William F. Garrity

[Revisions since last update are marked with underlines and strikeouts.]

The Biomedical Libraries' annual report for FY09 and goals for FY10 is available (pdf).  FY08 and goals for FY09 is available (pdf). My own performance review for FY09 is here (pdf).

As of September 1, 2009, I have an additional responsibility: Director of Internal Communications for Dartmouth Medical School.

Dartmouth College Web Strategy Advisory Committee. I am appointed to this group as the professional schools' representative. "WebSAC" thinks about and makes recommendations for strategic use of Dartmouth's web presence. Other members of the group include leaders from the offices of the Dean of the College, Development, HR, Admissions and Financial Aid, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Computing, Alumni Relations, and Finance and Administration.

We think about what "the web"--particularly Web 2.0 and new media--really means for Dartmouth. For instance, we've recently defined the institution's use of YouTube's channels, Facebook, and iTunes U. (Here are Dartmouth's YouTube channel and Dartmouth Medical School's YouTube channel.)

WebSAC spawned a task group, "Print-to-Digital," which is charged to think about how the institution can transition printed publications to digital presentations both to save money and be more useful. I am on this task force.

DMS Strategic Planning. I co-chaired a small group steering the first phase of the Medical School's strategic planning process. The final report from the steering committee on behalf of the school is posted here on the DMS intranet and has been received by the LCME.

Our collective next step is to "Institutionalize and make permanent this planning process by forming a Dean’s Advisory Committee on Long-term Planning and Strategic Initiatives." This advisory committee, in fact, has already been formed: see, here.

Next-Gen Library Systems Taskforce. I was a member of a small, ad hoc group to help the College Library articulate how we need our "finding systems" to behave and interact to navigate the physical and digital information resources to which the Dartmouth communities have access. (Possible translation: should we replace or augment "the catalog" with something else--different, bigger, better?) Our report is here.

The next generation library systems need to be nimble, personalized, relevant, and convenient. Our library organization needs to fully embody these traits too. The library should compete for attention through ease of use, excellence of content, and functionality of space. Our information services should allow one to discover knowledge rather than to search for information. And they should to be accessible from within whatever online place a user inhabits (iGoogle; Facebook; Blackboard), in whatever language one works in, and on whatever networked device.

We and industry partners delivered on some of our thinking. SerialsSolutions, with Dartmouth as a beta development partner, has announced Summon, a unified discovery tool for library and other information sources. See the press release here and the public beta here.

CTSA (Clinical and Translational Science Award). Clinical research--also known as "translational research"--is the current emphasis in NIH-funded biomedical research. It's where the NIH is directing more of its funding and where DMS/DHMC and other medical schools/academic medical centers are positioning ourselves. See this June 12, 2008, feature issue of Nature on translational research.

Here is the overarching concept:

• "T1:" basic science and its translation into clinical research.
• "T2:" patient-specific evidence of clinical effectiveness; practice guidelines; tools to allow for the right treatment of the right patient in the right way at the right time.
• "T3:" reliable delivery of care to all patients, in all settings and to the population, based on measurement and accountability implementation, and system redesign.

I worked with dozens of folks from across the university and medical center to craft a grant proposal for a Clinical and Translational Science Award from NIH. Specifically, I was on the team writing about biomedical informatics, with Andy Gettinger (Anesthesiology, and Medical Director for Informatics) and Jason Moore, (Genetics, and Community and Family Medicine, and Director of the Bioinformatics Shared Resource in DHMC's Norris Cotton Cancer Center).

Our application just scored: high, but not high to get funded on this first round. (None of us expected that Dartmouth would get funded on this first round.) Once we have reviewers' comments, we'll start re-writing the application for another submission.

Helmut Schumann Lecture. The Hitchcock Foundation's Helmut Schumann Lecture since its inception in 1983 has focused on "studies in healthful living" for an informed lay audience. Speakers are nationally known and the lecture typically attracts hundreds of attendees. I chair the selection committee.

The purpose of the Hitchcock Foundation, as stated in the bylaws, is

... to aid and advance the study and investigation of human ailments and injuries, and the causes, prevention, relief, and cure thereof, and the study and investigation of problems of hygiene, health and public welfare, and the promotion of medical, surgical and scientific learning, skill, education and investigation, and to engage in and conduct and to aid and assist in medical, surgical and scientific research in the broadest sense.

2008's lecturer was JoAnn Manson, Professor in Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology. A webstream of her talk is here. The selection committee has met to select 2009's lecturer: Cornell's James Maas, who will speak on sleep and sleep deprivation.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Information Systems Steering Committee. I am a member of the Information Systems Steering Committee (ISSC) for Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H). This committee reports to the D-H Board of Governors and sets direction, budget, priorities, resource allocation, and polices for and provides oversight of information systems at D-H. The ISSC's current principal focus is replacing our home-grown clinical information system with a market-place solution (the selection being Epic).

