Leigh Mihlrad
Systems & Technology Librarian
Schaffer Library of Health Sciences
Albany Medical College
Albany, NY

A variety of Internet-based office products, such as Google Docs (http://docs.google.com), Zoho (http://www.zoho.com), and Microsoft Office Live (http://workspace.officelive.com) have popped up to challenge traditional desktop-based office products. While not new, they are developing new features that might pose a threat to more established (and expensive) products like Microsoft Office, as least for some. All are still in beta format, and are works in progress.

The best way to learn is by trying them out. All are free, though require registration. Sampling both desktop and Internet varieties gives you an idea of the pros and cons of each, as well as what kinds of projects each might be good for. Practicing with test files or other non-crucial material is advised. Try setting up margins, adding colors, changing presentation templates, etc. to see how things work.

As an Office 2007 user, the biggest thing I noticed is that most of the Internet products do not yet let you upload Office 2007 documents. In Word 2007, file names end in “docx” (as opposed to “.doc” in previous verstions). Not surprisingly perhaps, Microsoft Office Live permits this. When trying to upload a .docx file in Google Docs, the system tells you that this file extension is not supported. This leaves the only option as saving the file in the older Word file extension, and uploading it that way. Zoho.com lets you export Office 2007 files from their site but not import them.

Internet-based products seem well-suited for collaborative projects, as they allow you to easily add collaborators. This permits easier editing than if doing them in Office, where one might e-mail a file back and forth. In some cases chat windows are also available, so you can talk to collaborators while working on a project. Expect fewer layout bells and whistles though. Fonts are limited, as are things such as bullet types and symbols. When I exported a file from Microsoft Office to Zoho, I found that many of my layout choices did not transfer over. I had to redo some of the bullet points and fonts. However, the content was all still there. The files also save a bit slower than they do when working in Microsoft Office.

Changes are afoot to bring the Internet products even closer to their desktop peers. Not long ago, you had to be logged onto the site to work on your files. Now, you can work on them even while “offline.” The spreadsheet products feature pivot tables. Most of the products also have their own blogs to alert users of new features.

As they offer fewer bells and whistles, I also found many of the Internet products easier to use for a beginner. Whereas PowerPoint might intimidate some, the Internet-based versions are more “click and add.” One could likely prepare a presentation or spreadsheet with very little prior experience.

Being relatively new products, things are not perfect with the Internet suites. Occasionally I experienced bugs, and the Microsoft versions certainly offer more layout choices. If one wants vast layout or customization options, then they might want to stick with the desktop versions. Privacy is also an issue, as desktop files appear safer, being saved on one’s computer or flash drive instead of another company’s server. However, Internet-based office products keep improving and offer more flexibility. They are certainly worth considering.

Live from Computers and Libraries 2008

Susan Robishaw
Assistant Director Health Sciences Libraries
Geisenger Health System

I’m getting my technological batteries recharged at Computers in Libraries 23rd annual conference. I’ve attended several over the years (too difficult to figure how many!) and I’ve always found it to be very worthwhile. Usually, I have a hard time deciding just which sessions to attend. Then there are the free Cybertours. These 15 minute, standing room only sessions take place in the exhibit hall. Given by “savvy web experts,” they compete for my limited time yet add value I’m reluctant to do without.

Today, I’ve been attending sessions on Integrating Hi Tech with Hi Touch. Of the morning’s sessions, the 2nd one on Digital Convergence & People Apps was more useful than the first one, which was interesting, but definitely public library oriented. The current session is High Touch with Customer Care. The first presenter spoke about patient education and did an excellent job! Her talk was relevant, practical and informative. She’s going to post her slides on her patientmatters blog. The current presentation is about taking summer reading online, so I’m tuning out.
The last session for today is “Library Staff Training: High Tech & High Touch. Staff training is a perpetual endeavor and doing it well is a challenge. I’m looking forward to learning some new techniques.

