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Message from the University Librarian
July 2010

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's University Libraries exist in a rapidly changing environment. Like all academic libraries of the 21st century, we are hybrid facilities, preserving past knowledge while offering the latest electronic resources, information services and enabling technologies. To do this well necessitates acquiring and licensing extensive scholarly resources, enabling ready and straightforward access to them, and using both traditional and cutting-edge methods of acquisition, access and delivery of service to users. New scholarly material is produced at a pace that requires dynamic, research libraries to be more nimble and flexible than ever before to insure ubiquitous access. New emphases in research and teaching, and the heightened expectations of the UMDNJ user community require that our libraries be proactive in anticipating needs, customizing information services that respond to user requirements and designing facilities that enable new kinds of interaction.

The UMDNJ Libraries embrace the 21st century concept of knowledge management. These include the systems and processes used to acquire, organize, store, access, retrieve, teach and disseminate knowledge and information in a variety of digital formats, while preserving access to print books and journals as well as other unique archival resources. The University Libraries provide a critical portal, where scholarship is discovered and used, where collaborative education takes place, and where students, faculty and staff can find the expert assistance of highly trained librarians. The scholarly resources made available by the UMDNJ Libraries, combined with effective knowledge management, are crucial competitive assets in an era of massive change in health care and information technology.

Reliable access to scholarly resources and provision of timely information services to the students, housestaff, faculty, and staff remains our primary goal. The Libraries provide information access, in particular, to electronic scholarly resources both onsite and remotely. Currently, UMDNJ faculty, students and staff have access to 84 electronic databases, 703 major electronic books in the health sciences and 4,610 of the most highly rated scholarly electronic journals in the health sciences. Utilization of licensed electronic resources, online books and journals exceeded 2 million uses in FY2010.

The University Libraries aggressively support electronic journal subscriptions having cancelled vast numbers of print journals at each of our campus libraries. As a result of this reduction, retaining access to high quality electronic content and archival collections is our collecting priority. The mass cancellation of print subscriptions was essential to our ability to continue access to the electronic versions of the journals.

Currently, all UMDNJ libraries are fully wireless environments, providing flexible learning and study spaces for all users. Technologies are currently being implemented that will enhance library services to the University community. A new Quick Search feature was introduced on all of the campus libraries' Web sites. Student input was a driving influence in the updating of the libraries' Web services. Improved data security, automatic uploading of new patron records, and safeguarding authentication practices have been a priority over the past year.

The UMDNJ Libraries contribute to UMDNJ's community services goals through the delivery of HealthyNJ, an extensive consumer health Web site (http://www.healthynj.org). HealthyNJ assists consumers in their quest to rapidly find patient/consumer information tailored to a wide range of cultural, education, and language needs. Currently, there are over 400 total topics in the Diseases and Conditions and Health and Wellness portals. Of these, over 200 topics are fully available in Spanish. The site has recently been enhanced with “Read Me First” entries resulting in more widespread use.

The University Libraries continue to work collaboratively to enhance knowledge management in the clinical practice, education, research, and community service to meet the increasing challenges facing UMDNJ as a major academic health center. The Libraries play a critical support role in supporting learning and the creation and dissemination of new scholarly resources. The libraries strive to be an active catalyst for scholarly communication and knowledge management.

Library resources and services are provided to the University community at the Scotch Plains campus by means of electronic linkages.

The libraries look forward to meeting your ongoing needs for scholarly information. Please address your comments and concerns to me at: cohn@umdnj.edu

Judy Cohn
University Librarian

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