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

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The inaugural class of Fellows in the Association of Health Care Journalists-National Library of Medicine (AHCJ-NLM) Fellowships was recently announced by AHCJ.

The Fellows, health journalists selected by AHCJ from dozens of qualified applicants, will receive training about NLM’s services and meet with physicians and researchers at NLM and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during a weeklong visit to the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, September 13-17, 2009. (more…)

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) History of Medicine Exhibition Program is accepting requests to host a new banner exhibition scheduled to be available October 4 2009.

The title is Literature of Prescription: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Yellow Wallpaper. In the late nineteenth century, at a time when women were challenging traditional ideas about gender that excluded them from political and intellectual life, medical and scientific experts drew on notions of female weakness to justify inequality between the sexes. Artist and writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who was discouraged from pursuing a career to preserve her health, rejected these ideas in a terrifying short story titled “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” The famous tale served as an indictment of the medical profession and the social conventions restricting women’s professional and creative opportunities.

As with other banner exhibitions, NLM is asking host libraries to cover incoming Federal Express expenses, which usually run a couple of hundred dollars. The booking period is 6 weeks. The online exhibition will feature K-12 lesson plans and a higher education module and will be available after Labor Day.

For more information see: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/about/exhibition/travelingexhibitions/literature.html

Questions may be directed to Jill Newmark, Exhibition Registrar in the NLM History of Medicine Division: newmarj@mail.nlm.nih.gov

The Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) is pleased to announce a call for applications for the 2009-2010 year of the leadership program jointly sponsored by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and AAHSL. The NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program is focused on preparing emerging leaders for the position of library director in academic health sciences libraries. (more…)

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library and the Metropolitan Library System have been selected for a pilot program sponsored by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and NN/LM. The program, entitled “Community Day,” is designed to assist libraries in becoming active partners in their community’s emergency preparedness, response and recovery planning. Community Day will make libraries part of the nationwide effort encouraging all Americans to take simple steps in preparing for possible emergencies in their homes, businesses, schools and communities.

Title: From Band-Aids to Twisters: Enhancing Community and Personal Preparedness
Lead Library: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library, Oklahoma City
Partner Library: Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma City
Project Manager: Shari Clifton

Since there were only three sites selected nationwide, the NN/LM SCR is proud that libraries in Oklahoma will be participating in this important project.

The Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce website, http://PHPartners.org, has been revised to make public health information easier to find and to highlight public health news and resources.

PHPartners is a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations, and health science libraries which provides timely, convenient access to selected resources on the Internet.

Revisions to PHPartners.org include:

• Access to public health topic pages from the left frame of every page
• Access to main topics from the left frame of every page
• Public Health News in center of the home page
• In the Spotlight section to highlight links of particular interest to the public health workforce. Selected spotlight links will rotate on a weekly basis
• Featured Resources on the right frame of the home page
• What’s New on PHPartners.org on the home page allows users to keep up-to-date with news and new resources posted on PHPartners.org by subscribing to the PHPartners email list or RSS news feed.

The PHPartners team wants to hear feedback on the look and usability of PHPartners.org. Please submit your feedback and comments to Lisa Sedlar, sedlarl@mail.nlm.nih.gov, and Hathy Simpson, hathy.simpson@umassmed.edu. Users can also submit feedback using the Contact Us link on the About Partners page.

MedlinePlus enhanced its Health News RSS feeds this week. The MedlinePlus Health News feeds now include images and hyperlinks to corresponding MedlinePlus Health Topics. The images add visual interest to the feeds and the Health Topic links allow subscribers to quickly and easily access information on the diseases, conditions, and wellness issues that are discussed in the news stories and press announcements.

You can subscribe to the Health News RSS feeds by copying and pasting the URLs below into your preferred RSS reader/aggregator:

MedlinePlus Health News (English): http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/feeds/news_en.xml
MedlinePlus Health News (Spanish): http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/feeds/news_es.xml

The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office, in cooperation with the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health, announced that 12 libraries will host “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine,” for a four-week display period between September 2009 and November 2010 and present at least two public programs on the exhibition themes.  All showings of the exhibition and related programs will be free and open to the public.

Congratulations to University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas for being selected to host this exhibit in the South Central Region!

To see the rest of the selected libraries, go to: http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/june2009/harrypotter_ppo.cfm

This week it was announced at the 2009 annual meeting of the Medical Library Association in Honolulu, Hawaii that PubMed will undergo a redesign of the interface.  The Single Citation Matcher, one of the most popular features used by librarians, will remain on the PubMed homepage when the redesigned site debuts in late summer 2009.

The goals of PubMed Redesign 2009 are to make PubMed easier to use, simplify the interface, refresh the look, better organize the text on the screen, and promote scientific discovery. More specifics about the release date and tips for transitioning will be published on Blogadillo and the NLM Technical Bulletin.

Adapted from the NLM Technical Bulletin.

The Spring issue of the NIH MedlinePlus Magazine is now online:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/spring09/toc.html

For print subscriptions or to get email alerts when the new issues are posted online, see: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/subscribe.html.