MDMLG / Metropolitan Detroit Medical Library Group

Shiffman Medical Library job posting

2011-12-12T08:27:00.002-05:00

Posting Number
038285
Position Title
Librarian I/II/III
Number of Vacancies - 1
School/College/Division/Institutes/Centers
01 - University Libraries
Primary Department
H0110-Shiffman Medical Library
Essential Functions (Job Duties)
As a member of the Shiffman Medical Library professional team, the Biomedical and Translational Research Librarian participates in policy formation and decision-making related to health sciences services, resources, and technologies. In addition to teaching, this position requires scholarship and service, so the successful candidate will be asked to serve on a variety of committees and teams. Essential Functions: Expand the library's role in supporting and participating in basic and clinical biomedical research initiatives, determining and proactively meeting the educational and research needs of faculty; Develop educational and research-related aids for researchers in such areas as Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Biomedical Physics; Nanobioscience; Cell Biology and Cytogenetics; and Neurobiology to facilitate biomarker identification, risk stratification, and multidimensional interrogation of complex biological systems via such high-throughput tools as genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics; On the basis of faculty demand, identifies and pilots materials and information resources for inclusion in the collection; Provide liaison services in support of the WSU Division of Research, and its Institutes, Centers, and Core Facilities related to Biomedical Sciences, Translational Initiatives, and associated Clinical Science Departments at the School of Medicine, to include: 1). Establishing collaborative networks and relationships with researchers, faculty, and staff; 2). Identifying and assessing information needs of personnel, and implementing strategies to fill those needs and 3). Increases the breadth of research support for WSU researchers and scientists, including grant writing support where needed. Work collaboratively to develop classes and provide instruction on information management skills, information retrieval, and sustainable digital data management and preservation techniques (for example, the Digital Commons); Participate in Shiffman Medical Library unit teams, work groups, and/or committees; Participate in department, library system-wide, and faculty committees; and Actively engage in ongoing professional development, scholarship, and service to the profession Provides basic daily reference services in-person and electronically.
Unique Duties

Qualifications
Qualifications: ALA-accredited master's degree in library or information science; 2-5 years of experience as a professional librarian in a biomedical research facility or a health sciences library, serving a strong research faculty as well; Substantial experience working with bioscience and physiochemical information sources; Strong commitment to public service; Ability to effectively work with diverse library users and staff; Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information in an organized and effectively usable way; Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment; and Evidence of innovation in delivering library services. Qualifications for Librarian I Rank: Master's degree from an ALA accredited library school or equivalent. Potential to begin establishing a record of professional achievement and service required. Qualifications for Librarian II Rank: Master's degree from an ALA accredited library school or equivalent. Demonstrated ability to carry out competently the range of professional library functions pertaining to the primary assigned area of librarianship required. The ability to work well independently, to make sound decisions and to have constructive/productive interactions with colleagues and continuing record of professional achievement and service required. Qualifications for Librarian III Rank: Master's degree from an ALA accredited library school or equivalent. Demonstrated excellence in job performance required. An established record of excellence in professional achievement and service required. Appointment at this level is based on the applicant's cumulative professional record rather than on any single accomplishment. Must have achieved statewide and/or regional recognition within the profession.

Preferred Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications: Coursework in a bioscience or physical science, and knowledge of e-science and scientific data, or an undergraduate degree in biology, chemistry, or physics (may be hired at the Librarian I-II level). Substantial level of coursework at the graduate level or a degree in a relevant science (may be hired at the Librarian II-III level).

Testing Requirements
Not Applicable
Test Scheduling

Job Type
Full-Time
Job Category
Faculty and Academic Staff
Duration of Posting

Fiscal Year of Job Open Date
2012
Job Open Date(When job is posted in the system)
12-08-2011
Job Close Date(or until suitable candidate is found)
Until Suitable Candidate is Found
Is this position reposted?
No
Reposting Reason:
None (New Posting)
Application Information

Instructions for submitting your application:

Represented Position Message

Funding/Salary Information

Salary (Minimum)(Non-Academic Only)

Salary (Hire Max)(Non-Academic Only)

Salary (Maximum)(Non-Academic Only)

Hourly Rate(Non-Academic Only)

Salary Range(Academic Only)

Is Position Bump Ineligible?(Non-Academic, Represented positions only. Select 'No' for Academic. Select N/A if Non-represented.)**NOTE: If 'Yes' is selected, then this is a Bump Ineligible Position (BIP). The person who bids or hires into this 100% grant funded position has no bumping rights upon grant expiration or in a reduction of force.
No

Video Invitation for the 2012 MHSLA Annual Conference

2011-10-18T16:19:00.004-04:00

At the 2011 MHSLA Annual Conference, Janet Zimmerman presented a video invitation prepared by the 2012 MHSLA Local Arrangements Committee.

You can view the video via YouTube -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CDU_lDUcks

MDMLG Membership Directory

2011-09-02T12:02:00.004-04:00

The 2011-2012 MDMLG Membership Directory has been posted to the website behind the Member's Only section. Members with outstanding dues or membership forms have not been included in the directory.

