BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE 2 WHAT AUDIOVISUAL EQUIPMENT Do You HAVE AVAILABLE? % Owning Audiovisual Hardware
Audiocassette recorder player 35-mm slide projector Reel-to-reel audiotape recorder Filmstrip projector 16-mm motion picture projector 8-mm motion picture projector Microfilm reader Videocassette recorder/player Television monitor projector
1977 1975 University Washington of Michigan State Study Study [1]
91 89
79 70
51 55
26 55
70
88
32 42
9 22
73
37
62
26
part of the medical library-and through the increase in ownership of audiovisual equipment.
SUMMARY The librarian/library committee is the decision maker for the purchase of audiovisual materials in many hospitals and thus is the most important contact person in the health care system to be made aware of new educational materials. The librarian not only makes the purchase decision, but is also responsible for notifying physicians of the availability of new materials and is instrumental in formulating arrangements for sharing materials with other institutions. The library and learning resource center is the place where audiovisual materials are most often used, with ownership of more than one kind of audiovisual equipment showing a significant increase. REFERENCE 1. EKENDAHL, J. E. Hospital green: small medical facilities are showing the color of their AV money. Biomed. Commun. 4: 9-10, 28, Sept. 1976.
Received August 7, 1978; revision accepted November 16, 1978. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
Classification of Nursing Texts in a Hospital Library BY LOVISA KAMENOFF, Librarian Brockton Hospital Library Brockton, Massachusetts HOSPITAL librarians deal with relatively small book collections and want to make as much information as possible immediately available to users. Hospital libraries are unusual in that they have users twenty-four hours a day, although they are staffed only zero to sixteen hours. Therefore, a classification scheme that enables a hurried and unaided user to locate the desired information is a necessity. The National Library of Medicine Classification [1-3] is certainly the most practical system for medical libraries of any size to employ, because it is comprehensive, relatively simple to understand, fairly regularly updated, and coordinated with the Library of Congress Classification to provide categories for nonmedical subjects, and because it is becoming universally used by medical libraries. However, it holds disadvantages for nursing service personnel (and other health professionals), as materials written for them are not placed with the body system or disease covered, but rather in an arbitrary form class, WY. Hospital librarians have sought various solutions to this problem [4,5]. The Brockton Hospital, a 320-bed, private, nonprofit hospital with approximately 975 employees and its own diploma school of nursing, opened a new library in 1970, combining the medical staff library, classified according to the old Boston Medical Library (BML) scheme [6], and the school of nursing library, classified according to the National League of Nursing Education (NLNE) system [7]. The new library was to be, and is, open to all employees and to the community at large. One of the major philosophical advantages in combining the collections was that the merger gave the students and faculty of the school of nursing and the st4ff of the nursing service access to information \of greater depth and scope than that afforded by nursing texts alone. Therefore, it was decided to utilize the NLM Classification, but to place nursing texts in the same classes as medical texts on the same subject. In trying to select a designation that would locate nursing texts near and immediately preceding the general works (usually designated "100" in each clinical main 247
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE 1 ADAPrATION OF THE NLM CLASSIFICATION FOR NURSING AND OTHER TEXTS*
NLM Classification
Subject
Nursing (or Other)
Preclinical sciences Anatomy
Physiology Biochemistry Pharmacology Drug action Dispensatories Dosages Microbiology Immunology Neoplasms Medicine and related subjects Public health
Accidents, First aid Medicine
MedicalGeneral
Adaptation
Nursing (or Other)
Explanation/Comment
QS4
QS4
QS3
QT 104 QU 4 QV 4 QV 38 QV 4 (QV 38) QV 16 QW 4 QW 504 WY 156 (.3, .4)
QT 104 QU 4 QV 4 QV 38 QV 740 QV 748 QW 4 QW 504 QZ 200
QT 103 QU 3 QV 3 QV 40 QV 741 QV 749 QW 3 QW 503 QZ 290
WY 106, 108, 115 WA 292
WA 100
WA 90
WA 292 WB 100
WA 290
Includes disaster nursing
WB 70 WB 80
