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

Technology and Libraries is a new feature on The Marquee that allows librarians to discuss their thoughts on how technology intertwines with a libraries functions - good or bad. Susan Robishaw, the chair of our technology committee, is our first poster.

My Historical Perspective
Susan Robishaw
Assistant Director Health Sciences Libraries
Geisenger Health System

We just moved into a new library a few months ago. It’s in a brand new, technologically sophisticated building. We had been in the old, “temporary” library for 25 years; the move gave us a much welcomed opportunity to integrate the patchwork of technology and machines that accumulated over the years.

The new library has 17 public access pcs, 7 staff pcs, including an Ariel workstation with a color scanner, and a wireless laptop. Our classroom is equipped with 1 instructor and 7 student pcs. Physicians can use the classroom pcs, but not the public ones, to access our EMR system. The meeting room has a computer-compatible plasma screen tv. Both rooms are equipped with “Wall-Talkers,” a gridded whiteboard cut to our specifications, and attached to the walls. The library has Geisinger wireless, public wireless and 10 stations for public cabled Internet access. Our state-of the-art multifunctional photocopiers serve as the default printers for the pcs as well as black & white scanners and fax machines.

When I came here 20 years ago this fall, the library had a photocopier, an OCLC terminal, and a TI Silent 700 terminal with an acoustic coupler. To receive or send a fax, we had to go the system administration headquarters, a ¼ of a mile away. This was quite a contrast to the corporate library where I worked in Texas before coming to Geisinger. There I had 2 IBM pcs, a fax, and access to company wide email on a DEC mainframe. (I also had the opportunity to participate in a beta test of the first Macs, though, ultimately, the company decided to follow the IBM path.)

As the reference librarian at Geisenger, I received the first library pc. It had a modem so I could use it to access NLM, BRS and DIALOG. Over the years we added newer pcs, one at a time. We kept the older ones, too, eventually, building a collection of 10 pcs all different brands and/or models. I was the pc person. I did the troubleshooting and even installed modems and additional memory cards.

Today, we have 4 IT people assigned to the library to manage our pcs and software, a help desk which is staffed 24 hours per day and a contract for hardware support. In 1993, we participated in a National Science Foundation grant to bring the Internet to Geisinger. In 1995, we introduced our locally hosted networked version of Ovid (then CD+), piggy-backing on the T1 and T3 lines that connected our hospitals and far-flung clinics in order to implement our EMR. In 1996, the library was one of the first departments to have a site on our company intranet.

In the last 12 years, we have increased our electronic collection, moved from a card catalog to an online one and transitioned to completely electronic document delivery to our customers. We really pound RefWorks/RefShare for individual and collaborative projects.

Yet I feel like I’m falling behind, technologically-speaking. We don’t have a blog or a wiki and we aren’t using Web 2.0. Should we be?

We still have the TI Silent 700, though.

Would you like to write an entry for Technology and Libraries?
Contact us!

Samaritan Medical Center Circuit Librarian Betsy Meldrim shows Lewis County General Hospital Staff Development Director Kathy Millard how to find nursing articles in PubMed using the new notebook computer and wireless Internet router provided by a technology award from the Mid-Atlantic Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.

Michael K. Chartrand - Hunter-Rice Health Sciences Library, Watertown, NY                

Holy Name Hospital is currently undergoing a construction project.  The Hospital is currently building a new Emergency Room, Conference Center and Library.  The new Library will combine both the Bartholomew Medical Library and School of Nursing Library catalogs, and will be open to the public.  Prior to moving the Library, we are automating the Library’s technical operations: cataloging; circulation; serials control using an integrated Library system.  Each of these operations is currently done manually.  Automation of the card catalog will allow for patrons to access our catalog from any PC and will allow for easier and less labor-intensive updating.  Automation of the circulation processes will allow for better tracking of circulated items, for improved report generation and for tracking of utilization patterns that will help in acquisitions.  A serials component will facilitate the checking in and claiming of journal subscriptions, indexing journal articles and linking to them, as well as hopefully tracking interlibrary loans.

Keydi Boss- Holy Name Hospital- Teaneck, NJ

The AECOM Library is in the midst of a major renovation.  An integral part of this project was the construction of five group study rooms.  Each of these rooms is equipped with a 42″ LCD monitor.  The rooms are available to all members of the AECOM community for student group projects, PhD dissertation defense, library training, presentations and meetings.  With funding from the NN/LM MAR Technology Improvement Award, the Library purchased three Dell Latitude D630 laptop computers, which can be borrowed from the Library’s Circulation Desk.  The laptops connect easily to the LCD monitors with a VGA cable.  They have been loaded with the following software: Microsoft Office 2003, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Internet Explorer, Firefox, SciFinder Scholar, QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player.  The AECOM Library’s laptop lending policy can be viewed at http://library.aecom.yu.edu/library/laptops.htm.  There is a record for the laptops in the Library’s catalog, which allows patrons to see if laptops are available for loan.

When laptops are returned, Circulation Desk staff will be able to restore them to their original configuration using Ghost 12.0 software (also purchased through the NN/LM MAR technology Improvement Award).  This will prevent system changes, viruses, and other “infelicities” from being passed on to future users.

The AECOM Graphic Arts Center designed special decals for us.  These decals are affixed to the tops of the laptops with an extremely strong adhesive.  The hope is that in addition to “branding,” the decals will serve as an additional theft deterrent.

The laptops will go into service in October as part of our celebration of National Medical Librarians Month.  Response from patrons who have helped test them has been positive.  Although many of our patrons own their own laptops, they do not always carry them.  They appreciate the option of borrowing one from the library.

The UPS Project

During the past four years the AECOM Library has experienced three major power outages.  The first was the blackout that affected the Northeast in August 2003.  The second, in March 2007, was due to an electrical fire in our building.  The third, in August 2007, was due to another fire in front of our building.  Because the Library’s web sever and EZproxy remote access server were not connected to a UPS (battery backup power supply), these electrical outages caused them to power off without going through the proper shutdown procedures.  Fortunately this did not lead to data loss or corruption.  AECOM faculty, students, staff and residents from our five affiliated hospitals use the Library’s web site and remote access system to connect to our electronic resources.  In order to protect our servers in the future, the electricity in the Library’s server room was switched to the emergency ground, so they will automatically receive power from the College’s emergency generators in the event of another power failure.  Because there could still be an interruption of power before the emergency generators kick in, the library used the NN/LM MAR Technology Award to purchase an APC Smart-UPS 1000XL backup battery supply.  The Smart-UPS 100XL will supply electricity to the Library’s servers during this gap.  Additional software was purchased to allow the servers to power down gracefully in the event that power is not restored.  this software has not yet been configured.

Nancy R. Glassman- D. Samuel Gottesman Library- Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Bronx, NY