Digital Library demands

4a's-availability, accessibility,acceptability, afford ability
4c's-content,context,cooperation, coordination
4e's-ease,extension,economy,efficiency
4s's-sort,straighten,standardize,sustain

and marketing mix

7p's-product,pricing,place,promotion,person,process,physical evidence

Digitization

Provides more of our content available online
Enhanced metadata for our collections, particularly our unique heritage materials, making them more visible

Libraries as places

Users' expectations:

To feel welcome
Inviting spaces that belongs to everyone
Comforts, Convenience
Flexibility and innovation
Digital content
Quick service

STAT!Ref® is the premier healthcare e-source. A pioneer in software as a service (SaaS), STAT!Ref includes cross-searchable, full-text, top-tier titles in a breadth of healthcare disciplines from a wide variety of reputable authors, publishers and societies.

Thomson Reuters Micromedex is the most reliable, trusted name in evidence-based clinical reference. We lead the industry because of our unmatched editorial process, reliable content, and innovative user-friendly enhancements. And now Micromedex 2.0 has been revamped to make finding evidence-based drug information and clinical answers much faster and easier.

Health Committee and Commission Reports

Universities of Health Sciences established in various states of India

NTR University of Health Sciences Andhra Pradesh 1986
Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences Karnataka 1994
MGM Institute of Health Sciences Tamil Nadu 1997
Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) Punjab 1998
Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Maharashtra 1998
West Bengal University of Health Sciences (WBUHS) West Bengal 2003
Rajasthan University of Health Sciences Rajasthan 2005

Memory Institutions

Empower users by:
Enriching systems
Enhancing services
Providing training programs
Improving Information Literacy Skills
Increasingly collaborate with other systems
Meet their changing requirements
Encourage participation
Promote better facilities

Touch and feel books

Libraries aims to turn students into bibliophiles.If you wish to be away from electronic gadgets-television and computers and just wish to relax, the libraries are the ideal place to rejoice.

Life's about living for others

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: US Billionaire philanthropists

Read More:http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-03-22/news/29174456_1_gates-foundation-indian-billionaires-visit

Indigenous low-cost heart stents in three years’ time?

NEW DELHI: India's very own desi drug eluting stent (DES) will go into trials on large animals in May.According to the schedule, human trials will be started in another year. If the stent proves "effective and safe for human use", India will have its low cost stent in another three years.

DES are coated with medication that is slowly released to help prevent growth of scar tissues in the artery lining. This helps the artery remain smooth and open for good blood flow to the heart.

Read more;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indigenous-low-cost-heart-stents-in-three-years-time/articleshow/7803034.cms

Web based SMS alerts is a boon for better health care

Immunization alerts
NEW DELHI: In what could come as a big help to parents, the Haryana government has launched a new software in Rohtak, which will enable the administration to send web-based SMS alerts on scheduled dates for immunization.

These SMS alerts will be sent to parents in three installments — seven days and three days ahead of the scheduled date, while the last one will be sent on the date of immunization.

Read more;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Immunization-alerts-via-SMS-in-Haryana/articleshow/7803001.cms

Library is a treasure house of old and new. It needs just a discovery.

Aurangzeb's sword found in AMU cupboard
LUCKNOW: Ata Khurshid didn't expect an antique scabbard to tumble out of a cupboard in Aligarh Muslim University's manuscript section. And definitely not one with Aurangzeb's sword in it.

Khurshid, head of the manuscript division at AMU's Maulana Azad Library, found the treasure last month during a routine inspection of a steel almirah lying untouched for five decades. The scabbard found on February 26 contained a regal ancient sword. That it belonged to Aurangzeb became apparent when Khurshid took his find to head librarian Shahabat Hussain to decipher golden engravings that looked like a couplet.

Read More;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Aurangzebs-sword-found-in-AMU-cupboard/articleshow/7789877.cms

Dog bite cases on rise in Delhi

Despite Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) sterilization campaign,the population of dogs is multiplying and many dog bite incidents are reported in city hospitals every day.

Free healthcare for 27L kids-Delhi Chief Minister

NEW DELHI: Over the last couple of years, the Delhi government's budgets had focussed largely on beefing up the city's physical infrastructure in time for the Commonwealth Games. With the Games over, the budget for 2011-12, the first presented by Sheila Dikshit, shifted focus to social infrastructure with welfare measures in health and education targetted at the school-going.

Welfare measures apart, the budget cited environmental concerns to hike taxes on diesel vehicles and health reasons for raising levies on several tobacco products (though not cigarettes) and on sweetmeats and namkeens.

