Call for Librarian Applicants for the 2009/2010 Sewell Fund Learning Fellowships.  The application deadline is April 15, 2009.

The Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund will award two 12-month, paid “Learning Partnerships” placing experienced health sciences librarians within leading health care organizations for the purpose of both partners gaining a greater understanding of how best information sciences can be effectively applied in each environment.  This on-the-edge fellowship offers mid-career librarians the opportunity to be fully immersed in the environment of a health care organization.  The fellow will participate in team settings designed to utilize the librarian’s skills and knowledge in non-traditional ways, resulting in a tangible and valuable contribution to the host organization.  For more information about the Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund, the Learning Partnerships, fellowship application process, and eligibility requirements, please visit the Sewell Fund website at http://www.sewellfund.org/LearningPartnerships2009.htm.
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MedlinePlus has an exciting new interactive tutorial that teaches people about medical terms. It shows how medical words are put together, and includes quizzes, lists of words parts, and lists of medical abbreviations. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/medicalwords.html

The recording of “Clever Evaluation: Evaluation Tips for Libraries With Not Enough Time,” the March 18, 2009 SCR CONNECTions webinar, is now available at http://nnlm.gov/scr/training/webmeeting.html.  The power point and sample evaluation forms used in the presentation can be found on our presentations page http://nnlm.gov/scr/training/presentations/index.html.

The next session will be held on April 15, 2009 at 10:30 am Central Time.

What: “Hey Look At Us Now! What’s New in NLM’s Consumer Health Resources”

Time: April 15, 2009, 10:30-11:30 AM Central Time

Link: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/scr/

Are you too busy to evaluate the success of your library programs? Do you need evidence that your existing programs are working? If so, come to the free webinar “Clever Evaluation: Evaluation Tips for Libraries With Not Enough Time”  presented by Cindy Olney from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (NN/LM OERC).  The webinar will take place Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 10:30 - 11:30 AM Central Time.

This webinar is being offered as part of the NN/LM SCR’s monthly series of web conferences, SCR CONNECTions.  The web conferences are conducted via the Adobe Connect web meeting system. You do not need to install any software to join the conference, simply click on the URL: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/scr/.  On the log in screen, choose “Enter as a Guest” and type in your name.  Once you enter the online meeting room, follow the instructions on the screen to have the system call you on your telephone.  For more information, go to http://nnlm.gov/scr/training/webmeeting.html

Thank you!

Karen

Two Can You Hear Me Now? How to Make a Podcast class sessions will be offered on May 6, 2009 in Baton Rouge, LA at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library - Carver Branch.

This hands-on class is designed to provide a fun yet informative introduction to what is podcasting and how you can utilize this technology in your library services, to enable your users to access the information whenever they want, wherever they want and however they want it. Basic steps and suggestions on how to make a podcast will be covered and students will be able to enjoy hands-on practice on popular audio recording and editing software and make their first podcast! This course has been approved for 2 hours of Medical Library Association (MLA) Continuing Education credits.

Time: Wednesday, 5/6/2009, 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM, and 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM.

To register, go to http://nnlm.gov/scr/training/

If you have any question, please contact Shikun (“KK”) Jiang at shikun.jiang@exch.library.tmc.edu.

The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office, in cooperation with the National Library of Medicine (NLM), announces a new small format traveling exhibition to libraries, “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine.” Public, academic (university, college and community college) and medical libraries may apply to host the banner exhibition by downloading an application at http://www.ala.org/harrypotter.  In order to be considered, applications must be received at ALA by May 1, 2009.

For more information, see the ALA Press Release: http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/march2009/ppoharrypotter.cfm

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, in collaboration with the Regional Health Administrators, is pleased to announce a request for proposals for the State Action:  Evaluating the Healthy People 2020 Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Agenda project.  Funded by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, this project is being administered by John Snow, Incorporated (JSI).

This evaluation project will fund state, territorial, and tribal governments to conduct innovative and participatory strategic planning activities, with an emphasis on multi-sector collaboration, using the Healthy People 2020 framework and population health improvement concepts (i.e., Healthy People 2020 mission and overarching goals; social, physical, and environmental determinants of health; and health equity).  Up to 12 projects, taking place between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, will be funded at a maximum award of $37,000 each.

Eligible applicants that can apply for this funding opportunity are listed below:

• State and territorial health departments (this includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the National Government of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau).
• Federally recognized Indian tribes, tribal organizations, tribal epidemiology centers, and urban Indian organizations.

This evaluation program is intended to enhance existing or planned state, territorial, and tribal activities to develop a Healthy People plan based on the national Healthy People 2020 framework and objectives.  The project will evaluate ways these eligible entities apply the Healthy People 2020 framework to their planning activities.  Examples of possible activities include:

• Facilitated meetings for multi-sectoral decision makers to engender buy-in and support
• Technical assistance in identifying measures around social determinants of health
• Development of products and information media regarding Healthy People 2020 activities
• Web-based applications to support Healthy People 2020 plans

The application deadline is Monday, April 27, 2009.

For more details and to download the request for proposal forms please visit www.healthypeople.gov/stateaction.  For questions, please contact Ann Loeffler at JSI at 1.800.839.0934 or email her at state_action@jsi.com.

Thanks to an alliance between physician assistants and librarians, the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants features a new online column starting this month: “Ask a Librarian”.  This column is a co-authored by  Jim Anderson, Physician Assistant, and Susan Klawansky, Network Member and Librarian, at Seattle Children’s Library & Information Commons.  The column will promote collaboration with medical librarians, address questions from physician assistants and point to resources, including  the NN/LM website.

If you’ve been listening to the news recently, it seems that everyone is Twittering.  So, what exactly is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking service that has been around since August 2006. It allows users to send short messages with no more than 140 characters (a.k.a. “tweets”) from a computer or a mobile device to their followers.  A recent Pew Internet survey found that nearly 11% of online American adults use Twitter or a similar service to share updates with others.

Free applications such as Tweeterific, Twhirl, Twitterfeed and Facebook app help you send or read tweets from your computer, your smart phone  including Blackberry or iPhone, or your cell phone. Instant Messaging applications such as Skype also allow you to send tweets without logging in to the Web page. See more applications at http://twitter.com/downloads.

Libraries and librarians have been using Twitter to post announcements, class updates, new services, interesting articles, and resource sharing. Some examples are:

• Library of Congress Twitter, 2,473 followers
• Santa Fe Public Library in New Mexico, 114 followers
• Boerne Library in Texas, 271 followers
• MD Anderson Library in Texas, 53 followers
• Medical Librarians Twitter, 252 followers

Here are some useful resources and interesting articles:

• Twitter in Plain English
• NYTimes - Twitter? It’s What You Make It
• Library Success - Libraries Using Twitter
• Twitter for Health

Thanks to Julie Gaines at UTHSC-San Antonio for additional examples of twittering libraries and medical librarians.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has received new funds for Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 as part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), Pub. L. No. 111-5. The NIH has designated at least $200 million in FYs 2009 – 2010 for a new initiative called the NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research.

This new program will support research on topic areas that address specific scientific and health research challenges in biomedical and behavioral research that would benefit from significant 2-year jumpstart funds.

The NIH has identified a range of Challenge Areas that focus on specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance the area in significant ways.

A list of NLM Challenge Topics is available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ep/challenge.html