Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Crystal Ball 2013 - The Future

Edit: Transcript at http://bit.ly/J2Cb6o 

Next chat is January 9, 2014! 

Crystal Ball 2013: What's the Future Hold?
Thursday, December 18, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Never participated in a Twitter #medlibs chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community.

This year has brought a profound amount of professional change for me (Nikki Dettmar @eagledawg) as I hit the 5 year mark for my library career. In my own crystal ball I realized I wasn't getting any younger, my passion and vision for online learning was growing stronger, and this fall I hauled myself back to grad school to start a second Masters in Learning Technologies. Today I started a new part time job as an evaluation librarian where I'll be able to put much of what I'm learning to immediate use. Why would I subject myself to this much insanity at once? Because I can easily envision a future that doesn't quite exist integrating librarianship and information resources with instructional design in online learning, and want to work towards making it become a reality.

Let's get together Thursday night and discuss what you see in the crystal ball for 2014 and beyond -


Happy last chat of 2013, enjoy a happy and safe holiday season, and I look forward to starting#medlibs chats up again on January 9, 2014!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

#Medlibsfail: Of Faceplants, Failures and Other Fateful Deeds

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/1bzFAzL 

#Medlibsfail: Of Faceplants, Failures and Other Fateful Deeds 
Thursday, December 12, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

This week, we'll discuss learning from our mistakes.

As a young #medlib, I was tasked with promoting a regional scholarship, and thus sent an email out to the venerable medlibs-l email list to publicize it, as one did in the olden days. Much to my junior librarian's dismay, more seasoned listserv members quickly pointed out that not only was the acronym for Arkansas incorrect (AR versus AK, as it were), but I also managed to misspell my own state of Louisiana as LOUSIANA.

Egregious, from a SNOOT's perspective, but so it goes. I sent a corrected message and mea culpa. What I didn't expect was another message on the list, clearly meant for one individual, joking about the Louisiana misspelling. 'They spell it the same way they say it!' 'LOOOOOSIANA LULZ' (had lulz existed back then) and so on. Not hurtful, but what a spectacular #medlibs #fail! The listserv inbox overflowed with horrified replies and hurried apologies.

3 lessons were learned that long ago day: always spell check, know your acronyms, and double, triple, quadruple verify addresses when forwarding incriminating emails.

Questions
  • What examples of professional faceplants can you think of? 
  • What are some of the library failures out there? 
  • What changes, good or bad, came about because of them? 
  • What's the best thing you ever learned from a mistake? 
I know, most folks don't enjoy talking about personal gaffes. So bring your anonymous anecdotes of 150 characters or less, and we'll chirp about #medlibsfail & failures in general, and what we can learn from them.

Examples
  • Burning down the Library of Alexandria (surely some medical scrolls went down in flames)
  • Johns Hopkins’ Tragedy: Could Librarians Have Prevented a Death? - Information Today article from August 2001 discusses a popular #medlibsfail example: medication error
  • RX for Medical Libraries (2005) - Library Journal responds to the March 2005 NEJM series on the future of medical libraries. "The author worries that small medical and hospital libraries will be closed in the future. There are four main threats to medical libraries: deprofessionalization, a failure to do outreach, a shift in the culture toward fast information, and library budget shortages." 8 years later, how correct she was. 
  • Throwback fail:  User and Library Failures in an Undergraduate Library College and Research Libraries, Nov 1978. "Almost half the circulating collection was unavailable due to four main reasons: (1) lack of knowledge concerning reserve materials; (2) user error; (3) books in circulation; and (4) materials unaccounted for."  These 4 reasons can easily apply to ebooks, hmmm. 




Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Killing the Sacred Library Cows Chat

Edit: MOO! I mean, http://bit.ly/ITs1p5 

Killing the Sacred Library Cows
Thursday, December 5, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Never participated in a Twitter #medlibs chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community. 

Last week many of us celebrated by killing turkeys and giving thanks.  This Thursday #medlibs chat is going to discuss creating opportunities by killing some cows.  Killing cows!? What does this have to with medical libraries.  Simple... There are many things we do as librarians that we have been doing for years and years without fail and without question.  There are various reason we do these things.

  • Our predecessor was doing it.  
  • We've always been doing it.
  • It is a librarian thing to do.
  • Inertia
Whatever the reason, there are some activities that we do that take up our time and prevent us from spending time on other things such as

  • Outreach
  • Technology
  • Research 
  • Rounding

We know we are super heroes but even super heroes can't do everything at once.  If the Green Goblin is threatening the financial district while Doc Ock is attacking the Department of Defense, Spiderman has to make a choice.

The library environment has changed drastically and is continuing to do so.  The library of 5 years ago is different from the library today.  For example, the iPhone had just been released, there were no iPads and the idea of a "downloadable" ebook had just been introduced by Amazon Kindle.  There were a very limited number of Kindle and certainly not intended for medicine.

Yet many of us are doing the same things we did as librarians 5, 10, 15, 20 yrs ago.  We were stretched thin back then, so there is no way we can now add things to our repertoire without giving up something in return.  We must look at what we do in our own libraries and evaluate whether it is necessary, whether it helps our patrons or helps us.  To really evaluate our services we need to look at EVERYTHING including the sacred cows of the library.  We need to ask ourselves, do we need to check in journals, catalog books, make copies, eliminate the reference desk, fuss with circulation, etc.  The right answers will depend on the library. A large academic library might need to still do cataloging but does a small solo hospital library with 4 shelves (not ranges) really need a catalog system much less spend time cataloging books?  Some of these ideas are dangerous and even somewhat heretical librarian thinking, but I feel we need to discuss them.  For more background on sacred cows and heretical librarian thoughts check out my summary of my keynote address I gave at the Midwest Chapter annual meeting.

