MEETING FEBRUARY 24TH AT THE VA MEDICAL CENTER - DENVER
SUBMITTED BY GLENN PFLUM
Our next CCML meeting will take place on February 24, 1999 at the VA Medical Center in Denver. The meeting begins with morning refreshments at 9:00 a.m. At 9:30 Dr. Karl Hammermeister of the Cardiology Section of Medical Service at the VA, will talk about "Evidence Based Medicine". Dr. Hammermeister is involved in cardiac research and will talk about the importance of evidence based medicine.
Directly after Dr. Hammermeister's presentation, Roz Dudden will report on the findings of the ILL Committee. We want as many people to hear this report as possible, which is why we are doing it directly after the Program. The results will be informative and perhaps affect your routing tables. Since the closing of Fitzsimons things may need to be redistributed.
The program will be followed by a short break from 11:15 to 11:30 and continue with our business meeting from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Hope to see everyone there for this full program.
REPORT OF THE 1997 CCML ILL SURVEY
SUBMITTED BY THE CCML ILL Survey Task Force
Chair: Rosalind Dudden
Members: Sue Coldren, Joyce Condon, Sara Katsh, Catherine Reiter, and Pam Roth
The CCML ILL Survey Task Force will report its findings at the February 24, 1999 membership meeting. The complete report is included in this mailing, as a special supplement to Council Quotes.
Fifty-four libraries from Colorado and Wyoming, including 37 hospital libraries, 13 special libraries, and four university libraries, participated in the survey, based on 1997 DOCLINE and OCLC data. CCML Primary Access Libraries (PALs) borrowed 55,223 items in 1997, down from 58,380 items in 1992, and loaned 37,631 items in 1997, down from 42,973 items, in 1992.
In addition to an analysis of the data, the report provides practical information, including net lender borrower/lender designations, an assessment of the impact of unfilled requests, and specific recommendations for improving ILL efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
During the presentation, task force members will discuss the implications of the data on the ILL activity of individual institutions, as well as the group. Creating and revising DOCLINE routing tables to maximize efficiency will be a focus of the discussion. Task force members will be available to discuss individual routing tables and to offer advice for improving ILL services.
Please bring a copy of your institutional DOCLINE routing table to the meeting. To obtain a copy of your routing table, contact the NN/LM - Region 4 office at 1-800-338-7657. The June DOCLINE statistical reports package contains information regarding which libraries have included your institution in their routing tables (see the report, Routing Table Statistics).
CCML EXECUTIVE LUNCH
SUBMITTED BY GLENN PFLUM
N e w s F l a s h !
The date for the CCML Executive Lunch has been changed. The old date was March 11th.
The new date is:
Wednesday, March 10, 1999.
The lunch will be held in Racine's banquet room from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Mark your calendars now! I will be sending out letters soon to the Committee Members, and will need an RSVP by March 9, 1999 to make final arrangements with Racine's.
SUPPORT THE COLORADO LIBRARY P.A.C.
SUBMITTED BY CATHERINE REITER
The Colorado Library Political Action Committee (C.L.P.A.C.) raises funds to support library issues that affect Colorado libraries of all types - academic, public, school, and special libraries. Colorado remains one of only five states that does not provide direct funding to its libraries.
Please support the work of the C.L.P.A.C. with a financial contribution. All funds must be privately raised from individuals; no public money can be used to fund P.A.C. activities. You may contribute up to $250 during a two-year period. Send your tax-deductible contribution to:
Colorado Library P.A.C.
PO Box 452
Lafayette, CO 80026
For more information about the C.L.P.A.C., contact your CCML representatives:
Paul Blomquist, 303/315-6434. Email: Paul.Blomquist@uchsc.edu
and
Catherine Reiter, 303/315-6444. Email: Catherine.Reiter@uchsc.edu
IT'S PARTY TIME?
SUBMITTED BY CATHERINE REITER
The CCML Executive Committee requests your feedback regarding the annual party. Traditionally, a CCML party is held in the fall, hosted by the Past-President. The last party was hosted by Linda Van Wert in fall 1997. Since the annual party is CCML's only social event, the committee would like to assess its importance to the membership.
