Health Sciences Libraries: School of Nursing

Next Thursday (October 2 ) the Science and Engineering Library will be hosting an Advanced EndNote Workshop taught by a representative from EndNote. EndNote trainer Doug Nguyen will be in Walter Library, Room 310 from 12:30-1:30 providing answers to questions EndNote users may have about ways to maximize their use of the software.

This is a great opportunity to expand your knowledge of EndNote from an expert on the topic. He’ll start with a quick demonstration on how to set up the journals term lists so that EndNote can do full and abbreviated journal names and then he’ll open it up to your questions.

Come and learn more about customizing citation styles, personalizing your database to best fit your needs, and troubleshooting any problems you may have run into using the software.

This class is free and open to the public. If you’re interested, space is limited. Register here: http://www.lib.umn.edu/registration/#eventidXX267.

Posted by Liz Fine at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please see the note from our Reserves Coordinator about electronic reserves. Feel free to contact me (612-624-6492, evfine@umn.edu) or Pat Seeley with any questions. Enjoy the final week of summer!

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Since its inception in 2002, the University Libraries’ electronic reserve system has enabled over 300 faculty to place materials on reserve in hundreds of courses. E-Res, as the system is known, accommodates many different formats—pdf, jpg, mp3, and direct links to the internet—and is a quick and simple way for instructors to present a wide variety of course materials online to their students. Should faculty and staff lack either the time or inclination to develop an entire Web CT course page, E-Res offers a convenient alternative.

The Bio-Medical Library therefore invites you to let us assist you in using the E-Res system when planning your courses this fall. We encourage you to submit your materials to us at least one week prior to the start of the semester in order for the materials to appear online by the first day of classes. Submissions may be made by filling out a request form in person at the library or using the online request form available on the Bio-Medical Library web page under “Faculty Instructions for Reserves�.

For a complete description of e-reserve and a discussion of related copyright issues, go to www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/services/reserves. Please contact Pat Seeley with questions at biomrsv@umn.edu or 612-626-5967.

Posted by Liz Fine at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greetings! Please see the following note about Course Reserves. If you would like materials put on reserve in the Bio-Medical Library for fall classes, please place requests as soon as possible. For more information about course reserves, see http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/services/reserves. You may contact Pat Seeley (information at the end of the post) with questions about Course Reserves, or me (Liz Fine - evfine@umn.edu, 612-624-6492) with questions or any sort (or to be removed from this email list). Thanks!

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The University Libraries are currently in the process of upgrading the software system that is used to create and manage all course reserve records, and reserve staff members are in training to learn how to utilize the new system. When installation has been completed (either Monday, Aug. 18 or Tuesday, Aug. 19) none of the reserve records from previous years will be carried over to the new system.

We are anticipating that the process of creating new bibliographic and item records for all reserve items will take longer than in previous years, due to staff unfamiliarity with the new system and the need to create everything “from scratch.� Therefore, we ask all faculty and staff who plan to place material on reserve at the Bio-Medical Library this fall to bring in your requests and all private copy material as early as possible. Although we will be working as rapidly as we can to process reserve material, please be aware that not every item may be available to be checked out to your students on the first day of classes.

Thank you,

Pat Seeley
Reserve Desk
278B Diehl Hall
Bio-Medical Library
biomrsv@umn.edu
612-626-5967

Posted by Liz Fine at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Beginning in July 2008, the U’s method of access to CINAHL will change from the Ovid platform to the EBSCO platform. This change is a result of EBSCO purchasing the CINAHL database, and subsequently disallowing other vendors (like Ovid) to serve the database through their platforms. EBSCO will be the only source of access to CINAHL.

The EBSCO search interface is very different from Ovid, but the content of CINAHL itself (journals covered, record structure, subject headings, etc.) will not change. From now through the end of June, we will have access to CINAHL through both Ovid and EBSCO, so you can test out the EBSCO interface before the Ovid one is gone.

A bit of a complicating factor is that the EBSCO interface will be undergoing a change sometime in July, so what you see in EBSCO now will be changing soon. All these changes will hopefully lead to increased usability and functionality.

To access to CINAHL via EBSCO, go to http://www.lib.umn.edu/get/ebsco In the database list, CINAHL is toward the bottom of the page. Check the box beside it, and click the continue button.

