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VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
Gems & Pearls
Inside...
Conference Reports from CHLA and cyberspaceTechnology tips: Weblogging and SocialbookmarkingMember profile: Linda interviews Julie Mason
HLABC FORUM
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 2
2006/07 HLABC
Executive
President
Karen MacDonell
Vice President
Diana Hall
Secretary
Vicki Lee
Treasurer
Anne Allgaier
FORUM
Krista Clement
Guest editor:
Teresa Lee
Website Committee
Robert Melrose
Robyn Joy Ingvallsen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Treasurer’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Website Committee Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
AGM Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Reports on the CHLA/ABSC 2006 Conference
How to... Live to Tell the Tale! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A Word to the Wise - It's Worry that Kills, Not Work! . . . 8
Information Literacy Expectations and Perceptions . . . . 10
A Collections View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
An Open Letter to Cool Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Bioinformatics: a Mini Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Discover the Leader in You! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
To the Beat of Our Own Drum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Everyone's Two Cents (Survey) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Technology
Weblogging for Health Librarians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
del.icio.us: A Social Bookmarking System . . . . . . . . . . 22
Getting to Know You: Julie Mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A Conference in Cyberspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Forum is published quarterly by the Health Libraries Association of BC
ISSN: 0826-0125
Submissions and story ideas are welcomed.
Publication is not guaranteed and manuscripts may be edited.
Contact the publisher:
Krista Clement
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 250-762-3700
For HLABC membership information, visit our website at www.hlabc.bc.ca or write to:
Anne Allgaier, Treasurer/Membership
Library, Prince George Regional Hospital
1475 Edmonton St. Prince George, BC V2M 1S2
email [email protected]
Fees are $25.00 (regular) or $15.00 (student, maximum 2 years) and include the
Forum.
HLABC FORUM Page 3
What we learned:"Change is an ever presentelement in our life and inour work. Librarians needto learn to liewith it."
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGEKaren MacDonell, President, HLABC & Librarian/Co-Manager, College of Physicians &
Surgeons of BC
2005-2006 proved to be a year of furious effort in the building of important
library initiatives, namely the 30th annual Canadian Health Library Conference
and the Electronic Health Library of British Columbia, e-HLbc. This coming year
offers all the opportunities and challenges that those initiatives promised. The
CHLA Conference was organized and presented by a highly motivated and
capable team led by Cathy Rayment. Congratulations to the many HLABC
members who contributed to the success of the conference, both by helping to
organize and host it or through their attendance or presentation of their
research.
The challenge now lies in applying the gems we gathered from the conference in
our everyday lives, both professionally and personally. This may involve stopping
an accepted way of doing something and assessing the effect (maybe it wasn't
working to begin with!) as suggested by Sherrilynne Fuller, diving into the abyss
and building a service for a user group that didn't exist before, as did Megan
Crouch, or as Shelley Hourston presented, reaching out to fellow librarians when
things are rocky and you need to shore up your resilience. The Conference also
touched on issues of user training, consortia building, programme evaluation and
IT implementation, which are core issues for the inaugural year of the Electronic
Health Library of British Columbia, e-HLbc.
The HLABC Executive will dedicate a fair bit of our continuing education efforts
this year to helping HLABC members maximize the usefulness of the eHLbc
resources, in accordance with a motion carried at the Spring Annual General
Meeting. For example, a plan is in the works for a workshop that will focus on
new approaches to training users and offer an opportunity for sharing our
experiences with library service promotion and implementation of this new
initiative.
I am looking forward to a year of working with terrific HLABC Executive
members, Diana Hall, Anne Allgaier, Vicki Lee, Teresa Prior, Robert Melrose and
Robyn Ingvallsen (who is graciously standing in for Robert this summer) and hope
to see you at upcoming HLABC meetings and events.
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 4
What we’re gonna doabout it:"I would like to prepare acopyright info sheet formy organization. And Iwant to learn Taikodrumming…"
EDITORIALTeresa Lee, Librarian, Woodward Library, UBC
I have delighted in reading the articles, updates, reports and news items
submitted by colleagues in BC. Many of the articles here comment on the
recent CHLA/ABSC conference in Vancouver in various thoughtful – and often
humorous – ways. By all accounts, CHLA/ABSC 2006 Pearls of Wisdom was a
hit! We in BC should be proud of bringing together health library professionals
from all over the country and beyond in a gathering that was marked by
excitement, new ideas, and collegiality.
A conference may take place once a year, but hopefully the connections we
make will endure. Undoubtedly one of the best things about this profession is
its community of professionals. Here's to conference connections!
TREASURER'S REPORTAnne Allgaier, Librarian, Northern Health Authority
Anne. [email protected]
May 31, 2006
Memberships
Lifetime members: 7
New Members: 3
Sandra Barron
Brenda Chenosky
Danell Clay
Renewed for 2006-07: 45
Membership Total 48
Bank Balance $9,898.41
Mutual Fund Balance $1,736.98
TOTAL $10,328.06
HLABC FORUM Page 5
What we learned:"I now know how I coulduse a WIKI / RSS feeds inmy worklife!"
WEBSITE COMMITTEE REPORTRobert Melrose, Librarian, Down Syndrome Research Foundation
Robyn-Joy Ingvallsen, Royal Columbian Hospital
The past year has seen several changes to the HLABC website; we added both
member only access, and an executive only access portion of the site. We have
also joined the world of wikis. Current HLABC members create their username
and password via the splash page of the website (http://www.hlabc.bc.ca/).
Once the membership is confirmed the username and password are accepted by
the system, which then permits access to HLABC minutes, the membership
directory and to the handouts provided by our guest speakers. The website also
had a second level of access created in the past year, an executive only portion.
The HLABC executive section is limited to the members of the current
executive. This section holds HLABC working documents, the minutes template,
our logo in a variety of formats and other files that the executive need to share.
The username and password created for the executive provide them access to
both the membership and executive sections of the site.
Another change to the site has been an upgrade to the content management
system (Typo3) used for mounting the information The upgrade will be better
able to prevent unauthorized access and to detect viruses or bugs. As the
upgrade was applied to the back end of the site there is no change in the public
view. All files were transferred to a new server during the upgrade but please
contact the website committee if you find any of the previous files missing.
