We have received numerous calls over the past few days regarding LinkOut.

NLM has responded to our questions about these issues.

MyNCBI experienced a system glitch which affected library and publisher icons in PubMed. This was a transient system glitch which was resolved.

If you continue to experience problems, please contact the RML.

NN/LM MAR will offer two sessions of the class Measuring Your Impact: Using Evaluation for Library Advocacy this November. One session will be held in New York City at NYU’s Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.. The other session of the same class will be held in Hershey, Pennsylvania at the Penn State College of Medicine, George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library on Friday, November 21, 2008 from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m..

Class Description:

Show the value of your libraries’ services. The ultimate goal of this class is to insure that library users and stakeholders will recognize and value the importance of their library’s services and of the librarian to the organization. Participants will become familiar with an evaluation process by using methods and tools for assessment, evaluation planning, creating logic models, data collection and reporting. The workshop will feature a case-based scenario that moves participants through the steps of an evaluation process. Class discussion, lecture, and exercises will help participants take away the skills needed to show the value of their library’s services.

Upon completion class attendees will receive 6 hours MLA CE credit.

Instructors:

Maryanne Blake, Outreach/Evaluation Coordinator, NN/LM, Pacific Northwest Region, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

Sue Hunter, Planning and Evaluation Coordinator, NN/LM, Middle Atlantic Region, NYU Health Sciences Libraries, New York, NY.

Class Details:

Session 1: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: New York University, Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library, 550 First Ave., NY, NY.

Session 2: Friday, November 21, 2008, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: Penn State College of Medicine, George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library, 500 University Dr., Hershey, PA.

Register for the class by sending an email to rml@library.med.nyu.edu. Please specify which class session you plan to attend. Registration is free. Class break refreshments and lunch are provided for attendees. The classes are limited in size. Please register by October 30, 2008. Directions and classroom locations will be provided to registrants closer to the class date.

Dartmouth College, Hanover NH

July 28^th-30^th, 2008

Small Project Award Report

Barbara S. Reich

Samuel and Sandra Hekemian Medical Library

Hackensack University Medical Center

Supporting Clinical Care: An Institute in Evidence-Based Practice for Medical Librarians was an intensive two and a half day program held at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in late July of this year. It was my hope that by attending this course, I would acquire increased skills in supporting and teaching EBCP. This, in turn, would allow me to better teach residents, medical students, and nurses at all levels the skills involved in EBCP. Ultimately, these groups will learn to use PubMed and other sources of medical information more effectively and efficiently.

Twenty-four health sciences librarians, myself included, from various institutions throughout the United States and Canada were introduced to the concepts and practice of Evidence-Based Health Care through interactive lectures, small group discussion, and hands-on, case-based activities. A few hours each day were spent with the entire group together, being introduced to various concepts in a more-or-less lecture-based format. The vast majority of the time we were divided into smaller groups of eight participants and two instructors where we put the concepts into practice by using the PICO format to put together an answerable question and devise a search strategy, working with some of the basic statistical concepts, and reading and critically appraising various articles. At the end of the program, all participants agreed that the Institute was immensely successful, with the caveat being that it was very intense, and a three to four day course would be ideal.

The intended evaluation of this activity was proposed to be twofold: attainment of immediate goals will be assessed via my increased knowledge and skills in EBCP, and increased comfort in preparing and teaching EBCP both formally and informally. Long term goals will be assessed by written evaluations of formal EBCP classes at HUMC, and informally by increased use and recognition of HUMC Medical Librarians as experts in various aspects of EBCP.

This program was very successful. Certainly, my knowledge and skills were vastly increased, and my comfort level along with them. In particular, the methods and format for Critical Appraisal that were introduced vastly demystified this process for me – so much so that I am now actually excited by it rather than dreading it. Our Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) will be benefiting from this as well. Directly due to my participation in this program, this fall we are beginning an ongoing Critical Appraisal Workshop with the APN group here at the hospital. Our goal through this ongoing series of workshops is to communicate this excitement and sense of demystification to this group so that they, in turn, can do the same with the staff nurses throughout the hospital. I am sure this will be the first of many projects to be engendered through my participation in this course.

The funds from this award were used to purchase a HP Color LaserJet 3600dn printer for the Library Services department.  The Medical Librarian created a variety of materials that were distributed in waiting rooms, posted on public bulletin boards and placed in display cases.

