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Medical Reference Services Quarterly Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wmrs20
Providing Dental Current Awareness to Faculty and Residents a
Annie M. Hughes & John P. Glueckert
a
a
Wilson Dental Library , Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California , Los Angeles , California , USA Published online: 14 Feb 2014.
Click for updates To cite this article: Annie M. Hughes & John P. Glueckert (2014) Providing Dental Current Awareness to Faculty and Residents, Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 33:1, 29-38, DOI: 10.1080/02763869.2014.866480 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2014.866480
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
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Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 33(1):29–38, 2014 Published with license by Taylor & Francis ISSN: 0276-3869 print/1540-9597 online DOI: 10.1080/02763869.2014.866480
Providing Dental Current Awareness to Faculty and Residents
Downloaded by [Linköping University Library] at 02:45 19 December 2014
ANNIE M. HUGHES and JOHN P. GLUECKERT Wilson Dental Library, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Providing a current awareness service to patrons has long been a concern of many health sciences librarians. Dental librarians have a unique challenge in providing current awareness to patrons as the literature has not always been available in a timely manner through traditional systems. This article will discuss the evolution of current awareness systems, the issues facing dental librarians with regard to providing dental current awareness, and how the Wilson Dental Library addressed those issues. KEYWORDS service
Dental current awareness, eTOC, table of contents
INTRODUCTION Keeping patrons aware and informed of current research is an issue that has concerned health sciences librarians for some time. The methods used to disseminate current research have varied over time, and with the growth of computer use and the Internet, there has been a shift in how such services are delivered. Dental librarians are among those information professionals who face a unique challenge in providing current awareness to patrons because the dental literature has not always been available through the traditional current
© Annie M. Hughes and John P. Glueckert Received: August 28, 2013; Revised: September 26, 2013, October 22, 2013; Accepted: October 31, 2013. Address correspondence to Annie M. Hughes, Wilson Dental Library, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, 925 W. 34th Street, DEN 21, Los Angeles, CA 90089. E-mail: [email protected] 29
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awareness systems. Library faculty from the Wilson Dental Library at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of the University of Southern California (USC) recognized this challenge and, over time, adapted and created systems to minimize its impact. This article will discuss the evolution of current awareness systems, the unique issues facing dental librarians with regard to providing dental current awareness, and how the Wilson Dental Library has addressed those issues.
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EVOLUTION OF CURRENT AWARENESS SYSTEMS In 1958, Luhn was the first to describe a system, the Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) service, which would “identify known information, find who needs to know it and disseminate it efficiently.”1 In the late 1960 s and early 1970 s, SDI services included systems that would “generate lists of citations based on users’ interests, TOCs reproduced from selected journals, and printouts of abstracts generated for a particular discipline.”2 The most commonly utilized current awareness services during this time were SDILINE (Selective Dissemination of Information Online), provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and Current Contents, a subscription service offered by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). SDILINE was a computer-based system that allowed librarians to enter targeted search terminology, generating a printout of results that would be sent to the requestor.3 Current Contents was subscribed to by individuals, departments, and libraries and provided the tables of contents (TOCs) for various life sciences publications in a magazine format. This publication was often distributed to departments within the institution and, because of its cost, many researchers shared each issue.4 In her article on the product, Yunis concluded that “Current Contents presented too much literature, too little of which is pertinent to the individual’s subject requirements.”5 Some institutions were unable to utilize Current Contents as a current awareness system simply because the contents did not cover the subjects with which they wanted to keep current. In such cases, the distribution of photocopied references from subject entries in Index Medicus served a similar purpose.2,3,5 In the early 1990 s, there was a shift from manual current awareness services to more automated or computerized services. Reference Update (RU) and Current Contents on Diskette (CCOD) are two of the most commonly mentioned services in the literature of this time period.6,7 Although these services were more prompt in regard to retrieval and dissemination of information, the systems still had limitations such as issues with regard to setup of computer hardware and software and difficulty setting up networks and servers. In 1997, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) was developed, but not widely used until the new millennium.8 Journal publishers provided a link to an RSS
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feed and the patron could, with some training, subscribe to that feed via an aggregator such as the recently discontinued Google Reader. According to Cooke, “RSS feeds and aggregators have the potential to help streamline these many methods into one clean, organized tool developed according to [the patron’s] specifications.”9 RSS feeds seemed to be a worthy alternative to the systems previously utilized because they were less time-consuming to create. PubMed and NCBI also allow patrons to create RSS feeds based on their search criteria. Such feeds automatically update as new citations are added to the MEDLINE database.10,11 With the increased online presence of scientific journals, automated alerting systems now provide current awareness. Journals allow users to subscribe to eTables of Contents (eTOC) while PubMed and other databases can be set up to send e-mail alerts each month or as requested.12–14 New book alerts from an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) provide yet another form of current awareness in the library setting.15
