2005 Distinguished Library Award, Tamera Lee, Medical College of Georgia and Suresh Ponnappa, East Tennessee State University
2005 Distinguished Library Award
The Distinguished Library Award for 2005 is shared by the Medical College of Georgia and East Tennessee State University.
Medical College of Georgia
The Robert B. Greenblatt, M.D., Library at the Medical College of Georgia has been awarded the 2005 Distinguished Library Award by the Consortium of Biomedical Libraries in the South.
The award recognizes innovation, sustainability and programs that serve the academic institution or community. After participation in the institution’s inaugural Technology Fair in 2003, the library developed a leadership model in 2004 for subsequent fair planners. Greenblatt librarians presented a poster display of the model during the 2004 Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association meeting. Information Technology Support and Services enhanced the leadership model for annual campuswide implementation in 2005.
“This award [rewards] accomplishing a shared vision through an extraordinary team effort,” said Tamera Lee, director of libraries. “All 35 library staff participated in teams responsible for awards, content and programming, equipment and facilities, hospitality, marketing and sponsorship. Library faculty and staff recruited representation from teaching, research and clinical care mission components of MCG and support from external commercial vendors and sponsors.”
East Tennessee State University
The Quillen College of Medicine Medical Library at East Tennessee State University shares the 2005 Distinguished Library Award for VALUABLES – Value-Added Library Users Access to the Biomedical Literature via Electronic Systems. VALUABLES is an information outreach program to health professionals in 17 rural mountainous counties in northeast Tennessee. The program began in 1995 with funds from a now defunct AHEC program. These areas previously had no medical library services. It was transferred to the College of Medicine library in 1999. It has been built and maintained with minimal library staff. It only involves part of the time of two library staff. It provides fast document delivery, database searching and training. Personal visits are made weekly to clinical sites. It currently serves Unicoi County Hospital, Takoma Adventist Hospital, Laughlin Memorial Hospital, Greene Valley Developmental Center (mental retardation and developmental disabilities), Morristown-Hamblen Hospital, Baptist Hospital of Cocke County, St. Mary’s LaFollette Hospital, Claiborne County Hospital, Jellico Community Hospital, Baptist Hospital – Knoxville, Baptist Women’s Hospital, Baptist Hospital West- Knoxville, Parkridge Hospital, Parkridge East Hospital, Parkridge Valley Hospital, Cherokee Healthcare Systems (10 rural clinics), Rural Health Services Consortium (12 rural clinics) and Rural Medical Services (5 rural clinics).
A $107,000 NLM grant enabled VALUABLES to purchase desktop computers and offer Internet access and MD Consult at 20 of the sites. The program was designated as the Rural Health Association of Tennessee’s Exemplary Project of the Year in 2003. A current $10,000 NNLM grant is being used to train public health workers and public librarians in the use of MedlinePlus in the 17 VALUABLES counties. A program to train rural physicians how to use a PDA is also currently being executed. The physician gets 1-4 hours of training with CME and gets to keep a Dell Axim PDA for one month that is loaded with ePocrates and InfoRetriever.