Aida FarhaMedical Librarian

Saab Medical Library

Jan 23, 2015

Libraries@AUB New faculty orientation

What is the question?

"Half of what you are taught as medical students will in 10 years have been shown to be wrong. And the trouble is none of your teachers knows which half"

Dr. Sydney Burwell [1956]

Tsunami of Information…

• Scholarly Literature

doubles every 3-5 years.

• 6500 medical articles

published/day

• >120,000 STM journals.

AUB LibrariesJafet Library (Arts, Humanities, Social

Sciences)

Saab Medical Library (SML)

Engineering and Architecture Library

Science and Agriculture LibraryFarm Library

AUB Libraries embrace the mission of the University in supporting excellence in education & research and in serving the peoples of the Middle East and beyond.

Academic / Research LibrariesOne of the largest academic/research libraries in the Arab world:

Budget: one of the largest in Arab world and larger than most institutions of the same size in the U.S.

Staff: among the largest in Arab world25 librarians with MS in library or

information science (some with PhD or a second master degree)

10 assistants 55 support staff plus student

assistants

Libraries @ AUB

Libraries

@AUB

As a Physical Facility

Group-study rooms / Study carrels / Computer Labs.

Renovation plans…Jafet Regular Hours:

Mon-Fri 7:30 am - midnight Sat 8:00 am - 8:00 pm Sun 12:00 pm – midnight

106.5 hrs/week …. 24/7 during reading/exams periods Summer: Jafet/SML close at 9:00 pm Science/Engineering at 3:00 pm

Collection in NumbersOver 1.3 million volumes of print and electronic

monographs and periodicalsOver 140,000 print and electronic journals & conference

proceedingsOver 300 databases and hundreds of major reference

worksSubstantial number of local/regional journals, newspapers,

and magazines going back to the late 19th century1,400 manuscripts (some appraised as museum pieces)

and a growing collection of rare books2,000 maps and 50,000 photographs of unique/historical

natureMissionaries papers; art and political posters, and papers

by famous scholars, musicians and artists: e.g. Zaki Nassif…

And open to suggestions from Faculty!

Item Type in 2009 in 2014Print books purchased 8,000 20,000

Databases* 90 300

Major Reference Works

100 500

eBooks (ownership) 15,000 500,000

Journal packages 14 50

eJournals (access) 49,000 140,000

Journal dig. arch. (# vols)

14,000 400,000

Journal subscriptions 2,643 5,780

Newspapers (Mic. to E)**

0 20

Primary Sources (DBs) 0 25

*New databases: expensive, high quality, core titles (e.g., PAO, PQ Central, WoS).**Examples: Economist, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, NYT, Times, WSJ, Washington Post.

Collection: Past vs. Present

Services for Faculty … (1 of 3)

Borrowing, renewing and returning books:Up to 100 items for a loan period of one

yearOnline renewalBorrowing by proxy Books can be returned to any library

Ordering new books

Ordering journals/databases

Services for Faculty … (2 of 3)

Ordering articles/research material

Identifying new acquisitions

E-Reserve or Print Reserve

Subject Specialist Librarians give course -integrated classes or create customized research guides and act as liaisons between Library and AUB Faculties.

Services for Faculty … (3 of 3)

Instruction one-to-one:Library TourIdentify resources relevant to your needsLearn about the quality of the journals and

conference proceedings Know who/which papers cited your work Request citation Management Tools training Create targeted current awarenessGet help with research

In summary, we are professional information specialists that are here to satisfy your information needs and many times we do exceed them

Tips to Your Research Impact

Create your Open Researcher Contributor ID (ORCID): remove author ambiguity & ensure your work is correctly attributed to you

Be consistent in writing your name, institutional & departmental address and do not use abbreviations

List your email correctly and open it frequently Publish in Journals that have at least one of these:

Impact Factor Open Access (beware of predatory ones) Indexed in International databases

Check Scopus, PubMed or WoS to see if all your citations are correct Join academic social networking ex. Academia, LinkedIn,

ResearchGate… Participate in a professional listserv Retain your right to place your publication @AUB Institutional

Repository

Too much to remember? Ask US, we are here to help you!

Services for YOUR Students

Instructions either one-to-one or for a group/class

Customized sessions to suit your curricular needs

Thesis clinicsSML’s 2-credit hours course (IDTH 301)Last year: 500 sessions for 8,000

students Carrels for your graduate students and

research associatesState of the art E-Classroom

Technology @AUB Libraries

Wireless Internet connectionFour computer labs with 120 state-of-

the-art PCsNetworked printing and photocopying

servicesRemote access available for the great

majority of online resourcesComputer technicians are available

during regular hours for troubleshooting (24 hours help desk by phone)

Current & Future PlansRenovate SMLCreate 2 study rooms (increase seating capacity

to 1,000)Redesign the libraries’ homepages (ASC, Jafet,

and SML)Populate AUB Scholar Works repository with AUB

student and faculty publicationsIndex and digitize major Arabic newspapers,

magazines, and journalsDigitize all of the Libraries’ 1,400 manuscriptsDigitize all of the Libraries’ 10,000 pre-1956

Arabic books. Open for YOUR Suggestions!

http://medlineplus.gov

Best consumer health site for free

Thank you…

“A speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the topic yet short enough to keep the interest” .

Winston Churchill