With September being National Preparedness Month, we’ve been hearing a lot about how to prepare for emergencies. Indeed, hurricanes, fires, and other events over this past summer and early fall are reminders of the importance of being prepared, with or without advance warning. In an ideal world, the time to prepare for a disaster or emergency is of course prior to the event, with continued awareness of how to maintain readiness and to know what to do during and after an actual event. Read more »

by Yamila El-Khayat, MALS
Outreach Services Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

I recently presented training in Chinle, Arizona, in the Navajo Nation. Chinle is located in the far northeastern corner of the state, in Apache County, and is roughly a seven-hour drive from Tucson. In Navajo, Chinle means “Flowing Out,” a reference to the location where the water flows out of the Canyon de Chelly, which explains why I chose the title for this article. The session occurred this past summer, when I had the opportunity to travel to Chinle to provide training for 20 public health nurses, who received a three-hour presentation covering searching techniques, PubMed, the Arizona Health Information Network (AZHIN), and other open source resources. Read more »

NLM released DOCLINE 4.9 today, September 25, 2012. Although this new version is largely a maintenance release, there are several new borrowing features. The Release Notes are available and the key points are summarized below. Read more »

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is pleased to announce the release of a new educational resource, GeneEd. Developed in collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and with teachers and experts in genetics and genetic counseling, GeneEd is a useful resource of trusted information, designed to help students and teachers in grades 9 – 12 learn about genetics. Read more »

Here are some highlights from the NLM Technical Bulletin issue from July-August 2012: Read more »

Introduction

The increased attention to managing research data during the past few years, along with the adoption of national and international policies for data archiving and sharing, has made data curation a hot topic! The latest webinar from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), Metadata for Managing Scientific Research Data, provides an overview of why metadata is important, what to consider when selecting a metadata standard, and tips for getting involved with data curation for the first time. Read more »

During my spring 2012 internship, I took on a variety of projects at NN/LM PSR. One of these projects included making modifications to the existing Helping Older Adults Search for Health Information Online: A Toolkit for Trainers to create a toolkit targeting adults, especially those with low literacy skills. Read more »

Occasionally the settings in PubMed don’t operate the way they did the day before. This may be due to a change to PubMed by NCBI. Sometimes this change affects only a small number of users. One way to avoid problems is to make sure that your browser settings are up-to-date. Read more »

We extend our thanks and appreciation to everyone who participated in the recent RML questionnaire! We received nearly 140 responses, with information and valuable feedback that will enable us to continue to improve our programs and services to meet the needs of Network members. Overall, we were encouraged to see results suggesting that our work does make a difference for health sciences librarians and information centers in the region. Two illustrative examples include over 91% of respondents agreeing that the RML helped them obtain access to information resources, and more than 97% agreed that the RML makes them aware of relevant regional activities. Read more »

by Paula Maez, Youth Services Librarian & Paulina Aguirre-Clinch, Librarian
Pima County Public Library
Tucson, Arizona

In January 2012, Pima County Public Library (PCPL) partnered with the Pima County Health Department, to become the first public library in the nation to have a public health nurse permanently assigned to its staff. Because the pilot program proved successful, PCPL was able to expand it to additional branches in the summer of 2012. Read more »