Well, all the planets are certainly aligning for the month of October.  The semester is in full swing.  The library is full. Library faculty are never here.  And best of all, it is National Medical Librarians Month!  Under this celebratory umbrella, a number of things will be happening linked to Founders Week, our 200th Anniversary, and Open Access Week.  It just doesn’t get any better than this!

So what can you expect?

1. On October 16th at 2:00 p.m., during Founders Week, everyone is invited to the opening of our 200th Anniversary exhibit, "Evolution and Influences: The HS/HSL at 200."  Chronicling the parallel development of the library along with medical and information advances, the exhibit will be in the Frieda O. Weise Gallery on the main floor of the HS/HSL. The display will not only include the formal exhibit but also memorabilia about old library technologies, photos, and the original collection; it will run until the end of 2013.
2. "Embracing mHealth: Mobilizing Healthcare" is the title of our 200th Anniversary fall symposium to be held on October 22 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the SMC Campus Center.  This free event focuses on trends in MHealth and integrating mobile technology into the diagnosis and management of disease, health promotion, and improving care to underserved populations.  Our keynote speaker will be Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
3. And finally, October 21-27 is Open Access Week.  This global event focuses on the potential benefits of Open Access to our research community.  Co-sponsored by the Graduate Student Association, our program will focus on issues and progress in the open access movement followed by a reception.  This event will be held on October 24th at 3:00 p.m. in the Gladhill Board Room on the 5th floor of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library.

Hope to see you at one or all of these events!

Coming in October, the HS/HSL website will have a new look and mobile functionality.  An updated responsive design will automatically adjust the website to fit on any mobile device screen. It is also optimized for high pixel density screens, such as Apple’s Retina™ displays.

A modern style and streamlined organization make the new website easy to use. Based on usage statistics that identified the most accessed pages and most clicked links, content has been rewritten and reorganized so that faculty, students, and staff can quickly access needed resources and services. The popular OneSearch has been relocated to a more prominent position on the homepage, and a new Research Support section has been created.

Because of the reorganization of content, the new website will redirect old pages to their new counterparts where possible, but there is a chance that saved bookmarks may no longer work.  Also note that the following browsers and their predecessors will no longer be supported: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.5, and Safari 3.

Watch for the new and improved website!

The HS/HSL is considering how we communicate.  Connective Issues began in September of 2007 as an email newsletter and has remained in that format.  Now we would like to hear from you.  What topics interest you?  What news do you want to hear about, and how do you want to hear it?  Please take a moment to complete our brief three-question survey, and let us know what you think.

HS/HSL librarians are proud to be partners in improving the quality of medical education in Kenya. In July 2013, librarians Alexa Mayo and Ryan Harris traveled to University of Nairobi, College of Health Sciences (CHS) Library, to collaborate with library colleagues. During a week-long visit, they engaged with the CHS Library staff to learn how they did their work, identified unique challenges facing the CHS Library, and developed best practices to meet changing medical information needs in a digital world.

Mayo and Harris’ visit builds upon a relationship that began a year ago when the HS/HSL hosted CHS Library staff members for a learning visit here in Baltimore.  Three CHS Library staff met with about 20 HS/HSL staff in public services, IT support, resources management, and library administration.  This international library collaboration is part of the Partnership for Innovative Medical Education in in Kenya (PRIME-K), which aims to strengthen and build the clinical and research capacity at CHS.  As CHS is the country’s largest medical school, a successful program will result in improved human resource capacity for health and health outcomes in Kenya. Development of innovative library services and skills at the CHS is critical to the program’s success.

Over 6,500 new eBooks are available through OneSearch and the library catalog. The HS/HSL has joined with the other 15 libraries in the University System of Maryland (USM) to pilot a demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) program with Ebook Library (EBL). Under this program, students and faculty from all of the USM campuses will be able to access, browse, and check out these books. But don’t worry about being turned away—there is no limit on the number of people who can use a book at one time.

Demand-driven acquisitions is a way for the Library to make more books available to you at reduced costs. Under this program, the library is able to load titles into the catalog for you to discover and browse, but is only charged when a book is downloaded, checked out, or otherwise extensively used. The HS/HSL already has a DDA program in place that concentrates on health and behavioral sciences. This new program will substantially increase the subject areas in which books are available for you to use.

You will notice one difference between these eBooks and those the HS/HSL already provides. When you find an EBL title that you want to read, you will be prompted to check it out. In order to do this, you have to download it to the device on which you want to read it. You will be prompted to first download Adobe Digital Editions. This free software will manage your EBL titles for you and automatically “check them back in” at the end of a seven-day loan period. If you want to use the book further, you can then download it for an additional period.

In celebration of our 200th Anniversary, the HS/HSL will present an exhibit in the Weise Gallery titled, “Evolution and Influences: The HS/HSL at 200.” From October 14th through December 30th this installation, created in conjunction with the Campus Outreach and Public Affairs office, presents a history of the Library by contrasting its place in the history of the campus and the world at large. The exhibit traces the growth of the Library from a core collection of texts to its current incarnation serving five schools of the University of Maryland Founding Campus and housing NLM’s National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s Southeastern/Atlantic Regional Medical Library.

“Evolution and Influences” will demonstrate the innovation and metamorphosis of information exchange and availability and will explore the role of the Library in encouraging innovation in the dissemination of ideas. The Library has endured through two centuries of technological, social, and scientific advancement – this exhibit offers just a glimpse of its place at the precipice of change.

Every semester, the HS/HSL offers a series of free workshops. Registration is open to all UMB campus members and UMMC staff. This semester, we are offering two new workshops in October: Evaluating Research Impact and Discover Embase. In Evaluating Research Impact, you will learn how to quantify the impact of your research when applying for promotion or tenure. The workshop will address various measurement standards, including journal impact factor, h-index, and alternative metrics. Embase, a comprehensive medical and pharmacological database, is an ideal resource when you need a thorough review of the biomedical literature. Our Discover Embase workshop will introduce this resource and show how to search it effectively. To register for these and other library workshops, visit our Fall 2013 Workshops webpage.