Spiral binding and laminating A spiral binding machine and a laminating machine had been purchased with the initial donations from Scottish charities as we knew these facilities would be needed for the library itself e.g. signing, rebinding etc. However we were frequently asked to spiral bind for readers and to make badges for conferences, doctors etc. It was logical to again make this a self-financing service, working out c osts that would be much cheaper than was being offered in only one other location in town and in this way help the staff and students of the University and also help ourselves. In fact we are now doing most of the badges for Medical Conferences and Library related conferences. In addition these conferences can now offer spiral bound programmes, laminated publicity notices and also copies of paper s given, all of which enhance the image that our Medical University is projecting internally and externally.
Borrowers cards The decision to charge for borrowers cards was yet again one of necessity.
If readers lost their borrowers cards then they had to also purchase another. We were both pleasantly surprised at the readiness that this was accepted by everyone - long queues were frequ ent with students proud to have their borrowing card as evidence of being a medical student. Ovid Medline Plus, Biosis Abstracts and Bookbank . With the former we have as yet no printers attached to the computers. Readers are allowed to download their references onto diskettes but many of the readers do not have ready access to computers themselves.