Alderman, Swem, Cabell, McConnell, Wilder, Johnson, Newman, Tompkins-McCaw, Boatwright, Lyman Beecher Brooks and Claude Moore are among Virginia academic libraries.
Now, they share a new commonality.
Any member of the VCU community--student, faculty or staff--can walk into any of these participating libraries and others, prove affiliation with VCU and enjoy immediate borrowing privileges. This convenience might prove particularly helpful for traveling researchers or students visiting their hometowns on school breaks.
The pilot program for the 2013-14 academic year is through the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) consortium.
List of participating institutions
VCU borrowers at other participating libraries will be asked to login to
RefWorks
Thursday, September 12, 2013
12:15 pm - 1:00 pm
Online
Do you want to save time and energy in managing your citations and creating a bibliography? This online workshop will discuss topics including importing citations from databases, organizing the citations, and correctly formatting citations for a manuscript.
Register Online
RefWorks
Monday, September 23, 2013
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Tompkins-McCaw Library - TML Classroom, 2-006
Do you want to save time and energy in managing your citations and creating a bibliography? This class will discuss topics including importing citations from databases, organizing the citations, and correctly formatting citations for a manuscript. Participants are welcome to bring their lunch. Registration is encouraged. Walk-ins are welcome.
Register Online
Tompkins-McCaw Library Orientation & Tour
Thursday, September 26, 2013
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Tompkins-McCaw Library - TML Classroom, 2-006
Learn about the variety of resources and services available to you from the VCU Libraries. In these one hour sessions we`ll show you the most effective ways to find books, journals, and other information for research and provide an orientation to the Tompkins-McCaw Library and its services as well as offer a tour of the facility. Participants are welcome to bring their lunch. Registration is encouraged. Walk-ins are welcome.
Register Online
VCU Libraries is recruiting students for the TML Graduate Student Advisory Committee, which meets monthly to discuss library issues, advise the administration and participate in library service activities. Applications are due Friday, September 6, 2013. Additional information and application Questions? Email: Shannon D. Jones at sdjones@vcu.edu
Health care practitioners in many areas of Virginia have little or no access to the caliber of medical information they need to best treat their patients. Health care providers associated with universities have vast online repositories of the most up-to-date information at their fingertips. Other providers do not.
A new website, A Common Wealth of Public Health and Primary Care Information, helps address this disparity.
Designed to serve public health care and community health center physicians, nurses, dentists, dental hygienists, nutritionists, health educators, health administrators, epidemiologists and others, the site is a partnership between Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University and two of Virginia's eight Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Programs, the Capital and the Rappahannock AHEC programs. The National AHEC Organization (NAO) works to assist health practitioners in medically underserved areas. They are nonprofit organizations strategically located where health care and health care education needs are not adequately met.
AHEC programs work "to bridge the gap between academic health centers and the community. VCU Libraries' technical expertise in collaboration with AHEC has created a project that can benefit communities in the Commonwealth," said Jane Wills, RAHEC executive director.
The project partners developed the new website with insight provided by an advisory committee consisting of public health and primary care professionals, and VCU public health faculty members.
VCU librarians organized the materials for public health and primary care professionals. The partners are now working to promote the website so Virginia public health, rural health, and primary health care organizations, associations and providers can use the resource to better care for their patients.
VCU librarians:
- Identified relevant public health and primary care subject areas and develop research guides highlighting these resources on topics including chronic diseases, maternal and child health and evidence-based health care practice.
- Searched free websites to find databases, journals, books and other information which may be relevant to Virginia public health and community health center workers such as PubMed®, TOXNET, AGRICOLA, and MedlinePlus®.
"This project provides much needed access to free evidence-based information not only in our region but throughout the state," said Tracy Causey, CAHEC board chair and president of the Virginia Community Care Association.
"Now, a health care provider in downtown Petersburg or rural Pulaski or on the water in Reedville on the Northern Neck, have equal and easy access to important medical information. It's all free and reliable," said Barbara Wright, Research & Education Librarian and project manager.
