Emergency Access to the Health Sciences Library After Hours

Policy

It is the policy of the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri - Kansas City (UMKC) to provide 24-hour access to the Residents of UMKC School of Medicine who may need patient care information in an emergency situation. The special access to the library is to be used only when information is needed in an emergency; it is not a substitute for routine access to the library.

Restrictions

Only UMKC Residents at Truman Medical Center - Hospital Hill will be permitted after-hours access to the Health Sciences Library.

Procedures

1. UMKC Residents who need access to patient care information while the library is closed should go to the UMKC Security located on the first floor of the School of Medicine to arrange access to the library. (For Residents who do not have card access to the School of Medicine, call 1909 prior to going over to the School of Medicine to alert the Police Officers on duty.)

2. At the Police Office, the individual will need to surrender his/her Truman Medical Center identification badge to the police officer on duty. This individual will then need to sign a log sheet, providing his or her name, a phone number where he or she can be reached the next day, and approximate time in entering the library.

3. After securing the identification badge, checking for completeness of the log, and ascertaining the individual is allowed access to the library after-hours, the police officer will give the individual a key to the front door of the Health Sciences Library.

4. Once in the library, the individual must be sure to lock the door to ensure no unauthorized persons enter the library.

5. The Resident will immediately retrieve the needed item(s). Minimal time should be spent in the library. Ideally a Merlin or MEDLINE search will have identified the materials needed prior to entering the library. Such library access is available at various computers at Truman Medical Center and in the Docent Team areas. (Please consult a librarian during normal library hours for more details.)

6. A maximum of three items can be removed from the library under these circumstances.

7. The individual should spend no more than thirty minutes in the library retrieving the needed items.

8. When the Resident is finished, he or she must be sure the library is locked. If there are any problems, this needs to be reported to the Police.

9. When possible, the Police Officer has the option of taking the Resident up to the library, letting the individual in, and staying with that Resident during the time the Resident is in the library.

10. Once the individual is finished in the library, he or she must return to the Police Office and sign out on the log. In addition, if materials were removed from the library, information on those items, including the barcode as well the title, volume, number and any other information needed to identify the material, must be added to the log. The police officer will return the identification badge after ensuring the completeness of the log.

11. The following day a library staff member will contact the borrower to verify the material is checked out and the due dates.

12. Abuse of this policy will cause revocation of this privilege.

NB - Access to Medline and to the full-text of many major clinical journals are available to any member of UMKC. What is required is a PC connected to the Internet. See the Health Sciences Library’s Web page at http://library.umkc.edu/hsl for information on access. More specific information can be found at http://library.umkc.edu/hsl/remotea.html.

For assistance, please call the Health Sciences Library (816) 235-1880.