1997 NLHLA Annual Workshop

Stress Management

Presented by Barbara Thorburn, Guidance Counsellor, Centre for Nursing Studies.

Stress is a condition of living. You know you are living if you experience it.

Stress is everyday wear and tear, mental and physical strain, an imbalance between the resources we have and the demands placed on us.

Stress is often viewed in a negative way. We think danger, tense up, and feel overwhelmed. We generally miss the positive effects it can have. It can motivate you. Creativity often tends to flow when you are under stress.

The key to managing stress is self-awareness:

  • What pushes your buttons?
  • What resources and reserves do you have?
  • What strategies are most helpful to you?

Sources of stress include:

  • Personal: financial, parenting, interpersonal relationships
  • Work-Related: restructuring, downsizing
  • Environment: weathers, crowds, lighting, air

Stress can be real or imagined. Either will cause the same stress reaction. It is not the event, but your perception of the event that determines your level of stress. Stress can affect people both physically and psychologically. Factors which affect your perception of stress include:

  • Personality
  • Attitude
  • Self-Confidence
  • Coping Mechanisms
  • Support Systems

People need to work on developing the skills necessary to cope with stress. These include time management, assertiveness, and conflict/anger management. Everyone has their own set of stress management tools. You need a good combination of everything. The challenge is to find what tools work best for you in what situation.

Regional Health Boards and Resource Sharing

Presented by George Beckett, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

National Developments

  • Canadian Locations of Journals Indexed for Medline is no longer being published after this year.
  • There are still questions about the future of Romulus
  • Docline usage is increasing in Canada. CISTI is NLM’s Canadian representative. Libraries are encouraged to use Docline.
  • NLC is only accepting electronic submissions to its union list.

The Health Sciences Library

  • There is a proposal in the works to provide services from the HSL to the regions at a fixed rate
  • The rate will be based on historical transactions with the HSL
  • All services will be offered: document delivery, databases access, mediated computer searches, training, etc.

Docline and Serhold

  • Docline is the NLM electronic location and document delivery system
  • Serhold is the NLM database of serial holdings for libraries participating in Docline
  • The HSL is fully active in Docline and can input any library’s holdings into the Serhold database

Provincial Union List & AV Catalogue

  • Are these tools useful? Should the HSL continue producing them?
  • Are libraries prepared to submit holdings updates regularly?
  • Is the University catalogue an adequate replacement for these tools?
  • Do you want print or electronic versions?

Free Medlines on the WWW

Presented by Catherine Sheehan, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

This was a hands-on introduction to some of the sources out there on the web. A major focus was: Do you know what you’re getting for free? Questions to ask yourself include:

  • Full database or only a subset?
  • Keyword or MESH search capabilities?
  • Are boolean operators allowed?
  • Can you set limits?
  • Is the search interface easy to use?
  • What kind of help is built in?

There was a introduction to web lists to free medlines, which are updated frequently. One example is Medical Matrix.

Most of the free Medlines have company or society sponsors. They often feature advertisements. They generally ask you to register. Be prepared for them to change frequently.

Creating a WWW Page

Presented by David Howse, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Steps involved in creating a web page are:

  • Determining the reason for your page
  • Determining what you want to put on your page
  • Choosing a design or structure for your page
  • Setting up a directory struture for the location of your files
  • Finding a place to store your files. A web server is necessary if you want to publish your page on the web.

There was a practice session in the computer lab where people could try making a page using basic commands and also could reformat an existing library handout into a web document.

There were numerous handouts, which included:

  • HTML Command Cheat Sheet
  • HTML Codes for Background Colors
  • Converting an Existing File to HTML
  • Resources for Web Page Creators: Graphical Resources
  • Guestbook Instructions