CURRENT AWARENESS AND THE DENTAL LITERATURE Dental librarians face a unique challenge in providing current awareness to their patrons. Unlike biomedical and basic sciences literature, the dental literature has not always been readily available via indices or current awareness services. Timely identification of material in the literature is critical for any profession; however, a quick review of the lag time between publication date and appearance as fully indexed references in MEDLINE shows that the challenge of currency persists. In 1921, after multiple difficulties and many years of work by preeminent dentist Dr. Arthur Black, the first volume of the Index to Dental Literature was published.16 At the time, the Index was the only way for practicing dentists and dental faculty to access and view the scope of the dental literature. However, in 1999, the publication ceased because MEDLINE was by then indexing most English language dental journals. Today, PubMed provides access to the contents of 182 core international and domestic dental journals. In the early 1970 s and 1980 s, Current Contents and SDILINE were valuable resources for both basic and life sciences; however, these resources provided very little access to the dental literature. As of 2013, the online version of Current Contents (Current Contents Connect) includes only 64 dental titles, a fraction of the dental journal titles currently available. With regard to RSS Feeds or eTOC alerts, many core medical and life sciences journals allow patrons to subscribe to either eTOC alerts or RSS feeds. There is, however, a notable lack of RSS feed or eTOC alert availability for dental journal titles. Because a significant amount of dental journals do
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not allow for faculty or researchers to set up alerts, it is important to find an alternative for these users. Dental faculty and residents face the same time constraints as other clinicians and researchers, so “the assumption that dentists would find time and resources to add searching, reading, and assessing the literature to an already long list of activities and responsibilities crowding their daily schedule [is] probably both impractical and unrealistic.”17 One alternative is for librarians to teach faculty and residents how to set up and save searches via My NCBI/PubMed or other databases in order to have alerts of new literature pushed out to them. Another alternative, which the Wilson Dental Library has utilized for 45 years now, is to provide a library-based service that alleviates the aforementioned time constraints and the difficulties of access. This service is a time-saver for faculty and residents, enabling them to stay up-to-date with the literature.
DENTAL CURRENT AWARENESS AT THE USC WILSON DENTAL LIBRARY In 1967, the librarian at Wilson Dental Library investigated literature alerting systems, including Current Contents and SDILINE, and determined that they lacked dental/oral health coverage from dental journals. The librarian determined that the best alternative was to provide photocopies of the table of contents of these journals. The service was originally offered only to the chairmen of the departments within the dental school; however, by 1975, the service was expanded to all faculty who wished to participate. From a list of 66 titles, faculty selected journals of interest and received copies of the Table of Contents (TOCs). The librarian worked with department chairs to identify the selected list of 66 titles consisting of domestic, international, and state journals, and as the body of dental journals grew, new titles were added to the service. By 1978, Mason and Kopel reported that 30 faculty members were registered for the service.18 A library assistant and/or student workers photocopied, collated, and distributed the requested TOCs twice per month. Faculty members could request articles from the TOCs; these were copied and disseminated in the same manner. Faculty users of the service were surveyed, and results were positive. The print TOC service remained in operation until 2010, when the Wilson Dental Library electronic Table of Contents service (WDL eTOC) was implemented. Eventually, as the popularity of the manual TOC service with faculty created greater demands on library staff time, librarians at WDL, looked for a way to automate the TOC service. They chose to work with a group of USC computer science students who developed what is known today as the WDL eTOC system. Currently MySQL is used for the database, while the GUI is on a virtual server running SUSE Linux Enterprise v10 32-bit.
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Since 2010, faculty and residents have had the ability to log in to the system and select TOCs from 326 health science journal titles, 224 of which are dental-related. Faculty and residents simply check off the journal titles they would like to receive and wait until the next issue of the journal is published (see Figure 1). Among the 92 faculty and dental resident subscribers, there are 1,173 total subscriptions to the various journals offered. Upon publication of some journal issues, the library receives notice of the eTOC from the publisher via e-mail. The serials assistant at WDL and a designated student worker check the e-mail account daily to see if a new eTOC has arrived. The text of the eTOC is input into the WDL eTOC e-mail form box, and an e-mail is pushed out from the system to each individual subscriber. A shortened URL or “bitly” link is included with the text of the eTOC that redirects patrons to USC subscribed electronic content via a proxy server (see Figure 2). While copying and pasting the alerts sent to the library via e-mail is the predominant mode of gathering content for distribution to subscribers, the service also includes approximately 70 print-only journals. Staff are alerted to send out eTOCs by the ILS when a new print journal issue is checked into the system. In this case, the staff member manually types the TOC text into the WDL eTOC e-mail form box.
FIGURE 1 Journal selection page of WDL eTOC (color figure available online).
