the nyu college of dentistry dental library and vitalbook®
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This article was downloaded by: [University of West Florida]On: 07 October 2014, At: 13:20Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
Journal of Electronic Resourcesin Medical LibrariesPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/werm20
The NYU College of DentistryDental Library and VitalBook®Luís J. González MLS, MPA, AHIP a ba Jacqueline Grennan Wexler Library , CityUniversity of New York Hunter College , 696 ParkAvenue, Room E215, New York, NY, 10021, USAb Waldmann Dental Library , New York UniversityCollege of Dentistry , USAPublished online: 22 Sep 2008.
To cite this article: Luís J. González MLS, MPA, AHIP (2007) The NYU College ofDentistry Dental Library and VitalBook®, Journal of Electronic Resources in MedicalLibraries, 4:3, 39-52, DOI: 10.1300/J383v04n03_03
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J383v04n03_03
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The NYU Collegeof Dentistry Dental Library
and VitalBook®
Luís J. González
ABSTRACT. This article details how librarians at Waldmann DentalLibrary at New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) adaptedto a new electronic dental curriculum. Over the four-year period fromfall 2001 to spring 2005, the new curriculum has resulted in an increasednumber of reference queries, increased gate counts, decreased circula-tion statistics, and increased printing activity resulting in the introduc-tion of print management software. doi:10.1300/J383v04n03_03 [Articlecopies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service:1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website:<http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rightsreserved.]
KEYWORDS. DVD technology, VitalBook, VitalSource Technologies,dental school curriculum, curriculum development, electronic resources,reference services, laptop computers, dental students, circulation depart-ment
Luís J. González, MLS, MPA, AHIP ([email protected]) is Chief DeputyLibrarian, Jacqueline Grennan Wexler Library, City University of New York HunterCollege, 696 Park Avenue, Room E215, New York, NY 10021. Mr. González was for-merly Associate Director, Waldmann Dental Library, New York University College ofDentistry, during the time of curriculum change and the introduction of VitalBook®.
Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, Vol. 4(3) 2007Available online at http://jerml.haworthpress.com
© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1300/J383v04n03_03 39
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INTRODUCTION
Setting
The Waldmann Memorial Dental Library serves the faculty, staff, andstudents of the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD).The College serves over 1,350 students registered in six academic pro-grams, which include Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS); a two-yearDental Hygiene program; seven dental postgraduate programs (endo-dontics, implant dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics,pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and prosthodontics); three Master ofScience programs in oral biology, clinical research, and biomaterialsscience; and the DDS Advance Placement Program.
The Waldmann Library houses a collection of more than 25,000 den-tal and basic sciences books and monographs, and maintains print sub-scriptions to more than 500 professional dental journals. Through itsassociation with other New York University libraries, the library main-tains electronic subscriptions to more than 7,000 electronic journals andover 100 biomedical and scientific databases.
In September 2003, the library moved to a new modern location inthe Manhattan Veterans Administration Medical Center building acrossthe avenue from the main buildings of NYUCD. At this new location,the library doubled its seating capacity, added six new study rooms de-signed for group study, wired every seating station for Internet access,and built a new computer lab. The computer lab serves dual purposes asa teaching lab for the library’s educational programs and as a computerresearch room for library users when the room is not being used as aclassroom. The library also doubled the number of public computersavailable to users and upgraded all public station research computers.With the move to the new location, the library started providing 24-hour/day card access to all NYUCD students, faculty, and staff carryinga New York University ID card.
The New Dental Curriculum
In August 2001, the New York University College of Dentistry adopteda new problem-based curriculum for its Doctorate in Dental Surgery(DDS) program. As part of the new curriculum, the NYU College of Den-tistry introduced its first-year DDS students to a new DVD product calledthe VitalBook®, designed, created, and manufactured by VitalSourceTechnologies, Inc. <http://www.vitalsource.com/>. VitalBook is a fully
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searchable, copyrighted, and licensed DVD (see Figures 1 and 2) thatcontains all the educational materials that NYU dental students need toconsult during the four years of their dental education:
• Every textbook that the students will use during the four years ofthe DDS program (143 textbooks as of August 2005)
• Faculty class presentations (over 48 PowerPoint files)• Slide presentations (over 30)• Direct URL Web links to several electronic biomedical and scien-
tific databases• NYU College of Dentistry educational manuals (over 20 NYUCD
publications prepared by the College which are part of the DDScurriculum)
• All video file class presentations that will be used during thefour-year program
Each new dental student was required to purchase the VitalBook anda computer laptop before the start of the first year, and received his or
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FIGURE 1. VitalBook® Search Results
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her personal copy of VitalBook before the start of the first class in theDDS program. During the first week of classes, students brought theirlaptops to the Dental Informatics Department of the College in order toget them registered on the NYU electronic network, configured, andsynchronized with their personal copy of the DVD. After the processwas completed, each student’s individual copy of the DVD could onlybe read and used on his or her personal laptop computer in compliancewith the copyright law agreements made between VitalSource Technol-ogies and NYU College of Dentistry. VitalSource Technologies negoti-ated with the individual publishers of each book and copyrightedmaterial contained in VitalBook. In order to comply with copyright lawregulations, only DDS students and NYU dental faculty were licensedto use it. Every year, dental program faculty members receive a copy ofthe new VitalBook, which is installed on their computers by the Infor-
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FIGURE 2. VitalBook® Viewing Screen
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matics department. The dental library is allowed to maintain two copiesof the DVD for the exclusive use of the librarians.
