Welcome to the Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library

EBL's collection development philosophy focuses on enabling information use at the point of need. EBL provides an extensive digital library of electronic journals, books, databases and other resources, in addition to over 200,000 print volumes. To preserve biomedical history, EBL provides a unique collection of rare books, photographs and historical items in its Historical Collection, and has begun making one-of-a-kind items globally available through the Turning the Pages technology. The Medical Center Archives serves as a repository for manuscripts and institutional records that reflect the history of the medical center and the history of medicine.

The library is committed to service as well as leading edge research into information management and utilization and has developed numerous innovative programs which integrate information into workflow. These include the Clinical, Patient, and Research Informatics Consult Services which place information specialists at the patient bedside or the research bench where they identify and meet information needs. To enable informed patient decision-making, EBL provides links to consumer health information explaining diseases/conditions and lab findings/vital signs within the medical center’s online patient portal, MyHealthAtVanderbilt, and the medical center’s electronic medical record system, StarPanel.

EBL also facilitates the Vanderbilt community's understanding of information resources and use through customized training sessions and asynchronous assistance services. In addition to fostering information use and knowledge creation within the medical center, the EBL provides a challenging yet supportive learning environment in which its staff build their service provision skills through a formal training program and engagement with the EBL's learning culture.

EBL is dedicated to furthering the professional development and knowledge base of library and information professionals. The Clinical and Research Informatics Consult Services serve as examples of informationist models and allow librarians to develop in-depth knowledge of clinical medicine and molecular biology/genetics as well as critical appraisal and finely honed searching skills. EBL's training and service infrastructure supports this level of advanced practice. As part of its mission to further the development of the profession, EBL served as the editorial home of the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) from May 2005--May 2008. Through the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance, the EBL is partnering with Meharry leadership to serve as consultants for advancing the services of the Meharry Medical College Library.

Recent Publications:

1. Giuse NB. Riding the waves of change together: are we all paying attention? J Med Libr Assoc. 2008 Apr;96(2):85-7.
2. Mulvaney SA, Bickman L, Giuse NB, Lambert EW, Sathe NA, Jerome RN. A Randomized Effectiveness Trial of a Clinical Informatics Consult Service: Impact on Evidence-based Decision-making and Knowledge Implementation. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2008 March-April;15(2):203-211.
3. Jerome RN, Giuse NB, Rosenbloom T, Arbogast P. Exploring clinician adoption of a novel evidence request feature in an electronic medical record system. Journal of the Medical Library Association. 2008 Jan;96(1):34-41.
4. Sathe N, Jerome RN, Giuse NB. The next challenge: where do we go from here? Journal of the Medical Library Association. 2007 Jan;95(1):1-2.
5. Giuse NB, Sathe N. Editorial Column: Evolutions in communication begin with small steps. Journal of the Medical Library Association. October 2006; 94(4): 373-74.
6. Giuse NB, Koonce T, Jerome RN, Cahall M, Sathe N, Williams A. Evolution of a Mature Clinical Informationist Model. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. May-June 2005; 12(3): 249-55.
7. Rosenbloom ST, Giuse NB, Jerome RN, Blackford JU. Providing Evidence-Based Answers to Complex Clinical Questions: Evaluating the Consistency of Article Selection. Acad Med. January 2005; 80(1):109-14.
8. Koonce T, Giuse NB, Todd P. Evidence-based Databases versus Primary Medical Literature: an In-house Investigation on Their Optimal Use. Journal of the Medical Library Association. October 2004; 92 (4):407–411.

For a more complete list, see the PubMed database.