We need to look at the opportunities that are available to us and to take advantage of them we will have to slaughter some library cows.  This Thursday's #medlibs discussion at 9pm Eastern will discuss the idea of thinning the herd of library services so that we can grow healthy new opportunities.

Molly Knapp (@dial_m), Amy Blevins (@blevinsa) and Michelle Kraft (@krafty) will be moderating the discussion.  As always we will be using the hashtag #medlibs but if you want to further the discussion before/during/or after the regular Thursday night time use the hashtag #moo.



Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Online Tutorials chat

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/17wMM2n 

Online Tutorials
Thursday, November 21, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Please join host Amy Blevins (@blevinsa) to discuss online tutorials. Here are a few questions to get you thinking about tutorials.

  1. How do you define tutorials? Are they videos, handouts with step-by-step instructions, etc?
  2. Do you create tutorials for your users?
  3. What barriers do you see to creating tutorials?
  4. Why do you think online tutorials are important? Or, why do you think they are not important?
  5. Insert your questions here.

Grab your favorite beverage and get ready for another fun and exciting #medlibs chat! Never participated in a Twitter #medlibs chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Medical Apps List Dev chat

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/17xbaTE

Medical Apps List Development
Thursday, November 14, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Please join host Kimberley Barker (@KR_Barker) to discuss the pros and cons of creating a working group which would generate a medlibs-approved medical app list.

Pros include:
  • Individual librarians not being forced to reinvent the wheel at their institutions
  • Benefit of knowing that the list would be reviewed on a regular basis

Cons include: MOAR COMMITTEE WORK??? (Ok, I can't really think of any cons, hence why we need your input!).

See you this evening! Never participated in a Twitter #medlibs chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Journal Club: Evaluation of Health Information Outreach

Edit: Transcript at http://bit.ly/1berRPB 

Thursday, November 7th, is our inaugural #medlibs Journal Club chat! We've never done this and I have never led one before so it'll be a great experiment. 

In preparation for Thursday's chat, try to read the following article:

Whitney W, Dutcher GA, Keselman A. Evaluation of health information outreach: theory, practice, and future direction. J Med Libr Assoc. 2013 Apr; 101(2):138-146. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.101.2.009. PMCID PMC3634377. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3634377/. Accessed October 29, 2013.

Why was this article chosen? 
  1. During our open discussion last month, someone wanted to discuss outreach. What a great article to analyze in support of this topic!
  2. When I mentioned this article to @eagledawg, she checked and confirmed that Wanda Whitney @bibliotecari08 would also be interested in participating in the chat! How awesome is it to have one of the authors of the article talk about their article and give additional insights? (We're also trying to see if any of the other co-authors are able to attend.)
  3. This article was pre-approved by the MLA for 1 MLA CE contact hour in the MLA Independent Reading Program (IRP). 
More information about MLA IRP can be found here. After our discussion, you can fill out the IRP Article Analysis Application and submit payment for CE credit.  

Here's the framework I'd like to try for our inaugural Journal Club. As you read this article, consider the following in 140 characters or less:
  • xx:05 or xx:10pm - Facts (strengths/weaknesses of outreach identified in the article, barriers discovered in outreach projects, what directions were recommended, etc).
  • xx:30pm - Interpretation. (Agree with terms searched? Have you used/considered the theoretical frameworks mentioned? Were they successful or not when you utilized them? What other measurable variables could we consider?)
  • xx:50pm - Wrap-up (After reading this article, can you apply these findings to your own work or research? What implications did this article provide you regarding health information initiatives?)
Since this is a #medlibs Twitter chat, I'm sure other things will come up and that'll be fantabulous. 

If our Journal Club chat is a success, I think we can make this a quarterly discussion. (3 MLA CE Contact Hours a year can be obtained with IRP.) Have a good 'read' and get ready to critique and talk about how this article may impact your work practice. I look forward to seeing you on Thursday's #medlibs chat!

Never participated in a Twitter #medlibs chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community. See you Thursday November 7, 9pm EST/6pm PST.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Health/Fitness Technology & Apps

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/167Bb9a
Health/Fitness Technology & Apps
Thursday, October 24, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat


Last week I gave a presentation on Diabetes in a tech world, which got me to thinking about a possible #medlibs twitter chat on the topic.  The holidays are right around the corner, which often times means tons of food, travel, and stress. Additionally, November is American Diabetes Month. So what better time to discuss how apps & technology can help you stay healthy? Join us for a collaborative discussion hosted by me, @alisha764, as we discuss Health/Fitness Technology & Apps.

The twitter chats are always very fluid, but here is a general idea of some topics for discussion:


  • What health/fitness apps are you using? 
  • What are some new health/fitness websites or tech trends that you can recommend? 
  • What are some of the latest in wearable tech for health?
  • Recommendations for presenting about health tech to the community? 
Never participated in a tweet chat? No worries. Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help! So stop by to chat for a while, or even just to "listen." We are a fun and supportive group. Join in the fun and "see" you then!


