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. (more…)

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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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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Greetings from Nikki Dettmar, the solo RML librarian in the Seattle office now, with an update from Alison Aldrich who is one of the official bloggers at MLA 2009 in Hawaii.

Her coverage of the NLM Sunrise Seminar on May 18th includes the following highlights:

• PubMed”s Single Citation Matcher is not going away and will remain on the sidebar
• In late summer, we will see some “stylish” new designs in PubMed that won”t affect functionality
• Multimedia functionality will be prominently displayed in MedlinePlus

Get the full scoop at Alison”s Official MLA “09 Blog post!

Edited to add link to the May 19, 2009 NLM Technical Bulletin with additional PubMed redesign information.

There are several ways to keep up with events at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting next week,  even if you can’t make it to Honolulu.

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Are you planning to attend the Medical Library Association meeting in Honolulu, May 15-20? Don’t miss these poster sessions by our Network Members and informative NLM meetings:

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