The Great Space Debate!

Be it Resolved: As Libraries Evolve to Electronic Access Their Need for Physical Space Decreases

An Argument in the Affirmative was given by Wayne Peay who made some excellent points about the space changes happening in libraries today. A few of my favorite comments include:

The driving idea is we are not in the paper business anymore partly because we delivered what our patrons wanted – high quality online information available 24/7.

Libraries are not about books and journals but about creating new knowledge. Our scholars have changed how they do what they do and we need to change to meet their needs.



On the other side, Rick Forsman’s argument “Super Size Me – Embracing the Edifice Complex” lobbied that libraries are not one dimensional; we house resources, offer services, and inspire our users.

He also noted that learning and work are influenced by the physical space. The physical structure gives many messages and the building is a springboard to the future. If the Library goes away – is it any wonder our users think Google has all the answers?

Furthermore, he argued that given society’s horrible record of estimating the impact of technology (recalling that TV was going to kill Radio), should we just give up? Well, obvious that answer would be NO!


A few of the rebuttals:

• Ah, the romance of paper and those clay tablets were pretty sweet too.


• Technology over time -- will we be able to read what is digital today?


• What is the mission or focus of the institution? The library needs to fit into it.


• Hedging our bets versus trying to go back.

Mr. Forsman's Summary (in a nutshell):
The library is symbolic to all sorts of things association with learning. Libraries need to re-purpose their space and be in control of that change. The libraries role is to help with knowledge management not warehouse management.


Mr. Peay's Summary (in a nutshell):
The perception of the library is “paper” and we need to change that. Look at the space – how do we redefine ourselves? As we do that, there is a huge opportunity.

By show of hands, the “winner” of the debate was the self-described “cowboy in white” - Rick Forsman.

But wait, that's not all ...

MJ Tooey provided the pragmatic voice with Who Cares about Space & Books - What's in it for Me? in which she presented recent changes in her library and choices she made to maintain some control regarding those changes. She noted that, “the container [the building] remains the same – the content has changed” as the university co-opted some library space for student services. The ability to “not be defined by the container” has brought some great benefits to the library.

Jane Bridges explored Space – the final frontier? Even in hospitals, there are needs for work space and social space along with the virtual space. Her dream library description is a "welcoming location where digital, human, and social resources are organized in support of learning, technology, group gathering space, and provides a continuum of service."

Worth a listen if you have the conference CD (or can borrow it from a friend).

MLA 2007 Photos posted on MLANET

http://www.mlanet.org/am/photo/index.php?cat=4

Looks like they stopped adding entries on Monday as well!

Special Collections and Historical Collections: Renewed appreciation for rare materials / They’ll All be rare books one day

Building a digital library is not just about leasing online access to content from publishers. In many medical libraries it’s also about discovering, and in some cases rediscovering, and then exposing our long-held assets (and in some cases acquiring someone else’s long-held assets). These assets generally reside in out Special Collections and Archives. This was the topic at MLA at the History of the Health Sciences Section (HHSS) entitled “They’ll all be rare books one day: collection development in Special Collections.” But there was more than just book talk.

John Schleicher from the McGoogan Library of Medicine, University of Nebraska described their treasured artifacts as “anything smaller than a bread box”. After not having any staff to manage the rare book collections for 10 years, John has been brought in and had the task of rediscovering Nebraska’s McGoogan Library treasures. They include works from the pre-IRB era like Edward Jenner’s famous work on small pox vaccination, artwork, and other classics such as Ketham's " Fasciculus medicinae" and Michael Scot's " Liber phisionomie", both published in 1495. For more details, see http://www.unmc.edu/library/about/histmed.html

Dr. Cheryl Rae Dee, Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science, Universit of South Florida-Tampa shared her experience in bringing the personal papers of NLM’s Martin M. Cummings to life. Many fishing trips later, the papers are being digitized and described for future scholars.

Michael Flannery, Associate Director, Historical Collections, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, University of Alabama-Birmingham took us on a quick tour of the “keepers” and “throwaways” of pharmacy-related materials or material medica. For more details on the significance of early works that eventually became the USP Pharmacopoeia, the USD and National Formulary, see his paper in BMLA.