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

#medlibs fall/winter scheduling & open mic

So many awesome ideas! Transcript http://bit.ly/17x2CXi 

Schedules & Open Mic 
Thursday, October 17, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Happy (hopeful) US Government Re-Opening day!

Come prepared both with your ideas AND schedule available to lead chats for your colleagues the rest of 2013 - these weekly topics don't present themselves.

Have ideas for discussion but have never hosted or even participated in a tweetchat before? No problem, plenty of supportive folks are here to help you out. Join in the fun and see you then!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Affordable Care Act Chat

Transcript at http://bit.ly/1fE4x4v 

Libraries and the Affordable Care Act
Thursday, October 10, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat 

First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

Join us for a collaborative discussion hosted by Nikki Dettmar (@eagledawg) on what medical libraries are doing to support information sharing about the Affordable Care Act (ACA). What questions are we receiving from medical professionals and consumers about ACA? How are they the same? How do they differ?

20 Things to Know about the Affordable Care Act is a Washington-state based resource, but most information is still helpful for national information in a plain language 'top 20' format with links to additional resources including a glossary of common ACA terms & acronyms.  Somewhere deep in this resource it mentions it was written with the assistance of the Kaiser Family Foundation - keep an eye for similar ones for your state! Most regions of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine have an ACA page with helpful resources as well. 

Fair notice - I wrote an article for MLA News about ACA way back in August that will be published this month. Please don't laugh at how obsolete it may be given the current environment. I don't remember anymore because my manuscript was stolen along with my laptop. I hope the burglar enjoys it. 

Monday, September 30, 2013

Autumn App Harvest

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/18W3C99 

Thursday, October 3rd, we're talking apps. In case you've missed the FDA Press Release, they announced that:
"The agency intends to exercise enforcement discretion (meaning it will not enforce requirements under the Federal Drug & Cosmetic Act) for the majority of mobile apps as they pose minimal risk to consumers. The FDA intends to focus its regulatory oversight on a subset of mobile medical apps that present a greater risk to patients if they do not work as intended."
The FDA will now only enforce the rules for two types of apps. One is where an app effectively turns a mobile device into a regulated medical device, for example when combined with a case that turns a phone into an electrocardiogram machine.The second is when an app is designed to work alongside an existing regulated device, for example as a tool for inspecting and interpreting an X-ray image.

Theoretically, this could allow for greater innovation among medical app developers. However, there are some studies that have come out stating that some medical apps lack evidence and could ultimately hinder patient outcomes. This concern has even led Apple to request App Developers to provide sources for their medical information.

Some questions I'd like to toss about on Thursday's chat are:
  • What medical apps are you, physicians, residents, nurses, medical and nursing students using?
  • Are there non-medical apps that you're recommending medical staff to consider using?
  • How are you sharing app reviews to library users?
  • How are you promoting apps to your library users?
I'm certain other questions will come up in discussion. Get ready for some 'reading', app sharing, and promotion ideas. I look forward to seeing you on Thursday's #medlibs chat!

Never participated in a Twitter #medlibs chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community. See you Thursday October 3rd, 9pm EST/6pm PST.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

UPDATE: #medlibs + #meded = Better Together


Done, what a great chat! Transcript http://t.co/SApq6JBso8

Affordable Care Act Joint Discussion of JAMA Article Above
Thursday, September 26, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat + #meded

Below are the rough draft questions we'll work on for a focused discussion - please be sure to include both #meded + #medlibs hashtags as you can, or feel free to retweet great links/ideas shared on one with the other hashtag. This is a new experience for both our groups but a great opportunity!

Tweet 1 (~9:05): This wk in @JAMA_current, @jfsollen discusses the evolving role of libraries & #medlibs in healthcare http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1741829 #meded

Tweet 2: With that in mind tonight's chat is a combined effort to get perspectives from both #medlibs & #meded folk!

Tweet 3: TOPIC 1: How could the expertise of #medlibs benefit various levels of #meded, and vice versa?

Tweet 4 (~9:22): TOPIC 2: What are some novel ways #medlibs & academic docs can (or already do) collaborate to improve #meded?
Tweet 5 (~9:38): How should the value of incorporating #medlibs into #meded & pt care teams be studied & measured?


First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

Join us for a collaborative discussion hosted by Nikki Dettmar (@eagledawg) on what medical libraries are doing to support information sharing about the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

20 Things to Know about the Affordable Care Act is a Washington-state based resource, but most information is still helpful for national information in a plain language 'top 20' format with links to additional resources including a glossary of common ACA terms & acronyms.  Somewhere deep in this resource it mentions it was written with the assistance of the Kaiser Family Foundation - keep an eye for similar ones for your state!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Research 101 Research

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/15GrHSw


Research 101 Research
Thursday, September 19, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

In December, Heather Holmes (@LaMedBoheme73) will be conducting the MLA webinar on Research 101 and welcomes your thoughts and perspectives during this #medlibs chat.

What is important to medical librarians in terms of research? The webcast will be 90 minutes and outline Heather is considering includes
  • Define research (versus quality improvement which may be more relevant to hospital librarians)
  • How to ask an answerable question (something often harder for librarians to do than we care to admit)
  • Study methods (also relevant to QI projects)
  • How these areas matter in light of the changing healthcare setting, particularly the Affordable Care Act
  • How to demonstrate value...which no longer means producing stats of how many literature searches were done or ILLs filled...but rather how is the library saving the institution money while improving patient outcomes

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

eScience series: Week 5 of 5

Edit: Transcript available at http://t.co/5FsIDrTIZN

Week 5: Institutional repositories and open access
Thursday, September 12, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Week 1 recap is here, Week 2 recap is here, Week 3 recap is here, Week 4 recap is here

First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

Lisa Palmer (@lapalmer14) and Kate Thornhill (@kate_thornhill) will be facilitating a discussion on open access and institutional repositories.  In the increasingly complex world of scholarly communication, many medical librarians are now engaged in open access initiatives and providing or exploring complementary services such as institutional repositories and research data management.