The VitalBook and the Waldmann Library
The new dental curriculum created new duties and challenges forWaldmann Library staff, especially those working in the Public Ser-vices and Computer Systems departments. The first new task assignedto the library staff was to collect the course reading lists of all DDS pro-grams and classes and to forward these to VitalSource Technologies forthe creation of VitalBook. Currently, 14 dental schools and one collegeof pharmacy use the same VitalBook DVD format for their curricula.Library staff members were also initially entrusted with the tasks ofmaintaining the permissions files of all the copyrighted materials in-cluded in the DVD, managing the NYUCD overall DVD project, andoverseeing the creation of course materials by the NYUCD faculty. Li-brary staff were also instrumental in working with VitalSource Tech-nologies to create the hyperlinks that allow students to connect directlyto MEDLINE and other scientific databases provided by the WaldmannLibrary, while working within VitalBook.
With the introduction of the new problem-based curriculum andVitalBook, the library’s professional staff, in conjunction with the Den-tal Informatics department, were asked to plan, create, design, and teacha class on information technology and electronic information resourcesto first-year dental students. The class, which has been taught for fiveyears, is the first class of the DDS program and must be taken at the be-ginning of the four-year program.
Application of Technology in Health and Health Care Practice is atwo-credit (pass/no-pass) course that introduces first-year students tothe MEDLINE database. Students learn how to use the Ovid platform tosearch MEDLINE, understand and use Medical Subject Headings(MeSH), understand the basic principles of evidence-based health carepractice (EBHCP), perform EBHCP database searches, and learn howto use and search VitalBook.
CHANGES TO LIBRARY SERVICES CREATEDBY THE VITALBOOK
Waldmann Memorial Library staff continued to provide traditionallibrary services to its patrons and users. Some of the services that were
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affected or modified with the introduction of VitalBook to the dentalcurriculum included circulation, reference, collection development, andcomputer systems.
Circulation Services
The circulation department experienced a drastic decrease in thenumber of traditional book transactions and services provided to users.Prior to the introduction of VitalBook, the library’s circulation depart-ment averaged approximately 4,200 book-loan transactions per year.After four years of VitalBook usage, the annual average of checkouttransactions fell by 61%, from 4,200 transactions during the 2000/2001school year (the last year of the old curriculum) to 1,620 per year duringthe last four years (see Figure 3).
The circulation department continued to maintain a Reserve Read-ings Collection which included all of the books and reading materialscontained in VitalBook and all other textbooks, readings, and audiovi-sual materials required by the other professional programs of the dentalschool. Beginning in the fall 2001 semester, the use of the ReservesReadings Collection also decreased dramatically (see Figure 4). Beforethe introduction of VitalBook, the average annual number of reservematerials being checked out was 7,593 (or 632 copies per month); thisnumber declined by 50% (to 3,700 annually or 310 copies per month).Also, the number of books and monographs being used in-house de-
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FIGURE 3. Book-Checkout Statistics 2000-2005
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creased from a monthly average of 947 to 321 items per month for a66% reduction (see Figure 5). The number of requests for audiovisualmaterials dropped from a monthly average of 440 to 154 requests permonth, or a 65% reduction (see Figure 6).
Despite the reduction in use of traditional library materials and ser-vices, the library continued to be heavily utilized. The number of pa-trons crossing the library gates increased by almost 10% from theprevious four years. Before the 2001/2002 school year, the average an-nual number of users entering the library was 190,000 (an average of15,800 per month). During the last four academic years, after the intro-
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FIGURE 4. Reserve Readings Collection Checkouts 2000-2005
FIGURE 5. Yearly Decline in the In-House Use of Monographs and Textbooks
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duction of the VitalBook, the annual gate count increased to 210,100(17,500 per month).