Please check your entries carefully. I received several forms with information that differed from what had been previously recorded (eg. numbers transposed, different zip codes, etc). Notify me with any changes that need to be made.

The password to the Member's Only section will be changed in mid-September.

MDMLG Annual Reports 2010-2011

2011-06-21T09:44:00.002-04:00

The 2010-2011 Annual Reports can be found at http://www.mdmlg.org/annual-reports/annual-reports-2010-2011.htm.

MDMLG Election Results

2011-05-02T09:48:00.002-04:00

Nominating Committee is happy to announce the winners of the 2011 Election:

President-Elect
Barbara LeTarte

Secretary
Jennifer Bowen

Public Relations
Doris Blauet

Nominating Committee
Melanie Bednarski
Daria Drobny
LaVentra E. Danquah

The nominating committee expresses their congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone that ran for a position.

Submitted by,
Patricia Supnick, Chair
Nominating Committee

Mobile Medical Technology Applications – A Panel Discussion

2011-03-29T17:31:00.003-04:00

The links to the presentations from the spring meeting have been posted to the MDMLG Meetings page.

MDMLG Constitution and Bylaws

2010-09-03T18:47:00.003-04:00

The MDMLG Constitution and Bylaws as they were ratified on April 15 have been posted to the web site. They are available at:

http://www.mdmlg.org/members/constitution.htm

MDMLG Photo Album

2010-06-28T09:14:00.001-04:00

Jennifer Bowen has taken some photos at recent MDMLG events: the MHSLA Annual Conference, the WSU Annual Recognition Ceremony, honoring the two MDMLG scholarship winners, and the MDMLG Summer Luncheon at Mario's. The photos are on the members-only portion of the web site -- http://www.mdmlg.org/members/photo-album.htm.

MDMLG Copyright CE Class - Power Point Presentation

2010-05-20T11:36:00.001-04:00

As you know, MDMLG sponsored a Copyright CE Class last week at the Clinton Macomb Public Library.

The speaker was Molly Kleinman from the University of Michigan, and she spoke on "The Beauty of Some Rights Reserved: An Introduction to Copyright, Publishing and Creative Commons".

Molly has graciously shared her powerpoint presentation with our group. The link is --
http://www.mdmlg.org/Molly%20Kleinman%20Copyright%20Presentation.ppt

What Journals are Essential to Physicians

2010-04-13T16:01:00.003-04:00

Mary Jo Durivage alerts us to a very interesting blog post by Krafty Librarian. She discusses the New England Journal of Medicine's 2009 Essential Journal Study and how librarians can use this information to help shape our journal collections.

The complete blog entry is located at:

http://kraftylibrarian.com/?p=479&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kraftylibrarian%2FOLay+%28The+Krafty+Librarian%29

or http://tinyurl.com/yypcl3g

Return on Investment - Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan / Learning Resources Center

2009-10-20T16:27:00.002-04:00

At the MDMLG General Business Meeting last week, Daria Drobny shared a poster she developed with Return on Investment statistics for her library in 2008. She has graciously agreed to share this with our group, and it is located on the members-only portion of the MDMLG web site -- http://www.mdmlg.org/members/return-on-investment.htm.

There are two spreadsheets: one is the final poster that she shared with her Administration, and the other is a spreadsheet explaining her calculations. She used 2008 as the basis for her calculations because that was the most current full year of statistics.

Program Committee History

2009-07-01T13:00:00.006-04:00

The Program Committee history is now available. There is information on MDMLG Programs going back to the 1999-2000 fiscal year. http://www.mdmlg.org/program-history.htm

MDMLG Scholarship Winner

2009-06-10T09:45:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Lynn Shemwell! She is the MDMLG Student Scholarship winner for 2009. Lynn is a student in the School of Library & Information Science at Wayne State University and is interested in Health Science Libraries. Look for Lynn at the Summer Education Program & Luncheon on June 18 and welcome her.

Shiffman Returns

2009-06-03T14:42:00.004-04:00

It’s been almost two years since the Wayne State University Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library, its staff and collections vacated the worn and somewhat dreary 3-story structure built in 1969, at address 4325 Brush St. in Detroit.

Well, all that has changed. The building has undergone radical renovation and transformed into the glorious Richard J. Mazurek, M.D. Medical Education Commons, with Shiffman’s library residing on the ground floor with the new entrance (and new address!) at 320 E. Canfield St.

Significant features include energy and space saving compact shelving of journals and books in the same room, while staff offices and work areas are positioned in a very spacious layout. Shiffman librarians have a consultation suite and offices on the 2nd floor, however most of the upper floors consist of clinical simulation or computer laboratories, state-of-the-art classrooms or offices serving the medical students of the WSU School of Medicine. There’s even an elevated glassed-in walkway connecting the new facility to the medical school’s Scott Hall. Soon there will even be a gourmet coffee shop at the building’s entrance, which is currently under construction.

Shiffman opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, May 26, but the Grand Opening of the entire structure is set for Friday, June 5, 2009.

Read more about the new Shiffman library in the upcoming issue of the MDMLG News!

Posted on behalf of Linda Draper.

