The policy of journal subscription's prices is still under debate. An open letter to science-journal publishers was sent out in January by German, Austrian, Swiss and Dutch university libraries. The letter pointed out that the announced increase in the price of journal subscriptions in 1999 was significantly above that of library budgets. Most of the publishers replied by stating that their pricing policies for 2000 and beyond are not fixed. A coalition of university libraries is stepping up its battle to circumvent the high price of specialised scientific journals by offering $0.5 million to universities and professional societies to come up with web-based information resources at universities. The US Association of Research Libraries spends $432m ($12,000 for each scientist) buying research journals. Harold Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health, has proposed a bold solution to these problems called "E-biomed", a website where all biomedical research would be accessible through a powerful search engine for free. Libraries protest becomes more and more aggressive!

The need to improve the quality of abstracts and guidelines is discussed in papers published on JAMA. A high percentage of abstracts in 6 large general biomedical journals had data that were either inconsistent with or absent from the main body of the article. Guidelines published in the peer-reviewed medical literature do not adhere well to established methodological standards. These results are especially troubling because abstracts are widely used often separate from their text and data may be reported and disseminated in other works. Guidelines are a tool to improve the quality of patient care.

Giovanna F. Miranda
Co-Editor & Publications

Back to ToC EAHIL Newsletter Nr. 48 Aug 1999

Since the Newsletter of May 1999, the following journal issue of Health Libraries Review has been received : vol. 16, 1999, no. 1

J. Palmer : Editorial - p.1-2

T. Pyne, K. Newman, S. Leigh, A. Cowling and K. Rounce. Meeting the information needs of the clinicians for the practice of evidence based healthcare. p. 3-14.
This article reports on clinicians'use of library and the competencies they require to access information necessary for the practice of evidence-based healthcare. Examination of skill and self-efficacy levels in accessing and using information databases revealed wide variations across professions, specialities and Trusts.

Norman. Genetic information resources: a new field for medical librarians. p. 15-28.
The new disciplines of bioinformatics has created many new molecular biology databanks to store the results of the Human Genome Project. Medical librarians should know how to search key genetic information resources and should have a basic urderstanding of the type of information contained in each.

E. Schlenther. Using reading therapy with children. p.29-37.
Through books, children can be helped to cope with health and life problems. Further training should be a priority in librarianship as well as in other disciplines.

Innovation on the Internet.
B. Anagnostelis Series Editors. p 38

E. Hallam and C. Fowler. Influencing new ways of networking information: MIRON and the Database Access Project (DAPs)

Simpson, R. Madhok and P. Whitty. Collecting, maintaining and using evidence of clinical effectiveness: experience at a district health authority. p 43.

J. Murray, E. Carey and S. Walker. The information needs and information seeking behaviour of medical research staff. p. 46

United Kingdom Serial group-21^st Annual Conference, University of Exeter, 30^th March-1^st April 1998 p. 49

Dental Librarians Group: report of the annual meeting, British Dental Association, London, 20^th April 1998. p. 50

Medical information 2000: Libraries and Publishing in the next century. A report on the joint Health Libraries Group/Royal Society of Medicine conference held at the Royal Society of Medicine, 21^st April 1998 p. 51

Everything you wanted to know about the NHS plus the Royal Colleges, societies and associations. Health Care Libraries Group NHS Study Day, Skipton House, London, 19^th February 1998. p. 53

The Centennial Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 22^nd-27^th May 1998. p. 54

Research (J. Farmer and D. Williams) p. 56

National and International News (B. Madge). p. 60

The World Health Report 1999: Making a difference. By World Health Organisation 1999. 121 pp. Sw.fr. 15. ISBN 92-4-156194-7. The report aims to show how the pursuit of better health, when supported by vision sand leadership, can secure considerable social and economic gains as well as lasting improvement in health.