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FIGURE 2 Screenshot of WDL eTOC e-mail alert (color figure available online).
A third method is necessary to check for new journal issues because some publishers do not provide eTOC alerts or RSS feeds. The serials assistant keeps a list of titles that require a web search in order to collect TOC from the publisher website.
EVALUATION OF THE WDL ETOC SERVICE The eTOC was evaluated by faculty and residents via a brief survey in March 2013. There were 21 respondents from the 92 subscribers, 20 of which were faculty; only 1 advanced student or resident responded. WDL only recently began to offer the service to residents as of 2011, so the low response rate could be because there are less resident subscribers. Faculty respondents reported that they chose to use the service for personal reading purposes, to gain a better idea of research available on certain topics, as well as refer to the articles for class preparation. The average user of the service reads two to five articles per month. The greatest benefit reported is self-development, with about half of the respondents saying they share information from articles with students or colleagues. When asked if they subscribe to any RSS feeds of journals, 90% of the respondents responded that they did not. The survey also asked respondents to provide comments on the advantages or disadvantages of the service. Common responses included that the service “saves trees” and “reduces use of paper,” allowed them to get to PDF content faster, and was easy to use; reduced clutter in their offices and file cabinets; and allowed them to keep up with the latest research. Overall, the response was favorable in regard to continuing the service. As of the 2012–13
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fiscal year, statistics collected on the service showed that there were 3,022 page hits during that period. From 2011 through 2012, the service received 1,675 page hits, so the 3,022 hits in fiscal year 2012–03 reflect a 55% increase of usage of the eTOC system. Currently patrons receive training and information on the WDL eTOC system during orientations or departmental meetings; occasionally an e-mail reminder will be sent to all faculty and residents about the availability of the service. Continued marketing and efforts of the librarians to promote the service have increased patron usage; the current plan is to continue to offer the service.
DISCUSSION Keeping current is not a new concept in the health sciences literature, especially as evidence-based practice becomes increasingly emphasized. According to Bader, the profession of dentistry began as largely a master-apprentice field, where the apprentice would learn from the expertise or experience of others. In the eighteenth century, Pierre Fauchard, published a textbook, Le chirurgien dentiste, “The Surgeon Dentist” that became the knowledgebase for practicing dentists; however, this text was still based largely on observations and the expertise of others. Not until the early twentieth century did dentists start to utilize the scientific literature as well as publish their own findings. The move to university-based education also occurred during this time and dental journals proliferated.17 In the current decade, emphasis has moved away from discussing techniques with colleagues or consulting experts to resolve clinical questions. Dentists, dental school curricula, faculty, and students are under increasing pressure to embrace evidence-based practice or evidence-based dentistry. The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) requires accredited dental schools to incorporate evidence-based practice into the curricula.19 CODA also requires students to be proficient at scientific information retrieval. Due to the abundance of information now available to the lay person on the Internet, dental practitioners are now often asked to justify procedures, treatment plans, or options. The overarching issue is that dentists, along with other clinicians, have little time to search for, read, appraise, and implement the evidence they find. A library-provided current awareness service can, at the very least, eliminate some of the time factors related to finding current research. At one time, RSS feeds were also considered at WDL as a way to disseminate current awareness to the dental faculty. However, after discovering that RSS feeds are not necessarily available for many of the popular dental titles, that idea was discarded. Out of the 326 titles available in the WDL eTOC system, 224 of those titles are dental-related. In 2013, a search was conducted to ascertain how many of those 224 dental journals are available as an RSS feed or eTOC alert. Only 98 titles (44%) provide an RSS feed or eTOC alert option. Of the 102 non-dental titles offered by the service, less
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than 1% did not include an RSS feed or eTOC alert option. The lack of these options is a barrier to dental faculty and researchers with regard to keeping current. Faculty and residents who subscribe to the service tend to be more focused on education and clinical research and less interested in connecting to basic sciences research. As of 2013, the most subscribed to titles are the Journal of the American Dental Association with 19 subscribers, Quintessence International (17), American Journal of Dentistry (16), and Journal of Dental Research (16). Evidence-Based Dentistry has 15 subscribers, which shows that interest is gaining to keep up with critically appraised literature. The ease by which faculty and residents can create an account in WDL eTOC, log in, select journals of interest, and have eTOCs delivered to their in-boxes has proven to be an efficient way for WDL users to stay up-to-date with published research in the dental field. Although faculty and residents receive a large amount of e-mail, the benefit of this service is that WDL’s patrons receive all their alerts from one source in a consistent format, which also reinforces the library brand since users receive this information from one source with an easily identifiable e-mail subject line. The library-generated message also includes a bitly link to the journal website through the University’s proxy server, allowing users to access full-text articles quickly. There is an ever-growing need for dental practitioners, faculty, and residents to keep up with the evidence. Providing a current awareness service, especially one that links patrons to journals that do not include RSS feeds or eTOC alerts is important. Patrons can set up alerts via My NCBI or other databases, but that does not eliminate issues of time nor does it always automatically link the patron to dental content. The development of information technology skills in the health sciences library profession suggests it is not out of the realm of possibility for librarians to develop their own systems. The continued usage of WDL’s services, and its growth in users, indicates that there is a need for access to dental literature tailored to individual users.
