Nikki Dettmar is the Acting Education and Assessment Coordinator. She earned a distance learning MSIS from the University of North Texas while living in Seattle and currently teaches via online distance education modalities. This is the first in a series of Technology Tuesday posts about the types of  distance continuing education available, the technology involved, usage tips for both students and instructors, and the opportunities & challenges of distance learning.

Winnipeg Maze of Lifelong Learning, photo by Stephen Downes

Have you thought about distance learning but weren’t sure where to start, or taken an online continuing education (CE) course and found that the experience wasn’t what you were expecting it to be? Join us as we explore some of the distance learning opportunities available to medical librarians and some navigation tips on how to have them be productive experiences. Read more »

HHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is seeking comments on the preliminary definition of “Meaningful Use” of electronic health records (EHRs) as presented to the HIT Policy Committee on June 16. The meaningful use preamble and matrix give more details.

Comments on the draft description of “Meaningful Use” are due by Friday, June 26, 2 p.m. Pacific Time (1 Alaska, 3 Mountain), and should be no more than 2,000 words in length. Please click the link to access instructions for submitting comments.

Are you on Facebook? Facebook is an extremely popular social networking site with more than 200 million active users. More than 100 million of those users log in at least once every day. It may have been invented in a Harvard dorm room, but Facebook is definitely not just for college students anymore. The fastest growing age demographics on Facebook are 35-55 and 55+. Using Facebook can be a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, share photos and links, and yes, even get to know your professional contacts a little better.

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A new funding opportunity is being offered at the National Library of Medicine, by the National Information Center on Health Services Research & Health Care Technology (NICHSR). The purpose of the funding is to identify and pursue collaborations that advance the mission of Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce.  A factsheet about Partners can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nno/partners.html

Information about the funding is below.  Questions may be directed to nichsr@nlm.nih.gov.

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Wolfram|Alpha is a new search engine. Scratch that — it”s a “computational knowledge engine,” and also “the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.” W|A has generated a lot of buzz since it launched on May 15.

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On Tuesday, June 9th at 1pm Pacific we will be hosting the first of a series of 10 webinars on Adobe Connect covering the “10 Steps to Service Continuity” as outlined in the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness Plan.  Each month over the next 10 months we will host a session to cover one of the 10 Steps.  On June 9th, Gail Kouame, Regional Coordinator for Emergency Preparedness and Response will lead the discussion and interactive session on Step One: Risk Assessment.

Come find out what your library may be at risk for so that you can better prepare.  Take a quiz and add up your score to see where you stand in terms of area hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, rivers, and even construction cranes!

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