This position brings me back from the Midwest to my favorite part of the country. I am a native Oregonian, going back six generations to Thomas Simpson Lebow who trekked on the Oregon Trail from Tennessee to Lane County, settling in 1850.  I’m excited to again be sandwiched between the Pacific and the Cascades. I enjoy both camping and surfing, so my recreational activities will be much improved upon from my time in a landlocked state.

Prior to obtaining my Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of British Columbia, I had a wide range of experiences from providing technology support to clinical work (including phlebotomy!) at Oregon Health and Science University. I am coming most recently from the University of Iowa where I was acting as a Data Manager.

For those of you I had the opportunity to meet before, hello again.  For everyone else, I hope I have a chance to meet you in person sometime soon.  In the meanwhile, please feel free to contact me via e-mail (mahria@uw.edu), skype (mahriatalksonhermac) or call me (206-221-3489).  I am here to support you and your endeavors as they relate to technologies (old and new) and improving health information access, so please feel free to introduce yourself!

• A new FAQ about article versions in PubMed citations: Certain citations will now be “versioned”, depending upon new data findings. The original article will be retained. Criteria not to be considered in defining a version are re-publication of an article, publication stages, and length of time after which an update occurs. Read all about it here.
• Citation management software and PubMed results: PubMed has been updated to include the choice “Citation Manager” as a destination for search results. This allows creation of a file to download into the software.
• PubMed and MyNCBI: It’s now possible to save citations directly into a MyNCBI Collection, via a new button in the PubMed Abstract view. A new Collection can also be created at this point, via a dropdown menu under Save Items.

 Enjoy enhanced PubMed searching with these new features!

Join your colleagues for the Medical Library Association (MLA) continuing education webcast Leveraging Mobile Technologies for Health Sciences Libraries on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 from 11 am -12:30 pm Pacific time. The topics that will be covered include innovative uses of mobile technologies, addressing technology challenges, and providing best practice guidance for applying mobile technologies in clinical and curricular support settings.

The Pacific Northwest Region (PNR) will host the webcast at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, Library Teaching Lab.  If you will join us here in Seattle for the webcast at UW please register at http://tinyurl.com/PNRWebcastReg.

PNR is pleased to announce funding in Oregon at Oregon Health & Science University at Biomedical  Information Communication Center (BICC) room 124, located in the same building as the library. Lunch will be available for free for  Oregon Health Sciences Libraries Association (OSHLA) members and $10 for non-members. Please register for this location at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OHSLA_MLA_Webcast_April_2012

Software developers can learn how to tap into free data covering drugs, medical literature, clinical trials, consumer health information, molecular biology and much more during a webinar on April 10, 2012 from 11am – 12:30pm Pacific time (noon Mountain, 10am Alaska). The free webinar is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health.

NLM API Showcase will highlight the following NLM resources:

• E-utilities (providing access to PubMed/MEDLINE, genetic sequences and more)
• MedlinePlus, MedlinePlus Connect
• UMLS
• RXNorm
• ClinicalTrials.gov
• ChemSpell, DIRLINE, Pillbox
• Metamap, a medical text indexer

To learn how to attend via Adobe Connect webcast or video webcast visit http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/api_webinar.html

WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders) is a mobile application from the National Library of Medicine designed to assist first responders in hazardous material incidents.

The second release for WISER for iPhone/iPod touch is now available.  Investigate what’s new in this updated release:

WISER’s Help Identify Chemical capability is now available on the iOS platform. Identify and validate an unknown chemical based on the following criteria:

• physical properties of the substance gathered by observation or sensors
• signs and symptoms of victims of exposure
• the ability to categorize a substance, such as a substance used in a meth lab or a flammable substance
• hazard values from NFPA 704 placards
• transportation identification, including DOT placards, type of road trailer, and type of rail car

Use WISER’s protective distance mapping feature on your iPhone or iPod touch. Visualize the areas likely to be affected during the first 30 minutes after a substance is spilled or released on a live map. The Department of Transportation’s Emergency Response Guidebook is the source of WISER’s protective distance data.

WISER for iPhone/iPod touch can be downloaded and installed directly from the Apple App Store.

Reviews are always appreciated.  If you’d like to let us know what you think of the latest WISER enhancements, please consider leaving a comment on the App store. You can read more about our privacy policy on Third-Party Web Sites and Applications here. 

WebWISER Update

WebWISER has been updated to include protective distance mapping.  Visualize a protective distance map directly within your web browser.

Coming Soon

Look for these exciting additions in the coming months:

• Universal iOS (iPad) support
• WISER for Android 2.0, which adds Help Identify Chemical and protective distance mapping to this popular platform 

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region (NN/LM PNR) is pleased to announce a funding opportunity for sites around the region to host the upcoming Medical Library Association (MLA) continuing education webcast Leveraging Mobile Technologies for Health Sciences Libraries on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 from 11 am -12:30 pm Pacific time.

