Jonathan Potter @ Riverpoint Campus Library

This Blog Is History

2011-01-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

Hello! What you see here is the open coffin of a blog that has gone to blog heaven. It's dead, James. I am planning to begin a new and more wonderfully alive blog sometime soon and will post a link to it here. One of these days, I may shut the lid on this one; but for now I'll let it lie here in peaceful repose.

Got Lit

2010-04-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

I attended the Get Lit! Using History in Storytelling panel this morning and took a few notes. I went there mainly to catch up with Jess Walter. Jess was in fine form as usual, and his panel-mates weren't too shabby either.

Jess opened with a story from his newspapering days. He was assigned to the DC beat for a time and covered the waning years of Tom Foley's reign as Speaker of the House. According to Jess, Foley related the following story from his early years in Congress, during the presidency of LBJ:

A new presidential aide was instructed by the chief of staff to always be sure there was Dr. Pepper on hand, which was LBJ's soft drink of choice. Well, one day this aide was on board Air Force One with LBJ and sure enough LBJ asked for a Dr. Pepper. The aide went to the mini-fridge and was horrified to find there was no Dr. Pepper there. So the aide picked up the phone (yes, there were phones on Air Force One in the 60s) and called the chief of staff.

"The president just asked for a Dr. Pepper, and there's none on board. What should I do?"

"OK. The only thing you can do is go back to him and say, 'Dammit, there's no Dr. Pepper!'"

So the aide goes back to LBJ and says, "Dammit, there's no Dr. Pepper!"

LBJ picks up his telephone (there's one right at his seat, of course) and calls up the CEO of the Dr. Pepper plant in Texas.

"Hello, this is Lyndon Johnson. I'm so sorry to hear that Dr. Pepper is no longer in business. What's that? You are in business? Well that's good to hear, because I have a young man here that just told me you didn't exist. Alright, you have a good day."

LBJ hangs up the phone and glares at the aide.

"I thought you said there was no Dr. Pepper."

Of course the next time Air Force One flew, the aide made sure it was so loaded down with Dr. Pepper that it could barely fly.

And the funny thing is LBJ never drank Dr. Pepper after that. He became a Fresca man.

So Jess turned this story in to his editor back at the Spokesman Review, who said, "This isn't news." But maybe this is the sort of thing news and history miss, the personal flotsam and jetsam that gets passed over. Maybe there are epiphanies hidden in the stuff that gets left on the cutting room floor of history.

Thus Jess became a novelist.

What else did Jess say? What interests him is the gap between what we believe and how we act. Fiction is compelling because it deals with what could have happened, not what did happen. (Insert Aristotle footnote here.) Fiction can also provide a means to access what is happening right now. Writing The Financial Lives of the Poets was exciting because it was such a real-time view of a very present catastrophe of the recession -- like writing about a car wreck as it's happening, with your head out the window, taking it all in, all kinds of cultural detritus flying around inside the car: Facebook, mortgages, pot.

How did Jess become a writer? He always wanted to be one. As a young kid, he created a magazine called Readers Indigestion to chronicle family news. He came from a family in which no one had been to college and -- although they were supportive -- to have this bookish kid who wanted to be a writer -- well, "I might as well have wanted to be a ballerina." At the age of twelve or thirteen, Jess looked for the spot on the shelf in the library where his books would someday reside and discovered that he would be right next to Kurt Vonnegut. Jess checked out Breakfast of Champions, a book in which Vonnegut enters the story and sets his characters free. "Can you do that?!" thought Jess. Discovering Vonnegut, and his rule-breaking ways, was a revelation. Vonnegut became his literary hero. The end of the book, where the main character speaks to Vonnegut in the voice of his dead father, hit him like a magnificent brick. That's what I want to do.

In college, Jess accidentally became a father at age 19 and decided to pursue journalism as a more realistic source of income and family support. Whenever famous writers would come to town, he'd get phony press credentials in hopes that by stalking them some of their skill might rub off on him, by osmosis perhaps. The college student would sit there in a room with other, real reporters and ask the writer, "What advice do you have for young, aspiring writers?" He asked Ken Kesey that question one year and the next year he asked Tom Wolfe, who said, authoritatively, "Use a word processor!" (This was in the mid-1980s.) Then, amazingly, Vonnegut himself came to town. And, even more amazingly, when Jess got his phony press credentials and went to attend the press conference, he found himself, not in a room full of reporters asking Vonnegut questions, but alone, one-on-one, with Vonnegut himself. So he asked Vonnegut the question. To which Vonnegut replied, "How old are you?" and "And you're writing for Esquire?" Well, they haven't accepted the piece yet. After about fifteen minutes of cordial talk, Vonnegut excused himself. But then, after his talk that night, he spotted Jess in the audience, gestured towards him, and said, "Did you get everything you needed for your piece?" Yes, thank you. So then Jess, somewhat mortified by this encounter, perhaps, swore off stalking authors. A few years ago, Vonnegut returned to Spokane, however, and Jess wrote a piece for The Inlander about his earlier encounter. Vonnegut's publicist forwarded the piece to him, and one day Jess received a thick manila envelope in the mail, with a New York return address. The envelope smelled of Pall Malls, and inside was a signed, leather-bound edition of one of his novels. "To my fellow novelist, Jess Walter. Kurt Vonnegut." Jess, in turn, sent Vonnegut a copy of his book, Citizen Vince. Vonnegut replied with a postcard saying he'd read it right away and loved it. Jess sent him his next novel, The Zero, and received another laudatory postcard with a wry comment about Racine and the Nobel prize. "I'm corresponding with Kurt Vonnegut!" But when Jess was in New York shortly before Vonnegut's death, he couldn't bring himself to call on his hero -- too much like the old stalking. (Jess actually told me this when I stalkerishly went up and chatted with him briefly after the program.)

A couple of other Walter nuggets:

"Non-fiction" is an odd label. It covers such a broad area of literature. It's as if someone came up with "non-sock" as a category of clothing.

On the line between fiction and non-fiction: There is water and there is dry land and we all know the difference. And there's also swamp, and we know what that is, too.

What about the other panel members? They were smart, engaging writers, too, and I'm sorry I'm giving them short shrift here, but I can tell you who they were: David Laskin, Ana Maria Spagna, and Marianne Keddington-Lang. I particularly liked what Laskin said about how there is a before-and-after phenomenon that he likes to explore. Big changes that play out on a personal level. And I also particularly liked what Spagna said about the novel of her youth that a teacher let her spend three weeks sitting in a bean bag chair writing. The teacher mimeographed the novel and handed it out to the entire class. "How could you not become a writer after that?" Keddington-Lang is an editor and her editor's perspective nicely rounded out the panel. I liked what she said about wanting to eradicate the word indeed from the English language.

A couple of audience members contributed nicely to the discussion as well. One older lady pointed out that some authors become too enticed by every tidbit of information their research has uncovered. Example: The Zookeeper's Wife. That's when a good editor is needed. In the same vein, a good-humored gent in the audience asserted that Cloud Splitter is a fantastic 400-page novel -- but unfortunately it's 600 pages long.

So ... I got lit, and I'm looking forward to getting more lit as the weekend rolls along.

Fun with Venn Diagrams IV

2010-04-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

(A man and a woman, both dressed for a date, have overlapping thought bubbles. The woman's is ful... at The New Yorker Store

Fun with Venn Diagrams III

2010-04-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

From The Great White Snark, h/t to DW

See also: Fun with Venn Diagrams and More Fun with Venn Diagrams

RefWorks and EndNote Web Workshops

2010-04-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

EWU Riverpoint Health Sciences Career Fair, April 15, 3-6pm

2010-04-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

The Physical Therapy Department at Eastern Washington University is sponsoring an interdisciplinary job fair for Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physical Therapy Assistant and Speech-Language Pathology students, and current practitioners in the Northwest. Over 50 recruiters from throughout the United States have contacted our program expressing interest in hiring new graduates or current practitioners, and talking with them about career opportunities. Recruiters from a wide array of practice settings will be in attendance.

Faculty, students, and current practitioners are invited to attend!

What: Multidisciplinary Health Sciences Career Fair

When: Thursday, April 15th from 3:00 – 6:00 PM

Where: Health Science Building, at the Spokane Riverpoint Campus

Why: To introduce Nursing (BNS),OT, PT, PTA, and SLP students and current practitioners to career opportunities and the wide range of jobs currently available in the Pacific Northwest.

Cost: Free!!!
No need to RSVP! Just show up and be prepared to explore a plethora of career options in one location! It doesn’t get any easier to look for a job than this!
Please direct any questions or comments to the following email address:
ccrago@mail.ewu.edu

Health Indicators Webinars--free info from NICHSR & Medical Library Association

2010-01-26T09:50:00.000-08:00

RIDE dentists reach out [EWU Easterner article]

2010-01-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

Dental program reaches out to underserved areas to provide services to community members who usually don't have access to them

WSU Riverpoint Design Students Tackle "Learning Commons" Concept

2009-12-16T13:56:00.000-08:00

WSU Riverpoint Design Institute students have created posters displaying their conceptual designs of a small college library “learning commons”. The posters are on display in the Phase One design lobby. Bob Pringle, Riverpoint Campus Library director, served as one of the project evaluators.

Shattered

2009-12-09T08:33:00.001-08:00

The Academic Center building that houses the Riverpoint Campus Library is a grand edifice built of equal parts brick, concrete, and glass. The glass is what makes the building lovely. The high ceilings and enormous windows give the place an airy cathedral-like feel, a glistening sheen, and many extraordinary views within and without.

This morning one of those enormous windows--an internal one, not one on the exterior of the building--spontaneously shattered. My co-worker Michelanne had been pulling books from the third-floor stacks and was about to descend the stairs when she heard a strange "crinkling" sound followed by a sustained "tinkling" as of an avalanche of tempered glass shards.

UPDATE: Photo by Michelanne showing the upper part of the window with shattered glass still in place:

UPDATE, DAY 2: "There, I fixed it."

Twittering the MLA Webcast: Cutting the Cord

2009-11-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

I joined a squadron of twitterers across the country and tweeted madly throughout yesterday's MLA Webcast on mobile computing. Below are my collected tweets from the 3-hour event. You can also check out a gathering of everyone's tweets (hashtagged with #mlamobile) here: http://twapperkeeper.com/mlamobile/.

