PubMed® and NLM Gateway/ClinicalTrials.gov Training in Buffalo, NY!

The National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC), in conjunction with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Middle Atlantic Region (NN/LM MAR) and the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC),  is offering two FREE hands-on classes on August 12 and 13, 2010. The following two classes will be taught by the staff of the NTCC at the WNYLRC offices in Buffalo, NY:

PubMed®  (7.5 MLA CE Hours)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

 NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov  (3.5 MLA CE Hours)

Friday, August 13, 2010

All the training sessions are FREE and intended for health sciences library staff, public librarians, health professionals, and anyone interested in using these free National Library of Medicine (NLM) databases. 

TO REGISTER for either or both of these classes, or to look for other class locations, simply click on this registration form link   http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/schedule.html

From the NLM Technical Bulletin:

The URLs for these PubMed Web pages have been streamlined. The old URLs will be redirected to the new URLs so existing links should work. We recommend that you update your documentation and Web pages with the new URLs to avoid problems in the future. LinkOut libraries should also update specialized Single Citation Matcher and Clinical Queries URLs; please see the LinkOut Help for details. The links on the PubMed homepage have been updated.

• Single Citation Matcher
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/citmatch
• Batch Citation Matcher
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/batchcitmatch
• Clinical Queries
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/clinical

By Kathi Canese
National Center for Biotechnology Information

NCBI reports a known problem with LinkOut today (7/28/10), whereby links and icons are
sometimes not working. They are working on the problem and hope to have it fixed soon.

From ArsTechnica:

A federal appeals court has just ruled that breaking through a digital security system to access software doesn’t trigger the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Any other interpretation of the DMCA, declared the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, would permit infringement liability for tapping into a work simply to “view it or to use it within the purview of ‘fair use’ permitted under the Copyright Act.”

The ruling is already being hailed as another victory for fair use, following Monday’s Library of Congressdecision giving wide approval to iPhone jailbreaking and DVD CSS circumvention on similar grounds.

Read the full article

MedlinePlus now offers several widgets that allow you to embed MedlinePlus content in your own Web sites, blogs, and personalized homepages. Visit their widgets page to learn more.

New on NIH Senior Health—Creating a Family Health History. http://nihseniorhealth.gov/creatingafamilyhealthhistory/toc.html

 A new US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) web site provides access to the FDA’s Unique Ingredient Identifier (UNII). The new web site can be found at http://fdasis.nlm.nih.gov The UNII is an essential element required for the listing of substances in the FDA Structured Product Labeling (SPL).  The NLM and the FDA collaborated to make access to this code easier.

  The FCC recently introduced a new health care connectivity program that would expand investment in broadband for medically underserved communities across the country. Read more

In October 2009, the Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State College of Medicine, submitted a Technology Improvement Award proposal entitled “Improved Access to Digital Library Resources via an Increased Number of Public Access Computers” to the National Networks of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region.  The library requested funding in the amount of $6812.52 in order to acquire an additional 7 computers.

With the shift from a print based collection to what is now a digital library, the need for additional public access computers was acute.  Competition for access between students, faculty, patients and their families, outside vendors and community walk-ins had increased significantly.  The Harrell HSL was notified in December we received the award.  The library, as a byproduct of the Penn State Hershey Clinical Simulation Center construction project, was in the process of purchasing 24 new computer carrels to house both the existing computers, as well as the new computers we would acquire through the grant.  Once the new furniture arrived and was installed we went ahead and placed the order for the new computers in May 2010.  The 7 new computers were installed and made available in June.

They are already being heavily used and the fall semester is a month away.  We plan to conduct a week-long survey in October 2010 to collect data documenting use.  The data will be used to demonstrate the value of the library and the need to continue to support public access computers.

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. NO1-LM-6-3501 with New York University.

Cynthia Robinson, BA, MA, AHIP
Associate Librarian
Director, George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library
Penn State Hershey
Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Penn State College of Medicine

From the design team:

As of this morning, MedlinePlus has a new look! The entire site has been redesigned with a new layout and color scheme.  Some highlights of the new design are:

• A Videos & Cool Tools page that makes multimedia content easier to find and searchable.
• A Share button on all health topic pages and interactive tutorials that allows you to share links to MedlinePlus through your favorite social networks. See the Diabetic Diet topic page as an example.
• A medical dictionary search box on the English homepage for quick look-up of medical terms.
• A search cloud widget on the homepage, and a widgets page where you can find options for embedding MedlinePlus content in your own blogs, personalized homepages, and other sites.

We invite you to visit MedlinePlus to see the changes and new features for yourself. Let us know what you think of the new design by clicking the Contact Us link that appears on every page.

As always, you can stay up-to-date with the latest changes to MedlinePlus by following us on Twitter @medlineplus4you, visiting our What’s New page, and signing up for email updates. Also, don’t forget about the mobile version of MedlinePlus for reliable health information when you’re on-the-go.

In May 2010 the NN/LM MAR completed a needs assessment of unaffiliated health professionals working in nursing homes in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. This needs assessment investigates the health information needs of these health professionals and if there are barriers to getting the health information they need in a rapid and useful manner.

The tools for this needs assessment include a detailed letter explaining the purpose of the assessment and a questionnaire. The response rate to the questionnaire was 47% (41 respondents; n=88). A full report of the needs assessment is available on the MAR website, Needs Assessment of Unaffiliated Health Professionals Working in Nursing Homes .

In February/March 2010 the NN/LM MAR held a series of focus groups with MAR network members. The purpose of the focus groups was to learn from network members about their experiences with the current programs and services of the MAR and their future needs and interests in order to plan for the next NN/LM five-year contract.

A total of four focus groups were conducted with a total of fourteen network members. The focus groups were made of up network members from hospital, public, academic, health sciences, and resource libraries. The Appreciative Inquiry method was used in the focus group sessions to learn about the past successes of the MAR programs in order to build on those successes to implement future programs and services.

These nine themes emerged from the focus groups, funding, training, customer service, communication, NLM resources, Value of Libraries Study, advocacy, connectivity and networking, and community. These themes are fully outlined in the Focus Group: Final Report which is now available on the MAR website.