CONCLUSION Eberle postulated that “any successful current awareness service will have three key attributes: speed, ease of use and relevance.”12 The Wilson Dental Library will continue to offer a current awareness service that reflects each of these attributes to provide dental researchers and clinicians at Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC with information that enables them to treat patients more effectively. The implication of increased use of this service is that dental faculty and residents, like faculty in other health sciences fields, both want and need access to the literature.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge Frank O. Mason who originally conceived of the Wilson Dental Library TOC service. The implementation of the eTOC occurred thanks to a very hardworking Library Assistant, William J. Derby, and the service continues to run smoothly thanks to the WDL Serials Assistant, Frances Loera, plus the Health Sciences technical support services led by Ken Martin.
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REFERENCES 1. Luhn, H.P. “A Business Intelligence System.” IBM Journal of Research and Development 2, no. 4 (October 1958): 314–319. 2. Bloomfield, M. “Current Awareness Publications: An Evaluation.” Special Libraries 60, no. 8 (August 1969): 514–520. 3. Wood, M. Sandra, and Robert S. Seeds. “Development of SDI Services from a Manual Current Awareness Service to SDILINE.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 62, no. 4 (October 1974): 374–384. 4. Matheson, N.W. “User Reaction to Current Contents: Behavioral, Social, and Management Sciences.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 59, no. 2 (April 1971): 304–321. 5. Yunis, S.S. “The Implementation, Evaluation, and Refinement of a Manual SDI Service.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 61, no. 1 ( January 1973): 4–14. 6. Grainger, F., and E. Lyon. “A Comparison of the Currency of Secondary Information Sources in the Biomedical Literature. I. Weekly Current Awareness Services.” Health Libraries Review 8, no. 4 (September 1991): 150–156. 7. Shipman, B.L. “Implementing a Campuswide Electronic Current Awareness Service.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 82, no. 3 ( July 1994): 315–317. 8. Wusteman, J. “RSS: The Latest Feed.” Library Hi Tech 22, no. 4 (October 2004): 404–413. 9. Cooke, C.A. “Current Awareness in the New Millennium.” Medical Reference Services Quarterly 25, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 59–69. 10. Dubuque, E.M. “Automating Academic Literature Searches with RSS Feeds and Google Reader.” Behavior Analysis in Practice 4, no. 1 (Summer 2011): 63–69. 11. Fletcher, A.M. “Free-range RSS Feeds and Farm-raised Journals: What to Expect When Using RSS as a TOC Service.” Medical Reference Services Quarterly 28, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 172–179. 12. Eberle, M. “Current Awareness Service Using PubMed: Current Web Services and Possibilities for Local Solutions.” Internet Reference Services Quarterly 5, no. 2 (2000): 21–29. 13. Jabr, N.H. “Alert Services as an Approach to Satisfy Researchers’ Current Awareness Needs: The Case of Sultan Qaboos University.” The Electronic Library 26, no. 6 (2008): 882–895.
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14. Schultz, M., and S.L. De Groote. “MEDLINE SDI Services: How Do They Compare?” Journal of the Medical Library Association 91, no. 4 (October 2003): 460–467. 15. McMullen, A. “From Static to Dynamic: Using the OPAC to Generate RealTime Lists of Departmental Acquisitions for Library Current Awareness Service.” Library Hi Tech 30, no. 4 (2012): 673–682. 16. Ring, M.E. “Fifty Years of the Index to Dental Literature: A Critical Appraisal.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 59, no. 3 ( July 1971): 463–478. 17. Bader, J.D. “Stumbling into the Age of Evidence.” Dental Clinics of North America 53, no. 1 ( January 2009): 15–22. 18. Mason, F., and H.M. Kopel. “A Dental Library Current Awareness Service.” Journal of Dental Education 42, no. 4 (1978): 202–205. 19. Commission on Dental Accreditation. “Accreditation Standards for Dental Education Programs.” American Dental Association. 2010. http://www.ada.org/sections/ educationAndCareers/pdfs/predoc_2013.pdf.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Annie M. Hughes, MSLS ([email protected]) is Information Services Librarian and Librarian II; and John P. Glueckert, MLS ([email protected]) is Associate Professor and Director; both at Wilson Dental Library, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of South California, 925 W. 34th Street, DEN 21, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
Medical Reference Services Quarterly Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wmrs20
Providing Dental Current Awareness to Faculty and Residents a
Annie M. Hughes & John P. Glueckert
a
a
Wilson Dental Library , Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California , Los Angeles , California , USA Published online: 14 Feb 2014.