Fundamentals of nursing Medical nursing for practical
WB 90
Medical nursing for registered nurses Nursing procedure manuals
WY 100 WY 195
Includes physiology where combined
Nursing drug handbooks Arithmetic of dosages Cancer nursing
nurses
WY 156
(WB 100)
(3d ed.)t WY 100
WB 91
(.3, .4) Rehabilitation
WY 156 (3d ed.)t
Communicable diseases Venereal disease Musculoskeletal. Orthopedics Respiratory system Respiratory therapy
WY 153 WY 157.6
WB462 WB 460 (3d ed.)t (3d ed.)t WB 320 WB 322 (4th ed.)t (4th ed.)t WC100 WC 90 WC 145 WC 140 WE 90 WE 100
Change in designation between 3d and 4th eds.t Including infection control
WF 100
WB 342
WF26 (3d ed.)t WF26or 145 4th ed.t (see text) (4th ed.)t
(3d. ed.)t WB 342; WF 145
(4th ed.)t Nursing Cardiovascular system Coronary intensive care
WY 163 WY 152.5 WY 156
(3d ed.)t Hemic and lymphatic system Gastrointestinal system Urogenital system Endocrine system Nervous system
Psychiatry Radiology
248
WY 154 (4th ed.)t WY 152.5 WY 156.5 WY 164 WY 155 WY 160 (.3, .4) WY 160 (.3, .4)
(WF 100) WG 100
WF 90 WG 90 WG 166 (3d ed.)t WG 27-28t WG 27-28t
WH 100 WI 100 WJ 100 WK 100 WL 100 WM 100 WN 100
WH 90 WI 90 WJ 90 WK 90 WL 90 WM 50 WN 90
No specific location given in 3d ed.t
One class in which "90" is used
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
TABLE 1 (Continued)
NLM Classification Subject Subject
~
Nursing
Nursing
(or Other)
General Works
Nursing
(or Other)
161 (.3, .4) WO 100 154 WO 183 151 WO 200 162 WO 500
WO 90 WO 183 WO 202 WO 590
WO 600 WO 925 WP 100 WQ 100 WR 100 WS 100 WT 100 WT 500 WV 100
WO 690 WO 926 WP 90 WQ 90 WR 90 WS 90 WT 190 WT 590 WV 90
WW 100
WW 90
Surgery, general Recovery room Anesthesia Operative surgery and technics Plastic surgery Pediatric surgery Gynecology Obstetrics Dermatology Pediatrics Geriatrics Chronic disease Otorhinolaryngology
WY WY WY WY
Ophthalmology
WY 158
WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
Medical-
Adaptation
156.7 157, 157.3 154.5 159 152 152 158
Explanation/Comment Exlnto/met
Includes manuals for operating room technics
Includes ophthalmology where combined
*A few main classes, such as the WDs, have been omitted, as the author has never found need for a nursing number in these areas.
tWhere the change from designations in NLM Classification, 3d ed., rev., 1969, to those in NLM Classification,
4th ed., 1978, has caused a conflict, an alternative has been given. Otherwise, the fourth edition was used throughout unless indicated.
class), to be as consistent as possible throughout the scheme, and not, to the extent possible, to conflict with future editions, the pattern established under Dentistry; Oral surgery (WU) was followed, utilizing "90," which in that class denotes materials on duties for auxiliary personnel. The only areas in which this could not be employed were the preclinical sciences, psychiatry, and those main classes that are extensively subdivided, where the designation for nursing had to succeed that for general references on the subject (see Table 1). Because 90 had already been utilized for two wholly different types of material in the third and third-with-supplement editions of NLM Classification, it was hoped that it would not be picked up later for a standard subdivision, a hope so far borne out. A subclass (usually 90) is used for all general nursing texts on a subject (for example, WL 90, Neurological nursing), while books on the nursing care of specific diseases are classified with all other works on that disease (for example, WL 355, Nursing care of patients with cerebrovascular lesions; WL 346, Nursing care of the paralyzed patient). This method would be unsatisfactory in a large library with many books on one disease, and Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
in that case the number for the disease could be subdivided by decimals, a feature appearing more frequently in NLM Classification and used in other nursing adaptations [5]. In a comparatively small library this has not appeared to be a problem. After eight years of usage and with 2,800 monographs currently in the collection, this adaptation has proved to be a very successful one because it immediately leads the user to other texts which may better supply the needed information. Placing nursing texts according to the system, organ, disease, or technique dealt with in turn freed the WY table for a much more detailed classification of texts on nursing theory (see Table 2). The emphasis is on hospital nursing service. Another area that was adapted was respiratory therapy. In the third and third-with-supplement editions, material on this subject was placed in WB 342, Administration of medications by inhalation or intranasally. This, again, frequently left the user unsatisfied without a return to the library staff (who might be off duty) or to the card catalog (always a frustrating tool to a hurried individual); so WF 26, designated by NLM as Equipment and supplies, was utilized to place the books on respira-