The primary goal of this project was to creatively and effectively reach more Library patrons with reliable health resources and information.  The unique and improved color printouts have already been effective in reinforcing the library’s objectives, highlighting its location within the building and promoting information about health literacy initiatives and programs.

Specifically, during the month of June, The Children’s Institute sponsored an intensive one month health literacy training initiative.  Color posters and printouts were instrumental in encouraging staff participation and reinforcing presentation topics and issues.

With the launch of the school year in early September, the library has seen more patients, teachers and students using the library for homework assistance, research queries and informal health literacy training.  The color printer is often used for printing assignments and reports.

Karen Liljequist- The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh

Hurricane Ike, South Central Region Medical Libraries, Hurricane Web Links, and a New Listserv.

As many of you are aware, the South Central RML is currently closed, and will remain closed until Thursday, September 18^th, due to affects of Hurricane Ike.  In accordance with the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response plan, South Central’s buddy RML, the Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), is backing up the office by taking calls and redirecting DOCLINE, when necessary.  A special thanks to MAR staff for temporarily taking on this important responsibility.

For information on emergency preparedness planning for libraries as well as some post-disaster updates, see the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit at http://nnlm.gov/ep/. I am pleased to report that the toolkit received a lot of traffic the day before Hurricane Ike struck the Gulf Coast, which shows that libraries are using the toolkit as a preparedness resource.  To see additional updates (or provide a status report), check the SCR blog, Blogadillo, at http://nnlm.gov/scr/blog/.

Also of note, the National Library of Medicine home page has added a news item on hurricane resources, “Online Resources for Hurricanes, Floods, and Disaster Preparedness and Recovery” at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/disaster_resources_online.html.

Finally, a new listserv, DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB, is now available as a discussion forum for librarians, information specialists and others interested in disaster information outreach to their communities and responding to information needs for all-hazards preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. It is also the primary source for information announcing the activities of the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project. List members may post comments and resources of interest to those involved in disaster information outreach as well as relevant announcements of meetings, training, conferences, job openings, etc. The listserv is provided by the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Management Research Center.  You can sign up for the list and view the archives at https://list.nih.gov/archives/disastr-outreach-lib.html.

Please contact Cindy Love, lovec@mail.nlm.nih.gov, if you have any questions or comments about the listserv.

The Touro-Harlem is a new library serving both the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Touro College of Pharmacy at new facilities on 125^th Street. When we opened in September 2007 we wanted a way to brand our print and electronic materials as being from the library while still associating the library with the two separately administered schools we serve. As an initial step in our branding process, we contracted with a graphic designer to develop a proposal for a distinctive logo for the library. One of our requirements was that the logo should incorporate the Touro College emblem to indicate our official association with the College. With the proposal in hand, we successfully applied for an NN/LM grant to produce the logo and associated designs.

With our requirements already detailed in our request for proposal, the designer quickly prepared several draft versions of the logo for our consideration. Our staff reviewed these and made some requests for revisions. This process was repeated a few times until we finally had the logo we thought would work well in a variety of contexts.

The next step was for the designer to incorporate the logo into designs for letterheads, memos, faxes and button icons for our Linkout items in PubMed. The first three items were produced relatively easily. The designer submitted three designs but one stood out to the library staff and was selected.  This design featured a banner with clear, modern and elegant type style and subtle grey accents. We also liked the white space on the right side of design, which provided us with space to label specific type of materials, such as Tech Tip or Pathfinders.

But with the button icons we hit a snag. We hadn’t considered the physical and file size constraints for logos in PubMed in specifying the logo design.  We couldn’t get our logo small enough without losing too much detail. The designer went back to his high-end Mac drawing board and came up with buttons that used the same typeface as our letterhead.

Now we were finished, we thought. The designer sent us the final files in tif and jpg formats, but we found some display inconsistencies between the tif file created on a Mac and our use of them on an IBM PC. We finally figured out the proper conversion protocol and all worked splendidly.

Now each library staff member has a custom designed and personalized letterhead, fax, and memo templates for their use in MS Word. Our button icons have been uploaded to PubMed and the library orientation materials for our summer sessions have all been produced using the new design.

Our next step is to apply for another mini-grant to help us produce some branded promotional materials with the new logo , such as mousepads, pens and bookmarks.  We’re even thinking of a semester launch party that features a cake with our new logo, but we understand NN/LM doesn’t fund food. Guess we’ll have to look to other budget areas.

