This month the library offers a new workshop entitled Multicultural Health Information. Attendees will learn how to locate patient education materials in languages other than English. We will also highlight a number of web resources that provide quality health information for specific immigrant or minority populations. Resources covered will include MedlinePlus and Maryland Health > Go Local.

Join us for the workshop on Wednesday March 25th from 12-1pm. For a full course description and registration, visit the Library Workshops page.

I will admit it, I am a trend geek. I love reading about all kinds of trends – information, demographic, economic, sociological, political, environmental, fashion, food… just about anything. I think the reason I am fascinated by trends is that, if you study them enough, you start to identify connections and interrelationships across disciplines. You develop a broader perspective that can more effectively inform your decision making and planning.

One of the trend resources I eagerly await every January is The Horizon Report, a collaborative publication from the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Each year, the authors of the report identify emerging technologies they predict will reach mainstream use in educational organizations within the next five years. If you have limited time, the sections Technologies to Watch and Key Trends offer plenty to ponder in a very clear and concise presentation. I read these sections first, as I begin looking for connections and relationships to the work we do. The body of the report expands on the technologies to watch, offering an overview of each new technology; its relevance for teaching, learning, research, or creative expression; online links to examples of the technology; and links to further reading on the topic.

Are any of the trends directly linked to health sciences or human services academic interests, the future of libraries, medical schools, or hospitals? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s up to us to link these trends to our current issues and concerns and use them to inform our next moves.

It is with great delight that we share the news that M.J. Tooey, executive director of the HS/HSL, has been honored as a Fellow of the Medical Library Association (MLA).

MLA Fellows are elected by the Board of Directors in recognition of their sustained and outstanding contributions to health sciences librarianship and to the advancement of the purposes of MLA. M.J. comments, “Having been a member of the Medical Library Association for over 25 years, I know many who have achieved Fellow status. I feel so honored to be part of this group.”

It is a well deserved honor recognizing her many contributions to the organization and health sciences librarianship.

Congratulations M.J.!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 PL 111-5 (HR 1) was successfully passed in February 2009 and became law. Westlaw Campus Research, available from the Library’s databases list, offers an extensive collection of information resources that you can use to track the progress of this important new legislation.

Newspaper coverage: Westlaw provides access to hundreds of local, national, and international newspapers to keep you abreast of current news related to the Act.

Television and radio coverage: Broadcast transcripts from over 900 television and radio stations are indexed within Westlaw, including full-text transcripts of popular political shows like The Charlie Rose Show, Anderson Cooper 360°, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

Legal journals and law reviews: As time lapses, law reviews will be written to discuss and analyze the current issues and trends associated with the stimulus plan. Westlaw offers full-text of over 700 law reviews and journals, as well as access to the comprehensive U.S. legal encyclopedia, American Jurisprudence.

Amendments and related legislation: You can find bill drafts, reports, testimony, the Congressional Record, and the statutes affected by doing a citation search in Westlaw for PL 111-5.

Some additional websites to keep up with the current congress are: Recover.gov, Annenberg Political Fact Check, Thomas (legislative information from the Library of Congress), and Michie Legal Resources.

Librarian Liaisons at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library offer a wide variety of services to assist you in your work. You may already know that we are here to answer many of your library and research questions. However, we can also assist with other useful services. Below is a list of some options, but please feel free to contact us for more specialized assistance that can be tailored to the needs of your department or group.

• Conference presentations or small group instruction. Example of past topics include:
  • PubMed/Medline searching strategies refresher
  • RefWorks (bibliographic software) overview
  • Strategies and tools for staying current with the research literature- RSS Feeds, auto alerts
• Developing effective search strategies for grants, IRB submissions, and systematic reviews
• Orientation for new faculty and staff (groups or one on one) to familiarize them with the resources of the HS/HSL

Learn more from your school’s liaison.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

If you use SciFinder, please don’t forget: the Library will switch to the new web-based version on March 20th. Our SciFinder page provides tutorials and instructions on switching to the new version.

