Name the HS/HSL’s New Innovation Space

Posted on March 31, 2015 by ebrown

The HS/HSL will be launching a new Innovation Space, which will feature a 3D Printing Service. We want your input on what we should name this new space! All UMB Faculty, Students, and Staff can provide one submission.

The winning submission will win a $50 gift card for Shapeways, the world’s largest online 3D Printing Service, Community and Marketplace. All individuals who provide a submission will be entered into a drawing where we will give away five $10 Starbucks gift cards.

Click here to submit

The Innovation Space initiative is paid for out of the UMB Foundation through private donations.

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That Annoying Survey … For One Month Only!

Posted on March 30, 2015 by ebrown

In order to get a better handle on resource usage – who and why – a survey will appear when users log in to resources during the month of April. The survey will pop up randomly three times every day at different times throughout the month and will ask:

  1. whether the user is faculty, staff or student
  2. with what school or unit the user is affiliated
  3. the purpose for the use (research, assignments)

M.J. Tooey, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Executive Director of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library, explained, “We are hoping this survey will not be too intrusive, but it is critical during these times of budget and resources cuts to get a good picture of who is using HS/HSL resources.”

Resource Usage Survey

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TED Talker, Dr. Ellen Jorgensen to Headline HS/HSL “What’s Next…?” Luncheon

Posted on March 30, 2015 by ebrown

Title: Community Labs as Centers of Innovation and Learning
Date: Wednesday April 15, 2015
Time: 11:30 AM – 1 PM (Talk begins at Noon)
Location: Elm Ballroom, SMC (Southern Management Corporation Campus Center)
RSVP: E-mail to events@hshsl.umaryland.edu.
Live-streaming: http://bit.ly/whatsnextseries

Do you want to know “what’s next.?” Join the HS/HSL as we close our 200th Anniversary celebration and launch a new speaker series, “What’s Next…?”  This new series will focus on innovative thought leaders’ discussing exciting developments shaping the future of health, health science, and the human condition.

On April 15, our inaugural speaker is Dr. Ellen Jorgensen. Dr. Jorgensen is the co-founder and Executive Director of Genspace, a nonprofit community laboratory dedicated to promoting citizen science and access to biotechnology, and is currently adjunct faculty at New York Medical College, Scientist-In-Residence at the School of Visual Arts, and a Visiting Professor at The Cooper Union. She is a noted expert on bio-hacking and citizen science. Her TED Talk, “Biohacking, You Can Do It Too,” from 2012 was invigorating, exciting, and thought provoking and has received almost 1 million views. Her presentation on the 15th will be “Community Labs as Centers of Innovation and Learning.”

Join us at us at 11:30 a.m. in the Elm Ballroom at the Southern Management Corporation Campus (SMC) Center for a light luncheon and her talk. While there is no charge for the luncheon, registration is required so that we can plan accordingly. Reserve your space by emailing events@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Can’t make it to the lecture in person? Consider watching the live feed. This feed will be available on Wednesday 4/15/15 during the lecture.

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. HHS-N-276-2011-00004-C with the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

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Last Chance to Provide Input on the HS/HSL Strategic Plan

Posted on March 30, 2015 by ebrown

For over a year, the team at the HS/HSL has been working on gathering input for its new strategic plan.  Using a variety of methods, we’ve received some good feedback.

Here is one last opportunity to help us shape our future.  By April 17, please go to this link and complete four open-ended questions.  They should take no more than 10-15 minutes.

If you have additional ideas or would just prefer to provide direct input please feel free to contact HS/HSL Executive Director, M.J. Tooey via email – mjtooey@hshsl.umaryland.edu  or by calling 410-706-7545.

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Last Chance to Provide Input for HS/HSL Strategic Plan

Posted on March 30, 2015 by ebrown

For over a year, the team at the HS/HSL has been working on gathering input for its new strategic plan.  Using a variety of methods, we’ve received some good feedback.

Here is one last opportunity to help us shape our future.  By April 17, please go to this link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YRW63P6 and complete four open-ended questions.  They should take no more than 10-15 minutes.

If you have additional ideas or would just prefer to provide direct input please feel free to contact HS/HSL Executive Director, M.J. Tooey via email – mjtooey@hshsl.umaryland.edu  or by calling 410-706-7545.

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Notable Tech Trends: Hackathon

Posted on March 27, 2015 by ebrown

What is a Hackathon?

At the Library’s student town hall meeting last month, a student suggested hosting a hackathon event at the Library. ‘Hackathon’ is a term that has become more popular recently, but to many it is still somewhat obscure. ‘Hacking’ refers to programming activity that builds a useful software application for a practical purpose. ‘Hackathon’ signifies a hacking marathon. ‘Hackfest’ and ‘codefest’ are the synonyms of ‘hackathon.’ The hackathon guide “GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) Hack-in-a-box” from the Digital Public Library of America states that a hackathon is a short, concentrated event between half a day to two days long in which small teams of participants with diverse skill sets design and build something, often by programming. Hackathons focus on collaboration and practice more than perfection. Often, people use hackathons to build quick prototype applications that they can develop into a mature applications later on. Hackathons are organized by many different groups, ranging from hackers, local meetups, hackerspaces, software companies such as Yahoo! or Facebook, to colleges and universities. Libraries often sponsor hackathons by providing a space or organizing a hackathon with a library-related theme.

