Later in Connective Issues there’s an article about the one-year anniversary of the launch of the UM Digital Archive. Launching a digital archive was quite an endeavor for the HS/HSL. We did it with no money (by using open-source software) and with no new staff (by retraining existing staff and dispersing bits and pieces of the work). Our cataloging team re-invented themselves as metadata analysts. Our systems staff discovered the open source community is incredibly – well, open and helpful. We learned a lot along the way, and we have made some good friends and partners across the campus as we promoted the Digital Archive at every chance we could get.

You see, the HS/HSL has always served as the de facto archive for our campus. Need a photo of an old building? Try the HS/HSL. A listing of all the presidents of our campus? No problem. A picture of your grandfather, who graduated from our med school 50 years ago? We’ve got you covered. But as the digital age permeated our world, we knew we could be so much more. And so, we are collecting, preserving and distributing our past through our Digital Archive and exposing it to the world via the web.

We are collecting dissertations/theses, images, and the grey literature of our campus – the school and campus publications, research reports, oral histories, and other unpublished scholarly works, such as posters and presentations. Soon we will link to faculty publications available through PubMedCentral and other open access publications. And we are ensuring perpetual access. Our archive can be used as a gateway to data, should a data archive ever be developed. Do you have something you would like to contribute to the Digital Archive? Email us, and we will be in touch. We also invite you to take a look at the Archive and give us your thoughts. This is very much a work in progress, and we welcome any suggestions you have. Enjoy the view of what’s old is new.

On May 4, 2012, the UM Digital Archive will be one year old. The development of the Archive has been challenging – at times frustrating – but always well worth the effort. Collecting, preserving, and distributing academic works of the University via the Internet is of major importance, especially in this era of increased collaboration and sharing.

Here is what has been happening this past year:

• Items archived: 1,237
  Unique users: 3,277
  Total visits: 5,267
  Access from geographic areas: 94 countries
  Largest collection: Theses and Dissertations (630 items)
• Faculty with most works: Diane DePanfilis, Ph.D., MSW. Professor & Associate Dean for Research. Director, Ruth H. Young Center for Families & Children, School of Social Work
• Most viewed document: Dietary uptake and toxicity of coal ash and selenium to larval Hyla versicolor / Lockard, Laura Anne, 2011 School of Medicine Master Thesis
• Most viewed newsletter: University of Maryland Magazine / UM Communications and Public Affairs
• Most viewed images: Dental illustration collection
• Oldest content: Leggenda di S. Appollonia V. e M. 1766 (Patroness of dentistry, Saint Apollonia)

Would you like your work to be preserved with a permanent URL and accessible across the Internet? If so, then help us build the Archive. If you have content that you would like to contribute or questions about the UM Digital Archive, please email us.

If you were selected to participate in LibQual+ and have not yet completed the survey, we encourage you to do so. This survey will provide important information that will allow us to improve services for our patrons.

For every survey completed the HS/HSL will donate $1 to the Maryland Food Bank.

Thank you for your participation.

The HS/HSL is pleased to announce that we are now offering online study room reservations to UM faculty, staff, and students. There are three study rooms on the 3rd floor that can be reserved for up to three hours. We plan to add more rooms if the project is successful.

Use your umaryland.edu or umd.edu email to reserve a room today.

It’s never too early to plan a really good party…especially one that will last a year! In 2013, the HS/HSL will mark two milestones – the 200th anniversary of our founding (we are the founding library in the USM) and the 15th anniversary of our building. We need to begin now to plan our 200 plus 15 programs and events. Do we know what these programs and events are yet? That’s where you come in. Just email me, M.J. Tooey, and send me your ideas. Also, let me know if you are interested in an extremely ad hoc idea committee – just one or two meetings with food and beverage in order to get those brain juices flowing. Everyone – faculty, staff, and students – are welcome.

GHDx is the first data catalog to focus on health-related datasets on a global scale. Created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (a global health research center at the University of Washington) the catalog allows you to research population census data, surveys, registries, indicators and estimates, administrative health data, and financial data related to health.

The information in the GHDx is particularly relevant to students and faculty in the following disciplines: public or global health, medicine, demography, economics, international relations, public policy or public affairs, library science, quantitative research-focused psychology programs, and geography.

The Library’s newly-formed Exhibit, Display and Promotion Committee will create displays throughout the year to complement gallery exhibits, showcase items from the Historical Collection, and promote library projects. "From Type to Tablets: the Roots of Library Media" is currently featured in the tall glass case directly across from the Circulation Desk. This new display unveils a brief history of library media through the ages, from a 19th century encyclopedia, through microfiche and floppy disks, all the way up to modern palm devices and the iPad. The items on display come from the Library’s Historical Collections, the Services and Resources Departments, and straight off the desks of staff members. A few items, including the CD-ROM, are still actively circulating!

For more information on the history of the Library, see this article in our UM Digital Archive.