Diane McKenzie, Collection Development Librarian, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill revitalized UNC’s Special Collections when she accepted a gift of foreign medical theses from the New York Academy of Medicine, measuring 3,500 linear feet. As a result of this acquisition, the library has new partners and champions for their historical collections.

Posted for Heidi Heilemann

Another Blog with MLA 2007 Reports

http://tunaiskewl.wordpress.com/

Section Program: Taking Flight with Evidence-based Library and Information Practice: Educational Perspectives

This Monday morning session sponsored by the Medical Library Education Section was one of several sessions at MLA this year which had a focus on evidence-based librarianship. Coupled with the "research vignettes" shown before every plenary session, and the revision of the MLA Research Policy Statement, it is clear that the idea that we should all be doing research of our own and strengthening the library science evidence base, is one whose time certainly appears to have come.

I have a confession to make: I spent the first five minutes of this session with several other conference attendees locked in the hall while someone from the Marriott fumbled around with keys.The first speaker was Assako N. Holyoke from Saint Louis University who talked about a study they did to assess the impact of instructors' backgrounds and attitudes on the training of residents. It appeared to be an interesting talk but I couldn't quite get my bearings once I took my seat. I regret it, and I hope to later read about her methodology and results in published form. A few informative articles were mentioned toward the end of her presentation which I can link here:

DiPiro JT. The Best Lecture of the Year. Am J Pharm Ed. 2006 Oct;70(5):108.

Ramos K, Linscheid R, Schafer S. Real-time information seeking behavior of resident physicians. Fam Med. 2003 Apr;35(4):257-60.

Tennant MR, Tobin Cataldo T, Sherwill-Navarro P, Jesano R. Evaluation of a library liaison program: client and liaison perspectives. J Med Libr Assoc. 2006 Oct;94(4):402-9, e201-4.

Martha Preddie followed with a presentation on the state of the evidence base utilizing qualitative research methods, by which she meant research which didn't utilize statistical methods: focus groups, interviews, and the like. She described qualitative research as generally good at answering "why" questions and from Gorman and Clayton, as "facilitating the investigation of complex information environments." To determine the evidence base for qualitative research in our field, Preddie conducted a content analysis of PubMed, finding 84 library research articles utilizing qualitative methods in the period 1996-2006. One thing that she did determine was that the bulk of the research (75%) was 2003-present implying that librarians are doing more research currently. Also, most common methods were interviews and focus groups and most (57%) used mixed methods. The implications are that there continues to be a small evidence base using qualitative methods which are very relevant to our field, that there continues to be difficulty in finding qualitative research studies, and that the methods were not always identified in the abstracts. The implications are that more rsearch using these methods is needed and the LIS curricula need more of a research emphasis.

Joanne Marshall from UNC-Chapel Hill discussed the development of a full-semester course in evidence-based information practice in a Masters LIS program. The textbook used for the course was Booth and Brice's Evidence Based Practice for Information Professionals: A Handbook with guest speakers. They taught the steps of EBLIP which are the same steps we know from EBM: identify a question; find the evidence; appraise the evidence; apply the evidence; evaluate outcomes. In the end they found that they did have enough information for a full-length course. Marshall feels that evidence based library and information practice may be useful in facilitating knowledge transfer between the boomer librarians who will be leaving the field in the next decade or so, and newer entrants to the field who are equipped to conduct research.

Section Program: Joining the Revolution: Strategies for Marketing Yourself

Sponsored by the Leadership and Management Section
Cosponsored by the Corporate Information Services Section and the New Members Special Interest Group
Tuesday, May 22.

The program featured two segments - Julie Cohen, a certified career coach, spoke about the job search process, followed by speed mentoring sessions, where participants spoke with senior library managers offering career development advice in 10-minute intervals.

Cohen provided tips typical of any job hunting guide, part strategy and part pep-talk – know yourself, know what you want, networking is important, don’t be discouraged. She compared career development to stages in a romantic relationship – look for the right job for you, know when to leave a job, seek contentment.

