Bookmarking for the Greater Good

Come learn how to adopt this Web 2.0 tool and how it can benefit your library during a one hour online class on Tuesday February 19, 2008 at 11 AM CT.

Contact Rebecca Brown (NN/LM Technology Liaison) at rbrown3@kumc.edu to sign up for the class. [rb]

Special Breeze Session: Developing and Marketing an RSS Journal Service for Your Library

Please join us on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 for a special, additional Breezing Along with the RML session at 11 A.M. Central Time. For those of you who were unable to attend MCMLA 2007 or missed the session on Developing and Marketing an RSS Journal Service for Your Library, the NN/LM MidContinental Region has invited the Librarians from Ebling Library at the University of Wisconsin for an encore presentation of their Omaha session.

Here is the original write up from the MCMLA 2007 program:

More and more journals are making their tables of contents available via RSS feed; however, barriers still exist between the user and the content. A working group at University of Wisconsin academic health sciences library set out in Fall 2006 to “explore possibilities for developing an RSS current awareness service that would categorize health sciences RSS feeds and integrate them with SFX link resolver, document delivery, and RefWorks.” They developed a 4-phase plan, including overhauling the existing RSS journal feeds pages, developing bundled packages for quick subscription to several journals, developing a shopping cart-like application for users to easily create customized collections, and developing instructional and promotional plans for staff and patrons.

A reminder will be sent out at a later date, along with the URL.

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NLM and MidContinental Region offices will be closed Tuesday, January 1.

We wish all of you a happy holiday season.

“In 2005, Library Journal 2006 Mover & Shaker Meredith Farkas, distance learning librarian at Norwich University (Northfield, VT) and a blogger herself (Information Wants To Be Free) conducted an informal survey of librarians who blog. That survey elicited a respectable 165 responses.
In August 2007, she repeated the survey and just two years later received a substantial 839 responses, a spike that not coincidentally reflects the rapid rise in popularity of blogs in libraries today.” …Read the rest of the article in the December 18, 2007 Library Journal Academic Newswire newsletter. http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6513844.html?nid=2673#news1
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The Heritage Emergency National Task Force http://www.heritagepreservation.org/programs/TASKFER.htm is a partnership of 41 national service organizations and federal agencies created to protect cultural heritage from the damaging effects of natural disasters and other emergencies. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Heritage Preservation has developed the Field Guide to Emergency Response. The compact handbook is designed for immediate use when disaster strikes. Simple, clear instructions help staff organize essential disaster response functions and tackle common threats to collections. The Guide provides handy checklists and features an instructional DVD on salvage techniques that can be viewed on-site with a laptop computer.You can see the guide and other resources for cultural institutions at http://www.heritagepreservation.org/PROGRAMS/TFHurricaneRes.HTM There are also resources for the general public to learn how to save their family treasures. http://www.heritagepreservation.org/PROGRAMS/TFHurricanePub.htm [scb]

Significant Progress in Nation’s Public Health Preparedness, But Critical Gaps Persist

“Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Disease, Disasters and Bioterrorism.” The fifth annual “Ready or Not?” report - produced by Trust for America’s Health with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - finds that important progress has been made, but critical areas of the nation’s emergency health preparedness effort still require immediate attention. In addition, the continuing trend of annual cuts in federal funding for state and local preparedness activities threatens the nation’s safety.
Read the news release at http://tinyurl.com/25f7yf Download full text of the report http://tinyurl.com/yt9g5h
View webcast http://tinyurl.com/yq93br [posted on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation email update] scb

Rural health research findings from eight national research centers, supported by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP), are now featured at one convenient location, the Rural Health Research Gateway Listserv. This initiative is designed to help move the most up-to-date findings of the Rural Health Research Centers to policy makers, health care providers and others as quickly and efficiently as possible.

New information is launched on the listserv and its corresponding web site
(http://www.ruralhealthresearch.org) to provide easy and timely access to projects, research, and findings of these national research centers. The web site has abstracts of both current and completed research projects addressing issues such as rural health quality and behavioral health, related publications, and information about the researchers and research centers.

If you would like to receive the Rural Health Research Gateway postings, please sign-up at http://www.ruralhealthresearch.org/listserv/subscribe.php [posted on Kansas Rural Health Information Service (KRHIS)] [scb]

Ever since Festoon dropped off the face of the earth, we’ve been waiting for a good substitute. Spontania Video Collaboration is a free plug-in for Skype that allows up to 4 people to hold a video conference. You can share your desktop or an application. A download is required to install Spontania. [rb]

http://video4im.com/

Three classes will be offered by the National Training Center and Clearinghouse at the University of Kansas Medical Center Dykes Health Sciences Library in Kansas City, KS. The classes will be taught during April 2008.

Class information and online registration can be found at: http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/regions.html
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You want to write a Library Marketing Plan, but don’t know where to start? Well, start at the NN/LM MidContinental Region “online library” - a collection of more than 60 books available online, free. No user/password required when you enter through the NNLM MidContinental portal. And the book you’ll want to explore is “Blueprint for Your Library Marketing Plan: A Guide to Help You Survive and Thrive.” Check it out at: http://nnlm.gov/mcr/education/netlibrary.html.