National Network of Libraries of Medicine nnlm.gov	Archives	Search nnlm.gov: nnlm home | About the archives
This page was archived on: May 01, 2008 | View page metadata		Document content is not current. Links may be broken.

National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region

From Bench to Bedside:

Research and Testing of Internet Resources and Connections in Community Hospital Libraries

Quarterly Report
April - June 1995

Highlight

Progress to Date

• Eleven librarians are participating in this project and have been communicating with the RML staff, sharing problems and successes.
• SLIP project participants are expected to test certain aspects of Internet services and share their experiences with the RML and with the region, through regular quarterly reports and through other, less formal avenues.

Library-Specific Progress, Problems Encountered, and Corrective Action Taken

2.5 months later and much tinkering--I was finally successful today in connecting to WLN using Internet-in-a-Box at 14.4 and established a PPP connection. One of our computer techs installed a 16550 UART chip to work with the modem. I'm having a problem using QUICKDOC now but have a message off to Jay Daly to help with that. Now I'm getting familiar with the Pine mail system. I'm glad to have another e-mail address as the VA mail has been EXTREMELY unreliable lately for getting mail back and forth from other networks.

Gail Wilkerson <gailw@wln.com>

One of my docs sent me an email requesting me to run a MEDLINE search & email it back to him. So I did & with the PPP connection it was a piece of cake! Here's what I did:

With my email program (Pine *blush*) still open I was able to telnet to MEDLARS and capture my search results to my hard disk. Then, not being entirely sure what to do next (and not wanting to bother with the manual!), I opened the saved search using Wor d for Windows, highlighted the entire search and copied it to the clipboard, returned to email, and pasted the clipboard contents into my reply. The whole process took all of -- maybe -- six minutes. All while still connected & not having to close any applications!

Thanks to Valerie for sharing your experience with emailing the MEDLINE search. You made it sound so easy that I did a dummy search and emailed it to Suzy Holt across town. I may have done it slightly different. While connected to MEDLARS, I chose to capture to a file (from the file menu) and then when I was creating the email message I inserted this captured file into message by choosing the Insert function from the file menu.

This message also forced me to add this group to my address book in my new software. I thought I had, but I guess that was on Pine, not Chameleon. This reminds me another problem I experience. I love to use bookmarks but I get frustrated by having my list I made in Gopher, and then the one I created using Lynx with my WLN account, and then using Netscape within my chameleon software. I forget where I have put things, or expect them to be there, and they are not. Is this just growing pains, or am I m issing something here? Perhaps there is an easier way. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Again, thanks for sharing your experience.

Just received and installed my 28,8 modem (as part of the SLIP Project) and WOW is it fast. Used Netscape to travel to a few places with graphics and it was noticeably faster that my 14,4. Thank you!

Hi, Neil- Well, we are up and running on Internet Express and it's a very interesting learning curve. We've only had it installed two days ago and already we've been to Paris in the Springtime! Also, tried the Virtual Hospital in Iowa and loved the pediatric chest x-rays. I'm still not convinced we've got everything connected right, but will continue to explore and hopefully, fine-tune.

I'm going to snail-mail you our report.msd disk that I never could figure out how to e-mail via our dial-up connection. At least you'll have it. Also, my CEO would like something (an email message is fine) that gives the specific Slippers Pilot Project Program dates or even that this is a one year project beginning in (insert date here). He's dotting his i's and crossing his t's! Thanks, Neil!

(I've yet to try Eudora - I'll check it out soon!)

We know that some of you are using your SLIP/PPP connections without inordinate problems. We know that a few of you are experiencing quite frustrating problems. We're not sure where many of the rest of you are. Please forward a summary of your progress/problems during the last quarter (April through June) to Nancy Press. She will compose the quarterly report focusing on your experiences.

We would also like to do what we can for those of you experiencing problems. With some luck, maybe we can help work things out with your local set up and enable you to take advantage of this form of connection. Let us know what's not working for you and we can work together to hopefully get to a solution.

Looking ahead to the PNC/MLA conference in Sep., for those of you who will be at the meeting in Bellevue, Wa., I'd like to suggest we get together as an interest group and have a discussion. The program indicates that Friday (9/15) at 5:00 is a convenient slot for this. This would be an opportunity to assess problems and prospects and inform other interested librarians in how to proceed. Let us know if you will be there.

Please respond to the RML staff member of your choice. Thanks!

Neil

Actually I guess this is the first quarter I've been up and running -- it feels like I've been SLIPping most of my life! It seems to be going really well down here. I have started doing the bulk of my work on halcyon on their 9600 baud line because I can stay connected twice as long (4 hours instead of 2 hours) and only switch to the faster lines if I want to download large files from the Web. It's fun to be able to switch between various Internet applications (newsgroups, mail reader, WWW, telnet to M edlars) and PC-based applications (Word for Windows, InMagic, etc.) without having to disconnect/reconnect all the time. The only applications that force me to disconnect from halcyon are our hospital email, because that's also a dial-up connection (since I am not located in the hospital), and Docline, since I can no longer connect through Internet (or am I missing something?). Now if my hospital would only get its own Internet connection!

