Purpose
To provide reference assistance for research, teaching, administrative and patient care to MUSM faculty, staff, residents, students, and community members.
Procedures For Requesting Reference Services
Ask at the circulation desk in the Medical Library for the Reference Librarian on duty. The telephone number is (478) 301-4056 or (478) 301-2830. An e-mail message may also be sent to the Reference Staff: reference.ill@gain.mercer.edu.
Hours Of Service
A Reference Librarian is usually available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Types Of Service
Quick Reference: Although most medical information should be researched by the requester, the Reference Services staff can assist you in locating factual information contained in the reference book collection, such as addresses and telephone numbers of health professionals, medical schools, publishers, medical abbreviations, definitions, etc. Questions may be posed in person or by mail, telephone, or electronic mail. Normally, these questions should be answered within minutes of your inquiry.
Research Assistance: For more in-depth questions, Reference staff can help you determine the best index and reference sources for your topic and show you how to use them. A wide variety of indexes, abstracting services, statistical sources, etc. are available.
Locating Materials: The Reference staff can tell you if we own specific books, journals, and audiovisuals and can help you find them in the Library.
Verification: Many books and journal articles cannot be located due to incorrect or incomplete citations. This includes many of the references cited at the end of professional journal articles! Reference staff will assist you in identifying the correct citation when you are trying to find a specific article.
Reference Checking: The Reference staff will check references attached to manuscripts being submitted for publication for accuracy and for conformation to the format required by the journal. Turn-around time will vary with workload and length of reference list.
GaIN: If you need any kind of help with GaIN, from logging on to using the databases to finding out what we own, just ask for reference assistance. To inquire about GaIN membership, contact the GaIN staff at (478) 301-2515.
Online Services
Unassisted Searching: Users may search the Library's book, journal, and audiovisual collections via MedCat, the Medical Library's online catalog. GaIN includes several electronic resources, many offering full-text of journals and textbooks (password required for GaIN access). Links to PubMed (MEDLINE), Mercer's own Patient Education and Consumer Health Information web site (PEACHI), and other resources are available via the Internet from all public-access computers in the Library.
Librarian Searching: The library staff answers more complex reference questions that include searches of the printed and online indexes and investigations into the book and journal literature. Questions are accepted by telephone (478) 301-4056, mail, email (reference.ill@gain.mercer.edu), and in person. Whenever possible, please ask to speak directly to a reference librarian to ensure that the searcher understands all aspects of your request. Response time is generally two hours, but may be longer depending on the complexity of the problem. Searches may be picked up at the Library, mailed, emailed, or faxed to the requester (if the output is not too long). There may be a charge associated with your on-line search--please check with the reference librarian.