On the tax front, the additional levies on diesel will mean that cars and SUVs using that fuel could cost extra Rs 4,000 at the bottom end of the scale and upwards of Rs 25,000 more at the premium end.

Similarly, the hike in value-added tax on tobacco products and sweets and savouries to 12.5% could make your pocket that much lighter, but that's supposed to save you from lifestyle diseases.

The most ambitious of the welfare measures is a scheme for free healthcare for all children under the age of 14 in government schools, government-aided schools and those run by the MCD, the NDMC or the Cantonment Board. That's an estimated 27 lakh kids to be covered by what has been dubbed the Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojana.

Source: Times of India

Probiotic strains to be tested for side-effects

NEW DELHI: All strains of probiotics being used in India will now have to be deposited in an internationally recognized culture collection/repository for future reference. More than that, in order to assure safety for humans, even for the group of bacteria that are "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), all probiotic strains will have to be tested to assess their undesirable side-effects.If the strain under evaluation belongs to a species that is a known mammalian toxin producer, it has to be studied on humans before it's made available in the market.

Source; TOI

PMO meet to review policy on non-communicable diseases

NEW DELHI: India's tremendous burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like stroke, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases have now reached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's doorstep.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has called a meeting of the health ministry and the Planning Commission on Monday to review policies on NCDs and thrash out what needs to be done to lower the country's NCD prevalence.

After the United Nations summit on HIV in 2001, that made the entire world come together to fight the deadly AIDS causing virus, this September, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are all set to receive a similar push in New York.

To be attended by the who's who, including Singh, the UN General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs on September 19 will decide how to better prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, which together are responsible for eight million deaths worldwide, annually.

Prior to this UN meeting, the first global ministerial conference on NCDs is being held in Moscow on April 28 which will be attended by health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The conference will highlight the magnitude and socio-economic impact of NCDs, review international experience on NCD prevention and control and provide evidence on the pressing need to strengthen global and national initiatives to prevent NCDs.

NCDs caused 54.66 lakh deaths in 2005 — 53% of the total deaths in India and is now the country's main worry. The leading cause of deaths in India among NCDs is due to cardiovascular disease (29.89 lakh), diabetes (1.75 lakh), cancer (5 lakh) and respiratory diseases (6.74 lakh).

According to WHO, cardiovascular diseases will be the largest cause of death and disability in India by 2020. It is estimated that the overall prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, Ischemic Heart Diseases (IHD) and stroke is 62.47, 159.46, 37.00 and 1.54 respectively per 1000 population of India. Additionally, there are around 25 lakh cancer cases in India.

Source: TOI

NLM Style Guide : Citing Medicine

Citing Medicine provides assistance to authors in compiling lists of references for their publications, to editors in revising such lists, to publishers in setting reference standards for their authors and editors, and to librarians and others in formatting bibliographic citations.

Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/

Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the place where one can download over 33,000 free ebooks to read on a PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device.

It has ebooks that were previously published by bona fide publishers and digitized with the help of thousands of volunteers. Over 100,000 free ebooks are available through Partners, Affiliates and Resources.

Details available at :http://www.gutenberg.org/

Japan struggling to contain nuclear crisis

Racing against time to control a fast-escalating nuclear crisis, Japan on Wednesday placed top priority on two of the six reactors at the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex.

Find related information resources on Disaster in Japan

Radiation Emergencies
Radiation Exposure
Coping with Disasters

Available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

May God be with Japan

Developing Library Network (DELNET)

DELNET was started at the India International Centre Library in January 1988 and was registered as a society in 1992. It was initially supported by the National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT), Department of Scientific and Industrial Reseach, Government of India. It was subsequently supported by the National Informatics Centre, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India and The Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

DELNET has been established with the prime objective of promoting resource sharing among the libraries through the development of a network of libraries. It aims to collect, store, and disseminate information besides offering computerised services to users, to coordinate efforts for suitable collection development and also to reduce unnecessary duplication wherever possible.

SOURCE:http://delnet.nic.in/

"Boundaries for Books" campaign : a noble way to promote literacy

Private insurer Reliance Life today said that Sachin Tendulkar, who has just completed his 48th one-day century, also becomes one of the highest contributor for children in its philanthropic initiative.
The insurer has taken initiative to contribute Rs. 25,000 to underprivileged children for every 'six' scored in the cricket World Cup.
For this, it has joined hands with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Room to Read---a global non-profit organisation promoting literacy and gender equality in education for this campaign.
Tendulkar has so far hit 8 sixes, just behind West Indies' K A Pollard. Other Indian players who have contributed to the initiative include Virender Sehwag and Yusuf Pathan who hit 7 and 5 sixes, respectively.
"Over 5,000 children have already benefited under the Reliance Life Insurance 'Boundaries for Books Initiative' as players hit nearly 150 sixes in World Cup," the insurer said in a statement.
Every single six will provide at least 30 underserved children with access to fully functional libraries with local language and English books as well as trained teachers.