Topics for discussion will include:

 *  Steps libraries are taking to support open access
 *  Challenges of explaining open access to researchers
 *  Open access and its effect on traditional librarian roles
 *  Role of institutional repositories (IRs) in medical libraries
 *  Challenges of content recruitment for IRs
 *  Utilizing IRs for outreach and collaboration
 *  Measuring impact of repository content (for example, download counts,  altmetrics)
 *  Skills needed by librarians working with scholarly communication, open access, and institutional repositories

Here are some introductory articles and other resources to frame our discussion:

 *  SPARC introduction to open access:  http://www.sparc.arl.org/issues/open-access
 *  Open Access by Peter Suber:  http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hoap/Open_Access_(the_book), especially Chapter 1:
    What is Open Access?
 *  Anatomy of Green Open Access:  http://www.openaccesspublishing.org/apc8/Personal%20VersionGreenOa.pdf
 *  The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper:  http://scholarship.utm.edu/20/
 *  The Critical Role of Institutional Services in Open Access Advocacy:
    http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/8.1.84
 *  Staffing and Workflow of a Maturing Institutional Repository:  http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1063
 *  New Roles, New Responsibilities: Examining Training Needs of Repository Staff:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1051
 *  Altmetrics Manifesto:  http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/
 *  Article-Level Metrics: A SPARC Primer:   http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/sparc-alm-primer.pdf
 *  Riding the Crest of the Altmetrics Wave: How Librarians Can Help Prepare Faculty for the Next Generation of
    Research Impact Metrics:  http://crln.acrl.org/content/74/6/292.long
 *  Competencies Required for Digital Curation: An Analysis of Job Advertisements:
    http://ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/242

The five week schedule includes:

August 15th:  Donna Kafel                            e-Science portal
August 22nd:  Kevin Read                             e-Science thesaurus
August 29th:  Andrew Creamer          New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
Sept. 5: Sally Gore                             Role of the informationist on research teams
Sept. 12:Lisa Palmer & Kate Thornhill   Institutional repositories and open access 

Monday, September 2, 2013

eScience series: Week 4 of 5

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/15HQj8M 

Week 4: Role of the Informationist on Research Teams
Thursday, September, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Week 1 recap is here, Week 2 recap is here, Week 3 recap is here.

First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

Sally Gore (@mandosally) is an embedded research librarian and informationist at the Lamar Soutter Library, UMass Medical School. Since September 2012, she has worked as an informationist on an R01 research study funded by the National Cancer Institute to examine best practices and cost effectiveness for promoting breast cancer screening in non-adherent women. Additionally, she provides information, data and knowledge management services to the Community Engagement Research Section of UMMS’ Center for Clinical and Translational Science, and on the grant-funded project to establish an mHealth Center for the University of Massachusetts.

 During the tweet chat, we’ll focus on the following topics of interest that often come up when discussing the
subject of embedded librarianship and informationists:

  • Just what is an informationist?
  • What makes an embedded librarian different from other roles and models of librarianship?
  • What does it take to be part of a team?
  • What is team science and is there a role for librarians in this new, multi-discipline approach to doing science?
  • What skills make for success?
Sally has written about her experiences the past year on her blog, A Librarian by Any Other Name. If you’re not already a follower of it, giving it a look before the tweet chat may yield some questions and/or points of
discussion for the chat.

The five week schedule includes:

August 15th:  Donna Kafel                            e-Science portal
August 22nd:  Kevin Read                             e-Science thesaurus
August 29th:  Andrew Creamer          New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
Sept. 5: Sally Gore                             Role of the informationist on research teams
Sept. 12:Lisa Palmer & Kate Thornhill   Institutional repositories and open access 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

eScience series: Week 3 of 5

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/16V3MxC 

Week 3: Developing a Research Data Management Curriculum and Course 
Thursday, August 29, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Week 1 recap is here, Week 2 recap is here.

First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

Project Overview

The New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum is a publicly available resource that you are free to take and adapt for your data management teaching needs.

Background

From August 2010 through December 2011, the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the George C. Gordon Library at Worcester Polytechnic Institute collaborated received an IMLS grant to develop an instructional framework  (http://library.umassmed.edu/data_management_frameworks.pdf) for an online research data management course with instructional modules on preserving, managing, and sharing digital data. When implemented, these modules can be delivered to students in science courses at each institution, ranging from first-year science and engineering students, to graduate-level medical, nursing, and biomedical students.

In 2012-2013, the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School partnered with librarians from the Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Northeastern University, Tufts University, and University of Massachusetts at Amherst on a grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region to implement these frameworks, authoring the content necessary for a research data management course to teach essential research data management skills to science and medical researchers. Project deliverables include the content for an online textbook, activities, and lecture slides.

The seven modules are based on the NSF data management plan recommendations and cover an overview, data types and related aspects of records management, metadata, storage, back up, and security, legal and ethical aspects of data management, considerations for data sharing, and preservation.