Award Announcement

2008-04-02T12:26:00.003-04:00

It is with great pleasure I announce this year's recipient of the MDMLG Annual Scholarship Award.

*********************Mary K. Fitzpatrick*************************

The MDMLG Student Award is presented to a student enrolled in the Library Information Science Program at Wayne State University who displays an interest in health sciences and/or are enrolled in the LISP Health Science Program.

This award encourages students to consider the health sciences courses offered at WSU and provides a full, one year membership to MDMLG, including subscription to the newsletter and an invitation to the yearly banquet, an award certificate, the recipient's name on a plaque displayed in the LISP department, and a monetary award.

The award will be presented at Wayne State University in May.

Marilyn Kostrzewski, President

Second Life - Power Point Presentation

2008-03-25T09:25:00.002-04:00

Evette Atkin, from the Michigan Library Consortium, has shared her power point presentation on Second Life from the MDMLG Meeting last week. You can view it at http://www.theunlibrarian.net/SecondLife2.ppt.

Program - Google Bells & Whistles

2007-12-03T12:10:00.002-05:00

Leslie Behm has posted her handout on Google Bells and Whistles at:

Resources for Library Instructional Materials

2007-11-19T16:39:00.002-05:00

At the last MDMLG Executive Board Meeting, we were discussing resources for library instructional materials. Misa Mi collected these sites which contain library instructional materials.

MLA / Hospital Library Section Wiki
http://mla-hls.wikispaces.com

MLA Core Toolbox
http://www.mlanet.org/core

Library Instruction Wiki
http://instructionwiki.org/Main_Page

Second Life Educational Wiki
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

If you have your own content that you would like to share, you can contribute it to any of these web sites. And if you know of any additional resources, please click "Comment" below and add them.

Many thanks to Misa for gathering this information.

MHSLA Blog

2007-10-15T14:40:00.001-04:00

Sandy Swanson has just taken over the responsibility as blog editor/author of the MHSLA Blog. It is located at http://mhsla.wordpress.com/. She will be posting a couple of times a week with information on MHSLA activities, along with pointers to resources and information we all should know about.

Each blog posting will have a "Comments" section, and she encourages us to join the discussion on anything that piques our interest.

If you have a topic that you would like her to blog about, or a story she should cover, please contact Sandy at swansonse@trinity-health.org.

If your internet filter blocks the MHSLA, you can also contact Sandy and she can help you out.

MDMLG History

2007-09-26T16:26:00.001-04:00

I just created a new web page entitled MDMLG History. It contains the Executive Board and Committee rosters, as well as links to the Annual Reports and Goals & Objectives. Some of the information dates back as far as 1999-2000.

This will be particularly useful if you need to document your committee participation.

MLC creates Michigan Libraries Wiki

2007-09-14T14:47:00.002-04:00

MLC has just announced that it will be launching a new wiki next week geared towards providing "a useful library wiki for Michigan library staff from all types of libraries." A quick perusal of the wiki shows a lack of special library content. The good news is that content can be added by "Anyone who is able to contribute relevant information specifically related to Michigan libraries...". I'd like to encourage all MDMLG members to consider contributing content relevant to MDMLG and medical libraries.

A Hospital Administrator's Blog

2007-07-02T10:14:00.001-04:00

I recently came across a hospital adminstrator's blog - http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/. It's run by Paul Levy, the President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. It's an interesting view into the cares and concerns of the group that controls our budgets and futures.

Nancy Bulgarelli

MDMLG Archives Material

2007-06-25T15:50:00.001-04:00

Sandra Martin, the MDMLG Archivist, would like the MDMLG officers and chairs to send her the materials they want archived by the end of July.

Shiffman Medical Library is undergoing renovation and the library will be relocating in early August. Sandra would like to collect all MDMLG archives material before that time.

The types of things we archive include:

Agendas
Annual reports
Agreements
Brochures
Charges to Committees
Conference Proceedings
Committee Reports
Constitution & Bylaws including all Revisions
Contracts with Speakers
Correspondence, Questionnaires, Surveys & Summaries
Directories
Evaluations
Financial Reports
Fliers
Goals & Objectives
Grant Proposals
Guidelines
Mailing Lists
Manuals
Meeting announcements
Memos
Minutes
Newsletters
Newspaper articles
Photographs
Policies & Procedures
Position papers
Programs
Publicity & promotional materials
References to MDMLG
Rosters
Slates of Candidates
Slides
Surveys and summaries
Treasurers' Reports

You can contact Sandra at (313) 577-6665 (Phone) or smartin@med.wayne.edu.

MDMLG Members in Print

2007-05-01T12:52:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Wendy Wu. Her recent article in Medical Reference Services Quarterly is a featured in May's Informed Librarian web site.

"RSS Made Easy: A Basic Guide for Librarians", by Wendy G. Wu and Jie Li in Medical Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 26 No. 1, (c) 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission from the publisher.
Describes uses of RSS, how to find RSS feeds, and how to publish RSS feeds on the Web.