You can view a brief tutorial on basic searching in CINAHL here: http://support.ebsco.com/training/flash_videos/CINAHLBasicSearching.html

If you have any autoalerts currently running in CINAHL, they will need to be recreated in the EBSCO system. Instructions for creating autoalerts in EBSCO are here: http://support.ebsco.com/help/index.php?help_topic_id=8

If you have questions or need help with anything involving the new CINAHL interface, contact Liz Fine at 612-624-6492 or evfine@umn.edu, or the Reference Desk at 612-626-3260 or medref@umn.edu.

Posted by Liz Fine at 02:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The NIH Public Access Policy has been signed into law and takes effect on April 7, 2008. After April 7th, the new NIH Public Access Policy will require you to submit any articles accepted for publication to NIH's PubMed Central, where they will be freely and permanently accessible to all so that they might better advance science and improve health.

Before that, however, you'll need to make sure you don't sign away the necessary rights in the journal's author agreement. The University Libraries and the Sponsored Projects Administration are prepared to help. Questions about the policy can be sent to nihpublicaccess@umn.edu. We can help you ensure you have the necessary rights, guide you through the submission process, and help you understand how to cite your articles in future applications and progress reports. For more information, go to: http://www.lib.umn.edu/scholcom/NIHaccess.phtml

Continue reading " New Requirement for NIH-Funded Research" »

Posted by Liz Fine at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OVID, the University Libraries’ platform for citation databases like MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO, is making a major change to its search interface. The University Libraries will be migrating to the new interface on Tuesday, January 15, 2008.

This new user interface looks a lot different, but has mostly the same functionality as the current version. If you're an Ovid user you should be able to adjust to the new interface fairly easily, but please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or need help.

One of the major changes is that new users will now need to create "personal accounts" in order to save searches or create AutoAlerts (instead of just logging in with your U of M ID and password). If you currently have saved searches, you WILL be able to access them in the new system. On the day of the migration, current Ovid users with saved searches or AutoAlert SDIs will receive an Ovid-system-generated e-mail with their user names and temporary passwords to access their saved content.

It's important to note that you must have purposely saved a search in order to recover it after the transition – see the blog entry on “Saving Searches vs. Session Recovery in Ovid� for more information. The auto-recover feature (where you are asked when you log in if you'd like to recover the last search you were working on) will NOT bring a search through the transition. So, make sure that you have saved any important searches before January 15th!

We have worked closely with Ovid technical support in planning this transition, and expect few (if any) glitches. However, please contact me (evfine@umn.edu, 612-624-6492) or the reference desk (medref@umn.edu, 612-626-3260) if you encounter any problems or would like help using the new interface. You can test-drive the new interface before January 15th by clicking the OvidSP tab in the current instance of Ovid.

Enjoy the new look!

Liz

Posted by Liz Fine at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hope you're all enjoying Winter Break! Just a reminder that if you're teaching a class this spring and would like me to give your students a session on literature searching, library resources, etc. please let me know if you haven't already so I can get you on my calendar.

As always, I can tailor the presentation to an assignment, a certain group of resources, reference management with RefWorks, advanced research needs, or anything else you have in mind. If you're considering this, get in touch with me and we'll figure out what works best for you and your students.

FYI - I'll be out of town next week (January 14th-18th), so if you have any questions related to Spring classes, let me know!

Liz

Posted by Liz Fine at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you use the Ovid databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, etc.) regularly, you're probably familiar with the option to recover your last search when you log in. This is a great feature, and a nice safety net for those times when your session times out, or you accidentally close your browser window.

However, relying on session recovery is not the best way to save a crucial search, and this feature may not be a part of future Ovid versions. It's easy to save a search manually, and you should purposely save searches that you want to be sure you can access again.

You can permanently save your search by using the "Save Search/Alert" icon, found under your search history on the main Ovid search screen. This will reliably save your search strategy, and you can then access it at any time through the "Saved Searches/Alerts" icon in the blue bar in the upper right corner of the page.

Get in the habit of purposely saving searches, so that you don't accidentally lose something you're relying on. If you have questions or need help, contact Liz (612-624-6492 or evfine@umn.edu) or the Reference Desk (612-626-3260 or medref@umn.edu).

