MLA CE WEEK 8

This week we are exploring the use of Mashups in Medical Libraries. An introductory article by Allan Cho was quite interesting. Mashups blend several different web applications into one whose sum should be greater than its parts. Healthmap takes global infectious disease data and combines it with Google Maps. It was interesting to see the distribution of outbreaks around the world. I might add this application too our library homepage. The application gives a global perspective but its utility seems limited. The display is very cluttered with the amount of data presented. Additionally, there is no way to separate out and display only one disease at a time and then follow that disease as it spreads over time. What seems to be needed is an approach similar to that used to display weather data. In such an approach specific diseases could be tracked from their point of origin showing their spread over time. One could add additional data such as disease intensity (case severity) etc.

Many of the mashups I looked at seemed irrelevant to Medical Library data. We should know about these so we can assist patrons who are "checking their e-mail in the library". Basically the convenience factor. My mashup won't open can the reference librarian help.

I looked at FREKFLY on the Mashup Awards site (mashupawards.com). This application is supposed to help travelers with data relative to their takeoff and arrival airports: hotels weather photos etc. I was not impressed. Some hotels were listed but no data on price quality etc. Weather data was minimal at best. No data on what to do if you have extra time. The photos were nice (If you like photos of benches at an airport). Basically no quality control just data pulled from different applications and placed randomly on a web page.

I pulled up Gabe's Searchroll on Librarian Blogs. Then I conducted a search through the results looking for privacy. Issue One: The usefulness of this tool really seems to depend on the skill of the person developing the search roll. What are their biases, What sites to they choose to include / exclude, and How knowledgeable are they regarding the existence and quality of potential sites? Issue Two: Display. It is very difficult to determine the content of the sites from the small paragraph that is displayed. You really need to open each site and review its contents to see if what is contained will be use full in fulfilling your information needs.

Overall, Mashups are interesting but seem aimed at social data (what words are being used on Twitter) or they are so crude in the display of the data (just combining large amounts of data with a map) that they are of little use at this time.

MLA CE Week 7

This week we are exploring Podcasting and Video Sharing. The reading assignments provided valuable insights into the technology powering these new forms of communication.

I was impressed by the extent of available content in Podcasts. Subject material includes both academic topics and personal areas of interest. Some of the material is professionally produced by organizations but much of it seems to come from individuals. Having recently visited the BodyWorlds Exhibit, I enjoyed listening to the comments from University of Virginia Ethics Faculty on the exhibit. Their podcast is titled "Displaying Dead And Different Bodies: Spectacle / Sideshow / Education ? I differ with some of their comments but I found the discussion interesting. I found this exhibit to be highly educational providing a unique opportunity to better understand the complexity of our bodies.

While I have not produced a podcast the procedure seems simple and straightforward requiring a computer, digital microphone, and Internet access. Large IT Departments and / or expensive equipment are not needed to accomplish this goal. This technology could be used to record Grand Rounds, nursing in-service presentations, special messages from hospital administration, or community lectures . Employees could could access this information at anytime via the Internet. Links to public education lectures could be placed on the library's homepage. Small Community Hospital Libraries with limited staff could use this technology to leverage their institutions. Programs could be developed to provide health care workers with the CME needed to renew clinical licenses. This could also be used to market hospital services to the community and to promote the Medical Library as a place to locate reliable health information.

Online video is another story. I have explored U-Tube in the past and I still see major difficulties in creating, producing, and utilizing this resource as a medium of communication in a small medical library. I have attached a video tour of Harper College Library at the end of this post as a case in point.

In using this technology a number of issues seem to exist. One must develop a well scripted program that clearly and effectively communicates your message to a specific audience. This requires a knowledge of both the subject matter to be presented and the target audience. One is limited by the short length of most of these videos (Ten minutes or less). If the topic is complex more time might be required to effectively communicate the information. Multiple audiences e.g., LVN's RN's might require several different versions. This implies a substantial staff time commitment to develop a program.

Some information might be communicated more effectively in person rather than on a video. If I was a student, knowing where library functions are physically located appears to be more important than being told that the Reference Librarians can help you find needed resources. A live tour conducted by trained volunteers could show students the organization of the library more effectively than a video. In addition, live tours provides students with the opportunity to ask specific questions about the housing of materials within the library.

