by Bonnie DiGiallonardo, Reference Librarian
Nova Southeastern University
Health Professions Division Library
digibon@nova.edu

Just two months into my career as a health professions librarian, I had the opportunity to attend the Southern Chapter/Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, “Making the Magic Flow” October 26-30, 2008. Not only was this my first time at a librarian’s conference, it was my first time as an attendee at ANY conference.

In my previous life as a marketing professional, I had worked in exhibit hall booths of many conferences, but this was a completely different take on the experience. As some of you may attest, starting a new profession in your 40’s is no easy feat. Yet embarking on a journey that you have worked hard to begin makes you feel like a wide-eyed ingénue (anyone who knows me would fall on the floor laughing at this mental image). That is how I felt when I first arrived at the conference, but thanks to all the wonderful people I met at the chapter meeting, I left knowing that I had made the right choice, to become a medical librarian.

Without question, it was the people that made the conference most memorable for this first-timer. From my first contact with the people at the registration desk to my shuttle partners on the return trip to the airport (who happened to give me the idea to write this article), I found each and every person to be an absolute treasure. I felt right at home with this group – it was like the mother ship had called me home! No matter where I went or who I happened to sit down next to, everyone spoke to me and opened up about their experiences. I quickly learned that there is no such thing as a shy, retiring librarian…at least not at this event.

The conference’s content proved a valuable information resource for a newly ordained librarian. Many varied aspects of medical librarianship were covered, and while there were concurrent sessions that made me wish I could be in two places at once, my colleague (another newbie) and I were able to split up and compare notes later. An impressive lineup of plenary speakers, a CE session that gave me a ton of ideas, and poster sessions that gave a peek into what other library’s are doing all contributed to a fulfilling and rewarding conference experience.

Library school only marginally prepares one to actually work as a reference librarian so having access to the classes, speakers, presentations, posters, and most importantly, the librarians from all walks of the profession was so enriching that I would recommend conference attendance as a requirement in any master’s program. At Southern Chapter there was so much to absorb in just a few days, most of it new, but what we learned was useful and applicable to our jobs. So, we felt that this conference was a good solid foundation upon which to begin building our careers and professional networks.

I am already looking forward to next year!

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has produced brief training videos to demonstrate two of the four methods for submitting articles to PubMedCentral in compliance with the NIHPublic Access Policy.

See the Public Access Homepage for descriptions of each of the four methods. The new videos pertain to:

• Method C: submissions initiated by the author, and
• Method D: completing the process for submissions initiated by a publisher.

Resources:

The NIH Public Access Policy Website, http://publicaccess.nih.gov/, includes Frequently Asked Questions http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm and other information relevant to the Policy.

http://www.phprep.org/2009/?CFID=2487407& CFTOKEN=48417005

Public health preparedness professionals from across the nation will share innovative best practices, tools, and resources to help you build and sustain your community’s capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a public health emergency or disaster.

The Summit will be held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina.

Phone: 866-716-8130 • Fax: (619) 692-2337

Special Offers Reservations (866)-716-8130

Contact Information: Call the registration department at 703-964-1240 or email PHPreg@conferencemanagers.com

A model to help federal, state, and local emergency planners estimate the vehicles, drivers, road capacity and other resources they will need to evacuate patients and others from health care facilities in disaster areas was released today by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The Web-based Mass Evacuation Transportation Planning Model is designed to be used prior to an emergency to help answer such questions as:

• How long will it take to move patients from one facility to another?
• How many transport vehicles, such as ambulances, wheelchair vans and buses, are required to complete the evacuation within a certain time period?
• How might the location and other attributes of the evacuating and receiving facilities affect evacuation plans?

Emergency planners can enter into the model any number of evacuating and receiving facilities and specific conditions that could affect transportation plans.

The model will estimate the resources and hours needed to move patients from evacuating facilities to receiving facilities, based on assumptions that the planner specifies. The model was pilot tested in New York City and Los Angeles and is available for use at: http://massevacmodel.ahrq.gov

Two documents accompany the model:

• The user manual at http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/massevac/manual/massevum1.htm
• A description of the model’s design and assumptions at http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/massevac/manual/massevum1.htm

Begin the new year with SE/A.

Join us on January 21, 2009 to hear a presentation on drug information from the National Library of Medicine.  Diane Howden is our invited guest. Since 2005, Diane has been a part of the ChemID team in NLM’s Specialized Information Services.   She graduated from Old Dominion University with Bachelors of Science degree and majored in chemistry.  She currently works on the Drug Information Portal.

