 (pers.US) US$ 187(inst.US) US$ 199 (outside US and Canada)
Health Care on the Internet: a Journalfor Medical Professionals, Consumers
& Librarians. Vol.5 (2001) 100 p. ISSN1089-4187 4 issues per Volume (includingsingle monographs) by Hayworth Press Inc.www.haworthpress.comSubscription rate US$ 40.50 (pers.) US$99 (inst.).
Health Information on the Internetwww.hioti.org Number 19 (Feb.2001) 12p. ISSN 1460-4140 6 times a year;published by the Royal Society ofMedicine Press www.rsmpress.co.ukSubscription rate 34GBP (Europe,UK);US$ 57 (USA) Elswhere 36 GBP UKstudents 10 GBP ; Members of theBrit.Healthcare Internet Assoc. 29 GBP
Health on the Internet. The Newsletterof Health Information Sources. Vol.6(2001) 20 p. ISSN 1367-0393 (print)ISSN 1360-2258 (email) Monthly fromMedecal Ltd. www.medecal.comSubscription rate (print): 140 GBP; US$225 (anywhere) email: 105 GBP; US$170 anywhere.available as a searchable database withmonthly updates into any internet basedwebservice.
Constantin Cazin
17
PUBLICATIONS AND NEW PRODUCTS
An animated debate on electronic publishing, free access to scientific information, andpublishers’ costs is going on. The publishers have been challenged by a group of researcherswho are threatening to stop buying, publishing in or reviewing for any journal that refuses toplace its research papers in a proposed, freely available, database, The Public Library ofScience, within six months of their initial publication (Nature, 2001, 410, 502).
The Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations, held in March2001, concluded with a call for more academic institutions to make theses and dissertationsavailable online (BioMed Central News and Comment, 2 April 2001).
On the topic of the quality of health information in Internet there is bad news. The WorldHealth Organisation’s proposal to create a “.health” Internet address for health informationsites that meet quality and ethical standards has been rejected by the Internet Corporation forAssigned Names and Numbers (Scrip, 2000, n.2601, 17).
A new policy of PubMed Central to encourage a wider participation of publishers. PubMedCentral is now offering publishers the option of depositing material for archival purposeswithout making the full text viewable. Searches for this material at Pubmed Central wouldlead users to the full-text articles at the publisher’s site (Nature, 2001, 410, 740).
Giovanna F. Miranda, Co-Editor & Publications
Dear Colleagues,
JOURNAL ISSUES
Since the Newsletter of February 2001, thefollowing journal issue of Health LibrariesReview has been received: vol. 18, 2001, no. 1
J. Palmer. Editorial. p. 1.
P. Griffiths and L. Riddington. Nurses’ useof computer databases to identify evidencefor practice-a cross-sectional questionnairesurvey in UK hospital. p.2-9.A questionnaire survey of 114 nurses workingin five teaching UK hospitals to investigatethe general use of computers and databases.
P. Flor, A. Jakobsson, I. Mogset, S.Taylor, S. E. Aasen. A controlledvocabulary for nursing and allied healthin Norway. p.10-19.A working group appointed by BIBSYSattempt to improve the quality of searchinghealth literature. The group recommendsthe development of a Norwegian thesaurusbased on a translation of parts of Mesh andCINAHL Subject Heading List.
P. Deacon, J. B. Smith, S. Tow. Usingmetadata to create navigation paths in theHealthInsite Internet gateway. p.20-29.The objective of this study was to evaluatethe HealthInsite topic query technique,which uses a dynamic database search toassign resources to a topic.
B. Glitz, C. Hamasu, H. Sandstrom. Thefocus group: a tool for programmeplanning, assessment and decisionmaking: an American view. p. 30-37.
The paper describes the focus groupprocess used with hospital librarians in theNational Network of Libraries of Medicine,Pacific Southwest Region, in the librarysetting to plan programmes aroundidentified needs.
R. Rook, F. Adshead. Postgraduatetraining in Public Health Medicine: St.George’s Hospital Medical SchoolLibrary Public Health InformationService. p. 38-44.The article examines the development ofthe St. George’s Hospital Medical SchoolLibrary public health information service.
lnnovations online. (B. Anagnostelis). p.45.
Brief Communication. p. 54.
Research. (A.Booth). p. 60.
BOOKS REVIEW
The International Yearbook of libraryand Information Management 2000-2001: Collection Management. By G.E.Gorman, 2000, Library AssociationPublishing, London. ISBN 1-85604-366-5. £ 60 + postage and packing charge (less20% LA Member discount).This book is a thematic annual publicationcovering the field of library science andinformation management worldwide. Itincludes chapters covering current issues,emerging debates and trends and modelsof best practice and likely futuredevelopments. The first volume is focusedon the theme of collection management.
JOURNAL REVIEW
Journal of Hospital Librarianship. Ed.C.M. Gilbert, The Haworth InformationPress, Binghamton, New York. Volume 1,No. 1 Spring 2001. Quarterly (4 issues peryear): Subscription: Individuals $ 36,Institutions and Libraries $ 48.This journal offers practical and innovativesuggestions and strategies on administrativeissues, new technologies, and relevantproducts.
