An innovative use of instant messaging technology to support a library's single-service point

A library service model that provides reference and instructional services by summoning reference librarians from a single service point is described. The system utilizes Libraryh3lp, an open-source, multioperator instant messaging system. The selection and refinement of this solution and technical challenges encountered are explored, as is the design of public services around this technology, usage of the system, and best practices. This service model, while a major cultural and procedural change at first, is now a routine aspect of customer service for this library.

Ovid's evidence-based medicine reviews: a review of a clinical information product

Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews (EBMR) is a new full-text product from Ovid Technologies. EBMR supports the practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) by providing access to two premiere EBM resources: the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from the international Cochrane Collaboration, and Best Evidence from the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine. Both resources alert health care professionals, researchers, and librarians to clinically relevant and methodologically sound studies by providing access to full-text reviews and meta-analyses of clinical literature. Value-added features include links to EBMR from MEDLINE, alerting MEDLINE users to available reviews. An "EBM Reviews" limit within MEDLINE facilitates access to the EBMR database contents.

A new role for the clinical librarian as educator

The Clinical Medical Librarian (CML) Program of the Tompkins-McCaw Library is a special instructional initiative to teach third-year medical students the use of information resources in the clinical setting. Librarians spend one week with selected internal medicine teams participating in work rounds and instructing team members in the use of the medical literature. The librarian assists team members to identify and retrieve relevant information through computer workstations located in the hospital. Photocopies of journal articles are made available to team members through the CML document delivery program.

Separation of meiotic and mitotic effects of claret non-disjunctional on chromosome segregation in Drosophila

The claret (ca) locus in Drosophila encodes a kinesin-related motor molecule that is required for proper distribution of chromosomes in meiosis in females and in the early mitotic divisions of the embryo. Here we demonstrate that a mutant allele of claret non-disjunctional (ca(nd)), non-claret disjunctional Dominant (ncdD), causes abnormalities in meiotic chromosome segregation, but is near wild-type with respect to early mitotic chromosome segregation. DNA sequence analysis of this mutant allele reveals two missense mutations compared with the predicted wild-type protein. One mutation lies in a proposed microtubule binding region of the motor domain and affects an amino acid residue that is conserved in all kinesin-related proteins reported to date. This region of the motor domain can be used to distinguish meiotic and mitotic motor function, defining an amino acid sequence criterion for classifying motors according to function. ncdD's mutant meiotic effect, but near wild-type mitotic effect, suggests that interactions of the ca motor protein with spindle microtubules differ in meiosis and mitosis.