ConnectMidwest

Sheryl Stevens, our chapter Awards & Scholarships Committee chair, sends this along:

The Midwest Chapter/MLA Awards & Scholarships Committee is seeking nominations for the Chapter's 2008 Jean Williams Sayre Innovation Award. This award is intended to recognize individuals, groups, libraries, or organizations for their creative approaches to delivering and/or managing health information. It includes a cash prize of $500.

Please take a few minutes to think about some of the projects you and/or your colleagues have recently initiated, participated in, or are currently involved with. What about that project or accomplishment you described (or will be describing) in a paper or poster presentation at a conference? You've done the hard part already -- filling out our nomination form is easy compared to that!

You can find additional information about the Innovation Award at: http://midwestmla.org/committees/awards/2008/Innovation%20Award%202008.pdf.

The nomination form is at: http://midwestmla.org/committees/awards/2008/Innovation%20Award%20Nomination%20Form%202008.pdf.

The application deadline is August 18, 2008.

Thanks for considering this. Please give our committee the opportunity to acknowledge your creativity and accomplishments!

The winner will be announced during at the Chapter’s Annual Business Meeting on October 20, 2008, at the Detroit Marriott Hotel in Troy, Michigan.

Wow, your intrepid blog editor has been busy lately! I'm preparing to move the hospital library to a different campus across town. It has been a great opportunity to evaluate the entire collection, moving only that which meets the current needs of the library users. You know how "stuff" kind of accumulates. I last did this kind of a radical house cleaning when the current library space was remodeled in 1997 with a wonderfully generous contribution from a local business executive and his wife. So I have over a decade of "stuff" to sort out!

Since the library will be moving to smaller digs, I have had to do some rather siginficant de-selection in the print journal backfiles. Many of the titles are now on PubMed Central or are free online. So deciding to remove those from the collection was a no-brainer. Some of the other decisions have been more difficult. One grows attached to one's collection! What to do with the no longer needed journals? A local recycler will take them. So I've moved many cubic yards of materials out of the library, across the parking lot, and into the semi sized recycling trailer. Who says librarianship is not hard work!

OK, so what does this have to do with PubMed, LinkOut, and SERHOLD? One thing that I've realized in this process is how much I rely on NLM services in providing service to my library's patrons. PubMed LinkOut is the greatest thing since sliced bread in my book. It is the easiest way to let my library patrons know which articles are available through the library, either in print or online. The library's budget cannot support a fancy ILS. Who can afford a link resolver? The library's master print serials holding list is on SERHOLD. Why mess around developing some spreadsheet or database for this? My wonderful library volunteer Shirley uses old-fashoned check-in cards to keep track of current subscription receipts. When I need to know if the library has an article in print or online, I use PubMed to check. I print out a serials list every once in a while by requesting a DOCLINE holdings report for use in an emergency only and as a print copy of the library's journal inventory. On Friday, I began the so exciting task of updating nearly every one of the library's SERHOLD title records.

So as you might guess, I've been following closely the current flurry of discussion about PubMed on MEDLIB. For my library, PubMed is mission critical. There may be search interfaces for MEDLINE, but purchasing access for my library is out of the question. Even small changes in PubMed have a significant impact on how I provide library services. I was happy to see other librarians sharing my latest PubMed pet peeve on Friday. IMHO, eliminating the blue sidebar from search results displays was a poor decision. The most useful tools for searching PubMed simply are not available when they are needed. For example, it is difficult to try a MeSH search after your newly revised automatic term mapping search gives you a poor result.

I haven't been completely convinced of the wonders of Twitter. However, the Chronicle's Wired Campus Newsletter had a blurb on libraries using Twitter and a link to this blog entry from College at Home: Twitter for Librarians: The Ultimate Guide.

Maybe I'll have to give it some more thought....

We had so much fun with Flickr at the Omaha meeting. I'm glad that MLA is encouraging people to post meeting photos to Flickr to share meeting photos. They've set up the MLA 2008 Flickr Group. There are 11 members so far. I'm looking forward to the fun.

MLA has their photo gallery up and running with 2008 meeting photos. This morning they added some photos from yesterday. MLA President and photographer extraordinarie Mark Funk is already out and about with his camera!

I might not be going to Chicago for MLA, but I can watch on my computer here at work. I have already signed up for the MLA '08 Plenary Webcast “Web 2.0 Tools for Librarians: Description, Demonstration, Discussion, and Debate.” To register, all you need is your handy-dandy MLA members only area username and password.

