MLA CE Week 8 – Mashups and API

Spent time exploring a number of Mashups and discovered the September 2007 Masup of the month ~ LazyLibrary at http://lazylibrary.com . This mashup pulls in book data from Amazon and filters out anything with more than 200 pages ~ I guess this is a great site for non-readers!
After reading about HubMed I tried out the TouchGraph java applet that visually shows connections between Web sites. I searched for the AMEDD Virtual Library and here is the TouchGraph:

@ http://www.touchgraph.com/

I explored Rollyo, but, after searching a number of topics with disappointing results, opted not to create a searchroll. When I limited the searches to TOP NEWS I expected the results to be fairly current ~ and they were not. I did not see a way to set any limits on the timeframe searched.

The PRIVACY search covered a wide spectrum of topics/interpretations within the topic and there were over 9800 hits!

Thanks to the MLA Social Networking Task Force and the NPC Geek Squad in hosting this CE course for MLA members wanting to explore established and emerging Web 2.0 technologies!

MLA CE Week 7 – Podcasting and Online Hosted Video

YouTube can be addicting! While it’s blocked at work, I spent an afternoon checking out various videos. I ran across several library presentations that were quite lengthy that I enjoyed being able to attend virtually! I believe this is one of the benefits that YouTube brings to users ~ exposure to subjects, viewpoints/perspectives, and materials that for one reason or another you don’t typically experience. These presentations were given at conferences that are out of scope for me to attend so I appreciated being able to have the opportunity experience them first-hand.
I do see a number of potential uses of Podcasting in the library ~ orientations, information literacy in general, online searching techniques, resource guides, etc. Our libraries are leanly staffed so my main concern is the time required to put these together ~ synchronizing the audio w/the video, etc.

Do you have time to take a quick look at the videos that I’ve selected to post to my blog?

In the spirit of MLA’s Web 2.0 CE...Second Life Reference

…”Alliance Library System and OPAL are teaming up to extend the programs currently offered online to librarians and library users to the Second Life virtual environment. Many libraries of all kinds offer events, lectures, exhibit, collections and training in Second Life.”


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8dWmxwK8Os&feature=related




Fighting for Life – Official Trailer
This documentary interweaves stories of military doctors, nurses and medics, wounded soldiers and marines reacting with courage, dignity and determination to survive and heal. It features students at Uniformed Services University, the "West Point" of military medicine, on their journey toward becoming career military physicians. The filmmakers had extraordinary access to combat support hospitals in Iraq, medevac flights with wounded soldiers, and military hospitals in Germany and the United States.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fL7qERhlHI

MLA CE Week 6 – Online Photo Sharing

I completed the Discovery readings and registered for a flickr account uploading a photo. I then uploaded it to my Facebook page and then to My Web 2.0 Conspectus blog. All uploads were very straightforward and easy. I think there are a number of ways libraries could take advantage of flickr and other image sharing services. For example, creating and archiving historical collections or documenting medical procedures. I think it’s great that LC has undertaken its pilot project with flickr as another vehicle to provide access to its collections and experiment with social tagging.

MLA CE Week 5 – Web Office Tools

Since I’m on leave today, I thought I would try to catch up on my class assignments!

I don’t foresee the Dept of Army migrating to these Web office tools in the near future. It could potentially save a tremendous amount of money that is currently expended towards office suite tools but would it offer a secure enough environment? In addition, Army Knowledge Online (AKO), the world’s largest Intranet, offers us collaboration technologies featuring files knowledge centers. These files can be shared among a designated user community with several levels of security to determine which users have access, ease of uploading files and email notifications to authorized users, and version control of files in multiple formats.

I completed the Discovery Exercises and practiced creating a document, spreadsheet, and presentation on Google Docs. I did not have any difficulty completing the assignment ~ either because of my experience using AKO or because it’s intended to be very easy. I also posted My MLA 2008 Annual Conference Personal Agenda/Itinerary created in Google Doc to My Web 2.0 Conspectus.

Sample of Google Docs to My Web 2.0 Conspectus

My MLA 2008 Annual Conference Personal Agenda

16 – 21 May 2008

Saturday, 17 May 2008

Continuing Education (CE400)

Electronic Collection Development for Health & Medicine E-Libraries

Location: Wrigley

Time: 0800-1700

Learn to create a collection development plan for an electronic library of free and fee-based web-accessible resources for health and medicine. Students will focus on developing a collection plan for one library patron group of their choice for the kind of library they work in (e.g., hospital, medical center, medical school, allied health programs, public libraries, academic libraries, other special libraries, etc.). Patron groups may include: health care consumers, physicians of general or particular specialty, nurses, pharmacists, medical school students, allied health students, biomedical researchers, etc. Participants will end the course with a good draft e-library collection development plan. Instructor: Diane K. Kovacs, Web Teacher, Kovacs Consulting, Internet and Web Training, Brunswick, OH

Note: There is a web-based portion of this course to follow the MLA '08 meeting. Participants will receive 15 MLA CE contact hours, representing their online and live course work.

