Jean Antes developed the first rural circuit rider medical library program in North America in the mid-1970s. This case study research presents an historical and ethnographic understanding of the life and work of Jean Antes; the history of the first rural circuit rider medical library program; and analysis of the unique workways and innovative service culture that formed a dynamic medical information system. The research draws largely upon oral history interviews with Jean Antes, artifactual and documentary materials collected, field observations and notes, and a five-year relationship between the researcher and Jean Antes. A metaphoric framework unifies the chapters with themes is drawn from theories of cartography and geosocial connectivity. The locus of the first rural circuit rider medical library program was the William C. Beck Health Science Library and Resource Center of the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania. This innovative service was designed to expand the scope of information delivery to provide medical library services to underserved practitioners in rural areas of Pennsylvania and New York via site visits by professional librarians. Funding for the program came from a variety of in-house and external grants and a progression to a fee-for-service plan. Miss Antes also promoted the establishment of circuit rider programs elsewhere through training sessions at regional and national meetings, consultations, videos depicting the program, and sponsorship of the first National Symposium on Circuit Libraries and Shared Services. Miss Antes was recognized with awards and honors from the Medical Library Association and other organizations for her valuable contributions to the field of medical librarianship. In 1997, Jean Antes retired to be married and changed her name to Mrs. Jean Antes Pelley.
LA - English M3 - Ph.D. Dissertation N2 -Jean Antes developed the first rural circuit rider medical library program in North America in the mid-1970s. This case study research presents an historical and ethnographic understanding of the life and work of Jean Antes; the history of the first rural circuit rider medical library program; and analysis of the unique workways and innovative service culture that formed a dynamic medical information system. The research draws largely upon oral history interviews with Jean Antes, artifactual and documentary materials collected, field observations and notes, and a five-year relationship between the researcher and Jean Antes. A metaphoric framework unifies the chapters with themes is drawn from theories of cartography and geosocial connectivity. The locus of the first rural circuit rider medical library program was the William C. Beck Health Science Library and Resource Center of the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania. This innovative service was designed to expand the scope of information delivery to provide medical library services to underserved practitioners in rural areas of Pennsylvania and New York via site visits by professional librarians. Funding for the program came from a variety of in-house and external grants and a progression to a fee-for-service plan. Miss Antes also promoted the establishment of circuit rider programs elsewhere through training sessions at regional and national meetings, consultations, videos depicting the program, and sponsorship of the first National Symposium on Circuit Libraries and Shared Services. Miss Antes was recognized with awards and honors from the Medical Library Association and other organizations for her valuable contributions to the field of medical librarianship. In 1997, Jean Antes retired to be married and changed her name to Mrs. Jean Antes Pelley.
PB - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign PY - 2002 EP - 350 pp. TI - Mapping and Storytelling an Information System: An Historical and Ethnographic Case Study of the First Circuit Rider Medical Library Program ER -