MD Although physicians once skimmed printed journals and Index Medicus to keep up with advances, today's practitioners can log onto databases linked to full-text journals and electronic books. Many studies have documented the importance of medical libraries to patient care, and that effect is likely to continue as medical librarians use their expertise to teach information skills and develop the electronic libraries of the future.
Medical libraries endure and evolve because they enhance patient care.
At UCSF, Butter reported that one of the most popular classes teaches faculty and students how to handle all information gleaned from database searches. Two recent recipients of the Michael E. DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award have demonstrated how other librarians provide modern information services to physicians far from the academic library. At Allina Health System in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Donna P. Johnson, MLS, director of information services, provides training for on-line searching, Internet basics, and locating relevant Web sites for 22 rural hospitals and clinics. Mary Jo Dwyer, MALS, senior circuit librarian at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, oversees the information services at 19 health care facilities staffed with circuit librarians who travel to hospitals, public libraries, and physicians' offices to provide training and do literature searches. Searches by physicians have increased the demand for an electronic library where the full text of an abstracted article is available with the click of a mouse, Valerie Florance, PhD, director of the Edward G. Miner Library at URMC, has negotiated electronic access to 100 electronic journals and more than 50 electronic texts.