#mlamobile Tuning into Cut the Cord webcast at Riverpoint Campus in Spokane.

Questions for Cut the Cord panelists can be posed via this Twitter hashtag #mlamobile

Max Anderson talking about the pioneers of mobile tech.

1950s first mobile phones; cf the movie Sabrina -- Bogart talking on cell phone

Max Anderson: 1983 -- $4000, large mobile phone available (first gen)

Max Anderson: second gen cell phones 1990s

Max Anderson: third gen phones = where we're at now. Phones incorporates lots of computer apps

Max Anderson: fourth gen (4G) -- we're on the cusp of it. More bandwidth.

Max Anderson: early laptops looked like sewing machine cases.

Max Anderson: laptop advancements parallel cell phone advances

David Rothman and Emily Hurst up next: gadgets galore!

netbooks = internet + notebook

video on netbooks for libraries (twittering MLA Webcast: Cut the Cord -- mobile computing in health sci)

netbook batteries can last a lot longer than laptop (up to 7 hours); very portable; can handle many tasks despite size

Emily Hurst on e-readers: 3% of adults in US own one, growing market; not just books, newspapers, magazines, too; e-ink tech.

pilot project using Kindles to fill ILL requests

Duke Med Ctr Lib and Texas A&M also have a Kindle pilot project going

Emily Hurst: more on the Kindle: introduced in 2007. Screen is shades of gray -- no color -- cd be an issue for med imaging, etc

Emily Hurst: Kindle limitations: no easy sharing, web browsing is experimental

Emily Hurst: Sony Reader another e-reader contender. Barnes and Noble's Nook coming soon.

B&N's Nook will allow users to share a book with one person one time -- very limited, but interesting option.

More on the Duke Univ. Kindle project: School of Med clerkships equipped with Kindles; practice guidelines from Nat'l Clearinghse

Kindle-equipped Duke Univ med clerkship: Kindle processor judged a bit slow for direct patient care but rated highly otherwise

David Rothman at MLA "Cut the Cord" webcast: Smartphones. iPhone, iPod Touch (iPhone sans 3G connection) = much more than music.

Rothman on Android phones: Google-based ready-made platform wh. anyone can use to develop a phone. Several currently on market.

Android market has only 1/10th the number of apps as the iPhone. So med use is more limited.

Tweeting from Medical Library Assoc. webcast on mobile computing in health care. Viewing webcast at Riverpoint in Spokane.

Bart Ragon now chiming in.

question: app-phones vs. e-readers. Will app-phones push e-readers out, since they can do the same thing and are easier to carry

My question re. e-readers is the ability to display PDFs. Academic joural articles mostly come as PDFs.

Rothman: "instapaper" = hit a bookmarklet when you see article you want and it goes to your instapaper acct.

Rothman's favorite apps: Net Newswire -- syncs with Google Reader. Med apps: Up-to-Date; Dynamed; Diagnosaurus; EBSCO Mobile

Rothman: lots of great free apps from WebMD and Medscape

Bart Ragon's turn now. Electronic Med Records

Ragon: one mobile device is useful, multiple devices is not practical

Citrix = desktop virtualization = deliver content to mobile device

Ragon: Personal Health Records -- e.g. Google Health. Consumerization will push into health sci field. e.g. 6-pack abs app.

Ragon: Cloud computing, seamless transmission of apps and info -- where the future is

Adobe flash CS5 will allow direct export of apps into iTunes store.

NLM's PubMed for handhelds: server access by handhelds increasing dramatically.

Rothman: PubMed on Tap ($4.99 for the full version) -- best $ Rothman has spent in the app store. Try the lite version first.

Rothman: Unbound Medicine -- another way to access medline; nice layout of results and options.

PubGet Mobile free to nonprofit libraries. They want to talk to librarians at org. first. Interface prob. appeals to clinicians

Mobile PubMed another option, but ugly (as sin) and ad-based.

some slight technical difficulties at Riverpoint webcast -- audio coming through but image frozen

"device diversity" nice way of putting the dilemma of creating a mobile site

MedlinePlus mobile! Coming soon?

Questions: Instaper = "read me later" [ed. note: another twitterer insisted they are two different apps]

Is there a device that will display PDFs well? The larger Kindle? [ed. note: this was my own question, which didn't make it to the panelists. I have part of the answer. There is a bigger and much more expensive reader, the name of which escapes me at the moment, which is supposed to handle PDFs well. But reviews I've read of it also say it is clunkier and has other problems. So I'm curious about the new, larger Kindle's handling of PDFs. And I'm talking about image-based PDFs of journal articles.]

iTablet could be the all-purpose panacea.

Hospital firewalls can be problematic. Public vs. public network might be part of solution.

Emily Hurst: Usability testing, needs assessment, moving towards mobile services, know who your users are, keep them coming back.

39% of pop. "motivated by mobility" -- they want mobile svcs.

by 2011 70% of physicians will adopt mobile devices (est.)

Hmm... RT @fowlerbird is that a candle on the right side of the screen? [ed. note: to which @litebulb11 replied that it was one of those fake, electrical candles.]

Is there an app for that? @litebulb11 @fowlerbird I think it's one of those fake battery operated candles :)

Partnering with IT is an important aspect of institutional adoption of mobile svcs.

"emerging technologies" key term -- impacts the way we live

Emily plugs the Handheld Librarian conference

Max is gonna talk about funding big system projects

ARRA -- sounds like a pirate -- "American recovery & reinvestment act of 2009 = supports gov't funding of mobile health apps

BTOP and BIP are other gov't level funding programs -- Dept. of Agriculture and Dept of Commerce.

acronyms gone wild

lots of amazing funding opportunities

Zero-budget options abound as well, from WordPress, Google, et al.

nice use of the mobile device look for slides and videos throughout the webcast

MLA always does a splendid job with these webcasts -- kudos to them!

Google, Apple, Microsoft -- a big, interesting clash is about to ensue in the realm of mobile tech.

nice image of Google's modus operandi: throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. Was that Rothman who said that? [ed. note: correction: it was Bart Ragon who made this pithy observation.]

all fine speakers, but I think Rothman is the star of the show. Some nice turns of phrase and easygoing presence.

too bad -- Rothman's closing comments ran into a bump here in Spokane; we missed the first few seconds.

Med. Lib. Assoc. webcast on mobile computing drawing to a close now. Closing comments by the panelists.

UPDATE: David Rothman blogged about the webcast twitterfest. Notice that @jopomojo (yours truly) tops the list of twitterers, quantitatively at least.

How to Set Up a RefWorks Output Style for Annotations

2009-11-10T16:31:00.000-08:00

Click on the title of this blog entry for a demo of modifying APA style in RefWorks to facilitate annotations typed into the User 1 field.

EBSCOhost Direct Export to RefWorks Not IS Working

2009-11-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

****************
UPDATE: As of 11/12/09 Direct Export from EBSCO databases to RefWorks seems to be working again! Give it a try and let me know with a comment here if you encounter problems.
***************

At present EBSCO is not exporting directly into RefWorks. The issue has been reported to both RefWorks and EBSCO. We’re not the only institution experiencing the problem.

Right now if you are in an EBSCO database and try to export to Refworks, you get this error message:

The direct export from EBSCO is not working at this time. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause. You can export the selected references to a text file and import them via the Import function from within RefWorks.

As a work-around you can export one record at a time from EBSCO using the "Generic bibliographic management software" option. Then import each record into RefWorks. (Unfortunately, it appears that not all records make it through the export process if you try to do this by putting a bunch of records in your folder and exporting them as a batch. You can try it, but you'll likely have to go back and retrieve individual records that got left out and export them one at a time.)

Here is a brief video demonstrating the one-record-at-a-time indirect export process. (You might need to crank up the volume to hear the audio.)

Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon! Sorry for the inconvenience.

“Cut the Cord: Connecting to Our Mobile Users” -- Nov 18 Webinar at Riverpoint

2009-11-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

Medical Library Assn. Webinar: “Cut the Cord: Connecting to Our Mobile Users”

Nov 18, 2009, 11am – 1pm, in SAC 241 on the Riverpoint Campus.

Program Objectives

describe mobile technology and its value for librarians and health care professionals

demonstrate mobile technology devices and innovative applications

explore programs that illustrate the potential of mobile technology for health professionals

discuss funding opportunities to create and sustain mobile technology programs

This webinar is sponsored (i.e., paid for) by Inland NorthWest Health Science Libraries (INWHSL). INWHSL is offering it at no charge to attendees. Medical Library Assn CE credit available.

Pre-Registration required; parking permits available if needed.

image source

PubMed Redesign

2009-11-02T10:28:00.000-08:00

In late October 2009, the National Library of Medicine launched a redesigned version of PubMed. This slideshow from the University of Rochester Medical Center Library is quite helpful in showing the before and after of the PubMed redesign, with screen shots and graphical pointers on where to find that thing you used to use in the old PubMed which you can't seem to find in the new PubMed.

Note, you'll probably want to view this in full screen mode. (Click on "Full" at the bottom of the window.)

New PubMed

View more presentations from BerrymanD.

A few more helpful links:

PubMed Redesign: NLM Technical Bulletin

PubMed Handouts from NN/LM

PubMed Has a New Look! (UW Health Links)

New PubMed Video (U of Manitoba)

And a couple of reminders to EWU and WSU folks: (1) Make sure you go to PubMed via one of the links on your institution's library website. That way, PubMed will be hooked up to your library's full text holdings via the "Check for Full Text at EWU" or "Find it @ WSU" buttons. (2) Consider accessing PubMed content via the EBSCOhost version of MEDLINE. The advantage of searching MEDLINE via EBSCOhost is that you can concurrently search MEDLINE and other health sciences databases such as CINAHL or SportDiscus. (In the WSU system, unfortunately, MEDLINE and CINAHL cannot be searched concurrently, due to the limitations of WSU's link resolver. More info here.)

Healthy Fair 2009

2009-10-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Drop by the Library's table at Healthy Fair 2009 and check out what's going on in the area of health information here on campus and beyond.