In addition to contributing for every six hit in the world cup, Reliance Life also contributed Rs. 10,000 for every four in the India-England match to the NGO under the same initiative, the company said.

Source : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/tendulkar-highest-contributor-to-our-child-fund-rel-life/761763/

I admire such an initiative, hope such a compaign will contribute a lot in removing illiteracy in our country.

Stay Clean and Healthy

Handwashing is easy to do and it's one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of many types of infection and illness in all settings—from your home and workplace to child care facilities and hospitals. Clean hands can stop germs from spreading from one person to another and throughout an entire community.

Learn More :http://www.cdc.gov/Features/HandWashing/

MEDPILOT

MEDPILOT is the search engine of the German National Library of Medicine (ZB MED Medicine.Health.)and the German Institute of Documentation and Information (DIMDI)

Available at:http://www.medpilot.de/

MBBS, BDS courses to include tobacco control?

NEW DELHI: For the first time, India is planning to introduce "tobacco control and cessation" into the curriculum of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS). Dental Council of India (DCI) in its last executive committee meeting has accepted the proposal, and the final approval is now pending with the Union health ministry. A draft syllabus on tobacco control and cessation in dental clinics for incorporation in the BDS curriculum is also ready.

http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/7676462.cms

Wikipedia : the free encyclopedia

Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Features of Google Scholar

Search diverse sources from one convenient place
Find articles, theses, books, abstracts or court opinions
Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
Learn about key scholarly literature in any area of research

SOURCE:http://scholar.google.co.in/

National Institute of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy

The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication.

SOURCE:http://publicaccess.nih.gov/

Seach Engines

Source:seohunts.com

Entrez, the life sciences search engine

The Entrez Global Query Cross-Database Search System is a powerful federated search engine, or web portal that allows users to search many discrete health sciences databases at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website. NCBI is part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), itself a department of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States.

Panel to pinpoint malaria death figure

NEW DELHI: How many people die of malaria in the country every year? The government is not sure and has, therefore, formed a 16-member expert group under the chairmanship of Dr Padam Singh, former additional director-general of Indian Council of Medical Research, to pinpoint the country's exact malaria deaths.

According to figures from the country's National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), India records around 1,000 deaths every year due to malaria. The World Health Organisation, on the other hand, says that 15,000 people die of malaria annually in India.

SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Panel-to-pinpoint-malaria-death-figure/articleshow/7643661.cms

India aims to have a doctor for every 1,000 people by 2031

NEW DELHI: India has just one doctor for 1,700 people. In comparison, the doctor population ratio globally is 1.5:1,000. An internal note prepared by Medical Council of India's 'Undergraduate Education Working Group' said the target being put in place for India is 1 doctor for 1,000 population by 2031.

The note, available with TOI, also looked at the situation in other countries. Somalia has one doctor for 10,000 population, Pakistan has one doctor for 1,923 population and Egypt has one doctor per 1,484 population. China's doctor population ratio stands at 1:1063, Korea 1:951, Brazil 1:844, Singapore 1:714, Japan 1:606, Thailand 1:500, UK 1:469, US 1:350 and Germany 1:296.

The note said an in-depth analysis of the number of doctors in the country was done. The next exercise that the working group undertook was to estimate the number of doctors needed to achieve this target. The working group looked at the existing number of medical colleges, the current intake of these colleges and the critical mass of doctors that would be needed to achieve this target.

Currently, there are 330 medical colleges with an intake of approximately 35,000 students. With this intake, the shortfall of doctors by 2031 is estimated to be 9.54 lakh.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-aims-to-have-a-doctor-for-every-1000-people-by-2031/articleshow/7643808.cms

New medical syllabus to stress on practical skills

NEW DELHI: Medical education in India is all set for a massive overhaul. Medical Council of India (MCI) is close to finalising a brand new curriculum for both undergraduate (UG) and post-graduate (PG) medical education that gives utmost importance to "clinical acumen rather than just theoretical knowledge".

