Don’t you just love it when things come together, begin to make sense and an "aha" moment occurs? As our loyal readers know, one of my passions is reading about trends, discerning their commonalities, and figuring out what they mean for the work of the HS/HSL and information communities in general. As a personal rule, if I read about or see something mentioned three times across diverse communities, I pay attention. I also watch the commercial sector and popular culture to see what technology is booming. Success in those arenas frequently drives creativity and adoption in higher education. Things have been hopping in this first quarter of 2012.

In February, the 2012 Horizon Report was released with its short-term, mid-term, and far-term technologies to watch. Short-term technologies were mobile apps and tablet computing. Game-based learning and learning analytics were mid-term, and the far-term technologies included gesture-based computing and the Internet of Things. Underpinning all of these are "metatrends," such as working whenever/wherever, collaboration, the increasing model of "openness" (think open source, open access), shifts in publishing, informal learning (if you have a chance, read "’Badges’ Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas"), and big analytics/data/networks. And of course, we can’t forget "the Cloud."

In late February, I attended the annual meeting of the National Federation for Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) entitled, Born of Disruption: An Emerging New Normal for the Information Landscape. There were some amazing speakers; if you want to see some of the slides, they’re available at the NFAIS web site. Of the many things that filled my brain, a few stood out: the many discussions about data and how to organize, describe, and make it accessible; the Cengage presentation on learning analytics and collaboration tools; and some incredible information about the Internet of Things where everything we own, not just computers, will be connected to the Internet – furniture, clothing. Could clothing be used to monitor patients? What about apps and tablets? Of the people in the audience who were taking notes, easily 50% were using tablets of some sort.

And if all that confluence weren’t enough, over the past month in some of my reading (the Economist, Fast Company, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post, and blogs of various sorts), I have seen articles about the Internet of Things, gesture-based computing, game-based learning, and learning analytics. My "rule of three" is fast becoming reality in those areas. No doubt, this confluence of technologies and ideas will disrupt the way we teach, learn, use information, discover, and collaborate. We will be challenged to discern what we should adopt and advance, and to identify what we can ignore.

The HS/HSL will be participating in the LibQual+ Survey from April 10th through May 1st. For every survey completed, the Library will donate $1 to the Maryland Food Bank.

Academic libraries nationwide rely on LibQual+ Survey responses to measure the success of their services and to identify areas for improvement. Ninety-two libraries are participating in this year’s survey, which was designed by the Association of Research Libraries. The survey will be sent to a random sample of University faculty, students, and staff. If you receive the survey, we encourage you to take the time to respond. Your response will provide the Library with valuable information for improving our services and planning for the future. And with a $1 donation to the Maryland Food Bank for each survey completed, you will also be helping the Baltimore community.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Ryan Harris, Reference and Research Services Librarian, 410.706.1315.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently released their first iPad app. The app is free from the iTunes Store, but content is restricted to NEJM subscribers. If you would like to see a full issue, the February 23, 2012 issue is available free to all, allowing iPad users to navigate the journal and its multimedia features, including audio interviews, videos in clinical medicine, and slide sets of figures and tables.

These days, you don’t have to be at your desk to do research. On March 12, the electronic publisher, HighWire Press, marked another milestone in the shift towards mobile research by launching its 1000th mobile website. The new site, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM), is the latest addition to HighWire Mobile Web, which was introduced just over a year ago in response to user demand.

HighWire Press offers a wealth of full-text journals, including both free and subscription content. Many of their publications are available from the HS/HSL Journals list or through the "Find It" buttons that link to full-text from the Library’s databases. When you connect to HighWire’s AJRCCM site on your iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, or Blackberry, you’ll see a version of the site that’s optimized for your mobile device. You can search or browse journal content, view PDF articles, and share articles with colleagues — all on a display that is designed for ease of use on a small screen.

Try it out by using your mobile device to link to the AJRCCM site or scan the QR code to the right.

Liaison & Outreach Librarians Katherine Downton and Emilie Ludeman spend much of their time working with students, faculty, and staff at the UM School of Nursing; teaching classes on locating evidence; and providing consultations to assist with research.

Recently, Emilie and Katherine have been extending similar services to nurses at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Since summer of 2011, the library liaisons have been integrated into the Nurse Residency program, teaching new BSN graduates to search for evidence more effectively. They have also started to provide advanced search training for new nurse practitioner residents.

In April, they will be co-teaching a workshop on searching for research evidence with a UMMC nurse researcher as part of an ongoing series for nurses that focuses on research and evidence-based practice.

Emile and Katherine are optimistic that these efforts will lead to more collaboration with the UMMC and make nurses more aware of the essential resource available right across the street.

In response to feedback from our users, the HS/HSL has added ChromaKey backdrops to the growing list of equipment in our second-floor Presentation Practice Studio.

