MAR is pleased to announce four new funding opportunities:

Leadership Institute Planning and Implementation Award

http://nnlm.gov/mar/funding/leadership.html

MAR is accepting letters of interest from Full and Affiliate Network members to plan and implement a MAR Leadership Institute. One award up to $65,000 will allow a member to develop a program to teach business, management, and leadership skills, which will help librarians advocate for themselves and their libraries with their institution’s administrators, other funding agencies, government bodies, and user groups. The Strategic Plan includes a Library Improvement objective to “broaden training opportunities with emphasis on management, advocacy, and leadership skills through Web opportunities for training in a ‘MAR Leadership Institute.’” The Leadership Institute is intended to be broad enough in scope to appeal to librarians with a range of experience, working in different types of institutions, and located throughout the region. Deadline for letters of interest is September 30, 2009.

Outreach Training

http://nnlm.gov/mar/funding/outreachtraining.html

This award for Full and Affiliate Network members it intended to support  training for and promote awareness of the products and services of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and NN/LM. Two awards up to $10,000 each are available. Deadline for applications is October 2, 2009.

Health Literacy Awards (New Projects)

http://nnlm.gov/mar/funding/healthlitnew.html

These awards are designed to support and encourage Full and Affiliate Network members to create or develop new health literacy projects within their library or organization or by partnering with other libraries or organizations. Health literacy projects should address issues of the target population’s ability to read, listen, analyze, and make decisions, and the ability to apply these skills to health situations. Two awards up to $30,000 each are available. Deadline for applications is October 9, 2009.

Technology/Library Improvement Awards

http://nnlm.gov/mar/funding/technology.html

These awards are designed to support and encourage Full and Affiliate Network members to upgrade or purchase new technology. Eleven awards up to $7500 each are available. Deadline for applications and all supporting materials is October 2, 2009.

The grant monies awarded was used to purchase two new public use computers for our medical library.  The computers that the library had previously were over 10 years old and could not handle some of the newer programs that the residents and staff use.  It is also anticipated that newer computers will attract more patients and their family members to the library for consumer health information.

The announcement of the grant award will go into the monthly in-house publication “News and Notes” which should help get the word out that the library has updated technology that is free to all hospital employees and visitors.  The Forbes Regional Campus library does not have a blog to put this information on.

This piece is meant to provide a short introduction into some of the privacy features on social networking websites that newcomers might be unaware of. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Please send any feedback to: MihlraL@mail.amc.edu.

You’ve likely heard about some of the more popular social networking websites:

• Facebook (http://www.facebook.com)
• Flickr (http://www.flickr.com)
• FriendFeed (http://friendfeed.com)
• MySpace (http://www.myspace.com)
• Plurk (http://www.plurk.com)
• Twitter (http://www.twitter.com)

Perhaps you are curious to see what they are all about and experiment with the sites, but are uncomfortable with the idea of strangers seeing your personal business.

Though not universal knowledge, all of these sites have privacy settings that let users restrict the visibility of their postings. Most don’t require you to use your full name; many let you use any name (or non-name) that you want. The bigger social networking sites typically let users specify which segments of their profile (such as research interests) they want the public to see, while setting others (such as photos or videos) to private.

Many also let you set privacy settings at a very granular level. For example, each photo uploaded to Flickr, a photo and video-sharing website, can be set to be viewed by only you, your friends/family (as defined by you), or anyone. So if a librarian wants to post photos of their library’s recent renovation to their web site to show the world, but keep personal photos private, they can (see image below):

Facebook’s privacy settings are a bit more complicated than Flickr’s, mostly because the site contains more types of information than Flickr. Each profile contains certain default segments, such as contact information, personal information, status update, etc. Users can also add external applications to their Facebook page, such as games or quizzes. Both Facebook-created and external applications’ privacy settings can be set via Facebook.

The first step is setting a blanket privacy setting for an entire profile. Typical settings (as permitted by Facebook) include making your entire profile visible to everyone, only those in your network (a city or college affiliation selected by a user), or just friends. Beyond that, each profile segment’s privacy setting can be customized (see image below). Facebook also permits users to set up groups. One use for this might be to set up two separate groups, friends and colleagues. If someone wants to prevent colleagues from seeing their photos or status updates, for example, they can do that by typing the group’s name by the appropriate privacy setting.

Settings as viewed in Facebook under Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Profile:

Twitter, a micro-blogging web site, works a little differently. The user can either make their updates (”tweets”) public or private. If the tweets are set to private, the person must individually approve each user (”follower” in Twitter) who wants to view their page. Otherwise, this is what the person sees:

From a beginner’s perspective, this allows them to experiment and use Twitter without worrying about anyone seeing what they write. They can “follow” as many other users as they’d like without worrying about their posts being seen. However, one cannot comment on another user’s postings, and vice versa, if they are not mutually following each other on Twitter. This could limit social interactions on the site. Unlike some of the other social networking sites, Twitter’s restrictions are all or nothing - either someone can freely follow you, or they cannot without approval.

Another privacy issue related to social networking sites is that the contents of many of these sites are now picked up by search engines. If anything is posted in your real name, this could be picked up by a search engine and publicly available on the Web.  For example, Twitter tells its users that its pages rank high in Google searches.

However, by utilizing common sense and some of the privacy features listed here, individuals can experiment with social networking websites and interact with friends and colleagues, while still keeping private information private.

Leigh Mihlrad
Systems & Technology Librarian
Albany Medical College
Albany, NY

HHS” Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is seeking comments on the preliminary definition of “Meaningful Use” of electronic health records as presented to the HIT Policy Committee on June 16. Comments on the draft description of “Meaningful Use” are due by Friday, June 26, 5 p.m., EDT, and should be no more than 2,000 words in length. Select to access instructions for submitting comments.

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.