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Note to grant writers:
If the environment section of your grant requires information about the Eskind Biomedical Library, please feel free to use the synopsis provided below. EBL staff is committed to keeping the information up to date.
The Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library
The Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL) is a modern 78,000 net square feet facility, dedicated in April 1994. The construction of this award-winning library building was made possible by a gift from Vanderbilt alumnus Irwin Eskind and his wife, Annette. With a staff of 40, the library collects and provides access to materials to support the teaching, research, and service missions of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Digital Resources
To facilitate information access at the point of need, EBL's practice philosophy centers on the provision of electronic resources related to medicine, nursing and the biosciences and services that integrate evidence seamlessly into VUMC workflow. EBL's comprehensive, multidimensional Digital Library offers fast, targeted access to online books, journals, databases and websites. Through this portal, EBL provides access to over 3,754 full-text electronic journal titles, a number that is continually expanding. It also makes available seminal online texts (e.g. Harrison's Online and Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics) in a wide range of biomedical specialties. In addition, EBL offers the Books@Ovid collection which includes 72 titles and AccessMedicine which includes 46 book titles. The library subscribes to a wide variety of information sources to promote evidence-based practice: MDConsult™, STAT!-Ref.™, and Current Protocols Online are collections of full-text electronic resources. CRL Online (Clinical Reference Library™) and Epocrates Online are comprehensive clinical drug information databases. BMJ's Clinical Evidence provides summaries of current knowledge on medical treatment for a range of conditions, developed through literature searching and assessment of systematic reviews. UpToDate® is a database of clinical topic reviews based on clinical evidence. HealthGate Clinical Guidelines, a clinical consulting tool, provides evidence-based comprehensive practice guidelines along with corresponding sections written at the consumer level. InfoRetriever provides a cross-database search engine and displays full-text documents from a variety of evidence-based resources, including the InfoPOEMs database. Global Infectious Disease and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON) is an online diagnosis and reference tool for the tropical and infectious diseases, epidemiology, microbiology and antimicrobial chemotherapy fields. Ovid™ Technologies provides access to several databases, including MEDLINE, CINAHL™ (nursing and allied health), Ovid™ Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, EMBASE Drugs & Pharmacology™, and HaPI™ (health and psychosocial instruments). Multimedia programs, such as A.D.A.M. Online Anatomy™, support just-in-time education needs.
To promote biosciences research, the library also provides web access to the ScienceDirect® and Web of Knowledge™ which includes BIOSIS®, Current Contents Connect®, ISIHighly Cited™ and Science Citation Index Expanded. Access to key National Center for Biotechnology Information resources including PubMed, GenBank™, Entrez Gene™, Map Viewer™, and OMIM™. In addition, the Medical Center information systems are accessible via the Digital Library.
Using its flexible Digital Library shell, EBL has also created specialized Digital Libraries for Children's Hospital, Bioresearch, Nursing, Public Health, Geriatric, Special Collections, Vanderbilt Medical School, and Consumer Health users, as well as Medical School alumni, to customize the electronic delivery of information to these specific user groups.
Evidence-based Practice Support
The library employs a matrix of strategies to foster evidence-based medicine practice. The EBL provides access to a list of commercially-produced evidence-based databases through a primary navigation button within the Digital Library. This list encompasses critical resources such as UpToDate®; Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Review of Effects and Register of Controlled Trials; ACP Journal Club; and links to globally accessible EBM resources such as the National Guideline Clearinghouse™. The site also features EBL's internally-developed EBM databases such as the Clinical Informatics Consult Service (CICS) Evidence Based Site and the Outpatient Clinical Informatics Consult Service (OCICS) Site, which houses evidence syntheses created in response to complex clinical queries, and the Pathway/Order Set Literature Locator, which contains expert search strategies and literature summaries to support evidence-based development of clinical pathways and clinical order sets.
EBL has developed proactive mechanisms to integrate evidence into clinical and research workflow through linkages of patient care guidelines within the electronic medical record. Further leveraging VUMC's informatics tools, the library has extended the CICS evidence-provision model to incorporate an evidence-request function into the patient record system to which clinicians can post complex questions and receive an expert summary of the relevant literature. Summaries are integrated into the permanent patient record.