HLABC has also launched a wiki at http://hlabc.pbwiki.com. This site has been
created for easy collaboration between members of the Health Libraries
Association of BC (HLABC), as well as members of the Canadian health library
community interested in sharing information and knowledge. Wikis are
collaborative software that allows sharing without unnecessary cluttering up of
your e-mail inbox. To find out more about wikis, go to Wikipedia: Wikis. Or to
find out more about how to edit a wiki, go to WikiStyle at
http://yummy.pbwiki.com/WikiStyle. To edit information, contact the web
committee for password access. Feel free to create a page regarding any HLABC
(or related library) project, or email the web committee at
robyn.ingvallsen-at-fraserhealth.ca to set it up for you!
The website committee has also taken on the role of Forum co-ordinator. This
role involves seeking out guest editors, establishing the submission deadlines and
synchronizing the file transfer between the guest editor and layout editor. This
year the Forum editors were Marjory Jardine for the Fall/Winter edition and
Teresa Lee for the Spring/Summer edition. Krista Clement has been our layout
editor. Thanks to our guest editors and to our layout editor for the wonderful
job they have done with the Forum this past year. Any HLABC member can be a
guest editor, so please consider being the guest editor for the next Fall/Winter
edition of the Forum. Contact either Robert or Robyn for further details.
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 6
What we’re gonna doabout it:"Practise more evidencebased librarianship –read, critically appraise,do research…"
HIGHLIGHTS
Annual General Meeting – May 16, 2006
Teresa Lee, Librarian, Woodward Library, UBC. [email protected]
Watch HLABC listserv for full Meeting Minutes
1. Teresa Prior reviewed the past year's highlights and announced Krista
Clement as the winner of the newly renamed C.W (Bill) Fraser Professional
Development Grant.
2. Teresa Prior also presented the treasurer's report in place of Anne Allgaier.
She noted that HLABC has a large balance.
3. Robert Melrose gave an update on improvements to the HLABC website,
and on the Forum, thanking Marjory Jardine for guest editing the winter issue.
4. Robert Melrose also relayed news about the HLABC History Project which
Lee Perry will supervise. Shirley Lew of SLAIS will assist with recruiting a
student who wishes to complete this as a professional experience project.
5. Charlotte Beck reported on the CHLA Board Meeting. She will continue as
board secretary for another 2 years. She noted that NNLH roundtables are
moving ahead.
6. Cathy Rayment gave a CHLA conference report and thanked the planning
committee. The conference was a great success.
7. New executive for 2006-2007 were welcomed: Karen MacDonell as the new
President, Diana Hall as Vice-President/President Elect. Vicki Lee will
continue as Secretary, Anne Allgaier as Treasurer, Robert Melrose and Robyn
Ingvallsen on the Website Committee, and Krista Clement as Forum Editor.
8. Teresa Prior reported on the official launch of eHLbc on May 16, 2006. John
Gilbert and George Eisler were in attendance. HLABC members who worked
over the years to make this happen were gratified to see their efforts finally
come to fruition. HLABC committed to sponsoring some training sessions
related to the rollout of eHLbc by December.
HLABC FORUM Page 7
What we learned:"From the keynote speakerDr. Fuller I was remindedthat libraries should try toprovide answersto questions, not just listsof resources that mightpotentially be useful."
REPORTS ON THE CHLA/ABSC 2006 CONFERENCE
HOW TO PLAN A SUCCESSFUL CONFERENCE (AND LIVE TO TELL THE
TALE!)Cathy Rayment, CHLA/ABSC 2006 Conference Planning Committee Chair & Head of
Library Services, BC Cancer Agency. [email protected]
Start the planning process way before the event! A year-and-a-half is just barely
enough time,especially in a popular place like Vancouver, where hotel venues
often get booked years inadvance. We held our first official planning meeting on
Sept. 23, 2004 – twenty months beforethe event, and we'd already been doing
work well before this!
Recruit a large group of creative, collaborative, well-organized, hard-working,
self-motivated people to do all the actual work. (I have more adjectives and
superlatives that I could reel off, but you get the picture.) The larger the
committee, the better. A large committee can be harder for the Chair to
manage, but they do get the job done. Our final conference planning committee
had 20 people, of whom 12 had been involved since the first formal meeting.
Seek advice from others. Talk to previous conference planning committees, and
read their reports. Read the conference planning manual. Talk to the Board
members. The conference planning experience varies from year to year, but
much of the process has been documented by others, so use their expertise
whenever possible.
Hold regular conference planning meetings. An email listserv is a huge blessing
(and also a curse!) for conference planning, but meeting face-to-face is
essential. We held a total of seventeen planning meetings – monthly after the
first couple of widely-spaced meetings, and moving to bi-weekly in the last few
months. Meetings help a large group keep focused, and talking about issues in
person serves to clarify and resolve issues. Do set timelines for meeting agendas,
and try to keep the discussion to the time limits. Serve refreshments whenever
possible!
Communicate, communicate, and communicate! A committee that talks
frequently stays together… and will still be talking to each other by the time the
conference takes place. A dedicated planning committee listserv is a must, and
committee members have to be prepared to read ALL the emails. (You may want
to ask your IT dept. for the largest mailbox size possible, as a lot of
document-sharing goes on.) A private website for the planning committee to
store documents, minutes and other useful information is a terrific asset.
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 8
What we’re gonna doabout it:"Stay on top oftechnology."
Remember to celebrate your successes – all the way along. Each planning
sub-committee has peak activity levels and accomplishments happening at
different times, so don't forget to toast the little triumphs that occur
throughout the process. If you can celebrate throughout, it makes the going a
bit easier. Have a BIG party at the end.
Conference planning begins and ends with the people involved, and ultimately
the committee is what made the conference planning process memorable for
me. Meeting regularly with the planning committee for the past twenty
months has given me a chance to get to know these talented colleagues in a
way that workplace and professional meetings haven't allowed. This must be
the truest sign of a successful conference planning committee…that you'll miss
one another after the conference ends!
A WORD TO THE WISE - IT'S WORRY THAT KILLS, NOT WORK!Charlotte Beck, Librarian, Woodward Library, UBC
One day back in 2004 I agreed to chair the Continuing Education
Subcommittee for the 2006 CHLA/ABSC conference. The next day, while
questioning my sanity, I realized I had been beguiled by the persuasive powers
of Planning Committee Chair, Cathy Rayment, and panic set in.