The truly valuable part of the program was the speed mentoring. Based on a suggestion from former MLA president, M.J. Tooey, who recognized that a need exists in spite of the mentoring programs MLA promotes, speed mentoring offered a quick, largely informal way to seek advice from experienced medical librarians. My roster of mentors happened to include Julie Cohen, whose expertise was much less generic and much more valuable on an individual basis, and two librarians whose understanding of the profession made for sound counseling.

One mentor genuinely wanted to know if I found the experience helpful and yes, I did. While each mentor had a different approach and I inevitably received some contradictory advice, certain suggestions were echoed throughout. It wasn’t that I got a lot of suggestions that hadn’t occurred to me, it was more the consensus of opinion and repetition of certain “must do’s” that resonated. How could I not benefit from this collective wisdom?

While I fully expected the mentors to be friendly and encouraging, it still struck me how generous people in our profession can be with their time and advice. I strongly suggest that speed mentoring becomes a regular part of the annual meeting.

Posted for Deborah Crooke

Medical Library Education Section’s New Voices in the Air: Hearing the Next Generation of Medical Librarians

May 21, Section Programs 3:00-4:30

Joanne Gard Marshall, Past MLA President and professor at the School of Information and Library Sciences at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, introduces the topic and the first speaker, Elizabeth La Rue from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Nursing. Interestingly, La Rue has a PhD in Library Science but her faculty appointment is with her institution’s School of Nursing. The title of her program is A Study on the Adoption of a Web Page Content Assessment Tool: SPAT. SPAT is a pneumonic, easy-to-use tool to use in analyzing the validity and reliability of web sites and resources.

S=site
P=publisher
A=audience
T=timeliness

Does the tool work? That answer to that question gave the presenter her dissertation topic and after studying a group of CDE’s (certified diabetes educators), the author found that SPAT has made a positive impact on the way her population group reviews Web-based information.

The next presenter is Marty J. O’Neill of the Health Informatics Program at the University of North Texas, Denton with his presentation entitled: Technical Concerns of Using Extended Character Sets in Creating Bilingual Chinese/English Health Information Pathfinders. O’Neill detailed the technical issues associated with creating websites (in this particular case, library pathfinders in Chinese), particularly the issues associated with using languages that have extended character sets. After much study, O’Neill found that numerical character references (NCRs) were chosen to represent the Chinese characters.

The final presenter in the session in Mellanye Lackey with her presentation, An analysis of evaluation activities planned in NN/LM outreach subcontracts 2001-2006. Lackey is an NLM 2nd year fellow, spending the year at UNC-Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library. She discusses the importance of evaluation, how evaluation shows a project’s worth in quantitative and measurable terms, but also discusses the barriers to successful evaluation, including lack of time, money and knowledge about evaluation projects. Lackey analyzed 150 records in the NLM’s database of outreach projects, particularly which evaluation methods were used in outreach efforts.

Posted for Andrea Griffith

Revolutions Under Way: Capture the Moment

Monday, May 21

Section Program 10:30-12:00

Susan Lessick from University of California-Irvine welcomes the audience to the NPC-sponsored-session, Revolutions Under Way: Capture the Moment. The session will highlight how five speaker groups extended the reach and visibility of their libraries by redefining their services and bringing the library to their users.

The first presentation is In Librarians We Trust: Building a Partnership with Practitioners for the Benefit of Patients. Angela Dixon, Mary Beth Klofas, Marilyn Rosen, and Julia Sollenberger are librarians at the Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester. Marilyn Rosen introduces the topic by reading a comment from the parent of a patient who never knew that the hospital had a library, let alone a library that could offer information to patients and their families. Mary Beth Klofas starts the presentation with the statistic that only ¼ of health information seekers consistently check Internet sources and currency (Pew Report, October 2006). Miner Librarians created a task force with a physician, a nurse, a social worker, and an administrator to implement an information prescription. Librarians also created standardized information packets on physician-identified topics. Resources used to create the topics: CLIC on Health, Genetics Home Reference, Medline Plus, Miner Library Patient Education Collection, and NORD. The successful pilot program lasted from June-December 2006 and averaged five requests per month during this time period.

