August 2013 – Krafty Librarian

What is the Biggest Thing in Medical Libraries

A few weeks ago over dinner and drinks my public librarian friend and I got into a very interesting and lively brainstorming discussion about the biggest “things” that have or will hit libraries. The conversation was all over the place.

Some of the things we discussed:

Budgets or Tax Proposals
Closing of libraries or space problems
Competition – Used to be book stores but who is it now?
Technology – 3D printers, Google Glass, ebooks, virtual reality
Outreach – embedded librarians, phone booth libraries, gas station out reach
Legislation – ACA, local issues, NIH, NSA spying
Staffing – Where is that giant hiring push? Staff retire and aren’t replaced.

This discussion has been bouncing around in my head for a while and I keep thinking about the “things” (good or bad) that will affect specifically medical librarians and librarianship.

In your opinion what are the major things to to be hitting medical libraries in the near future?

Is it:

Afordable Care Act – Hospitals tightening budgets (and thus the library’s budget) in response to lower reimbursement
Meaningful Use – Promote the spread of EHRs to improve health care in the United States
Big Data – Its use in hospitals and biomedical research
Space – Change of library space from holding books to services? (Often means shrinking of library space)
Electronic resources- What isn’t available electronic these days!? Access and usage across devices and outside of the institution.
Employment – In response to some of the above instititutional issues, librarians are losing their jobs or are not being replaced as they retire or move to another position.
e-Science – Better known as just science within scientific community, but is heavy on the tech, data, and social side of things

I think all of those thing are going to make an impact on medical libraries. But if you had to narrow it down to one thing from the above list, or something I havne’t listed, what would be the biggest thing medical librarians must deal with on the horizon?

Please make it a discussion by commenting below and on Twitter #hittingmedlibs.

The Journal App Wars

I have doctors asking about all four journal browsing apps; Docwise, Docphin, Read, and Browzine (click links for reviews on each app. The reviews were either done by me or guest librarians who had access to the app). A few of the requesting doctors have used one of the above products, but it seems the vast majority of the doctors haven’t used any of the apps and are asking based on word of mouth.

The four apps are very similar. To me it is a bit like comparing PubMed vs Ovid Medline, both do the job well but differently. You also have people who prefer one over the other. One is free while the other is not.

The biggest difference is that three of the apps show the abstracts and tables of contents to almost every medical journal known to man (I over exaggerate of course). The full text is provided if the library/institution as a subscription to that journal. However, there is no clear branding or explannation of what journals the library/instituion owns because Docwise, Docphin, and Read don’t know. If a doctor views the table of contents for the Journal of Big Toe Science in Docwise, Docphin, or Read (which is not owned by the library), the doctor is denied the full text. Last time I checked, there was no clear message as to why they can’t get the full text. Docwise, Docphin, or Read didn’t say soemthing like, “Your library doesn’t subscribe to this journal therefore you can’t access the full text.” Docwise, Docphin, and Read do not know the library/institutions holding or access methods.

Browzine does know what the library/institution owns. Because the library submits the list (with access methods) to Third Iron (the company that owns Browzine). Browzine only shows those journals to doctors. There is no guessing as to whether it is available full text to the doctor. If it is in Browzine, it should be available full text.

Let’s pretend that my hospital library provided proxy access to resources. (Most hospital libraries don’t have proxy servers to provide access to journals or other resources.) I could have my pick of these apps to provide to my users. My question for librarians is: Do I list all four apps and let them decide what they want? I have a very strong feeling (based on 15 years of answering doctor’s library questions) that doctors are going to be complaining about Docwise, Docphin, or Read not providing the full text. After all, if the library recommended a product that connects users to the full text, shouldn’t everything be full text?

What do other libraries do? Do you list all of the apps and let the users decide? Do you worry that there might be confusion among the apps because they are so similar but slightly different? Do you worry that doctors might feel frustrated when they can’t get the full text? Would doctors even bother ordering the unavailable article (going outside of the app to do this) through the library?

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Because sometimes I feel with these journal apps I am being asked to pick between Coke and Pepsi, Ovid and PubMed. I know the difference between them, but my users don’t. Does it matter?

Get MLA CE for Participating in #medlibs Chat

The #medlibs chat group will be hosting a five week series presented by the University of Massachusetts Medical School Lamar Soutter Library.

Here are the weekly chats:

August 15th: Host: Donna Kafel Topic: e-Science portal
August 22nd: Host: Kevin Read Topic:e-Science thesaurus
August 29th: Host: Andrew Creamer Topic: New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
Sept. 5: Host: Sally Gore Topic: Role of the informationist on research teams
Sept. 12: Hosts: Lisa Palmer & Kate Thornhill Topic: Institutional repositoriesand open access

Discussing e-science issues on #medlibs is a great way to learn more about the topic, but the icing on the cake is that these chats have been approved for free (or near free at $5) MLA CE!