Hackathon in Libraries

Over the last few years, many libraries have hosted hackathons. The Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University in the U.K. hosted a one-day hackfest celebrating the release of 25,000 texts from the Early English Books Online project into the public domain in March, 2015. This hackfest encouraged the participation of students, researchers from all disciplines, and members of the public with an interest in the intersection between technology, history, and literature who are interested in working together to develop a project using the texts and the data generated from them. In February 2015, York University Libraries in Canada hosted the Stacie Library Dungeon Hackfest with the theme of “hacking for a better world.” The New York Public Library Labs partnered with Readium Foundation and held two one-day hackathons named “Open Book Hack Day” in 2014 and 2015. At the “Open Book Hack Day” hackathons, participants explored ways of liberating public domain documents onto the open web; making it easier to get open-access e-books; and improving open e-book access/distribution for libraries, startups, and publishers alike.

Hackathon in Health Sciences

Hackathons are also used in the health sciences. From January 5 to 7, the National Center for Biotechnology Information hosted a genomics hackathon focused on advanced bioinformatics analysis of next-generation sequencing data. This event targeted students, post-docs, and investigators already engaged in the use of pipelines for genomic analyses from next-generation sequencing data. Four different working groups built pipelines to analyze large datasets within a cloud infrastructure. Japan’s National Bioscience Database Center and Database Center for Life Science have been organizing an annual BioHackathon since 2008, mainly focusing on standardization and interoperability of bioinformatics data and web services for improving integration, preservation, and utilization of databases in life sciences. The D.C. Public Library organized two Accessibility Hackathons to bring together young adults with disabilities and companies that develop accessibility solutions. The Accessibility Hackathons provided opportunities for collaboration and mentorship in the development new adaptive technology solutions.

The greatest benefit of a hackathon is the dedicated time and space outside of daily work, study, and projects where like-minded people can meet to share ideas, hone programming skills, and prototype ideas into working applications. Hackathons also offer participants the chance to tackle a problem of their own choosing, rather than one that has been assigned. The HS/HSL is open to the possibility of partnering with a campus or local group to host a hackathon. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in collaborating.

Bohyun Kim, Associate Director, Library Applications and Knowledge Systems
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UMB Experts: A Collaboration Tool

Posted on March 23, 2015 by ebrown

UMB Experts is a searchable database of expertise across disciplines at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Use UMB Experts to identify collaborators and their work by searching profiles of the University’s research faculty. Build collaborative teams and productive research relationships searching by name, department, or concept. Using Expert Community, search for colleagues at other institutions. Using the Visualization feature, create diagrams of institutional or co-author networks.  UMB researchers with profiles within the system will soon be able to access their profiles for editing by using their UMID and password. Notification will be sent as soon as this option becomes available.

If you have questions about UMB Experts, please contact Na Lin, Project Manager.

The Health Sciences and Human Services Library and the Office of Research and Development are collaborating to offer UMB Experts.

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Help the HS/HSL Shape it’s Future, March 27 at a Brown Bag Lunch Forum

Posted on March 18, 2015 by ebrown

As one of the last steps in the HS/HSL’s strategic planning process, we will be holding a town hall forum for faculty and staff on Friday, March 27 at noon in the Gladhill Board Room on the 5th Floor of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library. Come and share your ideas regarding the library.

  • What are we doing well?
  • What can we improve or do more?
  • What does the library of the future look like to you?  What expertise should we have? What resources should we provide? What about new technologies? And what about the building?
  • Or just come and discuss anything else that comes to mind!

So bring your lunch and join us at noon on March 27th .  Drinks and dessert will be provided.  See you then.

If you can’t make it to the forum, please feel free to contact M.J. Tooey, AVP Academic Affairs and Executive Director HS/HSL at mjtooey@hshsl.umaryland.edu to share your thoughts.

M.J. Tooey, MLS, AHIP, FMLA

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Try the Presentation Practice Studio

Posted on March 17, 2015 by ebrown

The Presentation Practice Studio provides University of Maryland, Baltimore students, faculty, and staff with the space and technology resources to practice, record, and develop presentations as well as to refine public speaking skills.

We Can Help You

The studio has the technology and our staff have the know-how to help you practice and deliver the best presentation possible. You also can record and edit your own videos or audio recordings with professional tools, like the Adobe Suite.

Read about the studio’s equipment and software and guidelines for use.

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Request a Research Consent Form Review

Posted on March 17, 2015 by ebrown

Are you an investigator preparing a research protocol submission to the IRB? This service may be of interest!

HS/HSL librarians serving on the UMB Institutional Review Board have noticed that many research consent forms are written above the recommended reading level for patients and are often confusing and difficult to understand. The Reference Department offers a service to review your consent form before it is submitted with your protocol. We will offer suggestions for simplified language and note key sections that need revision or are likely to be confusing for patients. We will return the form to you with these suggestions within three business days. You can submit your consent forms on the HS/HSL website (in the Assistance section).

If you have any questions, please contact the Reference Desk at 410-706-7995, hshsl@umaryland.edu.

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