In which I cross a number of bridges – all of which appear to be burning.
What if we couldn't find any suitable topics? What if the instructors agreed to
teach but failed to show up? What if we couldn't find any suitable and
affordable computer labs? What if we offered the courses, but no one
registered?
In which I realize that many hands make light work.
My first worry proved groundless. My CHLA/ABSC Board responsibilities would
rule out full-time participation in final preparations of the simultaneous CE
events and a co-chair was called for. Christine Marton volunteered and when
she needed to move back to Toronto, Teresa Lee stepped up to the plate to
take on the coordination of the contracts, CE facilities and food breaks, and
the supervision of volunteer monitors. So now there were three co-chairs!
In which I take lessons from the past
Drawing on information from the previous conferences, surveys and on
personal recommendations, we divided the list of key topics of interest among
the co-chairs. Finding instructors for the majority of the courses was not the
problem I had anticipated. Most of the targeted presenters were willing and
available, and contracts were prepared for 13 courses.
HLABC FORUM Page 9
What we learned:"Sarah Greenley'spresentation analysing thepros and cons ofsystematic searching vs.literaturesurveillance waselucidating."
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
In the end we offered 12 courses, 5 of which required computer labs. As the
hotel was providing the meeting rooms, our preference was to use UBC Robson,
SFU or BCIT downtown facilities. Unfortunately, these spaces could not be
reserved until about 2 months before the conference andthe nerves could not
withstand this uncertainty. We provisionally booked lab space on the UBC
campus, which was a good thing as our preferred choice, UBC Robson, turned
out to be unavailable for the Friday classes.
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.
By March 2006 we had finalized the slate of courses, confirmed commitments
from instructors and paid down-payments on facilities. Now, would people
register? The Toronto conference report was released and judging by their
actual CE attendance numbers, we'd over-anticipated registration by 50%! Slow
registration kept me awake in the wee hours of the morning and it looked as
though we would have to cancel half the workshops. However, on April 7th, the
deadline for early bird registration fees, 4 courses became fully booked and we
had to scramble to close off online registration. By Conference time the
remainder of the courses exceeded their break-even targets and normal sleep
patterns returned!
Give credit where credit is due
From the start the first-rate hotel facilities and keen staff, the catchy slogan,
and the professionally designed and eye-catching logo all combined to give
impetus to the planning. The Conference Planning Manual and previous planning
committee reports were invaluable in providing clear timelines and insightful
tips. But most important of all was working with a dedicated group of people,
my co-chairs and the planning committee, all equally committed to making the
conference a success. This was the best antidote to an overactive imagination
and the unjustified fear of an apocalypse.
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 10
What we’re gonna doabout it:"Change the way I viewleadership activities.Encourage my coworkersand myself to ‘lead fromthe ranks' more often."
INFORMATION LITERACY EXPECTATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS: A
COMPARISON OF MEDICAL SCHOOL FACULTY AND STUDENTS.*
Presented by Lindsay Glynn and Sue Fahey at the Canadian Health Libraries
Association 2006 Annual Conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada.Ana Rosa Blue, Librarian, Lions Gate Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health Library
Services, [email protected]
What is information literacy? The American Library Association offers the
following definition: Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring
individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to
locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." "Information
literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines,
to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables
learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more
self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning."
Sue Fahey and Lindsay Glynn set out to investigate information literacy
expectations and perceptions of faculty and students in the Faculty of
Medicine at Memorial University. The object of their survey was to determine
what information literacy skills faculty expect, and perceive, medical
students to possess by the end of their 1st and 4th years of medical school,
and conversely, what information literacy skills medical students expect, and
perceive, they should have acquired by the end of their 1st and 4th years of
medical school.
Memorial University offers no information literacy component in its
curriculum. Nonetheless, at the start of 2006 Fahey and Glynn collected data
via two surveys sent to 243 students and 200 full-time faculty. The anonymous
online surveys ran for 3 weeks. Fahey and Glynn identified 60 competencies in
the following areas: general, PubMed, Cochrane, evidence-based medicine,
ethics and copyright, PDAs, and the Internet. The surveys went out by e-mail,
and the systems office looked after the coding and responses. Analysis of
survey results was done in SPSS by a biostatistician.
The response rate was 7.2% for faculty and 9.2% for students. Glynn and Fahey
puzzled over the low rates, because the expected return rate was 20%. They
speculated that perhaps the surveys were too long, that insufficient reminders
were sent, or the surveys were viewed as unimportant and therefore ignored.
Of the faculty members who did respond, a significant number selected "no
response" to many of the competencies. This was perhaps due to faculty
members' not understanding the questions, not knowing the answer, or simply
quitting before they reached the end.
HLABC FORUM Page 11
What we learned:“ Adult learners have anaverage attention span of12 to 20 minutes, then youneed to try another methodof presentation! (From JanJohnson's ce session onteaching tips)”
Two trends were noted: 1) Students had higher expectations of themselves than
did faculty. 2) Students expected to obtain most competencies early in their
education, whereas faculty expected competencies to be gained by the end of
4th year of medical school or in residency.
Despite low response rates, the survey increased the visibility of the library and
led to greater contact between librarians and faculty, resulting in a library
lecture and an assignment being added to the curriculum in the community
health course.
The next steps identified by the authors are to identify actual skill and abilities,
develop competency standards, conduct a similar study in Pharmacy and
Nursing, and compare results with other medical schools. Fahey and Glynn
calculate that it might take 5 – 10 years to carry out these activities. The
authors plan to publish a more comprehensive report of this survey in the
future.
This study captures student and faculty perceptions at one Canadian university.
It will be interesting to read the final report and to see how other medical
schools compare.
* This is a condensed version of an article to appear in The One Person Library,
v. 23, no. 3, July 2006. By permission.
--------
American Library Association, "Presidential Committee on Information Literacy.
Final Report." (Chicago: American Library Association, 1989).
<http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/presidential.htm>.
Accessed on 19 May 2006.
American Library Association, "Information Literacy Competency Standards for
Higher Education." Chicago: American Library Association, 2000, p.2.