The project was funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHS-N-276-2011-00004-C with the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
A recent multi-institutional survey examined internal medicine residents' use of point-of-care information resources for clinical decision making. Respondents reported speed, trust in quality of information, and portability as the top reasons for selecting a resource. The top three resources were UpToDate, faculty consultation, and Google. PubMed/MEDLINE was reported as being used at least daily by only about 13% of respondents because it took more time to search for and synthesis information.
The residents reported using the general Google search to find specific websites or general information on a disease while Google Scholar was used to search for diagnostic techniques and current treatments in journals. A certain amount of mistrust of the quality of information found through Google was reported, but the responses indicated that Google was largely used for discovery before moving on to more trusted information sources.
To read more, visit the library homepage and copy and paste the PMID number below into the PubMed search box.
Duran-Nelson A, Gladding S, Beattie J, Nixon LJ. Should we google it? resource use by internal medicine residents for point-of-care clinical decision making. Acad Med. 2013;88(6):788-794. DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e31828ffdb7 PMID: 23619072
Like the forever stamp, one of your library services stays with you, at the same price (free) forever.
One of the many tools VCU Libraries provides students is RefWorks. This web-based citation management tool stores citation and reference information in personal databases. The individual can manage references in folders for individual topics, courses, grants or collaborative projects. It automatically generates bibliographies in various formats (MLA, APA, Chicago).
All VCU-affiliated users who have VCU and/or MCVH-VCU email accounts may set up free accounts.
If you have a RefWorks account, your references are yours forever. Whether you go onto graduate school at another institution or go into the workplace, you can still have access to your references via the RefWorks Alumni Program. You can continue to use RefWorks to manage research materials of all kinds--whether you are in school or on the job.
Members of the class of 2013: Remember to set up a RefWorks Alumni account before graduation to continue to have this benefit of your VCU Libraries relationship.
Details about the RefWorks Alumni Program
Students, faculty and staff with RefWorks accounts who leave VCU may continue to have access to RefWorks through the RefWorks Alumni Program. As a participant in the program, you receive:
- One free RefWorks account
- New updates and feature releases
- 200 MB of file attachment storage
- Use of RefShare to share your folder(s) or account
- Free Web-based training
- Technical support from RefWorks staff
To request participation in the RefWorks Alumni Program, submit an Ask Us email or contact your RefWorks administrator:
- Marilyn Scott, James Branch Cabell Library, mjscott@vcu.edu, (804) 828-9049
- Jennifer McDEaniel, Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, jamcdaniel@vcu.edu, (804) 827-1150
Building on its history of improving services through assessment of users' expressed needs and preferences, VCU Libraries will conduct such a survey in 2013. A full report on the 2011 survey is now available
online. Many improvements have been made based on that data.
"It is a best practice for libraries to seek opinions of their users by tools including surveys and focus groups," said Michael Rawls, budget and assessment director for VCU Libraries. The trademarked LibQUAL survey, developed by the Association of Research Libraries and Texas A & M University, is used by many top research libraries. "It's the gold standard," said Rawls.
VCU Libraries uses LibQUAL-gathered information to assess and improve operations and collections. In the 2011 survey, students and faculty from all disciplines rated the customer service and professional knowledge of librarians highly. Perceptions of facilities and spaces improved significantly from the previous survey period. Heightened satisfaction can be largely attributed to improvements to the second floor of James Branch Cabell Library.
In the 2011 report:
- Patrons continued to think the facilities are crowded and sometimes noisy and insufficient to meet their study or research needs.
- Graduate students and faculty, groups who care most about the depth and breadth of collections, reported that adequacy of the collections have improved since 2008. But, faculty still see much room for improvement.
- Accessibility of information remained an issue for users in varied disciplines.
- The Web site was perceived by some users as difficult to navigate for finding information on their own.
VCU Libraries staff worked intensively to improve services, collections and spaces based on 2011 data. Highlights include:
- Design work is well underway to construct a new library building on the Monroe Park campus.
- Hours the libraries are open have been expanded on both campuses.
- Substantive renovations at libraries on both MCV and Monroe Park campuses created additional user space with improved furnishings and study conditions.
- A new one-button search function was introduced in 2012 to expedite online discovery of library materials.