The only frustration I have is that I have not been able to get Netscape to install. (I currently use Internet In A Box.) I downloaded the Netscape files ages ago but they only install about halfway, then I get a message that a particular file is open & needs to be closed before proceeding further. I can supply more detail in another forum (Michael, are you available? ;-) No one else I know has had ANY trouble with it -- and I DID get it installed on my husband's computer at home! Now, anyone know wh ere I can get Winsock for him??? ;-)

[Neil Rambo wrote:] be at the meeting in Bellevue, Wa., I'd like to suggest we get together as an interest > group and have a discussion. The program indicates that Friday (9/15) at 5:00 is a convenient slot for this. This would be an opportunity to assess problems and prospects and inform other interested librarians in how to proceed. Let us know if you will be there.

I'm going to send on some thoughts about what's been happening with the SLIP Project here. A great deal has gone on since we jumped in. First, I feel that we were able to get approval for our new equipment sooner because of the SLIP project deadline, than if I had just been trying to convince admin that we desperately needed to update our system. Even after approval, it took quite a while before we actually got it here and installed. I had new equipment and new software to learn (by the way, SmartCom for Windows is great) I had to learn Windows. I first set up the new system to use my net dial up account. This was so impressive -- with my new system I was able to see so many more things on the screen than with my old system. There were entire helps across the bottom (such as in Pine) that certainly make things easier. The same with trying to use lynx. With my old system, the screen wouldn't clear entirely, and I'd have extra characters from the previous screen. It was distracting to try to figure out what went with what. When I got the bugs worked out of that and did some other housekeeping chores (updating Quickdoc, putting in new phone numbers for Docline, Medline, etc.) I loaded IBOX. After talking with support from our provider to get the information I needed to set up my PPP account, I plunged in to that. This was intimidating because even the support person said not to worry if it didn't work smoothly the first time, because most people had some problems getting it set up. No problem with setting up my account! Well, if I thought the dial up account was great on my new system, PPP is so slick. I can't believe how much simpler it is to do some things -- printing, downloading files, accessing the various programs such as WWW or telnet, etc. I've spent some time trying to work out problems with some of the programs that came with IBOX such as AIR Mail and AIR Gopher. I've decided Pine is definitely easier to create address files in. I just got the IBOX version 2 upgrade but I don't think it's going to solve the problems I've found. I'm using Mosaic quite a bit more than I used Lynx and I've found some really helpful resources there. I use HealthLinks quite a bit, especially using the PDQ database. I just found some great information on rural health grants that was helpful. I find it helps to spend time just exploring to see who's got what where. (I try to make a note of especially useful url's) Well, I hope this brings you somewhat up to date with where I'm at in this project. So far so good!

Linda

-- Nancy, Here's what I've been up to. I have upgraded the Mosaic software and have loaded Netscape and have been comparing the two browsers. I often get thrown off Netscape but find it a little easier to use. Took a course at Marylhurst called "Internet Treasures for Librarians. I have found some interesting websites in neurosciences and have been trying to get faculty interested but no takers. I love some tips on engaging their interest. I am working on getting the library and college their own node. I have submitted the PO but haven't gotten approval. I am chairing an OHSLA committee to develop our own Home Page.

Following is my progress report for this quarter. Gee, I don't think I reported anything last quarter. I must have been "checked out." Hope this is what you had in mind. I am sending my report as an attachment , which I have never done before, so let me know if there are problems.

I will be in Bellevue for PNC/MLA and would enjoy meeting! See you then.

[Note: The attachment did not arrive as expected. It will be submitted with the next quarter's report.]

Nancy- We've made recent significant progess on our SLIP project. We FINALLY got the correct printer drivers installed on our Windows software so we can now download and print images. We recently printed off some electron microscope images of ebola virus and h antavirus for a physician who is giving a lecture this fall on the "emerging viruses". He wants to make slides from these images. Also, we've moved from Mosaic to Netscape software and are enjoying the ease of use and the web-crawler features of this program.

Michele Spatz
Planetree Health Resource Center
spatzm@ohsu.edu

Dear Linda:

Since changing jobs I have been swamped with getting to know my new situation. I had downloaded the Internet.zip file to an internet program group on my computer at Auburn General but had not had time to work out the kinks. I hope Carrie will be able to.

There seems to be no net-browser here. I will try to download the same Internet.zip file from Eskimo North that I used to get Netscape before. Perhaps this time I won't have trouble. Our IS department wants to dump internet functions on the library. I should be deleriously happy since I want to learn as much about the 'net and be able to use it well. I had hoped that moving to a hospital with a network and an information services manager would give me some h elp. Wrong again. I am seen to be their source of information. 8-{ I guess that's really a good thing. Actually, I think Michael put that zip file in some directory there. If I have trouble remembering the address, I'll let you know.

Margery Keppel Harrison Memorial Hospital

Nancy,

Here's a brief report on my progress/problems with my PPP connection.

I have been getting used to the Internet-in-a-Box software and have been able to browse the WWW. I've downloaded clinical practice guidelines from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, located the VA home page, and looked at other health relate d pages. I have yet to download any images or retrieved any files by FTP. I find that learning how to use a particular kind of software (IBOX) is difficult when time is limited. My hardware meets the bare requirements for using my PPP connection and this means that my connection is quite slow.

I am beginning to introduce the staff here to the WWW. I have the only access to the Internet in the hospital, and I intend to use the connection to give one-on-one demonstrations.

I'd be interested in talking with other IBOX users about their experiences. I find that I still need more information about other software I might need, e.g. Netscape, to fully utilize the information on the Internet.

URL http://nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/pnr/reports/95-2conn.html