More from our list of Top 10 Reasons why you should attend:
10) Libraries can become response centers in your community during a disaster
9) Increase communication about policies and best practices when disaster strikes
8) Learn what to do with a tourniquet
7) Lunch and snacks are included in registration!
More to come.
Here is the link to the meeting web site. You can check out the program and register.
#networking #healthsciences #resiliency
Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network
Annual Meeting
Friday, March 15, 2019
Massachusetts Medical Society
Conference Center at Waltham Woods
860 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451
Program:
8:00 – 9:00 Registration, Coffee, Continental Breakfast / Visit with Exhibitors
9:00 – 9:30 Business Meeting
9:30 – 9:45 Break with Exhibitors
9:45 – 10:45 Eric Goralnick, MD, Medical Director of Emergency Preparedness, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
10:45 – 11:00 Break with Exhibitors
11:00 – 12:00 Stacey Arnesen, MS, Branch Chief, Disaster Information Management Research Center, National Library of Medicine
12:00 – 12:15 Sarah Levin-Lederer, MPH, Outreach and Education Coordinator, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region
12:15 – 1:15 Lunch
1:15 – 2:00 Exhibitor Lightning Rounds & Final Break with Exhibitors
2:00 – 3:00 Stop the Bleed — Tourniquet Training
3:00 – 3:15 Wrap-Up
Jessica LaBrie
Information, Innovation & You
The MAHSLIN Annual Meeting comes early this year and is right around the corner! If you have not already done so, please register. Early registration is still just $65.00 for MAHSLIN members. As MAHSLIN works to focus on you, our members, the Board has decided that all regular paid attendees of this year’s Annual Meeting will receive free MAHSLIN memberships next year.
As we speed through an age in which more information is communicated more rapidly than ever before, and innovators swiftly devise new ways to reflect contemporary trends and promote continued progress, the relentless pace of change and innovation can feel overwhelming. However, librarians, too, are necessarily innovators, particularly in today’s dynamic world. Not only do we innovate to improve library services and to respond to changes around us, but when significant shifts occur in the education, work, or information habits of our user populations, we creatively adapt to ensure that we continue to serve our patrons effectively.
This year’s program presents a slate of speakers addressing our roles and our opportunities in the context of rapid innovation — innovation in libraries, innovation in health sciences, and how you can effectively become an integral part of continuing innovation.
Callan Bignoli, Assistant Library Director (Technology) for the Public Libraries of Brookline, will deliver a presentation on content strategy for librarians. Ivan Oransky, MD, Distinguished Writer In Residence at NYU’s Carter Journalism Institute and co-founder of Retraction Watch, will discuss the reasons for the dramatic growth of retractions, whether fraud is on the rise, the growth of post-publication peer review, and other related trends. Finally, Jane Blumenthal, Associate University Librarian & Director, Taubman Health Sciences Library at University of Michigan, will speak about how health sciences librarians can respond to a changing landscape by developing creative and innovative ways to meet our users’ information needs, taking the challenges of change and reframing them as opportunities to take advantage of.
We hope to see you on March 16!
Jessica LaBrie
MAHSLIN President-Elect 2017-2018
MAHSLIN 2018 Program Chair
The support from the MAHSLIN Professional Development Award Fund enabled me to attend an exceptional class earlier this month. Designing Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews is in its second year offering by the Becker Medical Library at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It’s a two day course offered in person. The course is intended for librarians to be better prepared to develop complex search strategies for systematic reviews.
I’ve also attended the University of Pittsburgh’s Falk Library of the Health Sciences Systematic Review Workshop. I took that class prior to having contributed to any Systematic Reviews and didn’t really know what I didn’t know. It was a really great class that provided a solid foundation for the two Systematic Reviews I worked on afterward. Unfortunately, I had no confidence in the work that I did on those reviews. I still wondered, “Did I create effective searches, I must have done something wrong, how do I know if the searches were actually good or not?”
Those lingering thoughts led me to register for the Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews course. The course was $400 and I had to travel to St. Louis, which could be a barrier for some. With this Professional Development Award and partial funding through my employer, I was able to make it. Thankfully, I did! The first reason I’m so glad I went, is that it definitely made me feel more confident about my work on the Systematic Reviews I supported and much more confident in starting a new one. Secondly, after having worked on those, I knew what I needed to know and where I felt weak. I knew what questions to ask this time around.
