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| Guaranteeing access to a unique resource: publishing a brain atlas in a nontraditional format |
| Suzanne S. Stensaas, Ph.D., Curriculum Liaison, Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT ; Larry J. Stensaas, Ph.D., Professor, Physiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT ; Derek Cowan, Multimedia Designer, Multimedia Design, Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT ; Jeremy M. Smith, Multimedia Designer, Multimedia Design, Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT ; |
| Presentation Number: 44 |
Advanced technologies offer opportunities to provide access to resources with innovative tools, providing access to resources beyond the capabilities and significantly less cost than is possible in traditional publishing.
Setting: This health sciences library views its roles to extend well beyond its curatorial and acquisitions roles to now actively support publishing via the Internet.
Method: The project started in 1983 as a series of 300 maps of the brain originally traced from serial photographs of sections of whole brains in the Yakovlev-Haleem Collection, now part of the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The small market and costs associated with this type of publication was of little interest to medical publishers. An affordable price and ample publicity could not be expected from the publishing industry for a very specialized product. The author desired wide dissemination and the retention of copyright. The atlas contains more detail than a medical student would usually want but is of interest to neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, or neurologists. The large size of the files for each image makes using the application from the Web impractical. However, Web distribution of the 17MB atlas and its accompanying 40MB print files is practical, and so the library provided the expertise for Flash conversion, the addition of color, and an ftp site for downloading the application. This would never have been possible without the support and vision of the library’s mission to support scholarly publication of works that might otherwise perish. In 2002, a project twenty years in the making has found the appropriate technology, support, and method of distribution.
Main Results: The publication of this atlas provides both dramatic and dynamic access to the anatomy of the brain, which is now available health professionals, students, and the Internet community.
Conclusion: Many invaluable resources have languished, because they lack a profitable market for a commercial publisher. Advanced technologies now offer libraries an opportunity to not only extend access but also expand their roles. |
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