OCLC Research Distinguished Seminar Series Presents, "From Books and Buildings to Information and Services" with Nancy K. Roderer on 16 January 2012 at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 3 January 2012—The public is invited to attend this free presentation in person or online.

Technology has enabled remarkable increases in the volume of use of scholarly information, and medicine has been on the forefront of the expansion of access. Much of what the health scientist or practitioner needs is available online and is being used from offices, labs, clinics, etc.—that is, "wherever you are." The Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University developed a strategic plan for a digital future in 2001/2 and adopted the tag line "wherever you are." Since that time, the library has been moving aggressively to the provision of digital information, complemented by librarians who also go to the user. While the new services are extensively used, these changes run counter to the traditional view of the library as books and buildings. In this presentation, Ms. Roderer will tell the story of the changes at the Welch Medical Library over the last ten years and discuss the potential implications of these shifts for other libraries.

Ms. Roderer is a Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and serves as the Director of the Welch Medical Library and the Director of the academic Division of Health Sciences Informatics (DHSI).

This Distinguished Seminar Series presentation begins at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (UTC 14:00) and is followed by a question and answer session at 10:00 a.m. (UTC 15:00). You are welcome to attend this presentation in person or remotely via WebEx. Advanced registration is encouraged, but not required. Registering in advance allows us to alert you if the lecture should need to be rescheduled.

To attend in person, please RSVP by e-mailing disbrowk@oclc.org or calling OCLC Research at (614) 764-6073 and indicating your name, affiliation and telephone number.

To attend online via WebEx, please register here.

Complete details are available at the links below. A recording of this presentation will be made available online at http://www.oclc.org/research/dss/.

          I managed to catch some hard-working little Welch Elves in preparation for our Christmas party. They thought they could slip away unnoticed, but they couldn't escape the glare of the library paparazzi (me---Alonzo). And just who are these busy Helpers......

          Christopher Henry revs up the keyboard. Chris is an established musician who knows music and movies like you wouldn't believe. As I caught his picture I overheard him say he was "gonna tear the roof off this sucka". Honest.

          Martha Traub and Lavinia Wiggs stand guard over the incoming goodies. Martha has a blackbelt in food protection and Lavinia helped the Lucky Charms Leprachaun get into a Witness Protection Program.

          Diane McLaughlin was giving me the "we're not ready" look. Diane looks all warm and fuzzy but rumor has it she taught the GEICO gekko the ancient Art of Himalayan "Bazutto" which is Himakayan mind-control. She also does this for all the FORBES Top 100 Executives.

          Marie Esch is an international cake/pie thief. She does it in stages. Usually the cake/pie crust goes first, and then the filling. She has her reasons for not stealing the whole cake/pie, but as yet no one's asked her what they are. Usually, she just gives a wave and like Keyser Soze from "The Usual Suspects"----she's gone. In the background is Kim Thornton who's impersonating Kim Thornton who works at the Welch Library. Kim's impersonation is so down-pat that you never know which Kim is Kim. Don't believe me? Next time you see her yell, "Kim". Bet she responds. 

          Many other folks helped make our party a wonderful event, but I wanted to catch a few people who helped set things up, since we often take all their good party deeds for granted. Apologies to the others I didn't catch. And, there is no such thing as "Bazutto".

Alonzo LaMont

alonzo@jhmi.edu

I posted this infectious little diddy on Facebook, but I had to pass it along. I don't need to add much more, the first few seconds will tell the story. --- Alonzo LaMont

          As I was tra-la-la'ing through the merry garden of twitter, I ran across this paper and was struck by the similarities between what's proposed as a healthy prescription for academic libraries (this document may have to be opened, but it's well worth a quick look) and what Welch is doing come Dec. 31st. They don't call it a healthy prescription, but they could well have. The graphics and the reality are very easy to comprehend, and the issues are not unique to any one particular library. The quote surrounding the Harvard Library are quite telling. While everyone wants the best library at any cost, library users are actually extolling a new paradigm. One they may not be conscious about. Their habits, the rise of ebooks/elearning, the price of journals/books and how patrons use a library are all part of a fluid situation.

          Nostalgia and sentiment may be ever-present when we think of how our library will change. However, the new dynamics at work within education are here and now. They're very present, and though we may find them somewhat disagreeable, they need to be accounted for.

Alonzo LaMont

alonzo@jhmi.edu

                     It would seem that we've (Goddard and Welch) both charted the same course for the future, and we both have the same "departure & arrival time". I think they call that serendippity.

             Claire Twose, Public Health and Basic Science Informationist, and yours truly hosted a School of Public Health Town Hall meeting last week and we took a number of questions about the library. It's safe to say that there were those who hadn't heard about the status of the building, or our changes. And those that did weren't thrilled about it. However, what I came away with was mainly that people would miss the status of not having (as they saw it) a physical space, and the missing prestige and nostalgia factors associated with "losing" a library. 

          We did reiterate that no one was losing their library, but the shock of the new took precedent. Since the number of patrons coming into the building are so low, clearly students have (and have for some time) incorporated other areas around campus for study, quiet study and study/socializing. And they seem to have been doing those things for quite some time. I think a quote I ran across sums up the situation quite well:   

          "Budget pressures, dwindling patron traffic to the physical libraries, and the growth in the use of digital materials are all driving the decision to close the Goddard Space Flight Center Library at the main facility of the Goddard Space Flight Center.”  