10/22/2009 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

* Contact: Healthy Fair Vendors
* Email: healthyfair.vendors@gmail.com
* Phone: 509-358-7528
* Organization: WSU Spokane
* Location: Riverpoint Campus, Academic Center Lobby

You are invited to Healthy Fair 2009. The Healthy Fair is a fun annual event hosted by the Riverpoint Campus Wellness Collaborative in partnership with the WSU Excercise Metabolism and Physiology students to educate and involve the campus and surrounding community in exploring healthy lifestyle choices. We anticipate a broad spectrum of vendors who represent recreational activities, healthy living, nutrition, health care organizations, fitness, and more. We hope you will be able to join us!

More Riverpoint Campus Events

Top Ten Things I Learned at the PNC/MLA Conference

2009-10-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

10. The Washington Athletic Club (WAC)is a cool place. Nice to be able to slip into the sports bar on the second floor in between sessions and catch an inning of the AL playoff game. Excellent food service, too; just an overall classy place.

9. There are some dang cool people in PNC/MLA. (Y'all know who you are.) Enjoyed chatting and networking, would like to get to know these folks better!

8. LibGuides is a great system. I knew it was, having just started using it, but Kathy Murray's presentation reinforced and increased my appreciation. (For me it's sort of like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize -- some folks have said he got it for not being George W. Bush. Likewise, I love LibGuides because it is not EWU's content management system which manages to make it more of a hassle to create or edit a web page than if you had to write out the html longhand on toilet paper with a blunt pencil. But aside from that, LibGuides, like Obama, really is great.)

7. Healthcare in the U.S. is facing a perfect storm: convergence of financial uncertainty, troubling demographics (the damned baby boomers!), a healthcare workforce shortage, political conflict, and rapidly changing technology. The crisis is both a danger and an opportunity. Librarians need to help inform and navigate to calm waters. (William Welton)

6. Conference twittering (#pncmla09} is fun. Subculture of twitterers = cool people. I enjoyed the dynamic interplay of tweets and conference stuff. Sort of like passing notes during class -- but useful notes!

5. Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a new approach to primary care -- team-based, coordinated, whole-person focused -- which could positively play into the current healthcare reform debate. (Lori Heim)

4. Interlibrary loan and Docline usage are declining. Why? Interesting trend to consider. Research opportunity? (Diane McCutcheon's talk on disruptive technology touched on this and other compelling stuff.)

3. Clickers are fun. I've used them once for a class and found them cumbersome, but the creative use of them at this conference inspires me to give them another try.

2. Unshelved, of which I had only seen a couple of strips, is a lot funnier than I realized. Really funny, in fact. Great presentation and a great dinner last night. I'm a fan now!

1. Screencasting options have proliferated since I last used Captivate about four years ago. Jing and Screentoaster.com are free and easy. Camtasia allows kick-ass editing. Alison Aldrich's workshop fired me up -- especially liked the Screencast Slam! I just used Jing to do a "just in time" screencast for an off-campus faculty member who emailed me a question about logging on.

Roktoberfest

2009-10-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

I went, I rocked, it was fun.

I Got Sick

2009-09-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

Here's how my month of September has gone so far:

Sept 1: I came down with a cold just in time for my first day back at work. And I had an ingrown toenail that became infected. So I was sniffling and limping around and feeling fairly pathetic. I took Thursday and Friday off work, bumped up my consumption of vitamins and started a course of run-of-the-mill antibiotics for the toe and incipient sinus infection. I figured I'd be good as new on Tuesday (Monday being the Labor Day holiday). My wife and I canceled our trip to Seattle, to rest and recuperate and rearrange the house (that's my wife's idea of resting and recuperating). She had a cold, too; in fact, I'm pretty sure I caught mine from her. And our two-year-old was starting to sniffle as well.

Sept 6: Just as I thought I was getting over the cold, I woke up Sunday night in the middle of the night with a fever of 101 and the tell-tale "flu-like" body aches. Over the next several days, the body aches and fever increased (peaking at 103) and I experienced the tell-tale flu-like "I feel like I got hit by a truck," accompanied by extreme malaise, coughing, and self-pity.

Sept 9: I finally went to the doctor, who said it was in all likelihood the swine flu, H1N1 (although it remains unconfirmed). The doc gave me a prescription for Tamiflu (probably too late to do much good) as well as prophylactic prescriptions for the wife and kids; which, even with some help from Uniform Medical, put a bit of a dent in my wallet.

Sept 12-14: I refrained from taking Tylenol or Ibuprofen for 24 hours, even though I still had a headache, in order to gauge whether I could pass the "24 hours without a fever of more than 100 degrees" test. I passed the test on Saturday night. But then the fever started bouncing up above 100 again on Sunday. So I stayed home again on Monday. (The CDC doesn't seem to have guidelines about what happens if you go for 24 hours without a fever, but then it returns again the next day.)

Sept 15: On the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows (according to the calendar at my desk) I returned to work, having passed the fever test again. I was coughing more, though. The first thing that landed in my inbox was a message from my parents saying there was an article on the front page of their local paper that I should check out. So I did. "Studies: Swine flu spreads long after fever stops." I shared that article with my superiors and suggested maybe I should reschedule my distance ed. instruction trip to the other side of the state and work from home for the remainder of the week. They agreed that that seemed sensible. One of my classes here on campus couldn't be rescheduled and my boss generously offered to cover it for me. (Thanks Bob!) I went home.

Sept 16: The cough got worse and I began to feel like my lungs were swimming in fluid. I had coughed through the night. And when I had finally managed to become unconscious, I had woken up at 3 a.m. in a puddle of cold sweat. My wife had moved into the next room so she could get some sleep. I went to the doctor and got a chest x-ray which confirmed pneumonia. I had already been taking Augmentin for the sinus infection and the infected toe that had preceded the flu; the doc took me off the Augmentin and put me on a scary antibiotic called Avelox, with a warning that one of the side effects of Avelox is that your tendons can start to snap like dried out old rubber bands. So I'm not supposed to do any stretching or my usual daily round of contortion exercises. Weird. (Fortunately I am still permitted to perform as many mental contortions as I want -- one of my favorite pastimes.)

Sept 21: On the feast of St. Matthew (says the calendar at my desk) I returned to work. Still coughing a lot, but feeling quite like the Avelox is kicking the pneumonia's butt and leading me back towards tendon-snapping good health. St. Matthew pray for me.

Sept 24 (today): I ventured out twice to answer reference questions. After the first one, I returned to the staff area and declared, "I infected my first patron!" It's a joke. I'm pretty sure I didn't. For one thing, I didn't cough on him. For another thing, even though I did touch his keyboard and mouse, I had just washed my hands for the 137th time right before I ventured out there. I'm still not ready to run the hundred yard dash, and I'm not even quite up to scaling the stairs to the second floor--where the library resides here at Riverpoint. (I ride the elevator, even though I hate elevators and usually avoid them if possible.) I'm drinking lots of water, swallowing lots of vitamins (along with the Avelox) and refraining from my usual lunchtime stroll along the river with a cigar. I'm on the mend!

So long September, I feel like I hardly knew ya.

The Kindergarten/Back to Work Blues

2009-09-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of kindergarten for my eldest daughter. After dropping her off, I turned to confront my own first day back at work after a two-month summer holiday. I sat at my desk awhile, scribbled down a list of things I need to get done today, then ventured over to the shelves in my office and absentmindedly pulled down Mary Karr's book of poems, Sinners Welcome. By sheer accident, I cracked it open right to this most apropos poem:

Revelations in the Key of K
by Mary Karr

I came awake in kindergarten,
under the letter K chalked neat
on a field-green placard leaned

on the blackboard's top edge. They'd caged me
in a metal desk--the dull word writ
to show K's sound. But K meant kick and kill

when a boy I'd kissed drew me
as a whiskered troll in art. On my sheet,
the puffy clouds I made to keep rain in

let torrents dagger loose. "Screw those
who color in the lines," my mom had preached,
words I shared that landed me on a short chair

facing the corner's empty, sheetrock page. Craning up,
I found my K high above.
You'll have to grow to here, its silence said.

And in the surrounding alphabet, my whole life hid--
names of my beloveds, sacred vows I'd break.
With my pencil stub applied to wall,

I moved around the loops and vectors,
Z to A, learning how to mean, how
in the mean world to be.

But while I worked the room around me
began to smudge--like a charcoal sketch my mom
was rubbing with her thumb. Then

the instant went, the month, and every season
smeared, till with a wrenching arm tug
I was here, grown, but still bent

to set down words before the black eraser
swipes our moment into cloud, dispersing all
to zip. And when I blunder in the valley

of the shadow of blank about to break
in half, my being leans against my spinal K,
which props me up, broomstick straight,

a strong bone in the crypt of meat I am.

[Source]

The sign of judgment: the earth will begin to sweat.

2009-08-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I spent a lot of time in public libraries. They're great places for the intellectually curious and the financially challenged. Then I became a public librarian -- and became jaded towards the library-going experience. Then I became an academic librarian; and now, after some years in academia, I am still fairly ruined for the joys of public library patronage. But I do enjoy poking my head in from time to time. So, the other day, while waiting for Walgreens to fill a prescription of antibiotics for my daughter's infected mosquito bite, I ventured into the nearby branch of the local public library system.

Among the gems I found while browsing the stacks was this: 1000: A Mass for the End of Time by a group of golden-throated ladies called Anonymous 4. I'm listening to it right now, and thumbing through the notes, including the Latin text with parallel English/French/German translation. The first line of the Processional Hymn is notable:

Judicii signum, tellus sudore madescit.

The sign of judgment: the earth will begin to sweat.

A prophetic reference to global warming? A description of the summer of '09 in Spokane? In any case, quite an image, and a beautiful apocalyptic liturgy pulled from a millenium past.

Q. When is an Abbreviation Not an Abbreviation?

2009-07-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

A. When it's International Braz J Urol.

I've been working on a bibliometric analysis project and part of the process of compiling the data involves deciphering scads of sometimes obscure journal abbreviations. Well, I came upon the following: International Braz J Urol. The first oddity is that "International" is not abbreviated. I'd have expected Int Braz J Urol, and I'd have guessed that to stand for the International Brazilian Journal of Urology -- which is itself a rather awkward formulation. So, upon further investigation, I discovered that, apparently, the name of the journal is in fact: International Braz J Urol. Which has got to drive the abbreviators (and who are these people?) crazy. On the other hand, maybe the abbreviators take one look at this, smile, nod, and think, "Yes, our scheme to replace sensible titles with obscure fragments of titles is beginning to spread like the swine flu."