Sue Fahey is a reference/instruction librarian, and co-ordinator of the
Newfoundland and Labrador Health Knowledge Information Network. She has a
special interest in information literacy and the role it plays in the delivery of
health. Lindsay Glynn is an instruction coordinator at the Health Sciences Library
at Memorial University. Co-founder and Associate Editor of Evidence Based
Library and Information Practice, Glynn is completing a graduate diploma in
clinical epidemiology. <http://www.chla-absc.ca/2006/>. Accessed on 15 May
2006.
Canadian Health Libraries Association 2006 Conference website,
<http://www.chla-absc.ca/2006/>. Accessed on 15 May 2006.
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 12
What we’re gonna doabout it:“ Find a creative way toget information to morepeople in the hospital. ....Read all the handouts Ireceived Create a list ofall the websites that Ihave never heard of andvisit them”
Editor - ALL? Ambitious!
A COLLECTIONS VIEWLee Perry, Reference/History of Medicine/Collections Librarian, Woodward Library,
UBC
How does a collections librarian profit from going to CHLA? I asked myself this
question as I was thinking about my conference experience. A bit of reflection
and a perusal of all the notes I'd taken revealed that it was indeed a
worthwhile experience for me. The role the vendors play in our annual
meeting is responsible for this to a large extent, although I certainly gleaned
some useful tidbits from contributed papers by librarians as well.
For a collections librarian the vendors at the conference are a great resource.
I went armed with several questions, particularly about pricing on specific
eresources. Very seldom can a large institution get this information without
asking directly; the website will give ‘contact us' information only and email
inquiries often result in a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. But I got direct answers
from the McGraw-Hill representative, and others, which pleased me. And I
discovered interesting things. I have been feeling badly for about two years
about UBC's decision to dump Login as a vendor when we switched to Coutts,
but was relieved to discover through the Login rep that Login in fact supplies
Coutts. (The circuitous route of course takes longer!) Having the Elsevier rep
on site to explain why a number of ejournals on ScienceDirect, formerly
available to us, had mysteriously disappeared was comforting. As it turns out,
it wasn't Elsevier's fault; the societies had withdrawn the rights. CISTI,
though, seems to be flogging the same old books every year (for example,
Canadian Medicinal Crops, 1998.)
The vendors participated also in the contributed papers sessions and I guess
this is all right (as long as we have full disclosure). Sandy Iverson's (EBSCO)
talk was a rundown on ejournals – a good summary pointing out all of the
pitfalls and difficulties. Or was it a pitch for the purchase of an eResource
Management Tool? Never mind, we are currently trying to make one work at
UBC. Brian Lapeer of Dynamed straightened us all out on evidence-based
treatment (on which his product is based) versus other therapies that are out
there, used for millennia, and sometimes featured in textbooks, but haven't
been through the randomized controlled trials mill yet.
But collections librarians love the vendors; we couldn't do our jobs and our
conferences would look much different without them. They treat us very well
and add significantly to making the conference the enjoyable experience it is.
Among the library-contributed papers Bill Poluha's on the development of a
library collection of assessment tools or toolkits for the use of the School of
Medical Rehabilitation at the University of Manitoba drew my attention. This
is something we do not have at Woodward Library, but perhaps we should? Bill
outlined the rather daunting obstacles to purchasing such items. Only
credentialed professionals (such as faculty) can purchase the tools and there
HLABC FORUM Page 13
What we learned:“ The term Mashing, andthat it is the combinationof a different onlineportals to create a newinformation base.”
must be a guarantee that they will be used for teaching purposes only. Locked
cabinets and liability-type loan agreements are among the complications for
circulation staff. These items are expensive and the University of Manitoba
library had a special grant, so perhaps it is not something that Woodward will
do. In any event I copied down the titles of the print reference books he
referred to and made sure that we have those!
These are just a few examples of why my conference fees were well-spent. Not
to mention I had fun!
AN OPEN LETTER TO COOL TOOLS SUCH AS RSS, WIKIS, AND
BLOGSPeter Tyrrell, Senior Consultant, Andornot Consulting Inc.
Dear Tools,
It was my pleasure to introduce you to a packed computer lab full of health
librarians that sumptous Friday afternoon in May. May the 12th, I think it was,
just before CHLA 2006. What a day that was. You were shy at first, but your
easy, breezy sense of fun and fresh scent quickly translated into street cred for
those health lib mavens.
Do you remember how we totally, like, made that wiki together, all of us? At
http://pbwiki.com? Where you can make "a free, password-protected wiki as
easily as a peanut butter sandwich?" Good times. PBWiki, I was told afterwards
that some of them participants smuggled you home and set you up for their own
purposes. You sly devil.
Tools, did we not also set up a blog at http://blogger.com for each and every
one of us? The laughter. The tears. The time I blew my nose and hoped nobody
would notice. We have to hold on to memories like these, Tools, for time is a
cruel mistress. "When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd" and all that.
RSS, we will not omit to mention you. How we subscribed! To searches, to
PubMed, to our own blogs, to podcasts! I couldn't believe everyone actually sang
along to the RSS song. Oh yeah, I made that part up. But everyone singing an RSS
song together would have been pretty frickin' awesome.
When I beheld the room suffused with Learn waves, and saw the Savv-o-meter
approaching critical, I felt very proud. Thank you, Tools. Truly, you are so cool.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone who attended!
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 14
What we’re gonna doabout it:“ I would like to modifythe way I teachworkshops to make themmore exciting for theparticipants and makesure they get the mostout of the sessions.”
BIOINFORMATICS: A MINI LESSONSally Taylor, Librarian, Woodward Biomedical Library, UBC
BLAST! No, that's not an expletive but actually one of the tools we learned
about in the CE session Bioinformatics Information Resources presented by Dr.
Joanne Fox, Research Associate and Head of Support & Training at the UBC
Bioinformatics Centre. Joanne, who teaches a fourth year microbiology course
on bioinformatics and participates in the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshop
series, tailored the session for librarians whose knowledge of genetics may be
a few years out-of-date (ahem).
Bioinformatics is a research field that integrates the use of computers,
software tools, and databases in an effort to address biological questions. We
tend to think of genes and proteins but bioinformatics could be used to
understand cells, entire organisms, and even their interaction with the
environment (an area of research called Systems Biology). Of interest to
health researchers is how diagnosis and treatment could be personalized
based on someone's genetic makeup, a scenario that became possible with the
mapping of the human genome.
