UMN: Bio-Med Library - Public Health

Information literacy is a term that is used a lot these days to describe how to become competent in recognizing when one has an information need and acquiring the skills to know where to go to find that information. I've always kind of disliked that term, so I'll use "information fluency" further in this post.

A core part of my job as a librarian and information professional is to support faculty in teaching information fluency skills to SPH students.

With the new school year underway, I wanted to let all faculty know that I am available to come to a class session and help students gain fluency in using the vast resources available to them from the University Libraries. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like me to come to a class session.

Another option is to share with your students a recording I made this past Monday (9/15/08) to Dr. Call's PubH 6806 class on literature searching and using RefWorks. Here is the link for that recording:

Please feel free to send this to a class email list or post to a WebCT page. Students can watch/listen to this presentation on their own time and it is great to use at the point of need. If you do post this or email it out, please let me know.

Additional links that are also helpful to students is a web page I developed on public health resources, as well as my web page with my contact information. I'm also available to work with students one-on-one.

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 04:11 PM | Permalink

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 Lisa McGuire at 01:48 PM | Permalink

The Bio-Medical Library will be installing new computer furniture on the 2nd floor of the library beginning on Monday, August 4. The new computer furniture will have modern wire management and additional space that will allow for more collaborative group work. Expanded electrical power outlets for wireless laptop users will also be available. Self-service printing and copying, similar to what users experience in other University Libraries will also be initiated.

During the construction period, Reference Desk services will be provided from room 274, which is right behind the current reference desk. There will not be Reference Desk services available on Saturday, August 9.

University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff will be able to access computers in the lower-level computer area on the 2nd floor during the construction period. Access to the lower-level computer area, room 274 and the group study rooms will be maintained during the project.

There will be some noise during the construction project which is expected to be completed by Wednesday, August 13.

Thank you for your patience as we improve our 2nd floor computer area.

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 04:24 PM | Permalink

As of March 20, the “Attachments� option has been enabled for all University of Minnesota RefWorks accounts. The attachment feature enables users to attach files to their references in their personal database, much like attaching files to an email message. The incorporation of this feature allows users to upload files to existing references stored within their RefWorks database. With the availability of this feature RefWorks users can instantly save and retrieve all forms of data within their database including BMP, TIF, JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF, and much more.

A few things to know:
· Default storage space setting is 100MB, per account.
· Additional space can be allocated on an account-by-account basis up to a maximum of 200MB per account. We are working with RefWorks to remove these limitations and expect some improvements with the August 2008 release of the software. Contact medref@umn.edu about increasing the space allocation for a particular account.
· There is no limitation on the number of attachments allowed per account or per record.
· A current maximum of 5MB limit per attachment is set, although we are working with RefWorks to address this limitation.
· As of now there is not a way to do a batch export of attachments, so if you want to get the attachments to a different account you’ll need to download each file individually. This is something to keep in mind if you anticipate wanting to move all your references to a different reference management program.

Contact the Reference Desk if you have any questions: 612-626-3260 or medref@umn.edu .

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 02:48 PM | Permalink

Today I was happy to present at the School of Dentistry's Research Seminar series on the issue of the new NIH Public Access Policy and how this affects you as a published author of peer-reviewed journal articles.

The NIH Public Access Policy begins April 7, 2008. The policy makes it mandatory for all authors of research results, that are the result of NIH funding and published as a peer-reviewed journal article to submit their final, peer-reviewed manuscript into the NIH's online repository, PubMed Central.

Previously, this had been done on a voluntary basis, but in the interests of making this research publicly accessible to all, Congress added a provision in the law to make this a mandatory requirement.The article will be available in PubMed Central 12 months after the original publication date in the journal.

Please take a few minutes to look over my Power Point presentation from today.

As always, I'm happy to consult with you about this issue directly via email, or you may direct specific questions to this address: nihpublicaccess@umn.edu

Regards,

Lisa

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 03:12 PM | Permalink

The United Nations has released a new web-version of their statistical sources called UNdata.

The search interface is easy to use and there is a glossary of terms that one could browse for relevant topics. This database currently contains over 55 million records with more information to be added in the future.

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 04:23 PM | Permalink

The NIH Public Access Policy has been signed into law and takes effect on April 7, 2008.. Here's what the law actually states:

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

So, what does this mean for you? We've set up a website that outlines the key components to this new requirement at: http://www.lib.umn.edu/scholcom/NIHaccess.phtml

The University of Minnesota Libraries are working with SPA and other stakeholders to develop ways we can assist authors with compliance.

In the interim, feel free to contact me with any questions regarding the new mandate.