Get 'er Done

2009-06-26T11:07:00.001-07:00

Source (via my colleague MW)

May 27 Drop-In: Google Scholar

2009-05-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

When: Wednesday, May 27, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Description: You use Google, but have you tried Google Scholar -- the megalithic search engine's entry into the realm of academic literature? Come explore how Google Scholar can complement the paid subscription databases available to you through your affiliation with WSU or EWU. Learn how to utilize Google Scholar's citation tracking functionality and how to hook Google Scholar up to the full-text holdings available to you through your academic institution.

This will be your last chance to grab your lunch and drop in before Wednesday Drop-Ins drop out for summer, so if you've been thinking, "Hmm... I should drop into one of those sessions sometime" -- this is it!

May 20 Drop-In: The Riverpoint Campus Library Wiki

2009-05-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

When: Wednesday, May 20, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Description: In this session, librarian Rietta Pew will demonstrate how the Riverpoint Campus Library wiki can be used as a portal to both EWU and WSU information sources available at the library.

Contact Info: For more information, please contact Rietta Pew at 358-7929.

Neck Pain in Medline and MeSH: Charting the semantic relationship of a MeSH term to article title words

2009-05-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

----------------

The following is a blog "pre-print" of the poster I am presenting at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting this weekend in Honolulu.

----------------

Introduction

The author of a scholarly journal article is generally expected to affix a title to her article in order to provide the reader with a clue as to what the article is about. Similarly, if that article appears in a journal indexed by Medline, an indexer comes along and affixes a series of MeSH terms to it. This second effort is also aimed at describing what the article is about, but in the very specialized language of MeSH. In both instances, the author first and foremost, and then the MeSH indexer, struggle with the question of “aboutness.” What is this article about and how can I best convey that in a few words?

The study outlined here aims at tracing the semantic interrelationship of these two activities, that of the author with her title words and the indexer with his MeSH vocabulary. The study begins by quantifying and analyzing the duplication or non-duplication of “neck pain” and its variants appearing as article title words for a set of records in which Neck Pain also appears as a MeSH Major Topic. By closely and quantitatively assessing the varying strength of the semantic relationship between title words and the MeSH term, we hope to gain insight into the thorniness of the aboutness problem, and arrive at a fuller appreciation of both the value and limitations of MeSH and other systems of controlled vocabulary.

Neck Pain

Discomfort or more intense forms of pain that are localized to the cervical region. This term generally refers to pain in the posterior or lateral regions of the neck. Year introduced: 1997

--MeSH Browser (2009)

Methodology

The main set and variant subsets of records used for this study are limited to records entered into Medline during a five-year period, 1999 through 2003. This period was chosen in order to ensure that (a) the records occur late enough following the introduction of Neck Pain as a MeSH term (in 1997) for its usage to be firmly established and (b) the records are old enough that the inputting and indexing process has stabilized. The main set and subsets are also limited to articles in English relating to humans.

The PubMed search resulting in the set of articles with Neck Pain as a Mesh Major Topic was formulated as follows:

“neck pain” [MeSH Major Topic] AND (("1999"[EDAT] : "2003"[EDAT]) AND "humans"[MeSH Terms] AND English[lang] AND medline[sb])

Subsets were produced using the following search formulations in PubMed (excluding here the limiting terms, for the sake of simplicity):

Subset 1: “neck pain” [MeSH Major Topic] AND “neck pain” [Title Word]

Subset 2: “neck pain” [MeSH Major Topic] AND neck [Title Word]AND pain [Title Word] NOT “neck pain” [Title Word]

Subset 3: (“neck pain” [MeSH Major Topic] AND (neck [Title Word] NOT pain [Title Word])) OR (“neck pain” [MeSH Major Topic] AND (pain [Title Word] NOT neck [Title Word]))

Subset 4: “neck pain” [MeSH Major Topic] NOT neck [Title Word] NOT pain [Title Word]

Results

Main set = 445 records with Neck Pain as a MeSH Major Topic. Four subsets were identified, each with records exhibiting a progressively weaker semantic relationship between the MeSH term and title words:

The records of Subset 1 exhibit the strongest semantic relationship between title words and the MeSH term. The records of Subset 4 exhibit the weakest semantic relationship.

Part 2 of this study, which is beyond the scope of this poster, will extend the analysis to a close examination of the presence or absence of synonymous or related terms among the title words in subsets 3 and 4.

Conclusions

Over half of the records in the main set possess titles which could be considered weak or very weak in their semantic relationship to the MeSH Major Topic Neck Pain (which, for the purposes of this study, may be considered the topic that defines the set).

This finding may not come as a great surprise to librarians who constantly instruct their students to be mindful of and utilize controlled vocabulary in formulating a search strategy. From one point of view, the semantic variance of title words from the MeSH term is illustrative of the important role of controlled vocabulary in traversing a broad semantic landscape. From another angle, our finding raises the question of why there is such variance among authors in applying consistent terminology for a concept as relatively simple as neck pain.

The results of this study point toward further questions which may be answered by a more refined analysis of the records contained in the main set, and particularly the records contained in subsets 3 and 4. What synonymous or related terms are to be found among the titles of these records? Do patterns of terminology appear, which point towards search strategies, such as hedging, which could complement informed use of a database’s controlled vocabulary?

Finally, this study, limited as it is to records defined by a single MeSH Major Topic, suggests the question of whether records relevant to that topic might exist outside the set. That is, could the Medline indexers have missed a few relevant records when assigning MeSH terms to articles? The answer is, of course, yes; but a close semantic analysis of that extended set of records might be both instructive to the searcher and revealing of the fuzzy contours of human knowledge. Hence this pain in my neck.

Sources consulted

Andersen, Jack (2004) Analyzing the role of knowledge organization in scholarly communication: An inquiry into the intellectual foundation of knowledge organization. PhD thesis, Department of Information Studies, Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Brooks, T. A. (1998). The semantic distance model of relevance assessment. Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of ASIS, Pittsburgh, PA, October 25-28, 1998: Information Access in the Global Information Economy, 35, 33-44.

Chang, A. A., Heskett, K. M., & Davidson, T. M. (2006). Searching the literature using medical subject headings versus text word with PubMed. The Laryngoscope, 116(2), 336-340.

Gault, L. V., Shultz, M., & Davies, K. J. (2002). Variations in medical subject headings (MeSH) mapping: From the natural language of patron terms to the controlled vocabulary of mapped lists. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 90(2), 173-180.

Jenuwine, E. S., & Floyd, J. A. (2004). Comparison of medical subject headings and text-word searches in MEDLINE to retrieve studies on sleep in healthy individuals. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 92(3), 349-353.

Kostoff, R. N., Block, J. A., Stump, J. A., & Pfeil, K. M. (2004). Information content in medline record fields. International journal of medical informatics, 73(6), 515-527.

Carlin, B. G. (2004). PubMed automatic term mapping. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 92(2), 168.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my physical therapist for her skillful attention to my MeSH-related discomfort or more intense forms of pain that are localized to the cervical region.

xoxo

May 13 Drop-In: RefWorks

2009-05-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

When: Wednesday, May 13, 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Where: Riverpoint Campus, SAC 311

Description: EWU Libraries subscribes to RefWorks, a tool for creating bibliographies and citing your sources in virtually any style. Drop by during the lunch hour for a quick intro to RefWorks. Learn how to set up your RefWorks account, how to import citations from the library's databases, and how to use RefWorks in tandem with Microsoft Word to create bibliographies and in-text citations in APA and other citation styles. Grab your lunch and drop on in!

No Drop-In This Week (May 6)

2009-04-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Riverpoint Campus Library Wednesday Drop-Ins are taking a breather next week (May 6) but will return in force on May 13 with a demo of RefWorks for EWU folks. Stay tuned for more info. (You WSU folks are winding down for the year, so you are exempt! Summer beckons!)

April 29 Drop-In: Web of Science Database Demo

2009-04-24T15:23:00.001-07:00

What: Wednesday Drop-In at the Riverpoint Campus Library: Web of Science--Science Citation Index Database Demo

When: Wednesday, April 29, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Description: The Web of Science--Science Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the sciences. It fully indexes over 6,650 major journals across 150 scientific disciplines and includes all cited references captured from indexed articles. Grab your lunch and drop in for a half-hour demo of this powerful research tool.

Free giant chocolate chip cookies and delectable sliced fruit!

April 22 Drop-In: Cochrane Library Database Demo

2009-04-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

What: Wednesday Drop-In at the Riverpoint Campus Library: Cochrane Library Database Demo

When: Wednesday, April 22, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Description: The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the world’s best medical research studies, and are recognised as the gold standard in evidence-based health care. Grab your lunch and drop in for a half-hour demo of this key health sciences resource!

* As always, a variety of cookies and fresh fruit will be served.

April 15 Drop-In: LexisNexis Academic

2009-04-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

When: Wednesday, April 15, 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Where: Riverpoint Campus, Academic Center room 311

Description: Database Demo -- LexisNexis Academic provides access to over 6,000 news, business, and legal sources. News coverage includes deep backfiles and up-to-the-minute stories in national and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, international news, and non-English language sources. The Company Dossier module provides access to detailed company information and financial performance measures; identify and compare companies matching specific criteria. The database also provides access to the Shepard's Citations service for all federal and states court cases back to 1789. Presented by librarian Rietta Pew.

More Info: For more information please contact Rietta Pew at 358-7929.

Vacation Responder

2009-04-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

I'll be away from the library April 7-14. Blogging and/or tweeting and/or email response time may or may not be much different than usual.

New PubMed Advanced Search Demo

2009-04-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

[From Liblog by way of davidrothman.net]

Health Sciences Career Fair: April 9, 3-6pm, Riverpoint HSB

2009-04-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

The Physical Therapy Department at Eastern Washington University is sponsoring an interdisciplinary job fair for Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physical Therapy Assistant and Speech-Language Pathology students, and current practitioners in the Northwest. Over 50 recruiters from throughout the United States have contacted our program expressing interest in hiring new graduates or current practitioners, and talking with them about career opportunities. Recruiters from a wide array of practice settings will be in attendance.