This course had a structured agenda that worked through the following topics on the first day: 1. SR Guidelines, 2. Patron Contact & PICO plan, 3. Search Design, Bias, and 4. Recall, Term Harvesting. The second day covered: 5. Designing Concept Hedges, 6. Combining Concept Hedges, 7. Support Software Overview, 8. Grey Literature Resources, 9. Writing the Methods Section, 10. Sending Results, and 11. Final Steps.
We worked through all of theses steps of a Systematic review from beginning to end with a Case Study that was provided to each of the three groups we had been divided into ahead of time. The instructor would perform an example of their own case study and then instruct us to perform those activities with our group’s case study. Each of the three groups had one component of the PICO question, P, I, or C (the study was looking for an outcome) as our concept we worked on. Toward the end of the class we shared our results (combining concept hedges) and worked on the Methods Section and Final Steps with all of the pieces put together. This hands-on method was extremely effective and we were even provided with the tools to take back (i.e., an excel spreadsheet to organize term harvesting, checklists for the methods section) with us for when we need them. The instructors stayed on target with the schedule and with discussions and questions. This organization was another plus of the class.
I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in taking a Systematic Review class and am extremely grateful that MAHSLIN provided me with the funds to make it possible.
Stephanie Friree Ford, MLIS
Reference Librarian
Submitted by Heather Edmonds, Director of Library Services, New England College of Optometry, edmondsh@neco.edu
is a free communication tool that is part-IM service, part-email, part-shared drive that also integrates with numerous productivity apps and other services. It’s available as a mobile or desktop app, as well as via the web. Though primarily marketed as a tool for small businesses and start-ups, the staff at my small library has been using it for nearly a year, and we have found it invaluable.
Slack allows for both group conversations — which can be organized by topic/project/etc. via “channels” — as well as direct messages to individuals on one’s “team” (our “team” is small and consists of only library staff members, but teams can be as large or as small as they need to be to accommodate the user group). Messages are archived, and fully searchable.
Slack also permits the sharing of files among team members directly in the app. File sharing is particularly easy when using cloud-based services such as Google Drive or Dropbox, as you need only cut and paste the link to the file into Slack in order to share it.
One of the most useful Slack features for us is the ability to integrate our shared Google Calendars into specific channels that update automatically when an “event” is forthcoming, so that you can see what’s happening on a particular day without having to leave the app. For example, one of the shared calendars we’ve integrated is our circulation desk schedule, so that it’s easy to keep on top of who is scheduled to cover the desk, and when.
We initially decided to try Slack because we found that email, while useful for many purposes, wasn’t fully addressing our day-to-day communication needs as a staff. Face-to-face communication is best, of course — but our library is open many hours, and because we cover different shifts we don’t always see each other as much as we’d like. So we decided to try an IM service, and Slack proved to be the most versatile. I highly recommend Slack for any library staff interested in communicating outside the email box.
Submitted by Frances Foret, Head of Collection Development at Tufts Hirsh Health Sciences Library.
Browzine allows users to browse, read, and monitor the journals available through their library and is a great tool for non-techies like me. When you first log in it quickly identifies your institution’s journal holdings and organizes them by general subject category. You can, of course, also search and retrieve holdings information by journal title name.
Browzine replicates the feeling of being in the print world of a library reading room where journals are shelved on periodicals display shelves. You can take a virtual trip of walking through the stacks browsing your institution’s journal holdings.
There is a “My Bookshelf” feature that corrals your favorite journals, making it simple to peruse them (this feature requires a personal login).
Browzine is easy to use, and the vendor is well-known for being very responsive to any questions or issues you may have. Browzine is not a free product but requires an annual subscription. At Tufts we have made the mobile and desktop versions available to our users.
Below please find more details about Browzine directly from Third Iron, the provider of this product.
Hello MAHSLIN members,
Spring is in the air and MAHSLIN 2017 is around the corner. If you have not already done so, please register. MAHSLIN will be held at the Massachusetts Medical Society conference center on Friday, April 7, 2017.
It’s not an easy time to hold on to one’s traditional beliefs, values, skills, and interests when the very profession that once fit them so well is in constant flux. What do you do? How do you remain relevant to your patrons and to your organization? Just as importantly, how do you make sure the very users who need your help know what it is you can do for them?
