The original deadline of May 15, 2009 for applications for MAR’s Technology Immersion Award has been extended to May 29, 2009.

Since the original deadline fell within the dates of MLA’s annual meeting, MAR thought it would be best to give any library wishing to apply for the award a little extra time since many librarians will be away.  Now you’ve got two more weeks to get those applications in! Good luck!

Bibby Library serves the dental community at the University of Rochester and the Eastman Dental Center. The library implemented Web 2.0 technologies to reach out to patrons.  These tools allow us to create and deliver customized information packages to our patrons.

Our Web 2.0 adventure began when we were seeking a novel way to highlight recent news in dentistry.  Previously, we linked a headline from our home page to a separate web page for each story.  However, maintaining these pages was cumbersome and we found that once a story was archived, it received few hits.

As a solution, the Bibby Library News and Tips blog was developed.  We use the Wordpress platform and display a widget on our website to highlight recent postings.  Fresh stories are added weekly and tagged with suitable terms. The blog features the latest news in dentistry as well as library services and resources. Information to be shared is gathered from a variety of sources using Google Reader, listservs, and newsletters. We offer e-mail and RSS subscriptions to the blog.

This initiative proved very successful; the blog generates as many as 200 hits per day.  Wordpress software provides statistics that include the number of hits, terms used to bring users to the blog, the most popular posts, and frequent jumping off links.  An analysis of this data reveals where our patrons’ interests lie, allowing us to expand those areas and tag items appropriately.

Few of our patrons are interested in using RSS readers.  Therefore, we focus on promoting e-mail subscriptions to the blog, which are managed through Feedburner.  Every few weeks we send an e-mail to our patrons, with links to the newest blog posts. Hits increase substantially following this effort.  We receive favorable comments from our patrons, indicating that the information is useful and relevant.

Web 2.0 tools also allow us to package information for specific users and user needs. Using Delicious, a social bookmarking platform, dental related websites are saved and tagged with appropriate terms.  A page on the Bibby website provides links to each Delicious category.  Thus, a pediatric dental resident might choose the pediatric dentistry category to find resources of interest.  RSS feeds and e-mail subscriptions are available so that users can be notified when new sites are added. In addition, we’ve added widgets to our blog and website so the most recently tagged sites are exhibited.  Data indicates that users are jumping off both our blog and website to these featured resources.

Another way in which we customize services is by using PubMed RSS feeds for specific topics.  For example, a search in PubMed for systematic reviews on tooth whitening is converted to an RSS feed.  The RSS feed is then saved and tagged in our Delicious account.  This makes the search results available to anyone who selects the tooth whitening category.

Library presence in Blackboard courses is another way we reach out to users.  For example, links to the Bibby website and “Ask a Librarian” are inserted in course menus.  In addition, RSS feeds to PubMed searches on course related topics are included in the course menu or schedule.  Statistics tracking is enabled for these features and indicates that the resources are being used.

Recently we began experimenting with Facebook and are pleased to see our fan base growing.  Our page is easy to maintain because most of the content is composed of RSS feeds from our blog and Delicious account.  To lure fans to our page we occasionally send news using the share feature.  Statistics indicate an increase in visitors after these efforts.

Employing Web 2.0 tools to serve our virtual and physical patrons is proving quite successful.  Most platforms provide statistics, allowing us to evaluate what works, what does not work, and what our patrons are looking for. With a broader perspective on our patrons and their needs, we are effectively delivering the latest services and information. Incorporating these tools into our own professional development activities will help to keep the momentum going.

Elizabeth Kettel
Librarian, Bibby Library at the Eastman Dental Center

The mission of Projecto Salud was to provide St. Francis Hospital’s clinic, the Center of Hope, access to viable health information.  The goal was to improve healthcare by focusing on health literacy, as well as, improving patient services.  The Technology Innovation Award from the National Library of Medicine Middle States supported this goal.

The Center of Hope is a community outreach facility located in Newark Delaware.  The clinic serves the poor and underserved people in the area.  It is a large Family Practice office whose patient population is approximately seventy percent Hispanic.

A combination of teaching skills and new technology was utilized to improve access to health resources.  The clinic’s staff was educated on the resources from the National Library of Medicine (including the Doctors!).  English and Spanish low literacy materials were explored and selected for patient education.