In addition to working as clinical and research informationists, EBL librarians participate in multidisciplinary teams throughout the medical center, supporting a variety of programs such as pathways development and IRB and patient information services. EBL team members contribute vetted patient information links addressing diseases/conditions and lab findings/vital signs to the medical center's online patient portal, MyHealthAtVanderbilt, and the medical center's electronic medical record system, StarPanel.
Programs and Services
The library is committed to service, and its most important resource is the expertise of its staff. Librarians help students, residents and faculty stay abreast of the latest findings in the literature by actively participating on clinical rounds and providing targeted support to researchers. Bioinformatics support is provided through regular training classes and individualized consultations. Members of the Collection Development Team are available to meet with faculty developing new courses or programs to assess the information needs of those endeavors and determine the most appropriate way to fulfill those needs. EBL assistance with comprehensive literature reviews is available to researchers developing IRB protocols and to IRB protocol analysts.
The library has also established a Patient Informatics Consult Service (PICS) program to provide VUMC patients and their families with the latest in health information. Information provision to this patron group includes comprehensive information packets tailored to patient needs, access to the EBL's consumer health materials collection and access to the EBL's online Consumer Health Digital Library.
Through AskELIS asynchronous services (Library Information Desk, SearchDoc, the Librarian On Call, and Learning Site), staff expertise is electronically available 24/7. Online knowledge modules provide 24-hour interactive instruction in health science resources and bibliographic management tools. Other services include circulation of books, management of reserve materials, document delivery to obtain needed material held by other institutions, reference and research services, and guidance in the use of new information technologies. As part of the Informatics Center, library staff work in partnership with researchers in the Division of Biomedical Informatics and the Information Management Department to innovate the delivery of health information to Vanderbilt and to the larger regional community.
Just-in-Time Learning Support
The library offers formal orientations and training sessions on electronic resources regularly in the state-of-the-art Training Room. The Training Room features 14 training stations, a master station for the trainer, and multimedia projection capabilities. Classnet®, an integrated hardware utility, allows the trainer to assume control of trainees' computers, the multimedia player, and the classroom projector, which facilitates interactive instruction and demonstration. EBL staff also actively exploit opportunities for informal, just-in-time training in all interactions with medical center professionals.
EBL has also developed a medical education-focused digital library, Ask GALEN (General Assistance for Learning and Education Needs) that links targeted electronic resources (electronic books, suggested course readings, relevant web sites, etc.) directly to lectures housed in the medical school's web-based course management system. Ask GALEN allows students to move seamlessly between lecture notes and supplementary study materials to support medical education at the point of need.
The EBL provides medical center patrons with the computer equipment needed to support their information needs. Most public workstations in the library have the same desktop and functionality as other "shared" workstations throughout the Medical Center. All 54 publicly available computers in the library are connected to the Medical Center network. In addition, 15 wireless laptop computers can be used in the library.
Knowledge Management
EBL has long focused on integrating knowledge management approaches into information provision. A knowledge management focus on designing reusable tools is central to EBL-created tools such as the Learning Framework, the Learning Module Shell, the Publishing and Directory Shells, and the Informatics Center Tools Finder. Moreover, EBL actively seeks opportunities to integrate information into existing medical center tools and processes.
EBL Research
EBL's research interests include integrating evidence into the patient care and research workflow using informatics applications; evaluating and formalizing the informationist concept; education, skills development, and leadership development of librarians; optimal selection and use of information resources; and digital library development.
Print Resources
For materials not available in digital format or of historical value, the library maintains a print collection of over 203,028 volumes, of which about 80,066 are monographs and about 122,962 are serials. The library receives ~85 print serial titles and has a small collection of non-print material. Most materials are shelved in open stacks and are available to users through Acorn, the library's web-based catalog. A unique collection of rare books, photographs and historical items can be found in the Historical Collections Room. The EBL Medical Center Archives is a repository for manuscripts and institutional records reflecting the history of the Medical Center and the history of medicine. The EBL's Records Center serves as a model archives and records program, providing access to materials with possible long-term administrative and historical value to the institution.
More details are provided at http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/. The site includes a succinct description of the library's collection, programs and services and a responsibility chart (in the "Who's Who at Eskind" section).
Last updated: June 26, 2007
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