Our FY 2008-2009 Annual Report is now available for your reading pleasure. Yes, the annual report is late. At the HS/HSL, we attempt to get our annual reports out in January. This year we decided to try something new. In an effort to control expenditures and go green, we committed to developing an online annual report. Inspired by online annual reports of places like the British Library, we tapped into our collective staff creativity. However, this turned out to be a more complicated project than we thought. Collaborative vision, creative differences, editorial egos, snow, illness, design delays, missed deadlines – this was hard work! However, I am proud to present the Health Sciences and Human Services Library’s 2008-2009 Annual Report, You Say You Want an Evolution. Taking advantage of the Beatles and Darwin allowed us to illustrate ways our library world is changing and how we are evolving to meet user expectations and needs. As with previous annual reports, we have focused on sharing the stories illustrating our evolution from old to new. We have designed the report so that it can be printed out or viewed online with live links to supplementary content. Hope you enjoy our evolutionary stories.

Sometimes I get caught up in thinking about all the new things our library should be doing…technology, outreach, new roles. I forget that for so many reasons a library is meaningful just because it is a library, an idea that resonates in spite of the changes swirling around us. Anne Ramsay served on the Library’s Board of Visitors from its inception, and with her departure from Baltimore, our board is diminished. Her gracious advocacy for the Library and many kindnesses are a model for all of us. She was responsible for bringing the first art exhibit into the Library. She also came up with the idea of selling UMB "stuff" in the Library. She and Dr. Ramsay were often the hosts at events in the Library. Her project ideas for the Library came from the heart and with a passion for making us the best we could be. I was really, really hoping she would be around to help us with the planning for our 200th birthday in 2013. Perhaps as an ex officio member of the planning committee?

Thank you, Anne, for your care of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library and for your support and friendship. We will miss you.

The HS/HSL website, Congenital Heart Disease: A Public Health Perspective now features a new, easier-to-navigate design. The main topics listed across the top of each page have dropdown menus for easy access to all of the subsections. The Selected References sections are more accessible since they now display at the bottom of each menu.

The Selected References section also includes a new search feature. Under each topic heading in the list of references, there is a link you can click to automatically run a PubMed search on that topic, with results limited to the most recent 5 years.

The HS/HSL is pleased to announce the availability of Lexi-Comp for Dentistry, a dental drug database providing dental professionals with point-of-care information updated on a daily basis. Along with providing access to extensive drug information, Lexi-Comp for Dentistry is enhanced with information of special interest to the dental professional, such as a drug’s effect on dental treatment, local anesthetic precautions, the effects on bleeding, and other dental comments. In addition to the drug information, which is based on the Drug Information Handbook for Dentistry, co-authored by several UMB dental faculty members, the database also includes full-text access to several other Lexi-Comp diagnostic handbooks and manuals. Lexi-Comp for Dentistry is easy to use, and the concise drug information makes it an ideal resource for use in both clinical and research settings.

Lexi-Comp for Dentistry is now available to all UMB students, faculty, and staff thanks to shared support by the UMB School of Pharmacy and the HS/HSL, with assistance from Lexi-Comp. Access is available from the HS/HSL Databases page. Off-campus access will require inputting the library barcode number from the back of your UMB1 One card. An academic discount is available for students and faculty wanting to use this resource on a handheld product.

Each month the HS/HSL guide Cool Tools features a web-based application that can help make your information gathering, tracking, and organization more efficient. This month’s focus is Prezi, an easy to use, Flash-based tool that breaks free of the ordinary, slide-after-slide approach of PowerPoint presentations.

With Prezi, you can present the same ideas in a more exciting and visual way. Animation effects allow you to zoom in and out on words, images, and videos. It’s web-based, so no download is needed, and it’s free. In addition to creating presentations, Prezi can also be used to design engaging online CVs, to explain research methodology, and much more.

For an example of what you can do with this tool, take a look at this Introduction to PubMed, created with Prezi.

The HS/HSL offers free workshops throughout the semester for all UMB faculty, staff, and students. Two of the upcoming workshops are new additions to the workshop schedule. In "RSS Feeds with Google Reader" you will learn how create a Google Reader account and subscribe to RSS feeds that can keep you up to date with current news and literature. "Magnet Status: What It Means for You" will give a brief history of the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Program, focusing on the attributes that exemplify excellence in nursing and the benefits of working at a Magnet institution.