- Alma, new technical infrastructure, was adopted in 2012 to add speed and efficiencies.
- Collections in all formats were expanded.
- A task force is working on a redesign of an improved Web site to launch in 2013.
The 2013 LibQUAL survey will be conducted online during the spring semester.
The Tompkins-McCaw Library is closed Saturday, December 22, 2012 through Tuesday, January 1, 2013. We will be answering questions via
AskUs.
We will reopen at 8 am on Wednesday, January 2.
Have a safe and restful winter break!
Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences invites current MCV Campus students 
to share photographs from their 2011-12 health services projects anywhere in the world to the Rams Reaching Out Photography Contest. Selected photographs will be displayed in the Tompkins-McCaw Library Gallery and win cash prizes. Some will be shared on Facebook.Here's how it works: - Serve. Do what VCU does best. Go out into your community and the world, and help improve lives wherever you go. It's what health professions are all about.
- Snap.Take photos of what moves you. You with an injured wheat farmer in Manitoba you're helped learn to walk again. Your clinic in San Salvador.
- Send. Submissions are accepted August 15-September 15 from all Fall 2012 MCV Campus students. Use VCU FileDrop and send a full-resolution copy the photograph(s) along with a brief description of what's going on in the photo to us at libtmlsca@vcu.edu.
Note: All photos of identifiable individuals require signed releases. No cell phone photos accepted. Questions: email at libtmlsca@vcu.edu with the subject line "Photos."
The My Bibliography Award View display, a tool developed by NCBI to assist
eRA Commons
users to comply with the NIH Public Access policy and associate their
publications to NIH awards, will be enhanced in the following three
ways: eRA Commons account holders will be able to associate any grant
with citations in their My Bibliography collection, and they will be
able to search for awards with the assistance of auto-complete; eRA
users' My Bibliography collection will be automatically updated to
include citations that have been associated to the grants awarded to
them; and new filter options will be added for paper-grant associations.
Full details are in the NLM Technical Bulletin.
In his
July update to the University community, President Michael Rao unveiled a new University seal and
explained the importance of such symbols. He wrote:
"As
we move into the ranks of nationally competitive universities, it is
more important than ever that we communicate with one voice in a strong,
compelling and consistent way that conveys our unique character and
academic quality. ... Toward that end, a new university seal and brand
mark have been developed and approved by the Board of Visitors. The new
seal and brand mark are the result of quantitative and qualitative
surveys and significant input from members of the university community,
including students, faculty, staff and alumni. ... The new university
seal ... reflects the unity of VCU while maintaining its grand
historical significance."
A new Web page in Tompkins-McCaw
Library's Special Collections and Archives section details the history
of the MCV and VCU seals and institutional symbols. Research was
provided by VCU Libraries' Jodi Koste and Ray Bonis.
History of the Seal (Below is an early MCV symbol of science and medicine.)
University News Service posted an article featuring Ram Bikes, VCU Goes Green and VCU Libraries.
The April 10 article
VCU Libraries now offers bicycles for patrons to borrow for 24 hours. The
bike loan program is a joint project of VCU RamBikes and VCU Goes Green.
The project is designed to make getting across campus easier and faster for
students who have occasional need of two-wheel transportation.
The bicycles are Sun Atlas coasters with foot breaks and without gears.
There are four bikes available at James Branch Cabell Library and another
four bikes available at Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences.
- Bikes must be returned to the location where they were borrowed.
- Bikes are loaned for 24 hours; patrons can renew them for an additional 24
hours using My Library Record or by calling the service desk at either library
(Cabell Library 828-1111; Tompkins-McCaw Library 828-0636).
- Overdue fines of $25 per day or portion of a day are assessed on bikes not
returned by the date and time due.
- Helmets are loaned with the bikes, and are available in small/medium and
large/extra large; both are adjustable.
- The seat height is also adjustable, and an Allen wrench (also known as a hex
key) is available for patrons to use.
- Bikes are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Patrons are required to sign a waiver of liability statement before they can
check out the key to the lock securing a particular bike to the rack in front of
the library building.
