ABSTRACT Since 2003, librarians have attended Morning Report twice weekly, conducting searches related to the case presented. Over the years, several formats have been used and refined. In one, a house officer was assigned to work with the librarians in the library to find two papers that answered one question related to the assigned case. Because the ability of house officers to come to the library varied greatly, the feasibility of providing a laptop in the Internal Medicine conference room where the cases were presented was explored. This project involved providing a laptop computer using a wireless network to Internal Medicine residents immediately at the conclusion of Morning Report.

ABSTRACT Librarians serving pediatricians have an opportunity to participate in establishing and/or maintaining a Reach Out and Read (ROR) program at their workplace. Reach Out and Read is a pediatric preliteracy program that targets at-risk children living in poverty. It addresses the link between poverty and illiteracy by equipping pediatricians with the tools they need to incorporate literacy counseling information into pediatric primary care visits so that these children enter school ready to learn to read. The purpose of this article is to illustrate by example how librarians can support their institution's ROR program.

OBJECTIVE:The research sought to determine whether case discussion at residents' morning report (MR), accompanied by a computerized literature search and librarian support, affects hospital charges, length of stay (LOS), and thirty-day readmission rate.METHODS:This case-control study, conducted from August 2004 to March 2005, compared outcomes for 105 cases presented at MR within 24 hours of admission to 19,210 potential matches, including cases presented at MR and cases not presented at MR. With matching criteria of patient age (+/- 5 years), identical primary diagnosis, and secondary diagnoses (within 3 additional diagnoses) using International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) codes, 55 cases were matched to 136 controls. Statistical analyses included Student's t tests, chi-squared tests, and nonparametric methods.RESULTS:LOS differed significantly between matched MR cases and controls (3 days vs. 5 days, P < 0.024). Median total hospital charges were $7,045 for the MR group and $10,663 for the control group. There was no difference in 30-day readmission rate between the 2 groups.DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION:Presentation of a case at MR, followed by the timely dissemination of the results of an online literature review, resulted in a shortened LOS and lower hospital charges compared with controls. MR, in association with a computerized literature search guided by the librarians, was an effective means for introducing evidence-based medicine into patient care practices.

Kerri Ann Christopher and David C. Duggar are Reference Librarians; Donna F. Timm is Head, User Education Section; Marianne Comegys is Library Director; and Daniel E. Banks is Chairman, all in the Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA. This project was first presented as a contributed paper at the South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association meeting held in Houston, TX, in October 2004. Comments and suggestions should be sent to the Column Editor: Dixie A. Jones (E-mail: dixie.jones@med.va.gov).

The results of selective dissemination of information (SDI) searches are typically printed offline and mailed to the library for distribution. Postprocessing this material-sorting the printouts, gathering and recording statistics, and actually delivering itnrequires substantial effort by staff. With the recent introduction of Internet access to SDI search results at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the library at Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport (LSUMC-S) was able to computerize much of its SDI postprocessing. Library staff wrote two computer programs which sort SDI results, gather and report statistical data without requiring manual data entry, and allow delivery of search results as either hardcopy or e-mail, as the client prefers. This software also adds value to the final product, by tagging citations which appear in journals to which the library currently subscribes. Automation of SDI postprocessing at the LSUMC-S library has resulted in substantial savings in staff time and expense.

The Louisiana State University Medical Center- Shreveport Library has developed a computer program to filter MEDLINE search retrieval and separate out citations to journals in its current holdings. When library users request MEDLINE searches, they are offered the option of having their retrieval restricted to local holdings. With 1,021 subscriptions to serials, 890 of them indexed by the National Library of Medicine, the reference librarians have found this to be a useful tool for providing users with readily available sources of information. The experience, techniques, and inhouse software are offered to other interested libraries.

The current mission statement of the Medical Library Association states that it is "dedicated to improving health through professional excellence and leadership of its members in the ... provision of information services and educational programs ..." With this goal in mind, retractions offer medical librarians a professional challenge to become involved in the scientific process. Through results of a survey conducted among the consortium of South Central Academic Medical Libraries (SCAMeL), this paper reveals opinions on the importance of retraction awareness and who is responsible for disseminating this knowledge. The paper also reports what the Louisiana State University Medical Center at Shreveport Library and other SCAMeL member libraries are doing to promote awareness.