249
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE 2 WY CLASS (WY 1-99 same as NLM Classification) NLM Class WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
105 16 105 105 105 105 128 105 105 125 193 193 105 105
WY 105 WY 18.5 WY 100
WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
100.5 100.5 100 105 125 125 101 100.5
WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
100.5 101 113 141 109 130 128
WY 128 WY 128 WY 151
Adaptation WY 100 WY 105 WY 110 WY 115 WY 120 WY 122 WY 130 WY 135 WY 140 WY 142 WY 144 WY 146 WY 150 WY 155 WY 160 WY 165 WY 170 WY 200 WY 205 WY 210 WY 215 WY 220 WY 225 WY 230 WY 235 WY 240 WY 245 WY 248 WY 270 WY 275 WY 280 WY 500 WY 505 WY 510 WY 515 WY 520 WY 550
WY 552 WY 554 WY 560
Subject Nursing service administration (general) Standards and evaluation tools (nursing service) Policy manuals Budget Staffing (administrative aspects) Unit management Clinical nurse specialists. Nurse practitioners (institutional setting) Supervisors. Supervisory nursing Head nurses. Head nursing Staff nurses Aides and orderlies (including manuals for) Ward secretaries (including manuals for) In-service education (administrative aspects) Refresher programs and needs Orientation In-service programs Continuing education Nursing process Nursing assessment. Nursing diagnosis. Nursing observation Health history (as part of nursing assessment) Physical history (as part of nursing assessment) Charting. Documentation Problem-oriented nurses' notes Nursing care planning Implementation of nursing care Staffing (on nursing unit) Team nursing
Primary nursing Evaluation of nursing care (on unit) Discharge planning Nursing audit Special fields in nursing (general) School nursing (including nurse practitioners) Industrial nursing. Occupational health nursing Office nursing Government (including armed services) nursing Nurse practitioners, independent practice (including education and standards) General practice Pediatric practice (see also WY 505) Nurse anesthetists, educational and administrative aspects (see also WO 202)
tory therapy among others on pulmonary diseases and treatments. This problem has been somewhat
ameliorated in the fourth (1978) edition by the designation WF 145, Diseases of the respiratory system-Therapeutics, although WB 342 is also suggested, usage depending on the emphasis of the monograph (otherwise known as a cataloger's headache and a user's nightmare). The Brockton
250
Hospital Library will continue to employ WF 26 instead of WB 342 where appropriate. The only major disadvantage of homemade changes in a published classification-other than the possibility of conflicts of meaning in subsequent editions-is that cataloging in publication data, Current Catalog, or a centralized cataloging source can not be used automatically for all texts; Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
and as more library users utilize more than one medical library, they will continue to need to learn the idiosyncrasies of classification in each. REFERENCES 1. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. National Library
2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7.
of Medicine Classification. 3d ed. Bethesda, Md., 1964. . National Library of Medicine Classification. 3d ed. (with 1969 supplementary pages added). Bethesda, Md., 1969. . National Library of Medicine Classification. 4th ed. Bethesda, Md., 1978. CAFFAREL, SR. A., D. C. Classification of clinical nursing texts: a new approach. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 66: 52-55, Jan. 1978. MEYN, M. F., AND THOME, M. M. A new method of classifying nursing monographs. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 66: 460-461, Oct. 1978. BOSTON MEDICAL LIBRARY. Medical Classification. 3d ed., rev. Boston, 1944. National League for Nursing Classification. In: National League of Nursing Education. Curriculum Committee. A Library Handbook for Schools of Nursing. 2d ed. New York, National League for Nursing, 1953. p. 206-263.
Received August 23, 1978; accepted November 30, 1978.
Informational Needs of Student and Beginning Health Sciences Librarians* By JOHN C. BLAIR, JR.