This past Friday, February 3rd, was National Wear Red Day, a campaign of the American Heart Association to raise awareness of women's heart health issues. Many Tompkins-McCaw faculty and staff members showed their support by wearing red!
You can read more about the American Heart Association's campaign at
http://www.goredforwomen.org/
Early in February 2012, the Tompkins-McCaw Library (TML) is
kicking off the renovation of the basement Multimedia Collaboration Room, B-037. The
renovation will take the existing room to bare bones and then add layers to
create an exciting, contemporary space focused on collaborative learning.
Existing furniture and equipment will be removed or
relocated February 2-3; demolition begins Monday, February 6. The five week process will transform the room
from dated 1970s shabby to 21st century chic.
With the exception of workstations and café booths,
furniture in the room is designed to be moveable and configurable by
users. There will be mobile soft seating
and white boards too. Walls at the end
of the room will be finished with whiteboard material. The color scheme of the room is shades of
charcoal with pops of fuchsia, green and gold.
The design board showing all the exciting changes for B-037 is on
display at the TML Service Desk.
Enjoy the pictures of the planned renovation. We'll be posting photos as the project
progresses.
The staff at the Tompkins-McCaw Library invites all MCV Campus students, faculty, and staff to join us as we celebrate National Medical
Librarians Month by joining us at these exciting events and workshops:
- Attend the 2011 Cyber security Fair
to learn about the many options for protecting personal information from
cybercriminals, as well as ways to secure your electronic devices at home and
at work on October 5, 2011
- Refresh your research skills by attending an open workshop:
o
PubMed, October 17 at Noon - Hunton Student
Center
o
Drug Information Resources, Wednesday, October
19 at Noon - Tompkins-McCaw Library
o
Finding Health Statistics Online, Thursday,
October 20 at Noon - Hunton Student Center
o
RefWorks, Monday, October 24 at 10:00 a.m. - Sanger Hall
o
Where's the Evidence, Tuesday, October 25 at
4:00 p.m. - Tompkins-McCaw Library
o
Effective Literature Searching to Support
Your Research, Thursday, October 27 at Noon - Tompkins-McCaw Library
Thanks for your Support!
Here's a new way to support Virginia Commonwealth
University and VCU Libraries: Vote in Virginia's Top 10 Endangered
Artifacts campaign. This public awareness campaign is designed to show
the importance of preserving artifacts in care at collecting
institutions such as museums, libraries and archives.
"It is important to save and preserve these artifacts and other items
that comprise our material culture because they hold much symbolic,
research and educational value," says Jodi L. Koste, archivist at
Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences.
VCU Libraries has nominated two artifacts in need of preservation
that tell significant stories about its special collections. They are:
- Matriculation Book of the Medical College of Virginia, 1838-1871.
In this book all the names of students were recorded along with the
student's address, preceptor and previous schools attended. Student
entries are annotated when the individual graduated. The book is of high
value for the information it provides on early students. It is also an
interesting artifact because it includes the signatures of several Union
soldiers who left their "mark" in the book during the occupation of the
college's building after the Civil War.
- The office door of pioneering cartoonist Billy DeBeck featuring an oil painting of Barney Google
and his equine sidekick. William Morgan DeBeck, 1890-1942, was a giant
in the "comic strip" art form. To readers in the Jazz Age and Depression
era, his characters were as beloved as Superman, Peanuts and Doonesbury
became to later generations. Dialog from Barney Google became part of
the cultural syntax. Catchphrases from his strips included:
"Horsefeathers!" "Heebie-jeebies;" "Jeepers Creepers!" "Bus' Mah
Britches!" and "Time's a'wastin'!" DeBeck invented the moniker "Google"
for his character.
These two artifacts are examples of
the content of VCU Libraries' special collections. Tompkins-McCaw
Library for the Health Sciences houses archives, artifacts, books,
manuscripts, photographs, portraits and prints related to the history of
health care in Virginia. The archives for the Medical College of
Virginia campus are also located in the library on the MCV Campus. On
the Monroe Park campus, James Branch Cabell Library is home to
significant collections in comic and graphic arts, artist's books,
modern Richmond history and culture, oral histories, literary
manuscripts, and documentation of Central Virginia minority and activist
communities.