Faculty, students, and current practitioners are invited to attend!

What: Multidisciplinary Health Sciences Career Fair

When: Thursday, April 9th from 3:00 – 6:00 PM

Where: Health Science Building, at the Spokane Riverpoint Campus

Why: To introduce Nursing (BNS),OT, PT, PTA, and SLP students and current practitioners to career opportunities and the wide range of jobs currently available in the Pacific Northwest.

Cost: Free!!!
No need to RSVP! Just show up and be prepared to explore a plethora of career options in one location! It doesn’t get any easier to look for a job than this!

Please direct any questions or comments to: ccrago@mail.ewu.edu

April 8 Drop-In: Business Resources

2009-04-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

What: Wednesday Drop-In at the Riverpoint Campus Library: Business Resources

When: Wednesday, April 8, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Why: Because it's the informational equivalent of healthy fastfood.

Description: Get the low-down on databases, journals, books, videos, and services offered by the Riverpoint Campus Library in support of the Business programs at Riverpoint. Presented by librarian Rietta Pew.

image source
_________________________________________________
Upcoming Drop-Ins: April 15--LexisNexis; April 22--Cochrane Reviews; April 29--Web of Science.

Twitterific

2009-03-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

The Riverpoint Campus Library is now posting updates to Twitter! Follow along at: twitter.com/riverlibrary

Cutting Edge Web Resources for Physical Therapy: A Wiki

2009-03-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

March 11 Drop-In on YouTube: Machines and Devices at the Riverpoint Campus Library

2009-03-12T13:24:00.000-07:00

1. Video Viewing Station

2. Kurzweil Reader

3. Paper Cutter and Heavy-Duty Stapler

4. Print Card Readers

5. Printers & Copiers

6. Microform Reader/Scanner

7. Multimedia Workstation

8. The Jogger, the Binder, and the Big Paper Cutter

March 18 Drop-In: Reference Collection Highlights--Log Out, Unplug, and Tune In to the Hidden Riches of Reference Books!

2009-03-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

When: Wednesday, March 18, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Description: The Riverpoint Campus Library plays host to a massive dual-institution array of online resources. That's an undisputed fact and no doubt a boon to the 21st-Century researcher. If you want to gain the advantage on your technology-embedded counterparts, however, don't forget to explore the old-school resources available in the library's physical reference collection as well. There, hidden among the shelves and dusty tomes, you can find oft-overlooked riches and hidden gems to supplement your online research and give your project an added dimension or depth. Grab your lunch and drop-in for some old-school book-talk offered up by your Riverpoint Campus librarians. Cookies and fresh fruit will be served!

[image source]

Riverpoint Campus Master Plan Workshop, March 17

2009-03-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

PUBLIC INVITED. Campus master plan: 1st workshop Tues 3/17, 3-5pm, SAC 20. Info on our context, biomed&health sci bldg needs.

[From the WSUSpokane Twitter Feed]

It being St. Paddy's Day, will there be discussion of a "green" campus?

UPDATE: More info here.

March 11 Drop-In: Devices and Machines in the Library: What We Have, Where They Are, and How to Use Them

2009-03-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

What: Wednesday Drop-In at the Riverpoint Campus Library: Devices and Machines in the Library--What We Have, Where They Are, and How to Use Them

When: Wednesday, March 11, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, ~~Room SAC 311~~ UPDATE: Meet at the Reference Desk, just inside the front doors of the library!

Description: Need a place to watch a DVD or VHS tape? The library has a workstation for that. Need to scan an article or image from a reference book and save it to a PDF or work some Photoshop magic? The library has a workstation for that! Need to make some color copies or print some color images from the web? You can do that in the library, too! You can also digitize microfilm or microfiche documents on the microform reader/scanner and listen to written documents on the Kurzweil text-to-speech synthesizer. Come to this week's session and get a tour of the library's technology offerings beyond books and databases.

Cookies and fresh fruit, as always, will be served!

Coming up next week: Reference Collection Highlights--Log Out, Unplug, and Tune In to the Hidden Riches of Reference Books!

A Little Dose of EWU Riverpoint Spirit!

2009-03-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

RefWorks: EWU Engl 205 Student Presentation

2009-02-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

English 205 RefWorks Presentation

Technical Communications Group 2

1. Basic Info on RefWorks

2. Creating a Login

3. Exporting Sources from the EWU Databases to RefWorks

4. Creating a Folder in RefWorks

5. Creating a Bibliography in RefWorks

6. Manually inputting bibliographic sources into RefWorks

7. Downloading Write-N-Cite

8. Creating In-text Citation and Bibliography with Write-N-Cite

New Sidebar Widget: Shared Items

2009-02-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Cast your gaze over to the right side of the screen, scroll down, and you will discover a new "Jonathan's Shared Items" widget in the sidebar. These are items from my various RSS subscriptions which I have deemed suitable to share with the world. If you like it--and speaking of RSS--you can also subscribe to it as an RSS feed ... as is also the case with this here blog!

March 4 Drop-In: Beyond PubMed and CINAHL

2009-02-26T10:32:00.000-08:00

Bonus: Cookies and fresh sliced sweet apples will be served!

What: Wednesday Drop-In at the Riverpoint Campus Library: Beyond PubMed and CINAHL

When: Wednesday, March 4, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Description: Maximize your health science resources! Explore some of the OTHER medical resources available to you through the WSU and EWU web portals. Natural Medicines, Cochrane Library, Dental Abstracts, SPORTDiscus, Lexi-Comp, Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, and Consultant (diagnose what ails your pet). Give us a half-hour and we'll enlarge your universe. Promise! Grab your lunch and drop in!

It's Nice to Share

2009-02-25T09:49:00.001-08:00

I now have a "My Shared Items" web page where I can easily post items from my Google Reader account that I'd like to share with the world. Check it out at: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16685987239872848710.

This Week's Drop-In (Feb 25)

2009-02-23T15:41:00.001-08:00

Coming up March 4: Beyond PubMed and CINAHL! Stay Tuned!

RSS: Try it, You'll Like It

2009-02-20T15:30:00.001-08:00

New PubMed Tutorial

2009-02-20T15:24:00.001-08:00

Researching the Pain of Research

2009-02-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

Going Off-Campus!

2009-02-20T14:01:00.001-08:00

I'm not really going off-campus this Monday and Tuesday, but occasionally I do venture over to the west side of the state to do research skills sessions with Dental Hygiene students who are completing their EWU degrees at Clark, Pierce, and Shoreline colleges. These pictures were solicited by Dean Patricia Kelley for a presentation she is putting together. Riverpoint Campus Library Director Bob Pringle snapped the photos.

Feb 25 Drop-In: Database Alerts and RSS Feeds

2009-02-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

Do you have an ongoing research project or a subject area you want to stay abreast of? Are you working on a literature review that you'd like to have automatically updated as new information becomes available? Is there a journal or magazine you'd like to peruse each time a new issue comes out? Would you like to have a personal assistant collect items of particular interest to you on a regular basis and deliver them to you at no cost and with minimal effort on your part? In effect, this is what alerts and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds make possible. In this quick session, we'll explore the process of setting up a database alert for a general topic and for a particular journal. We'll also look at different options for receiving alerts, from email to RSS readers, and we'll look at the step-by-step process of setting up an RSS reader. Grab your lunch and drop in!

When: Wednesday, February 25 from 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Where: Riverpoint Campus, Academic Center room 311

Bonus: Cookies and fresh fruit shall be served!

Kudos to the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association (PNC/MLA)

2009-02-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

From Gail Kouame:

PNC/MLA will be the recipient of the Majors Chapter Project of the Year Award at the 2009 Medical Library Association annual conference! The award is for the collaboration between Dolores Judkins, Andrew Hamilton, and the Regional Medical Library in offering the seminar "Awakening the Searcher Within" - a seven-session series of web conferences that helped participants hone their expert searching skills. Many of the PNC members attended and benefited from the seminar, which was very well-received.

If you missed out on participating, the entire series was recorded and can be viewed here:

http://nnlm.gov/pnr/training/search-seminar.html

Congratulations to Dolores, Andrew, Maryanne Blake and to our Chapter for making this possible! This is the third time in the past six years that PNC has won this award - we won in 2004 for our group purchasing program and in 2005 for our membership benefit of access to SurveyMonkey.

Feb 18 Drop-In: RefWorks

2009-02-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

When: Wednesday, February 18 from 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Where: Riverpoint Campus, Academic Center room 311

Description: EWU Libraries subscribes to RefWorks, a tool for creating bibliographies and citing your sources in virtually any style. Drop by during the lunch hour for a quick intro to RefWorks. Learn how to set up your RefWorks account, how to import citations from the library's databases, and how to use RefWorks in tandem with Microsoft Word to create bibliographies and in-text citations in APA and other citation styles. Grab your lunch and drop on in!

The Informational Equivalent of Healthy Fast Food

2009-02-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

Are you overwhelmed by the ever-changing smorgasbord of tools and resources that confront you every time you sit down to nibble on a bit of research? Do you too often pull into the Google drive-thru and settle for the informational equivalent of a Big Mac and fries? Just don’t know where to begin and don’t have time to explore more advanced research tools? Would you like to encourage your students to develop their research skills outside of class?

The librarians at Riverpoint are offering a series of short, savory, nutritious, half-hour sessions designed to save you and your students time and to introduce you to the latest research tools and techniques. It's the informational equivalent of healthy fast food!

So grab your lunch--make it a healthy sandwich or salad from Aracelias!--and drop in from 12:15 to 12:45 every Wednesday in SAC 311.

[image source]

Feb 11 Drop-In: EndNote

2009-02-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

EndNote Web is a tool for creating bibliographies and citing your sources in virtually any style. Drop by during the lunch hour for a quick intro to EndNote. Learn how to set up your EndNote account, how to import citations from the library's databases, and how to use EndNote to create bibliographies in APA and other citation styles. Bring your lunch and drop in!

