The objectives of this study undertaken for the National Library of Medicine were to develop a list of issues and criteria that relate to the problem of measurement of medical library effectiveness. The procedure employed was to review the literature on the subject of library evaluation. Each criterion or measure of evaluation encountered was…

A survey at the Karolinska Institutet Bibliotek in Sweden, and a comparison with an earlier survey at the National Lending Library, showed that conventional bibliographical information media are still responsible for the major part of information about biomedical literature. (Author/LS)

Data regarding current services in hospital libraries of the metropolitan Detroit area form the nucleus of this study. The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to ascertain what services are given to users of hospital libraries and (2) to determine the value of the inventory as a means for obtaining information on user-services in hospital…

This analysis of the circulation records of books added to a psychiatric library from July 1983 through May 1985 reports the total number of books circulated, their number and percentage in specific subject areas, missing titles, and usage by in-house and off-site borrowers. Implications for future collection development are explained. (Author/EM)

This study explores means by which biomedical information might be distributed over a network to physicians and other personnel in the health sciences. Health Science libraries of all types are surveyed in terms of location, facilities, collection, staff, budget, and services. The library's user group is presented, and cooperative agreements among…

This study was launched to address concerns about the needs of after-hours users going unmet at the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic Foundation Library Services Department. The collection itself is available for use on the premises by clinic employees 24 hours a day, but employees do not remain on site to provide assistance, materials may not be signed out…

Adequate recordkeeping in medical libraries provides useful guidelines for collection management, acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, planning, and administration. Computerized recordkeeping is also discussed, as well as the characteristics of library users and library use patterns. There are extensive references. (LS)

This study reports findings from a survey of U.S. and Canadian medical libraries belonging to the Association of Academic Health Sciences Library Directors (AAHSLD). Conducted in the spring of 1990 and funded by AAHSLD, the survey had the two primary purposes of assessing the use of the AAHSLD "Annual Statistics" in providing data for decision…

Reports intensive survey of medical library users in Oxford teaching hospitals and university science departments that employed six survey techniques (interview, questionnaire, feedback form, direct observation, reference-tracing experiment, library record analysis). Three distinct user types (practitioner, researcher, practitioner-researcher)…

The main purposes of this study were to ascertain something of the quality of in-house use of materials in a science library, and to test the use of interviews as a method of measuring such use. Brief interviews were held with 414 users of the University of Illinois Veterinary Medicine Library (VML) between March 2 and May 13, 1987, to obtain…

The University of Washington Libraries offers a monthly computerized retrieval of medical literature (MEDLINE) based on a profile of interest supplied by the user. To evaluate user response to the service 136 questionnaires were sent out; 119 were returned. Among the major findings of the survey were: SDILINE is of major value in alerting users to…

The objectives of this study were to examine the need and potential demand for computer-based information services in the University of Otago medical libraries, to evaluate the various databases of interest, and to recommend the best means of access to such services. Data were collected through user and library surveys, an extensive literature…

This report presents the objectives, methodology, and results of a study which assessed the selection and utilization of four MEDLINE search systems by faculty and medical residents at the George Washington University Medical Center. The four systems, which were provided or sponsored by the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, offer a wide range of…

Discusses a decline in patron requests for librarian-mediated searches of MEDLINE at Yale University's medical library and describes results of a survey that was conducted to determine possible reasons. The influences of miniMEDLINE (an in-house version), online end-user systems, and CD-ROMs outside the library are examined. (five references) (LRW)