I want to thank Genevieve Gore, Coordinator of Web Site Development, McGill University Library for submitting her insights from the MLA Conference to this blog. She has graciously taken notes and given us her thoughts on the various activities at MLA and I happy to post them below. If there any other librarians at MLA who are interested in also submitting please email me, I would love to hear from you.

---Genevieve Gore---

I can't believe how busy this conference has been: I finally have a couple of hours to digest the material, so I've forked over an additional $10 for Wi-Fi at the Emily Morgan Hotel for the day. This hotel has a special menu for dogs and cats, by the way (things like Chow Hound Chicken for $17, or Whisker Licking Liver for $16).

First Consult
I agree with you (Krafty Librarian)-- I see First Consult as something to watch. I haven't actually played with it myself, but I was quite impressed with the demo given at our library (I haven't seen it at MLA; somehow it got lost in the shuffle, and my boss really can't stand Elsevier): interface seems to provide many but not too many options, in a user-oriented manner. Of course, we're not huge fans of Elsevier; we might be stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of pricing/licensing models if choosing between UpToDate and First Consult (we only have four simultaneous licenses for MD Consult at McGill because the pricing was so exorbitant).

UpToDate
So, I watched the UpToDate rep get torn to pieces by a group of what I'd call pretty damn angry librarians. UpToDate justifies its pricing model on sustainability: one part of this model is that authors are paid (and probably quite well). From an academic university's perspective, the big problem, on top of the high costs for site access, is remote access pricing. However, UpToDate really doesn't see why medical students should have a problem buying discounted subscriptions for remote access -- after all, they buy textbooks, right? -- and this of course also extends to physicians for different reasons. So, no plans to change their remote access pricing. He also defended the product as evidence-based, which is obviously a contentious issue with librarians (whether doctors care or not is an entirely different thing).

NLM Update
The NLM Update was incredible: as a Canadian, I have to hang my head in shame when I see what they're accomplishing. It's sheer international generosity. Dr. Lindberg told us about how clinicaltrials.gov has opened up to the world to make it possible for international trials to register (so that they can server the new ICMJE's, or International Committee of Medical Journal Editors', rules; interestingly, he noted the ICMJE doesn't actually have a legal status for this, which could possibly result in some interesting developments down the road). He also mentioned their top priority at this time is the Molecular Library. It will be supported by the NLM/NCBI PubChem system. The Molecular Library is causing some controversy with the ACS, whose president (a lawyer by training) is taking a political approach to the issue and has said in the press that if the NLM moves forward on this, "you might as well turn out the lights in Columbus, OH" (there is currently access to 24 million molecules through ACS). The NLM, however, is committed to the project, as are its partners.

Dr. Lindberg also mentioned the thing to watch is Interactive Publication. The NLM is going to have to figure out how to deal with this new publishing model (The NEJM, for example, is already linking to audio files; some other journals include more exciting multimedia such as ultrasound imaging segments, videos on endoscopic surgery...) If you know any editors of journals or groups willing to collaborate with NLM, they're listening. Good examples of the problems resulting from interactive publication are data files: the NCHS is currently collaborating with NLM to figure out how to deal with this issue (The NCHS has public data sets that aren't actually indexed as public, do not have a joint vocabulary...) By the way, I'm using acronyms because I haven't had time to actually check all full names yet.

Dr. Humphreys gave the second part of the talk. She talked about how NIHMS (NIH Manuscript Submission) has been running since May 2nd, 2005 (http://nihms.nih.gov): she estimated full participation would generate about 180 submissions/day; so far it's generating about 6 submissions/day, so there's obviously room for growth. Interestingly, third parties will be able to submit for authors, which is a good role for librarians. That system, accessible through My NCBI, will be available July 6th, 2005. You can sign up to the NIHMS News list to follow updates. Submitted articles will then be available through PMC. There is talk of a UK version as well (using Portable PMC to support mirror sites).

She mentioned the NIH Roadmap which I'll have to read. It involves the rearrangement of the research infrastructure. Also mentioned was the Commission on Systemic Interoperability, which is "developing a strategy to make healthcare information instantly accessible at all times, by consumers and their healthcare providers." They will be releasing a report in October 2005.

Other items mentioned were:
- UMLS, the Unified Medical Language System (they're developing a tutorial at present)
- RxNorm (standard names for clinical drugs and dose forms; connected to the FDA's National Drug Codes, or NDCs)
- their Public Health initiatives (visit http://www.phpartners.org/)
- WISER (the Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders)
- TOXMAP (visual exploration of environmental health data)
- Tox Town (a consumer health product for educating the population about environmental health risks and chemicals in their area)
- MedlinePlus and the Genetics Home Reference
- the GoLocal projects
- NIH Seniors Health (they're looking for stories from active seniors)- and the Information RX Project.

I hope their PowerPoints will be available on the web, because it was really hard to follow what she was saying and what was on the slides.
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Thank you again Gen! Sounds like a good conference, I am jealous. :)