By Jovana Susic, Reference Librarian, Jefferson Parish Library, Metairie, LA

The 35th Annual Meeting of the SCC/MLA was held in Albuquerque, NM, October 20 - 24, 2007. I was able to attend this meeting thanks to funding from NN/LM SCR Professional Development Award 2007. I am a Reference Librarian at Jefferson Parish Library, Metairie, LA. My goal is to establish a Consumer Health Information Center as a part of the library. Attending this meeting helped me better understand the concept of providing consumer health information, and ways of improving health literacy among the public. Networking with colleagues was also very beneficial.

I attended the following presentations:

Teaching the Chinese Population How to Find Quality Health Information on the Internet (Ana D. Cleveland, Jodi L. Philbrick, and Della Pan / University of North Texas, Denton, TX)

Patient Education Materials: Written for Whom? (Clayton Crenshaw / University of North Texas, Denton, TX)

Meditations on Marketing: Imagine, Create, Promote (Jennifer K. Lloyd / Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA)

Imagining Web Content as an Investment (Kelly Gonzalez and Jon Crossno / UT Southwestern Medical Center Library, Dallas, TX)

Did Computers Make it Faster? Or How Life Has Changed (Shirley Campbell / VA North Texas Health Care System, Dallas, TX)

Re-Imagining Our Libraries through the Eyes of Our Administrators (Edward Poletti et. al.)

The posters were also very interesting with a lot of helpful handouts, and staffed with knowledgeable and friendly people.

I attended one Round Table discussion – What Did My Doctor Tell Me? The Librarian’s Role in Health Literacy

I also attended the General Sessions.

My bag won a prize in the “Bring Your Own Bag Contest” – the furthest traveled bag (from a conference far, far away from Albuquerque).

On the last day of the Meeting I attended the CE course Proving Your Worth: Professional Business, Marketing & Political Tools (Michelynn McKnight, PhD, AHIP, Assistant Professor, Louisiana State University, School of Library and Information Science, Baton Rouge, LA). The course objective was to teach librarians how to use professional business and political tools to convince non-librarian decision makers of the value of our essential services. This course will be extremely helpful for my design of the presentation of the proposal for the Consumer Health Information center. The handouts and further readings will substitute for the lack of experience in this area.

The most valuable part of my attendance at this meeting were the people with whom I got to meet, talk to, and whose experience and help I can use in my future work.

Eight journals have recently been added to PubMed Central:

The Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology.

Archive includes volume 15 (3), 2004 - volume 16 (6) , 2006. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=460&action=archive There is a 12 month delay for this journal. Content prior to volume 15(3), 2004 was published as: The Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases. Archive includes volume 11(1), 2000 to volume 15(2), 2004. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=300&action=archive

Croatian Medical Journal.

Archive includes volume 47, 2006 - volume 28, 2007. There is no embargo delay for this journal. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=394&action=archive

The Journal of Cell Biology.

Archive includes volume 172 (1) 2006 - volume 177 (4), 2007. Back content is forthcoming; There is a six month embargo for this journal. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=482&action=archive

Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Archive includes volume 3 (4), 2007. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=368&action=archive New issues are forthcoming. There is a six month embargo for this journal.

The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Archive includes volume 203 (1), 2006 to volume 204 (6), 2007. Back content is forthcoming; current content will have a 6-month delay. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=483&action=archive

The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine.

Archive includes volume 28 (4), 2005 - present. Current content will have a six month delay. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=350&action=archive The journal is also part of PMC’s back issue scanning project. While digitization is in progress, you may find gaps in the range of available issues/volumes.

Perspectives in Health Information Management/AHIMA, American Health Information Management Association.

Archive includes volume 1, 2004 - present. There is no embargo delay for this journal. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=486&action=archive

Sleep. Archive includes volume 30 (6), 2007.

There is a six month embargo for this journal. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=369&action=archive

Adapted from the NLM Technical Bulletin: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd07/nd07_pmc.html

An iHealthBeat special report reviewed the growing popularity of medical blogs and their use as a source of online health information.

Robert Wachter, a patient safety expert and author of the blog “Wachter’s World,” said that physician blogs are helpful to doctors but that patients need to use caution about believing what they read online. Information in the blogs may be inaccurate because information about the patients has been changed. Fard Johnmar, founder of Envision Solutions, pointed out that physicians need to change their information and that of their patients to protect their patients’ privacy.