Click for updates To cite this article: Annie M. Hughes & John P. Glueckert (2014) Providing Dental Current Awareness to Faculty and Residents, Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 33:1, 29-38, DOI: 10.1080/02763869.2014.866480 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2014.866480
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
Downloaded by [Linköping University Library] at 02:45 19 December 2014
Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions
Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 33(1):29–38, 2014 Published with license by Taylor & Francis ISSN: 0276-3869 print/1540-9597 online DOI: 10.1080/02763869.2014.866480
Providing Dental Current Awareness to Faculty and Residents
Downloaded by [Linköping University Library] at 02:45 19 December 2014
ANNIE M. HUGHES and JOHN P. GLUECKERT Wilson Dental Library, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Providing a current awareness service to patrons has long been a concern of many health sciences librarians. Dental librarians have a unique challenge in providing current awareness to patrons as the literature has not always been available in a timely manner through traditional systems. This article will discuss the evolution of current awareness systems, the issues facing dental librarians with regard to providing dental current awareness, and how the Wilson Dental Library addressed those issues. KEYWORDS service
Dental current awareness, eTOC, table of contents
INTRODUCTION Keeping patrons aware and informed of current research is an issue that has concerned health sciences librarians for some time. The methods used to disseminate current research have varied over time, and with the growth of computer use and the Internet, there has been a shift in how such services are delivered. Dental librarians are among those information professionals who face a unique challenge in providing current awareness to patrons because the dental literature has not always been available through the traditional current
© Annie M. Hughes and John P. Glueckert Received: August 28, 2013; Revised: September 26, 2013, October 22, 2013; Accepted: October 31, 2013. Address correspondence to Annie M. Hughes, Wilson Dental Library, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, 925 W. 34th Street, DEN 21, Los Angeles, CA 90089. E-mail: [email protected] 29
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awareness systems. Library faculty from the Wilson Dental Library at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of the University of Southern California (USC) recognized this challenge and, over time, adapted and created systems to minimize its impact. This article will discuss the evolution of current awareness systems, the unique issues facing dental librarians with regard to providing dental current awareness, and how the Wilson Dental Library has addressed those issues.
Downloaded by [Linköping University Library] at 02:45 19 December 2014
EVOLUTION OF CURRENT AWARENESS SYSTEMS In 1958, Luhn was the first to describe a system, the Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) service, which would “identify known information, find who needs to know it and disseminate it efficiently.”1 In the late 1960 s and early 1970 s, SDI services included systems that would “generate lists of citations based on users’ interests, TOCs reproduced from selected journals, and printouts of abstracts generated for a particular discipline.”2 The most commonly utilized current awareness services during this time were SDILINE (Selective Dissemination of Information Online), provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and Current Contents, a subscription service offered by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). SDILINE was a computer-based system that allowed librarians to enter targeted search terminology, generating a printout of results that would be sent to the requestor.3 Current Contents was subscribed to by individuals, departments, and libraries and provided the tables of contents (TOCs) for various life sciences publications in a magazine format. This publication was often distributed to departments within the institution and, because of its cost, many researchers shared each issue.4 In her article on the product, Yunis concluded that “Current Contents presented too much literature, too little of which is pertinent to the individual’s subject requirements.”5 Some institutions were unable to utilize Current Contents as a current awareness system simply because the contents did not cover the subjects with which they wanted to keep current. In such cases, the distribution of photocopied references from subject entries in Index Medicus served a similar purpose.2,3,5 In the early 1990 s, there was a shift from manual current awareness services to more automated or computerized services. Reference Update (RU) and Current Contents on Diskette (CCOD) are two of the most commonly mentioned services in the literature of this time period.6,7 Although these services were more prompt in regard to retrieval and dissemination of information, the systems still had limitations such as issues with regard to setup of computer hardware and software and difficulty setting up networks and servers. In 1997, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) was developed, but not widely used until the new millennium.8 Journal publishers provided a link to an RSS
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feed and the patron could, with some training, subscribe to that feed via an aggregator such as the recently discontinued Google Reader. According to Cooke, “RSS feeds and aggregators have the potential to help streamline these many methods into one clean, organized tool developed according to [the patron’s] specifications.”9 RSS feeds seemed to be a worthy alternative to the systems previously utilized because they were less time-consuming to create. PubMed and NCBI also allow patrons to create RSS feeds based on their search criteria. Such feeds automatically update as new citations are added to the MEDLINE database.10,11 With the increased online presence of scientific journals, automated alerting systems now provide current awareness. Journals allow users to subscribe to eTables of Contents (eTOC) while PubMed and other databases can be set up to send e-mail alerts each month or as requested.12–14 New book alerts from an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) provide yet another form of current awareness in the library setting.15