Denise Hersey of Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University was next with her presentation Bringing the Mountain to Mohammed: Having a Librarian in the Operating Room Area. Hersey’s project began when an anesthesiologist in a focus group mentioned off-handedly that he wished their was a librarian in the OR area. So, Hersey jumped at the chance and set up regular “office” hours in the anesthesia workroom in the operating suite. She uses the computer and internet access in the work room and averaged 51 questions (mostly one-on-one) in 2.5 months. Most of the questions involved literature searching, RefWorks & EndNote, and PDA resources.

Hersey’s partnership with the anesthesia department has given her multiple opportunities. She built an information portal for the department and introduced them to Blackboard for their journal club; 19 courses are up and running. Hersey is now one of the gang and has even been asked to write an article for Current Opinion in Anesthesiology about the partnership.

Patrick McCarthy, the director of the Medical School Library at Saint Louis University, is the presenter for the next program, mostly developed by Donghua Tao entitled A New Liaison Outreach Program: Mobile Reference Services to the School of Public Health. The School of Public Health is located at a greater distance from the library than most departments on campus, and a mobile reference service program was implemented to better serve the faculty and students, focusing on literature search and reference instruction, identifying resources with full-text and customized information support. Overall reference transactions went up 28% as a result of this program; School of Public Health reference transactions went up 110%.

Cristina Pope, the director of the library at SUNY Upstate Medical University was next with her presentation entitled Books to Bedside, a unique cooperation between the medical library at SUNY and the Onondaga County Public Library System. As health science libraries generally have little to no general reading material, this cooperation brings general reading material to patients, their families, and clinicians. All public library books can be picked up or dropped off at the medical center library. This partnership has faced unique challenges, including a relatively small book cart that is too big to fit into patient rooms. A new Golisano Children’s Hospital is being built (2009) and will have a family resource center that will coordinate general reading and entertainment for children and their families in the hospital.

The final program for the session is Weill Cornell Medical College Librarian’s Millenials Find Treasure in the Library! helen-ann brown introduced the program and Patricia Mongelia detailed 2006’s medical school orientation. Using the seven core traits of the Millenial generation (special, sheltered, confident, achieving, team oriented, conventional, pressured) the librarians designed a treasure hunt complete with rhyming clues and a treasure map to highlight locations and services in the library. Students divided into teams to complete the hunt; each member of the winning team received a flash drive. The winning team finished in 17 minutes.

Posted for Andrea Griffith

Section Program: Turning Clinical Students into Evidence-Based Clinicians: The Medical Library's Role

This session, presented by the Dental Section in collaboration with EMTS, NAHRS, and the Medical Library Education sections and the Mental Health and Clinical Librarians/EBHC SIGs, explored the efforts of several libraries to integrate EBM instruction by the library into the curricula of their various institutions. The opening speaker was Connie Schardt from Duke University Medical Center where they have a fairly established EBM Curriculum integrated throughout the four years of medical school. Interested readers should also check out their EBM Librarian blog at http://ebmlibrarian.wetpaint.com.

The next presenter was Lauren Maggio who spoke about the experience of Boston University librarians to create an EBM session in a Dental School course. One thing that resonated from this presentation was their efforts of "librarian calibration": they involved the BU Center for Excellence in Teaching to improve the teaching and presentation skills of all the librarians who would be participating in the session. Kathryn Skhal from Hardin Library at the University of Iowa described the components of their "360 Degree Library Services" program including small group sessions, case-based "5-minute challenges," and electronic resource centers. They have plans to add their case vignettes to MedEdPORTAL in the future.
Mary Lou Klem from Pittsburgh has been working with the nursing curriculum, integrating a modular system of case-based online instruction built on a MySQL database. And Irena Bond presented the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy's evaluation of EBM knowledge and skills following instruction. In the closing words of her presentation, she stressed the need for new forms of rapid assessment of EBM and searching instruction learner outcomes.

An assessment instrument mentioned by several of the speakers was the Fresno Test. In addition, a systematic review of instruments to evaluate education in evidence based health care was published in JAMA in September 2006.

The Krafty Librarian's MLA 2007 Blog

For more posts related to MLA events and programs, visit The Krafty MLA 2007 blog brought to you by the Krafty Librarian, Michelle Kraft and several volunteers.