The curriculum can be adapted in many ways.  Each module could be taught separately or librarians needing a 90-minute overview course can download and adapt module 1.  For those having more time, the curriculum is case based, and the instructor can guide students through a case study and then connect content from each of the modules to support writing a data management plan for that particular case.  Students can then be assigned their own cases and can work independently or in groups to analyze a case and create a data management plan.

Visit here for a sample of the Module 1 Textbook that can be adapted for a 90-minute course:

http://works.bepress.com/andrew_creamer/15/

Visit here for a sample of Module 1 Slides that can be adapted for a 90-minute course:
http://works.bepress.com/andrew_creamer/16/

For an example of what the slides look like customized to an institution, please view this example at UMMS:
http://slidesha.re/14DXkH8


Guiding Questions for Tweet Chat August 29th

What opportunities do we have to embed and teach data management to health sciences students?

Is there an interest in using and adapting these materials?  If so, would you be interested in taking part in an evaluation project?

Would you be interested in expanding and submitting a case study to the collection (original cases can be viewed here: http://library.umassmed.edu/data_management_frameworks.pdf)?

What are the important data management issues we should be covering?

When you adapt the curriculum, what data management planning tools or resources will you recommend for students? (e.g. DMPTool)

What local and institutional resources and contacts do you point your students and faculty to get data management support?

What are the most important data management best practices that we can teach to students?

Save the Date! For upcoming programming on using this resource:

Inaugural e-Science for New England Librarians webinar on October 31, 2013 from 12 -1 pm: Teaching with Module 1 and Writing a Data Management Plan, taught by Regina Raboin, Tufts University


Scientific Research Data Management Professional Development Workshop on November 8, 2013

The Scientific Research Data Management Professional Development Workshop is intended for librarians interested in teaching faculty and students about aspects of managing research data and developing data management plans. It will provide attendees the opportunity to experience a regionally-developed and case-based data management curriculum as learners, and familiarize them with the New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum resources that they can then use for teaching at their own institutions. The workshop will be taught by Elaine Martin, Andrew Creamer, and Donna Kafel, and will be held at the Beechwood Hotel, 363 Plantation St., Worcester (across from the UMMS campus).  Class size will be limited to 40 attendees who will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis.

The five week schedule includes:

August 15th:  Donna Kafel                            e-Science portal
August 22nd:  Kevin Read                             e-Science thesaurus
August 29th:  Andrew Creamer          New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
Sept. 5: Sally Gore                             Role of the informationist on research teams
Sept. 12:Lisa Palmer & Kate Thornhill   Institutional repositoriesand open access

Monday, August 19, 2013

eScience series: Week 2 of 5

Week 2: e-Science Thesaurus
Thursday, August 23, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

Edit: Transcript now available at http://bit.ly/16BtnvB

Week 1 recap is here

First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

Join your colleagues for the second of a five week series presented by the University of Massachusetts Medical School Lamar Soutter Library eligible for Medical Library Association Continuing Education hours (it's not too later to sign up for CE!) where Kevin Read (@ReadKev) will be covering

a) The eScience Thesaurus for Librarians that will be hosted on the eScience Portal website

a 1) Definitions of eScience terminology
a 2) Relevant, seminal literature on eScience topics
a 3) Links to useful resources that can be used to help librarians implement eScience services into their current practice
a 4) Interviews with prominent librarians working in eScience roles

b) A discussion about eScience and data-related roles for librarians

b 1) What areas of eScience are most daunting for #medlibs?
b 2) What areas of eScience do #medlibs find the most interesting?
b 3) What areas of eScience would #medlibs like to learn more about?
b 4) What are some of the perceived challenges of learning about and implementing eScience and data-related services (e.g. time, subject knowledge)?
b 5) How could #medlibs reach out within their institutions to find out if there are opportunities for collaboration?
b 6) Do you see a place for eScience and data-services within your own institution?

The five week schedule includes:

August 15th:  Donna Kafel                            e-Science portal
August 22nd:  Kevin Read                             e-Science thesaurus
August 29th:  Andrew Creamer          New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
Sept. 5: Sally Gore                             Role of the informationist on research teams
Sept. 12:Lisa Palmer & Kate Thornhill   Institutional repositoriesand open access

Monday, August 12, 2013

eScience Series: Week 1 of 5

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1cRby0D

Week 1: e-Science Portal for New England Librarians
Thursday, August 15, 2013
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time
#medlibs Twitter chat

First Twitter chat and not sure what to do? Here's a Quick Guide to Twitter Chats to help!

Join your colleagues for the first of a five week series presented by the University of Massachusetts Medical School Lamar Soutter Library eligible for Medical Library Association Continuing Education hours (more on that at the bottom of this post) where we will be discussing the e-Science Portal for New England Librarians (http://esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu/index) and the e-Science Community blog
(http://esciencecommunity.umassmed.edu/).

On this first night of the series, Donna Kafel will officially guest host on her Twitter account (@dmkafel) but will mention @NERescience and how it is used to communicate news/events and relevant information. Topics Donna plans to cover include:

1. The portal's purpose--to provide librarians with the tools, knowledge and skills to effectively participate in networked science.

2.  The portal's intended audience:  librarians working in research organizations that generate, share, store and/or use data for basic scientific research in the health, biological, and physical sciences. Donna will also note that we will be revising the portal scope statement to include library/ischool students in addition to working librarians.