BTW: I finally feel like I’m a member of the “in” group. I brought my recently purchased laptop, a notebook actually. It has wifi, so I can log into the hotel’s wireless T-mobile network, use Word to compose this blog entry, and to take notes during presentations. I like to sit up front so I can hear better. Another advantage of sitting in the front is that there are tables with surge protectors. In the last session, my red Dell XPS was sandwiched between 2 other Dells. The one to my left was satisfactorily mundane: a gray notebook about the same size as mine, but visibly an older model. The owner commented favorably about mine. The one to my right, though, I must admit, caused me a few minutes of laptop envy; it was smaller and sleeker than mine, but still a pedestrian gray. Another Dell just sat down it’s both black and bigger. The owner doesn’t seem to mind though.

www.slideshare.net/informationgoddess29
http://patienteducationmatters.blogspot.com

There have been reported problems with LinkOut over the past few days.  LinkOut and Outside Tool icons in the upper right hand portion of the Abstract Plus display are not functioning properly.  This problem has been reported to NLM and programmers are working to fix this issue.  In the mean time, you may continue to use Abstract or Citation displays with no problems.  The problem is also reported to only exist when using the Mozilla Firefox browser.

Join your colleagues on March 5 as NN/LM MAR hosts Medical Library Association’s fall webcast, “Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices: Discovering the Participatory Web.” More information about the webcast is available here: http://www.mlanet.org/education/distance_ed/web2.0/index.html

Take advantage of this national continuing education event. Share ideas with your colleagues about current topics, learn techniques from MLA member experts, and earn MLA CE contact hours.

Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Time: 2:00 pm-4:00 pm

Location: Smilow 1^st Floor Conference Room B, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY

*NOTE: You are invited to join us in person in New York City for the webcast. We cannot offer free remote access to the webcast from your own library.*

RSVP to rml@library.med.nyu.edu. You will be sent a confirmation e-mail with directions to the site by Friday, February 29. There is no charge for this event.

The RML has also purchased a DVD for loan after the webcast.

We look forward to having you join us!

The Library of Congress has begun a pilot project in which they are putting over 3,000 photos of their more than 14 million picture collection on Flickr. All of the pictures being posted to Flickr have no known copyright restrictions. They are depending on the Flickr community to help on tagging and commenting on the pictures.

View the Flickr Photo Pool.

View the Library of Congress’ blog entry on the project.

The gerontological research library of Polisher Research Institute, at the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life, applied for this award.  This was a quality improvement project enabled by a Technology Improvement Award from the NN/LM MAR. The funds facilitated the purchase of resources to improve quality and delivery of documents, and facilitated the purchase of resources for a presentation to local patrons about the improved services.  The most impressive piece of equipment purchased was a scanner whose flatbed glass extends just 1/8” from the edge of the machine, making it ideal for scanning bound materials without damaging the spines.  Before obtaining this scanner, articles were copied on a copier that was not well-suited for tightly bound materials, then the pages were run through the document feeder of a (different) scanner before emailing the resulting PDF files.  This resulted in reams of paper left over.  So the new scanner certainly has made the library greener.  The scanner’s software can sense the orientation of the print and flip the pages as needed so that all pages are oriented correctly.  PDF files (even those in color) are small, facilitating transmission via email.  Color and grayscale scans are created with the press of a button, and adjustments to scan different page sizes can be made without fuss.  The funds also enabled the purchase of a new color fax and color print machine, to replace older models that kept having problems.  How nice it is to be able to print photos of people that don’t look like little green men from Mars! 

Receipt of the Technology Improvement Award has greatly improved document digitization and color quality for the benefit of the library’s external and internal customers.

Rachel R. Resnick- Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life, Edward and Esther Polisher Research Institute Library- North Wales, PA.

Leigh Mihlrad
Systems & Technology Librarian
Schaffer Library of Health Sciences
Albany Medical College
Albany, NY

Getting Started With Virtual Reference

The choices for virtual reference, or chat reference, have increased vastly in the past few years. Previously, libraries had to pick one free service, such as AOL’s Instant Messenger (AIM) or Yahoo! Messenger, or pay for a service, like OCLC’s QuestionPoint product. You could only communicate with other users from your same service (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, etc); it was hard or impossible to communicate with people from different chat networks. Some products had one-year contracts, turning the virtual reference decision into a longer commitment.