Information Specialists in Systems Analysis New Orleans, Lousiana
As PART of a concern over assessing the needs of beginning health sciences librarians, expressed at meetings of the Entry-Level & Student Information Exchange (ELSIE), a questionnaire (see Appendix) was sent in January of 1978 to library school educators, health sciences library directors at schools of medicine, and training directors of internship programs. These recipients were asked to distribute the questionnaire, at their discretion, to as many other professionals as possible who had contact with student and beginning medical librarians. The total number of student memberships listed in the MLA 78: Annual Reports, dated April 21, 1978, is 492. The number of new individual *Based on a paper presented June 14, 1978, at the Seventy-eighth Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, Chicago, Illinois. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
memberships listed is 65. There is no way, under the present system of membership records, of ascertaining the number of entry-level librarians, particularly because the term entry level has yet to be defined by the association. It may be assumed, however, that the sample from which questionnaire responses were drawn consists of several hundred student members and somewhat under one hundred entry-level members. Considering that forty-one responses were received, the present survey can only be categorized as not drawing from a representative sample, but rather a highly selected one which was arbitrarily chosen. The interpretation which the author offers of the results is a tentative one, indicative of his position only, based on the incomplete distribution of the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of an informal attitude survey divided into six parts: (1) the educational and employment status of the respondent; (2) his appraisal of categories of activities at regional and national MLA meetings; (3) his description of perceived characteristics of practicing medical librarians; (4) an analysis of his attraction to health sciences librarianship; (5) an evaluation of experiences that contributed to his preparation for medical librarianship, such as courses, workshops, reading, professional meetings, and traineeships; and (6) a space for comments or opinions to be written in. STATUS OF RESPONDENTS The total number of questionnaires returned was forty-one and represented eight states from different regions of the United States. From Table 1 it can be seen that 40% of the respondents were students, and 50% classified themselves as at entry TABLE I STATUS OF RESPONDENTS (N = 41)
Status Librarians from other fields in the process of changing to health sciences Students in an M.L.S. program Entry level With 1-2 years first-time experience Changed from other library fields, with 1-2 years medical library experience With less than 1 year first-time experience
%
10 40 50 17 33 50
251
Audiocassette recorder player 35-mm slide projector Reel-to-reel audiotape recorder Filmstrip projector 16-mm motion picture projector 8-mm motion picture projector Microfilm reader Videocassette recorder/player Television monitor projector
1977 1975 University Washington of Michigan State Study Study [1]
91 89
79 70
51 55
26 55
70
88
32 42
9 22
73
37
62
26
part of the medical library-and through the increase in ownership of audiovisual equipment.
SUMMARY The librarian/library committee is the decision maker for the purchase of audiovisual materials in many hospitals and thus is the most important contact person in the health care system to be made aware of new educational materials. The librarian not only makes the purchase decision, but is also responsible for notifying physicians of the availability of new materials and is instrumental in formulating arrangements for sharing materials with other institutions. The library and learning resource center is the place where audiovisual materials are most often used, with ownership of more than one kind of audiovisual equipment showing a significant increase. REFERENCE 1. EKENDAHL, J. E. Hospital green: small medical facilities are showing the color of their AV money. Biomed. Commun. 4: 9-10, 28, Sept. 1976.