Sunday, 18 May 2008

Ovid Sunrise Seminar: Meeting the Needs of Nursing Professionals

Location: Acapulco

Time: 0700-0815

Seminar taught by Ovid trainers re: database and full-text resources required by nurses.

Plenary Session I: MLA Opening Session and Presidential Address

Location: Grand Ballroom

Time: 0900-1000

The MLA 2008 opening session featuring Mark Funk’s presidential address. His address will focus on the future of librarianship that provides an opportunity for critical reflection on how to preserve the best traditions of health sciences librarianship.

Plenary Session II: The John P. McGovern Lecture: Andrew Zolli

Location: Grand Ballroom

Time: 1030-1200

Author and futurist will outline the trends shaping the future and its impact on health sciences librarianship.

Dept of the Army Medical Command Libraries SIG

Location: Skyway 269

Time: 1530-1430

Document Delivery: PubMed Linkout

Location: Acapulco

Time: 1530-1630

Addresses the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Linkout Program.

Consumer & Patient Health Information – Coping with Budget Cuts ~ Creative Solutions in Lean Times

Location: Grand Ballroom A

Time: 1630-1800

Addresses budget cuts and challenges libraries face. Potential solutions will be presented, as well as the use of creative marketing and branding .

Monday, 19 May 2008

NLM Sunrise Seminar

Location: Columbus IJ

Time: 0700-0815

NLM staff will highlight accomplishments and new developments in a variety of online systems, including MEDLINE/PubMed, MedlinePlus, and DOCLINE

Plenary Session III: Janet Doe Lecture: Thomas G. Basler, MLA Fellow

Location: Grand Ballroom

Time: 0900-1000

Will address changing leadership for changing times.

Federal Libraries Section - Mental Health Resources for Veterans, Military Personnel, & Families

Location: Columbus GH

Time: 1400-1530

In 2005, the US Congress established the National Demonstration Program for Citizen-Soldier Support (CSSP). Citizen soldier families and veterans face numerous personal and family life challenges that severely tax their resources. Maintaining and achieving good mental health is vital for these individuals. It is important that they have access to mental health resources. This session is an especially important session for AMEDD librarians due to the increased emphasis on Soldier mental health issues and dealing with the rehabilitation of those with traumatic brain injuries.

Federal Libraries Section – Connecting with Administrators to Show the Value of Libraries & Librarians?

Location: Columbus GH

Time: 1630-1800

Addresses administrators expectations and how-to for librarians to communicate their value, return on investment, cost benefits, etc., in their respective organizations.

Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Elsevier Clinical Decision Support Sunrise Seminar

Location: Columbus CD Room

Time: 0700-0815

How-to integrate your library holdings into your hospital’s software applications. Integrate clinical decision support content for physicians, multi-care teams and pharmacists into the hospital’s electronic health records system.

Plenary Session: NLM Update

Location: Grand Ballroom

Time: 1030-1130

Session details changes in the NLM databases and document delivery system, DOCLINE ~ used by medical libraries to obtain materials not available in the local medical library collection.

Document Delivery: QuickDoc

Location: Hong Kong

Time: 1130-1230

Follow on meeting to the NLM Update with information about QuickDoc.

Medical Informatics: Technologies in Teaching

Location: Regency Ballroom A

Time: 1400-1540

This session will cover the multitude of ways that technologies are used in teaching (simulations, avatars, podcasts, Web 2.0, online courses, interactive DVD or web-based multimedia programs, audience response systems, etc.) for a wide range of audiences (health sciences students, residents, preclinical students, undergraduates, continuing education programs, and even library staff.)

Nursing & Allied Health Research: Connecting Librarians, Nurses, & Accreditation/Credentialing Organizations to Improve Patient Care

Location: Columbus EF

Time: 1630-1800

Libraries serving the health professions are guided by standards defined by organizations ranging from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations to professional program accreditation and individual credentialing, as well as regional accreditation. Changes in accreditation and credential standards and guidelines represent serious challenges to libraries and can even contribute to library closings. Magnet status is another credential many hospitals are seeking, and librarians have been part of that credentialing process. Libraries, librarians, and library organizations are learning to work with accrediting and credentialing organizations to shape the standards and guidelines in ways that strengthen health care and health care education by stressing the roles that libraries and information play. Focus on how to proactively shape credentialing and accreditation processes, librarian participation in credentialing and accreditation organizations, and efforts to shape institutional accreditation planning.

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Plenary Session IV: Web 2.0 Tools for Librarians

Location: Grand Ballroom

Time: 0900-1200

Program devoted to the description, demonstration, discussion, and debate of these tools which librarians need to be aware of as well as understand how to incorporate them into the delivery of library services.

