The library’s long term pilot of the BrowZine app for monitoring tables of contents (TOCs) for recent journal issues is ending this month. 

We have identified some free alternative apps, such as Read by QxMD, that work much like BrowZine.  The best option for you will depend upon the journals you want to monitor and the kind of device you have. 

Tell us what journals you interested in monitoring, and we’ll help you identify alternatives to BrowZine.   

Dear friends and colleagues,

As we come to the end of the year, we wish you and yours a happy and refreshing holiday and look forward to the new semester.

As you have heard, the proposed library fee did not receive the required 60% of the student vote.  We want to let you know that the Libraries have been working hard to address current budget issues.  The good news is that we are able to avoid a large journal cut this fiscal year.  A message to faculty about current and future budget expectations will be shared with faculty late January. 

In the meantime, here are some things you can do:

• Make sure you know how much the library pays for subscriptions for the journals you write and review for.  Do you know how much subscription prices for the journals you use have risen in recent years?   Ask us. 
• Learn more about how open access publishing initiatives like the Open Library of Medicine can provide long term relief from annual increases of 6-10% or more on subscriptions
• Include funds for library resources in grant applications
• Communicate your concerns to your chair, dean, and to the library committee
• Adopt a book
• Honor a person of your choice with books
• Join Friends of the MU Libraries
• Join the Library Society
• Have your development officer talk with ours, Matt Gaunt

Attention BrowZine users.  We are sorry to report that this service will be discontinued beginning January 1^st.  However, there are some other options for reviewing tables of contents for many of your favorite journals.  Contact us to learn more. 

We continue to celebrate the centennial of the Ellis Library building. Please join us for our rededication ceremony on January 15, 3:00-5:00, in the grand reading room. Author Steve Weinberg will give a brief presentation on his upcoming publication, A Place of Visions: 100 years of the University of Missouri Libraries.

We are pleased to welcome librarian Timothy Perry to Special Collections in Ellis Library. Tim recently completed a Master of Information degree at the University of Toronto, with specializations in Library and Information Science and in Book History and Print Culture. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Classics and French from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), a Master’s degree in Classics from the University of Canterbury, and a PhD in Classics from the University of Toronto.

Are you interested in writing for a new open access point of care resource, Open Library of Medicine? 

University of California Press, PLOS, and a growing collective of partners are working on the idea for a peer reviewed open access service that allows people to write and use point-of-care summaries at a cost that is multiple times less than current commercial products. 

Interested in becoming a paid author/contributor?  Complete this brief (3-5 minute) survey.

Why are they doing this?

• Physicians at medical schools and teaching hospitals author a large share of the content in point of care tools.  
• Trainees and physicians at those institutions are also key users of these, and their institutions are key buyers. 
• If the collective faculty and staff across these institutions write and consume much of the content, why does it cost the same institutions ever-increasing premiums to re-acquire their collective knowledge? 
• The Open Library of Medicine publishing initiative envisions an open access service that allows people to write and use point-of-care summaries at a cost that is multiple times less than current commercial products. 
• Open Library of Medicine will be kick-started with foundation grants.
• When it has enough content to have parity with the current fee-based point of care tools, sponsor institutions will join the initiative and share the cost of supporting the lower cost and non-restricted access of Open Library of Medicine.
• Editors and authors will be paid honoraria. They can keep or pay this forward to their institutions to offset costs for the initiative.

Learn more about the Open Library of Medicine publishing initiative

Student Leaders informed the Acting Director of Libraries last evening that the library student fee referendum placed on the student election ballot failed. In order to pass, the referendum required 60% of voters to vote yes. We were informed last evening that only 54% of the votes were yes votes, and that percentage was adjusted slightly downward by them this morning. 

We want to thank the students who supported the libraries, those who participated in the discussions, and to all of those who took the time to vote. Given the outcome of the vote, we will continue to serve the needs of our users in the most effective way possible, with available resources. We continue to value input from our users, and we look forward to working with you as we move forward.

Deb Ward, Director, Health Sciences Libraries