These backdrops, commonly known as "green screens," allow users to go beyond the four walls of the studio and place themselves digitally into any scene or in front of any background. A few computer tricks are needed to extract the subject from the background and place them on a new one, but our editing software can easily handle this. The 12’x15′ fabric screens are available in both green and blue (one may be preferable given wardrobe choice and skin tone.) To make the magic happen, you can bring your own editing expert or borrow one from the Library’s staff.

We’re excited to see how people will use this new feature. If you have any suggestions for the Studio, please let us know.

Are you a faculty member planning to use copyrighted material for a course you are teaching? If so, you might want to look at the HS/HSL Copyright Subject Guide. This guide provides useful information about Fair Use and the Teach Act, federal laws that direct the use of copyrighted materials for both in-person and online teaching and learning.

If you are posting journal articles from HS/HSL’s online collection to a BlackBoard course, make sure to do so using permalinks. By using permalinks, you can ensure that you are in compliance with the Teach Act. To learn how to create your own permalinks, please see our guide.

The Library will even take care of copyright compliance for you, when you request our Course Reserves service. The HS/HSL will obtain copyright permission for up to 50 journal articles per course and post them to our ERes course reserve system. This free service for University of Maryland faculty will guarantee you are in compliance with copyright law.

If you have questions about copyright, please contact Ryan Harris.

For questions about Course Reserves, please contact Megan Wolff.

Andrea Goldstein, MSLIS, the Library’s Liaison to the School of Medicine and Ryan Harris, MLIS, Reference and Research Librarian, have been selected as fellows for the BioMedical Informatics Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. This week-long course provides an overview of informatics topics in the health sciences, such as principles of database design, human-computer interfaces, medical terminologies and coding systems, medical decision analysis methods, clinical information systems architectures, and methods for measuring costs and benefits in health care systems. The BioMedical Informatics Course is attended by librarians, medical faculty, and administrators from around the nation.

If you have ideas or questions about how the Library can be integrated into your informatics project, please contact Andrea Goldstein.

Childhood Obesity is a major problem globally and a topic of great concern at the university. A January 2012 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 36% of adults and 17% of children were obese in 2009-2010, rates that have not declined from 2007-2008 levels.

Some of you may have attended the UM Childhood Obesity Summit last fall, where University President Jay A. Perman, MD and Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced the creation of the Institute for a Healthiest Maryland. A main focus of the Institute’s mission is preventing childhood obesity. To support this campus interest, librarians at the HS/HSL have created a childhood obesity subject guide as a way of staying current on the topic. The Research Resources section of the guide links to current childhood obesity research published by UM faculty.

Every semester, the HS/HSL offers free workshops for UM faculty, students, and staff, and UMMC staff. The Library’s workshops cover topics ranging from database searching to RefWorks, and copyright.

Need to find impact factors? Consider signing up for What’s the Impact? This workshop will give you an overview of Journal Citation Reports and Eigenfactor, two tools that calculate impact factors. The workshop will be held on Tuesday, April 3rd from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Visit the Library’s Workshops web page to register and to see all course offerings.

If you can’t make one of our regularly scheduled workshops, you can request an On Demand Workshop. We will cover the same course material at a time that’s convenient for you.

After introducing QR codes last month, we thought you might want to know more about them. The March "Cool Tools" guide tells you how to read, generate, and use QR codes. The HS/HSL Cool Tools guide is updated regularly, with each new entry featuring a web-based application that can make your information gathering, tracking, and organization more efficient.

Capstone Projects is a new collection in the School of Nursing Community. These papers are written by candidates for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. Beginning this spring, we will enter these papers into the Archive on a routine basis. Here are several titles already in the Archive:

• Factors Which Influence Job Satisfaction in Nursing Assistants in Nursing Homes by Nancy B. Lerner
• Improving Provider Compliance in the Use of an Asthma Action Plan for Patients with Asthma in an Outpatient Setting by Elaine Y. Bundy
• Use and Assessment of a Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner on a Pancreatic Cancer Web Site by Marian Grant

Visit Capstone Projects to read more.

The HS/HSL offers an internship program to students who are obtaining a Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS). The purpose of the internship is to advance health sciences librarianship through mentorship and training. The internship also provides an educational opportunity, allowing MLIS students to gain knowledge and experience that they can take with them as they move into future careers in librarianship. Interns work on a variety of different projects within the Library and are matched with appropriate mentors who guide and supervise their work.

This semester, the HS/HSL is proud to be hosting two interns. Christian Minter, who is enrolled in the MLS program at Catholic University, is working with the Services Division. During her internship, Christian will be working on projects that include researching and creating a Health Careers subject guide, creating promotional material for the HS/HSL Presentation Studio, and updating subject guides.

Elizabeth Hope is enrolled in the MLS program at University of Maryland, College Park. She is working with the Resources Division, where her primary projects involve working with the HS/HSL Digital Archive. Elizabeth helps manage Digital Archive content by identifying digitized titles in the Crawford Collection at the Internet Archive and creating records linking to them. She is also preparing metadata for School of Medicine theses in both Lyrasis and Digital Archive formats.