To vote: www.vatop10artifacts.org/p/how-do-i-vote.html Voting
is online and there are two ways to vote. One is to go to the photo
album, create a free account in the Picasa platform, and "like" your
favorite artifact. Or, you may prefer to choose from a drop-down box in a
Google spreadsheet. Links to both voting methods.
If you have difficulty voting, send your choice by email to srobinson26@vcu.edu Use Internet Explorer.
Voting ends Sept. 20. Public voting will be considered by an
independent panel of collections and conservation experts who will
select the final Top 10. That list will be announced in November.
Follow on Twitter: #vatop10
* * *
Virginia's Top 10 Endangered Artifacts is a program of
the Virginia Collections Initiative, which is a project of the Virginia
Association of Museums, made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute
of Museum and Library Services. The IMLS is the primary source of
federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500
museums.
VCU Libraries, serving the Monroe Park Campus and the MCV
Campus, offers major new collections of e-resources (e-books, streaming
audio, streaming video, and databases).
A comprehensive list of new collections--acquired during 2010-11--and available now is posted. All databases in the A-to-Z Guide. Some notable additions to the health sciences collection include:
- Methods in Enzymology
- New England Journal of Medicine
- Access Medicine
- Access Science
- LWW Nursing Health Assessment Video Series
STYLE Weekly's August 16, 2011 issue features VCU
Libraries supporter Edward H. Peeples, emeritus associate professor of
preventive medicine and community health at VCU. The James Branch Cabell
Library Special Collections houses papers documenting Peeples' work in
civil rights. The collection includes four surviving copies of The
Ghost, the underground newspaper Peeples circulated in 1960 and 1961.
Special Collections' Ray Bonis is quoted in the article, which mentions
VCU Libraries.
The article by Dale Brumfield:Much has been written of Richmond's paranormal past, but 50 years
ago, one particular Ghost spoke out against segregation, brutal local
police tactics and the College of William and Mary's patronizing
stranglehold on what one day would be Virginia Commonwealth University,
Nine issues of The Ghost were "published when needed" between
February 1960 and August 1961 by self-described 20th-century scalawag
Edward H. Peeples and his friend, transplanted New Yorker Richard
Kollin. Arguably the city's first modern-era true underground
publication, the Ghost was passed around the Fan and Richmond
Professional Institute, known colloquially as RPI, at the height of the
civil rights era.
The Ghost was launched out of Peeples' acute frustration with a
bigoted racist philosophy dubbed the Virginia Way, coined by Douglas S.
Freeman of the Richmond News Leader, supported by the Byrd political
machine and endorsed through vitriolic pro-segregationist editorials by
the News-Leader's James J. Kilpatrick; Virginians, as The Ghost
proclaimed sarcastically, were able to "segregate like gentlemen," not
like those "rubes in Alabama who give segregation a bad name."
"We feel that The Ghost should be provocative and 'newsy' and that it
will become the overt voice of your wishes and desires of RPI and the
Fan district," the 1960 debut issue announced. The magazine's primitive
mimeographed layout belied its authoritative skewering of sacred
Richmond cows, including the tacit acceptance of social injustices
against women and blacks that largely had gone unchanged since
post-Civil War days. "Challenging segregation and the Virginia way was
our main goal," Peeples explained.
A varsity basketball starter, 1957 RPI graduate and self-professed
"spy for the black community," Peeples helped to organize the infamous
late-1950s lunch counter sit-ins with other Richmond notables, including
Doug Wilder and Edward Meeks Gregory. "I was never arrested," the
Richmond native insists, "but I have been thrown out and fired from a
lot of places, including RPI."
RPI -- the grandfather of Virginia Commonwealth University -- was
considered a brash, blue-collar school -- "'College for the rest of us',"
according to Peeples, and "a hotbed of slanderous stereotypes"
according to the News Leader -- scorned in its own city and virtually
ignored by W&M overseers. Embracing its reputation as a
working-class upstart, RPI students maintained a strong sense of college
pride while attracting a large number of Northerners, mostly because of
the enormous respect that RPI art school President Theresa Pollock
commanded in New York.