Posted by Liz Fine at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Library resources are available to be used remotely only for currently-registered students, faculty, and staff. Occasionally, students may be finishing a master's project but not be enrolled in a credit-bearing course. Or, they may be taking a "break" from school for a personal reason. When this happens, the student will be unable to remotely access library resources. This frequently happens and can be a frustrating experience for the student who is legitimately working towards finishing their project/thesis/dissertation.

There is a work-around for this problem. Graduate students who register through the Graduate School (this includes the SoN) and who are working on a thesis or dissertation but are not currently enrolled in courses, may still be eligible to receive full library privileges.

The student may obtain borrowing privileges by registering for the zero-credit, zero-fee, non-graded registration option (GRAD 999) offered through the Graduate School. Once registered, a graduate student’s University accounts will be reactivated.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Posted by Liz Fine at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you an active RefWorks user? The University Libraries are conducting a pilot project involving the ability to attach documents to RefWorks records. We'd like to recruit current RefWorks users to pilot adding objects (such as PDFs, Excel spreadsheets etc.) to references in a RefWorks account. We can allow up to 200 MB of space per account for the pilot, and we're looking for feedback about this service.

Some caveats to keep in mind:
* This is a pilot project that could end at any time.
* Export options for objects out of RefWorks are not yet known.
* We're moving towards broader support of this kind of functionality, but haven't committed to a long-term strategy.

If you're interested in learning more or participating in the project, contact me at evfine@umn.edu. Thanks!

Posted by Liz Fine at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a reminder to submit E-Reserves requests soon if you'd like the library to create an electronic reserves page for your fall classes. I'd be happy to help with questions, or you can contact Pat Seeley, our reserves coordinator (p-seel@umn.edu or 612-626-5967). Read on for more information:

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Since its inception in 2002, the University Libraries' electronic reserve system has enabled over 300 faculty to place materials on reserve in hundreds of courses. E-Res, as the system is known, accommodates many different formats--pdf, jpg, mp3, and direct links to the Internet--and is a quick and convenient way for instructors to present a wide variety of course materials online to their students.

The Bio-Medical Library invites faculty to use the E-Res system when planning your courses for this fall. We encourage you to submit materials at least two weeks prior to the start of the semester in order for materials to appear online by the first day of classes. Submissions may be made by filling out a request form in person at the library or using the online request form at http://www.lib.umn.edu/pdf/eressubform.pdf.

For a complete description of e-reserve and a discussion of related copyright issues, go to http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/services/reserves#ereserves. Please contact Pat Seeley with questions (p-seel@umn.edu or 612-626-5967).

Posted by Liz Fine at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're teaching a class this fall and would like me to give your students a session on literature searching, library resources, etc. please let me know ASAP (if you haven't already), as rooms and my calendar and filling up quickly. I can tailor the presentation to an assignment, a certain group of resources, reference management with RefWorks, advanced research needs, or anything else you have in mind. If you're considering this, let me know and we'll figure out something that works best for you and your students.

FYI - I'll be on vacation beginning Thursday 8/16 and won't be back until Monday 8/27, so it would be a good idea to express interest before I leave so I can hold dates for you. We can work out the details later.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Posted by Liz Fine at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Library can generally add journal subscriptions once a year - we request them by the beginning of September, to subscribe at the beginning of the coming calendar year. When people send me journal requests during the year, I hold them and make sure they get on our wish list for the next year.

If you have any journal requests, either for new electronic journals or for other electronic resources, please send them to me by August 15th so I can get them on this year's wish list. We will consider the requests and subscribe to whatever our budget can handle.

One-time purchases, such as books or DVDs, can be made at any time during the year, so let me know if you have recommendations for our collection!

Contact me if you have questions. Thanks!

Posted by Liz Fine at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to my blog! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Liz Fine, the Health Sciences Libraries' liaison to the School of Nursing. I've set up this blog as an easy way for me to communicate with faculty and staff about news and issues related to library resources, collections and services. Also, if I get frequently asked questions, I'll post the answers here in case others were wondering the same thing.

I have added all faculty and staff to the notification list, so that you'll get an email with new content every time this blog is updated. You can also search the blog at blog.lib.umn.edu/evfine/nursingliaison for old entries, so you don't need to save the notification emails.

If you'd like to be removed from the notification list, please let me know. Also, if you know of someone who isn't on the list who you'd like me to add, please let me know that as well!

My aim is to keep this blog targeted, so you can stay up to date without being buried in extra information. Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions. Thanks!

Liz

Posted by Liz Fine at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)