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| Winter 2003 Issue |
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Doctor’s Endowment Sends Librarians Around the WorldWest Virginia University’s Health Sciences Library was one of the
first of its peers to use the Internet to electronically transmit requested
journal articles and other materials directly to the desktop of a student
or doctor. Thanks to the Robert L. Murphy Health Sciences Library Faculty Development
Endowment created by Dr. V.K. Raju, librarian Nancy Wasson, head of Access
Services, was able to showcase such HSL achievements at an international
conference in Munich. “This gift has been tremendously helpful as it allows Health Sciences
Library personnel to learn new and better ways to serve the needs of our
users and to let the world know WVU is developing and implementing improvements
of its own,” said Terrance Burton, Director of the Health Sciences
Library. Burton considers improvements to the quality of the library’s service
locally and the advancement of the profession nationally and internationally
as important elements of the role of library faculty. “The creation of the Robert L. Murphy Health Sciences Center Library
Faculty Development Endowment by Dr. Raju gives us the resources to fulfill
those responsibilities,” Burton said. Dr. Raju, a Morgantown-based ophthalmologist, is a longtime advocate
of libraries. “Someone said if you want to learn a subject, you consult a book.
When you want to understand a subject, you consult a library,” Raju
said. “Libraries are the most wonderful places in a university.” After settling in Morgantown in 1977, Raju quickly made the WVU Health
Sciences Library a regular haunt. He praises the former director Robert
Murphy for assisting him in his research of the history of ophthalmology. “Not only me – a lot of people thought very highly of Bob Murphy.
When he was retiring, I thought it was an opportunity to honor him,”
Raju said. “What better place than a library.” Along with honoring someone he respected, Raju’s aim in establishing
the endowment was furthering knowledge. The endowment generates funds to be used for Health Sciences Library
faculty development activities with preference given to travel opportunities
to learn about other library systems and operations and to maintain currency
in leading edge advancements in the library and the information science
field and to share innovative approaches to library services with our
peers. Along with Wasson, three other Health Sciences librarians have already
benefited from Raju’s gift. Sally Brown, Jean Siebert, and Virginia
Bender used the funds to attend a conference in Dallas in the spring of
2002. They presented a poster about the HSL’s innovative use of matrix
management to improve library service by the Information Services librarians. Raju, a strong believer in staff development, is pleased to hear about
the impact of his support. “I always believed there are three solutions to every problem. First
is education. Second is education. Third is education,” Raju said.
“As long as we are one place, we think nobody is better than us.
That is a tragic thing – thinking that we know everything. Perfection
is a moving target. We should keep on learning.” That is the goal of faculty and staff at the Health Sciences Library.
Wasson sees a two-fold benefit in attending and presenting at professional
conferences. First, conferences give librarians a chance to meet with peers, learn
what’s happening at other academic libraries, and discover what new
technologies and services are on the horizon. Conferences also provide
an opportunity for librarians to share their accomplishments in the field,
such as Wasson’s trip to Munich to discuss the Health Sciences Library’s
digital document delivery services. “The libraries are often not in the forefront, and I think it’s
important to make it known what we are doing,” Wasson said. “This
kind of funding will enable us to get out and do just that.” |
| Ex Libris is published quarterly
by the WVU Libraries | |
