The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, SE/A Region will be closed on Monday, January 19, 2009 to observe  Dr. Martin Luther King Day.  We will reopen at 8:30 am on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

The National Library of Medicine will also be closed on the 19th of January for MLK Day  and will remain closed on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 for the inauguration ceremonies in Washington, DC .

Social networking tools are increasingly being seen not only as personal applications for creating connections between people, but for creating presence for organizations such as libraries and, even, hospitals. Ed Bennett, Director, Web Strategy at the University of Maryland Medical System and David Ekrem, Manager, Web Development at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children maintain a list–Hospital Social Network List — of hospitals that use social networking tools to create bridges to their users. The list draws a line between the official sites of the hospitals and those created by hospital “fans,” including only those that they felt were created by the hospitals themselves. If your own hospital is not on this list and uses some of the tools they track, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, they invite you to alert them via email at ebennett@umm.edu.

For information on how they created the list, please visit the FAQ available on the website.

In case you missed my message before the holidays, we are now accepting applications for larger outreach projects and technology fairs for year 04 of our NN/LM contract. The application form for our larger outreach projects (and note, this is only the application you will have to submit a proposal if your application is accepted) as well as technology fairs (this is THE application) are available on the SE/A site. While we will be accepting applications until April, we encourage you to send in your applications early. This helps to strengthen our budget justification to NLM. As with your budget, it is best to have strong supporting evidence of why you need every precious dollar.

So, while you watch the football games this weekend or my beloved #1 Pitt Panthers play basketball, sit and muse about how you can address health information access issues in your community or enhance the technology skills and knowledge of the health providers or librarians in your institution or your state. Then fill out the applications found under the “Funding” link on the nnlm.gov/sea site.

We are looking forward to hearing from you. If you have questions, please call or email any of the SE/A coordinators or me.

1/12/09 - Update - This class is full.    Please contact Sheila Snow-Croft to be put on a waiting list.

Nursing on the Net: Health Care Resources You Can Use is now online!

Taught by Sheila Snow-Croft, the first session begins on the 16th of January and ends on the 23rd. It offers 4 MLA CE contact hours and is an online, asynchronous, instructor-led class using Moodle, a free service that does not require software downloads or installation.

For more information or to register for the class, please contact Sheila
Snow-Croft.

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/medsun/

MedSun provides a representative profile of reports from healthcare facilities, such as hospitals. MedSun improves understanding of medical device problems so FDA, healthcare facilities, clinicians, and manufacturers can better address safety concerns. Over 350 health care facilities, primarily hospitals, participate in the network. MedSun is unique because it educates health care professionals about the importance of monitoring, being aware of, and reporting device related problems to FDA and the manufacturer.

MedSun also ensures that new safety information is rapidly communicated to the medical community thereby promoting patient safety.

The MedSun Subnetworks

These subnetworks are designed to collect and share information about actual and potential adverse events from specific clinical areas of MedSun facilities using high-risk products.

The content that FDA produces is not copyrighted. Stories can be reprinted without permission and copies can be downloaded and displayed free of charge. Editors wishing to use MedSun’s material in publication are asked to please acknowledge MedSun as the source and send copies of stories to medsun@s-3.com.

Subscribe to Email Updates at https://service.govdelivery.com/ service/subscribe.html?code=USFDA_65

For questions contact Tina Powell at 1-800-859-1292 or email at: medsun@s-3.com

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!

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

by John P. Rees, Curator, NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program reesj@mail.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/hmdfindaid.html

The Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program at the History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine has released its new finding aids search and delivery platform, based on the University of Michigan’s DLXS software. http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=nlmfindaid

Now users can search and browse the content of the 190+ existing Encoded Archival Description (EAD) collection guides. Plans are to soon add 300+ EADs describing all the manuscript holdings, many of which have never before been described beyond their catalog records.

Users can perform Basic and Advanced Boolean searches limited by:

Entire Finding Aid Content
Container List only
Names
Places
Subjects
Biographical/Historical Note
Any Scope and Content Note

These search features are available both across the entire set of finding aids and within each individual guide. Additional features include a Save to Bookbag option with an Email function.
Look for more DLXS content beyond EAD in the near future!