A Great McGovern Lecture

This morning MLA attendees in Philadelphia listened to Arthur Caplan, bioethicist from the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, a man with a list of credentials so long that Laurie Thompson lost her place as she was reading them in an introduction Caplan said he wished "his mother had been here for."

The subject of Caplan's talk was "Peer Review in Science and Medicine: Does It or Can It Work?" In his talk, Caplan offered a description of conflicts of interest and how they affect scientific publishing. He provided several examples to illustrate conflict of interest, the need to disclose conflicts, and the problem of peer review:

* A center who produced a study which found that Walmart's low wages costs California taxpayers $86 million in health care and public assistance -- the center was found to be funded in part (10%) by organized labor.

* Positive results bias resulting from industry funding of scientific research. For more information, the reader is referred to this 2006 JAMA article by Ridker and Torres.

* The Korean cloning scandal , the authors' failure to disclose financial interest in the AtriCure/atrial fibrillation studies, and the manufacture of data by a Norwegian oral cancer researcher.

Possible politically-motivated bias was discussed with regard to an article published in JAMA related to fetal pain. This article was criticized because the authors were found to be pro-choice and/or have ties to abortion clinics. The question was raised: how much information do need to know about authors? How much disclosure is necessary?

His message to librarians was to get involved in and add our voices to this issue. Solutions mainly related to "beefing up" the peer review process (compensation for reviewers, disclosure for authors as well as editors -- see recent JCI article, more statistical analysis of data/need for statistical expertise, publishing of the actual peer reviews online, and anonymity of reviewes for a limited time. He proposes a more transparent process, and promotion of understanding of the scientific processs itself -- that "scientific truth comes through verification and attempts to falsify" findings.

A scintillating question and answer period followed and Caplan encouraged attendees to communicate with him via
email.

CE - Writing for Publication in Peer-Reviewed Journals

This course covered the journal article publication process. Including the rationale, particpants, journals, rights, ethics, submission and review of the article. Also discussed was how to choose a topic, the approach of writing the article and the different types of articles. The actual writing process was also covered. The ways of gathering information, organization of notes, writing of the 1st draft to revision and the abstract.

I learned a lot in this course but won't bore you with all points, only a few... Remember to write your article first, and your abstract last. Short and concise writing is best - always. Only submit your article to one journal at a time. Even though chronological organization sounds easiest, it is the hardest to write. Organize your thoughts (an outline works great!) before putting pen to paper. Use graphics wisely. Watch out for too many prepositional phrases.

And last but not least...

Life is too limited in length... er, Life is Short!

~Angela Anderson
aander@lsuhsc.edu

Dine Arounds - Monk's Cafe, err uh Warsaw Cafe

Hello everyone at MLA! Please take note of the Dine Arounds available at MLA. As a first time MLA attendee it was nice to go out to dinner with fellow librarians. You can sign up for dine arounds near the registration desk. My colleague and I had signed up for the Monk's Cafe dine around last night, but our group arrived late to the restaurant and thus they cancelled our reservation. Nonetheless, we wound up at Warsaw Cafe right down the street. Good food and maybe 15 minutes walking distance of the Marriott.

~Angela Anderson, guest blogger
LSUHSC-Shreveport
http://sassysystems.blogspot.com

Wear Your Dancing Shoes Tuesday Night!

Come one come all to the first ever “MLA mini-ballroom dancing with the stars!” This will be part of the Tuesday night MLA reception.

Clive and Suzanne Phillips, links to their bios below, will spark the festivities with some group dance sessions followed by an exhibition or two. Come see world class professionals first hand, wear your dancin’ shoes and/or your most comfortable shoes or socks.

If you do not have a ticket for this reception, they may be purchased at the MLA Registration. There are options for both adult and child tickets.

And, we will have a photographer!

Here are the links to the bios and to more info about the studios. No doubt there is a local studio near you. Join us as we all learn to dance together…and/or just have fun!

Clive: http://www.dnywestchester.com/CliveBio.htm

Suzanne: http://www.dnywestchester.com/SuzanneBio.htm

Here is the link to Dance New York studio: http://www.dancenewyork.com/stand_alone2.htm

Here is the one for the Westchester studio: http://www.dnywestchester.com/

Even one for those dancers in Iowa: http://www.dnyia.com/

See you there!

