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).

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Sunrise Seminars

Rise and shine for these sunrise seminars:

Integrated solution with ISI Web of Knowledge, EndNote and now EndNote Web
Presenter: Jeff Clovis
Location: Marriott: Room: 305/306
Date: Sunday, May 20, 2007
Time: 7:00am - 8:15am

EndNote Web enables all users to manager, organize and store references online via ISI Web of Knowledge. Intermediate researchers benefit from the convenience and ease of online storage and bibliography development; EndNote users benefit from higher degrees of accessibility and control using the complementary desktop and Web-based bibliographic management solution.

*****

OVID SUNRISE SEMINAR
-Continental breakfast will be served-
Sunday 5.20.07
7:00 AM - 8:15 AM
Independence Ballroom

Speakers: John Mate, Andrew Popper, Mark Barragry, Scott MacFarland

VOYAGER/ExLibris Meeting May 22 @ 7:30am

VOYAGER/ExLibris Meeting at MLA in Philly
The Voyager/ExLibris Sig will be meeting this year on Tue, May 22, 2007 at the Marriott from 7:30 AM - 845 AM. in Conference Room 310. Couldn't attend ENDUSER 2007? Join us for coffee and muffins and join in a lively discussion with fellow users. Issues, questions, benefits related to Voyager products and services. Jenny Forbes from ExLibris will be sharing the latest information from the User Group meeting. For more information, contact Stephanie Ferretti at stephaniefe@pcom.edu

Join Us for the Great Space Debate!

On Sunday afternoon, the 20th of May, the NPC 2007 will sponsor the great space debate between 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm. The proposition is: "Be it resolved: As Libraries Evolve to Electronic Access, Their Need for Physical Space Decreases".

Many of us have heard this already -- or fear hearing it -- from our administrators or rivals in our corporate or academic organizations. Everybody is looking to take over our territory because they have heard that: "It's all on the Internet (oh, and by the way, it's free)!" So, we have choices; we can prepare to lose space, or we can defend our need for and use of the space we have. This debate will allow you to hear the arguments on both sides of this timely and important question. Sit and listen, or bring your own perspective on the questions to be raised and make a contribution to the battle!

Some of MLA's best-known and most feisty debaters will square off against each other in this challenge. Rick Forsman and Wayne Peay will face each other in the main bout, while M.J. Tooey and Jane Bridges will ensure that the perspectives of academic and hospital librarians, in particular, are heard. Laurie Thompson will blow the whistle (as moderator), clock the participants, encourage audience participation and conduct a final vote to determine a winner.

If you'd like to get started early, you can post your arguments here, ask questions about the format, or establish your support for the "yeas" or "nays" in advance of the debate just in case you can't attend. This event is sure to be rowdy, raucous and a real crowd-pleaser; plan now to be there!

Accepted Poster Files Due to MLA by April 15, 2007!!

New for 2007 - your poster will be published on MLANET before the meeting.

MLA is piloting the early publishing of posters to help attendees plan which poster presentations they will want to visit. After the meeting, posters will remain on MLANET as a resource for the profession.

By April 15, 2007, email a file of your poster to posters@mlahq.org. Use one of the following formats: Word, Excel, PDF or Power Point.

Name the file as follows: poster number_author last name

In the email include your full name. Before MLA'07, MLA will publish your poster on the MLA'07 website and create a link to it from your abstract.

Roundtables Facilitators and Recorders Needed

The Chapter Council Sharing Roundtables are one of the most well attended events of the conference, but we need your help. Facilitators and recorders are needed for many of the tables. If you have an expertise or even an interest in a topic, please consider volunteering for this event. You get an AHIP point if you do! The Roundtables will be held on Sunday, May 20th from noon-2pm.

If you are interested in volunteering, please email Chapter Council Roundtables Committee Co-chairs Marie Reidelbach (mreidelb@unmc.edu) or Melanie Cedrone (mcedrone@mail.med.upenn.edu)


Volunteers are needed for:

Topics to Facilitate
#4 - Copyright Issues
#5 - Digitization Issues
#6 - Electronic Health Record
#12 - How to Start an Institutional Repository
#17 - Management of E-resources
#18 - Management/Leadership
#19 - Managing Resources in Emergency/Disaster Situations
#22 - Open Access/Scholarly Publishing
#24 - Strategies for License Negotiations with Vendors
#25 - Talking to Administration/Communication Techniques
#26 - Technology Issues for Hospital Librarians
#27 - Using New Technologies & Instructional Design for Teaching
#29 - Web Design and Usability

Topics to Record
#2 - Clinical Decision Making
#5 - Digitization Issues
#6 - Electronic Health Record
#12 - How to Start an Institutional Repository
#13 - Integrating You or the Library into the Curriculum
#16 - Library Space Planning
#18 - Management/Leadership
#19 - Managing Resources in Emergency/Disaster Situations
#22 - Open Access/Scholarly Publishing
#23 - So You Want to Publish?
#24 - Strategies for License Negotiations with Vendors
#25 - Talking to Administration/Communication Techniques
#28 - Virtual / Electronic Library
#30 - Wikis, Blogs & Pods, Oh My!

MLA Abstract Deadlines

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow (FEBRUARY 28, 2007 11:59 PM CST) is the deadline for updating abstracts for your accepted poster and papers.

Your abstract will be posted on the Online Program Planner/ Itinerary Builder) in early March and published in the MLA '07 Abstract supplement to the Official Program which will be distributed at the meeting. After February 28, 2007, any additional author/presenter changes will most likely not be included in MLA '07 Annual Meeting official publications.

Update your abstracts at: http://www.abstractsonline.com/submit/login.asp?mkey=%7B9443EE70%2DD89B%2D4347%2DBC63%2D467154391C33%7D

Registration is now open!

Please make plans to join us!

http://www.mlanet.org/am/am2007/register/index.html