For full course descriptions and registration, please visit the Library’s Workshops page.

We are pleased to introduce Katherine Downton, M.S.L.I.S., who, along with Kristen Young, is a library liaison to the School of Nursing.

Katherine received her Master’s of Science, Library and Information Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998. Since then she has worked as an academic reference librarian and liaison to a variety of academic programs at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania and St. Louis University in Missouri.

HS/HSL liaisons work closely with their individual schools, providing instruction as guest lecturers, teaching library workshops, and offering research consultations to faculty, staff, and students. They also participate in orientations, present at conferences, work with faculty on grants, create resource guides, develop the library’s digital collection, and contribute to UMB outreach activities.

If there is any way Katherine can help you with your information or outreach needs, please contact her:

Katherine Downton, MSLIS
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Health Sciences & Human Services Library
410.706.7373
kdownton@hshsl.umaryland.edu

As part of its Excellence for Research in Australia program, the Australian Research Council asked experts in the field to evaluate 20,712 research journals. While subjective, the rankings are the result of an exhaustive process.

• Learned Societies developed the list of journals and initial rankings
• The list and rankings were reviewed by experts in the field
• The list was opened for public review
• A final review of the list and rankings was performed by 700 expert reviewers

The final product is a list of journals organized by subject area and ranked according to this scheme:

• A*    A journal that is one of best in its field
• A      A very high quality journal
• B      A journal with a solid reputation
• C      A quality, peer reviewed journal that doesn’t meet the higher standards

The complete results can be viewed online (categorized by subject) or downloaded as a large spreadsheet. Medical and Health Sciences are located in category 11; Social Work is found under 1607.

This January the Library enhanced our electronic holdings for JAMA and nine specialty titles published by the American Medical Association by initiating an agreement that includes perpetual access to the backfiles of these journals. Each journal is now archived from its start date through 1997. This provides researchers with complete access to JAMA back to the first issue published in July 1883 through to the present. The backfile collections make up over 1.7 million pages, thousands of optimized images, and even include advertisements. A variety of advanced research tools are available on the site. HS/HSL has set up linking from our subscription databases and PubMed into each title for seamless access.

You can read more about the JAMA and Archives current collection and the backfile collection.

J. Dale Prince, MLS, AHIP and Kristen Young, MLS, two members of the Health Sciences and Human Services faculty, have been selected to participate in the Biomedical Informatics course held at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. The week-long survey course, funded by the National Library of Medicine, is "designed to familiarize individuals with the application of information science and computer technologies in health care, biomedical research, and health professions education." Prince is the Technology Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region and Young is an Outreach Liaison to the School of Nursing. They will be attending the Institute in September. Congratulations, Dale and Kristen!

On the afternoons of March 3rd and 4th, the Health Sciences & Human Services Library hosted an Educause web conference called Mobile Learning 2.0: The Next Phase of Innovation in Mobility. The conference was attended by faculty and staff from the Library as well as instructional technology professionals from around campus and members of the staff from the Center for Information Technology Services (CITS).

Conference topics included: A Revolution in Learning Is Taking Place in Our Hands; Your Campus on a Smartphone and the Future of Mobile Education; Enabling Personalized Learning and Mobile Collaboration: Redefining the Classroom.

Besides viewing and listening to presentations, we were able to collaborate and work interactively with other conference attendees around the world, including Hawaii and Australia. Ahead of the conference attendees were given resources to help us frame the discussions.

The session received many positive comments from attendees.

After a long review and evaluation process, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is phasing out its support for all MedlinePlus Go Local projects, including Maryland Health -> Go Local. We at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL) support the decision made by our partners at the National Library of Medicine.

Over the past nine years, the Internet environment has changed, and there are many sites that now offer similar local information with enhanced detail. NLM’s evaluation of Go Local projects nationwide shows that overall use has declined.

The HS/HSL will continue to perform basic maintenance on Maryland Health -> Go Local until it is retired on June 30, 2010. Thanks to everyone who supported and encouraged the development of the project.