FY 23 Annual Report
Health Sciences Library System
Resources
HSLS supports a robust online collection of e-journals, e-books, databases, specialized software, and a usage-driven collection of print materials.
The current economic climate necessitates that HSLS build and manage our collection in the most cost-effective way. Subscription costs continue to rise at rates above general inflation. In response to the changing information needs of our diverse user population, HSLS carefully analyzes usage statistics, publication patterns, and other metrics to identify materials to be discontinued and new items to be added.
Online Collections
500 new e-resources, including over 300 e-books, were added to the HSLS Collection during FY 23. An upgrade to the SAGE Premier journals package added 60 new health sciences-related journals. And, a collaboration with anatomy instructors led to the addition of Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy.
The successful e-book acquisitions method patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) was used to purchase nearly 40 e-books triggered by patron use.
The UPMC Collection
HSLS’s UPMC Health Sciences Digital Library continues to provide a high-quality interface that streamlines discovery and use of HSLS’s clinical and point-of-care resources to address UPMC’s patient-centered clinical and research information needs. Additional enhancements to the website continue to be developed for the UPMC community to support enhanced functionality and to provide digital collaboration spaces for UPMC libraries and information professionals.
UPMC Health Sciences Digital Library Collection in FY 23 includes:
9,600 e-journals
6,300 e-books
80 databases
Physical Collections
In addition to the large digital collection, Falk Library provides a print based, 6,123 item circulating collection to enhance the overall library holdings or to provide materials that are unavailable in digital formats.
The HSLS Medical Humanities Collection continued to evolve in FY 23, by transferring in relevant books from HSLS’s Leisure Reading Collection. Due to ongoing Scaife Hall construction, a small number of Medical Humanities books are currently available via onsite storage with plans for full collection reunification in FY 25.
In FY 23, HSLS continued fulfillment services for the University community via Pitt’s integrated library system, Alma. Over 325 HSLS collection items were scanned and shared, expanding the HSLS collection’s reach and impact.
HSLS continues to support the popular Leisure Reading Collection consisting of noteworthy books and bestsellers. This collection provides our patrons with a break from scholarly and academic reading with a variety of newly published general fiction and non-fiction books.
Document Delivery
300 items scanned into Alma for Pitt access
4,780 articles and book chapters provided to libraries nationwide
For items not in our collection, HSLS offers subsidized Document Delivery Service to support the information needs of health sciences faculty, students, and staff. Between the HSLS collection and our subsidized Document Delivery Service, health sciences faculty, students, and staff have quick access to virtually all high-quality heath sciences publications produced in the last two centuries.
HSLS shares items from our collection with other universities and health sciences centers via Docline and OCLC technologies. In FY 23, HSLS lent over 4,780 articles and book chapters to such organizations. This is a decrease from previous years, due to the numerous print journal volumes that were sent to inaccessible off-site storage during the ongoing Scaife Hall construction. as due to ongoing Scaife Hall construction numerous print-based bound journals were sent to inaccessible off site storage. The full HSLS print collection will be reunified in FY 25.