Trisha Torrey, author of the blog “Every Patient’s Advocate,” recommended that patients use government-sponsored sites to ensure reliability.

For the complete special report:
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2007/12/17/Rising-Popularity-of-Medical-Blogs-
Raises-Questions-About-Anonymity-Reliability.aspx?av=1 (must register for free subscription)

The NLM will be closed: 24-25 December 2007 and 1 January 2008.

The NN/LM SCR office will be closed 24-25 December 2007, 31 December 2007, and 1 January 2008.

“Consumer Health Information” is among the 456 new MeSH Headings added for 2008. The scope note for that term reads “Information intended for potential users of medical and healthcare services. There is an emphasis on self-care and preventive approaches as well as information for community-wide dissemination and use.”

To find all 456 new headings, go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/newd2008.html

If you plan on closing for the holidays, and you use DOCLINE, please remember to submit a DOCLINE Hold Request.  The form is located at http://nnlm.gov/rsdd/docline/dochold.html.  Finish all requests by the end of your last day at work to ensure that no requests linger in your account during your holiday.

It is not necessary to post a message to the DOCLINE-L listserv about your closing dates.

The Geeks Bearing Gifts: Unwrapping New Technology Trends class will be offered at the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library in Houston, TX on January 24, 2008 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm.

This class is intended to provide a fun, fast-paced, and informative introduction to and update on today’s hottest technology trends. Program participants will be able to identify technology trends and they will understand how these trends will impact or can be integrated into traditional library services. Content will be presented with a “can-do” focus intended to encourage participants to investigate at least one technology for implementation in their institution. Course structure will include brief vignettes and demonstrations of a wide variety of technologies. Some of the topics to be covered include instant messaging, podcasting, blogs and wikis, social networking sites, collaboration software, and more.

A full description is available at: http://nnlm.gov/training/geekgifts/

To register for the class:
http://resource.library.tmc.edu/classes/register/form.cfm?libID=2&className=32&
classTime=Jan%2024%208:30AM%20-%2012:30PMtitle=Unwrapping%20New%20
Technology%20Trends&subtitle=Geeks%20Bearing%20Gifts:%20Unwrapping%20
New%20Technology%20Trends%20(Taught%20by%20the%20NN/LM%20SCR)

The NN/LM SCR is pleased to announce the recipients of the Partners in Public Health Information Outreach Awards:

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Library
Project Title: SMILE: Sharing MedlinePlus/MEDLINE for Information Literacy Education, a Dental Public Health Information Project
Description: This project will focus on improving public health dental practitioners’ access to information resources, heightening their awareness of resources available from the National Library of Medicine, and integrating the best evidence from these resources as part of public health dental practice. The project will provide PubMed and Loansome Doc training for dentists and dental hygienists who staff community dental clinics. The project will also provide MedlinePlus training for dental practitioners and community health workers (promotores) who provide public health preventive care and oral health education. The Library also proposes to create a new topic page for PHPartners.org that focuses on public health dentistry

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health Library
Project Title: Turning Evidence Into Practice: A Pilot Project to Develop New Training and Research Tools for the Public Health Workforce
Description: This project will provide desktop training to Texas public health practitioners throughout Southeast Texas. Instruction will emphasize the use of evidence based research and guidelines to improve development and implementation of health programs and policies. Project activities will include: development of a website linking to evidence based websites, data sets, and journals and databases; a four-week synchronous distance education course; and three standalone webinars that will be open to all public health workers in Texas.

Congratulations to both the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Library and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health Library!

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has debuted a new Spanish Language health website addressing neurological disorders: http://espanol.ninds.nih.gov.

Health information on the website includes topics such as: stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and autism. The publications can be downloaded or ordered free of charge. The website also provides information on clinical studies, links to non-profit organizations that offer information and assistance on neurological disorders, and a contact form where people can submit questions on topics related to health and biomedical research.

Read the complete NIH News Release online at: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/dec2007/ninds-07.htm.

MEDLINE via PubMed now searches using 2008 MeSH vocabulary. Citations, translation tables, and the MeSH database have been updated to reflect 2008 MeSH.

Changes to MeSH include:

• 456 new MeSH headings
• New publication types
• New pharmacological action terms

For a comprehensive list see: MEDLINE Data Changes - 2008