Received August 7, 1978; revision accepted November 16, 1978. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
Classification of Nursing Texts in a Hospital Library BY LOVISA KAMENOFF, Librarian Brockton Hospital Library Brockton, Massachusetts HOSPITAL librarians deal with relatively small book collections and want to make as much information as possible immediately available to users. Hospital libraries are unusual in that they have users twenty-four hours a day, although they are staffed only zero to sixteen hours. Therefore, a classification scheme that enables a hurried and unaided user to locate the desired information is a necessity. The National Library of Medicine Classification [1-3] is certainly the most practical system for medical libraries of any size to employ, because it is comprehensive, relatively simple to understand, fairly regularly updated, and coordinated with the Library of Congress Classification to provide categories for nonmedical subjects, and because it is becoming universally used by medical libraries. However, it holds disadvantages for nursing service personnel (and other health professionals), as materials written for them are not placed with the body system or disease covered, but rather in an arbitrary form class, WY. Hospital librarians have sought various solutions to this problem [4,5]. The Brockton Hospital, a 320-bed, private, nonprofit hospital with approximately 975 employees and its own diploma school of nursing, opened a new library in 1970, combining the medical staff library, classified according to the old Boston Medical Library (BML) scheme [6], and the school of nursing library, classified according to the National League of Nursing Education (NLNE) system [7]. The new library was to be, and is, open to all employees and to the community at large. One of the major philosophical advantages in combining the collections was that the merger gave the students and faculty of the school of nursing and the st4ff of the nursing service access to information \of greater depth and scope than that afforded by nursing texts alone. Therefore, it was decided to utilize the NLM Classification, but to place nursing texts in the same classes as medical texts on the same subject. In trying to select a designation that would locate nursing texts near and immediately preceding the general works (usually designated "100" in each clinical main 247
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE 1 ADAPrATION OF THE NLM CLASSIFICATION FOR NURSING AND OTHER TEXTS*
NLM Classification
Subject
Nursing (or Other)
Preclinical sciences Anatomy
Physiology Biochemistry Pharmacology Drug action Dispensatories Dosages Microbiology Immunology Neoplasms Medicine and related subjects Public health
Accidents, First aid Medicine
MedicalGeneral
Adaptation
Nursing (or Other)
Explanation/Comment
QS4
QS4
QS3
QT 104 QU 4 QV 4 QV 38 QV 4 (QV 38) QV 16 QW 4 QW 504 WY 156 (.3, .4)
QT 104 QU 4 QV 4 QV 38 QV 740 QV 748 QW 4 QW 504 QZ 200
QT 103 QU 3 QV 3 QV 40 QV 741 QV 749 QW 3 QW 503 QZ 290
WY 106, 108, 115 WA 292
WA 100
WA 90
WA 292 WB 100
WA 290
Includes disaster nursing
WB 70 WB 80
Fundamentals of nursing Medical nursing for practical
WB 90
Medical nursing for registered nurses Nursing procedure manuals
WY 100 WY 195
Includes physiology where combined
Nursing drug handbooks Arithmetic of dosages Cancer nursing
nurses
WY 156
(WB 100)
(3d ed.)t WY 100
WB 91
(.3, .4) Rehabilitation
WY 156 (3d ed.)t
Communicable diseases Venereal disease Musculoskeletal. Orthopedics Respiratory system Respiratory therapy
WY 153 WY 157.6
WB462 WB 460 (3d ed.)t (3d ed.)t WB 320 WB 322 (4th ed.)t (4th ed.)t WC100 WC 90 WC 145 WC 140 WE 90 WE 100
Change in designation between 3d and 4th eds.t Including infection control
WF 100
WB 342
WF26 (3d ed.)t WF26or 145 4th ed.t (see text) (4th ed.)t
(3d. ed.)t WB 342; WF 145
(4th ed.)t Nursing Cardiovascular system Coronary intensive care
WY 163 WY 152.5 WY 156
(3d ed.)t Hemic and lymphatic system Gastrointestinal system Urogenital system Endocrine system Nervous system
Psychiatry Radiology
248
WY 154 (4th ed.)t WY 152.5 WY 156.5 WY 164 WY 155 WY 160 (.3, .4) WY 160 (.3, .4)
(WF 100) WG 100
WF 90 WG 90 WG 166 (3d ed.)t WG 27-28t WG 27-28t
WH 100 WI 100 WJ 100 WK 100 WL 100 WM 100 WN 100
WH 90 WI 90 WJ 90 WK 90 WL 90 WM 50 WN 90
No specific location given in 3d ed.t
One class in which "90" is used
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
TABLE 1 (Continued)
NLM Classification Subject Subject
~
Nursing
Nursing
(or Other)
General Works
Nursing
(or Other)
161 (.3, .4) WO 100 154 WO 183 151 WO 200 162 WO 500
WO 90 WO 183 WO 202 WO 590
WO 600 WO 925 WP 100 WQ 100 WR 100 WS 100 WT 100 WT 500 WV 100
WO 690 WO 926 WP 90 WQ 90 WR 90 WS 90 WT 190 WT 590 WV 90
WW 100
WW 90
Surgery, general Recovery room Anesthesia Operative surgery and technics Plastic surgery Pediatric surgery Gynecology Obstetrics Dermatology Pediatrics Geriatrics Chronic disease Otorhinolaryngology
WY WY WY WY
Ophthalmology
WY 158
WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
Medical-
Adaptation
156.7 157, 157.3 154.5 159 152 152 158
Explanation/Comment Exlnto/met
Includes manuals for operating room technics
Includes ophthalmology where combined
*A few main classes, such as the WDs, have been omitted, as the author has never found need for a nursing number in these areas.