Learning how to search and evaluate the NLM resources was a considerable accomplishment for the staff.  Initially basic computer skills were reviewed and then they learned how to search MedlinePlus quite efficiently.  By the end of the training the staff could organize their findings using folders and files.

The new computers and printers replaced the old and unreliable equipment.  Overall, the upgraded technology improved the office efficiency at the Center of Hope.  Patient education was further enhanced with the new printers.

A series of patient education workshops were offered at the clinic.  A bilingual librarian ran these workshops which were well received.

Collectively the staff at the Center of Hope acquired many new skills which made them more comfortable serving their patients.  There is new sense of confidence and determination amongst the staff.  Coupled with the new technology the clinic is moving forward in a positive direction.

Rosemary Figorito - St. Francis Medical Center.  Wilmington, Delaware.

Pamela Samuelson, a Professor of Law at UC Berkely, has written a nice column on O’reilly Radar about the Google Book settlement with the Author’s Guild - which is waiting for final approval from the courts.

Read her column for a great summary of the issues that are being dealth with and their possible repercussions.

How will the government’s endorsement of the electronic medical record, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and a state’s own privacy laws affect the actual adoption of the EMR?  A new study from MIT and University of Virginia researchers suggest that it may be a delicate balancing act.

You can download and read a copy of the study

Ars Technica also has a rundown of the findings and the possible repercussions.

The Community Health Library of Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA was awarded a grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine to establish an Assistive Technology Computer Workstation.  The Community Health Library provides consumer health information to patients, family members and the general public in a variety of formats.  All services are provided free of charge.

The Assistive Technology Workstation features a variety of tools to enable patients and the general public with low/no vision and fine motor disabilities to independently access health information either online or via print materials in the library.  The workstation computer includes a large screen monitor, Zoomtext magnifier/reader software, Braille keyboard, large size alternative keyboard, Plustek Reader and Big track trackball.  The workstation table features adjustable table surfaces for the comfort of each indivual user.

From November 2008- February 2009 the workstation has been used by two visually impaired patients.  I’m disappointed with the usage statistics.  The workstation has received considerable internal and external promotion.  Promotion via an organization the size of Geisinger Medical Center and the region takes time and with additional time usage will increase.

External and internal promotional initiatives were launched.  The Community Health librarian coordinated five clinical staff orientation sessions with the partner departments of Ophthalmology and Geisinger HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital.  Promotion continues with presentations planned for a variety of clinician, patient and external groups.

The successful implementation and installation of the workstation enables the Community Health Library in the long-term to provide a fulls cope of services and access to the target population.  Without this grant, the library did not have the ability to provide equal access to the library resources. I consider this a success and the usage will follow given time and continued promotion.

Patricia Ulmer- Geisinger Medical Center, Community Health Library.  Danville, PA.

James Boyle, a professor of law and co-founder of the Centre for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University and author of The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind, has given a public lecture on how intellectual property and public domain interacts with areas of human development such as scientific research and free speech.  Princeton’s UChannel has put his lecture up in a freely available podcast.

Go to the UChannel page to listen.

The Modern Language Assocation’s (MLA) new style guide for citing sources in research has done away with print being the default style.  They have also done away with citing the URL of an electronic resource found on the web!

The Modern Language Association’s styles are long the standard in humanities research, could other style guides be far behind?  With much of the medical research being published in electronic journals now how will other citation standards change?

Ars Technica has a short article with comments discussing the changes as well as a link to the MLA’s new guide.

Increasingly health sciences librarians are finding a need to move outside the library to provide small group instruction.  Technology facilitates the process and in 2009 the cost of outfitting the mobile classroom has been reduced significantly.  In a hospital setting providing instruction in the patient care setting ensures that your customers, hospital staff and physicians, are familiar with the extensive array of online medical resources that you work hard to create and for which you dedicate a considerable amount of funds.  By bringing instruction to the point of need there is a greater likelihood that hospital staff will learn how to use the library’s online resources and will actually use the tools.

GETTING STARTED

If your hospital is wired to the Internet the first and most important step has been completed.  If the hospital is not yet wired this is an essential component to tackle and the best way to begin the process is to get to know the head of information technology (IT) at your institution.  However, let’s assume that the hospital is fully hardwired.