Reference Services
The reference department was another public services sector that ex-perienced changes with the introduction of VitalBook. The library’s ref-erence staff has maintained statistics since 2001, and the number ofreference queries increased steadily every year. In 2001, the referencestaff recorded an average of 157 reference queries per month. Sincethen a steady increase was recorded with a monthly average of 236 ref-erence queries for 2004 and an average of 261 reference queries for2005 (see Figure 7). The statistics also indicated that 44% of all refer-ence questions were computer-related. These numbers did not includehelp questions about printing, but questions related to use of databasesand the use of the VitalBook. Only about 19% of all reference questionswere related to printing problems.
Collection Development
After the addition of VitalBook into the dental curriculum, the libraryreduced its annual print acquisitions budget by 17% (from $36,000 to$30,000 annually). Even though the library maintains two copies (oneon reserve and the other in general circulation) of every book includedin VitalBook, the need to maintain multiple copies of each title has dis-
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FIGURE 6. Yearly Decline in the Use of Audiovisual Materials 2000-2005
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appeared. These days the majority of dental students rely on the elec-tronic textbook copies in their VitalBook to study for their courses. Aspart of its collection development policy, the Waldmann Library contin-ued to acquire at least one copy of every professional dental title pub-lished along with maintaining an extensive collection of basic sciencestitles as supplemental readings for students during the first two years ofthe DDS program. The collection development department continued tomaintain an appropriate balance of monographs and textbooks tosupport the other educational programs of the College of Dentistry.
Computer Systems
The Computer Systems department at the Waldmann Library under-went the most dramatic changes in terms of workload and maintainingservice standards. From the acquisition and maintenance of new com-puters, the addition of more public computer research stations, and thecreation and maintenance of the new Laptop Computer Loaner Pro-gram, to the maintenance of the library’s printing stations, the Systemsdepartment had its hands full all of the time in order to preserve the levelof excellence of services for all library users.
The Laptop Computer Loaner Program (LCLP)
One of the first steps taken by the department to support the use ofVitaBook in the new curriculum was to purchase 14 Dell Latitude 600computer laptops for a new Laptop Computer Loaner Program. The
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FIGURE 7. Yearly Reference Transactions 2001-2005
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LCLP was instituted to provide dental students with a substitute laptopcomputer in case of temporary problems with their personal laptops.VitalSource Technologies provided the library with generic licenses forall of the loaner laptops so that students could use their personalVitalBook copies on the LCLP computers. The LCLP computers couldonly be checked out for a one-week, non-renewable period. Since theNew York University College of Dentistry DDS program is the largestin the country with about 245 students in each incoming class, LCLPlaptops were heavily used.
The Systems department instituted a strict and detailed computer-maintenance procedure in order to keep each laptop computer in opti-mal working condition. Students borrowing laptops from the LCLPwere required to sign a “Borrower Consent” form (see the Appendix)agreeing to be the sole user of the laptop while it was checked out; to notinstall any malicious software; and to be liable for any damage, loss, ortheft of the laptop computer while in their possession.
Upon return of each laptop computer to the library, the circulationstaff, under the guidance and supervision of the Systems department,performed the following procedures:
• Cleared the MY DOCUMENTS folder• Checked for and deleted any unauthorized files found• Erased any personal documents or files from the hard drive• Upgraded the anti-virus software• Ran an anti-virus scan to check for any potentially damaging files.
The LCLP computers were exclusively designated for the use ofDDS students. Faculty and NYUCD staff were not permitted to borrowthese computers.
Changes in Printing Services at the Waldmann Library
Printing has been the library service that has experienced the biggesttransformation since the adoption of VitalBook. Prior to VitalBook’sintroduction, the library provided free printing through two HewlettPackard 4SI laser printers. These printers were moderately used with anaverage monthly count of less than 10,000 copies per printer. AfterVitalBook was introduced, printing services exploded, with the averagemonthly counts skyrocketing to more than 120,000 copies per printer.Students began to print entire chapters, whole books, and PowerPointpresentations from VitalBook, and other class materials available on the
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college’s Blackboard course management system. Even though one ofthe intentions of college administrators in adopting VitalBook was thecreation of a paperless environment, this hope never materialized. Infact, students began printing and making photocopies of materials ingreater numbers than in previous years.
With the addition of more electronic journals to the library’s collec-tions (totaling more than 7,000 full-text titles in electronic format), stu-dents and faculty more than doubled their printing habits. This increasedby more than tenfold the library’s use of paper, toner, and printer main-tenance expenses, thereby increasing the library’s printing servicesbudget significantly.