The necessity to use "hip" technology to lure students into the library by implying it is a "cool" place to be seems sad to me. If this kind of reassurance is needed, perhaps the individual is not ready for the experience an institution of higher learning aims to instill. Perhaps we need to rethink the way we are raising our children and the value we have placed on social acceptance versus the ability to accept and defend one's own opinions. Curmudgeon!!!

An additional problem I have with U-Tube involves the experience I have watching these videos. I have not been able to adjust my computer setting to allow seeing these videos in anything but a stop / start fashion. They are slow to load and play hesitantly. This does not produce a setting conducive to learning.

Recording a program requires expensive equipment that many Community Hospitals do not possess. Uploading short programs seems simple. Longer programs would require streaming and this involves storage issues, IT support, and major expense not available in the Community Hospital Setting.

BELOW IS A U-TUBE VIDEO TOUR OF HARPER COLLEGE LIBRARY:

MLA CE WEEK 6

Yosemite1
Originally uploaded by Community Health Library

This week I am investigating image sharing resources. Hiking is one of my favorite activities. I am posting photos I took several years ago on a trip to Yosemite National Park. These photos were taken on the Snow Creek Trail. This trail starts near Mirror Lake and is the steepest accent out of Yosemite Valley.

The photos were stored on Flickr. This was easily accomplished and the images were rapidly uploaded and stored. Some of the titles were removed. The Blog upload was more involved and was not as easily accomplished. I tried using a link that points back to flickr but I ended up with several copies of the same photo, and html code in the visible text of the blog. I configured Google to accept photos from Flicker but it seems to take only one per post.

Image sharing could be useful if one was involved in creating a report or developing some marketing tools for a library. Creative Commons allows assigning various levels of copyright protection to your images.

The mechanics of accomplishing this task were not seamless as one would like. It was difficult to get the photos exactly where I wanted them. I am sure some of this was unfamiliarity with the applications I used. I would suggest using Webshots or Photobucket. These applications seem easier to use and produce more controlable results.

MLA CE WEEK 5

This week I have been testing web 2.0 office products. Specifically, I have been comparing Zoho Sheet, Zoho Writer, Zoho Show, & Zoho Planner with Google Documents, Google Calendar, and the standard Microsoft equivalents.

Zoho Sheet seems very similar to the Microsoft counterpart Excel. In this case I think its a matter of familiarity. It is often easier to continue using a product until sufficient advances are made by a competitor before changing to the new application. This requires learning new controls and proficiency develops slowly.

Zoho Show is impressive in its ability to resize objects and place them in specific locations on a page. I liked the wide variety of backgrounds and formatting choices. All of the Zoho products were extremely slow to load. I do not know how well these applications perform on a Mac (My usual platform) as I previewed all the applications on a PC.

Google calendar seems superior in its ability to create schedules and share these with colleagues. I was not impressed with Zoho Planner. Google documents is a great place to store files and share them with others.

One product I find very useful was not mentioned in the course. I still use Adobe Acrobat to send files to others. When send multiple .Pdf files to others or to myself for comment I find PANDO to be extremely useful. Large amounts of data can be quickly forwarded in a Pando Package to anyone with an e-mail address.

Excel, Word, & PowerPoint are still the standards and while there may be some issues when groups have to create or edit documents, the alternative choices need further refining to be maximally usable.

MLA CE WEEK 4

This week we have been exploring the DEL.ICIO.US Website. This tool allows users the ability to store bookmarks that can then be retrieved on any computer, at any location. Users can adjust privacy controls to allow, or prohibit sharing of individual bookmarks with other site visitors. Users can assign any number of "keyword tags" to individual bookmarks. Having bookmarks on one password protected site, stored under multiple individually-assigned tags, certainly facilitates content retrieval. I have over 11oo bookmarks, and have downloaded them to this site. I am in the slow process of assigning tags to these bookmarks and weeding out those no longer of value in my work. From an accessibility standpoint, I think this site has real value. It is wonderful having not to continually e-mail myself a backup copy of my bookmarks.

As a search tool, I think there may be value in the concept, but it needs to be refined. Searching the site to find similar content in other's bookmarks may help one locate needed information. I conducted some searches in forensic pathology and was unable to locate the sites I was looking for because no one had bookmarked these sites and/or the bookmarks were not part of the public record. Common sites (Amazon.com) will have many bookmarks but unusual sites may not be bookmarked at all. I found sites bookmarked under this tag, however, they had only minimal forensic content. Many broken links led nowhere. The tags and notes seem of limited value in sorting through generated results. Each individual developed their own scheme for tagging and followed this scheme with greater or lesser precision. Pages still have to be visited and reviewed to see if value can be found.