When: Wednesday, February 11 from 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Where: Riverpoint Campus, Academic Center room 311

Today's Drop-In

2009-02-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

Upcoming topics:

Feb 11: EndNote
Feb 18: RefWorks
Feb 25: Database Alerts and RSS Feeds

Feb. 4 Wednesday Drop-In: Summit, Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery: How to Get What We Don't Have

2009-02-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

The Riverpoint Campus Library offers access to a wealth of material from both the EWU and WSU library systems. There are times, however, when your research needs take you beyond the resources available here at Riverpoint. This quick session will introduce you to using Summit and ILLiad to order books and articles. Summit provides access to books from a massive combined collection of more than thirty academic libraries in Washington and Oregon. The ILLiad interlibrary loan system is your go-to option for ordering articles that aren't available online or in the library's physical collection. Bring your lunch and drop in!

When: Wednesday, February 4 from 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Where: Riverpoint Campus, SAC (Academic Center) 311

Bonus: Cookies! Fresh fruit!

The once and future e-book: on reading in the digital age (Ars Technica)

2009-02-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

New Flyer for Drop-In Sessions

2009-01-29T10:08:00.000-08:00

WSU Spokane Health Sciences Submits Entry in Google's Project 10100

2009-01-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

WSU Health Sciences has submitted an idea. Our concept is to “Heal Health Care through Team Care” by harnessing the power of health information technology.

We'll teach a new generation of health professions to work as a team and use the new knowledge we find through research in electronic medical records and public health records.

We'll build connections for a healthier world: not only among the health professions, but also among human and animal health, urban and rural, individual and public health records.

January 28 Wednesday Drop-In: Searching 101

2009-01-22T09:58:00.000-08:00

What: Wednesday Drop-In at the Riverpoint Campus Library: Searching 101

When: Wednesday, January 28, 12:15 to 12:45pm

Where: Academic Center, Room SAC 311

Description: Searching a bibliographic database for scholarly journal articles may seem like a simple task: throw in some terms that relate to your topic and see what you get. But many searchers rely on luck and serendipity when, by employing a few basic tricks of the trade, you could dramatically increase the power and precision of your search. In this quick session, you'll get a refresher on the basics of Boolean logic, how to broaden or narrow the focus of a search using Boolean operators, phrase searching and truncation; and how to speak the language of a database by incorporating descriptors and subject terms into your search strategy. Bring your lunch and drop in for a side dish of information served up by your Riverpoint campus librarians!

Bonus: Cookies and fresh fruit will be served!

Contact Info: For more information, please contact Jonathan Potter at 368-6557 or email jpotter@ewu.edu.

Wednesday Drop-In Library Intro/Update in SAC 341 (Repeat Session)

2009-01-20T20:36:00.000-08:00

Riverpoint Campus Library
Wednesday Drop-Ins

Topic for January 21:

Library Intro/Update for Riverpoint Students & Faculty (Repeat Session)

Bring your lunch and drop in for a quick side dish of information served up by your Riverpoint campus librarians.

What: Informal and Informative Presentations on Library Services and Resources

When: Wednesdays, 12:15 – 12:45pm

Where: Usually in SAC 311; but this week in SAC 341 (Academic Center, 3rd Floor)

For Whom: Riverpoint faculty and students

More Info: Call Jonathan Potter at 368-6577 or email jpotter@ewu.edu

Upcoming Topics:

Jan 28: Searching 101: basic tools for searching bibliographic databases

Feb 4: Summit, Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery: how to get what we don’t have

Feb 11: Citation Management: Intro to EndNote

Feb 18: Citation Management: Intro to RefWorks (EWU only)

Feb 25: Email Alerts and RSS Feeds: get your research updates automatically

We Are Living in Exponential Times

2009-01-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

Information and Snow

2009-01-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

Spokane and the Inland Northwest recently had a record-breaking snowfall. As we were all digging out and then getting another foot or two and then digging out again, clearing the sidewalk and the driveway just in time to have a city snowplow come through and rebury the sidewalk and driveway with snow from the street; getting snowed-in, stuck, high-centered, rerouted, stymied, and frustrated at every turn; having the lines on the roads--when you could see them at all--become meaningless as guides to driving; but also: reveling in the wonder of it all, building a sled run in the front yard or going to the nearby park with the great hill, or just taking the opportunity to get cozy inside with a book and a cup of hot chocolate and peppermint Schnapps; and also: neighbor helping neighbor; and also: neighbor kvetching with neighbor and enjoying the opportunity to kvetch .... anyway, as all of this was happening, it occurred to me as I surveyed the local snowbound landscape that here we have a pretty good analogy for the landscape of information in this age of the deluge of information.

And we have--in the form of snowplows and snow blowers and snow shovels--analogies for the tools of the information trade. We librarians and infonauts are in the business of keeping the roads clear and the traffic flowing as the snow of information keeps falling, keeps piling up, melting, flooding our basements, and then piling up some more. Some of us are like that helpful neighbor with the kick-ass snow blower, others drive the big snowplows that come barreling through and clear the main arterials while burying the driveways and sidewalks others of us just spent hours clearing. It's not surprising that someone actually took a few potshots at one of these snowplows at one point during what one local wag called "Snowmageddon"--and I wouldn't be surprised if some desperate and hapless information-bound denizen of the Information Age, some Mad Max-like survivor of the Information Explosion, decides in frustration to take out a librarian or two. So keep your eyes open librarians! But also remember the other business of heavy snowfall: frolic in it, go sledding and skiing and snowshoeing out across this glistening information snowscape! Have fun!

[image source]

Wednesday Drop-Ins Start Today!

2009-01-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

Riverpoint Campus Library
Wednesday Drop-Ins

Topic for January 14: Library Intro/Update for Riverpoint Students & Faculty

Bring your lunch and drop in for a quick side dish of information served up by your Riverpoint campus librarians

What: Informal and Informative Presentations on Library Services and Resources

When: Wednesdays, 12:15 – 12:45pm

Where: SAC 311 (Academic Center, 3rd Floor, Room 311)

For Whom: Riverpoint faculty and students

More Info: Call Jonathan Potter at 368-6577 or email jpotter@ewu.edu

Google Webinar for Healthcare Providers, Dec 10 @ 10am

2008-12-09T15:32:00.000-08:00

The Vanishing Book Review?

2008-11-11T10:36:00.000-08:00

Short Guide to Occupational Therapy Resources Updated

2008-10-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry OT folks, I was a little behind on updating your short guide for Fall '08. But here it is. As with the PT guide, the biggest change is the shift to EBSCO as our interface of choice. Having more of our databases consolidated within the EBSCO environment means more databases can be searched simultaneously, which we hope will help expedite your efforts when you are searching for articles. If you use the multiple search option in EBSCO, note that below the search box you can set limiting options appropriate to each of the databases you're searching.

Are Students Getting Dumber or Are Academics Losing Touch?

2008-09-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

A little of both, probably; and librarians are positioned to help both sides bridge the gap. A thought-provoking piece from the ACRL Blog.

Library Resources for Distance Dental Hygiene Programs Page Updated

2008-09-19T00:40:00.001-07:00

I've overhauled the Library Resources for Distance Dental Hygiene Programs page in preparation for my trip to Tacoma to meet with the new batch of EWU Dental Hygiene students at Pierce College.

The most important change on the database front is that EWU has consolidated many of its key databases within the EBSCO environment, so I've added a customized link that allows you to simultaneously search several databases with dental hygiene and allied health sciences coverage (See "EBSCO Multiple Database Search" under Key Databases for Dental Hygiene Research. Your feedback would be appreciated. Send me an email or leave a comment here.

RIDE Program Launch at Riverpoint HSB Sept 25

2008-09-19T00:40:00.000-07:00

From the EWU Press Release:

A unique collaboration between Eastern Washington University's Department of Dental Hygiene and the University of Washington's School of Dentistry will help address critical oral health needs in rural Washington.

Regional Initiatives in Dental Education, or RIDE, builds on the success of the 30-year-old WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) program model the University of Washington Medical School uses to educate doctors in areas where there are no medical schools. The goal of RIDE is to help graduate more dentists to serve in these communities.

Participating students will take classes at Spokane's Riverpoint Campus, home of Eastern's dental hygiene program. RIDE students will start by studying with students in the WWAMI program at Riverpoint as a way to promote collaboration between the two medical professions. They will also be placed at rural community sites where they may one day provide oral health care.

The launch of the innovative RIDE program will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 25, at the Health Sciences Building on the Riverpoint Campus. For more information go to www.ewu.edu/RIDE.

Short Guide to Physical Therapy Resources Updated

2008-09-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've overhauled the Short Guide to Physical Therapy Resources at the Riverpoint Campus Library and revised a few of the database links from last spring. The biggest change is that EWU has consolidated many of its key databases within the EBSCO environment, so I've added a customized link that allows you to simultaneously search a bunch of PT-oriented databases (See "EBSCO Multiple Database Search" under Key Databases for Physical Therapy Research. Your feedback would be appreciated. Send me an email or leave a comment here.

Beyond Google

2008-09-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Information literacy with a British accent. (Hat tip to former EWU Librarian Dave Wilson, who posted this on his Facebook page.)

Short Guide to Communication Disorders Resources Updated

2008-09-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

I've given my Short Guide to Communication Disorders Resources at the Riverpoint Campus Library a major overhaul for the new academic year. I hope I've made the EWU/WSU divide a bit easier to navigate. I've also updated the ever-shifting musical-chairs-like menu of databases. And, now that EWU has consolidated many of its key databases within the EBSCO environment, I've added a customized link that allows you to simultaneously search a bunch of COMD-oriented databases (See "EBSCO Multiple Database Search" under Key Databases for Communication Disorders Research. Your feedback would be appreciated. Send me an email or leave a comment here.

Open Source Textbooks?

2008-09-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

PubMed and NLM Gateway/ClinicalTrials.gov Classes Offered

2008-09-02T01:02:00.000-07:00

Attention Health Sciences faculty and students!

Would you like to become an expert PubMed searcher and supercharge your research and literature review efforts?

Trainers from the National Library of Medicine's National Training Center and Clearinghouse will be at Columbia Basin College in Richland on September 8th and 9th and at the University of Washington on December 10 and 11. They will be offering the following classes:

September 8 and December 10, 2008: PubMed (full-day class)

September 9 and December 11, 2008: NLM Gateway/ClinicalTrials.gov (half-day class)

There is no charge for either class. Visit http://nnlm.gov/ntcc for details and to register.