Librarians may be heavy users of PubMed but many of us ignore the 20+ other
databases available through the NCBI Entrez search engine. Joanne offered us
no escape but led us gently into the Nucleotide database (aka GenBank), the
database that holds DNA sequences of specific genes. By searching "avian flu,"
we found sequences for the Influenza A virus submitted by researchers who
are studying the virus. One of the powerful features of Entrez is the linking
between databases. Using Links from the GenBank record, we connected to
the Taxonomy Browser for information about the virus, the Protein database
to learn about the protein that is coded by the DNA sequence, and to PubMed
for the bibliographic citation where the authors published the sequence. We
also linked from the GenBank record to Related Sequences, in the same way
you might select Related Articles in PubMed. This is where BLAST comes in.
It's the tool used to identify similar sequences among all the sequences in
GenBank, and is of interest to researchers because related sequences may
share similar biological functions.
Here's an exercise we did in class for you to try.
* Start in familiar territory (i.e. PubMed).
* Search: avian flu genome sequence
* Using Links, find an article that is linked to the Nucleotide database (not all
are).
* Examine the GenBank record; notice that it looks quite different from one in
PubMed.
HLABC FORUM Page 15
What we learned:"An opportunity tonetwork and to meetothers, apart from CE andconference speakers andsessions, is the mostimportant aspect ofCHLA/ABSC."
In the second half of the workshop, Joanne introduced us to three Genome
Browsers, tools that are used to navigate the entire human genome and to
access knowledge attached to the raw sequence. Using the UCSC genome
browser, we navigated the region of the human genome for BRCA1 (Breast
Cancer 1 Gene). Using the browser, we zoomed in and out, and moved along the
genome to find neighbouring genes. We only skimmed the surface of the
browser's functionality but one could appreciate the variety of options available
to researchers with the scientific know-how.
I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. Joanne did a wonderful job of presenting a
complicated set of resources to non-scientists. She used analogies (baking a
cake) and examples (avian flu) that we could easily understand, and her passion
and knowledge of the subject were evident. We also had a chance at the end to
talk briefly about Open Access, an important issue to libraries and the scholarly
community. Bioinformatics goes hand in hand with Open Access. Researchers
submit sequences to Open Access databases like GenBank and commonly share
computer code. The researchers at the UBC Bioinformatics Centre led by Francis
Ouellette are strong proponents for Open Access and typically publish in OA
journals.
Definitions
* Gene – length of DNA that codes for a specific protein
* Genome – total genetic information of an individual; made-up of all the genes
contained in a single set of chromosomes
* Genomics - the analysis of all genes and transcripts within the genome
* Proteomics – the analysis of the complete set of proteins
Resources* What is Bioinformatics?
http://bioinformatics.ubc.ca/about/what_is_bioinformatics/
* NCBI databases: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ [click on All Databases]
* Linkages between NCBI databases: http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/Database/datamodel
* UCSC Genome Browser: http://genome.cse.ucsc.edu [click on Genome Browser]
GOSSIP AFTER THE CONFERENCE.
(what non-attendees had heard about us - wink wink. From the survey - p.18)
Aquarium Reception and Banquet Dinner were both excellent.Pleasant atmosphere and a
friendly conference. Paper quality varied according to individual information needs and
preferences. The program was very good, and the person felt that they got a lot out of
it! Good range of sessions Great kick off for eHLbc. Very specialized presentations that
do not provide the average worker with handy or useful tips for practice once they
return home. [Editor - OUCH!] I heard the Embase session was fantastic. Our designated
Librarian sent around a 'report' of the activities that she did and the different
workshops/lectures types she attended. It seemed really interesting. Our delegate was
very impressed with the reception and banquet facilities. Heard what's happening next
with the CHLA Standards. Posting to the Website, 2 new committees forming.... Great
conference CE session about systematic reviews was excellent. Greenlee presentation on
evidence based products vs systematic reviews particularly good
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 16
What we’re gonna doabout it:“ Keep on top ofscanning my healthinformation/librarianshiplistserves - scan at leastthe subject lines once aday.”
DISCOVER THE LEADER IN YOU! DEVELOPING AND REALIZING
YOUR LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL.
Presented by Laurie Scott, Daniel Phelan and Wayne Glover,
CE Course Offered at the Canadian Health Libraries Association 2006 Annual
Conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada.Ana Rosa Blue, Librarian, Lions Gate Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health Library
Services, [email protected]
For a synopsis of the course and biographies of the presenters, please visit:
http://www.chla-absc.ca/2006/ under the ‘Continuing Education' tab.
Leadership is a fascinating subject. There is much to know and learn. A
half-day session was insufficient time to do this topic justice. As one of the
winners of the CHLA/ABSC Chapter Scholarship for Leadership Development it
was a thrill to attend Discover the leader in you! Developing and realizing
your leadership potential. I would like to thank Karen MacDonell from the
Medical Library of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. for
supporting the scholarship application, and to the CHLA Board for awarding it.
This workshop solidified my conviction that leaders are: inspirational
visionaries who are ethical and respectful of others. They are effective
communicators with courage and commitment. Leaders are selfless creatures
who empower those around them to fully use their talents. The workshop
explored the following issues: traits of leaders, good leaders vs. good
managers, determining one's own leadership potential, taking on a leadership
role in one's job and professional associations, and leadership institutes.
Traits of leaders include: being good listeners, seeing the big picture and
having a plan, charisma and passion. Leaders are inspiring, forward-looking,
and decisive. They are agents of change, and lifelong learners who never give
up. Leaders are born with an aptitude to lead. As with other aptitudes,
leadership qualities can be developed with guidance and nurturing. This
workshop was one step in the right direction.
Being a good leader is different from being a good manager: Leaders have
traits that make them good managers. The difference between managers and
leaders, according to Warren Bennis, is that: "The manager does things right;
the leader does the right thing."
How to determine one's own leadership potential: To "discover the leader" in
individual participants, the facilitators provided a "Checklist of Leadership
Qualities" so participants could rates themselves, on a scale of 1 to 10. The
checklist served as a good starting point for discovering the leader within.
HLABC FORUM Page 17
What we learned: "Working in a corporateenvironment, I've heard somuch aboutevidence-based medicineand itsimpact on medicallibrarianship. I've finallygot a grasp of what it's allabout."