Wikis worth a look

2007-04-17T10:08:00.000-04:00

I have recently run across two wikis worth looking at. The first is a relatively new wiki created by the Hospital Library Section of MLA called the HLS Wiki. According to the site "The purpose(of the wiki)is to provide a sandbox in which we can share best practices in the true spirit of knowledge management in a forum that is easily accessed, archived, searched, and modified. Please feel free to add your content." Registration is required to add content but not to search or read content. Thus far there are "articles" on Collection Development, EHR & Point of Care, Evidence Based Practice, Magnet Hospitals, Physical Space, and Justification of need for library staff.

The second wiki is the EBM Librarian Wiki, whose purpose is "is to develop a community of librarians who are involved in teaching and supporting the practice of evidence based medicine (ebm) or evidence based practice (ebp)." Contributors must be invited but anyone can use the information found on the wiki.

Web 2.0 learning resource

2007-04-17T09:56:00.000-04:00

Helene Blowers, the Public Services Technology Director at The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County has created an online program that introduces Web 2.0 to novices. Each week examines a small part of the Web 2.0 world and provides simple exercises that allow participants to gain hands-on experience. I highly recommend this resource for a broad introduction to Web 2.0 concepts

2007-04-04T14:48:00.001-04:00

While reading a post in Squidoo on Infodoodads I stumbled across Brian Gray’s treatise on Using Web 2.0 Principles to Become Librarian 2.0. As an aside, Brian Gray's Squidoo page is an excellent source of basic Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 information.

On that site I ran into CiteULike, a site that “CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organise the academic papers they are reading.” I am constantly running into articles I think would be of interest to other medical librarians, and see many postings on medlib-l sharing their articles. It stuck me that CiteULike would be a great place to serve as a repository or our serindipitously or otherwise obtained articles. I have created both a profile and a group (Health_Sciences_Librarians) to facilitate this sharing. I am encouraging all to join CiteULike (all they ask for is a username, passoword and email address) and join the group (it’s open to all for now).

For more information on CiteULike, including some basic instruction, see the post on my blog.

Magnet status

2007-03-20T08:53:00.000-04:00

Mary Jo Durivage asked the group if anyone whose hospital had or was applying for Magnet status participated in the process. Marily K. talked about her experience and discussion turned to teaching Evidence-Based Nursing research and the issues that surrounded that. Your institution does not have to be a Magnet hospital or even applying to join in this discussion. I invite everyone to comment about how we can teach nurses, including issues nurses have with time and getting off the floors.

MHSLA Publication List

2007-03-12T11:03:00.000-04:00

The MHSLA Research Committee has compiled a list of publications by MHSLA members, and it appears on their web site at http://www.mhsla.org/publications.htm.

Food for thought

2007-02-16T08:53:00.000-05:00

I recently discovered Jane Blumenthal's blog - Health, Science and Libraries. Jane is the new director of Taubman Medical Library at the University of Michigan. One post in particular gave me pause for thought. Jane writes in general terms about Taubman's foray into Web 2.0. She brings up an excellent point about the long term usefullness of all of this for the library. I am guilty of proclaiming Web 2.0 the be all and end all when honestly we have quite a ways to go. Jane also writes

We're finding that one size does not fit all. Not all of us are equally familiar
with or comfortable with certain technologies, and some collaborations and
communications are more effective in one venue than another. Experiential
learning is difficult for some of us, and others are uncomfortable with
relinquishing control over content or timing. Nonetheless, it's a grand
adventure, and one of the many things we are accomplishing together.

Here at MDMLG we've been experimenting with a group calendar (AirSet) and a blog, with mixed results. Many of our constituents wonder why we need a blog when we have a listserv. This is a fair question and while I feel both can be usefull it is up to us to determine which medium will work best under different circumstances. The point seems to be that Web 2.0 won't necessarily replace older Web technologies but rather enhance them and give people more options.

Welcome to the grand adventure!

MeSH® Subheading Consolidation Decision

2007-01-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

From the current issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin

January 30, 2007 [posted]

Last year, the National Library of Medicine® (NLM®) proposed to consolidate the 83 existing qualifiers (subheadings) in the Medical Subject Headings and create a smaller set. The goal was to make the use of qualifiers easier for the searching public. NLM distributed a background paper within the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, whose members also posted it on a number of widely seen listservs. At the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in 2006, Dr. Stuart Nelson, Head of Medical Subject Headings, and those in attendance had a lively dialogue on the proposed changes.

Over the intervening months, NLM staff analyzed all comments, suggestions, and feedback. We considered the potential impact on the searching public, Network libraries, and the internal processes at NLM. Ultimately, in part due to budget constraints and limited resources, NLM has made the decision to retain the qualifiers in their present form. We hope to concentrate our efforts on other ways to improve searching and retrieval for all users. We greatly appreciate the many thoughtful comments received, and thank all those who provided input.

U.S. News & World Report - Top 25 Careers

2006-12-29T11:33:00.000-05:00

This web site was recommended by Nancy Bulgarelli.

"U.S. News & World Report has identified 25 professions that will be in growing demand as baby boomers age, the internet becomes ubiquitous, and Americans seek richer, simpler lives."