The concept and reality of managing enormous data files has made its way to our campus. Wikipedia defines ‘Big Data‘ as "data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time." Data analytics corporation MarkLogic, which produces servers powering Big Data applications projects around the world, is offering a free enterprise version of their MarkLogic 5 server for academic projects.

The MarkLogic Academic License has no data storage restrictions. It can be installed on clusters with hundreds of machines and petabytes of data. By providing this tool freely, MarkLogic is giving students and educators the chance to work with new technologies that will be critical to future success in research and elsewhere in the work force. The Academic License is currently available at the MarkLogic Community website. To be eligible for the MarkLogic Academic License, a user must be a faculty or student member at a university.

Many of us have received manuscript solicitations from journals we’ve never heard of. Further investigation may show an editorial board full of well-known names and photos of nice office buildings where the editorial offices purport to live. However, there is a chance that the solicitation is from one of a subset of dishonest publishers who take advantage of open-access and the academic need to publish, making money without furthering scholarship.

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published a story about predatory online journals that exploit the author-pays model of open-access publishing. According to Jeffrey Beall, the owner of the Scholarly Open Access blog, the primary goal of these publishers is not the promotion of academic scholarship – it’s profit. Problems with these publishers include:

• excessive or opaque fee structures
• spurious editorial boards
• publication without approval
• lack of peer review

Even given these signs, it is almost impossible to tell that a publisher or a journal is part of a predatory scheme without considerable research. Fortunately, Mr. Beall’s blog maintains a list of publishers and individual journals that he finds suspicious. Consulting this blog prior to submitting a paper may save trouble, money, and the loss of scholarly effort.

We’ve added new tutorials to the HS/HSL Library Savvy page that can help you better use our library resources.

Want to request a book from another University of Maryland library? Learn how to take advantage of this free service by viewing our new Requesting Books from Another University of Maryland Library tutorial.

The Library Savvy tutorials can also introduce you to features in RefWorks you may not be aware of. Perhaps you need to include PMCIDs for the references in your grant proposal? Our RefWorks: Including PMCIDs in Bibliographies tutorial can show you how. Other new RefWorks tutorials include Creating Bibliographies and Using the Output Style Manager and Exporting References from the Library Catalog.

These and many other tutorials can be viewed on the Library Savvy page or the HS/HSL YouTube Channel.

Zotero is a free web-based tool that allows you to collect, organize, manage, and cite your research sources with a single click. Zotero will automatically detect when you’re on a website that includes a citation. Whether you’re in a library database, the HS/HSL catalog, Amazon.com, or the New York Times, look for the Zotero icon in the address bar of your browser, and click to save the citation. The April Cool Tools guide shows you the most useful features of Zotero and how to use them. 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.

Anna Tatro, the HSHSL Outreach Librarian, is working with various organizations on and off campus to provide health information outreach.

Anna is Project Manager for Student Health Advocates Redefining Empowerment (Project SHARE), a partnership between the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy and the Health Sciences and Human Services Library to reduce health disparities.

Since the inception of the University of Maryland’s Promise Heights program, Anna has served on its Neighborhood Action Team. She worked with the staff of Promise Heights and "B’more for Healthy Babies" to apply for a National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region award supporting their partnership to provide health information to the Upton neighborhood.

Anna identifies the health information needs of Baltimore City residents by serving on the Housing Authority of Baltimore City’s Health Steering Committee and attending other health-related activities.

If you are interested in partnering with the Library to work with a specific community group, please contact Anna Tatro by email or at 410.706.7374.

The Library now has four new rolling whiteboards to enhance your study, collaboration, and creativity. Two are located on the 1st floor, one on the 2nd, and one in the 3rd floor tower lounge. Feel free to grab a board and pull it to wherever your group has gathered.

The HS/HSL’s Weise Gallery is showcasing the wonderful artwork created by students from George Washington Elementary School and Southwest Baltimore Charter School. The students from Southwest Baltimore Charter School will be mirroring the artwork of Matthew Courtney, an artist who uses newspaper print as a background. Students from both schools created art with a "healthy living" theme.

A silent auction of the artwork will run from the opening reception on Friday, April 13th at 6:00 p.m. through the April 27th closing reception. Proceeds will support CLUB UMD, a youth leadership program. Come to the Gallery to enjoy the artwork and place your bids!

Student researchers had a chance to learn more about the Library’s resources and services at this year’s Graduate Research Conference. The conference, held on April 5th, was sponsored by the Graduate Student Association. Library staff shared information about the liaison program, the Presentation Practice Studio, and resources to support the literature review process. Fifty-six students submitted abstracts and shared their findings in an oral presentation or poster presentation.

Pictured in the photo (from left to right) are Mary Ann Williams, Ryan Harris (librarians), Shannon O’Connor, and Geoffrey Heinzl (students).

May 19, 2012 – August 12, 2012

Exceptions to Regular Hours:

Fall hours will begin on Monday, August 13, 2012

The Library will soon expand the Presentation Practice Studio hours to include additional time in the evenings and on weekends. Visit the Studio webpage to check availability and to see what equipment is available for recording, practicing, and presenting.