Thursday, April 29, 2010

Webinar, white paper : Improving Nursing Practice with Info & Technology

Hi all,

In lieu of travel, I'm tuning into as many relevant webinars as possible.

The session today was interesting b/c it reflected info gathered in our recent "Library To Go" marketing survey and included nifty tidbits that we hadn't investigated.

Improving Nursing Practice with Info & Technology (from Ovid LWW based on their marketing research, mostly internal unpublished reports)

Where do nurses access online info? 84% from home, 68% from work, tiny % at library. Pprint info had similar responses with slightly higher library use (n=1018)

Nurses and medical librarians reported that the most requested types of information are concise, evidence based, available through "Google-like" tools. FYI, Google was reported as the top information tool used by nurses. (since one of the top reason for going online was reportedly finding treatment info, this factoid is scary as H-E-double-hockey-sticks).

Nursing has been slower than other professions in moving to predominantly online information sources. Nursing2010 and AJN surveys reported 79% of nurses preferred print for reading full-text, in depth articles, though they preferred online for searching.

Top professional nursing websites:
  • NursingCenter.com
  • Medscape.com
  • PubMed/MEDLINE
  • Allnurses.com
  • Nurse.com
  • NursingWorld.com
  • WebRN.com
  • NurseZone.com

Nurses reported that staying up to date with nursing news was the primary professional reason for going online. They like to have information "pushed" to them, with electronic newsletters very popular.

31% of nurses reported using social media for professional purposes, with goals of learning about the profession, asking nursing-related questions, learning about upcoming conferences, etc. Top sources included listservs and YouTube (for educational and training purposes), though Facebook, Twitter, and other sites are gaining prominence. (n=700)

38% reported daily use of handheld, mobile devices such as smart phones. Most important professional reasons = finding general treatment info (61%), patient education info (48%), reading journal article abstracts (25%), viewing multimedia and podcasts (19%), etc.

The Ovid white paper stated that the use of mobile devices is growing quickly. The webinar emphasized the need for nursing administration to support the technology (adopt it to improve professional practices and deal with concerns about hipaa/privacy and frivolous/personal use of these devices).

Nursing topics most commonly researched using mobile devices: drug information, disease information, therapeutic recommendations, and differential diagnosis

Mostly commonly used handheld apps deliver synoptic rather than in depth info: ePocrates (drug db), Medscape daily news, etc.

Nurses ranked mobile app attributes (greatest to least impt): Readability of text, search ability, ease of download, cost of download, speed of download, visual appeal.

Top nursing blogs: AllNurses.com, NurseZone, and AJN’s blog, “Off the Charts”

Ovid predicts
  • the rise of simultaneous writing and peer review
  • multiple publishing/delivery methods (print, online, downloadable app) will become the norm
  • rich media will be ubiquitous

Last but not least, Ovid plans to develop for the iPad. Huzzah!!

Cheers,
Lea

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

NC SirsiDynix Users Group Meets May 26


For those of you who haven't already gotten the news via the listserv, the NC SirsiDynix Users Group (NCSUG) meets May 26th at Guilford College, right here in Greensboro. Our own Tim Bucknall will deliver the keynote speech, "If the OPAC is Dead, When is the Funeral?" Later, Marcie Burton and Jennifer Mincey will present "Reports: Tips and Tricks" as one of the four breakout sessions. We will also have sessions on loading E-book MARC records, on Circulation and ILL issues, and on the latest products and programs from SirsiDynix. As NCSUG Secretary, I am involved in planning and organizing the meeting as well as managing registrations. Here is a link to the registration form with program for your convenience.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Computers in Libraries 2010

April 12-15, Hannah, Amy, Lynda and I road tripped up to the Computers In Libraries conference in DC. We presented as a panel on Instructional Technology "its a team thing" and got some rave reviews from some librarians we admire including some blog posts (go us!) Lynda and I did an interactive presentation on Productivity Tools (read a review at LibConf.com) But we also attended some great sessions. I particularly enjoyed:
  • Library Engagement through Open Data Session - visualization: This session talked about data - how yes it can be boring and poorly used, but used correctly, it can be a an asset: to library benefactors - by highlighting where the library is lacking and generate additional funds; to Lib admin – justify, activities, success/trends, internal PR; to general public - marketing, clear msgs (ex: google map mashup of admissions and visitors to site) ; and to Librarians - find anomalies or data outliers and determine if on the right track. The panel discussed various data source and tools. Some worth mentioning: IMA dashboard, IBM Many Eyes, and Google Chart visualization tools. They ended with some key lessons learned: Get support from admin, Define audience, Define your story, A lot of data manipulation, Google doc as repository, Leverage your coworkers efforts, and Do and redo.
  • Gen X Librarians Leading from the middle: The panel discussed Gen X and Tech, @ work and w/ leadership. Gen X is only ½ the size of the generation before and after. They explained how we grew up seeing technology quickly evolve so we can (generally speaking) more easily adapt to tech changes (vs those before us who didn't have computer as kids and those after us who expect it and have always had it) An interesting comparison: 40 years ago a $10,000 mean income – $10, 600 "kitchen computer" and today $57,000 mean income - $3,499 home computer. At work we tend to be the sandwich generation, in the classroom & w/ coworkers, helping to bridge the gaps from print to electronic, understanding both sides, and become good trainers. With leadership, we show independence, innovation, and individualism (OR - is it self centered, skeptical slackers :) Generally speaking we are good at mediating change, translating cultural norms, promoting innovation and also tend to be loyal to our workplace. Some one posed a question at the end why aren't more Gen Xers in leadership positions - do they not want to lead or is it the org just not flexible for us? ... or are the position just not available yet.
  • Training in the Cloud: 30 things in 20 minutes was awesome and be sure to check it out on their google site.
  • Mobile Libraries panel was interesting - they mentioned tools and idea like:
    Boopsie (customized mobile library aps); walk in mobile msg center (dok) that sends txt msg automatically to phones "Welcome to the library" along w/ some general info; offering charging stations in library; market the library w/ mobile – no print bookmarks please; group texting textPlus (like a blast email); offer contests - people like FREE; Terra (MSU); browser detection & feature detection (ex: NCSU – WURFL); mobilize your content now- start with lowest common denominator (even a simple mobile page will work w/ smart phones) - they compared lack of ada compliance (like elevators) to lacking access to mobile for those people today.
  • Ebooks - check out Copia, a social ereading experience; in California, everyone is moving to electronic textbooks; when getting started think about relevance to your library, cost, impact for your library, implementing correctly, cataloging (talk to them/include them!), possible problems (user error – training programs needed!)
  • Help us out here! Adapting library programming to other audiences: remember in training, you have to deal with the range from curiosity and fear; ask the public services staff, do you know what the patrons are asking for? awareness is a start; their goals are not the same as your goals; get them to feel comfortable; encourage coop and collaboration; fishing cowboys concept (think “shane”); we are coaches not teachers.