tWhere the change from designations in NLM Classification, 3d ed., rev., 1969, to those in NLM Classification,
4th ed., 1978, has caused a conflict, an alternative has been given. Otherwise, the fourth edition was used throughout unless indicated.
class), to be as consistent as possible throughout the scheme, and not, to the extent possible, to conflict with future editions, the pattern established under Dentistry; Oral surgery (WU) was followed, utilizing "90," which in that class denotes materials on duties for auxiliary personnel. The only areas in which this could not be employed were the preclinical sciences, psychiatry, and those main classes that are extensively subdivided, where the designation for nursing had to succeed that for general references on the subject (see Table 1). Because 90 had already been utilized for two wholly different types of material in the third and third-with-supplement editions of NLM Classification, it was hoped that it would not be picked up later for a standard subdivision, a hope so far borne out. A subclass (usually 90) is used for all general nursing texts on a subject (for example, WL 90, Neurological nursing), while books on the nursing care of specific diseases are classified with all other works on that disease (for example, WL 355, Nursing care of patients with cerebrovascular lesions; WL 346, Nursing care of the paralyzed patient). This method would be unsatisfactory in a large library with many books on one disease, and Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
in that case the number for the disease could be subdivided by decimals, a feature appearing more frequently in NLM Classification and used in other nursing adaptations [5]. In a comparatively small library this has not appeared to be a problem. After eight years of usage and with 2,800 monographs currently in the collection, this adaptation has proved to be a very successful one because it immediately leads the user to other texts which may better supply the needed information. Placing nursing texts according to the system, organ, disease, or technique dealt with in turn freed the WY table for a much more detailed classification of texts on nursing theory (see Table 2). The emphasis is on hospital nursing service. Another area that was adapted was respiratory therapy. In the third and third-with-supplement editions, material on this subject was placed in WB 342, Administration of medications by inhalation or intranasally. This, again, frequently left the user unsatisfied without a return to the library staff (who might be off duty) or to the card catalog (always a frustrating tool to a hurried individual); so WF 26, designated by NLM as Equipment and supplies, was utilized to place the books on respira-
249
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE 2 WY CLASS (WY 1-99 same as NLM Classification) NLM Class WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
105 16 105 105 105 105 128 105 105 125 193 193 105 105
WY 105 WY 18.5 WY 100
WY WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
100.5 100.5 100 105 125 125 101 100.5
WY WY WY WY WY WY WY
100.5 101 113 141 109 130 128
WY 128 WY 128 WY 151
Adaptation WY 100 WY 105 WY 110 WY 115 WY 120 WY 122 WY 130 WY 135 WY 140 WY 142 WY 144 WY 146 WY 150 WY 155 WY 160 WY 165 WY 170 WY 200 WY 205 WY 210 WY 215 WY 220 WY 225 WY 230 WY 235 WY 240 WY 245 WY 248 WY 270 WY 275 WY 280 WY 500 WY 505 WY 510 WY 515 WY 520 WY 550
WY 552 WY 554 WY 560
Subject Nursing service administration (general) Standards and evaluation tools (nursing service) Policy manuals Budget Staffing (administrative aspects) Unit management Clinical nurse specialists. Nurse practitioners (institutional setting) Supervisors. Supervisory nursing Head nurses. Head nursing Staff nurses Aides and orderlies (including manuals for) Ward secretaries (including manuals for) In-service education (administrative aspects) Refresher programs and needs Orientation In-service programs Continuing education Nursing process Nursing assessment. Nursing diagnosis. Nursing observation Health history (as part of nursing assessment) Physical history (as part of nursing assessment) Charting. Documentation Problem-oriented nurses' notes Nursing care planning Implementation of nursing care Staffing (on nursing unit) Team nursing
Primary nursing Evaluation of nursing care (on unit) Discharge planning Nursing audit Special fields in nursing (general) School nursing (including nurse practitioners) Industrial nursing. Occupational health nursing Office nursing Government (including armed services) nursing Nurse practitioners, independent practice (including education and standards) General practice Pediatric practice (see also WY 505) Nurse anesthetists, educational and administrative aspects (see also WO 202)
tory therapy among others on pulmonary diseases and treatments. This problem has been somewhat
ameliorated in the fourth (1978) edition by the designation WF 145, Diseases of the respiratory system-Therapeutics, although WB 342 is also suggested, usage depending on the emphasis of the monograph (otherwise known as a cataloger's headache and a user's nightmare). The Brockton
250
Hospital Library will continue to employ WF 26 instead of WB 342 where appropriate. The only major disadvantage of homemade changes in a published classification-other than the possibility of conflicts of meaning in subsequent editions-is that cataloging in publication data, Current Catalog, or a centralized cataloging source can not be used automatically for all texts; Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
and as more library users utilize more than one medical library, they will continue to need to learn the idiosyncrasies of classification in each. REFERENCES 1. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. National Library
2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7.