Wireless Connectivity:

The next step would be to investigate installation of wireless Internet access.  At Kaleida Health in Buffalo, New York, the four hospital libraries (Buffalo General Hospital, Millard Fillmore Gates Circle, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, and Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo) were among the first departments to provide wireless access to the Internet.  We achieved this milestone with a grant from MAR in 2005.  We partnered with the health system’s IT department who supported the additional related costs because they wanted to test the use of wireless Internet connectivity and saw the libraries as a good test bed.  Having wireless access in the library gave the staff the ability to move around the library to provide instruction, one-on-one, to library users at their individual laptop computers.  Since 2005 wireless access to the Internet has been installed in many areas of our hospitals. The expanded wireless access provides an opportunity to move instructional activities from the library to other areas of the hospital.

RESOURCES FOR THE MOBILE CLASSROOM

In late 2008 we received a new laptop computer, a gift from a hospital physician.  A second grant from MAR in 2008 was used to purchase a Digital Light Processing (DLP) projector. The laptop computer coupled with the DLP projector were the resources needed to roll-out our mobile classroom.  Because we wanted a full compliment of hospital software programs on the laptop the cost was approximately $1,000, which is a bit higher than standard retail cost.  We sought funds from MAR to cover the cost of the DLP projector and a replacement bulb, which came to just under $1,000.  Thus with $2,000 the Kaleida Health Library’s mobile classroom became a reality.

Using the Mobile Classroom

We have used the mobile classroom to train undergraduate college students serving as interns in an area public school to use MedlinePlus to access authoritative, understandable, reliable health information.  The interns are working with elementary school teachers in a train the trainer model to instruct the teachers how to use MedlinePlus and other NLM and NIH health information resources to teach school children about living a healthy lifestyle.  Many of the students are refugees from third world countries such as Somalia and Myanamar.  This project is a follow-up to the Somali-Bantu health education project completed in late 2008.

Currently planning is underway to offer an in-service health information training program for Buffalo city public school nurses.  The training session is planned for early May.  Many Buffalo City school nurses are Kaleida Health employees and we have a commitment to ensure that the nurses have access to the full spectrum of library services and resources as staff located in one of our hospitals.  Thus, we are working with the lead school nurse for Kaleida Health and the Director of Health Services for Buffalo City schools to offer the in-service program.  The program’s focus will include use of MedlinePlus to educate students about healthy lifestyle issues such as nutrition, infections, immunizations, safety and the like.  We will use both the DLP projector and the laptop to instruct the school nurses, thus taking full advantage of our mobile classroom.  We hope that this will be the first in a series of training programs for the school nurses.

By using the mobile classroom we will bring knowledge and information to an important new group of library users.  Without the technological resources described above this training program would not have become a reality.  It is our expectation that by introducing the school nurses to the myriad of resources available via MedlinePlus, and services available from Kaleida Health Libraries that the nurses will be empowered to use both more effectively and more frequently.  We also hope that the school nurses will view the libraries as a resource available to support their professional information needs.

Diane G. Schwartz, MLS, AHIP, FMLA
Director of Libraries
Kaleida Health
100 High Street
Buffalo, NY 14203

Email:  Dschwartz@kaleidahealth.org
Website:  http://library.kaleidahealth.org

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine is a private institution offering Master of Science programs in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (acupuncture and Chinese herbalism) and Bachelor programs in Oriental Bodywork and Western Massage.

The funds so generously granted were used to purchase educational materials for the ever expanding Pacific College Library. Purchased were a laptop and a projector, which have benefited the Library in many ways.  The library staff is now better able to conduct presentations on acupuncture and massage research, and on-line searching of medical databases and web sites for students and faculty. In addition, the laptop serves as a training tool for teaching health information and computer literacy, and as an extra computer for the Library.

In the future, PCOM will purchase additional needed literary materials relating to Chinese acupuncture, Herbology, Oriental medicine, Tui Na, and other health related subjects.

The grant from the National Networks of Libraries is proven to be a valuable resource for the students and faculty of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. It has funded library research courses and expanded the availability of computer access.

With great appreciation and gratitude, PCOM would like to thank the National Network of Libraries of Medicine for their services and donation.

Svetlana Oziransky- Pacific College of Oriental Medicine.  New York, NY