==================== cut and return bottom portion ====================
1. I have been a member of CCML for ____ years.
2. I have attended ____ CCML annual parties.
3. The annual party is an important benefit of my CCML membership.
___ Yes ___ No
4. I prefer that CCML sponsor a member party:
___ Annually ___ Every other year ___ Never ___ Don't care
5. I would be willing to host a CCML party at my home.
___ Yes ___ No
6. I have another idea for a CCML social event:
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
7. Comments:
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Please send your replies to the questions above to Catherine Reiter (Fax: 303-315-6255; E-Mail: Catherine.Reiter@uchsc.edu; CCLS Courier: CC-UCHSC, Denver; Mail: Denison Memorial Library, Box A-003, UCHSC, 4200 East Ninth Avenue, Denver, CO 80262-0003).
SUE COLDREN TO SHED DATABASE KEEPER ROLE
SUBMITTED BY GLENN PFLUM
Sue has had enough fun taking care of the CCML Membership Database and is ready to let someone else have all the glory. Glory would be the main reward, since Sue was randomly reinforced monetarily. After the membership renewals go out, Sue wants to pass on her duties as keeper of the database. She says that it has been an excellent opportunity to learn MS Access inside and out. There are two busy periods around membership renewal time and combined state library directory time. There is also some periodic maintenance as new members join and member information changes.
This is a valuable service we provide our members. I know that I am always looking in my directory. Is there anyone out there who may be interested in taking on this task? Please let me know. I will also announce this opportunity at our Feb. 24th meeting. It would be great to announce the new database coordinator then, so don't wait to volunteer. Someone else may grab this opportunity out of your hands.
INTERNET CORNER
SUBMITTED BY MARY WALSH
Looking to update your desktop, or add new and exciting fonts (like this one, called ) to your computer based work? Take a look at "Free Themes" http://charter.freethemes.com/ Once there, click on Free Downloads. The rest is up to you. Enjoy!
Ever wondered what kinds of unintended "icky" things you are getting with your daily apple? Check out this site by the Environmental Working Group for a clearer picture of just how contaminated our food is. http://www.foodnews.org
AN OFFER AND A REQUEST
SUBMITTED BY LYNNE FOX
Do you have some favorite web sites or resources that you share with consumer health patrons? Would you like to let others know about those sites? As Outreach Librarian at Denison Memorial Library, I have prepared a web page that I use during outreach presentations. The web page, "Medical Reference for Non-Medical Librarians" is designed for those who need to help library patrons with consumer health questions (http://www.uchsc.edu/library/outreach/medbib3.htm). If you have a site that fits this web page theme, send it to me at lynne.fox@uchsc.edu or on the courier at CC-UCHSC, Denver. I appreciate your assistance and will try to incorporate suggestions into the page, which is used by librarians in public and non-medical academic libraries.
NEWS FROM THE MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
SUBMITTED BY BARBARA L. WAGNER
NEW MEMBERS
DIRECTORY NEWS
Remember to mail in your renewal form to the CCML PO Box ASAP, so you'll be listed in the printed directory, which you can pick up at the annual meeting in April.
The prospect for an online joint directory of members of the library associations of Colorado is defunct for this year. The LSTA grant that is funding an online directory of LIBRARIES is well on its way, however. All of you should have received a request for information and clarification from the State Library very recently. This is directly related to that project.
A printed joint directory of members is also not going to happen this year. (CEMA has already produced one of their own, we have ours and CoALL also has one.)
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
The Membership Committee Chairperson and Database Manager positions are available. Contact Barbara Wagner or Glenn Pflum to volunteer.
LONG-TIME MEMBER PROFILE: RUTH GILBERT
SUBMITTED BY MARTHA BURROUGHS
Lunch at Dave and Buster's provided a lively backdrop for learning more about Ruth Gilbert, a CCML member since 1966. Typical of Ruth's desire and outstanding ability to stay current was her suggestion that we meet at this trendy setting.