3. Key sections of the portal where librarians can access specific information such as Funders' requirements, research lifecycles, repositories, courses and professional development opportunities, and the e-Science Community blog . The blog provides information on upcoming news and events and provides a platform for reviews and commentaries.

4. "Events for New England Librarians" that are posted on the home page of the portal and discuss them:  the annual e-Science symposium, professional development days, and the Science Boot Camp.

5. Their editorial board's plans to restructure the portal so that librarians who are doing specific work such as data management consulting, developing data repositories, or teaching research data management can easily find the tools they need. 

The five week schedule includes:

August 15th:  Donna Kafel                            e-Science portal
August 22nd:  Kevin Read                             e-Science thesaurus
August 29th:  Andrew Creamer          New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
Sept. 5: Sally Gore                             Role of the informationist on research teams
Sept. 12:Lisa Palmer & Kate Thornhill   Institutional repositoriesand open access


Medical Library Association Continuing Education (MLA CE) Hours
by Nikki Dettmar @eagledawg

Interested in earning between 5 to 8 hours of MLA CE (sorry, no partial hours awarded) for participation in the #medlibs eScience series for free to $5? Please register at this link during the series (now through September 12th). The registration link has specific details on what actions participants need to take in order for CE hours to be awarded.

Why so many variables? As most of us know how vacation schedules go during the month of August, some specifics are still being worked out with the Medical Library Association but one thing is certain: I have applied for and MLA has pre-approved this eScience series for CE, which is a very new and exciting development I am thrilled to announce. Any costs collected would go directly to MLA per the specifications of their Discussion Group Program. I am volunteering my time as convener for all program coordination, verification of participation, administration of evaluations and issuance of CE on my own non-work time because I believe so strongly in this new venue of professional development for our field.

I will update with more specific details when they are known, and thanks for your support!




Friday, August 2, 2013

Chat on Emerging Technologies

Edit: Transcript available at bit.ly/134ASg4

The Medical Library Association (MLA) has created a team to examine the question of emerging technologies in medical librarianship, from what tech we should be aware of  to support our communities and profession to what tech we should know and use as professional competencies. 
Please help us by participating in this chat hosted by the medical librarians Twitter community, #medlibs, Thursday, August 8th 9:00 PM Eastern/6:00 PM Pacific for one hour. The chat transcript will be available for reference afterwards in an edit to this post.

Here is the official question we've been assigned:

"The explosion of information, expanding of technology (especially mobile technology), and complexity of healthcare environment present medical librarians and medical libraries opportunities and challenges. To live up with the opportunities and challenges, what kinds of skill sets or information structure do medical librarians or medical libraries are required to have or acquire so as to be strong partners or contributors of continuing effectiveness to the changing environment?" 

Who we are: 

Our ETech Mindmap: 
http://www.mindmeister.com/275111357/mla-emerging-technologies

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Open mic #medlibs chat

Edit: Transcript available at http://t.co/oEmxq8MozC  covering our busy fall plans, a helpful resource, statistics in medicine and more! 

What's on your mind and your schedule as we head into August?

Join in the Twitter conversation on #medlibs Thursday, August 1st at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific time!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Library Services vs. Library Space - handle with care

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/15jnYbN 


In these days of online resources, physical library space is of diminishing importance.  So to surrender some library space for some other purpose should not be so bad as it might have been in the days of paper.  But if such a change is not handled carefully (or is rushed), problems can result.  I have been through this experience once already, losing journal storage space, and scrambling to keep only the print journal issues not duplicated online or on microfiche.  In the next "6 to 8 weeks", I will likely lose the library "work room" - which houses the same journal issues rescued from the lost storage space.  On July 25 (9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT), we'll discuss the pitfalls of the process, how best to avoid them, and perhaps how to improve conditions in the end. 

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Professional Development and Staff Training - 7/18

Edit: Transcript available at  

This Thursday, July 18, we'll chat about professional development and staff training. While I don't imagine it being very formal, here are some questions to think about:
-In the current healthcare/economic climate, have you lost support for your own and/or your staff's professional development?
-What resources are you using for staff training/professional development? Have you had any good results with MOOCs or other free resources? What do you recommend?
-Is there anything MLA should/could be doing, knowing that fewer libraries probably have resources even for paid MLA trainings?
-Anybody doing anything interesting for staff training? In any specific areas like leadership, genetics, or special topics?

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Social Media and Consumer Health Information and Patient Education

Edit: Transcript available at  

Tomorrow I will be moderating the #medlibs chat and we will discuss the use of social media for patient education and consumer health.  72% of adults seek medical information online, and between 26-34% (depending on various reports) of people use social media to find health information.  The thought is the trend will continue to grow.
I will be asking these questions (I'm giving them to you ahead of time so you can think about them):
  • How are librarians using social media to provide consumer health information or patient education?
  • How do you measure the effectiveness of a social media health information campaign?
  • What are some barriers to providing patient education/consumer health information via social media?
#medlibs is a active group with lots of ideas and opinions so I am sure we will have more questions as we discuss things, but this is these are the main ones to get us started.

See you all online Thursday July 11, 2013 at 6pm PST and 9pm EST.