While this is a cool opportunity, there are rules for getting the CE.

No partial CE hours will be awarded.
Participation is measured by at least 3 tweets during each #medlibs chat session as shown by the chat transcript discussion AND/OR a reflective summary paragraph about the chat transcript discussion posted as a comment to each week’s blog post at http://medlibschat.blogspot.com/

In her post Nikki says that MLA pre-approved this e-science series for CE. If there are costs they would go directly MLA according to their Discussion Group Program. Nikki has graciously volunteered her time to be the convener for the program, verify participation, administer evaluations, and issue the CE.

The CE may or may not be free. If it is not free, it will be extremely cheap. It will only cost $5! Whether the CE is free or $5 will be clarified soon by MLA and announced when known.

If there is a fee for the CE, please note the following:

Participation will not be tracked or awarded to those who indicate they will only take it for free if a cost is required.
PayPal will be used to collect funds if there is a cost for CE. The convener (Nikki Dettmar) will email all participants who have indicated they will pay a cost for CE with further instructions.
If there is a cost for CE and you have not paid by the end of the series, no CE will be awarded. There will not be followup/reminder emails.

To learn more about the e-science series go to the #medlibs blog. To register for the CE go to this link.

What a great opportunity. Kudos to Nikki for all of her hard work coordinating this. Thank you to the weekly hosts. I have a lot to learn about e-science and I am going to sign up.

Behind the Scenes: MLA Sections

Here we go with another Behind the Scenes post, this one will be about Sections.

In my previous post I said:

Chapters and Sections are different entities. If you belong to MLA you don’t not automatically belong to a Chapter or Section. You have to pay to be a member of a Chapter or Section.

Just because you belong to a Chapter it doesn’t mean you belong to a Section and vice versa.

There are 22 Sections for MLA. They represent the varied areas of specialization of librarianship. Sections meet annually and share information during the year through informal networking and newsletters. Some Sections like the Hospital Library Section have a lot of members and some Sections are smaller like the Dental Section. A complete description of all the Sections can be found here.

Each Section has officers and committee chairs some of those positions can vary according to the Section. MLA provides a general bylaw model for Sections, and you can find each Section’s specific bylaws on their site.

Each Section has:

Chair (or President)
Past Chair (or Past President)
Chair Elect (or President Elect)
Treasurer/Secretary

Terms of service for the Chair are usually three years, other positions terms of service may vary according to the Section. The Chair Elect serves as the Chair when the he/she is unable to do so. In most Sections the Chair Elect also serves as the programming chair for the next annual meeting. For example at the 2013 meeting, the newly elected Section Chair Elects met and discussed the programming for 2014. They will continue to do the programming for the annual meeting after the meeting via email.

The Chair presides over all meetings Section meetings and establishes the yearly goals of the Section, presents those to MLA (via report) and submits annual reports on the activities and goals of the Section.

Just like Chapters, Sections have a Section Council which represents the Sections as a whole to the Board of Directors of MLA. The Past Chair serves as the Section representative on the MLA Section Council by attending the meetings of the Council.

If it sounds like a lot, don’t worry because the good news is that Section Council has an online manual to help Chairs know what do to do while in office. Additionally, you probably aren’t going to be joining a Section and becoming Chair right away, so if you get invovled you will have the opportunity to see how each person’s role works within the Section.

I think joining a Section is a great way to get involved. Picking a Section is a little bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I don’t mean to say that you are house crashing at the Section Chair’s home. What I mean is that you may need to try a few out before you find a Section that fits “just right.” Don’t be afraid to join a Section for free during the Shuffle years and often you can sign up to be a part of a Section’s listserv to see if you would like to join the Section.

I hope this helps clarify a bit about MLA Sections. I hope to do a post soon on SIGs (which are not Sections). Like my previous Behind the Scenes series of posts, all of the information is available online and really isn’t behind the any scene. But since it is in different locations it can be difficult to find making it sometimes difficult to know what is going on. Everything I have written here is available and can be found on MLA’s website, Section websites, and Section Council Website. It is just a matter of finding the information and bringing it together.

Please let me know if you there is any other subject that you think would be good for the Behind the Scenes series.

Friday Fun: Taubman Library Blues Brothers?

I spent this last week getting caught up from my vacation.

I thought I would start off with a Friday Fun post to get me back into the blogging world after a very stressful week of trying not to turn into a lobster.

The twitterverse alerted me to this little video featuring our illustrious Past President of MLA, Jane Blumenthal. I thought it was a creative way of telling people about Taubman Health Sciences Library moving the older books and journals to the Health Sciences Remote Storage Facility.

While the car that Jane and Paul use was certainly cool, nothing can eclipse the original Bluesmobile. The outtakes are just as fun to watch as the polished video. Well done.