Informing patients: An assessment of the quality of patient information materials. By A. Coulter, V. Entwistle, D. Gilbert, 1999, 216 pp. £16.95. King's Fund. ISBN 1 8571 7214 0. The book is a guide to the process of development and appropriate content of patient information materials. Criteria for evaluating the quality of patient information materials are presented and a comprehensive list of common questions asked by patients is presented.

Becoming a successful intrapreneur: A practical guide to creating an innovative information service. By S. Pantry and P. Griffiths, 1998, 98 pp, £19.71. American Library Association. ISBN 1 85604 292 8. A new style of library and information work.

The Internet and the changing information environment. By D. Nicholas, 1999, 100 pp, £35.00 (£28.00 Aslib corporate members). Aslib. ISBN 085142 404. This report examines the effect the Internet is having on the information landscape whether it will be a major agent of change.

University libraries put pen to paper in journal pricing protest.
Abbott. Nature, 1999, 398, 740.

Libraries offer incentive for web-based rivals to "costly" journals.
M. Wadman. Nature, 1999, 398, 272.

Moving beyond journals: the future arrives with a crash. New ways to disseminate research from NIH and the BMJ.
T. Delamothe and R. Smith. BMJ, 1999, 318, 1637.

Qualifications et certification des professionnels de l'I&D dans huit pays européens. Brève présentation comparative.
J.Meyriat. Documentaliste - Science de l'informations, 1999, 36, n.2, 113.

Bibliothécaires et documentalistes, convergences et divergences.
M. Wolff-Terroine. Bases, 1999, n.148, 6.

Librarians' use of HealthWeb for reference and instruction.
L.M. Behm et al. Medical reference Services Quarterly, 1999, 18, n.1, 1.

Accuracy of Data in abstracts of published research articles.
R.M. Pitkin et al. JAMA, 1999, 281, 1110.

Are guidelines following guidelines? The methodological quality of clinical practice guidelines in the peer-reviewed medical literature.
T.M. Shaneyfelt et al. JAMA, 1999, 281, 1900.

....... Web-based

LOCATORplus. The web catalogue of the National Library of Medicine to find out books, journals, audiovisuals, manuscripts and other items are contained in the medical library. Catalogue can be searched by author, MeSh, subject, title, conference name, keyword and many other specific field.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/locatorplus/

ABES Online. The Annotated Bibliography for English Studies, formerly only available on CD-Rom, offer the added benefit of monthly updates, allowing users to keep abreast the latest developments in their own field of interest.
http://abes.swets.nl

Primary Care Online. A database containing the full text of nine textbooks published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins publishers. The texts include four Medical titles, four Nursing titles and a concise pharmacy reference designed for clinicians. The database is accessible through Ovid.
For more information, call OVID at +44(0)181 748 3777 or e-mail: shawe@ovid.com

Blackwell Ltd and Swets & Zeitlinger BV announce an agreement of their formal intention to combine subscriptions and information services divisions. The creation of the new organisation will be concluded later this year. The integration of the services and systems will be undertaken over the next 24 months.
For further information: kim.hallett@blackwell.co.uk or bdegans@swets.nl

Ebsco Subscription Services is currently projecting a base price increase of 9 to 11 percent for U.S. and non U.S journals titles for year 2000 subscriptions. Based on publisher input and historical analysis, the base price increase is the price of the subscription without regard to the effect of currency conversion when the subscription is bought by a subscriber in another country.
http://www.ebsco.com

Ovid on Call. Ovid technologies announces a Web-based information product for doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals. Ovid on call will provide practising clinicians with one stop integrated information resource that features key summary, textbook, bibliographic and full text content from multiple publishers.
http://www.ovid.com

Exaggerated use of antibiotics - The European Scientific Steering Committee, set up by European Union, is calling for the controls on the sale and distribution of antimicrobial products to be strengthened. It also wants training programmes aimed at doctors and nurses, as well as farmers, consumers and manufacturers of food products. The Committee's reports is available on the Internet at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg24/health/sc/ssc/outcom_en.html

Giovanna F. Miranda