CURRENT AWARENESS AND THE DENTAL LITERATURE Dental librarians face a unique challenge in providing current awareness to their patrons. Unlike biomedical and basic sciences literature, the dental literature has not always been readily available via indices or current awareness services. Timely identification of material in the literature is critical for any profession; however, a quick review of the lag time between publication date and appearance as fully indexed references in MEDLINE shows that the challenge of currency persists. In 1921, after multiple difficulties and many years of work by preeminent dentist Dr. Arthur Black, the first volume of the Index to Dental Literature was published.16 At the time, the Index was the only way for practicing dentists and dental faculty to access and view the scope of the dental literature. However, in 1999, the publication ceased because MEDLINE was by then indexing most English language dental journals. Today, PubMed provides access to the contents of 182 core international and domestic dental journals. In the early 1970 s and 1980 s, Current Contents and SDILINE were valuable resources for both basic and life sciences; however, these resources provided very little access to the dental literature. As of 2013, the online version of Current Contents (Current Contents Connect) includes only 64 dental titles, a fraction of the dental journal titles currently available. With regard to RSS Feeds or eTOC alerts, many core medical and life sciences journals allow patrons to subscribe to either eTOC alerts or RSS feeds. There is, however, a notable lack of RSS feed or eTOC alert availability for dental journal titles. Because a significant amount of dental journals do
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not allow for faculty or researchers to set up alerts, it is important to find an alternative for these users. Dental faculty and residents face the same time constraints as other clinicians and researchers, so “the assumption that dentists would find time and resources to add searching, reading, and assessing the literature to an already long list of activities and responsibilities crowding their daily schedule [is] probably both impractical and unrealistic.”17 One alternative is for librarians to teach faculty and residents how to set up and save searches via My NCBI/PubMed or other databases in order to have alerts of new literature pushed out to them. Another alternative, which the Wilson Dental Library has utilized for 45 years now, is to provide a library-based service that alleviates the aforementioned time constraints and the difficulties of access. This service is a time-saver for faculty and residents, enabling them to stay up-to-date with the literature.
DENTAL CURRENT AWARENESS AT THE USC WILSON DENTAL LIBRARY In 1967, the librarian at Wilson Dental Library investigated literature alerting systems, including Current Contents and SDILINE, and determined that they lacked dental/oral health coverage from dental journals. The librarian determined that the best alternative was to provide photocopies of the table of contents of these journals. The service was originally offered only to the chairmen of the departments within the dental school; however, by 1975, the service was expanded to all faculty who wished to participate. From a list of 66 titles, faculty selected journals of interest and received copies of the Table of Contents (TOCs). The librarian worked with department chairs to identify the selected list of 66 titles consisting of domestic, international, and state journals, and as the body of dental journals grew, new titles were added to the service. By 1978, Mason and Kopel reported that 30 faculty members were registered for the service.18 A library assistant and/or student workers photocopied, collated, and distributed the requested TOCs twice per month. Faculty members could request articles from the TOCs; these were copied and disseminated in the same manner. Faculty users of the service were surveyed, and results were positive. The print TOC service remained in operation until 2010, when the Wilson Dental Library electronic Table of Contents service (WDL eTOC) was implemented. Eventually, as the popularity of the manual TOC service with faculty created greater demands on library staff time, librarians at WDL, looked for a way to automate the TOC service. They chose to work with a group of USC computer science students who developed what is known today as the WDL eTOC system. Currently MySQL is used for the database, while the GUI is on a virtual server running SUSE Linux Enterprise v10 32-bit.
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Since 2010, faculty and residents have had the ability to log in to the system and select TOCs from 326 health science journal titles, 224 of which are dental-related. Faculty and residents simply check off the journal titles they would like to receive and wait until the next issue of the journal is published (see Figure 1). Among the 92 faculty and dental resident subscribers, there are 1,173 total subscriptions to the various journals offered. Upon publication of some journal issues, the library receives notice of the eTOC from the publisher via e-mail. The serials assistant at WDL and a designated student worker check the e-mail account daily to see if a new eTOC has arrived. The text of the eTOC is input into the WDL eTOC e-mail form box, and an e-mail is pushed out from the system to each individual subscriber. A shortened URL or “bitly” link is included with the text of the eTOC that redirects patrons to USC subscribed electronic content via a proxy server (see Figure 2). While copying and pasting the alerts sent to the library via e-mail is the predominant mode of gathering content for distribution to subscribers, the service also includes approximately 70 print-only journals. Staff are alerted to send out eTOCs by the ILS when a new print journal issue is checked into the system. In this case, the staff member manually types the TOC text into the WDL eTOC e-mail form box.