Of course, librarian is included! Check out the entire report at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/best_careers_2007/

MHSLA06: Closing Keynote Speaker

2006-10-20T09:17:00.001-04:00

The closing keynote speaker is Mary Joan (M.J.) Tooey, immediate past president of MLA. Her topic is Investment strategies for medical librarians. M.J. is a very fun, dynamic speaker.

Invest in:

Politics
-Find out who the opinion leaders, influencers and heat seekers are.
-Learn to speak their language.
-Now your advocates and your enemies.
-Be a good listener.

Service
-Get out. Be visible. Don't be afraid to promote yourself ande your services.
-Find out what keeps your users awake at night. What is the problem they are
trying to solve? How can you help?
-Make yourself and your expertise invaluable NOW. Advocate.
-Find areas for future opportunities. Try new things. Be aware of trends from
other industries that may have an impact on your work.
-Find partners and collaborators.
-Don't rely on entitlements for survival.

New MLA resource - Vital Pathways page.

Research
-So, what does keep your users awake at night?
*Research dollars?
*Length of stay?
*Outcomes?
*Patient safety?
*Time savings?
-Do you have an effect on any of these?
-Become familiar with the language of research.
-Research does not have to be complicated and long - sometimes it just involves a
simple question.
-Acquaint yourself with the literature of research.
-Take classes.
-Ask colleagues what questions they want answered.
-Don't be afraid.

Evaluation tool - NNLM

Education
-Be curious
-Learn new things
-Partake in continuing education
-Read outside the profession
-Broaden your horizons
-Be a lifelong learner

Now
-Network
-Join and get professionally involved - locally, statewide, regionally,
nationally.
-Reach out, teach, think of the community and community organizations - "think
globally, act locally".
-Apply for grants, contracts, awards, scholarships.

Future
-Go to K-12 career daya.
-Go to career fairs or exhibits.
-Teach library school classes.
-Mentor a new professional.

Why she thinks the future is bright...

-By making investments - knowledge, viability, validity, new perspectives,
support.
-New roles, opportunities emerging - but don't expect them to be "given" to us.
-Increased energy, enthusiasm, ideas.

Last thought... invest in yourself

-Work to live, don't live to work. Get your priorities right
-Your health (mental aned physical)
-Be kind to yourself and others - "Civility costs nothing and buys everything."
(Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1689-1782)

MHSLA06: MSHLA's Strategic Plan

2006-10-19T16:20:00.001-04:00

Jennifer Barlow reviewed MHSLA's new strategic plan.

Three themes:

1. Communication / Marketing / Outreach & Advocacy.
-Help members to articulate the value of their libraries
-Actively recruit new members
-Communicate effectively with existing members

2. Adapt to the changing information landscape.
-Employ technology to operate efficiently
-Educate members about new technologies
-Educate members about basic tools of the trade

3. Build Coalitions to promote health literacy.
-Educate members about low health literacy
-Help members educate clinicians
-Encourage members to promote literacy work
-Help ensure access to appropriate patient education materials

Outcomes to avoid:
*Letting traditional strengths slip
*Trying to be all things to all members
*Trying once and giving up

Discussion -

Has there been a question or point of interst for the research paper? What would we measure? LOS? Adverse effects?

Suggestion - focus groups with hospital administrators to get a handle on what matters to them.

MHSLA06: Keynote Address

2006-10-19T08:58:00.001-04:00

Dr. David Slawson is the keynote speaker, and is taking on "Flawed Transmission of tghe Best Evidence: What Should Clinicians Know About the Treatment of Diabetes. Dr. Slawson is the B. Lewis Barnet, Jr. Professor of Family Medicine at the Univeristy of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Dr. Slawson will talk about how the information flow is not as good as it should be. Clinicians are part of the "Information Business" even though most do not think they are. Good information + learning = better patient care. Who is responsible? In part, we all are (all being vendors, librarians and clinicians).

Typical flow of information in medicine:

Medical research is published --> Results summarized by experts --> review articles OR CME --> Clinicians --> Patient Care

Dr. Slawson co-authored an article on which the keynote is based:

What happened to the valid POEMs? A survey of review articles on the treatment of type 2 diabetes. [Review] [19 refs] [Journal Article. Review] BMJ. 327(7409):266, 2003 Aug 2.

Purpose of article was to find out what went wrong and give ideas on how to fix it.

Gimenez-Perez G, et al. Diabetic Medicine 2005;22:688-92 - Random sample of 66 sites. Web basically useless but your best bet is non-comerical sites.

"Still a man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest." - Paul Simon.

Who should write reviews?

Oxman AD, Guyatt GH. The science of reviewing research. Ann NY Acad Sci 1993;703:125-33

Study of 36 review articles using 10 criteria for determining rigor. The overall rating of rigor: expert correlation was 0.23, non-expert correlation = 0.78. The greater the expertise of the writer = stronger prior opinion --> less time spent on review --> lower quality. Their conclusion: the epxerts should do the research, the non-experts should write reviews due to less bias.

There is quality and then there is the perception of quality. The perception of quality (i.e., marketing) always wins in the end.

Is our information system working, or is it flawed and broken? Need to grade for bogth validity and relevance. He spoke about SORT (see notes from CE class).

