Authors: Chris Childs, Linda Walton, and Pam Rees
Presenter: Chris Childs
University of Iowa, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
One of 10 critical access rural Hospitals the University works with (Murango) was interested in biomedical, nursing lit, EBP: Cochrane, CINAHL, PubMed.
Except for PubMed, it was not possible to provide this kind of access to databases due to licensing restrictions.
Through the interlibrary loan department, they were offered free access to Loansome Doc ordered through Hardin Library at no cost to them.
There are also services they can access through the state library.
Chris created a resource guide to these sources, a reference point through the 10 clinics to indicate what resources are available at Hardin and the state library.
The liaison to the 10 clinics talked with all the nursing directors from the 10 clinics via conference call; 9 of the 10 contacted the Hardin Library again within a month.
For one clinic in Pella, Chris did 8 half hour presentations back to back -- and he learned to never do it that way again. It just wasn't effective for him or the participants.
These hospital staff members access PubMed and use Loansome Doc to access what they can't get electronically.
The resource guide includes information on how to get a state library card, as well as information on PubMed and MedlinePlus. Even though they are free, he put them under Hardin Library since getting free Loansome Doc through Hardin Library.
In these sessions, Chris also talked about the Iowa Go Local Project. The databases covered were a mixture of clinical and consumer health.
Transactions resulting from this outreach project (so far):
--8 people --53 articles requested since August
--He added an Evidence Based Medicine tab in the existing libguide in response to questions--requests for EBP and refreshers of what he discussed.
--Showed MedlinePlus (including its multiple language resource) and state library resources. This took an hour.
They asked him to come back to present more about PubMed and CINAHL.
Another potential option for this kind of situation is group licensing for small hospitals. The academic library gets the contract on behalf of the hospital and the hospital pays.
(One attendee mentioned that in Indiana, EBSCO and Elsevier have been willing to do packages for similar situations).