Diane Kovacs <diane@kovacs.com> is the primary instructor for this course.

Course Description: In this hands-on course you will learn to create an e-library collection development plan for free and fee-based Web-accessible resources for health and medicine. Students will focus on one developing a collection plan for one library patron group of their choice, for the kind of library they work in (e.g., hospital, medical center, medical school, allied health programs, public libraries, academic libraries, other special libraries, etc.) Patron groups may include: Healthcare consumers, physicians of general or particular specialty, nurses, pharmacists, medical school students, allied health students, biomedical researchers, etc. Participants will end the course with a good draft electronic library collection development plan. This is a five part course. Each part includes lecture, discussion and hands-on activities that will step participants through creating or assessing a collection plan for developing a health and medicine e-library collection: 1. collection plan abstract or introduction 2. collection strategy 3. collection organization plan 4. collection maintenance plan We will use examples of good health and medical e-libraries on the Web to illustrate each part. Participants will receive a print workbook to use during the course session as well. The syllabus is also online at http://www.kovacs.com/mlacecolldev.html. The instructor has written "Electronic Collection Development for Consumer Health Information" which was published in the Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, v. 7, issue 4, 2003 as well as Chapter 4. "Medical Information Resources" in The Kovacs Guide to Electronic Library Collection Development: Essential Core Subject Collections, Selection Criteria, and Guidelines by Kovacs, Diane K. & Robinson, Kara L. (2004) Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Agenda: Lectures & Discussions * Phase 1. Collection Planning o Introduction and Overview: Planning for the health and medicine e-library collection o Why create health and medicine e-library collections? o Definition of e-resources and e-libraries. o Planning for collecting and organizing health and medicine e-resources o Preliminary planning for health and medicine Web resource collections: * Phase 2. Collection Strategies * Health & Medicine Resource Collection Strategies: Resource Types and User Information Needs o Selection criteria for e-resources o Web resource licensing guides and discussions o Evaluating Health and Medicine e-resources o Health and Medicine E-Library Collection Development Tools * Phase 3. Collection Organization o Information Architecture and Web Resource Collection Organization and Access for Health and Medicine E-libraries * Phase 4. Collection Maintenance o Health and Medicine E-library/Web Resource Collection Maintenance Web-based Learning Activities: * Activity 1. Review of Electronic Collection Development Policies for Health and Medicine E-Libraries * Activity 2. Preliminary Planning Questions for the Health & Medicine E-Library * Activity 3. Checklist for Developing a Collection Development Plan for the Health and Medicine E- Library * Activity 4. How and Where to Collect Health and Medicine Web Resources * Activity 5. Identifying, Evaluating, and Selecting Health and Medicine Web Resources * Activity 6. Planning Organization and Access for the Health and Medicine E- Library * Activity 7. Health and Medicine E-library Collection Maintenance Plan Final Project/Health and Medicine E-Library Collection Plan

The instructional methods used include Lecture, Demonstration, Discussion, Hands-on Exercises, and Other.