Leisure Reading in Medical Libraries

Some libraries have a large collection of leisure reading.  When I worked at Hahnemann, now Drexel, I used to borrow books!  I could get things from them right away that I was unable to get for the Free Library system.  (Not to imply that I don’t love my library!  And it is facing dreadful prospects now with our mayor’s budget cuts!)

For the first time the library where I work is starting a collection based on books staff has brought in.  It isn’t cataloged and it won’t be monitored.  It is a really unique collection. 

It will be interesting to see what happens.

Farewell Mars Phoenix Lander!

This will sound odd but it was the Mars Phoenix Lander that got me to really use Twitter.  Sure I was on it but @MarsPhoenix moved me from an observer to someone who was getting Tweets on my cell.  Someone who wasn’t just lurking but was posting!  I moved from being a follower to a leader.  I read all about it, how it’s used in education, in medicine, in libraries, in business, in media.  And it was all because of a little lander.

The Mars Phoenix Lander stopped transmitting today. 

If you don’t know Twitter you need to start from the bottom and work up.

	MarsPhoenix [Phoenix Ops: We promised Phoenix to continue to update here its discoveries and future news. Another goodbye from Mars: http://is.gd/6Xfp ] 4 minutes ago from web
	MarsPhoenix [Phoenix mission ops: We bid our good friend a fond farewell. Phoenix did us proud: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/vid... ] 22 minutes ago from web
	MarsPhoenix [From Phoenix mission ops: Phoenix is no longer communicating with Earth. We'll continue to listen, but it's likely its mission has ended.] 26 minutes ago from web
	MarsPhoenix 01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3 33 minutes ago from web

What did I learn this week?

I learned the economic situation has made a second set of cuts to the library’s budget likely.  There will be cuts in the state where I work and the state where I live.

 I relearned that I am not going to MLA in Hawaii this year because, as part of the cuts, the library administration has decided to stop paying for any conference that requires an overnight stay.  I could be wrong but I think Hawaii qualifies.

Patient Safety Resources

Next week I’ll be attending the HSLANJ meeting with a training on Patient Safety.  I believe it is this one.  Since all of the material is online I was checking the bibliography and the notes.  Scary stuff!  

I also found myself at the Joint Commission site with the WHO collaboration and their own pages.  Next time at the doctor’s I’m gonna’ “Speak Up”

Marketing, Branding, whatever-ing

There is a lot out there on branding and marketing.  I keep coming up against  it again and again.  Our library is getting ready to review and reorganize our web page.  My boss sent out Jefferson’s page.  She likes the clean look. 

That would be great except we are part of a library system with rules over which we have no control.   It is funny how different each library’s home page looks, what is emphasised and what is available. Personally I want to see more dynamic content, moving towards a blogging format.  I would like us to  get rid of a lot of the weight in the page. 

Hmmm, I’m going to start a delicious tag called good_design  just for this.  It will be interesting to see what I have down the road.

Critical Path Funding Crisis-access to internet for the poor at risk

Before I had this job I ran the AIDS Library and Critical Path Project at Philadelphia FIGHT.  Critical Path was and is a free internet service provider for the poor and AIDS Activist.  That right, a free ISP.  It’s only dial-up but there really isn’t anything like it in the world. 

Now the funding is at risks.  Part of cost cutting measures that are happening all over the country.  What the new mayor didn’t think about was the impact that access to information makes for PWA/HIV and the poor. 

Please consider signing on to the letter at http://www.critpath.org/isp/critpath-help.php or sending one of your own.

Thank you.

Serious Play-a book I hope will inspire me

I read about this book Serious Play.  I want to read it because it is about innovation.  And how the model you create will inspire your work.  I want to really study it.  Like you would study a textbook.  Turns out that isn’t so easy. 

I tried and tried.  I need to work on that skill, reading a textbook.  I seem to have lost it.  I will find another interesting book and try again!  Just not today.  Soon though!

Librarians and IRBs

I am taking my CITI Training for the IRB at my institution.  I have been a member for the last 2 years. It was a decision taken at a much higher level that there should be a librarian at each campus IRB. The other campuses in the north of the state have multiple IRBs that meet twice a month! We only meet once and most of our stuff is behavioral.

Well that might not be true, since we are the IRB of record for the hospital. Maybe it just seems like a lot of behavioral research.

Many of the students have to do research so we see a lot of chart reviews and anonymous surveys. The CITI Training is required for anyone doing research and anyone reviewing research.  There is a lot of reading on the screen which is difficult for me.

Last year as part of my IRB responsibilities I got sent to the PRIMR conference.  I was the only University librarian there.  That was an interesting conference.  I enjoyed it a lot.  I did spend most of my time alone but since I was spending in Boston, in December, it was lovely and involved good food!

Two years ago there was a flurry of emails around the time of MLA’s annual, on IRB librarians getting together.  At that time I thought I should write something for publication on the topic.  I never did.  My annual review is coming up.  I should put it onto next years goals!  That would force me to do it.  How measureable it that!

What a job title!

Coordinator of User Experience is a job available from a college in Illinois.  I love the way the title describe a vision of service as experience.  I just read something about how marketing should not talk about what ‘we’ can do for ‘you’ but as what ‘you’ can do.  I interpret that to mean instead of saying, “The library is open 8-midnight and our resources are available all the time,” the sentence reads, “You can use the library space from 8-midnight and the library resources 24/7.”  Or something like that.

One of my (many) goals

My goal is to write at least one post a week.  That forces me to review the literature and process it.  It forces me to open up Google Reader and not let the number of posts overwhelm me.  It forces me to keep thinking about my profession and not spend all my time bogged down in the day-to-day minutia.  It forces me to see the big picture in my professional life.

Another way to do that was the topic in Stepcase Lifehack-the Weekly Review.  I had never heard of it but it makes such sense.  You take an hour or two each week to review what went right or wrong in the past week and plan ahead for the next week.  Several kinds of reviews are discussed in the article.  The author says all review can be reduced to the essential questions listed here:

1. What do I have to do in the upcoming week?
2. What am I doing wrong that needs to be fixed?
3. What new things should I do to take my life in the direction I want it to go?

This is something I am going to incorporate into my week.