The recording of the August 19 SCR CONNECTions webmeeting “Screencasting in Libraries” is available online at https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p61447556/.

Next month’s meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 16 at 10:30 am CT.

Topic: “A New Look at PHPartners.org”
Time: September 16, 10:30 - 11:30 am CT
Link: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/scr/

The NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan’s online toolkit has a new page as of today.  The Pandemic Planning page is located here:  http://nnlm.gov/ep/pandemic-planning/. 

The page contains links to the CDC’s H1N1 site as well as to several Word documents that contain information about pandemic planning, some service continuity issues that may need to be addressed, and a sample of a table-top exercise that can be used to assist in pandemic planning.

According to Susan Yowell, Project Assistant, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan,”The current focus of the content of the page is on academic health sciences libraries, but we believe the content can be adapted to suit the needs of other types of libraries or institutions.  We will continue to develop the page, adding relevant content as it emerges.”

*Special thanks to Susan Yowell, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Charlottesville, VA, for this information.

The Disaster Information Management Resource Center (as a part of NLM’s Specialized Information Services Division) has complied a portal of more than fifteen glossaries to provide a source of standard and concise disaster terminology for all members of the disaster risk reduction and emergency management community.

The glossaries cover topics including: climate and weather; disaster medicine; earthquakes; radiation; storms, hurricanes, and floods; and more. These glossaries were created by a variety of academic and government institutions, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and George Washington University.

The website also has links to lists of MeSH terms used in indexing disaster-related articles.

To access the page directly, go to http://disaster.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/glossaries.html .

The page may also be accessed via the SIS webpage (http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/), clicking on the link to “Disaster Information Management Resource Center”, and then clicking on “Disaster Glossaries”.

Although first announced in April of this year, this resource bears mentioning again at the beginning of a new school year and the approach of National Preparedness Month.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Ad Council have joined with Discovery Education to announce Ready Classroom, an online educational program. Ready Classroom will provide elementary and middle school teachers with resources to integrate natural disaster preparedness information into their curriculum. The program is an extension of Ready Kids, a nationwide effort designed to encourage children and families to take action and prepare for emergencies.

This online resource, www.discoveryeducation.com/readyclassroom, targets grades K - 8 and provides teachers with activities, lesson plans and multimedia tools that teach students how natural disasters develop and inspires them to build their own emergency preparedness plans with their families. The complete news release can be found at http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=47960 .

The American Public Health Association urges all Americans to “Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed and Get Involved.” National Get Ready Day is September 15, 2009, to coincide with National Preparedness Month.

Electronic Health Records is the newest Special Queries available in PubMed.

From the NLM Technical Bulletin:

The MEDLINE/PubMed® Search & Electronic Health Record Information Resources page offers a PubMed search including subject terms and other keywords. Areas of coverage include implementation, attitudes, beliefs and use, data privacy, health data standards, and consumer access to the EHR and personal health records. This search strategy retrieves literature in many languages and from more than 27,000 PubMed citations, including research from many countries.

Read the full article at: Burke C. Electronic Health Record Resources Added to Special Queries. NLM Tech Bull. 2009 Jul-Aug;(369):e5.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region is glad to announce the new class: Screencasting: Creating Online Tutorials.

The 4-hour hands-on class will provide attendees with a fun, yet informative, overview of screencasting, how you can integrate this technology into your information services and education opportunities, what hardware and software tools will work best for your needs, and how to create an effective screencast using cost-effective tools.

Upon successful completion of this class, each participant will receive 4 hours of continuing education credit awarded by the Medical Library Association.

If you are interested in hosting this class at your institution free of charge, please contact Shikun (“KK”) Jiang at shikun.jiang@exch.library.tmc.edu.

On Wednesday, August 26, 2009, a Medical Library Association (MLA) Continuing Education class featuring PHPartners.org will be offered as a webinar. PHPartners (http://phpartners.org/) is the product of a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries. The August 26 webinar class will provide an overview of the website and include information on current topics such as Bioterrorism, ongoing projects such as Healthy People 2010, and public health resources (such as promotions and statistics).

This online training will be presented on Wednesday, August 26, at 2:00 p.m. CT by Marty Magee of the NN/LM MidContinental Region. The training is FREE, and requires no prior registration. A computer with Internet access and a phone are all that is needed. Access can be gained by going to: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/mcr. After signing in as a guest, you will be prompted to enter your phone number and the system will call you to log in. After the event, the webinar will be archived on the MidContinental website: http://nnlm.gov/mcr/.

Formerly known as Live Search, Bing (http://www.bing.com) is Microsoft’s new search engine that went fully online on June 3, 2009. Within the first few weeks from its launch, Bing has already enjoyed steady growth in search activities.

Bing provides features that are both similar to and different from other Web search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Some notable features include:

• Grouping of search results:
  Search results are grouped based on content and keywords. For example, when searching for “swine flu” (see below for a screenshot), you will get a quick overview from Mayo and MedlinePlus, then links from Wikipedia and other sources. Beneath that are links grouped by “Swine Flu Symptoms”, “Swine Flu in Children”, “Causes of Swine Flu”, “Swine Flu Prevention”, etc. Different categories can also be accessed from the left side navigation pane. Related searches and search history also appear on the left side.
  
• Daily changing background image for Bing home:
  Each background image is tagged for different elements that you can access by hovering over the image. By clicking on the “Image” link from the left side navigation pane, it will take you directly to images and links related to the background image.
  
• Video starts playing automatically if you hovering your mouse over a video thumbnail - a nice feature for previewing video search results.
• Save your favorite searches to either your computer, or to the free online Windows Live SkyDrive. You can organize your searches, add notes, and share them with your friends via Windows Live, Facebook, or email.
• Easy access to Advanced Search feature without losing your search results
• Travel section with easy access to search for airfare, hotel reservations, etc.
• Bird’s-eye view and 3D features from Bing Maps. Search result also comes with popular business categories near that location.

What are current student perceptions on emerging technologies and what innovative services do they expect from your library? Why do some of the Web 2.0 services succeed while others do not work so well for your patrons? Here is one institution’s experience that may help many academic libraries to better understand their customers’ needs.

Published by the Association of College & Research Libraries, “Informing Innovation: Tracking Student Interest in Emerging Library Technologies at Ohio University” (PDF, 3.76MB)  is based on data from the 2008 Ohio University Libraries Student Technology Survey. The research report provides insight into how academic libraries should plan and implement technologies based on actual user needs, instead of following trends and assumptions without any investigation and research.

The report is presented in two parts: Part I includes a literature review of generational aspects of technology and student perspectives on libraries, and how Ohio University designed, implemented and analyzed its user assessment research project. Part II provides findings of the project, including participant demographics, students’ technology cultures and library use, and trends in technology receptivity.

Check out the August issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest National Institutes of Health research.

In this edition:

Concerned About Coffee? It May Actually Be Good for You
Because it tastes so good, you may assume coffee is bad for you. But researchers are finding that coffee poses little to no health risk for most people. It may even have some health benefits.

You’ve Got Rhythm: Your Internal Clock Affects Your Health
While you struggle to stay on time for your daily activities, your body has its own internal clock. Every day, this clock helps you feel alert at work, hungry at mealtime and drowsy at night. When you fight against your biological clock, your health can suffer.

Health Capsules:
•    Questions Raised About “Depression Gene”
•    Tasty Recipes for People with Diabetes
•    Featured Web Site: NIH Education and Awareness Campaigns

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.
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