ATSMlib is short for the A.T. Still Memorial Library and it takes you directly to our website (www.atsu.edu/atsmlib). MLA stands for the Medical Library Association. In May of each year, members of the A.T. Still Memorial Library head to the Annual Conference for networking, professional development, presenting papers or posters, and meeting with vendors. It is a great time to catch up with old and new colleagues and investigate opportunities for future collaborative partnerships.
Margaret Hoogland, Distance Support Librarian on the Missouri Campus, and Carolyn Schubert, who works at James Madison University, surveyed members from two different sections of the Medical Library Assocation asking about involvement with Distance Support Activities, Online Classes, and other ideas. The project came about from the informal group Margaret started to discuss Distance Support ideas, issues, etc. in January 2013.
Mike Kronenfeld, Universoty Librarian and Hal Bright, Electronic Services Librarian presented a paper entitled Library Resource Discovery: Keep it Simple, Stupid!. During the presentation, they discussed the implementation of the Still OneSearch discovery system and the philisophical underpinnings of its development.
The three aspects of discovery we felt that were important in the development of Still OneSearch were Ease of use, Precision of results and Increased discovery of Library supported resources. These aspects were considered as we designed the search box, the search results page and the development of a focused, discipline limited health sciences search.
Jean L. Sidwell, Missouri Branch Director, and her co-authors presented, “Preserving Osteopathic history: the challenge of converting media formats to digital,” at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
The theme for the poster evolved as a result of a plan by the library, museum, OMM department, Academic Technology and I.T.S. with a goal to develop a preservation plan to preserve video tapes of historical content by converting to a digital format. Jean decided that perhaps other libraries may be interested in doing this type of preservation project. The following Co-authors of the poster help to develop and design its content.
David Owens, Public Services Manager; Daryl Shafer, Acquisitions; Mary Sims, Technical Services Librarian, of ATSMLib, ATSU and Heather Rudy, Museum Registrar, Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, ATSU. A special thanks to James Carroll, Senior Graphic Artist, Academic Technology, created the design using poster content.
Daryl Shafer and David Owens handled the technical side of converting the videos to digital and sharing the files with the museum.
Both the library and museum cooperated to purchase the equipment needed to do the conversion, working with ITS and Academic Technology, who recommended and ordered computers, hard drives, & software.
The project is ongoing. However, the original goal that the Library and Museum staff sought was successful, as over 200 historical tapes were converted from analog to digital format so that they are more accessible for patrons and are securely preserved for future osteopathic research.