Information Mastery Method

Medical Research publishes -> Results evaluated by Information Masters --> Publish in EBM sources (Cochrane, valid POEMs, InfoRetriever, etc.) --> clinicians --> highest quality patient care.

Cannot have a solution until there is a recognition of the problem. There is no recognition of a problem here in the United States.

Wisdom is the individual application of knowledge.

Dr. Slawson has done a great job explaining what the problem is. Our job now is to figure out how medical librarians can be part of the solution. We could drop our traditional passive role vs. active, assertive role. Change agents of American medicine are NOT going to be doctors. It probably won't be the political arena. It's up to us to determine where we will fit in.

The Librarian and Work - Navigating the Maze

2006-10-18T14:26:00.001-04:00

PubMed Clinical Queries - forces you to step through PICO.

P(opulation or Problem)
I(ntervention)
C(omparison)
O(utcome)

EBM Heirarchy

1. Systematic Reviews (Cochrane, DARE)
2. Critically Appraised Topics (Clinical Evidence, DynaMed, FPIN Clinical Inquiries)
3. Specialty spefic POEMS (Daily InfoPOEMS)
4. Critically appraised individual articles (ACP Journal Club)
5. Textbooks (UpToDate, Harrison's Online (expert opinion))
6. Journals articles (Original research found with MEDLINE & other databases)

Librarians will play a significan role in evaluating the ever increasing EBM resources and guiding clinicians through the pyramid

You can have information free or uncensored but you can never have both.

Physicians aren't going to look something up if they don't think it's going to be there.

Using Expert-Based Information Delivery Systems

2006-10-18T13:08:00.001-04:00

Information mastery measures BOTH the validity AND relevance. There is NO tool that incorporates both.

Using an expert / being an expert

Expert is anything or anyone you go to for an answer to a question.

Person as an expert

Type 1: Content expert
Type 2: Clinical scientist
Don't have to be content experts
Good at evaluating evidence
separation of therapeutics
YODA: Your Own Data Analyzer
Relies on POEMs first, even if this information conflicts with DOEs or clinical experience
When POEMs not available, YODAs use the best DOE
Demonstrate appropriate validity assessments

YUCK - Your Unsubstantiated Clinical Know-it-all.

POEM isn't a POEM if it's not Patient oriented. A valid DOE is NOT a POEM.

EBM - absence of proof is not proof of absence

Are CME's beneficial. Traditional lecure format (passive) - no. Hands on (active) learning - Maybe.

Validity - depends on speaker
Relevancy - depends on POEM:DOE ration

Type 3: Review articles

McMasters - worksheet to evaluate review articles

The expertise of the author vaires inversely with the quality of the review - Oxman / Guyatt

Cochrane - Excellent source for hunting and foraging. Top of the EBM pyramid.

Our (medical librarians') job - how to tell quality from the PERCEPTION of quality.

Be careful of the term Evidence-based Guidelines. What is important is how the evidence is USED.

Better - Evidence-Linked Guidelines
-Brief summary statement
-Detailed discussion of the evidence
-long reference section point to original research
-Methods section showing how evidence was obtained and evaluated.

SORT (Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy) classification - only system that takes Validity AND Relevance into consideration.

Rating:
A = Consistent and good quality POE
- Standard LOEs for validity, POE for revelance
B = Inconsistent or limited-quality POE
C = Consensus, usual care, opinion, DOE, case series

No hunting tool uses SORT.

PDR - compendium of drug advertising without peer review. hmmm, I'm looking at PDR differently now.

Random thoughts on information mastery...

2006-10-18T13:02:00.003-04:00

I'd like to send a big Thank You out to Sheila B., who coordinated the food for the conference. The salmon was to die for appartently (I didn't have it, being the good Russian I am I opted for the stroganoff) and the cheesecake was amazing. Great job Sheila.

Random thoughts on the class while I'm waiting for it to start up again...

I think I'm finally becoming comfortable with the what evidence based medicine really is.

It's scary how much research out there isn't really valid.

It's even scarier how much that is out there is influenced by "special interests".

Random thoughts on information mastery...

2006-10-18T13:02:00.002-04:00

The hard part of information mastery

2006-10-18T10:54:00.001-04:00

Evaluating information:

particpant allocation - one of 7 types of blinding, one of two absolute types of blinding.

Why is allocation concealment important?

Could change the outcome of the results.

Mamography screening
Lancet Jan 8, 2000; Oct 20, 2001

"Mundus Vult Decipi"
"The world wished to be deceived"
People would rather be deceived than have the truth cause anxiety

Caleb Carr, "Killing Time"

Second absolute type of blinding - judicial assessor blind.

Also look for intention to treat

Levels of Evidence:

SR with homogeneity = 1a
RCT: LOE = 1b
Cohort: LOE = 2b
Case Control: LOE = 3b
Case Series: LOE = 4
Expert Opinion: LOE = 5

Statistics you need to understand to evaluate research:

Probability Level (P-Value) - likelihood that the deifference observed between two interventions could have arisen by chance.