After a post-graduation stint in the Navy, Peeples rejoined
Richmond's counterculture in 1959, excited to be "connecting with the
Richmond radicals -- both of them." He patronized the 900 block of West
Grace Street, where -- according to The Ghost -- 85 percent of all
Richmond's 1959 felony arrests occurred.
"The Village Restaurant was the gathering place," Peeples
says, explaining that the communists, leftists, beats and artists all
staked out their corners of the restaurant to pontificate on their pet
causes. Nearby on that block was the Meadow Laundry and art gallery
(where the Village Restaurant stands today) and the reopened Lee
Theater: "The Ghost offers three hearty cheers to the Lee Theater
opening, and particularly, for [Ingmar Bergman's film] 'Wild
Strawberries.' We need the Lee Theater, and they need us." Also on this
strip -- and a possible reason for the high number of arrests -- was the
presence of a gay beer joint, Eton's.
Peeples and his small number of like-minded radicals worked
tirelessly to drive their egalitarian causes into the hearts of the
Richmond aristocracy. "We were shakers, but not movers," he says,
laughing, recalling an Adlai Stevenson rally organized in Monroe Park in
1960 that drew "about a dozen supporters" -- and sadly, no Adlai.
During its brief run, The Ghost was fearless in exposing racial
inequities in college sports. One scheduled basketball game between RPI
and Union Theological Seminary was "mysteriously called off" because
there was a "negro player" on Union's team. "There is a vague policy,"
The Ghost opined, "enforced by some vague bureaucrat somewhere in the
W&M administrative scheme, restricting RPI and Norfolk Division from
competing against anyone but bright blue-eyed Aryans."
Suffocating rules enforced on female RPI students by dorm mothers was
another thorny issue. The Ghost noted, "We still enjoy the puritanical
delusion that a thick, gooey subterfuge of archaic rules will preserve
chastity and repute." Women who served as army WACS weren't permitted to
live in the RPI dorms, the mag reported. "It seems the administration
feels these girls are much too worldly for OUR little women!"
A regular feature, "Les Gendarmes," charted the actions of the
Richmond police. It featured a cartoon of a snarling police dog, along
with a caption: "The Ghost submits this drawing to city council as a
possible substitution for the present Richmond city seal." Some articles
remind us that times haven't changed. One recalled how the police's
"intolerant, tactless handling of noise complaints" resulted in students
getting dismissed from the institute.
The editors eventually accepted future author and then-recent RPI
graduate Tom Robbins into their fold. "Robbins was not interested in the
social issues," Peeples recalls. "He just enjoyed savaging Southern
culture. ... My friendship with Robbins ended when he said that using
drugs was OK."
By August 1961, Peeples became heavily involved in numerous civil
rights causes, including documenting the Prince Edward County school
closings. Kollin, meanwhile, went back to Columbia University for his
master degree (he died last year). This forced an end to The Ghost.
Peeples is now retired, as emeritus associate professor of preventive
medicine and community health at VCU, but he remains as fiercely loyal
to his alma mater as to the social causes he pursued more than 50 years
ago. "Ed is one of VCU Libraries' biggest supporters and is a wealth of
knowledge," says Special Collections archivist Ray Bonis, who maintains a
large, collection of papers in the James Branch Cabell Library
documenting Peeples' work in civil rights. This includes four surviving
copies of The Ghost, housed in Cabell's Special Collections.
"We nailed and eliminated the de facto expressions of white
supremacy. ... We took that as far as we knew how," Peeples says of the
seminal tract. "We now ask this generation to kick democracy up another
notch."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced a list of their "Ten Great Public Health Achievements, Worldwide, 2001-10." While major disparities continue to exist between low-income and high-income countries, some important progress can be seen in areas such as child mortality rate and access to safe water.
This report follows the release of a similar report for the United States in May 2011.
Tompkins-McCaw Library will be closed Saturday, May 28 to Monday, May 30 in observance of Memorial Day. We will reopen Tuesday, May 31.
The Periodicals Price Survey reports that 2011 journal prices have gone up again and projects an increase of seven to nine percent for academic journal titles in 2012. The survey is published annually in Library Journal.