What is really great about this is that two of the scheduled presenters are Midwest Chapter members!

• Carol Jeuell, Reference Librarian, Brennemann Library, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago


• Melissa Rethlefsen, Education Technology Librarian, Learning Resource Center, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

Midwest rocks!

The midwest is hosting MLA in Chicago this year. Unfortunately, your intrepid blog editor will not be attending. [Insert frowny face here.] But this is no problem! I can read all about it in my feed reader!

Of course, there is the official MLA '08 Blog itself. Lately, the entries have been posted by the Local Assistance Committee Publicity Subcommittee. Nice to see all those Midwest Chapter members contributing!

As I am sure you know by now, MLA held a little contest and chose 10 Official MLA Bloggers. The bloggers will enjoy free wireless internet access at MLA. And it looks like we are going to get some great coverage. The National Program Committee's Conference Wiki has a blog schedule page where the bloggers are signing up to cover specific parts of the conference program. You can also sign up for a digest or RSS feed of the bloggers' posts. Right now, there doesn't seem to be much else on the wiki except advertisements.

But this is even better: I have been using David Rothman's Yahoo! Pipes feed to monitor the Official MLA Blogger posts. It works well! Thank you David!

Attention Midwest Chapter Members attending MLA: please consider sharing YOUR insights, experiences, and photos here on ConnectMidwest. Contact me and I'll show you how!

And remember to tag any blog posts and photos with mla2008.

In last summer's issue, MIDLINE featured an article by Carol Perryman about the Alliance Library System's project "Providing Consumer Health Outreach and Library Programs to Virtual World Residents in Second Life." Funding for the project was provided by the NN/LM Greater Midwest Region. Yesterday, she announced the publication of the project's final report on MEDLIB-L.

The report is 46 pages with lots of illustrations. And well worth the read! A lot of real people were served (via their avatars) by the project with displays, workshops and presentations, support group meetings, and even by answering old-fashioned reference questions. I had no idea! Clearly, an important need is being served.

P.S. Did you know that the way a person's avatar looks can affect real life behavior? I picked up this All Things Considered story in my feed reader last week. And I quote: "If you want to get thin, get a virtual life." It is called vicarious reinforcement. An interesting approach to weight loss!

Karen and I were talking about this today...

Do you subscribe to any podcasts? Do you download any library related content? Answer these questions and share your thoughts concerning podcasting and libraries by clicking on the Comments link just down there at the end of this post. Inquiring minds want to know! Really!

I must confess that at this point I am still an iPod novice user. I subscribe to a number of podcasts through iTunes and sync my cute little Nano weekly. Most of my subscriptions are for public radio programs, my current favorite being Selected Shorts. I'm just realizing that there is a whole new world out there with so much stuff that I can download. When collegian son comes home next week for the summer, I am going to have to ask him to show me how to download things into that amazing little toy without going through iTunes.

Even a quick search on iTunes leads one to much interesting library programming. Anyone out there subscribe to the MedlinePlus: NLM Director's Comments? This week's program features "Marijuana and Gum Disease." I'm going to try the the University of Arizona SIRLS podcasts and Arizona State University's Library Channel. Any other suggestions?

Are any of your libraries providing podcasts online?

I love my Christmas present iPod, but I have yet to download any music. I subscribe to a number of podcasts and listen during my daily commute. Today, on my way to Columbus for a 2009 Midwest Chapter conference planning committee meeting, I listened to last week's SirsiDynix Institute podcast Maximizing the Power of the Web: Pew Internet & American Life Project's 2007 Findings. Lee Rainie, Director Pew Internet & American Life Project reviewed the results of a their 2007 survey on how people use the internet, libraries, and government agencies when they need help. The presentation was interesting, but the very poor technical quality of the audio made listening challenging.

Although the results pertained mostly to public library use, I found two items interesting in the results. I refer you to the presentation slides for supporting numerical details. First, young adults, ages 18-29, turn to libraries for problem solving (slide 32). In my hospital, folks in this age group are my library's most frequent users -- students, residents, younger nursing staff. They are used to using the library for school and continue to turn to the library for information assistance even after graduation. Second, people who have internet access at home still use the library (slide 25). "The internet isn't your enemy, it's your ally." (slide 40)

What do you think?

Welcome to ConnectMidwest!

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