A Denver native, Ruth Rice earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Denver. During her college years she held a number of jobs, including new shoe preparation at Montgomery Ward. After graduation, Ruth worked as a research chemist for Phillips Oil in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Next, she accepted a position in research product applications at Gates Rubber Company, where she drew cross-sections of fan belts! Following her marriage to Ralph Gilbert, she moved to Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Boise as he pursued career opportunities with Mountain Bell (later U.S. West). Their three children are Brad, who works with the U.S. Forest Service in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Jan, a writer in Kansas City, Missouri and Lisa, Director of Women's Health for the American Social Health Association in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
After the family returned to Denver in 1961, Ruth enjoyed serving as a lay reader with the Denver Public Schools. Several of her librarian friends suggested that she would be a perfect librarian, and she was not dissuaded from this pursuit even when the dean of DU's library school told her she was too "old" to register. She attended part time while meeting family responsibilities, and received her MA in 1965.
Upon completing a library trainee position at the Veterans Hospital in Denver, Ruth became their medical librarian and soon afterward was appointed chief librarian. During her twenty-one year tenure she received many outstanding employee awards. She initiated the MEDLINE service and developed a clinical librarian program as well. The library moved 3 times under her leadership, and she successfully applied for grants for a learning resources center and education center. At her retirement party, a member of the medical staff suggested that getting Ruth to leave the VA might be similar to getting a "lunger" off steroids
But leave she did, much to the benefit of clients and staff at Denison Library, where Ruth has been an Information Services volunteer par excellence since early 1988. Luckily for us, she satisfies her healthy addiction to answering reference questions while staffing our Information Desk every Tuesday. An exemplar of multitasking well before the word entered common parlance, Ruth also wishes that she could knit while using the treadmill at her athletic club.
Ruth feels blessed in her relationships with CCML members over the past three decades, and we have benefited from her service as President and Treasurer, as well as her contributions to various committees, including Membership, Consultants/Marketing, Education and the Health Information Providers SIG.
Ruth and Ralph have enjoyed wonderful travels through the Americas, Europe and Asia, although the Mediterranean still beckons. She has relished the role of tour director for them in retirement.
No article about Ruth would be complete without mention of her voracious and varied reading habits. A glance at her 1998 reading list gives a good idea of her range of interests. Subjects include genealogy, mystery, cookbooks, health care, spirituality, biography, travel, children and history. Ask her about Book TV on C-SPAN2, and she will happily describe their most recent programming.
Ruth's zest for life and the pursuit of knowledge is certainly infectious.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
SUBMITTED BY KATE ELDER, EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Conferences, Classes, and Events
MUSINGS FROM THE EVER-GRAMMATICAL MAXWELL
SUBMITTED BY DICK MAXWELL
The Oxford English Dictionary folks (their motto: "Helping youse write good for centuries") recently removed the stigma from the use of split infinitives. This is a part of grammar that should have been burned into all of our brains somewhere around the eighth grade. For those who have forgotten, this is correct: "It is a serious waste of time to worry about this sort of thing," and this is incorrect: "It is a serious waste of time to pointlessly worry about this sort of thing." Grammatically anal types undoubtedly became apoplectic on hearing this news, since many apparently suffer from a chronic deficit of even moderately important things to worry about.
On the other hand, it is probably important that those of us forced to coexist under the umbrella of the English language have at least some sort of agreement on a few basics…it prevents fistfights.
In health care we're at least as guilty of indiscretion as everyone else, periodically spewing forth oral or written "communications" indecipherable by anyone except—at least half the time—the original speaker or writer.
The infinitive change, for example, came just in time for the author of an article in Science, who wrote that a researcher "had to carefully wall off his own research…." into human stem cells. The article also mentioned, by the way, that, ultimately, stem cells might allow someone to "reach into the freezer, take out a cell culture, treat it with growth factors, and produce almost any tissue in the human body." This should serve as a large red flag for thoughtful holders of stock in Pfizer, the company which produces Viagra.