Hello, my name is Roy Brown and I am one of the newer members of the Tompkins-McCaw Library staff. I have only been here since after Thanksgiving, and I am really enjoying getting to know about VCU and exploring the Richmond area. I am originally from North Carolina so coming to VCU was very exciting as it has allowed me to move back closer to home after living Oklahoma the past five years. I come to TML after spending 14 years as a high school teacher both in the classroom and in the online environment, before receiving my Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Oklahoma. After attaining my MLIS I worked for a time as a reference librarian the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and also as a solo librarian for a state psychiatric hospital.
I am the liaison to the VCU School of Nursing and I am here to support the research and educational needs of the students here at VCU. I am here to provide library instruction classes, as well as one-on-one or group consultations. My main focus is to insure that those I help gain the knowledge and skills necessary to meet their literature searching needs, as well as gain information literacy skills needed to become a lifelong learner.
I am interested in making information more accessible and helping people become more information literate. People are bombarded with information from a myriad of sources on a day-to-day basis. It is crucial that individuals be able to effectively discern what is credible and what is not. Without these skills people cannot make well-informed decisions and can be easily mislead. Whether you need help with a specific assignment, just want to know more about one of the library's databases, or just want to know where the research guides are on the library website, I am here to help.
Please feel free to contact me at 804-828-1592 or send me an email at rebrown2@vcu.edu, if I can be of any assistance.
My Vita
As of July 23, 2010, NIH PD/PIs will be unable to enter citations manually into eRA Commons and must use My NCBI's "My Bibliography" tool to manage their professional bibliographies.
In the interest of easing investigators' bibliography management, improving data quality, and ensuring compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy , eRA Commons has partnered with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to link NCBI's personal online tool, "MyNCBI," to Commons. MyNCBI offers an online portal--"My Bibliography"--for users to maintain and manage a list of all types of their authored works, such as articles, presentations and books. [See entire press release or the official notice ]
Please don't hesitate to contact VCU Libraries staff if you need help setting up or maintaining your MyNCBI or My Bibliography account.
Margaret Henderson
MyNCBI is a feature of the Entrez databases, such as PubMed or Entrez Gene, which allows you to save PubMed searches, collections of articles or gene records, etc., and update your searches automatically.
But MyNCBI can also be used to manage your personal list of publications for use with the eRA Commons, making sure you are in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy. Complete information is available in the NLM Technical Bulletin.
NOTE: The Awards View is only available to eRA Commons users with active grants in their portfolios who have linked their My NCBI account with their eRA Commons account
For more information about the NIH Public Access Policy please see our Resource Guide.
If you have any questions about MyNCBI , PubMed , or gene or protein databse searching, please email Tompkins-McCaw Library Research Services
After a false start, it looks like the redesigned PubMed is up and running. Tompkins-McCaw Library is offering classes to show you where things have moved, but if you can't make it to a class, there are some online tools from other sources that will help.
There are a couple of articles in the NLM Technical Bulletin explaining the changes:
PubMed Redesign
PubMed Now Using the Redesigned Interface
Also from NLM
The PubMed Basics trifold brochure (pdf link)
All the tutorials have been updated on the PubMed Online Training page
University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries created a comparison chart
There is a 3 minute YouTube video (except use the VCU Libraries page to get to PubMed)
As always, we will be happy to answer questions and arrange for large and small training sessions.
Call us 804-828-0636
Or email your question using the 'Ask a Librarian' online form
VCU Libraries has compiled a page of resources on H1N1 Influenza from a variety of sources. You will find links to government and other official web sites around the world, as well medical journals, news sources and articles, maps, and reputable medical blogs. Professional and consumer resources are included.
Teresa L. Knott, AHIP, has been appointed Director, Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences and Associate University Librarian, VCU Libraries.
Ms. Knott has held a variety of increasingly responsible roles during her career, including positions at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock; Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso; and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She comes to VCU from her latest role as Deputy Director, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland, Baltimore.
