Purpose
To provide
reference assistance for research, teaching, administrative and patient care to
MUSM faculty, staff, residents, students, and community members.
Procedures For Requesting Reference
Services
Ask at the
circulation desk in the Medical Library for the Reference Librarian on duty.
The telephone number is (478) 301-4056 or (478) 301-2830. An e-mail message may
also be sent to the Reference Staff: reference.ill@gain.mercer.edu.
Hours Of Service
A Reference
Librarian is usually available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Types Of Service
Quick
Reference: Although most medical information should be researched by the
requester, the Reference Services staff can assist you in locating factual
information contained in the reference book collection, such as addresses and
telephone numbers of health professionals, medical schools, publishers, medical
abbreviations, definitions, etc. Questions may be posed in person or by mail,
telephone, or electronic mail. Normally, these questions should be answered
within minutes of your inquiry.
Research
Assistance: For more in-depth questions, Reference staff can help you
determine the best index and reference sources for your topic and show you how
to use them. A wide variety of indexes, abstracting services, statistical
sources, etc. are available.
Locating
Materials: The Reference staff can tell you if we own specific books,
journals, and audiovisuals and can help you find them in the Library.
Verification: Many books and journal
articles cannot be located due to incorrect or incomplete citations. This
includes many of the references cited at the end of professional journal
articles! Reference staff will assist you in identifying the correct citation
when you are trying to find a specific article.
Reference
Checking: The Reference staff will check references attached to manuscripts
being submitted for publication for accuracy and for conformation to the format
required by the journal. Turn-around time will vary with workload and length of
reference list.
GaIN: If
you need any kind of help with GaIN, from logging on to using the databases to
finding out what we own, just ask for reference assistance. To inquire about
GaIN membership, contact the GaIN staff at (478) 301-2515.
Online Services
Unassisted
Searching: Users may search the Library's book, journal, and audiovisual
collections via MedCat, the Medical Library's online catalog.
GaIN includes several electronic resources, many
offering full-text of journals and textbooks (password required for GaIN
access). Links to PubMed (MEDLINE), Mercer's own Patient
Education and Consumer Health Information web site (PEACHI), and other resources are
available via the Internet from all public-access computers in the
Library.
Librarian
Searching: The library staff answers more complex reference questions that
include searches of the printed and online indexes and investigations into the
book and journal literature. Questions are accepted by telephone (478)
301-4056, mail, email (reference.ill@gain.mercer.edu), and in person. Whenever possible, please
ask to speak directly to a reference librarian to ensure that the searcher
understands all aspects of your request. Response time is generally two hours,
but may be longer depending on the complexity of the problem. Searches may be
picked up at the Library, mailed, emailed, or faxed to the requester (if the
output is not too long). There may be a charge associated with your on-line
search--please check with the reference librarian.