Taking on a leadership role in one's job and professional associations: A good
way to develop leadership abilities is to participate in one's professional
association. Taking on responsibility is a leadership trait. Participating in an
association provides opportunities for personal development and ways to give
back to your profession. There is no excuse for not getting involved.
Is a leadership institute right for you? A few of the institutes mentioned were
ACRL/Harvard Institute, Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute and the MPLA
Leadership Institute. It is worthwhile investigating institutes provided by one's
organization or local universities, especially business schools. Individuals need to
determine which institute is right for them. An important task of this half-day
course was the personal action plan participants were asked to think about and
act upon once they returned to work. The purpose of the action plan is to
motivate participants to start developing leadership skills and/or take on a
leadership role. The facilitators fulfilled their agenda. But the work of further
discovery and meeting one's leadership potential – to take home what was
learned in the workshop, read more on the topic, get involved in professional
associations, act on one's personal action plan and start cultivating the qualities
of great leaders – depends on the individual.
Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, c1989.
<http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/features/leader/leader.html>. Accessed 28
May 2006.
TO THE BEAT OF OUR OWN DRUMTrina Fyfe, Northern Health Sciences Librarian, Geoffrey R. Weller Library, UNBC
Since the conference I have been trying to get an estimate for the Sawagi Taiko
drumming group to provide entertainment at a conference I'm helping to
organize in Prince George. Sawagi Taiko was fantastic! I thought their drumming
complemented the conference and our ever evolving roles as health librarians.
On its website the group describes the reason its members play taiko: to
overcome "stereotypes of Asians as quiet and hardworking but basically
mechanical and uncreative." The group states that Sawagi Taiko is the "vehicle
to show the power and creativity of Asian culture, particularly of Asian women."
The group offers "an alternative to the stereotype of Asian women as quiet and
demure."
This outlook translates to our profession well. Traditionally, some would say,
librarians are considered "quiet and hardworking but basically mechanical and
uncreative." The CHLA conference once again proved that this is not the case.
The conference is our vehicle to show our ability to be creative and to make
great contributions to the profession and to the health communities with which
we all work.
For more information about Sawagi Taiko:
http://www.shinnova.com/part/86-sawa
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 18
What we’re gonna doabout it:“ We were thinking ofredesigning ourcatalogue homepage -now we're inspired to doit.”
EVERYONE'S TWO CENTS: RESULTS OF THE POST-CONFERENCE SURVEY
Teresa Lee, Librarian, Woodward Library, UBC. [email protected]
Krista Clement, BC Cancer Agency Librarian, Kelowna BC [email protected]
After the 2006 CHLA/ABSC Conference, an online survey gathered responses
to the event from across the country. The survey ran from May 19 - 29, 2006.
A total of 133 responded, of which 77% had attended the conference. (See
following graphics for full details). Two-thirds of attendees either responded
that they had learned "a significant amount" or "plenty," and named CE
courses, contributed papers and formal social events as the three most
personally and professionally valuable activities of the conference.
When asked to reflect on one thing they'd learned at the conference,
respondents gave a range of answers, from the copyright CE course and
practical techniques for gathering grey literature to Dr. Fuller's keynote
remarks and the fact that "BC natives lie about how much rain they get"!
Generally, however, the majority of comments on this question named some
aspect of CE courses, with grey literature, cool tools, systematic reviews and
copyright being the most popular topics. Survey respondents also shared their
specific post-conference resolutions, some of which were to bring "renewed
energy to the work place," to "find some champions to establish an eHealth
Library in Alberta," to apply new technology and training methods," and "to
incorporate a patient focus into the library's role." More conference
comments are in the sidebars throughout this issue of the Forum.
1. Did you attend Conference? Although 133 people entered the survey, most later
questions were answered by 70 or fewer respondents. That’s still triple our usual
Forum web survey participation!!
2. More than half of those not attending the conference, had heard something about
it. Conferences have the potential to benefit even people who didn’t attend them!
Next time you go to an event, think about what you will “take home with you.”
4. How MUCH did you learn?
HLABC FORUM Page 19
This question was a 4-point scale. Although most described their learning as
“significant,” the average score fell very close to the centre of the chart. Even more
interesting was that early responders were much more likely to say they learned
“plenty,” and the average score gradually dropped over the time the survey was open. A
sign that respondents recalled less at a greater distance from the event?
6. Do conferences CHANGE
behaviour (or at least
intentions)?Conference is like New Year’s :
abundant in resolutions. A third
of us resolved to add MORE to
our a lready busy schedules. I
wish some evidence-based
research revealed areas of our
busy work which are really not
productive, so I could resolve to
cut back on those areas... only one person thought so. Change in practice might indicate
greater efficiency rather than more work - improvements which might even reduce
workload? Finally, to those brave folks who withstood temptation and made no
resolutions at all ... hey! Did you think you came to conference just for the social events?
What is this, a party? Get with it and pick up a load of guilt like the rest of us! (Just
kidding)
8. SIGNIFICANCEOkay, I apologize. I wanted a ranking FROM 1 to 7, and many were confused. There are
several ways to read the results. One can look at average scores: definitely continuing
education courses and contributed papers are highly valued. Social events, formal or
informal, are also very important at conference. One also can look at the highest rating
for a single activity, and see that exhibit halls exhibited split personality, some rating
them low, and some rating them high. Perhaps a reflection of the “collections librarian”
viewpoint (see article p.12) I also note that many people were not able to attend vendor
sponsored courses, informal social events, and even the CE. I am intrigued by this table,
but hesitate to draw too many conclusions from it. Clearly there was something for
everyone, and
everyone found
something of
value for
themselves.
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 20
What we’re gonna doabout it:“ Stop doing the clericalchores”
TECHNOLOGY
WEBLOGGING FOR HEALTH LIBRARIANS*Eugene Barsky, Physiotherapy Outreach Librarian, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre,
Before 1997, the term weblog just didn't exist. By 1999 there were only a few
hundred blogs. Today, the search site Technorati.com tracks almost 29 million
of them. Weblogs, or blogs, have been defined as online journals, published
chronologically, with links to and commentary on various issues of interest.
