Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Visualization Tables

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have become a mainstay in academic libraries. These technologies can be used to explore 3D models or gross anatomy interactively, provide standard clinical training through simulations, teach students empathy by providing immersive experiences from the perspective of a patient, and more. Visualization tables that use 3D modeling and/or incorporate these technologies (e.g., Anatomage, Sentra) are also found in some health sciences libraries.

These technologies can require substantial financial and labor investments, including ongoing staff training, building space, software/hardware updates, and upkeep. Before purchasing AR or VR products, it is helpful (and essential in the case of visualization tables) to engage with faculty and students to understand how they could be integrated into curricula. Any acquisition in this area should also be made in consultation with your Information Technology (IT) department and other potential stakeholders. A plan that includes ongoing budgetary support should be developed to ensure continual updates, maintenance, and significant upgrades in technology.

Consumer Health

Reviewed by Dana Ladd, PhD, Health and Wellness Librarian, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries

Consumer health materials are written for the lay public and can include resources for specific populations like children, young and new adults, and seniors. They may include information in a variety of languages, focus on certain cultures, and be generally written at a lower literacy level. These materials may be in a variety of formats such as those for Deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or low vision patrons including print, audiovisual, and anatomical models. Materials typically include monographs, comics, graphic novels, or pamphlets. Topics include information about specific diseases(symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, living with), other medical information, drugs and supplements, cookbooks, wellness and prevention, caregiving, advice books, and memoirs.

The volume and depth of a library’s consumer health collection will vary based on library type and need. Many academic libraries will have a small collection or not buy content from this genre at all. Hospital libraries often have a substantial consumer health collection aimed at their patient populations, with language and format determined by their patient demographics. Any decision to purchase in this genre should be detailed in your collection development policy, including any special considerations for your specific patron population. A weeding schedule for consumer health materials should be outlined in the library’s collection development policy. In general, consumer health material should be weeded after five years (for health information that changes) and even sooner- every three years for treatment information and most cancer consumer health information.

Those selecting consumer health materials can find book reviews (such as in Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal ) to be helpful resources for finding titles.

Communities

• Medical Library Association’s (MLA) Consumer and Patient Health Information Services Caucus. You must be a member of MLA to join this caucus.
• Goodreads Consumer and Patient Health Information Group

Online Courses for Professional Development

• Network of the National Library of Medicine’s Consumer Health Collection Management course.
• Medical Library Association’s (MLA) Consumer Health Information Specialization. Additional fees may apply.

Data Sets

Reviewed by Nina Exner, PhD, MLS, Research Data Librarian, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries

Collecting data sets is a complicated endeavor. Often they have very narrow use terms, are restricted to one research team, and cannot be shared broadly. It is important to read license terms carefully and pay attention to the use, access, sharing, and exporting allowances.

They can also be extremely expensive – upwards of tens of thousands of dollars for one data set. Additionally, dataset vendors may either provide data only through their own platform with a maintenance charge, or else provide the data as files only without hosting or search. Therefore, you need to consider who will store the data, and how it will be stored, discovered, and served out. File formats also matter. If it is not a spreadsheet/CSV file, is special software needed to read and analyze it, and does your institution have access to that? This is especially an issue with “big data” dataset licenses.

Your library may be asked to host data sets generated by institutional researchers. The NIH data sharing policy may also impact what is requested of libraries. Oftentimes, subject data repositories like Dryad or generalist ones like Open Science Framework are a more appropriate location but they may have fees for membership or deposition.

Graphic Medicine

According to GraphicMedicine.org, graphic medicine is “the intersection between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare.” Graphic medicine collections include comics, graphic novels, and zines that have a health care theme. They are often used to support medical humanities, health communication, and health care narratives. An annotated bibliography by Alice Jaggers and Matthew Noe lists core essential resources that can help a library get started with collecting in this area. Additionally, JAMA issues a “Best of Graphic Medicine” list annually.

Communities

Graphic medicine is one topic of interest among others for the following communities.

• American Library Association’s (ALA) Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table. You must be a member of ALA to join this Round Table.
• Medical Library Association’s (MLA) Health Humanities Caucus. You must be a member of MLA to join this caucus.