Posted for Diana Cunningham

Finding Your Way Around Philly

I just received via email a map from a vendor for an event happening at something like 1336 Chestnut Street and I had to chuckle. But that was just my Philadelphia-native sensibilities. You don't really need a map to get around Philly! So I thought I'd explain it to you.

Philadelphia is one of the easiest cities to figure out, because of it's wonderful grid system. Numbered streets run north and south. Named streets (mostly trees) run east and west. And the best thing: the numbers mean something. So, to use the example above 1336 Chestnut Street would be found on Chestnut between 13th and 14th Streets (it's a bowling alley, by the way).

In addition, Market Street is the dividing line between north and south for numbered streets. So an address like 106 S. 13th St. is south of Market (but not too far, just a couple of blocks) on 13th Street. (I hear they have great margaritas!)

I lived and worked in Manhattan for many years, and there are formulas in the phone book (no lie!) to estimate the location of addresses on the grid, variable by street. Philadelphia is much simpler!

The only thing you really need to know is the order of the "trees". So quickly from North to South (for the main named streets of Center City), remember: Callowhill-Vine-Race-Cherry-Arch-Market-Chestnut-Sansom-Walnut-Locust-Spruce-Pine-Lombard-South.

Happy walking!

Calling all bloggers

If you're interested in blogging one of the conference sessions or about the conference in general, we need volunteers.

Contact Marie Ascher at marie_ascher@nymc.edu or Barbara Kountouzi at varvarak@mail.med.upenn.edu

Dine-Arounds

Please join some of your colleagues to explore the tastes of Philadelphia. To register for a Dine-Around on Friday or Saturday evening, please sign up at the Hospitality Desk by 2pm on the day of the scheduled dine around. For Thursday night Dine-Arounds, sign up in advance by emailing the host or at the Hospitality Desk after it opens on Thursday at 4pm. Dine-Around participants should plan on being at the Message Area 5 minutes prior to the time listed below. Please be on time as your party will leave promptly. If you miss them it is up to you to get to the restaurant on your own.

Please let your non-blogging colleagues know about these events!

Thursday, May 17th (note: you can email the host to sign-up in advance)

Lolita http://lolitabyob.com
Mexican
106 S. 13th Street
Host: Anne Seymour seymoura@mail.med.upenn.edu
Time: 6:30
Number of dinner slots: 7

Swanky Bubbles www.swankybubbles.com
Asian, champagne
10 S. Front Street
Host: Andrea Kenyon kenyon@collphyphil.org
Time: 6:30
Number of dinner slots: 8

Friday, May 18th
(additional restaurants may be added)

Nodding Head search.cityguide.aol.com/philadelphia/bars/nodding-head/v-130117
www.noddinghead.com
16th and Sansom
Hostess: Maura Sostack msostack@virtua.org
Time: 6:30
Number of dinner slots: 7 persons

Estia www.estiarestaurant.com
(Greek)
1405 Locust Street
Hostess: Andrea Kenyon kenyon@collphyphil.org
Time: 6:30
Number of dinner slots: 5

Monk’s Belgian Café www.monkscafe.com/
16th & Spruce
Host: Dan Boutchie
Time: 7:00
Number of dinner slots: 7

Saturday, May 19th
(additional restaurants may be added)

Singapore
(Chinese, kosher, vegetarian)
1006 Race Street
Hostess: Diane Wolf
Time: 8pm
Number of dinner slots: 7

Farmacia www.farmiciarestaurant.com/
15 S. 3rd Street
Host: Jen de Richmond JdeRichemond@ECRI.org
Time: 7:30pm (meet at message board at 7pm)
Number of dinner slots: 7

Pub Crawl
Tour of the drinking establishments in the Center City East/TJU area including Ludwig’s Garden, McGillians (Philly's oldest pub), Fergie's, the Irish Pub (the one by Jefferson), and Doc Watson's. Please note that while restaurants are smoke free, none of these establishments qualify for the exemption.
Host: Brad Long
Time: 8:45
Number of slots: 12 persons

Politics of Health Information

The Politics of Health Information: Keeping the New Barbarians at Bay
Monday, May 21, 2007, 10:30AM - 12:00PM, Marriott Room 305/306

The Relevant Issues Section is soliciting input before this session for anyone interested in the topic - questions, issues you'd like to see covered, etc. A full desciption is at the survey site. If you'd like to help here's the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=983183768457

Survey Monkey will be down for updates Saturday morning, otherwise the survey should be available. Thanks for helping out!