Blogs are easy to create and publish for many reasons. First, one need not
know how to code HTML to create a web page. The software will do that for
you as they all have built-in templates. Second, the weblog writer does not
have to arrange any space on a server as most weblog tools provide free
hosting space. The only work that the weblog writer needs to accomplish is
creating the text. It's that simple. This ease of online publishing has made
weblogs an international phenomenon, and numerous librarians and library
staff (including yours truly - http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/) have
recently created them. Frequently blogs are networked between several
people and several members post thoughts that often revolve around a
common theme.
A January 2005 Pew/Internet memo, "The State of Blogging," found that 27
percent of Internet users said they read blogs - a 58 percent increase from the
previous survey in early 2004. The memo is available at:
(www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf). So yes, this is a
widespread and popular Web trend. Many medical librarians have already
jumped on this web-bandwagon; some of these blogs I read include Michelle
Kraft's "The Krafty Librarian" (http://www.kraftylibrarian.blogspot.com/),
and Dean Giustini's "UBC Academic Search - Google Scholar Blog"
(http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/googlescholar/).
Other library blogs I subscribe to include Gary Price's excellent
"ResourceShelf" (http://www.resourceshelf.com/), and Jenny Levine's "The
Shifted Librarian" (http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/). For entertainment,
I like reading my RSS feed from The International Herald Tribune blogs
(http://blogs.iht.com/).
Those of us who haven't started a weblog, but are considering doing so, might
get started right away (yes, right after finishing this article!). While there are
many weblog software tools available, users may want to try Google's Blogger
(www.blogger.com), MoveableType (www.movabletype.org), or Live Journal
(www.livejournal.com) to get started. All these publishing tools are easy to
use, cost nothing (or next to it), and can have a weblog up and running in a
matter of minutes.
HLABC FORUM Page 21
What we learned:“ ackkk! i just got backfrom mla so my mind isstuffed with mla learningsat the moment!!! sorry, buti can't answer thisquestion at the moment.”
Editor - perhaps we learned
that too many conferences can
be too much of a good thing??
It will take you about ten minutes to start your first blog by going through the
simple steps at Blogger (www.blogger.com). After deciding on a user name and
password, you title your blog and choose a template (which can be changed
anytime) for your page. You also create a profile and this enables others to find
you (and also enables you to locate people with similar interests).
Admittedly, blogging is not for everybody; you have think about content that you
are willing to share. It takes me approximately an hour a day to find content and
write a meaningful post on our blog. It is a good idea to stay focused - if you
maintain a library blog, it should reflect the professional standards you apply to
every other publishing venue. The content you track should be distinctive, the
sort of material that no one else could present more effectively than you. A
lively discussion and presentation help to define a sense of community and
identity.
If you want to search for other people's posts on their blogs, here are two of the
more robust (in my modest opinion) search engines that specialize in indexing
weblogs:
* Technorati - http://www.technorati.com/. This is one of the biggies, and it is
able to search through almost 29 million blogs. One of the handy features
include searching for blogs by subject; however this feature is not perfect. For
instance a search for dermatology blogs retrieves only eight hits
(http://www.technorati.com/blogs/dermatology).
* Google Blog Search - http://blogsearch.google.com/. This is a powerful search
engine for self-publishing weblogging content. The good thing is that many of
the standard Google commands are supported. For instance, you can search
blogs by author (inpostauthor:) or by words in title (inblogtitle:). For instance,
let's use some command language to see posts on my blog- inpostauthor:Eugene
Barsky blogurl:http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/
I definitely agree, not everyone is born to blog, but blogging deserves a close
look, not only because of its simplicity, but also because of its potential to open
a communication channel and a new zone for professional practice, particularly
in our specialization of health sciences librarianship.
* This is a condensed version of an article to appear in JCHLA / JABSC 27: 33-34
(2006)
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 22
What we’re gonna doabout it:“ More efficientcollection development”
DEL.ICIO.US: A SOCIAL BOOKMARKING SYSTEMPatricia L. Foster, Library Assistant, Woodward Library, UBC
Scenario: You've accidentally deleted your Firefox profile and with it all of your
carefully collected resource bookmarks! Oh no! Fast forward to a free, stable,
web-based social bookmarking system that can be accessed from any computer, has a
unique URI for referrals, a subscription feature and metatags for searching. Two such
systems are furl (http://www.furl.net/) and del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/), with
del.icio.us being currently the most popular and a personal favourite.
Del.icio.us is based on a folksonomy tagging system. You may recall taxonomies from
high school biology. A taxonomy is a classification system that categorizes living
organisms by phylum and genus. A folksonomy is similarly a classification system, but
one based on individual users' personal meanings. According to the Wikipedia entry
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy):
"The freely chosen labels – called tags – help to improve search engine's effectiveness
because content is categorized using a familiar, accessible, and shared vocabulary.
The labeling process is called tagging."
For each bookmark you add to your account you can create a series of tags. This
allows other users to search a variety of topics efficiently and subscribe to tags of
interest to them. For example, if you wish to learn more about the popular Ruby
programming language, a subscription to the Ruby tag will direct all new bookmarks
with that tag to be delivered to your account inbox. They can then be added to your
account if you wish to include them in your collection.
Del.icio.us is not just limited to being a collection of favorite websites for
entertainment. It can be used, for example, as a resource list for a company project,
a professor's reading list for students, or a business professional's referral page that
shows his or her colleagues what is new in their field. An interesting aspect of free
web-based software is that often the
product is repurposed by the user. The user
in fact becomes the developer by finding
new and innovative uses for the software.
Generally the del.icio.us website is well
organized and intuitive for the new user.
The possibilities for uses are inexhaustible.
However, the instructions for setting up a
tag subscription are virtually non-existent
and it took even an experienced webbie like
me a while to figure out how to set up my
inbox to receive entries for the tags I
wished to subscribe to.
HLABC FORUM Page 23
What we learned:“ Keynote speaker and thewebsites she mentioned inher presentation. and ....Ialways love to hear whatDean and Eugene are up tothese days...”
GETTING TO KNOW YOU: A MEMBER PROFILE OF JULIE MASONAn interview of Julie Mason, (Librarian, Chilliwack General Hospital, Fraser Health
Authority; [email protected])
By our keen reporter Linda Howard (Librarian, Surrey Memorial, Fraser Health Authority
Julie Mason is a librarian with the Fraser Health Authority based at Chilliwack
General Hospital. She provides library services to staff, medical residents and
physicians at Chilliwack General Hospital, MSA Hospital in Abbotsford, Mission
Hospital and Hope Hospital. She has held this position for the past 18 months.
