The HS/HSL’s Strategic Plan is six years old. From my perspective, the operative word is "old." I am one of those rare people who really enjoy the strategic planning process, and it’s been my experience that strategic plans should be redone every three to five years. We started to redo our plan about three years ago and paused as Dr. Perman launched the University’s strategic planning effort. We are grateful for that pause for two reasons:

1. It was fascinating to observe the process. There are many different ways to do strategic planning, and this process allowed the participation of a rich and diverse group of the University community.
2. The plan itself. Priorities have been established. The HS/HSL’s new plan will need to dovetail with those priorities in order to move forward.

In the past, the Library’s plan has been developed within the confines of the Library staff and then vetted by the community. Not that this was a bad way of doing things, but this time we are going to try something a little different. We have begun to identify constituent groups, and we plan to spend quite a bit of time talking to those groups to tease out key elements of how the Library does, could, or should contribute to their success. By coupling these constituent group interviews with open town hall meetings, we will identify directions for our new strategic plan.

What do we hope will come from all this work? Obviously, a new strategic plan for the HS/HSL is the goal. However, this plan will provide an opportunity to articulate our vision for the Library’s continuing evolution.

How can you help? If you are asked to participate in a constituent group, please do. If invited to a town hall meeting, come. Your thoughtful responses and support for our process will mean a lot to us.

Are you planning to conduct a systematic review? If you are considering a systematic review project or would like further information, please visit our Systematic Review Service guide.

As search experts, librarians are an essential part of your systematic review team. The Institute of Medicine encourages investigators to, "work with a librarian or other information specialist trained in performing systematic reviews to plan the search strategy" (Standard 3.1.1). By working with a librarian, you will ensure that your search is as methodical and thorough as possible.

Librarians at the HS/HSL are skilled searchers with the training and expertise necessary to

• Develop comprehensive search strategies to ensure that essential studies are not overlooked
• Assist in selecting essential databases for your search
• Select and search grey literature sources to uncover literature not found in standard databases
• Manage and organize search results
• Participate in writing the search methods section of the review

At the HS/HSL, librarians serve as partners in research and many have received training at the University of Pittsburgh’s distinguished Systematic Review Workshop, which "provides a comprehensive framework and discussion of the librarian’s role in the systematic review process."

Have you noticed the new collaborative study pods on the 1st floor of the HS/HSL? These unique workstations are meant to foster sharing and group work. The rolling “umbrellas” provide a degree of privacy for your group. We will soon be surveying to find out what kind of technologies you would like to incorporate into the pods and how you envision using them.

Our first user (pictured) was Venant Saague of the Department of Medical Research Technology in the School of Medicine. We showered him with library goodies (pens and highlighters) for breaking the ice.

Students preparing for the upcoming annual Graduate Research Day on April 11th are discovering the Library’s value in the research equation. Liaison Librarians are meeting with students to retrieve relevant articles from quality databases and demonstrating efficient management of these references using RefWorks. In fact, any student, staff, or faculty member preparing to present at a professional meeting or table clinic, or defending a dissertation is encouraged to contact their Liaison Librarian.

The HS/HSL has launched several new tutorials that will help you use RefWorks’ latest version of Write-N-Cite. RefWorks: Setting up Write-N-Cite 4 will show you how to download the new Write-N-Cite, which now integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Word, and how to set it up to sync with your RefWorks account. Once you have the new version set up, the RefWorks: Using Write-N-Cite 4 tutorial will show you how to insert citations into your papers and create bibliographies. Write-N-Cite can be a huge time-saver when writing research papers.

To see all of the HS/HSL tutorials, visit the Library’s Tutorials page.

On March 5, the HS/HSL, along with libraries at the University of Puerto Rico and the University of North Carolina, hosted a course from the NIH Library entitled Next Generation Sequencing Data Analysis. The course focused on massively parallel sequencing, also known as next generation sequencing, a technology enabling high-throughput sequencing of genomes or loci of interest. The course examined the quality of sequence reads, mapping of reads, and the quality of the mapping at a single locus. The three hour session included both lecture and hands-on instruction in the use of Galaxy, an open, web-based platform for data intensive biomedical research.

Dr. Medha Bhagwat, Bioinformatics Support Program Coordinator at the NIH Library, taught the course remotely from NIH using videoconferencing technology and desktop sharing software. Sixty-six people participated in the course across the three sites. An Amazon Web Services in Education grant to the Galaxy Project allowed the course to take advantage of faster data processing speeds using AWS cloud services.

Did you know that you can link to journals that the HS/HSL subscribes to by making a simple change to Google Scholar’s settings? If you are searching on campus, this setting should already be set up. When searching off campus:

• Go to Google Scholar
• Click on "Settings" then "Library Links"
• Type "Maryland" into the search box
• Select the box for "Health Sciences and Human Services Library, Univ of Maryland (Find It @ HS/HSL)"
• "Find It @ HS/HSL" links next to articles will now take you to full-text

At the request of faculty researchers, the HS/HSL hosted a PubChem training class on February 20th. PubChem is a free resource for researching information on the biological activities of small molecules. The training focused on interpreting the PubChem database, looking up bioactivity data, and linking to the biological property information in PubMed and NCBI’s protein 3D structure resource. Dr. Evan Bolton of the National Library of Medicine, who has had years of experience working with the tool, conducted the training.

Need a space to perfect your presentation? Consider using the HS/HSL’s Presentation Practice Studio. Individuals or small groups can use the sound-proof studio (equipped with a podium, netbook, and digital display) to easily view and rehearse a presentation. Record yourself and playback your video or use the state-of-the art editing bay that includes Sony Suite and Adobe’s Full Productions Suite. The Presentation Practice Studio is available for all University of Maryland, Baltimore faculty, students, and staff via reservation. Library staff are available to assist you with the studio during most of its hours of operation.

Are you seeking a high quality app for reading and marking up articles and other files on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch? GoodReader is a very versatile file viewing app that can be used to read and annotate almost any kind of file – even video! The app can be used with most file hosting services (Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, etc.) and offers the ability to highlight, insert notes, handwrite, circle, and more. Once you are finished annotating, you can send the document right back to your file sharing account. Although there are many PDF reader apps available, GoodReader is one of the more versatile apps of its kind. This month’s Cool Tool overview also suggests similar apps that can be used on IOS and Android devices.