From taking an inventory of your skills and mapping them to a needs assessment of your users, to developing your message and creating a coordinated campaign to get the word out, the 2017 MAHSLIN Annual Meeting will help you ensure that you’re doing everything you can to remain relevant in today’s environment.
We look forward to seeing you there and register today!
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
MAHSLIN is looking for members interested in the position of Publicity Chair OR Webmaster. If you are interested or want to learn more about these positions, please contact me, Meredith Solomon at ilyse_slim@yahoo.com.
Meredith Solomon, MLS, AHIP
Associate Librarian
Brigham & Women’s Hospital
75 Francis St., Thorn 127 | Boston, MA 02115
(617) 525-9234 | msolomon1@partners.org
Submitted by: Michelle Eberle, MLS Consultant
Greetings, MAHSLIN! I’m enjoying my new position as a Consultant with the Massachusetts Library System (MLS). MLS serves all types of libraries and most of you are already members. I will be reaching out to non MLS-member health sciences libraries and inviting them to join MLS. There are a lot of benefits to MLS membership including free continuing education workshops, access to statewide databases with custom links for your website, and a materials and supply cooperative to save your library money on books, audiovisuals, and needed administrative and technical supplies.
We are thrilled to announce that we have a hospital librarian serving on our Executive Board. Stephanie Friree Ford, Reference Librarian at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Howe Library was recently elected to the MLS Executive Board. Thank you, Stephanie!
If you are looking for useful, local, and free professional development workshops, MLS is offering over 36 workshops this spring in all regions of the Commonwealth. You can register for our upcoming spring professional development workshops on our event calendar.
Upcoming workshops relevant for health sciences librarians include:
Our strategic plan identified social justice as a primary concern for our membership. In response, our spring meeting on June 13th at Devens will focus on social justice. Also, we are hosting a Massachusetts Libraries’ Declaration of Inclusion Planning Session on March 2nd at our Marlborough office in collaboration with the Massachusetts Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom/Social Responsibility Committee.
If you like the Unshelved Comic, you will definitely want to join us on May 3rd at UMassMed School for two presentation on customer service by Gene Ambaum. Please save the date. The event will be added soon to our workshop calendar.
We are also conducting a listening tour throughout the Commonwealth. MLS wants to hear from you how we can better serve you and how we can continue to encourage a co-creator culture and make libraries future ready. Some dates are already posted in our calendar, which will focus on discussions about fake news. We hope you can join us for one of our listening tour events.
I’m hoping to strengthen the relationship between MAHSLIN and the Massachusetts Library System. If you have any questions about MLS, please reach out to me at michelle@masslibsystem.org.
Submitted by Cara Marcus
An email sent through the MAHSLIN listserv caught my eye – our neighbor CAHSL sent MAHSLIN members a friendly invitation to their holiday luncheon. Dr. Dayne Laskey from the University of St. Joseph School of Pharmacy was the speaker, and the topic sounded fascinating: the history of plants and medicine. Not only is history one of my favorite subjects, I recently began teaching adult education herbal cookery. In addition, my newly graduated daughter just studied herbal medicine, and the topic would be of interest to her as well. So off we went for an afternoon in Connecticut!
The presentation was superb. No standard PowerPoint here; Dr. Laskey whirled images on the screen of plants and medicines, many from his hospital’s own medicinal garden, while surprising the group with a live aloe plant, and an astounding demonstration of how black light makes quinine (from tree bark) glow in regular bottles of tonic. Quinine-enhanced tonic was given to early sailors to help them stay healthy on-board. One of the most surprising things we learned was that about 79% of herbal supplements sold today do not actually contain the herb listed on the label (Dr. Laskey also talked about regulatory efforts attempting to control this issue). Of course, with an audience of librarians, he discussed the evidence base for herbal medicine, and left the group with much food for thought for their own reference work in alternative medicine.
Besides a great lecture, the meeting was fun! The CAHSL group was very congenial, the setting was lovely for the holidays, and the lunch included make-your-own Caesar salad and mac-and-cheese bars with lots of fixings. Another highlight of the afternoon was a Yankee Book Swap. Everyone brought a wrapped, new book and went home with a new great book to read. So – many thanks to CAHSL and happy holidays to all!
MAHSLIN Blog 