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Budget woes birth Good Citations! system To cope with budget cuts and still provide access to the latest articles, authors and journals that faculty, researchers and students need, the MUSC Library has launched a solution.  They call it “Good Citations!” It’s a system to inform researchers, clinicians and students of the latest information published on their topics of interest. The brainchild of systems librarian Skip Anderson and developed with the help of systems engineer Dave McCabe, Good Citations! searches the latest medical literature and notifies its users of the results by e-mail. “Recent budget reductions have had serious consequences for the library, including cutbacks in hours and information resources,” said reference librarian Laura Cousineau. “In response, the library has been hard at work to come up with new ways to meet the information needs of the MUSC community.” Informatics lab manager and graphic designer Judy Wisniewski with reference librarian Doris Wisher and Cousineau refined the interface design, while other staff tested the system. Good Citations!: Searches recent updates to PubMed Sends e-mail alerts for the latest articles on a chosen topic Allows selection of the search frequency—monthly, weekly or even daily Saves a search and keeps it for easy accessibility  Offers citations in tagged format for EndNote, ProCite, RefMan, etc. Links to cited journals owned by the MUSC library After logging on to Good Citations!, http://www.library.musc.edu/citations.html, the user has two choices for creating a search. The guided search offers a pull-down menu for each search term, and works well for requesting the table of contents or for creating a search for articles by particular authors. The guided search is also recommended for complex searches using multiple terms. The basic search is best for searches of simple terms or phrases, but can also be used by expert searchers familiar with PubMed search syntax. For each search, the user selects how often to run the search, and sets a maximum number of citations to be returned. Notification when the search results are ready for view are sent by e-mail. “This clever new system has many special features,” Cousineau said. “Because it searches recent updates, users receive only the most recently published articles on their topics.” She said that the notification of these articles coupled with the e-journals and document delivery services offered by the library will ensure that MUSC users can stay on top of their specialties.  “But perhaps the most unique feature of Good Citations! is that it saves searches for users. Unlike other auto-alert or SDI (selective dissemination of information) services, Good Citations! allows them to access their citations at any time and at any place by Internet.”   Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.