Find out what a Vision Science Librarian does
VISION SCIENCE LIBRARIANS AND THE VIRTUAL VISION LIBRARY
“What is the latest scientific information relating to ocular herpes?”
“I need a literature search on the fitting of contact lenses for keratoconic patients.”
“What was the origin of the visual acuity charts used in the ETDRS?
For the answers to these as well as hundreds of other questions, vision educators and practitioners increasingly turn to the librarians who comprise the Association of Vision Science Librarians (AVSL). Optometrists, ophthalmologists, opticians, vision educators, other vision professionals, and even members of the general public frequently use our information services, and they find that our aggregated library collections are an extraordinary resource for the vision world. Together our libraries comprise the Virtual Vision Library.
Within the past quarter century the function of librarians has changed from that of passive keepers of the storehouse of knowledge to active intermediaries between information and the consumers who need it. While the popular perception of librarians might still lag behind the reality, it inevitably will change as librarians continue to champion the causes of the virtual library and the information superhighway. With the emergence of electronic technologies, every aspect of library service has evolved, offering immense benefits to library users. In today’s libraries computers – not books – are librarians’ most important tools. Thanks to new technologies we are doing a much better job of connecting our users with information than was possible even as recently as ten years ago.
Libraries and librarians have been redefined by the electronic revolution. Our libraries should no longer be viewed as archives containing a finite number of books and journals, but rather as gateways to information, regardless of its location. Libraries are now a service, not a place. Perhaps the information you seek does not even exist in print: an increasing number of publications appear ONLY in electronic form. No problem—the vision librarian will track it down for you somewhere within the Virtual Vision Library.
Vision librarians are experts at using such resources as electronic journals, online indexes, electronic mail, fax technology, and the World Wide Web to find the information that you need and deliver it to you promptly. In today’s world, the location of a piece of information is almost irrelevant as long as the librarian can find it, capture it, and deliver it to you. Thanks to state-of-the-art technology, an article in a library thousands of miles away can be delivered to a professor or practitioner who needs it in under an hour. The efficiencies generated by modern technologies allow us to use our time much more effectively than was possible in bygone days. Many information requests can be fielded in minutes instead of hours, enabling us to handle many more of them than we could in the past.
Technology has brought together—virtually—vision librarians from all over the world, revolutionized our service, and reinforced our mutual supportiveness. It has made the work of AVSL members much more effective and dynamic. Now, instead of seeing each other infrequently at conferences, we are in daily contact, and this translates into increased cooperation and enhanced services for our patrons. The benefits of electronic technologies were only a dream when the founders of AVSL first joined together to make their collective resources more widely available.
AVSL began in December 1968, when seven vision librarians got together at a conference of the American Academy of Optometry to create a vehicle for cooperative library development. Today AVSL has over 130 members in 14 countries.
Over the years, AVSL has been at the forefront of vision librarianship. Noteworthy among its achievements are the publication of eight editions of the Union List of Vision-Related Serials, regular updates of Guidelines for Academic Vision Science Libraries, several editions of Standards for Vision Science Libraries, two editions of the Association of Visual Science Librarians Handbook, several editions of AVSL Staffing, Status, and Salary Survey, and eight editions of Opening Day Book Collection: Visual Science. The organization has also developed a core list of audiovisual materials, implemented the AVSL reflector—a type of online discussion list that is located at the University of California, Berkeley Library and serves AVSL members, and created the AVSL website located at http://optometry.berkeley.edu/~library/AVSL.HTM, and an additional website at webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/dept/websites/eyeres.htm. A special issue of Optometric Education on vision librarianship was published in the fall of 1997. AVSL also works to ensure that, even in this age of electronic information, libraries create archives to preserve the history of knowledge development in our field.
This cooperative spirit, which has been a part of this organization from the beginning, has been enhanced greatly by electronic technologies. The holdings of our individual libraries are now resources available to all of us. A request for information can appear on the desks of all AVSL members within seconds after receipt by any member, and collective resources are often used to meet such needs, often within minutes. This spirit of mutual support among the members of AVSL is the sine qua non of the Virtual Vision Library and greatly contributes to the effectiveness of individual members.
So the next time you need to find answers to vision-related questions—such as those at the beginning of this article—contact a vision librarian. If you know of a vision librarian who is not a member of AVSL, encourage him or her to join the organization. You will find that the Virtual Vision Library can be your gateway to the entire world of vision-related information.
Bette Anton, University of California-Berkeley
Douglas K. Freeman, Indiana University
Judith Schaeffer Young, Wills Eye Hospital
Maureen Watson, Ferris State University
Elaine Wells, SUNY College of Optometry
BPEI library
MASS EYE library
D.K.Freeman at work
small private ophth library