Developing a Cancer-Focused Library Survey - Assessing the Current Environment and Planning for the Future.

The primary goal of this project is to understand how each National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center library, and all libraries that support cancer research, function within their institutions. Through an in-depth survey focused on three major areas (staff, content and tools procurement, and user services), the research team hopes to determine how a cancer-centric library can be successful in supporting quality patient care, research excellence, and education. Additionally, the survey will examine the necessary minimum staffing levels for librarians and information professionals based on organizational size and degree of research focus.

The business of negotiating for hospital librarians.

Although many hospital librarians may find it difficult, negotiating with vendors has become a basic skill of library acquisitions. This article reports the results of a non-scientific questionnaire administered to hospital librarians and vendors attending a chapter meeting of the Medical Library Association in 2003. The answers revealed that vendors regard libraries as businesses, and while admitting that the role is often uncomfortable for them, librarians acknowledged that negotiating skills have become an important aspect of their jobs.

Community partnerships for health information training: medical librarians working with health-care professionals and consumers in Tennessee.

In Tennessee, several medical library outreach projects have involved collaborative work with health-care professionals, public librarians, consumers, faith-based organizations and community service agencies. The authors are medical librarians who worked as consultants, trainers and project directors to promote health literacy using PubMed medline and other health information resources in the several funding projects described here. We explain the programmes briefly, focusing on lessons learned and suggestions for those who follow us.