Strange Bedfellows

Strange Bedfellows: Radical Shifts in the Relationships Between Libraries and their Partners
Sunday, May 20, 2007, 4:30pm - 6:00pm, Marriott Grand Ballroom, Salon IJ

The Relevant Issues Section is soliciting input before this session for anyone interested in the topic - questions, issues you'd like to see covered, etc. A full desciption is at the survey site. If you'd like to help here's the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=745603768195

Survey Monkey will be down for updates Saturday morning, otherwise the survey should be available. Thanks for helping out!

May Issue of MLA News Contains Meeting Information

Issues of MLA News are often available online ahead of the print edition. This may be the case for your May 2007 issue, which has been mailed, but may not reach you before you leave for the Annual Meeting. Check the online version for features and regular columns, and also for information concerning the meeting, including tips for new members and previews of technology sessions sponsored by the Medical Informatics Section.

Hope to see you all at MLA '07!

posted for Linda Katz, editor of MLA News

Beyond the Digital Revolution

Beyond the Digital Revolution: Virtual Collaborations, Virtual Partnerships, Virtual Communities
Monday, May 21, 2007, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Independence Ballroom

If libraries are to serve the next generation of health care professionals, we must serve them in the virtual spaces where they practice, teach, and conduct research. We must develop virtual tools and services which clearly meet their changing information needs and take full advantage of the latest technological innovations. Explore with us the opportunities, successes, and challenges we face as we develop new user-driven virtual information service models, reach out to virtual communities, create innovative virtual partnerships and collaborations, and develop best practices and gold standards for virtual information and knowledge management services.

The NPC invites you to join us as we learn and discuss:

• How librarians at the Second Life Medical and Consumer Health Libraries and a podcast are reaching out to the one million registered users of the Second Life 3D online world (handout preview);

• How the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Library began the development of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) "Virtual Home", with the objective of accelerating the pace of translating discovery into patient care (presentation preview);

• How the Basic Sciences Digital Library, a "one-stop shop" for busy researchers at all levels, integrates library resources, institutional links, National Center for Biotechnology Information-Entrez database searching, and an extensive list of Web-based bioinformatics tools (presentation preview);

• How the challenges faced in converting face-to-face classes to the online environment have been met by librarians using Moodle, an open-source software program for Web-based instruction (presentation preview); and

• How an in-depth analysis of ILL and document delivery and a study of workflow redesigns in businesses and libraries has made requests available in less than half the time, reduced staff time by over 30%, produced an 85% reduction in average turnaround time, and resulted in a dramatic positive shift in customer satisfaction (presentation preview).

posted for Joan Gregory

Join your LGBT colleagues

Every year during MLA, the LGBT SIG ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Health Science Librarians Special Interest Group--longest SIG name ever!) gets together for a social event. This year two events are planned!

Dinner: Sunday, May 20 at 7:30
Tavern on Camac http://www.tavernoncamac.com/
243 South Camac St.
215-545-0900
(We will be ordering from the regular menu and there will be at least one additional vegetarian entree)

Happy Hour: Monday, May 21, 5-7
Bump Lounge http://www.bumplounge.com/
Corner of 13th and Locust Streets
215-732-1800

If you are interested you can RSVP or just show up, we'll make room for you. Both spots are walking distance and in the Gayborhood.
Here's a map with both event locations.

Revolutions Under Way: Capture the Moment

Health Sciences librarians in all settings are presented daily with challenges in new areas from new patrons and with new generations of users who are not accustomed to coming to any library. Reaching out to demonstrate value in clinical or academic settings is becoming the new norm. Capturing each opportunity in innovative ways is a revolution under way.