FIGURE 1 Journal selection page of WDL eTOC (color figure available online).
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FIGURE 2 Screenshot of WDL eTOC e-mail alert (color figure available online).
A third method is necessary to check for new journal issues because some publishers do not provide eTOC alerts or RSS feeds. The serials assistant keeps a list of titles that require a web search in order to collect TOC from the publisher website.
EVALUATION OF THE WDL ETOC SERVICE The eTOC was evaluated by faculty and residents via a brief survey in March 2013. There were 21 respondents from the 92 subscribers, 20 of which were faculty; only 1 advanced student or resident responded. WDL only recently began to offer the service to residents as of 2011, so the low response rate could be because there are less resident subscribers. Faculty respondents reported that they chose to use the service for personal reading purposes, to gain a better idea of research available on certain topics, as well as refer to the articles for class preparation. The average user of the service reads two to five articles per month. The greatest benefit reported is self-development, with about half of the respondents saying they share information from articles with students or colleagues. When asked if they subscribe to any RSS feeds of journals, 90% of the respondents responded that they did not. The survey also asked respondents to provide comments on the advantages or disadvantages of the service. Common responses included that the service “saves trees” and “reduces use of paper,” allowed them to get to PDF content faster, and was easy to use; reduced clutter in their offices and file cabinets; and allowed them to keep up with the latest research. Overall, the response was favorable in regard to continuing the service. As of the 2012–13
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fiscal year, statistics collected on the service showed that there were 3,022 page hits during that period. From 2011 through 2012, the service received 1,675 page hits, so the 3,022 hits in fiscal year 2012–03 reflect a 55% increase of usage of the eTOC system. Currently patrons receive training and information on the WDL eTOC system during orientations or departmental meetings; occasionally an e-mail reminder will be sent to all faculty and residents about the availability of the service. Continued marketing and efforts of the librarians to promote the service have increased patron usage; the current plan is to continue to offer the service.
DISCUSSION Keeping current is not a new concept in the health sciences literature, especially as evidence-based practice becomes increasingly emphasized. According to Bader, the profession of dentistry began as largely a master-apprentice field, where the apprentice would learn from the expertise or experience of others. In the eighteenth century, Pierre Fauchard, published a textbook, Le chirurgien dentiste, “The Surgeon Dentist” that became the knowledgebase for practicing dentists; however, this text was still based largely on observations and the expertise of others. Not until the early twentieth century did dentists start to utilize the scientific literature as well as publish their own findings. The move to university-based education also occurred during this time and dental journals proliferated.17 In the current decade, emphasis has moved away from discussing techniques with colleagues or consulting experts to resolve clinical questions. Dentists, dental school curricula, faculty, and students are under increasing pressure to embrace evidence-based practice or evidence-based dentistry. The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) requires accredited dental schools to incorporate evidence-based practice into the curricula.19 CODA also requires students to be proficient at scientific information retrieval. Due to the abundance of information now available to the lay person on the Internet, dental practitioners are now often asked to justify procedures, treatment plans, or options. The overarching issue is that dentists, along with other clinicians, have little time to search for, read, appraise, and implement the evidence they find. A library-provided current awareness service can, at the very least, eliminate some of the time factors related to finding current research. At one time, RSS feeds were also considered at WDL as a way to disseminate current awareness to the dental faculty. However, after discovering that RSS feeds are not necessarily available for many of the popular dental titles, that idea was discarded. Out of the 326 titles available in the WDL eTOC system, 224 of those titles are dental-related. In 2013, a search was conducted to ascertain how many of those 224 dental journals are available as an RSS feed or eTOC alert. Only 98 titles (44%) provide an RSS feed or eTOC alert option. Of the 102 non-dental titles offered by the service, less
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than 1% did not include an RSS feed or eTOC alert option. The lack of these options is a barrier to dental faculty and researchers with regard to keeping current. Faculty and residents who subscribe to the service tend to be more focused on education and clinical research and less interested in connecting to basic sciences research. As of 2013, the most subscribed to titles are the Journal of the American Dental Association with 19 subscribers, Quintessence International (17), American Journal of Dentistry (16), and Journal of Dental Research (16). Evidence-Based Dentistry has 15 subscribers, which shows that interest is gaining to keep up with critically appraised literature. The ease by which faculty and residents can create an account in WDL eTOC, log in, select journals of interest, and have eTOCs delivered to their in-boxes has proven to be an efficient way for WDL users to stay up-to-date with published research in the dental field. Although faculty and residents receive a large amount of e-mail, the benefit of this service is that WDL’s patrons receive all their alerts from one source in a consistent format, which also reinforces the library brand since users receive this information from one source with an easily identifiable e-mail subject line. The library-generated message also includes a bitly link to the journal website through the University’s proxy server, allowing users to access full-text articles quickly. There is an ever-growing need for dental practitioners, faculty, and residents to keep up with the evidence. Providing a current awareness service, especially one that links patrons to journals that do not include RSS feeds or eTOC alerts is important. Patrons can set up alerts via My NCBI or other databases, but that does not eliminate issues of time nor does it always automatically link the patron to dental content. The development of information technology skills in the health sciences library profession suggests it is not out of the realm of possibility for librarians to develop their own systems. The continued usage of WDL’s services, and its growth in users, indicates that there is a need for access to dental literature tailored to individual users.