*Disclosure Notice*
I am writing a book chapter on this topic and this #medlibs discussion will help me with it.  I may use some tweets or reference parts of the #medlibs chat in the chapter.  I don't want to squelch the overall fun chattiness of the group.  If I use anything I will only refer to tweets that are specifically related to the discussion topic and I will make every effort to let you know I am using your tweet.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

#medlibs chat for 6/27/2013 Reputation Management

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/1ajX4F2 (feel better soon & thanks Kimberley! - Nikki) 

Hi, everybody!

My apologies for the lateness of this post, but work swamped me and I am passing a kidney stone so a visit to the doctor and then the pharmacy was very much in order :)

Tonight's topic is on reputation management, a subject that should be of concern to everyone (and one that is becoming a huge business).

I teach a CE class on this topic for members of the UVA Health System at least once per semester. Please find the notes for the latest iteration of the class here. It might be helpful to skim through these before the chat (in the little time that I've left you!) so that I can answer any questions.

I also do individual consults on the topic and am very proud of the fact that, upon my recommendation and the strength of the facts that I presented, the UVA Health System is working towards a contract with a reputation management company.

Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS
Manager for Technology Education & Computing
Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
University of Virginia

Friday, June 21, 2013

Open mic #medlibs summary - July 20th



Last night was another open mic night on #medlibs. 

Transcript here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/k97mjul

Topics included summer projects, taking a face to face class online, crowdsourcing and ageism.

Join us next Thursday, July 27th, 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern for a discussion on Reputation Management with @KRBarker.


Thursday, June 13, 2013

Open Mic/Summer Planning

Future Topics discussed June 14, 2013 - transcript http://bit.ly/151UVXg with more ideas to be pulled from it soon. Please commit by filling in the form below our Schedule so Nikki can add you to blog + Google calendar, and thanks!





Monday, June 3, 2013

Information Professionals in the Bioinformatics Realm: what we need to know?

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/13fmLQn

After attending the Woods Hole BioMedical Informatics course last week at the beautiful Marine Biological Laboratory, it makes one think where/how librarians and information professionals fit into it all.

Some topics to consider...
  • Where exactly can we contribute the most to bioinformatics?
  • How do we get involved with the EHRs and EMRs at our institutions?
  • The importance of usability and UX design in organizing healthcare data
  • How do we market our expertise in the growing field of informatics?
  • The national agenda and policy on health information technology
  • Semantic and relational databases for enhanced information retrieval
  • Lobsters :)  
Here are links to my Google Doc notes from each day/lecture (Day 1 was just a reception and welcome talk so the notes start on day 2):
  • Day 2 - What is Biomedical Informatics?, Database and Terminology, Semantic Medline
  • Day 3 - Mathematical Modeling, Clinical Decision Support (CDS)
  • Day 4 - Genetics and Genomics, Clinical Informatics Research
  • Day 5 - Care Provider Order Entry (CPOE), Infobuttons, Human Computer Interaction
  • Day 6 - National Health IT, Meaningful Use, Health Info. Exchange, Telehealth

I hope you can join us this Thursday, June 6 at 6pm PST (9pm EST) for this special #medlibs chat!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

What is the Future of Health Librarianship? led by Dean Giustini

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/11EYYwo

At the 2013 CHLA/ABSC (Canadian Health Libraries Association) Conference in Saskatoon, the delegates tried a new type of discussion forum called a fishbowl. The main question that we sought to answer was: “What is the Future of Health Librarianship?” See the recap: http://www.chla-absc.ca/node/1258

Here are the #medlibs directions for our Thursday May 30th at 6pm PST (9pm EST)


  • Where are we going in health librarianship? and how are we going to get there? 
  • Many of our colleagues are facing budget cutbacks and library closures; so what will become of the one-librarian hospital library? 
  • Both UBC and McGill in Canada are closing (or contemplating the closure of) medical libraries. 
  •  Let us know what you think are the biggest threats / opportunities for health librarians in the next few years. 
  • Join us for this inspired tweet chat (sure to be spirited) about the future of our field...


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

#medlibs daiquiri: flipped classroom/blended learning

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/131gqrI 

Thursday, May 21st get ready to imbibe the #medlibs daiquiri frappé. Take 1.5 oz light-dry teaching methods, the juice of 1 instructional designer, 1 tsp assessment, some crushed ice, 10 drops of librarian know-how and set the  blender to learn. Molly Knapp & Amy Blevins host.

Definitions, examples, links after the jump

Thursday, May 9, 2013

One Health

Edit: Transcript http://bit.ly/15uop6l 

Join us Thursday, May 9 2013 at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific for  #medlibs Twitter chat about the One Health federated international meeting that just wrapped up in Boston yesterday. What sparked your interest? What new collaborations came from networking there? What was your favorite new beer? Did you carry around a quart of hand sanitizer to lunch after Laurie Garrett's alarming (on so many levels) lecture?


Catch up on the news from our fabulous official bloggers, the conference hashtag (#mlanet13), and the Top Tech Trends program (#mlattt)


Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community. Your host for the chat (Nikki Dettmar @eagledawg) is happy to answer your questions on how to participate and plenty of others are watching to help too. See you there!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Business of Hospital Libraries

Edit: Transcript now available at http://bit.ly/10goPE9 

Join us tomorrow April 25th for a #medlibs Twitter chat at 6pm Pacific/9 Eastern on the topic of the business of hospital libraries, hosted by Michelle Kraft (@Krafty).

