MAC/Medical Libn Assn Meeting - Lea's report

The 2010 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Medical Library Assn was an accessible, fun way to meet with other health science librarians and catch up on news. Here are some of the more interesting items...

-- Nifty ideas that I'd like to kick upstairs (for administrative attention) --

1. Annual Research Fair

Event started by the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University. They brought in the Office of Research Services, Creative Services, statisticians, and every other campus unit providing help somewhere along the research or publishing path. Each dept staffed a table, there were even vendor-sponsored booths.

2. Resources for Calculating Return on Investment/CBA (poster) - The report and guide include methods for evaluating “intangibles” and “social return on investment.”

3. What are the Effects that Two Author-fee Subsidy Programs Have on Researchers' Work Practices and Publishing Behaviors? -- UNC – CH provides $1,000/year to individual authors to reduce the impact of author fees.

4. Mapping patron needs and retooling staff duties

Information Sherpa: Assisting and Problem Solving along the Researcher's Path - Health Sciences Library, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO

Evaluated menu of reference and related services from the ground up – brainstormed to come up with a list of steps/needs along the “typical research path” for students and faculty. Used part of a vacant position to fill a large gap in services.

--Nifty ideas for me --

1. Mobile medical apps and mobile-friendly resources…

George Washington University developed a nice mobile-friendly site

* User surveys, content, library instruction/launch info reported in the poster Going Mobile: launching a mobile website and other mobile resources (pdf).
* LibGuide on mobile resources

The nice librarian staffing the poster confirmed the general, pain in the tush process for providing medical mobile resources to your patrons

* Mobile versions of vendor sites such as MD consult are easiest, since you just integrate them into your usual IP authentication system
* Mobile app download management can be time consuming, since each download (each patron) requires a serial number. The librarian must give a different serial number to each patron and keep a list (since the patron is likely to forget his/her number). She used to do this by sending a quick email to the students’ school email address (if they contacted her through a yahoo or gmail account, she would look up student info in their school directory). She has since delegated the provision and maintenance of serial numbers to a paraprofessional. VERY expensive, though DynaMed at least provides an unlimited number of downloads to academic institutions.

2. iPads are being adopted in health science and medical libraries. Deniz Ender (Rex Hospital Library and Information Research Center, Raleigh, NC) reported on the early stage of her grant funded project Using iPads in a Hospital Environment to Promote Clinical Applications. Ms. Ender compiled a list of the most popular free & paid medical mobile apps. She’ll make the iPads available to her users in November starting with an Open House.

Other librarians reported Open Houses or Sand box sessions in promoting new tech toys including iPads.


3. Updates from the NLM (National Library of Medicine) and the NN/LM SeA (National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeast Atlantic)

* PubMed Images database to launch in late October. Search for images in PubMed Central articles (will search the full text of image captions). PubMed abstract view will include image thumbnails.

* 1/4th of the abstracts added to PubMed are structured. Soon these will be searchable by section, eg “Methods.”

* The OLDMedline project (loading records from print indexes Cumulated Index Medicus 1960-65, Current List of Medical Literature 1947-59). Indexing records will go back to 1946, but budget issues have forced this project to come to a halt for the time being.

* Reminder that PubMed for handhelds is a research project (Lister Hill); it is NOT a production level system.

* Mobile Medlineplus http://m.medlineplus.gov/ - Reliable consumer health info with “universal” handheld device compatibility

* AIDSinfo mobile: http://m.aidsinfo.nih.gov

* TOXNET, including Hazardous Substances Data bank, Household Products database and more have additional content and linking


4. Upcoming workshops were mentioned w/out info on locations, dates, or links for calendar/registration pages

*2 day workshops from the NLM - Sequences, genomes, proteins, NCBI blast, human variation & disease (there “will be webinars” for these)
* Consumer Health – Dec workshop somewhere in the NNLM SeA region
* Nursing on the Net - Dec workshop somewhere in the NNLM SeA region
* Will duct tape cure my warts? – CAM workshop in Dec somewhere in the NNLM SeA region
* Health Literacy - Workshop somewhere in the NNLM SeA region, more details “available soon”
* Appraising the Evidence - Workshop somewhere in the NNLM SeA region, more details “available soon”
* PubMed for handhelds – Jan workshop somewhere in the NNLM SeA region
* E-science bootcamp – Summer 2011 workshop somewhere in the NNLM SeA region