A. Anticipated Future Trends/Formats
Because the MPH program is entirely online, print material is not as desirable for the students of the program as online resources. The collection is also heavily used by other programs on campus and community members, however, and they may prefer print materials. Therefore, materials purchased specifically for the MPH program (i.e., textbooks) will focus most heavily on e-resources. Print materials will be purchased if electronic versions are not available, or if the materials are monographs which might be used by on-campus populations or community users.
Research in public health, especially in the area of epidemiology, draws heavily on datasets collected by government entities and NGOs. As more of this data becomes publicly or commercially available, the library may consider purchasing or otherwise providing access to it for library users (most data is available by subscription). In many cases these purchases can be made in conjunction with the subject librarians in other social sciences. These purchases will be subject to considerations about format and ease of use, as well as the value added by aggregators (see Analysis of the Subject Field).
B. Relationships with Other Resources
Regional or Network Resources
MSU is a member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), formerly Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), and the Michigan Research Libraries Triangle (MRLT). Online access to many health sciences journals is available to MSU students through BTAA consortia agreements for journal packages. MRLT is a cooperative which maintains reciprocal borrowing agreements with the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.
The MSU collection is a component of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR). The MSU Libraries serves as a Resource Library for the region, supporting hospital libraries and other libraries through interlibrary loan with DOCLINE and Loansome Doc service.
Other Bibliographers
Many resources used by the public health faculty and students overlap with materials collected by other bibliographers at MSU. Bibliographers for the following subject areas collect material that is useful and relevant to public health users:
Donations
Donated materials are rarely accepted unless they are historically significant or complete an incomplete series/run which the library already owns.
Chana Kraus-Friedberg, 7/19/23