History Of Medicine

A history of medicine collection broadly encompasses written works, ephemera, audiovisual materials, photographs, and objects on the topic of medicine that also have historical value. Libraries will often have a separate collections policy for these materials – e.g., gift policies, access procedures, preservation, and finding aids – because of their unique needs. Often these collections are stewarded by archivists/curators or non-health sciences special collections librarians.

Sample collections include:

• Harvard’s Center for the History of Medicine
• Michigan State University’s veterinary medicine history collection
• Osler Library of the History of Medicine
• UCLA’s History of Medicine and the Sciences

Communities

• Medical Library Association’s (MLA) History of the Health Sciences Caucus. You must be a member of MLA to join this caucus.
• Rare Books and Manuscripts section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). You must be a member of ACRL to join this section.
• Society of American Archivists (SAA). You must be an SAA member to network with their sections, which includes a Collection Management section.

Leisure/Popular Browsing

Increasingly, health sciences libraries are providing popular materials that many consider the purview of public libraries such as fiction and biographies. This may be especially important if your community does not have a readily available public library or if you want a collection onsite for patients who cannot leave the hospital. When creating a leisure/popular browsing collection, you will want to consider the size of the collection, annual expenditure, room for growth, genres collected, and an area for display.

Makerspace Technology

Makerspaces in health sciences libraries can utilize either the collections budget or the operations budget. Oftentimes, they fall under the operations budget but collections budgets can be used for equipment and materials purchases. Some makerspace technologies include: 3D printers and scanners, laser and electronic cutting machines, sewing machines, soldering kits, and programming kits such as Raspberry Pis. Virtual Reality equipment and other digital tools may also be part of or adjacent to Makerspaces. Print magazines and trade publications on projects or topics related to makerspaces may be collected in addition to the tools themselves. Makerspaces associated with health sciences libraries or programs may also include scientific or medical equipment such as microscopes, stethoscopes, or neurological reflex hammers.

Non-Traditional Online Resources

Resources beyond materials like monographs, serials, and indexing and abstracting databases may have unique licensing, access, and patron authentication requirements that differ substantially from traditional library resources. In particular, many do not offer a single sign-on (SSO) option but instead utilize token-based authentication where a single administrator adds patrons based on email address. It is essential that you ensure that the license explicitly discusses Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) compliance and that it is clear how user data is stored and kept private.

Some of the broad categories that non-traditional online resources may fall under include:

• Case-based modules (e.g., Aquifer)
• Citation management tools (e.g., Endnote, Mendeley, Zotero)
• Curricular mapping software/learning management systems (e.g., Firecracker)
• Direct-to-consumer textbook platforms (e.g., VitalSource)
• Electronic platforms with ebooks, quizzes, slides, cases, and exercises. (e.g., Evolve)
• Evidence synthesis resources (e.g., Covidence, DistillerSR)
• Question banks (e.g., BoardVitals, USMLEasy, UWorld)

Veterinary Medicine

Reviewed by Andrea C. Kepsel, MLIS, AHIP Veterinary Medicine Librarian, Michigan State University Libraries

Veterinary medicine libraries often rely on a mix of human and animal-focused texts for their students. Programs can have any combination of veterinary nursing, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), PhD, and Master of Science (MS) degrees, and each requires specialized resources. The collections librarian may opt to purchase a title in both print and electronic formats since print copies can be loaned out through interlibrary loan (ILL) to practicing veterinarians, and the electronic format is often requested by educational programs. Many times a veterinary medicine library may be the only library that has specialized books that can be loaned to unaffiliated practitioners in the state or region, so having print copies can help support the profession in their area. Libraries affiliated with a veterinary medicine teaching hospital may also wish to collect select pet health care titles for clients who are visiting during treatment of their animals.

Online subscription databases (e.g., the British Small Animal Veterinary Association Library) and streaming media platforms (e.g., Veterinary Education in Video) are increasingly popular. There are also several subscription point-of-care and diagnostic tools available to libraries, such as Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs and Vetstream.

Communities

• Medical Library Association’s (MLA) Animal and Veterinary Information Specialist Caucus. You must be a member of MLA to join this caucus.