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 04:36 PM | Permalink

The University Libraries' migration to the OvidSP platform, scheduled to occur Tuesday, 1/15, has been postponed for a week until Tuesday, 1/22. The short delay will give Ovid technical staff more time to work on the seamless transition to the new platform for current users who have saved searches.

As always, if you have any questions about this please contact me.

Lisa
612-626-3643
lmcguire@umn.edu

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 04:20 PM | Permalink

The University Libraries' migration to the OvidSP platform, scheduled to occur Tuesday, 1/15, has been postponed for a week until Tuesday, 1/22. The short delay will give Ovid technical staff more time to work on the seamless transition to the new platform for current users who have saved searches.

As always, if you have any questions about this please contact me.

Lisa
612-626-3643
lmcguire@umn.edu

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 04:20 PM | Permalink

OVID Technologies, the University Libraries platform for citation databases like MEDLINE, BIOSIS, and PsycINFO is making a major change to its search interface, called OvidSP. The University Libraries will be migrating to OvidSP the morning of Tuesday, January 15, 2008.

This new user interface features multiple search modes with classic features such as term Mapping, Explode, and Scope Notes carried over in the Ovid Syntax mode, while the Basic mode uses natural language searching which allows for searching across databases. Users will also notice an improved results display.

One of the major changes is that users will now need to create "personal accounts" in order to save searches or create AutoAlerts. 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. New users wishing to save their searches or to customize the user interface will have to create a new user account.

Try OvidSP, which can be previewed in the current interface and if you have questions or difficulties with the new OvidSP please send email medref@umn.edu (our email reference service), or call the Reference Desk at 612-626-3260.

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 10:18 AM | Permalink

Library resources are available to be used remotely only for currently-registered students, faculty, and staff.. Occasionally, a student may be finishing their 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 do not register through the Graduate School (this includes SPH), 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 will need to complete the University Libraries' "Unregistered Graduate Student" form ( http://www.lib.umn.edu/pdf/borr_app_unreggrad_20041110.pdf) which ultimately needs to be approved by a faculty advisor and sent to the Libraries' Borrowing Privileges & Fines office. More information is at http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/boptions.phtml#unregrad .

Please make sure that your course/division coordinators are aware of this policy. Feel free to refer any questions to me.

Lisa

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 11:57 AM | Permalink

SPH Faculty,

As the new school year approaches, I wanted to remind everyone that I am available to provide course-integrated instruction for all SPH students. While I do library resource orientation sessions for incoming SPH students in August, many students would benefit from in-context library instruction at the point-of-need.

As you plan your courses for the upcoming year and have assignments that require information skills such as literature searching, please feel free to contact me directly to arrange these sessions. I can come to your course location, or the Bio-Medical Library or AHC Learning Commons can hold classes that require 25-40 persons.

You can reach me via phone (612-626-3643) or via email at: lmcguire@umn.edu

Thanks,

Lisa

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 01:38 PM | Permalink

Are you confused about copyright law and what constitutes fair use? Maybe these Disney characters can make it all clear.

Enjoy a creative explanation via a YouTube video

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 01:07 PM | Permalink

The Bio-Medical Library has begun a pilot project answering reference questions via Instant Messaging (IM). Anyone with an AIM, MSN, Yahoo, or Google account can send our reference staff a question via IM.

This pilot project will run through December 2007. For more information on this service, or to send us a question, go to: this page

Alternatively, you can send a direct question to me via IM at any of my account names:

AIM: lmcguire301
Yahoo: lisa_mcguire301
MSN: lmcguire301@hotmail.com
Google: mcgulisa@gmail.com

Happy Instant Messaging!

Lisa

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 04:24 PM | Permalink

In response to a request from an AHC student group for additional options for safe and comfortable study spaces, the Bio-Medical Library and AHC deans will conduct a pilot project to provide extended 24/7 access to a portion of the second (tunnel) level of the library in Diehl Hall. Beginning May 5th, after the library’s usual closing time, an area of the second floor will be accessible only to those who present a UCard. This area encompasses the public computers, some study tables, the small group study rooms, the casual seating near the entrance, and the rest rooms. There will be no library services, such as photocopying, printing, circulation, or reference assistance provided during these extended hours. There will also be no access to the print collection of journals and books in the stacks. Access control will be provided by a UM Security Monitor stationed at the entrance to the second level. The library is also in the process of adding security cameras which we expect to be installed during the summer. This pilot project will run through Fall 2007 finals, with progress evaluations of the project after Spring finals, May Session, Summer Session and Fall finals. Please direct any questions to Linda Watson (lwatson@umn.edu; 626-7039).

Posted by Lisa McGuire at 10:29 AM | Permalink