Additional details from the NNLM/NTCC site:

PubMed®
Class Description | Agenda

1 day
8:30am - 5:00pm

Class Description

This full-day class is designed to teach students how to use PubMed® which includes MEDLINE citations. The class also includes an overview of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) and its importance as a tool to both searchers and indexers.

PubMed® is a free class and is awarded 7.5 MLA continuing education credits.

Agenda

8:30 - 8:45 Welcome

8:45 - 9:00 Introduction

9:00 - 9:15 What's in PubMed®

9:15 - 10:15 Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

10:15 - 10:30 Break

10:30 - 12:00 Building the Search (part I)

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 2:30 Building the Search (part II)

2:30 - 2:45 Break

2:45 - 3:15 Managing the Results

3:15 - 3:30 Saving the Search

3:30 - 3:45 Viewing the Articles

3:45 - 4:15 Additional Tools

4:15 - 4:45 Review Exercises

4:45 - 5:00 Closing

--------------------------------------

NLM Gateway & ClinicalTrials.gov
Class Description | Agenda

half-day
8:30am - 12:00pm or 1:00pm - 4:30pm

Class Description

This half-day class is designed to teach students how to use the NLM Gateway. It also includes a discussion and demonstration of ClinicalTrials.gov

NLM Gateway & ClinicalTrials.gov is a free class and is awarded 3.5 MLA continuing education credits.

top

Agenda

Welcome

NLM Gateway

* Introduction
o Background
o Searching
o Functions
+ Download/Display
+ Send via Email
+ Order Documents
* Break
* Features
o Term Finder
o Limits/Settings
o Search Details
o History
o Locker
o Practice Exercises

ClinicalTrials.gov

* Basic Search
* Working with Results
* Display Options Menu
* Advanced Search
* Studies by Topic
* Studies by Map
* Refining Your Search
* ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed®
* Practice Exercises

Northwest Medical Informatics Conference September 8-10

2008-08-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

From Terebyte Tidbits:

Northwest Medical Informatics Conference
Monday, September 8, INHS Customer Workshop; Tuesday – Wednesday, September 9 -10, Insights to Guide Your Planning. The Davenport Hotel, Spokane, Washington. The Northwest Medical Informatics Symposium will bring together urban and rural healthcare professionals to learn about the latest in health information technology.

The conference will focus on improving patient safety and outcomes through health care information technology advances and current legislative activities and how they apply to physicians, clinics and hospitals. Plenary presentations will feature national experts: John Tooker, MD, American College of Physicians; John Glaser, PhD, Partners Health Care; Micky Tripathi, PhD, Mass. eHealth Collaborative; and Mark Levine, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Denver Region, CMS.

Lee Woodruff, wife of ABC reporter Bob Woodruff injured in Iraq, will be a keynote speaker presenting “Life Changes in an Instant.” Woodruff recently joined ABC’s Good Morning America as a family and life contributor.

NMIS is presented by Inland Northwest Health Services in partnership with the National Center for Health Care Informatics (Montana) and the National Rural Health Resource Center (Minnesota). $225, Full conference registration; $100, One-day registration. For Information or to register contact: http://www.nmis.info/ or call (888) 258-9632.

Is the Internet Bad for Science?

2008-07-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Review: Critical companion to Flannery O'Connor

2008-07-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

The following review appeared in CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Vol. 45, No. 11, July 2008, p. 1924.

Kirk, Connie Ann. Critical companion to Flannery O'Connor. Facts On File, 2008. 415p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780816064175, $75.00.

Kirk (Binghamton Univ.), the author of several literary biographies, here contributes an important new volume to the excellent "Critical Companion" series. Flannery O'Connor is among the most frequently anthologized short-story writers of the 20th century. O'Connor's life, although relatively short, exhibited a singular sense of literary vocation informed by a tough-minded Catholic faith. In a brief but illuminating biographical section, Kirk traces the intertwining strands of influence and experience that play out across O'Connor's body of work. The bulk of Kirk's volume consists of an A-Z catalog of O'Connor's writings, with a synopsis and critical discussion of each novel, story, or essay. Each entry includes a list of related letters and critical readings. Cross-references and a chronology enhance the book's value. Kirk devotes an entire section to O'Connor's posthumously published collection of letters, The Habit of Being. The book's final section covers a broad range of relevant people, places, and topics. This monumental contribution to O'Connor studies will benefit both new readers of O'Connor and advanced scholars. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers.

Back to Basics: Reviving Ethical Practice in Library Management

2008-06-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

New article by my colleague Suzanne Milton.

Abstract: This paper examines the last twenty years of literature on the subject of organizational ethics. It reflects on the cultural tide and reasserts the need for establishing core values as a basis for management practice. It concludes with steps towards achieving a viable organization.

Balancing Work and Parenthood

2008-06-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

Jill McKinstry from the University of Washington came to our humble campus last Friday and facilitated a workshop on librarian outreach to the teaching faculty. Jill was sharp and engaging and the workshop stirred up a bunch of great ideas that I know will affect my summertime retooling process (the semi-conscious process that occurs while I'm off in July and August).

One item of interest that came up in the course of the workshop was the issue of women facing unique challenges in balancing career and life. I was glad Dean Kelley jumped into the discussion at this point and raised the question of whether working fathers nowadays don't increasingly share this challenge as well. Of course it's a challenge we all face, but, yes, those of us with young children at home face it at about ten times the magnitude of you non-breeders. Sorry but it's true. (Granted there are a variety of other personal burdens others of you might be shouldering, like caring for elderly parents or unruly cats or whatnot.) Anyway, my thanks to Pat for coming to the defense of the young (or not so young in my case) father contingent. I think it's true that burdens (and joys) that formerly might have been the exclusive provenance of working mothers are increasingly being shared by working fathers. I think this is a good thing.

In my case, I'm thankful that I have a job that supports me in my fatherly time-management challenges. When my wife was hospitalized and/or on bed rest during much of her pregnancy last year, I was able to use short term disability leave combined with Family Medical Leave to provide support on the home front. Furthermore, my 10-month contract allows me to be a full-time at-home dad two months out of the year. That's not exactly equal to the time my wife puts into the duties of motherhood, but it goes a good way towards equalizing things. And the rest of the year, along with the support of grandparents (which has been huge) we share much of the burden and, yes, the joy.

Anyway this is all a lead-in to recommending the article by Lisa Belkin which appears in the June 15, 2008 issue of The New York Times Magazine: "When Mom and Dad Share It All."

Judy Benson Receives WWAMI Excellence in Teaching Award

2008-06-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

Judy Benson of Spokane and four other UW clinical faculty members have been recognized with the 2008 WWAMI Excellence in Teaching Awards. The awards, sponsored by the Department of Medicine, honor enthusiasm in and dedication to teaching medical students and residents. The awards are given each year to teachers and coordinators in the WWAMI Medical Education Program, which includes medical school and graduate medical education sites in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.

The complete list of this year's recipients includes:

Judy Benson, clinical associate professor of medicine, Spokane. Benson is the program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Spokane program.

Gail Feinman, clinical instructor of medicine, Wenatchee, Wash. Feinman is an internal medicine physician at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center.

Jonathan McDonagh, clinical instructor of medicine, Soldotna, Alaska. McDonagh is an internal medicine physician, and is the coordinator for the Soldotna medical student clerkship.

Steve Gerstner, clinical associate professor of medicine, Billings, Mont. Gerstner is an internal medicine physician at the Billings Clinic, and is the coordinator for the Billings medical student clerkship.

William Bekemeyer, clinical associate professor of medicine, Missoula, Mont. Bekemeyer is a pulmonary and critical care physician, and practices at the Western Montana Clinic.

[Source]

PubMed Search Enhancements Announced

2008-05-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

The geeks at the National Library of Medicine have tweaked PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping functionality to better facilitate untagged author, journal or citation searching. For example, a search on "Burns" intending to find articles written by an author named Burns or an article in the journal Burns: previously PubMed would only map the term to MeSH and so the user would be foiled. Now the term will be mapped according to a more sophisticated algorithm that takes into account the possibility that the hapless searcher might be looking for an author name or journal title rather than a subject.

Read all about it here.

HEAL-WA

2008-05-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

HEAL-WA is a collection of evidence-based health information resources funded by license fees from selected health care providers as set forth in Washington Senate Bill 5930, passed in May of 2007.

More Fun With Venn Diagrams

2008-05-15T11:58:00.001-07:00

I (JP) am currently on a search committee with JO, JM, CM and NM.

See how our initials line up so beautifully in Venn Diagram form? In fact, these are some of my favorite librarians in the entirety of Libraryland; and I see this Venn Diagram as highly symbolic of the harmonious dynamics that occur when we get together.

The question is: will we be hiring a J or M? And when our arduous search committee work is done (and, yes, it has been an arduous search) will we be drinking anything that starts with a J or M?

Julep, Mint comes to mind.

Fun With Venn Diagrams

2008-05-15T11:13:00.001-07:00

I admit it, I love Venn diagrams. The elegant logic and simplicity of how they visually display the terminological dynamics of a well-formed database search turns me on. Call me a visual learner, call me a searcher, call me a librarian, call me a geek. (Just make sure those terms are nested and connected by the Boolean Operator OR.) Anyway, I try to inject a little dose of Venn Diagram action into just about every instruction session I do, and I've previously posted a little Sketchcast ditty that shows the process of doodling a Venn Diagram to illustrate AND. Now my good colleague Rietta has passed along this little gem of a cartoon with an extraordinarily mixed-up Venn Diagram on "People Who Can Read Venn Diagrams" -- and people who can't or won't. [Source: Science Cartoons Plus, S. Harris Math Cartoons]

MedlinePlus Adds Multilingual Access

2008-05-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

This just in from The MedlinePlus Team:

On May 7, 2008, MedlinePlus will debut a multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish. This new service benefits people who prefer to read consumer health information in their native language. It also helps the information professionals and health care providers who serve them. Over the years, many of you have requested this enhancement. Your suggestions helped us to develop this important service.

The new collection contains over 2,500 links to information in more than 40 languages and covers nearly 250 Health Topics. Continuous growth is expected.