The first step taken by the library to address the problem of the in-creased demand for printing services was to upgrade its printers. The li-brary acquired two HP LaserJet 9000 printers to replace the old HP 4SImachines. The new printers could print up to 50 pages per minute com-pared to the 20 pages per minute speed of the HP 4SI, thus improvingthe speed of services.
When the library moved to its new location in September 2003, itcontinued to offer free printing and purchased two extra HP 9000 print-ers to accommodate the increased demand and to diminish the wear andtear on the initial HP 9000 machines. To better manage any print queueproblems, the library also acquired the Pharos 5.2 Print Manager soft-ware, which enables better administration of the printing process. Thissoftware was purchased with the intention of eventually instituting acharge-for-print policy in order to at least cover the escalating paper andtoner expenses. By the end of the 2004/2005 year, the average numberof printed pages per machine had grown to 132,000 per printer permonth (more than half a million pages per month for all four printers).
Also, to better serve the dental students, the systems departmentmade the files containing the Pharos printer driver software availablethrough the library’s Web page so that students could download and in-stall the printing software on their personal laptops. This enabled stu-dents to be able to send print jobs to the library’s printers from theirpersonal laptops if connected to the college network through anEthernet port in the library. The Systems staff also created easy-to-fol-low step-by-step, “How-To Instructions” for students to follow wheninstalling the printing software onto their laptop computers.
This service also contributed to the increase in the demand for print-ing services, since students were now able to print, without having towait for an available library computer. The library administration de-cided to present the problem of escalating printing services and the re-
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sulting costs to college administrators. By the beginning of the 2005/2006 academic year, the library received permission to start a newcharge-for-print program for students and faculty. In order to imple-ment the new program, the library replaced all four HP 9000 printerswith new Gestetner 651 DSM machines and upgraded the print-man-ager software to the Pharos 6.1. This new and more versatile version ofPharos also managed the photocopy machines of the library. The newGestetner printers had the same speed as the HP 9000 (50 pages perminute) but were more sturdy, used less toner, provided the same qual-ity of print as the Hewlett Packard brand, and were easier to maintain,therefore lowering the cost of maintenance and creating substantialsavings for the library’s printing budget.
When the charge-for-print program began in August 2005, everydental student was given a $355/per academic year printing account aspart of his or her year’s tuition. As printing charge are eight cents perpage, each student is allotted 4,437 pages per year. The Pharos software,installed on a new library server, stored and managed the printing ac-count database. The print-managing software used a dialog box toprompt students to access their personal printing accounts and sendtheir print requests to the printers. The software counted the number ofpages sent to the printer, deducted eight cents per printed page, and up-dated the student’s account. When students use up yearly accounts, theyhave the option of purchasing a copy card from the library’s print cardvending machine to continue printing at the same rate of eight cents perpage.
CONCLUSION
The role of the Waldmann Memorial Library as an essential resourcefor information for the students and faculty of the New York UniversityCollege of Dentistry did not diminish with the new problem-based cur-riculum and its integrative use of the VitalBook DVD. These changesmade the library become a more integral and necessary department ofthe College of Dentistry. Even though the library experienced a signifi-cant reduction in the number of print items being used in-house andchecked out of the building, the circulation department is still responsi-ble for administering the computer laptop loaner program by circulatinglaptops and performing their basic maintenance. The circulation depart-ment still maintains the Reserve Readings Collection that continues tobe heavily used by students in other programs of the college. The circu-
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lation department is also the first line of response when printingproblems occur.
The reference department registered an increase in the number ofqueries every month for the past four years, especially the number of da-tabase-use-related questions. Reference librarians and other librarystaff had to constantly answer questions related to the use of VitalBookand electronic databases. The role of reference staff might have changedin terms of the kind of services provided, but librarians were still aheavily used resource by the students and faculty.
The Systems department became more user-oriented by monitoringthe optimal work of the library’s printers, providing instructions to stu-dents on using the new printers, training the circulation staff on per-forming basic maintenance of the printers, and training circulation staffto answer, address, and solve simple printing problems. The Systemsstaff constantly monitors and administers the student’s print accountdatabase on the Pharos servers.
Finally, the Systems department constantly had to be on the lookoutfor new technology products as they became available in the market inorder to continue to improve services. They maintained frequent contactwith the software companies that develop the software programs thatwere being used by the library to remain current with upgrades andupdates of these programs.
New technology and VitalBook created modifications to some of thetraditional services offered by the Waldmann Library, but the librarykept up with the new technology and continued to prove its value to theinstitution. Now more than ever, the students and community of theNYU College of Dentistry take full advantage of the resources and ser-vices that the Waldmann library has to offer.
Received: February 21, 2006Revised: March 21, 2006
Accepted: March 28, 2006
doi:10.1300/J383v04n03_03
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APPENDIX
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