The Affordable Care Act has changed the way hospitals are reimbursed for medicare patients.  In the past hospitals made more money off of patients who were readmitted for things they were orginally discharged with.  Now, they are penalized for readmissions happening within 1 month of discharge for certain conditions.  This means that a lot of hospitals are going to be seeing losses of millions of dollars.
Where does the library stand in the face of these losses when technology has changed the way we search for things and users often search Google before asking a librarian. 
The librarian needs to get lean and mean and start operating his/her library like a hospital department that is responsible for achieving the specific goals of the hospital.  So if the hospital's goal is to reduce readmissions by x% then the librarian needs to figure out specifically how the library can help the hospital do that. (If your answer is I can give them more literature searches, then think again because that won't help you keep your job because administrators think they can do that already.) 

This tweet chat will discuss the various ways librarians can specifically show their worth to their own administration instead of passivley pointing to some standard or study illustrating the need for a hospital library.  We will be discussing ideas of what we can do to answer our administration's always constant question "What have you done for me lately and why should I give you money instead of another department?"  The game has changed and we need to change our strategy.

Here are some resources that I know will pop up during the discussion.


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Boston Marathon: Serving disaster information needs

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/13lrh06 

Select resources shared

What do you do when your library is impacted by events, such as this week's tragedy at the Boston marathon (edit: and West, TX chemical explosion...) that had hospital and public librarians in the area reeling?

Join us on Thursday, April 18th at 9pm Eastern time on Twitter for the #medlibs chat to discuss this with the National Library of Medicine Disaster Information Management Research Center (@NLM_DIMRC), which is a great place to start looking for tools and information to supplement your local resources and services. We will also have Myrna Morales (@SeerGenius) and Michelle Eberle (@MichelleEberle) from the New England Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, who were both at the Boston Marathon. NN/LM can work with you to partner you up with buddy libraries and help you deal with the emotional impact. You are never alone when a disaster of any level hits.

Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community. Your host for the chat (Nikki Dettmar @eagledawg) is happy to answer your questions on how to participate, and you may want to see the information and transcript from our November 5, 2012 chat with DIMRC about Hurricane Sandy as well. We look forward to having you join us!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

So you want to be a medical librarian?

Edit: Transcript available http://bit.ly/10XplIn 

Join us Thursday April 11th, for a #medlibs Twitter chat at 6pm Pacific/9 Eastern on the topic of becoming a medical librarian, hosted by Kate Flewelling (@flewkate).

Experienced librarians: What's the best career advice you ever got? What was your path to medical librarianship?  What skills do you look for when hiring a new librarian?  New and aspiring medical librarians: Bring your career questions!  

Some resources to get the discussion rolling:

Cleveland AD. Miles to go before we sleep: education, technology, and the changing paradigms in health information. J Med Libr Assoc. 2011 Jan;99(1):61-9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3016652/ (Dr. Cleveland's inspiring and challenging 2010 Janet Doe lecture on the current and future training needs for health information professionals)

MLA Career Center: http://www.mlanet.org/career/

Why I Won't Hire You http://www.liscareer.com/wilcox_wonthire.htm (not specifically medical but one of my all-time favorite career advice articles)

Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat before? Check out this overview and join the fun!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

#medlibs support and involvement with clinical and translational science

Edit: Lots of great explanations and links in the transcript, available at http://bit.ly/14RO73m 

Join us tomorrow, Thursday April 4th, for a #medlibs Twitter chat at 6pm Pacific/9 Eastern on the topic of CTSAs and libraries, hosted by Kristi Holmes (@kristiholmes).

Clinical and Translational Science: What is it? Where can I learn more information? How can libraries get involved? What types of library-based activities are already happening? What about libraries and CTSAs?

We invite everyone to join, no matter your perspective. We’ll be able to ask questions about this growing area for libraries and learn about service areas. We'll have a variety of great examples of ways that different types of libraries have begun to offer support and collaboration in this area. Best of all, we can share and learn from our colleagues who may already be working in this area to get their perspectives (at CTSA-awarded and CTSA-minded institutions – which is pretty much everywhere!)

Come join us! Share your questions! Share your experiences and tips! Share your goals and challenges! You can even share your favorite flavor of ice cream.

Helpful background information:
 Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat before? Check out this overview and join the fun!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

#medlibs cornucopia: NIH Public access policy, (alt)metrics, flipped classrooms/blended learning

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/YiLvaM 

This week on the #medlibs chat, a cornucopia of topics, including

1. The NIH Public Access Policy
2. (alt)metrics
3. Flipped classrooms/blended learning (later in April)

Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat before? Check out this overview and join the Thursday night smorgasbord with your favorite beverage in hand.

Click through for details on the 3 topics, plus linkage

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Open mic night

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/14ckf14 

This will truly be an open free range chat as lead moderator Nikki Dettmar (@eagledawg) will be off the grid for this week's chat on Thursday, March 21st at 9pm Eastern/6 Pacific! What's on your mind, #medlibs?

Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Chat with the Ambulance Riding Librarian

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/Z2wIwz

This Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific join Nikki Dettmar (@eagledawg) as she welcomes Kacy Allgood (@AmbRidLibrarian), who blogs as Adventures of an Ambulance Riding Librarian!

From Kacy's entry:
Want to know who my stakeholders are?  What types of value-added services I provide? The best and worst things I've seen at this job? Ask and find out!  Don't have a question, but want to read along to see how many bad jokes I can make in 140 characters?  Then please join us.  Not a librarian?  That's great too!  EMS and all other professions & related questions welcome.
Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community. Extra bonus points if you bring beverages to share, we talk about those a lot.