Number Needed to Treat - 1) the number of patients that need to be treated for one additional patient to receive benefit, 2) the number of paitents that need to be treated to prevent one additional outcome, 3) takes into account the relative risk as well as the absulte risk of not treatment.

NNT = 100 / % in treatment group - % in control group

Relative risk - risk of harm (or benefit) of one treatment as compared with another. Does not take into account the risk of NO treatment (absolute risk).

relative risk tells part, but not all of the story; NNT does better

confidence interval - upper and lower possibilities of our statistical estimates. If CI crosses 1.0, the difference is not significant.

Statistical signiificance is a requirement for determining clinical significance, but is not enough to signify a clinical difference.

Confidence Intervals helop us to understand how close our answer is to the truth.

What to look for in validity:
randomization
allocation concealment
blinded judicial assessors
intention to treat
follow-up > 80%
Narrow confidence intervals

Time for lunch...

Information Mastery continued...

2006-10-18T09:32:00.001-04:00

Relevancy - how do we determine what is relevant?

1. Patient-Oriented Evidence
- mortality, morbitiy, quality of life
- live longer and/or better

2. DOE: Disease-Oriented Evidence
- Pathophysiology, pharmacology, etiology

3. Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters (POEM)
- It matters to you and the clinician, because if valid, it will require a change in practice.

Validity always comes down to probability. How many studies does it take? There is no absolute truth in the world of information. What is the level of probability that will cause people to change their behavior.

Traffic light anology - most of the information in medicine today is in the yellow light (benefit / harm uncertain). Doctor's need to keep an open mind.

"I know a lot, therefor I am"
- Replaceable by a computer.

"I think, therefore I am"
- Never replaceable by computer.
- People are going to start not trusting a doctor who won't use computer.

Hand held computer = stethoscop of the future.

Levels of information mastery -

Level 0 - making decisions by guessing or being influenced by drug reps.
Level 1 - hunting and foraging tools.
Level 2 - people who create foraging tools for level 1.
Level 3 - people who do the original research or do systematic review.

We really only need to get most people to Level 1.

MHSLA06: Librarian's Role in Information Mastery

2006-10-18T09:16:00.001-04:00

This should be a very interesting class. Instructors are David Slawson, MD and Mike Simmons. I am eager to hear how a physician will teach a class of librarians. It will be an intersting dichotomy.

A link to the course outline with speaker notes can be found at http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/familymed/information_mastery/information_mastery_course.cfm

Mike started out with introductory information. He makes an interesting point that when he did a search in PubMed on EBM he got far fewer hits than when he searched "Evidence Based Medicine". Apparently, PubMed does NOT map EBM to evidence based medicine. We need to keep in mind the terminology that the physicians use.

"Incorporating the best evidence into the real world of the busy practitioner requires the applied science of information management."

What is our role in this? Apparently not as much as we'd like to think. The number one influence of physicians in the United States is drug reps. Whether or not they push a drug or stop pushing a drug has more influence than the medical literature. On average, it can take up to 13 years for a change to occur in medical practice strictly on the literature alone. People don't change unless they have a reason to change.

Limitations to the practice of high-quality medicine at the bedside:

1. Shortage of coherent, consistent scientific evidence.
2. Difficulties in finding what evidence does exist due to searching and access limitations.
3. Difficulties in applying evidence to the care of individual patients.

There will never be information to answer all of the questions all of the time.

EBM has taken medical practice from inductive to deductive. Doctors don't have time to read the literature - we need to come up with secondary sources.

Usefulness of any source = relevance x validity / work.

Doctors won't look for something if it takes them more than a minute to find. They won't look if they don't know it's going to be there.

Break time...

Articles of Interest on Web 2.0 / Library 2.0

2006-09-25T10:45:00.001-04:00

I ran across a couple of articles in my "to read" file that I thought might interest some of you. The articles are on social bookmarking tools (i.e. - del.isio.us) and expand on what was discussed at the September MDMLG General Business Meeting

Hammond T. Social Bookmarking Tools I D-Lib Magazine 11(4): 2005
http://dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html

Lund B. Social BOokmarking Tools II D-Lib Magazine 11(4): 2005
http://dlib.org/dlib/april05/lund/04lund.html

What to read?

2006-09-09T10:01:00.001-04:00

So, now you have a blogger account. Now what? What do you read? Often times finding a blog or news source of interest is serindipitous. I plan to eliminate some of the legwork by posting entries about feeds to read. I'm going to start out with the entry in the LIS Wiki on Weblogs - Medical Librarianship, which contains a list of blogs written by by or are about medical librarians, libraries, or library associations. To subscribe to any of the blogs listed just click the Feed link and follow the directions posted in this blog entry.

Links:

LIS Wiki
Weblogs - Medical Librarianship
Related entry - setting up a Bloglines account

Using Bloglines to read RSS feeds

2006-09-08T13:28:00.001-04:00

As promised, here is my first blog article building on material presented in the September MDMLG program. I chose Bloglines because that is what I use. Other readers will probably function much the same way.

The first thing you need to do is sign up for a Bloglines account:

1. Go to http://www.bloglines.com.
2. Click on the Register link, found at the upper right corner of the page.

3. Fill in your email address, type a password, confirm the password, and choose your time zone. Click on the Register button to submit your information.

