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The need for a Bioinformatics Program became apparent after repeated requests from researchers for bioinformatics resources and the University's announcement of BioMed 21, a 300 million dollars biomedical science initiative to bring "new knowledge of the human genetic blueprint to the patient's bedside and change how illnesses are understood, diagnosed, and successfully treated." A Bioinformatics Specialist with a strong background in the fields of Molecular Biology and Biostatistics was hired. Program development started in 2003. Initially, three core courses were developed: Sequence Similarity Search, Genetic Variation, and Human Genome Resources. Each of these courses was offered twice per semester. Additionally, partnerships were established within the University Medical School Community (e.g., the Genome Sequencing Center) to license and teach Spotfire's DecisionSite for Functional Genomics, a software package used to analyze microarray data. From March to May 2005, seven Spotfire classes were taught. Each Spotfire class consisted of seven hours of classroom work. Also, in-depth consultations were scheduled with faculty and researchers to address their specific needs. These consultations led to requests for other software packages to purchase and manage, including Lasergene and CSD (Cambridge Crystal Structure Database). Efforts to reach outside of the University Community were made through the development of a Bioinformatics Web site.

An examination of interlibrary loan statistics from 1986 through 1992 at the Health Sciences Library (HSL), State University of New York at Buffalo, revealed that the numbers of requests received via DOCLINE increased steadily over this period. Meanwhile, the numbers of requests received via OCLC rose from 1986 to 1989 but then declined steadily from 1989 to 1992. To understand and interpret these trends, a survey of various libraries that obtain material from HSL was conducted to collect data on their use of DOCLINE and OCLC. Analysis of the data confirmed that the use of DOCLINE was on the increase, especially in health sciences libraries, and that in some of these libraries requests for documents via OCLC were on the decline. The ratio of requests via DOCLINE versus OCLC ranged from 2:1 to 5:1. In the non-health sciences libraries that request from HSL, use of DOCLINE is minimal compared to that of OCLC.