Diane joined the NIH in June of 1996 as part of the ADD program (Antiepileptic Drug Development) at the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This NIH program offers researchers the opportunity to have preclinical screening performed for drug candidates displaying anticonvulsive properties.  The recent FDA approval of Lacosamide, featured under the News and Features tab on the Drug Information Portal, attests to the success of this program.  The experience, training and knowledge of preclinical development, clinical trials and the FDA drug approval process gained at NINDS provided Diane with a solid foundation for working on the Drug Information Portal.

Presentation: Exploring the Drug Information Portal from the National Library of Medicine

Date: Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Time: 12:00 Noon - 1:00 pm

For more information and how to connect, please use this link.

by Cindy Love, Disaster Information Management Research Center
Specialized Information Services Division, National Library of Medicine
cindy_love@nlm.nih.gov

REMM is now downloadable to your mobile device, with selected, key files from the full, online version of REMM.

• Blackberry
• Windows Mobile
• Palm

Read fulldetails on REMM at http://remm.nlm.gov/downloadmremm.htm

For immediate download to your Blackberry, click on this link from your Blackberry email and follow the directions.

http://remm.nlm.gov/mremm/blackberry/ota/mremm.jad

Please contact NLM with comments, questions or problems. nlmremm@mail.nih.gov

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/advice2.html

The FDA website features materials and programs on food nutrition and safety campaigns for pregnant women, about food labeling and nutrition, for kids & teens, for fight(ing) bac(teria), for the Hispanic Community, and for educators.

There are also links to current awareness material and newsletters:

• Sign up for Consumer Updates by e-mail
• RSS feed for Consumer Updates

NIH MedlinePlus Magazine is a guide for patients and their families. It brings the latest and most authoritative medical and healthcare information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as featured online on the MedlinePlus Web site. The magazine is published four times a year by the Friends of the National Library of Medicine.
Read the latest, fall 2008, issue of the NIHMedlinePlus Magazine.

This quarter’s highlights include:

• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Focus on Communication
• Understanding, Treating, and Preventing Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
• Skin Health and Skin Diseases

For those interested in searching for emergency preparedness and disaster response materials in MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) and PubMed, take a look at the new MeSH descriptors listed here.

• Avalanches
• Climatic Processes
• Cyclones
• Droughts
• Earthquakes
• Floods
• Geological Processes
• Hospitals, Isolation
• Infectious Disease Medicine
• Landslides
• Nuclear Power Plants
• Resilience, Psychological
• Surge Capacity
• Tidal Waves
• Tornadoes

Looking at the MeSH Browser using the 2009 MeSH, and when entering the search term “hurricanes” a searcher is brought to the entry for “Cyclones”. “Hurricane(s)” is now an entry term for cyclones and not for “Natural Disasters” for that has changed to “Disasters” with 2009 MeSH.

The old heading “Natural Disasters” is being deleted and replaced by “Disasters.” Many entry terms from the old “Natural Disasters” heading have been elevated to stand-alone MeSH headings. New events, such as “Structure Collapse” have been added and specific events are no longer treed under “Disasters.” If the article discusses an event as being a disaster, indexers will coordinate with the heading “Disasters” and with the specific geographic locations of the occurrence.

What‘s New for 2009 MeSH

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd08/nd08_mesh.html

Start the New Year with new MeSH terms! You see, for 2009, 446 descriptors have been added to enhance your PubMed search results.

The National Library of Medicine’s NLM Technical Bulletin will keep you informed all year long with enhancements, updates and changes. Visit NLM Announces at https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=nlm-announces&A=1 to join, leave or change your NLM listserv options.

Household Products Database (HPD) Now Contains over 8,000 Entries

http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Household Products Database has been updated and now includes 8152 brand name products, 2876 ingredients, and 375 manufacturers. In addition, 1634 products are now linked to the complete Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).

The Household Products Database is a consumer guide that provides information on the potential health effects of chemicals contained in more than 6,000 common household products used inside and around the home. It covers what’s under your kitchen sink, in your garage, in your bathroom, and on the shelves in your laundry room, providing what’s in these products, potential health effects, and safe handling.

Keep current with further changes and new developments in the HPD database, regularly visit the Division of Specialized Information Services site.