Development of a Web-based faculty publications database

INTRODUCTION

Founded in 1961, the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) has been committed to exemplary teaching, patient care, and research. The Lyman Maynard Stowe Library is an integral part of UCHC, supporting the medical and dental education programs, clinical treatment programs, various graduate programs, and faculty research efforts. Each year, information services librarians collect UCHC faculty publication citation information for the office of assistant vice chancellor for research for statistical purposes.

UCHC librarians capitalized upon the opportunity to use the journal publication data to provide a value-added service to the UCHC academic community. In 1999, these citations were combined with faculty information and formulated into the Web-based Faculty Publications Database.* This database currently contains journal publication citations of full-time faculty from 1996 to 1998 along with brief summaries of faculty members' professional information. Objectives in developing the Web-based Faculty Publications Database were to enhance communication between UCHC faculty, students, and the medical community by increasing awareness of faculty research; providing aid to students seeking a preceptor in their area of interest; increasing ease of access to faculty research for faculty, students, and other library users; and promoting UCHC research throughout the larger medical research community.

BACKGROUND

The use of publication citation information to establish an in-house faculty publications database was not new. In 1994, Mansheim and Thompson [1] published an extensive survey of 128 academic health sciences libraries. Of these libraries, thirty-two had produced a faculty publications database with two libraries reporting only journal citations in their databases. At that time, automated databases were stored primarily on disk, with some storage on central tape. In subsequent years, Web and client/server applications have developed as significant means of sharing information. While reports of varied uses for and aspects of faculty publication databases could be found (e.g., Vieira and Faraino [2]), reports describing a Web-based faculty publications database and the methodology used to develop it were rare. One such report was published online by the Chemistry Library at Indiana University Bloomington [3]. This report contained the methodology and chronology of the development of a database that used Microsoft Access 97 and Cold Fusion application software. Searching the Internet using AltaVista and Northern Light yielded a half-dozen Web-based searchable faculty publication database sites (including the UCHC database) established by American medical or biomedical institutions. These sites varied in their complexity and presentation.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Data collection

The citation data used in the Faculty Publications Database originated from multiple electronic resources including MEDLINE, SciSearch, Current Contents, BIOSIS, HStar, Sport, TOXLINE, and Zoological Record Online. Results obtained for use in the Faculty Publications Database included the article title, author's last name and first name initials, journal title, volume, issue, publication date and year, and page numbers in plain text. A list of UCHC full-time faculty and their contact information was necessary to correlate the citations and faculty information accurately. This faculty information was received in various file formats from the medical school, dental school, human resources, and UCHC online staff directory. It included faculty last name, first name, degree, title, department, location, mail code, phone extension, fax, e-mail address, and Web site uniform resource locators (URLs).

Date processing and database construction

After considering various database applications, Microsoft Access 97 was selected for the Faculty Publications Database for its ease of use and interoperability with Microsoft Internet Information Server. All data was converted to plain text if not received as such. Through the use of Word macros, delimiters were set so that the files could be imported to the Access database. Journal citation information was imported into a publication table, while faculty information was imported into a faculty table. Article number and faculty number were assigned for each article title and faculty name respectively. Querying the publication table and faculty table using last names created a link table, which contained only the link number, article number, and faculty number.

Web accessing

The Microsoft Access 97 databases are accessed from a Web browser through use of the Internet database connector (IDC) application included with Microsoft's Internet Information Server. The IDC application has three components, which include a hypertext markup language (HTML) file, which is used to send the information request/search command; an IDC file, which runs the query in the datasource on the server using structured query language (SQL) statements; and an HTX file, which manages the search results processing and display template. Once obtained, search results are returned to and displayed by the Web browser.

User Web interface

The Web site consists of four pages: a home page, a search page (Figure 1), a changes/corrections page, and an additions page. The home page provides links to the three main functions of the database: searching, submitting changes or corrections to the database, and submitting new citations to the database. Internal and external navigation links are provided on each of these pages to allow movement inside and outside of the database.

Figure 1.

Search page

The Faculty Publications Database allows two types of searches for publications citations: a field search and browse. Field searches are performed by entering any or all of the following: author first name, author last name, article title, journal title, keyword in title, and publication year. Results of this search may be sorted using a drop-down menu. In addition, faculty publication citations may be browsed by department. Performed through use of a drop-down menu, results of a departmental search yield a list of all full-time departmental faculty members and their journal publication citations, which also may be sorted.

When search results are obtained (by either method), clicking on a faculty member's name will link to his or her individual author's page. In addition to listing only publication citations specific to that individual faculty member, this page provides the faculty member's educational degree and current title, Web site URLs, and contact information. The URLs are hot-linked directly to the faculty member's page. E-mail addresses are active as well.

Two additional functions, “Add Your Publications” and “E-mail Changes and Corrections,” aid maintenance of the Faculty Publications Database. Faculty members can enter changes or corrections into a form, which is then submitted by e-mail to the network systems librarian for processing. New citation information can also be entered into a form that is submitted to a separate database for verification and processing. Faculty identification numbers must be submitted with both e-mail corrections and new citation submissions to assure authority. When completed, changes and additions are confirmed with the author by e-mail.

Development of the Faculty Publications Database took approximately one month to complete, beginning with the 1997 publication citations. Adding the 1996 and 1998 citations took less than two weeks for each set of citations. Currently, there are approximately 550 full-time faculty members and 3,000 citations in the database.

CONCLUSION

Although a formal assessment of the database has not been done, informal feedback has included positive reviews by UCHC librarians, faculty, and administrators, as well as successful employment of the search, correct, and add citation functions. Journal publication citations for subsequent years will be added annually in the late spring or early summer.

The developers of the database benefited from the project through their investigation and use of Web development tools and database functions. Upon successful completion of the project, it was readily apparent that the support received from the UCHC community was integral to the project and essential for its success. Possibilities for future enhancements of the database include active links within the citations to the library's online catalog or links directly to electronic journals.