In her new role, Ms. Knott will lead the VCU Libraries in developing and advancing library collections, services, and health information outreach for biomedical, health, and life sciences on the MCV Campus and for the University as a whole. In addition, she will have a leadership role in overall governance, strategic planning, administration, and budgeting for the VCU Libraries system.
Ms. Knott has held many elected and appointed positions within the Medical Library Association (MLA) and its regional chapters, among them MLA's National Program Committee for 2007-09, MLA Nominating Committee, MLA Membership Committee (including its Chair), President of the South Central Chapter of MLA, and South Central Chapter Council representative to MLA. She participated in the NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program and is a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.
Ms. Knott will join VCU on March 10, 2009.
Take advantage of a number of upcoming classes offered by the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences on a variety of topics, including PubMed, RefWorks, Tests and Measurements, and the Instructional Media Workshop. A complete list of upcoming training and orientations is available through the VCU Libraries Events calendar. Sign-up today!
To schedule a training session at the Tompkins-McCaw Library, contact Thelma Mack, Education Services Coordinator, 828-0017.
The July issue of NIH News in Health is available. Featured stories cover medical imaging and carpal tunnel syndrome. View the full-text of the July 2008 issue online.
RefWorks has updated their "Write-N-Cite" tool so that it is now compatible with users running Microsoft Vista and Word 2007. For more information on downloading and using the new version of "Write-N-Cite" called "Write-N-Cite III" please visit here or contact Tompkins-McCaw Library.
In the fall of 1932, the Medical College of Virginia dedicated its first library building to great fanfare. As one contemporary described it, the new College Library was "a gem architecturally, faithfully carried out in the Georgian manner." 75 years later, that same structure continues to serve the needs of students, faculty, and clinicians on VCU's Medical College of Virginia Campus with the latest technology and most up-to-date resources.
As part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Tompkins-McCaw Library building and the 110th anniversary of library service on the MCV Campus, an exhibit has opened on the first floor chronicling the history of this campus fixture. The exhibit includes historical images of the library, information about major milestones, and an illustration of the massive growth of library collections constructed with imprints from the Classics of Medicine Library.
The exhibit is located next to Current Periodicals on the first floor of Tompkins-McCaw Library, and may be seen during normal library hours. A companion Web page is also available.
For more information about this exhibit or the history of Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, contact Andrew Bain, TML Special Collections and Archives, at 828-9898.
The newly renovated Hunton Student Center celebrated a grand re-opening on January 24. Included in the remodeled historic building is the Hunton Learning Center operated by the VCU Libraries. Located on the second floor, this Learning Center offers students from all VCU departments convenient access to twelve Internet-networked computers, including the wealth of online journals, books, and databases licensed by the VCU Libraries. Free workshops and one-on-one consultations will provide customized instruction on how to use information resources more effectively. The Learning Center is open 7 days per week. This staffed student learning commons is yet another outstanding example of VCU's engagement in the success of its students.
Student Learning Center Hours:
Monday - Friday: 7:30 am - 11 pm
Saturday: 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday: 1:00 pm - 8 pm
Learn more about the Hunton Student Center, view floor plans for the renovated spaces, or find directions to Hunton Student Center online.
Have you noticed recent changes in the VCU Libraries' web site? In the spring, the VCU Libraries will debut an all new web site.
We invite you to preview the new site and to share your feedback by participating in a focus group discussion. Lunch and other incentives will be provided.
Focus Group Schedule for Tompkins-McCaw Library:
Graduate and Professional Student Sessions
Monday, October 16th 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Tuesday, October 17th 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Faculty and Staff Sessions
Wednesday, October 18th 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Friday, October 20th 12:00 - 1:30 pm
For more information, download the flyer
Sign up today to participate in a Focus Group session; please contact Shannon Jones at sdjones@vcu.edu or 828-0626.
The Tompkins-McCaw Library offers a podcast of the latest library news. Tune in to the VCU Libraries Help page, or the Tompkins-McCaw Library page, to hear the latest news. Additional podcasts will be integrated into the VCU Libraries Search Guides, Tips, Handouts, and Tutorials resource guide.
If you have suggestions for new podcasts on health sciences topics, please contact Bob Johnson, Tompkins-McCaw Library Education Services Librarian.
