DATABASE SEARCH SERVICES AS A BASIC SERVICE IN ACADEMIC HEALTH-SCIENCES LIBRARIES

Mediated search services, usually offered for a fee, are commonplace i n academic health sciences libraries. At the same time, users of these services have numerous self-service options available to them; for ex ample, CD-ROMs and locally mounted databases. In keeping with its phil osophy of access to rather than ownership of information, the Universi ty of Washington Health Sciences Library and Information Center (HSLIC ) changed its policy from charging clients for mediated searching to o ffering mediated searches as an essential service of the library. By t aking this step, HSLIC moved closer to becoming a true ''library witho ut walls.'' This paper describes HSLIC's experience with changing its policy and examines the issues surrounding use of the collection budge t to subsidize access to online information in academic health science s libraries.