Overall, I think this is a very useful tool that will improve over time.

MLA CE WEEK 3

The assignment this week was to investigate social network sites as vehicles for facilitating communication among MLA Members. Linkedin, Facebook, and MySpace were visited. Elements found on Linkedin and Facebook might be employed to improve member communication on the MLA Website.

The professional appearance of Linkedin would be a good place to start designing a new communication system for our members. Valuable features from this sight include: search able member profiles containing the members' name, library affiliation, library and contact information, Ill policies, etc. A fill in the box area could be used to add any announcements or updates that might change from time to time. Links to individual websites and catalogues should also be provided.

The development of a separate resume page tied to the member ID# would be very helpful in organizing career information over time. This could include positions held, chairs & elected offices, and publications and a CE record. The friends feature could be useful if one was searching for a reference from someone you worked with along time ago.

This localization data could help librarians keep in touch if it were easily accessible, search able, and was updated frequently (One might be required to update the data before you could renew your membership.) I see this as expanded librarian look up data.

Facebook provides contact data with the ability to share comments, documents, photos, etc. This seems ideally suited to committee work, conference planning, document revision by consortium members, manuscript revision among several authors, and the sharing of events. There needs to be a simple way to designate the recipients of this information e.g, the entire membership or some sub-segment of the membership. Privacy controls have to be in place to keep conservations limited to the intended recipients.

In my Community Hospital setting, I do not see a place for a MySpace or Facebook Page. Our web page includes links to our catalogue, E-mail, and other resources. Our patrons are familiar with the web page and it seems redundant to redesign and add another layer of complexity.

Privacy concerns abound on the web and include identity theft, and misdirected communications. Communications would take place in a passwork protected website and wold be limited to transactions between members. This would seem to eliminate most serious privacy issues. Members would have to select the correct privacy settings and recipients to ensure messages were delivered only to the intended recipients.

I am going to conclude with some overall comments on MySpace, Facebook, and Linkedin.
The design of MySpace seems ideally suited to adolescents and perhaps some college students. This seems to be an effective social networking venue for this age group. Facebook seems to have expanded the venue and I can certainly see adults using this site to make connections and keep in touch with friends. The search capabilities of all three of the reviewed sites seem poor. I did several name searches e.g. Jon versus John and the results were poor. These sites do provide some useful ideas that might help Medical Librarians work more effectively and share a feeling of social connectedness.

MLA CE WEEK 2

Greetings Again:

The subject of this second post is Wikis. I have created a wiki covering my favorite hobby: hiking. The link to this wiki (Bay Area Hiking) is located at the bottom (left) of this page.

Wikis are very different from blogs. Blogs tend to be more focused on the opinions of their creators and seem ideal as a vehicle for sharing views and opinions on particular topics. Wikis can be used to share information among a number of readers. Unlike blogs, they invite reader participation in the modification of the topic under consideration. Readers can comment upon the information in discussion forums, add or eliminate information, and rewrite and reshape the content of the site. In this way the information is molded by the input of numerous readers over time. This iterative process transforms that which is presented into a product that meets the specific needs and characteristics of the group creating it. While this can have great functional applicability, one must remember that information so generated is subject to strong biases that belong to its creators.

This seems highly suited for any activity that involves coordinated efforts of many individuals who are working towards some common purpose. This might involve planning a meeting or event, updating policies and procedures, editing an article for publication, developing or revising course content, or perhaps, sharing information among hobbyists.

I can see the utility of this approach, in that, it provides for a diverse opinion in the development and shaping of content related to a specific task, goal, or interest. It does require the input of a number of individuals to be fully effective. Wikis might encourage some individuals to participate more fully than they otherwise would if participation means taking time to attend meetings or voicing one's opinion in the midst of opposition.

In my small community hospital, I do not believe the staff would use this as a means of communication. For the kinds of activities we are involved in ie., CME Planning, IRB activities, Medical Staff Meetings, etc., it is easy to plan and conduct small group meetings at appropriate times to resolve any issues or provide input needed to complete these tasks. Larger institutions with individuals at various locations on a campus might find this a highly effective tool for completing projects in a timely fashion.