of Medicine Classification. 3d ed. Bethesda, Md., 1964. . National Library of Medicine Classification. 3d ed. (with 1969 supplementary pages added). Bethesda, Md., 1969. . National Library of Medicine Classification. 4th ed. Bethesda, Md., 1978. CAFFAREL, SR. A., D. C. Classification of clinical nursing texts: a new approach. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 66: 52-55, Jan. 1978. MEYN, M. F., AND THOME, M. M. A new method of classifying nursing monographs. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 66: 460-461, Oct. 1978. BOSTON MEDICAL LIBRARY. Medical Classification. 3d ed., rev. Boston, 1944. National League for Nursing Classification. In: National League of Nursing Education. Curriculum Committee. A Library Handbook for Schools of Nursing. 2d ed. New York, National League for Nursing, 1953. p. 206-263.
Received August 23, 1978; accepted November 30, 1978.
Informational Needs of Student and Beginning Health Sciences Librarians* By JOHN C. BLAIR, JR.
Information Specialists in Systems Analysis New Orleans, Lousiana
As PART of a concern over assessing the needs of beginning health sciences librarians, expressed at meetings of the Entry-Level & Student Information Exchange (ELSIE), a questionnaire (see Appendix) was sent in January of 1978 to library school educators, health sciences library directors at schools of medicine, and training directors of internship programs. These recipients were asked to distribute the questionnaire, at their discretion, to as many other professionals as possible who had contact with student and beginning medical librarians. The total number of student memberships listed in the MLA 78: Annual Reports, dated April 21, 1978, is 492. The number of new individual *Based on a paper presented June 14, 1978, at the Seventy-eighth Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, Chicago, Illinois. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 67(2) April 1979
memberships listed is 65. There is no way, under the present system of membership records, of ascertaining the number of entry-level librarians, particularly because the term entry level has yet to be defined by the association. It may be assumed, however, that the sample from which questionnaire responses were drawn consists of several hundred student members and somewhat under one hundred entry-level members. Considering that forty-one responses were received, the present survey can only be categorized as not drawing from a representative sample, but rather a highly selected one which was arbitrarily chosen. The interpretation which the author offers of the results is a tentative one, indicative of his position only, based on the incomplete distribution of the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of an informal attitude survey divided into six parts: (1) the educational and employment status of the respondent; (2) his appraisal of categories of activities at regional and national MLA meetings; (3) his description of perceived characteristics of practicing medical librarians; (4) an analysis of his attraction to health sciences librarianship; (5) an evaluation of experiences that contributed to his preparation for medical librarianship, such as courses, workshops, reading, professional meetings, and traineeships; and (6) a space for comments or opinions to be written in. STATUS OF RESPONDENTS The total number of questionnaires returned was forty-one and represented eight states from different regions of the United States. From Table 1 it can be seen that 40% of the respondents were students, and 50% classified themselves as at entry TABLE I STATUS OF RESPONDENTS (N = 41)
Status Librarians from other fields in the process of changing to health sciences Students in an M.L.S. program Entry level With 1-2 years first-time experience Changed from other library fields, with 1-2 years medical library experience With less than 1 year first-time experience
%
10 40 50 17 33 50
251