Julie has a BA in Speech Sciences and an MLS from UBC. She lives in Abbotsford
with her husband Mike. Linda Howard recently interviewed Julie for the Forum.
Question: What attracted you to librarianship?
Answer: My mother, a teacher, took me to the library often when I was growing
up. We'd bring home 2 or 3 bags full of books! I also spent a lot of time in
libraries as a student. I always felt libraries play a strong role in the community
and are essential for lifelong learning; this made me feel that librarianship was
an important profession. I am the eldest of three so I was involved in helping my
sisters do research for their assignments and assisting them with finding
information. Librarianship feels like a natural role for me and it was an obvious
choice.
Question: What do you like most about your job?
Answer: There are always challenges—new issues and challenges are emerging
all the time. I enjoy the academic environment, and the staff and residents at
Chilliwack General Hospital seem to really appreciate the work I do. There is
also a sense of camaraderie among the health librarians that I enjoy. This job is
an opportunity for continuous learning.
Question: What is one of the most interesting and challenging questions you
have had recently?
Answer: To find how to calculate the intraocular lens power prior to performing
cataract surgery on patients who have already had Photorefractive Keratectomy
(or Lasik surgery).
Question: Tell me a little about where you grew up.
Answer: I grew up in Richmond and went to school there from kindergarten to
high school. My mother is a teacher, so my family put great emphasis on school
and libraries. I spent a lot of time at Richmond Public Library. Libraries were
the centre of this community.
Question: What are you currently reading?
Answer: I just finished reading "The Kite Runner." I found it moving and
astounding. It wasn't a book you can take lightly.
VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2
Page 24
What we’re gonna doabout it:"Try to find somechampions to establishan eHealth Library inAlberta."
Question: Where did you meet your husband?
Answer: I met Mike via an online dating website—we both noticed that we had
so much in common. We will have been married a year this July.
Question: What do you like to do for fun?
Answer: I really enjoy our home theatre for watching films and television
shows. I also enjoy exploring parks and hiking. I am starting to get interested
in artistic photography and am eager to learn more.
Question: What is a recent film that you liked?
Answer: We recently rented a DVD called Water. It was about a very young
widow in India, early in the 20th century. The movie depicted the struggle
between preserving traditional values and the movement towards human
rights and liberties. It's a beautiful film. Very touching.
Question: Do you have any professional or personal goals you have identified
for the future?
Answer: I would like to further develop my skills as a health sciences librarian
by pursuing continuing education opportunities and reading as much as I can.
As for personal goals, I'm dreaming of touring Europe and Asia someday...
Question: What is one of your most visited web sites?
Answer: So many of the requests I receive have to do with guidelines and
standards of practice, so I find that the CMA Infobase is a website that I use
regularly for clinical practice guidelines.
Thanks for letting me get to know you a little better, Julie!
A CONFERENCE IN CYBERSPACEPatricia L. Foster, Library Assistant, Woodward Library, UBC
The HigherEdBlogCon 2006 – "Transforming Academic Communities with New
Tools of the Social Web" (http://www.higheredblogcon.com/) – was an online
conference held April 3-28, 2006. This innovative conference was planned by
participants from 30 North American institutions using wiki social software.
The wiki acted as an online collaborative tool for developing and planning
group projects. The organizers created a weblog which was used as a website
for the conference, with the lectures presented in a variety of formats.
Every kind of social software was in the mix: blogs, wikis, RSS,
podcasting…you name it! The presenters used this social software to connect
with other presenters, librarians, educators, researchers and students.
Interactivity was encouraged by asking virtual conference participants to post
comments on the presentations, discuss them in their own blogs and submit
reviews for future publication. As a professional library assistant and social
software fanatic I was keenly interested in the second week's topic: The
Library & Information Resources
HLABC FORUM Page 25
What we learned:“ That I know much morethan I thought I did (andstill have so much more tolearn - ie grey lit)”
( http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/library-information-resources/ ).
It was right up my alley and I planned on writing a review for my blog once I had
finished the conference. Brian Lamb of UBC Office of Learning Technology offers
some screen shots and commentaries of the conference on his blog: (
http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/brian/archives/024860.html ). The plenary I
participated in was entitled, "Patron's in the Driver's Seat: Give Advanced
Tool-Sets to Library Patrons" (
http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/patrons-in-the-drivers-seat-giving-
advanced-tool-se ts-to-library-patrons/ ) by John Blyberg of Ann Arbor District
Library. There were two issues raised by Blyberg that caught my attention. The
first item I considered was the "virtual card catalogue." As Woodward Library is a
biomedical research library, allowing patrons the ability to create their own
inventories of previously used resources as well as items of interest would be of
great benefit. This has definitely been on the wish list of many a researcher.
Moreover, being able to create lists that the public can then view by going to a
unique URI would be an added bonus. For example, a course instructor would be
able to refer students and colleagues to a URI that features a list of resources he
or she has been looking at.
The second item is the library patron's ability in the future to add content to the
collection. As John Blyberg mentioned this might include historical photographs
and potentially other media such as podcasts of conferences and political
speeches. Recently I attended the Northern Voice 2006 blogging conference
where podcasting and the subsequent posting of these casts on blogs acted as a
record of the event and allowed access to those who were not able to attend
lectures in person.
I enjoyed this style of conferencing. It was very convenient with no travel
involved or high conferences fees. I participated in the lectures and listened to
the podcasts at my convenience and I was also able to initiate some global
conversation on these topics by posting comments and writing about them in my
blog (http://careerspaceezine.com). I googled my name recently and found that
a librarian in Saskatchewan has bookmarked my blog in the social bookmarking
site Furl! However, despite my satisfaction with this experience I still prefer
meeting people in the real world. I would argue that while information is useful
(and addictive) the people who create, research, and explore their own ideas
and inspirations are intriguing in their own right and we miss something of their
personalities in cyberspace. I would suggest that future online conferences be a
combination of cyberspace and "press the flesh."
What we learned at CHLA/ABSC 2006:
"BC natives lie about how much rain they get."