The following are a few other helpful reminders of sometimes tragically forgotten finer points of grammar:
1. The use of everyone's favorite little floating hook…the apostrophe. (sentence fragment-still, at the moment, against the rules) For an awful lot of people, the apostrophe seems to serve as more of a decoration than a mark of punctuation, tossed in or left out at random. For example: "Doctor, the Jones' family is back in the waiting room and says' that the charcoal grill set its' Ford minivan on fire in the parking lot. I'm going to call 911 for lot's of help since you're Hyundai is right next to it!"
2. The apostrophe's larger sibling, the quotation mark. This is also used to spruce up the appearance of a collection of words, sometimes included for emphasis in place of the more violent exclamation point, as in this actual sign once spotted in the window of a Japanese restaurant: "NO" check's . Such a use might bring some clarity to a progress note: "Patient" showing "marked" improvement this "morning," according to "nurse," until "0800," when she "blew chunks" consisting of well "digested" "oatmeal" and demanded "Western" omelet. "Discharged" to "Denny's."
3. The use of "hopefully"…a word which really does have a specific use, long since lost in the mists of history. Correct: The surgeon reached hopefully into the opening, almost certain that he would find the spleen somewhere in there, although he had a nagging suspicion that he shouldn't be seeing the back of the patient's head. Incorrect: "He's working on Garth right now," Eunice said, "Hopefully that correspondence medical school taught him something about how to find the spleen."
4. Remember participial phrases? Well who does? They involve participles, naturally, but also predicates, and probably some dangling things, too. Not quite: Eloise being a dietician, the meal was done on time, and the "lawyer" said she could be "sued" for what it did to most of the patients on the fourth floor. Closer: Since Eloise was a dietician, she was able to confuse the judge about exactly when the squid went bad, causing the unfortunate "problem" on the fourth floor.
5. Excess or pointless or boneheaded word use. As per your request in your correspondence receipted by our office on the fifteenth, we have reassessed the premium charged for your malpractice coverage, and irregardless of the eleven pending cases, including the one involving the Laborador Retriever, we are pleased to inform you that we hopefully will be able to continue to offer you a policy upon receipt of your "check" in the amount of $11,000 representing the first month's premium. As you know, we could of cancelled it and probably had ought to, but have now currently a fairly severe cash flow problem which we would hope your check could have a positive impact on.
6. In America, any word can be a verb. What a country! Where are you officing this year? It would be best if you're officing in an environment which allows you to network with other informationing colleagues, perhaps while soup and sandwiching after transitioning across the street and martiniing without actually desobering per the guy horizontalling in the next booth.
7. A timely question has arrived: "I just finished an article that I plan to submit to the North American Clinical Journal of the Annals of the Contemporary Psychological Hepatology Society, and I still have six apostrophes, a pair of quotation marks, a couple of gerunds, and a prepositional phrase left over. What should I do with the excess??
Answer: Of course you'd hate to waste them, but it's really not too difficult to find a good home for the sorts of things you have there. In fact, you could probably just insert them at random into what you've already written without having much impact on its "meaning" or even catching an editor's attention. Or, how about something generic in your conclusion, such as: "The present study's evidence, while almost certainly conclusive and hopefully grant-producing, is nevertheless based on the anecdotal reports of a population consisting of three Inuit adolescents with attitude problems. While sort of "randomized," broadly defining the term, it was not quite "controlled," and fell far short of being "clinical." The authors feel that further studies are warranted, probably in the Bahamas, and would very much like to find the funding to do the "work."
| 1999 | |
| January | 14 Exec. Committee meeting 25 Council Quotes deadline |
| February | 3 Mailing deadline 10 Mailing 24 CCML meeting |
| March | 10 Exec. Committee meeting 22 Council Quotes deadline |
| April | 7 Mailing deadline 14 Mailing 28 CCML annual meeting |
| Council Quotes is a bimonthly publication of the Colorado Council of Medical Librarians (CCML). CCML / P.O. Box 101058 / Denver, CO 80210-1058. Subscription is a benefit of membership. Editor, Mary Walsh; Assistant Editor, Jeff Kuntzman; Contributors, CCML members. |
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