Need Help?

For more information about or assistance with SciFinder, please contact the liaison to the School of Pharmacy, Yunting Fu, at 410.706.8865 or yfu@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Last month the Library taught a workshop series on evidence-based practice searching skills. The series included a general session and two others focusing on public health and social work. Each session covered primary and secondary sources, including Cochrane Systematic Reviews, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, Campbell Collaboration, and the Trip Database. We had a good turn out with positive feedback.

We plan to hold another Evidence Based Practice Week during the Fall semester. However, if you missed this one and would like to learn strategies for finding the best clinical evidence, please request a workshop on-demand for yourself or a group!

Having a hard time keeping up in this progressive information world? Wonder which social media tools to use? Twitter is a social media tool that helps to manage various types of information.

There are many uses for this free, open source tool. You can use it as a personal microblog to post brief updates about your activities while following your colleagues’ postings in real time. The updates, or tweets, are text-based posts up to 140 characters in length. Their brevity allows you to stay connected without investing a lot of time.

News breaks fast on Twitter making it great for current awareness. CNN, the New York Times, the Cochrane Collaboration, and the National Institute of Health provide up-to-the-minute information via this medium.

Unlike RSS feeds, the information stays in the site indefinitely so you catch up on tweets at any time. Accessible via phone, web, email, and Facebook, Twitter provides a wealth of information. As with all web resources, remember to consider the source of the information and to evaluate content for quality and credibility before using it.

Heres are examples of academic classroom uses, a doctor’s feed from the operating room, and live conference updates.

If you have questions/comments or would like assistance contact Anna Tatro. If you would to find others on campus who are using this tool, consider attending the Social Media User Group (SMUG) meeting.

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From April 9th through June 30th, the Library’s Weise Gallery will exhibit “Learned in Science, Explored in Art” by Dr. Wolfgang Ritschel, Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Ritschel’s vibrant paintings brilliantly combine expressionism and fauvism to explore the world of medicine through visual art.

For more information about the exhibit visit the Library’s Weise Gallery web page.

The Library will host a gallery reception and opening on Thursday, April 16 from 4:30 – 6:00 pm.

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Dr. Nathaniel Potter co-founded our School of Medicine over 200 years ago, yet we have just been given a new opportunity to benefit from his wisdom. We recently received a volume of class notes taken from lectures Potter delivered between 1827 and 1829 and inscribed by Thomas Munroe, class of 1829. The Potter lectures include discussions of a variety of disorders such as fever, dysentery, cholera, hepatitis, and phthisis pulmonalis – the condition we now know as tuberculosis.

The volume had been in the possession of Dr. Ian R. Anderson, School of Medicine class of 1962. In the process of settling the late Dr. Anderson’s estate, his representative contacted us and offered to donate the item to our collection. Thanks to that generous forethought, this unique item has found its way from Dr. Anderson’s care back to the institution of its origin.

For more information about this new addition to the Library’s Cordell Historical Collection, please contact Historical Librarian, Rich Behles.

On March 9th at 6:15 a.m., fourteen HS/HSL staff members braved the first Monday of Daylight Savings Time to sing “Manic Monday” live on WJZ television. By all accounts we were great! See for yourself.

In preparation, we held two rehearsals and mailed the hosts of the show, Marty Bass, Ron Matz, and Don Scott, Maryland Health > Go Local baseball caps, mugs, and brochures. We made a super duper banner that hid our smallest singer because it was so big. And we had a great time promoting Maryland Health > Go Local. By the end of the day and through the viral nature of information sharing, congratulatory emails had been received from across the U.S.

What a great way to start the week!

To exchange ideas and find out how others on campus are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and iTunes U, stop by the Social Media User Group meeting on Tuesday, March 24th, 12:00-1:00 p.m. in the Library’s Distance Education Room.

For more information, contact Jaime Blanck or Toni Yancey.