Users can navigate the new collection of health information in multiple languages either by language or by topic. A page listing all of the languages covered will be linked from the MedlinePlus homepage. Users can browse these languages or link to the page listing all of the topics covered. In addition, a languages box will display on the English Health Topic pages. The languages box lists the languages with links on that topic in MedlinePlus. The languages box also links users to the collection of health information in multiple languages.

Users can also search the new collection of health information in multiple languages. A new collection called Multiple Languages appears on the MedlinePlus search results pages. Look for an update to the MedlinePlus Search Tips in the near future.

Finally, an interactive world map teaches users about the number of people who speak nine of the languages in the MedlinePlus collection. The languages – Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese – are among those most frequently spoken at home in the United States other than English, according to the U.S. census.

The MedlinePlus collection of health information in multiple languages is not meant to be comprehensive. Instead, as with our English and Spanish collections, MedlinePlus staff selects materials according to our quality guidelines (quality guidelines specific to the new collection will be available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/languages/criteria.html on May 7, 2008). Materials must be produced by the United States Federal government or a U.S.-based organization, such as a medical association or a hospital. The producer must describe the translation, review and updating process. In addition, the content must be appropriate for a U.S. consumer audience, and it must be authoritative and current. MedlinePlus staff also looks for English equivalents to the multilingual information.

As always, NLM welcomes your comments and suggestions about MedlinePlus. A "Contact Us" link appears at the top of every MedlinePlus page.

2008 Riverpoint Visioning Session Notes

2008-04-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

2008 Inland Northwest Health Sciences Research Symposium at Riverpoint

2008-04-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Symposium Overview:

When: April 24 & 25, 2008
Where: Riverpoint Campus, Spokane Academic Center, Room 20

The 2008 Inland Northwest Health Sciences Research Symposium is a two-day symposium dedicated to showcasing and promoting current local health science research projects. This exciting event will conclude on Friday, April 25, with a keynote address by Dean J. Lyle Bootman, Ph.D. from the College of Pharmacy at The University of Arizona. Dean Bootman will be presenting "Emerging Trends in Health Care and Quality of Medication Use."

Congratulations to the following 2008 Developing Scholar & Scholar Finalists from EWU:

Developing Scholar: Ashley Rydam, School of Physical Therapy, EWU, The Relationship Between Exercise Knowledge and Self-Efficacy, Motivation, Cognition, and Age in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease

Scholar: Wendy Holmes, PhD, Department of Occupational Therapy, EWU, Experiences of Students Within a Peer Mentoring Program in Higher Education.

More info available here.

PubMed searching and display changes

2008-04-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

From the NLM Technical Bulletin March-April 2008:

NLM is introducing new PubMed searching and display changes in the coming weeks. To begin with, the blue sidebar menu is being removed from the Summary results screens to provide space for forthcoming features. Users will be able to access the sidebar from the PubMed homepage.

Kick-Ass Inlander Issue

2008-04-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

This week's Inlander features a couple of items of interest. First of all, note the use of my theme word for the year -- "kick-ass" -- as in "highly effective" -- in the cover story.

Secondly, there's an interesting opinion piece by Robert Herold on whether WSU Spokane (no mention of EWU!) will ever be a quote-unquote research university:

Since the early '80s, Spokane has clamored for a research university. Recently WSU President Elson Floyd reassured Spokane leaders that WSU is Spokane's research university. But is it?

The entirety of Herold's rumination on the answer can be found here.

Also, the back page piece on the iPod transmogrification process is, well, kick-ass, too.

PubMed Alerts: E-mail Notification of Major System Problems

2008-04-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

From the NLM Technical Bulletin (via Linda Milgrom on the HLIB-NW mailing list):

PubMed Alerts: E-mail Notification of Major System Problems

NLM now provides an e-mail notification service, PubMed Alerts, that will notify subscribers of *major system problems* with PubMed; its two companion databases, MeSH and Journals; and the NLM Catalog. If these databases have a significant service disruption affecting all or most users for a considerable amount of time, an alert will be issued. Alerts providing update and resolution information about a problem will be sent if warranted. This is an announcement-only e-mail notification service that will be most useful for heavy users of PubMed. (It does not include other services/databases, e.g., LinkOut, PubMed Central.) Alerts will be sent out by NLM Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time (except Federal holidays).

To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@list.nih.gov. Leave the subject line blank and enter *SUBSCRIBE pubmed-alerts */your name/ in the body of the message, e.g., SUBSCRIBE pubmed-alerts jane doe.

Inland Northwest Union List of Health Science Journals

2008-04-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

This just in from Bob Pringle (with his ICN hat on):

Colleagues in the Inland Northwest: we have a link that will let you find who has a specific health science journal in our area.

Use http://nursing.wsu.edu/library/help/Jnlsearch.html directly, or navigate from the Betty M. Anderson Library at http://nursing.wsu.edu/library/ to our Help Guides, and to Journals in Inland Health Science Libraries.

It’s based on SERHOLD data from the National Library of Medicine, and exists thanks to work by folks in Pullman, at the ICN, and all the librarians involved. You can identify who has a print journal you need to see.

Enter a word or words from a title. They need not be consecutive, but they do need to be in order – see the difference between “nursing critical” and critical nursing”.

If all goes well, we’ll update the dataset every three months, when the NLM creates a new report for us.

Review: Points of View Reference Center

2008-03-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

The following review appeared in CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Vol. 45, No. 7, March 2008, p. 1143.

Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Contact publisher for pricing information.

[Visited Dec'07] Points of View Reference Center is the latest entrant into the field of opposing viewpoints-style database products. POVRC challenges Gale's Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center ( Critical Thinking version, CH, Nov'07, 45-1231) and Wilson's Current Issues (CH, Mar'07, 44-3636). The core of POVRC consists of 200 sets of articles (fewer than Gale's product but more than Wilson's), each divided into four main essays: an overview, a position piece, a rebuttal, and a guide to further inquiry. POVRC provides supplemental material from news and opinion sources, primary documents, and a variety of aids to the writing process. The design of POVRC, typical of EBSCO products, is elegant and easy to use. Main topics may be accessed either alphabetically or by browsing broad categories. A simple search box appears on the main screen, and an advanced search function provides options familiar to users of EBSCO/bort. The emphasis, however, is rightly placed on browsing the essays by topic.

Overall, the essays are logically arranged, and they smoothly integrate links to supplemental material. POVRC sometimes presents the same topic under different headings in a way that can be misleading. For example, separate links labeled Creationism and Intelligent Design appear under the general heading Evolution--arguably these are two separate topics, but both links lead to the same set of essays. Conversely, some topics appear under one general heading when they could just as reasonably appear under another. For example, Iraq appears under War and Peace, but not Foreign Policy. The essays themselves are consistent in style and tone; however, the quality of argument is uneven because the essays are authored by a small group of freelance writers rather than by subject experts. By nature, the essays are prone to oversimplification. All the same, POVRC is a fine starting point for teaching students to think critically and look at issues from multiple points of view. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates.

PubMed Adds 1949 Content

2008-02-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

This is old news from NLM but I'm posting it here as a reminder to update our PubMed blurbs accordingly:

January 08, 2008 [posted]
OLDMEDLINE Content Continues to Extend Back in Time

beginning on December 28, 2007, citations from the 1949 Current List of Medical Literature (CLML) were added to the OLDMEDLINE subset in PubMed®. These 55,557 citations have not yet been mapped to current MeSH®. To search PubMed for citations originating from OLDMEDLINE use jsubsetom. For additional information about the OLDMEDLINE data project, see: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/databases_oldmedline.html.
____________________________________
OLDMEDLINE Content Continues to Extend Back in Time. NLM Tech Bull. 2008 Jan-Feb; (360):e1.

Riverpoint Pharmacy Moves

2008-02-29T10:55:00.000-08:00

From the Terabyte Triangle newsletter:

Riverpoint Pharmacy has moved from the Sirti building, across Spokane Falls Blvd, to suite 110 in the Schade Tower [Next to the new EWU Bookstore]. Riverpoint Pharmacy is a compounding pharmacy which offers natural, Bio-Identical, hormone replacement therapy, pain management therapies and medications that have been discontinued or are commercially unavailable. They also change solid dosage forms such as tablets or capsules into oral liquids or topical creams or ointments.

Web 2.0 Webcast -- March 5, 11am to 1pm

2008-02-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

The Medical Library Association's Educational Webcast, "Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices: Discovering the Participatory Web," will run from 11 AM to 1 PM on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. It will be offered at the Riverpoint Academic Center Rm. 345.

Click here for more info about the presentation, objectives, etc.

Our Regional Medical Library in Seattle is paying the site fee (thanks again!), so participation is free to you. Those who'd like 2 hours of CE credit from MLA need to indicate that, so you can receive a participant's manual.

Click here to register.

This Week's Drop-in Session: Medline, PubMed, MeSH, NCBI -- Sorting Out the Options

2008-02-24T15:50:00.000-08:00

"Medline, PubMed, MeSH, NCBI -- Sorting Out the Options" will be presented this Wednesday, February 27, 12:15-12:45 PM in SAC 311.

Medline is universally acknowledged as the pre-eminent health sciences literature database and a powerful tool for clinicians and researchers. Medline users, however, face an overwhelming array of related resources and multiple versions of Medline to choose from. In this quick session, we'll present an overview of the Medline landscape and we'll examine how Medline and PubMed interface with WSU and EWU resources for full-text access. Bring your lunch and drop in. Home-made chocolate chip cookies will be served.

This Week's Drop-In Session: Citation Searching and Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-02-19T11:10:00.000-08:00

Wed. Feb 20: Lunchtime Library Drop-in Session: Citation Searching in Web of Science and Other Databases; SAC 311, 12:15-12:45pm.

Citation searching is simply the process of following the trail of citations from one article to another to uncover articles that develop or are relevant to a given topic. The Science Citation Index (now known as Web of Science) pioneered citation tracking and searching as a powerful complement to subject and keyword searching. Increasingly, other literature databases are incorporating citation searching as an option. This quick session will give you a nuts-and-bolts intro to citation searching in Web of Science and a broad view of the citation-searching landscape across other databases. Bring your lunch and drop on in! Scrumptious chocolate chip cookies will be provided!