As many as 74 special teams -- each comprising three experts (for example, one for internal medicine, neurology and cancer etc;) are putting finishing touches to vision documents on "how many doctors are presently needed in a particular stream, how many is now available, how to bridge this gap, what kind of content needs to be taught to students and what additional infrastructure is needed". The findings will be incorporated to frame the new medical education curriculum

Source: TOI

Dr. G. Balakrish Nair - a highly cited author in the field of cholera

Special Topics analysis of cholera research published from 2000–2010 has identified Dr. G. Balakrish Nair, Director of the National Institute of Cholera & Enteric Diseases (NICED) in Kolkata as a highly cited author in the field of cholera. He has contributed to 137 papers that have received 2,197 citations in the past decade, which ranks him at #1 by number of papers and #3 by total cites. He is also in the top 1% of scientists in the field of Microbiology in Essential Science Indicators from Thomson Reuters.
Source:http://sciencewatch.com/ana/st/cholera/11marSTcholNair/

Freedom for kidney failure patients

Docs Say Lightweight Ultrafiltration Machine Can Be Worn Around Waist
Durgesh Nandan Jha | TNN
New Delhi: Kidney failure patients might soon be able to get their routine dialysis carried out even while driving or watching a film.Scientists have developed a new lightweight ultrafiltration device a scaled down version of the conventional dialysis machine which can be worn around the waist just like a belt.It offers hope of mobility even as the system works to clear toxins in the blood and remove extra fluid.Developed by a group of international experts,this device has been successfully tested on animal models and a small number of end-stage kidney failure patients.
According to Dr Andrew Davenport,a UK-based doctor who is a part of this international project and is currently in India to address the 4Congress of the International Society of Haemodialysis,large-scale trials are expected over the next three years after which the product can be made commercially available.The new technology,he said,will allow patients to go about their regular business while undergoing dialysis.

Elsevier: SciVerse

SciVerse - an unprecedented platform for trusted content and applications that accelerate scientific discovery
•2,500 journals and 11,000 books
•Averages almost a half-million additions each year
•Includes digitized versions of pre-1995 journal content
•Goes as far back as 1823 issues of The Lancet
Combining your familiar Elsevier products with a new discovery "SciVerse Hub" and community developed applications.

Budget- social sector allocation

GDP gallops but spending on public health schemes shrinks

2 Mar, 2011 0402hrs IST TNN[ Rema Nagarajan ]

Belying the celebration in the budget of a “remarkable fiscal year” and the return of the economy to “its pre-crisis growth trajectory”, some of the most crucial public health programmes have suffered slashed budgets. In a few cases, the allocation has been increased but by a laughably small amount compared to the much-lauded increase in GDP and in the enhanced allocation to the health ministry. The aam admi seems to have been shortchanged in healthcare.

The country’s GDP is estimated to increase by 37% from 2009-10 to 2011-12 and the allocation for the health ministry has increased by 33% in the same period. Yet, the allocation for the various national disease control programmes has gone down by 14% over these two years from Rs 1,933 crore to Rs 1,664 crore.

Despite the latest National Family Health Survey revealing that the coverage of the universal immunization programme is a mere 43.5%, way below even half the target population, even the budget for routine immunization has gone down from Rs 618 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 511 crore in the current budget.

This is when over 26 million children are born in the country every year who need to be covered by the routine immunization programme which protects them against six diseases. India accounts for over 21% of under-five deaths in the world.

Paradoxically, the National Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, which is meant to track incidence of diseases, detect disease trends and risk factors and also help to devise public health strategies to tackle them, has seen an increase in its allocation. But the money to tackle the diseases being tracked by this programme has gone down.

Quite inexplicably, despite the increase in the incidence and the geographical spread of vector borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Japanese encephalitis, the budget of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme has been reduced from Rs 568 crore to Rs 437 crore. Even the TB control programme’s funds have been cut down, even as a large number of patients are struggling to get expensive second line treatment for drug resistant TB. The only public health programme that has been enhanced significantly is the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke. The funding for this programme has been more than doubled.

But considering the amount involved is just Rs 20 crore, that’s not saying much.

With such poor allocations, there is great concern among public health experts about the ability of these already underfunded public health programmes to effectively address the needs of the poorest who are the most susceptible to ill health.

Govt. doctors desertions

NEW DELHI: Two of India's best known medical institutions -- All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore -- have seen the highest number of doctors leave for "greener pastures" from the public sector.

Read more: Aiims, Nimhans lead pack in govt doc desertions - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Aiims-Nimhans-lead-pack-in-govt-doc-desertions/articleshow/7604214.cms#ixzz1FWWlmyGN

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

NEW DELHI: With an increasing number of younsters being struck down by the disease, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to set up a taskforce that will oversee research on NAFLD and devise ways to prevent, diagnose and treat serious liver disorders like cirrhosis and cancer.

Read more: ICMR seeks to contain non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/ICMR-seeks-to-contain-non-alcoholic-fatty-liver-disease/articleshow/7603457.cms#ixzz1FWToM32j