Cyprus Medical Libraries Project Health Sciences Library Collaboration –Electronic document delivery service –Web-based database of Cypriot medical research literature

Project Team University of Utah –Nancy Lombardo Systems Librarian, Eccles Health Sciences Library –Kenning Arlitsch Head of the Digitization Center, Marriott Library –Joan Gregory Head of Technical Services, Eccles Health Sciences Library Nicosia General Hospital, Cyprus –Andreas Savva Medical Librarian, Nicosia General Hospital Health Sciences Library

University of Utah Major research university located in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. –Student population - 26,000 Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library –NNLM Resource Library –56,000 volumes, 1600 periodical subscriptions J. Willard Marriott Library –ARL member –2 million volumes, 14,000 periodical subscriptions

Cyprus Medical Libraries National medical libraries: –Nicosia General Hospital 5000 books, 120 periodical subscriptions One full-time trained medical librarian –Larnaca General Hospital –Limassol General Hospital –Paphos General Hospital

Project Funding and Goals Grant proposal by Kenning and Andreas early 1998 Funded for $15,000 (£10,000) by the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC) based in Haifa, Israel Two goals: –Electronic document delivery service –Database of medical research literature produced in Cyprus

Literature Availability Problem Access to medical literature on Cyprus was very limited Very small library collections Often relied on individual physicians’ journal subscriptions Existing interlibrary loan arrangements, when available, were slow and costly

Document Delivery Solution Search Medline using PubMed –Order documents using Loansome Doc For items not indexed in Medline –Order through Eccles Library ILL Web forms Electronic delivery within 48 hours –Scanned TIFF files sent as attachments Imaging software, a standard accessory in MS Windows and NT

Costs and Accounting For accountability, all requests are processed by Andreas –Funds for the service are a line item in his budget –Individual physicians could order directly; tracking funds would be difficult –Cyprus Medical Libraries have established a deposit account Cost $5.00 per article found in the Eccles Library collection, $10.00 for referrals

Local Medical Literature Problem Medical literature not collected or indexed: –Medical journals –Conference proceedings –Government documents Therefore medical literature was inaccessible

Database Solution Collect and index existing literature: –Index materials in Eccles integrated library system (Horizon - epixtech) Link MARC 856 field to PDF documents –Scan and store digital materials on Eccles Library Web site Documents are searchable via WebPAC

Costs and Accounting Main costs involve labor –Scanning –Cataloging Student workers do most of the work University of Utah libraries are donating most of these costs Additional faculty assistance grant awarded to Joan Gregory at Eccles Library

Project Summary to Date Document delivery service popular with Cypriot health professionals –Averaged 103 articles/month from March May 2000 –Expanded service to Macedonia and Bulgaria Database growing at a steady rate –Nearly 500 PDF documents

Call for Participation Document delivery aspect of the project is a model for international cooperation –Minimal effort by sponsoring library –Major impact on underdeveloped or underfunded library –Potential to improve quality of health care worldwide

What’s Needed Internet Connectivity / PC with Win95 or higher or Mac with multi-page tiff viewer Printer Scanner at sponsoring library Motivated participants

Contact Information Nancy Lombardo Kenning Arlitsch Cyprus Medical Libraries Project Web – 8ICML Conference Proceedings includes a paper describing this project