MLA CE Week 4 - Social Bookmarks & Tagging

I really enjoyed the Discovery readings & hands-on for our assignment this week. The optional reading Make Your Library del.icio.us: Social Bookmarking in the Stacks (Jason Griffey, 5 Weeks to a Social Library) was excellent and answered some remaining questions I had about social bookmarking. This narrated PPT provided some good del.icio.us tips, such as using FOR: del.icio.us User Name to share bookmarks and have them show up in another user’s account or embedding your bookmarks on your Web page ~ this is something I definitely want to try on the AMEDD Virtual Library Web site. There are a number of potential library applications to support the delivery of reference services that I hope to share with the medical librarians in the AMEDD MEDLI-NET network of libraries. del.icio.us as a bookmark management tool and the portability of always being just a click away from having your booksmarks when switching among PCs is a real plus for those of us who do one-on-one instruction. I created a del.icio.us account and bookmarked & tagged about 11 sites. Since I’m fairly structured and began my career as a cataloger, I prefer bundling my bookmarks. I bookmarked one of the pages on the Peeps Pathfinder Wiki, bookmarked sites that had been bookmarked by others, and added a link to my del.icio.us. account [http://del.icio.us/AwebPhile] on My Web 2.0 Conspectus

Week 3 - Social Networking Tools

I appreciated the opportunity to explore and get first-hand experience with the Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin social networking tools. I think it is important to have a better understanding of the tools that our younger clientele are using so that we can evaluate whether or not there are ways in which we need to modify the way our libraries deliver its services. I believe that MLA as an organization might consider building upon these social networking tools can build a similar capability within MLANET to facilitate a greater exchange of ideas and serve as another communication vehicle. The Army library network is probably not yet at a place in which we can create Facebook or MySpace library pages due to all the security and privacy limitations within the Department of Defense networks. I created my personal social networking pages in Facebook and Linkedin after work due to the usual site blocking.

MLA CE Week 2 - Wikis

This week I:
1. Reviewed the various wikis created by librarians to discover how they could be used in our library network.

2. Joined the class wiki @ http://mlawikiclass.wetpaint.com

3. Created a wiki called Peeps Pathfinder that is located @ http://peepspathfinder.wetpaint.com
The purpose of this wiki is to providing links to a variety of Peeps' e-resources ~ Overview of Peeps, Peeps in the News, Reference & Research, Books, Health & Nutrition, Blogs, Photos, & Videos. This is a sample of how a library staff wiki team could create subject guides to library resources ~ both print and online.

4. Posted a link to the blog I created on the MLA Web 2.0 101 Blogs page : http://webphile.blogspot.com
Posted a link to the wiki I created on the MLA Web 2.0 101 Wiki page: http://peepspathfinder.wetpaint.com/

5. Wiki Collaboration. Became a member of the Food in Town Wiki where I also created a post.

6. Created Blog Roll links to the MLA Web 2.0 101 Blogs page and MLA Web 2.0 101 Wiki page on my blog--My Web 2.0 Conspectus

7. Difference between blogs and wikis:
I found both Blogs and Wikis easy to use and create. Blogs are authored by one with comments allowed by readers/users while wikis can include many authors/contributors. Blogs provide news or commentary on a particular topic. Blog entries are generally arranged in reverse chronological order.

Wikis are especially well suited for group collaboration projects resulting in documentation, user manuals requiring updates. Wikis allow anyone to add, edit or delete pages based on the parameters established for the wiki by the administrator. Wikis represent a real plus for the AMEDD MEDLI-NET librarians who are geographically dispersed throughout the United States and overseas. I think individual libraries or several libraries could work together to create a variety of subject guide wikis. AKO does not yet feature wikis but there are group collaboration/document management capabilities available. Wikis can be used as vehicle for both internal library communication as well as with the library’s users.

MLA CE Week 1 - Blogs & RSS

This is great that MLA is offering Web 2.0 101! It’s an excellent follow-on to the Web 2.0 Webcast on 5 March. I think this CE is an outstanding way for medical librarians to get practical hands-on experience with the Web 2.0 tools after reviewing the resource links provided. In addition, I found the participants posted comments and questions very informative and helpful. I anticipate that I will need to complete the CE assignments at home due to our network blocking many of these Web tools due to security issues. Creating my blog and RSS feeds was similar to what we are able to do on the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) portal--AKO is currently cited as the world’s largest corporate Intranet with approximately 1.9 million registered users! It provides secure access to Army Web sites along with providing tools and services to Soldiers, Army employees, retirees, and family members worldwide.

I have had a Bloglines RSS Feeds account since last year and find it an efficient way to keep up-to-date with the various feeds that I track. Again, I do this at home due to our network security. I also view RSS feeds as an additional way to get/push information to our clientele, especially via PubMed and OvidSP for SDI/current awareness for topics of interest. I need to include additional RSS feeds on our Virtual Library’s AKO Web site to highlight new e-resources available as well as PubMed/OvidSP alerts on topics for which there is wide interest.