This Month's Library:  August 2005

The Pratt Library at The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/pratt/

New and Noteworthy:

• In 2003, the Pratt Library joined OhioLink, a statewide network of member libraries with a shared catalog, and shared purchase of databases and online journals. Our holdings are now a part of the University of Cincinnati's online catalog (http://uclid.uc.edu) and of the OhioLink central catalog. All OhioLink libraries agree to provide free loans and journal articles to each other.
   
• The Pratt Library purchased an e-journals management tool from Serials Solutions in the summer of 2004. All our online journals from several different sources are now collected into one A-Z list, and we have added our print holdings as well. We are very happy with our new Journal Portal that gathers availability information for more than 17,000 unique titles into one alphabetical search.
   
• Purchase of a new multifunction device (copier/fax/scanner) has made it possible for us to scan articles directly to an email address in pdf format. All of our in-house document delivery is now sent via email, making turn-around time much faster for our clients. As yet we have not converted all our external ILL activity to email, but that will be the next step in streamlining this process.
   
• The Pratt Library staff is more involved with teaching activities than ever before. Not only do we offer routine orientation and one-on-one search training, we offer regular classes in EndNote and we're very involved in teaching searching workshops for our evidence-based practice initiative. In the past couple of years, we have begun short (45 minutes) noontime sessions called "Online Journals Q&A" and "PubMed Facts and Features." The response to these offerings has been gratifying. In the new fiscal year we hope to get approval for a plan to purchase laptops with wireless receivers so that we can set up a mobile classroom and take our sessions "on the road" to conference rooms throughout our rapidly expanding campus.

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