The steering committee has also cleaved ourselves into multiple subcommittees; I chair the "Messaging, Collaboration, and ICT Support" subcommittee ("MCIS"), and am working there in collaboration with Bill Weyrick, Senior Manager of User Support for DHMC Information Systems. (I'm also a member of the "communication" subcommittee.) Our first big job is replacing D-H's email system and making sure it integrates with our calendar. The report of Phase I of the project is here (DHMC intranet).

Phase I was discovery, analysis, and recommendation -- that we begin Alpha and Beta pilots of Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. Phase II are the pilots, and this part of the project is scheduled to conclude June 2009. Phase III will be full implemenation of Exchange, assuming Phase II goes well.

My particular work in Phase II concentrates on communication and marketing, and education--helping the community learn how to manage their digital lives (i.e., deal with email). As a parallel component to Phase II, I'm working on the business case for smartphones (e.g., BlackBerrys).

Track the ISSC's work here on the DHMC intranet.

The Dartmouth Summer Institute in Evidence-Based Psychiatry and Mental Health. The course uses small-group sessions with hands-on, case-based training to introduce the evidence-based process using topics in various areas of mental health. The audience is mental health professionals, including residents, trainees, and training directors, and medical librarians. The institute's ultimate goal is for patients to benefit from the most effective services and care.

In 2006 and 2007, the institute's directors were Bob Drake (Director, Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center), Matt Merrens (Co-Director, Dartmouth Evidence-Based Practices Center), and myself. Institute faculty have included Pamela Bagley, Heather Blunt, and Karen Odato, each a Research and Education Librarian in the Biomedical Libraries, and Cindy Stewart, Associate Director/Health Sciences Library. In 2008 and 2009, Karen, Matt, and Steve Bartels (Psychiatry), were institute directors, while Bob Drake, Alan Green (Chair of Psychiatry), and myself were institute sponsors.

In 2009, we scaled back the institute to a one-day conference on Saturday, July 11. See http://dms.dartmouth.edu/dsi/.

Supporting Clinical Care: An Institute in Evidence-Based Practice for Medical Librarians. With a lot of inspiration coming from our work with the summer institutes in Evidence-Based Psychiatry and Mental Health, we (the Biomedical Libraries) in 2008 began an annual summer institute specifically focusing on the librarians' role in evidence-based healthcare. See here for more information about 2009's institute.

Science-in-Sight. The under-construction Life Sciences Center will have a "virtual life sciences presence," likely via interactive, multi-media displays. I'm helping facilitate the planning process, along with Mark McPeek and Tom Jack (Biological Sciences) and Steve Campbell (Office of Facilities Planning, Design, and Construction).

Fiscal. The Dartmouth Medical School has very significant fiscal challenges, due to contracting research funding from NIH, DMS performance with that funding,and the endowment's pummelling in the financial crisis. For FY09 (which started July 1, 2008), the Biomedical Libraries have already had to make some economies, including not filling the Associate Director/Research and Education Services position. I lately had to identify another 5% reduction for the balance of the fiscal year, and model additional cuts--10%--for FY10: we will be trimming all aspects of the operation: compensation, information resources, and operating.

Fundraising. A leaders should always have a list in his/her pocket a list of projects and priorities for development prospects. I've got to update my list.

Library Space. Any library's space should be continually assessed and re-engineered to meet the needs of its clients. The less-than-optimal condition and ambiance of the Dana Library continue to be major concerns. The principal minor renovations that are still possible to make are installing a new service counter on the first floor (circulation and reference) and reconfiguring the Access Services staff area. Longer range, the Medical School, and Arts and Sciences (the College Library) have agreed that the facility will be needed for at least the next twenty-five years, and we have initiated a planning process for renovation and reconfiguration of the library. At this point, given the financial crisis, we will outline a "vision" for a renovated and reconfigured library, and stop at that point.

Medical Informatics. I'm working with Andy Gettinger (Anesthesiology, and Medical Director for Informatics), Jason Moore, (Genetics, and Community and Family Medicine, and Director of the Bioinformatics Shared Resource in DHMC's Norris Cotton Cancer Center), and Jenica Nelan (manager of DHMC's informatics program) to heighten Dartmouth's awareness of the utility of an institutional medical informatics program. One of our prominent efforts is a speaker series. See here.

DMS and Tuck. Many universities are fostering heightened collaboration between their schools of business and medicine. Dartmouth itself sees synergy between DMS and the Tuck School of Business, and the Biomedical Libraries and Feldberg have ramped up our collaboration to support joint programs.

We are also collaborating with the Tuck's executive education division and DHMC's clinical and CME leadership to launch a "mini-MBA" program for section chiefs and practice managers. The program began June 2008.

October Conferences. See here for information about 2008's conference--"Space 2.0: Small-Scale Library Redesign Projects." 2009's conference will be about "staff development on a shoestring."