PAPERS REVIEW
Electronic publishing in science. Therevolution is only just beginning R. Smith.BMJ, 2001, 322, 627.
Publishers challenged over access topapers. M. Wadman. Nature, 2001, 410, 502.
E-access to science. Nature, 2001, 410, 613.
PubMed Central decentralized. E. Sequeiraet al. Nature, 2001, 410, 740
The power of electronic thesis. A.Chakraverty. BioMed Central News andComment, 2 April 2001http://www.biomedcentral.com/news
WHO’s Internet address proposalrejected. Scrip, 2000, n.2601, 17
Current awareness using PubMed:current web services and possibilities forlocal solution. M. Eberle. Internet ReferenceServices Quarterly, 2000, 5 (2), 21
EAHIL Newsletter to European Health Librarians, May 2001, no 5518
PUBLICATIONS AND NEW PRODUCTS
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
29-31 May, 2001, Paris, France. IDT Net 2001Salon de l’information et de l’InternetFor further information: www.idt.fr/idt
30 May-1st June, 2001, Reykjavik, Iceland11th Nordic Conference on Information and DocumentationFor further information: http://www.bokis.is/iod2001/
25-30 May, 2001, Orlando, Florida, USAMLA 2001: An Information OdysseyMedical Library Association Annual MeetingFor further information: www.mlanet.org
7-9 June, 2001, Alghero, Sardinia, Italy2001: Cyberspace Odyssey. EAHIL WorkshopFor further information:http://medicina.unica.it/alghero2001/main.htm
9-14 June, 2001, San Antonio, Texas, USA92nd Special Libraries Association Annual ConferenceFor further information: www.sla.org
13-17 June, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, CLA 2001.Canadian Library Association Annual ConferenceFor further information: www.cla.ca
14-20 June, 2001,San Francisco, California, USAALA Annual ConferenceAmerican Library AssociationFor further information:www.ala.org/events/ac2001/index.html
9-11 July, 2001, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK28th Annual AIOPI ConferencePharmaceutical Industry LibrariansFor further information:www.aiopi.org.uk/conference.htm
16-25 August, Boston, Massachusetts, USAIFLA General ConferenceFor further information: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla67
1-5 October, 2001, Ljubljana, SloveniaInterlending & Document SupplyOrganised jointly by the National and University Library,Ljubljana and the IFLA Office for International LendingFor further information: [email protected]
10-14 October, 2001, Frankfurt, GermanyFrankfurt Book FairFor further information: www.frankfurt-bookfair.com
Web site design resources for the librarian:a selective annotated bibliography. C. E.Long. Internet Reference Services Quarterly,2000, 5 (2), 31
The Cochrane Library and CochraneCollaboration. R.B. Fitzpatrick. MedicalReferences Services Quarterly, 2000, 19(4), 73
INFORMATION SOURCES
....... Web-based
OMIM The Online Mendelian Inheritancein Man. This database is a catalogue ofhuman genes and genetic disordersauthored and edited by Dr. Victor A.McKusick and his colleagues at JohnsHopkins and elsewhere, and developed forthe World Wide Web by NCBI, the NationalCentre for Biotechnology Information. Thedatabase contains textual information,pictures, and reference information.http://www3.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim/
Norina is a database compiled by theLaboratory Animal Unit, NorwegianSchool of Veterinary Science, Oslo. Theprimary purpose of the database is to offeran overview of possible alternatives or
supplements for the use of animals instudent teaching, at all levels from schoolsto university. The database consists ofapproximately 3500 entries, includingcomputer programs, CD-ROMs,interactive videos, films and moretraditional teaching aids such as slideseries, 3-D models and classroom charts.http://oslovet.veths.no/
The Poxvirus Bioinformatics Resourceprovides access to information about adozen complete genomes of poxviruses,such as variants of vaccinia, two strainsof variola major, fowlpox and others.http://www.genome.uab.edu/pox/
NEWS FROM EDITORS
The National Library of Medicine isready to begin the phase-out of InternetGrateful Med. The NLM expects thatInternet Grateful Med will be officially andcompletely retired by the end of June 2001.NML Technical Bulletin, January 25, 2001(www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull).
Wolters Kluver announces it will acquireSilverPlatter Information. Wolters Kluveralready owns OVID Technologies; hismain objective with the acquisition and
integration of SilverPlatter is to create acomprehensive channel for medical andscientific information.
Ovid announces that OpenLinks, the full-text linking software, is expanding to offersubscribers links to the more than 3700journals available from CrossRef memberpublishers. The total number of OpenLinkswill increase from 2100 to more than 5000.Ovid will access the CrossRef database dailyto provide the most recent range of links tothe OpenLinks customers. www.ovid.com
Ebsco Subscription Services has reachedan agreement with BMJ Publishing Groupand with Lippincott Williams & Wilkinsto link to the full text of 26 BMJ journalsand 49 LWW journals from Ebsco Online.This should make it much easier for manyend users in institutions to gain access toBMJ and LWW journals.
Ebsco Online users can now purchasearticles in online journals that are viewableon Ebsco Online, even if they do not havea subscription to the journal. The new pay-per view feature is available both toregistered users of Ebsco Online as wellas to users linking from Ebsco Online’slinking partners. www.ebsco.com