4. Reply to the confirmation email to complete the registration process.

Once you have a Bloglines account you can then add feeds. This is a relatively simple process. You may find it easiest to have two browser windows open, one with Bloglines loaded and the other to capture the urls for the feeds in which you wish to subscribe.

1. To find the url for the feed, find a blog you wish to follow and look for an orange RSS or XML button, or a link that says RSS, XML, or META.
2. Click on that link, highlight the address in the browser's address bar, and press ctrl+c keys to copy the address.
3. In the browser window that has Bloglines loaded, click the Add link, which can be found at the top of the left frame.

4. Make sure the cursor is in the Blog or URL Feed: field. Press ctrl+v to past the url into the field.

5. Click on the subscribe button.
6. Personalize your options (I will go into more detail about customizing Bloglines in a future blog entry).

7. Click on the subscribe button to complete the subscription.

Now you are ready to read your RSS Feeds!

Peer Review in the Google Age

2006-04-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

Did peer review spring from the time of the Inquisition? Is it an essential means of assuring quality - or as relevant today as medieval torture? For some thought-provoking ideas on Peer Review in the Google Age, these recent presentations may be of interest:

Morrison, Heather (2006) Open Peer Review & Collaboration http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00006017/

Dominy, Margaret and Bradley, Jean-Claude and Bhatt, Jay (2006) Peer Review in the Google Age: Is technology changing the way science is done and evaluated?
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00006004/

WEB SITE OF INTEREST: Library Terms that users understand

2006-04-03T14:54:00.001-04:00

Library Terms That Users Understand

from the web site

This site is intended to help library web developers decide how to label key resources and services in such a way that most users can understand them well enough to make productive choices. It serves as a clearinghouse of usability test data evaluating terminology on library websites, listing terms that tests show are effective or ineffective labels. It presents alternatives by documenting terms that are actually used by libraries. It also suggests test methods and best practices for reducing cognitive barriers caused by terminology.

This is an interesting web site. I'd like to see research done on the special library patron. Our patrons are a bit different. For example, in the public and academic library setting research found that "journal" was a term users didn't understand. That is not the case with medical library patrons. I think it would be interesting (and useful) to do this type of study with medical / hospital library patrons (anyone on the MHSLA research committee intereste?).

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice

2006-03-17T07:20:00.001-05:00

We are pleased to announce the release of the first issue of the new journal
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice. EBLIP is open access, peer
reviewed and is the first journal to focus specifically on evidence based
practice in the information professions.
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP

In addition to the valuable Evidence Summaries section, this issue also
contains research articles, papers presented at the 3rd EBL Conference in
Australia, and EBL Conference abstracts.
Feel free to forward this announcement to other listservs and colleagues.
Lindsay Glynn , Editor-in-Chief
Denise Koufogiannakis, Associate Editor (Evidence Summaries) Pam Ryan,
Production Editor

Resource Review: Scopus

2006-03-08T10:18:00.001-05:00

Burnham JF. Scopus database: a review Biomedical Digital Libraries 2006 3(1)

ASBSTRACT
The Scopus database provides access to STM journal articles and the references included in those articles, allowing the searcher to search both forward and backward in time. The database can be used for collection development as well as for research. This review provides information on the key points of the database and compares it to Web of Science. Neither database is inclusive, but complements each other. If a library can only afford one, choice must be based in institutional needs.

doi:10.1186/1742-5581-3-1
Provisional PDF

Article of Interest

2006-02-20T12:11:00.001-05:00

FYI: The following article has appeard in the current issue of Surgical Clinics of North America:

Knight T. Brice A. Librarians, surgeons, and knowledge. [Journal Article] Surgical Clinics of North America. 86(1):71-90, 2006 Feb.
UI: 16442421

Finding an aticle using it's DOI

2006-02-10T16:11:00.001-05:00

I am probably the last person in library-dom to have figured out how to locate an article using it's DOI (digital object identifier). The topic of DOI's probably warrants more of a discussion but it's 4:15 p.m. on a Friday and it's not going to happen now. But, just in case I wasn't the last person on the planet to figure this out I thought I'd document it here for posterity:

In your browser type http://dx.doi.org/.

It's that easy!

Unshelved

2006-02-09T19:43:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite comic strips is Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum. The strip takes place in a public library but the themes are near and dear to any librarian's heart. A few months ago this strip was published and it really struck a chord. How many of our patrons immediately go to the Internet when looking for information when an old-fashioned reference book or journal would be the better choice?

Announcing the MDMLG Blog

2006-01-31T13:54:00.001-05:00

Alexia Estabrook and I have been working together for the past three months to create an official MDMLG blog.

At this point, only Alexia and I can post original messages to the blog. However, anyone can comment on the blog messages. After the initial pilot period (proabably about a month), we will open up the postings to all MDMLG Executive Board members, Committee chairs and other appropriate MDMLG personnel.

Please contact me at vreid1@sladen.hfhs.org or 313.916.2550 if you have any questions or comments about the MDMLG blog. Thanks.

Valerie Reid
MDMLG Webmaster