Thanks to a generous grant from the National Network of Libraries, we have had the opportunity to distribute pens and magnets to individuals who attend community events and health fairs.  These giveaways serve as a means of drawing individuals to our tables at health fairs and outreach events so that we can initiate conversations about health and cancer.  This is particularly useful and necessary when we are discussion topics as stressful and frightening as cancer.  These promotional materials also provide contact information for the American Cancer Society so that individuals can ask questions or set up appointments for potentially life-saving screenings.  The pens and magnets are a useful beginning step in connecting individuals in medically underserved communities with health information and access to care. 

Some of the events where we distributed the pens and magnets were: Wellness Fair at P.S. 200, Southwest Queens Health and Aging Expo (Ozone Park Senior Center), Pomonok Center Spring Carnival (at Pomonok Houses), Queens Gay Pride Festival, Astoria Blue Feather Head Start Health and Community Fair, Astoria Relay for Life (American Cancer Society), and Centro Cuzcatlán Health Fair in Jamaica.

When community members see the Queens Library HealthLink logo on the pens and magnets, they often remember and recognize it, rendering them more likely to share the valuable health information with their family and friends.  The giveaways also help inform community members that the Queens Library is collaborating with various agencies to provide much needed services to meet needs that the library may not be able to meet without valuable partnerships.   

Loida Garcia-Febo-

Queens Library

“Drug Information for Public Libraries” was attended by 11 Capital Region public librarians on June 24^th, 2008, at the Albany College of Pharmacy. The 2-hour workshop was developed and presented by Sue Iwanowicz and Kim Mitchell, both of the George & Leona Lewis Library at ACP.

The workshop outlined the drug information landscape with topics including the drug development process, the role of the pharmacist in healthcare, drug nomenclature, and drug information topics. The following hands-on sessions gave participants practice in the identification and use of quality print and online drug information resources.

Feedback from workshop participants was positive. In post-session surveys all said they found it useful and would recommend it to others. The presenters were invited to lead another workshop in the future for public librarians who were unable to attend this session.

·         Sue Iwanowicz, Director of Library Services, George & Leona Lewis Library, Albany College of Pharmacy

·         Kim Mitchell, Reference & Education Librarian, George & Leona Lewis Library, Albany College of Pharmacy

·         Jennifer Cerulli, Pharm.D., BCPS, AE-C, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Albany College of Pharmacy

One of the challenges of working the Reference Desk at the D. Samuel Gottesman Library of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine is helping our users at far-flung affiliated hospitals with our electronic resources. Complicated questions, such as those involved in searching databases or using bibliographic management software, are almost impossible to answer by phone, email or instant messaging. We needed an easier solution.

With the support of a Small Projects Award from NN/LM MAR, the Library was able to purchase a subscription to Glance (http://www.glance.net), an easy-to-use screen-sharing tool. With Glance we can easily show our users on their monitors what we are doing on our computers. We can also give users control of the session, so that they can use their mouse when that is the easiest way to show us a particular problem they might be having. All the user needs is a Web browser. It takes them just a moment to log in from the Library’s web site (http://library.aecom.yu.edu/education/vref.htm) with a session code number which we assign.  

So far, we have had great success using Glance to show individual users how to use databases like MEDLINE and software such as Endnote. They have been pleasantly surprised by how fast they can connect, and how easily we can help them answer their questions.  It is easy to keep track of usage through Glance’s session log.

There are additional ways we plan to use Glance in the future. Because up to100 people at different locations can be connected as one time, we anticipate using it for classes, especially for groups in our partner institutions.

D. Samuel Gottesman Library

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Karen Sorensen, MLS

The Robert M. White Memorial Library of Paoli Hospital, Paoli, PA, applied for a $1000 Micro Award in May 2008.  Our application was approved and the money was used to facilitate the purchase an HP notebook. The primary focus of the notebook is for a PowerPoint presentation on How to do a Literature Search.  It can now be presented to a wider audience as it affords portability and more opportunities to present. Having had technical difficulties during one such presentation, familiarity with one computer will provide efficiency, productivity, and confidence.  With wireless capability I am also able to volunteer for our health fairs and demonstrate the library’s databases, e-journals, e-books, as well as how to do a literature search.  In October of this year I will be presenting at a local public library at which time my focus will be to assist consumers on locating quality health/medical information online.