Lately there have been more choices, resulting in more libraries offering chat reference. Aggregate IM clients, such as Trillian or Meebo, permit people to be on multiple services (AOL, Yahoo, Google Chat, etc.) simultaneously. They are also free, which permits people to try them out without making a service commitment. Certain clients, such as Meebo, are web-based and do not require a download, which could be an advantage in libraries where downloads are restricted. Products can be embedded into web pages in some cases, enabling libraries to reach users wherever they might be. Patrons do not even have to download a product in many cases; they can simply type a message to librarians directly from the library’s web page.

Having used IM reference in two libraries, I have noticed some things that users might want to consider when getting started. These opinions are only mine, and would surely vary by individual.

First, does your library want to answer questions only from your patrons, or join a cooperative and share the job with fellow libraries? Joining with other libraries can expand the hours the service is offered to patrons, but might require answering questions on unfamiliar topics. Organization is required between the libraries, and chat policies might vary by institution.

Second, the technological considerations of your particular environment should be considered. Can staff download software? Are there firewalls in place that might make outside communication difficult? IM programs have gotten more flexible, with more web-based services than ever before. Also, how stable is the product? Internet research, journal literature, and asking colleagues at other libraries are good ways to ferret information out ahead of time.

Next, do you want a service that saves your questions? Some products (typically paid ones) are better at storing chat transcripts than others.

Other things to consider are training time/materials needed (paid services provide this, while free ones typically do not), what types of questions to answer (short versus more in-depth questions), and how to promote the service once the library goes live with it.

These are by no means all of the considerations or challenges that a library faces when implementing virtual reference, but some things to think about. It is a service in many ways similar to traditional face-to-face reference, but with different challenges. Today’s college students (and medical students) have grown up with this type of communication, and it is a good option for libraries to consider in their reference arsenal.

The journal Nature has recently announced that it will release papers on genomic sequencing under the Creative Commons License. The license allows non-commercial publishers, however they might be defined, to reuse the pdf and html versions of the paper. In particular, users are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the contribution, provided this is for non-commercial purposes, subject to the same or similar licence conditions and due attribution.

Read More

The Journal of the American Medical Association produces a weekly video report that is available online at http://thejamareport.blip.tv/. Users can watch the episodes online in their browser or even subscribe to the RSS feed via Miro, iTunes or any other video capable RSS aggregator to download and watch at their leisure.

These short video clips cover a variety of topics ranging from MRSA infections to the use of anti-depressants in children.

Check it out!

The Swedish Institute accepts students with visual impairments and other disabilities.  Our goal is to provide blind and visually impaired students access to today’s software applications and the Internet.   By receiving a Technology award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, we were able to purchase JAWS 8.0 (screen reading software for the blind) and ZOOMTEXT 9.1 (text magnifier for the visually impaired students).

Before the equipment was purchased, visually impaired and blind students did not use the library.  JAWS 8.0 offers an audio alternative to the computer screen, allowing users to surf the Internet, communicate with the faculty and their peers via e-mail, type and edit documents using Microsoft Office applications.  ZOOMTEXT 9.1 provids excellent magnification of the computer screen.  Disabled students are now frequent visitors of our library.

This project touched me in a personal way, because my mother is visually impaired and I have experienced first hand the challenges a disabled person faces.  The major challenges facing blind students in college today, center on an overwhelming amount of printed materials such as: textbooks, class outlines and bibliographies.  Our goal was to supply tools necessary to succeed and overcome the challenges that they face in college.

Some years ago, a reporter asked a prominent blind woman, “What is it that blind people would want from society?” The woman replied, “The opportunity to be equal and the right to be different”.  With the completion of the project we provided our blind and visually impaired students with the right “to be equal” to other students, the right to get access to all the resources they may need to get a good education, to succeed in life, and to reach the goals and dreams, which would never have been possible before.

Irina Meyman- Swedish Institute, College of Health Sciences.  New York City, NY