USC's Health Sciences Libraries
William Clintworth, Interim Director Norris Medical Library & the Health Sciences Libraries

Attempting to envision the future of the USC Health Sciences Libraries (HSL) in the coming decade is a far easier task today than it might have been in the early 1980s. If a similar challenge had been posed then, even the most gifted visionary could not have predicted the startling innovations of the past two decades or the overwhelming impact technology has had on the operation of libraries and the information resources they can provide. For health sciences libraries, whose users depend on the rapid dissemination of research and clinical data, technology is the driving force in changing the current paradigm from a model of centralized information to one where users expect information to be made available at any time or place. During the past two decades, society has learned to not only accept, but to expect, rapid change in institutions and overnight shifts in long-held traditions and behaviors. The evolving role of libraries is no exception. Technology has enabled, and users have now mandated, that information be available on a distributive basis. As a result, we have some clear indications of what the next ten years will bring, because, in fact, the early changes are already with us.

At the present time, approximately 30% of the 2,500 HSL current journal subscriptions are available online to the USC community. Individuals are accessing this electronic content at an astounding rate, due primarily to the fact that electronic access has become integral to the daily work of our faculty and students, and this demand will clearly accelerate in the future. Researchers, clinicians, faculty and students will expect to access the scientific journal literature from any remote site. During the coming decade, it will not only be necessary to increase electronic access to the remaining 70% of the titles but to significantly enhance the breadth of the collection to keep pace with the demand and the proliferation of information. The need for a strong and readily accessible biomedical collection is further heightened by the Keck School of Medicine's ambitious vision to become one of the nation's top ten biomedical research institutions by the year 2010. In order to achieve this goal, it is imperative to have the infrastructure in place for conducting high quality and broadly based research, including the vital biomedical literature resources that serve as the foundation for scientific inquiry.

Technology will also have a substantial impact on how and where information is utilized in teaching and clinical environments. Already we are seeing portable personal digital assistants (PDAs) being used extensively by students, residents, and physicians to access drug information, electronic books, medical calculators, and to record and organize clinical notes and patient data. As wireless networks become commonplace in the next decade, it will further accelerate the usage of information tools at the point-of-care in clinical situations. Libraries will need to expand the formats of information resources to provide faculty and students with access to applications that will take full advantage of these new technological capabilities and efficiencies.

Will print collections still be necessary given the proliferation of digital information? Absolutely. Digital and print formats have very different characteristics, with each format serving specific functions and critical needs of the scientific community. Digital information provides several key advantages including rapid access and search capabilities; its inherent flexibility in terms of format options; its adaptability for use and integration in different software applications; and its ability to link instantaneously to other related sources of information. There is no doubt; digital information is an extremely useful tool. However, it cannot now, nor in the foreseeable future, provide permanence. Compared to paper, information in digital format is highly vulnerable to physical degradation and obsolescence due to superseded technologies. Paper has the ability to be preserved in a useable form for hundreds of years, whereas magnetic data has a lifespan of ten to thirty years. Optical storage formats have a longer physical lifespan but as with magnetic data, are unreliable for long-term storage and usability since there is no accepted standard for guaranteeing continued access. Furthermore, in many cases, publishers of electronic content only lease access to the data and thus libraries do not "own" the data and cannot access it once the leasing arrangement is terminated. It is crucial for academic libraries not only to provide current access to materials but also to preserve the scholarly record for future research. Until libraries can be assured that digital information can meet the archival standards necessary for the continuity of the scientific record, they will need to maintain print as well as digital collections.

In addition to providing resources in a much more distributed environment during the next ten years, libraries in academic medical centers will also significantly broaden their responsibilities within their parent institutions. Information management in tomorrow's environment will no longer be narrowly restricted to traditional library resources but will be extended to assisting with the organization and management of the vast amount of research data and clinical information generated within the healthcare enterprise. This information represents an invaluable institutional asset of the university and the Health Sciences Campus. Unfortunately, at USC as in most complex academic medical environments, the potential value of this key information asset is vastly underutilized.

Currently, massive amounts of data are created and used through myriad independent systems to meet specific clinical and research needs. However, because there is no integration among these systems, data remains isolated in the unit in which it is created and is, therefore, unusable in multiple contexts. Sacrificed are opportunities for collaboration; data mining for research, patient care, and educational applications; as well as efficiencies gained through non-redundant data collection and management. Librarians, as information specialists, can be extremely effective partners in helping to build and integrate enterprise-wide solutions to these problems due to their skills in the organization, structure, and retrieval of information, as well as in database utilization and design issues. The Health Sciences Libraries have already begun to collaborate with other leaders on the Health Sciences Campus in an effort to initiate the long-term planning efforts required for campus-wide system integration and this will be a major area of focus in the coming decade.

In yet another area, health science curricula have begun to shift from lecture-based formats to problem and case-based approaches to foster analytical and lifelong learning skills in students. As a result of this shift in emphasis, the Health Sciences Libraries in the coming decade will become much more integrated into the formal curriculum by assisting in teaching the informatics skills necessary for students to effectively identify and use information resources throughout their careers.

The next ten years will bring enormous opportunities for the Health Sciences Libraries due in part to the unprecedented number of new tools being spawned through ongoing technological advances but also due to the rapidly changing healthcare environment where information management is now assuming a pivotal role. With a demonstrated record of adaptability and innovation, the USC Health Sciences Libraries are eagerly reinventing themselves to meet the challenges ahead.