This study reports on personal digital assistants (PDAs) as a means to prepare nurse professionals who value and seek current information. An interdisciplinary team of nursing and library faculty, information technology and bookstore staff, students, and educational consultants developed this project. A pre-post and comparative group design of second-degree students in the accelerated and traditional baccalaureate nursing degree (BSN) options was used to examine students' information-seeking behaviors, and the effectiveness and cost of innovation strategies associated with incorporation of PDAs into students' clinical practice. Results of this study support PDAs as an effective student learning resource, especially for reference materials. The student group with PDAs had increasing numbers of questions associated with clinical situations and a greater recognition of the need to use current resources. Students made substantial use of their PDAs and health team members, while decreasing reliance on textbooks and clinical faculty. Students' use of and satisfaction with this technology is linked to access speed and readability. Providing faculty with PDAs is recommended to enhance their comfort with and incorporation of PDAs into clinical teaching.

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Interest in consolidating service points within health sciences libraries continues. This article proposes a definition of a library single service point and mentions some notable examples in academic health sciences libraries. The experiences of two of these libraries are summarized and compared, and the advice culled from those experiences is shared. The advice is in the form of sharing lessons learned, answering six frequently asked questions about combining services and staff under a single service umbrella. The article offers insights for other library staff considering this type of service reorganization.

Scavenger hunts are an effective, fun way of orienting new students to the library. The low-tech nature and small scale of the scavenger hunt program described here might be more suitable for health sciences libraries than other models, particularly for libraries with small staffs. This model also includes a unique optional element useful for library marketing. This article describes the methods used, shares reactions of program participants, and provides suggestions for those considering orienting students in this way.

Beginning in July 2002, the Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill underwent an 11 million dollar renovation. During three phases of the renovation, parts of the collection were inaccessible to patrons. In order to continue to make the library's collection available, library staff created a paging system. Patrons submitted requests for needed library materials using paper and electronic forms and library staff retrieved the requested items. The paging service was modified three times based on prior experience. Patrons were generally satisfied with the service. The renovation ended in December 2004.