           We don't expect everyone to understand the changes right away. However, a decision of this magnitude doesn't happen overnight. And, it's safe to say there will be a period of adjustment. But ultimately, our goal is to make services and resources better for patrons. No one is losing their library. In the future, perhaps patrons will realize how much more the library has to offer. 

Alonzo LaMont

alonzo@jhmi.edu

A while back the library had ANOTHER survey and, just like last year, that means we had MORE prizes to giveaway. Random names were picked and 3 winners received Christmas early.

Leading off is all-smiles Aaron Schueneman. Aaron was "pickled tink" to win.

Dale Phelan got a friend to drive her here from Homewood in lickity-split time, she was overjoyed!

And from waaaaaaay over yonder in Bayview Erin McClure was surprised that her gift was hand-delivered (by Yours Truly) on a Friday afternoon.

This is easily the most FUN activity I do. People are always totally amazed that they actually won something. Admit it---if you received an e-mail claiming "you're the winner" we know that can't be true, right.

          I stumbled across this tweet and thought it'd help someone fighting their way through the academic wilderness........it's from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and it addresses what to do once your paper is done but wish you had a second set of eyes to enhance the landscape of your vision----here's what they prescribe.

         You can do the same thing here at Hopkins by utilizing the Informationist who's assigned to your Department.  Get the ball rolling by going to our homepage, and then clicking on the "Ask a Librarian" link (right at the top), the drop-down takes you to the Promised Land. No fuss, no muss.

Alonzo LaMont

alonzo@jhmi.edu

          With the changes at Welch, a question we get asked often is “How ever will I be able to browse?”  Browsing online is possible in many, many ways, and below we list a few of our favorites.  The bad news:  if you like the feel or smell of paper, you will have to include the added step of hitting the print button.

Suppose you want to browse for:

Books by an author

Amazon.  Once you’ve found a work you recognize as being by your author, click on his or her name and this will pull up a list of all the books in Amazon with that author.

WorldCat Identities http://worldcat.org/identities/ . To see the most popular books by an author we like  this service. (e.g.,  http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n89-225241 -- for Dr. Nichols)

New books

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Worldca http://worldcat.org etc.  Most search engines have a feature that lets you limit by year. Do a search for a topic or author and then limit your results to the current year. See this video for an example of how it works in the Johns Hopkins library catalog. Hopkins library catalog http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=PL1DA5A2D1519D11D0&v=B_oRse_267c

Latest on my topic

Pubmed. A search in PubMed always returns it’s results by “Most recently added.” So, whenever you do your search, you’ll see the latest information on your topic at the top of the results list.

Current issues of a journal I know

On a familiar subject, physicians often know the relevant journals and the easiest thing to do is go to the website of the journal and search there. Many journals now offer a pre-print or articles in press service for very current articles on a topic. To stay up to date afterwards, many journals allow you to register your search for an alert service. The journal runs your search on a fixed schedule and if the results include new things they will email you those citations.

Introduction to a new subject

Google Scholar -- limit to current year. While Wikipedia is good for getting a general overview of many topics, it doesn’t always work that well for clinical questions. Google Scholar covers the medical literature and allows you to limit your results to the current year.

Google. Plain Google is good for pulling up media writing on medical treatments or issues. 

Questions or Comments? Feel free to send my way

Alonzo LaMont
alonzo@jhmi.edu

We're back for another go-round. The crackerjack team of Victoria and Alonzo are back. In this 20 minute podcast Victoria, one of our Clinical Informationists, and Alonzo tackle a few more pertinent issues of the day. Here's the timeline breakdown:

1) 1:00-5:00 minutes, Victoria speaks about the "average" daily duties and responsibilities she experiences----including the basics behind how she constructs search strategies & presentations. Most especially, she presents the ways she helps patrons avoid the 'kitchen sink" searching method, winding up with loads of citations and information they DON'T need.

2) At 5:00, I ask Victoria how she's gauged the mood and tone around campus surrounding the upcoming library changes.

3) 6:50, I asked Victoria what she felt were the most important needs of our medical community. What do they need most from a library resource.

4) 11:50 we address the foothold that Integrative Medicine has taken with medical institutions. The article that I mention is from the Atlantic and it addresses the success of Dr. Brian Berman and his Center with the University of Maryland. In our monthly newsletter I  posted an article that cited Dr. Berman ("the growth of quackademic medicine....")

5) 16:45, final thoughts the New Clinical Building Expo (lots of Hopkins organizations convened down in the Turner concourse) regarding the comments we received. Victoria and I shared an information table, but I wanted her take on the feedback people gave us about the Welch changes.

All those goodies are only a CLICK AWAY!

20111118 WML Podcast 03.mp3 (22.69 mb)

Catch our next December episode. Victoria will be my guest once again, and we'll see what's new on the educational, science and technology horizon.

Questions or Commments? Let me know if there's something you'd like us to cover, something you think deserves a little airplay. We'll do our best.

Alonzo LaMont

alonzo@jhmi.edu