CONCLUSION Eberle postulated that “any successful current awareness service will have three key attributes: speed, ease of use and relevance.”12 The Wilson Dental Library will continue to offer a current awareness service that reflects each of these attributes to provide dental researchers and clinicians at Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC with information that enables them to treat patients more effectively. The implication of increased use of this service is that dental faculty and residents, like faculty in other health sciences fields, both want and need access to the literature.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge Frank O. Mason who originally conceived of the Wilson Dental Library TOC service. The implementation of the eTOC occurred thanks to a very hardworking Library Assistant, William J. Derby, and the service continues to run smoothly thanks to the WDL Serials Assistant, Frances Loera, plus the Health Sciences technical support services led by Ken Martin.
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REFERENCES 1. Luhn, H.P. “A Business Intelligence System.” IBM Journal of Research and Development 2, no. 4 (October 1958): 314–319. 2. Bloomfield, M. “Current Awareness Publications: An Evaluation.” Special Libraries 60, no. 8 (August 1969): 514–520. 3. Wood, M. Sandra, and Robert S. Seeds. “Development of SDI Services from a Manual Current Awareness Service to SDILINE.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 62, no. 4 (October 1974): 374–384. 4. Matheson, N.W. “User Reaction to Current Contents: Behavioral, Social, and Management Sciences.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 59, no. 2 (April 1971): 304–321. 5. Yunis, S.S. “The Implementation, Evaluation, and Refinement of a Manual SDI Service.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 61, no. 1 ( January 1973): 4–14. 6. Grainger, F., and E. Lyon. “A Comparison of the Currency of Secondary Information Sources in the Biomedical Literature. I. Weekly Current Awareness Services.” Health Libraries Review 8, no. 4 (September 1991): 150–156. 7. Shipman, B.L. “Implementing a Campuswide Electronic Current Awareness Service.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 82, no. 3 ( July 1994): 315–317. 8. Wusteman, J. “RSS: The Latest Feed.” Library Hi Tech 22, no. 4 (October 2004): 404–413. 9. Cooke, C.A. “Current Awareness in the New Millennium.” Medical Reference Services Quarterly 25, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 59–69. 10. Dubuque, E.M. “Automating Academic Literature Searches with RSS Feeds and Google Reader.” Behavior Analysis in Practice 4, no. 1 (Summer 2011): 63–69. 11. Fletcher, A.M. “Free-range RSS Feeds and Farm-raised Journals: What to Expect When Using RSS as a TOC Service.” Medical Reference Services Quarterly 28, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 172–179. 12. Eberle, M. “Current Awareness Service Using PubMed: Current Web Services and Possibilities for Local Solutions.” Internet Reference Services Quarterly 5, no. 2 (2000): 21–29. 13. Jabr, N.H. “Alert Services as an Approach to Satisfy Researchers’ Current Awareness Needs: The Case of Sultan Qaboos University.” The Electronic Library 26, no. 6 (2008): 882–895.
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14. Schultz, M., and S.L. De Groote. “MEDLINE SDI Services: How Do They Compare?” Journal of the Medical Library Association 91, no. 4 (October 2003): 460–467. 15. McMullen, A. “From Static to Dynamic: Using the OPAC to Generate RealTime Lists of Departmental Acquisitions for Library Current Awareness Service.” Library Hi Tech 30, no. 4 (2012): 673–682. 16. Ring, M.E. “Fifty Years of the Index to Dental Literature: A Critical Appraisal.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 59, no. 3 ( July 1971): 463–478. 17. Bader, J.D. “Stumbling into the Age of Evidence.” Dental Clinics of North America 53, no. 1 ( January 2009): 15–22. 18. Mason, F., and H.M. Kopel. “A Dental Library Current Awareness Service.” Journal of Dental Education 42, no. 4 (1978): 202–205. 19. Commission on Dental Accreditation. “Accreditation Standards for Dental Education Programs.” American Dental Association. 2010. http://www.ada.org/sections/ educationAndCareers/pdfs/predoc_2013.pdf.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Annie M. Hughes, MSLS ([email protected]) is Information Services Librarian and Librarian II; and John P. Glueckert, MLS ([email protected]) is Associate Professor and Director; both at Wilson Dental Library, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of South California, 925 W. 34th Street, DEN 21, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