We have on our blog five wonderful examples of innovative outreach programs that are “Revolutions Under Way” and we invite you all to spend some time viewing these presentations before MLA to absorb the splendid work these folks are doing and to begin to frame topics for discussion at the program on May 21. By all means do jump into the blog with comments and questions for our presenters. We will continue the discussion at our session, “Revolutions Under Way: Capture the Moment” on Monday morning, May 21, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm, in the Grand Ballroom KL.

Please remember folks that we are hoping for a very “green” conference so there will be no printed handouts and we ask you not to print out the presentations yourselves. Please make notes and bring them with you.

And now folks… over to our presenters…check out their interesting PowerPoint presentations and bios at URL http://gml.lib.uci.edu/mla2007.html

Posted for Susan Lessick.

Tours, tours, tours

If you're interested in a tour of Philadelphia on a bus, in a car, on a duck, or on foot, check out the gophila website. It is one of the best on everything Philadelphian.

http://www.gophila.com/C/Things_to_Do/211/Itineraries_and_Tours/428/Tours/204.html

Two questions: nearest UPS/FedEx and convenience stores

Located inside the Marriot Lobby is a 24 hour FedEx/Kinkos. The nearest convenience/drug stores are 7-11 at 1215 Filbert Street and 7 South 11th Street, Wawa (like 7-11) at 1038 Arch Street, CVS at 1046 Market Street, and Rite Aid at 1000 Market Street.

More Free Wireless!

Earlier posts noted wireless availability in the Marriot (for a fee) and in the exhibit's Internet Cafe (free) as well as links to wireless hotspots. Here are a two more convenient spots for free wireless:

• The Reading Terminal Market which is across from the Marriot has free wireless throughout including the restaurants and open seating areas. Hours: M-Sat 8am-6pm, Sun 9am-4pm.
• Convention Center which is adjacent to the Marriot. Ask at the hotel how to get to the Convention Center from within the Marriot.
  

Early Morning Coffee

For those early birds and caffeine hounds, here are a couple of places that will be open early to help get you going for a full day of conference activities!

Starbucks
Marriott Lobby
Sunday-Thurs 5:30am-10:00 pm
Fri & Sat 5:30-10:30pm

Java's Brewin
1101 Market St (just 2 blocks down from the Marriott)
Mon-Fri: 6:30am-6:30pm
Sat: 10am-4pm
FREE WIRELESS FOR CUSTOMERS

Olde City Coffee
Reading Terminal Market
12th and Filbert Sts (Walk out the backdoor of the Marriott and you're there!)
Mon-Sat 8 am- 6pm
FREE WIRELESS FOR CUSTOMERS

What Not To Wear-- Philadelphia version

Wondering what the weather is like in Philly and what to wear at the conference?

The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.
- Edwin Way Teale

To quote an old Norwegian saying “There is no such thing as bad weather. Only bad clothing”. It is always a challenge when packing to anticipate what you will be wearing. Typical spring weather in Philadelphia calls for high temperatures around 74°F/23°C and lows around 52°F/11°C. Dress for all sessions is business casual. Temperatures in meeting rooms tend to be cool so bring a light jacket or sweater. Don’t forget to bring an umbrella and a raincoat. But don’t worry if you forget anything, Philadelphia has boutiques and stores galore to find that special something.

To help you plan your wardrobe accordingly for your trip to the city of brotherly and sisterly love I have compiled some information and weather links for you to check out.

Weather reports: Check the weather forecast for Philadelphia a few days before you leave (Accuweather.com link for Philadelphia is on blog, right column under blog archive), then adjust your wardrobe plans. Layering is a sound strategy given the frigidity of some meeting rooms compared to the allure of outdoor activities on a nice spring day. Just remember

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.
-Patrick Young

So, if you don’t like the weather reports on one website- try another!!!

National Weather Service Forecast for Philadelphia

The Weather Channel, Local Philadelphia Forecast by the day, week, month

Weather Underground

Philly.com

A great place to read and complain about the weather!

Climatological Data for Philadelphia
Average temperature 63.5
High- 72.1
Low- 52.7
Average precipitation 3.89
56% of days with sunshine in May
Highest recorded Temperature: 1991 97 degrees
Lowest: 1966 28 degrees

posted for Andrea Kenyon, LAC weather girl