NN/LM PNR will pay MLA webcast registration fees for up to 4 selected sites that agree to promote and host the webcast for colleagues in their area.

Please contact Nikki Dettmar, Education and Assessment Coordinator, at snydern@uw.edu by March 23, 2012 if you are a Pacific Northwest Region Network Member (what does that mean?) interested in hosting the webcast for your institution and your local colleagues. Include a brief description of how you will promote the event in your area, estimated attendance, and confirm that your location can meet the technical requirements of Internet access, a computer with Windows Media Player, and a room to host the webcast.

Site participants will be selected based on geographic location, accessibility, and the potential number of attendees. All applicants will be notified of their application status by March 30, 2012.

PNR will also be hosting the webcast at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, free registration details will be announced in an upcoming Dragonfly article.

The inaugural issue of the Journal of eScience Librarianship (http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/) is now available!

The Journal of eScience Librarianship is an online open access, peer-reviewed journal that advances the theory and practice of librarianship with a special focus on services related to data-driven research in the physical, biological, and medical sciences. It is published by the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The inaugural issue includes the Proceedings of the Third Annual University of Massachusetts and New England Area Librarian e-Science Symposium held in the Spring of 2011. Feature articles include topics such as DataONE, librarian competencies, and the various levels of data services.

The Journal of eScience Librarianship explores the many roles of librarians in supporting eScience and is currently seeking submissions related to education, outreach, collaborations, current practices, and reviews of relevant resources and tools, by contributors from all areas of the globe. Articles covering both the theoretical and practical applications are welcomed. The journal also provides special features in each issue which include book reviews on subjects of interest to librarians supporting eScience and information on new technologies.

To subscribe to The Journal of eScience Librarianship‘s email announcements, personalized email updates according to your custom criteria, or the journal’s RSS feed, please visit http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/announcements.html.

Re: Wieland LS, Robinson KA, Dickersin K. Understanding why evidence from randomised clinical trials may not be retrieved from Medline: comparison of
indexed and non-indexed records. BMJ. 2012 Jan 3;344:d7501. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d7501. PubMed PMID: 22214757.

Readers of this article should recognize that the authors assumed no changes took place in the NLM indexing of Randomized Controlled Trial
[publication type]. In fact, NLM has made changes since 2005 that we think affect the conclusions and projections made in the article. These changes
are:

1. Since 2005, we conduct a monthly PubMed quality assurance search to review completed citations that are candidates for Randomized Controlled
Trial [publication type] but lack that tag. Appropriate edits are made to add that Publication Type when it has been missed (per the NLM definition
of Randomized Controlled Trial [publication type] which is “for original report of the conduct or results of a specific randomized controlled trial”).

2. Since 2007, we have broadened our indexing practice for Randomized Controlled Trial [publication type] to include follow-up, post hoc analysis
and the like of specific trials.

Together these two changes ensure that NLM indexers are appropriately tagging MEDLINE citations with Randomized Controlled Trial [publication type]
for the researcher and clinician audience.

Sincerely,
Lou Knecht
Deputy Chief, Bibliographic Services Division
National Library of Medicine

In PubMed the week, the Advanced Search page was updated. Terms entered in the Search Builder will automatically populate the search box, and MeSH term searching has been enhanced to include an autocomplete feature. See the full article for more details.

Another recent article announces new features for PubMed Health, NLM’s clinical effectiveness database. Change include enhanced information from the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query database, two new full-text books about understanding heathcare decisions and treatments, and an improved display of medical encyclopedia search results. With the inclusion of the Database of Reviews of Effects (DARE) from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination in England, PubMed Health is getting close to comprehensive coverage of reliable systematic reviews on clinical effectiveness.

Read the article here, and stay current with  email updates or an RSS feed.

Edit: a recording is now available at https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p13016205/

Internally produced pocket guides, websites, posters, and intranets; all are used to disseminate institution-specific protocols and algorithms used in clinical practice.  Some information is unique to one format and some information is out-of-date, so where’s the authoritative source for finding this vital information?

Come join us on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 1pm Pacific time (Noon Alaska, 2pm Mountain) during our free monthly webcast at http://webmeeting.nih.gov/rendezvous to meet OCCAM (Online Clinical Care Algorithms & Messages), a web app designed specifically for UW Medicine that collects this information in a single, mobile-optimized format.  Amy Harper, Clinical Librarian at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, will discuss how the idea for OCCAM first came about, how the web app and website were created and marketed, and future plans for OCCAM.

If you are unable to join us then, we invite you to view a recording of the webcast at the Rendezvous website later.

As part of our Federal agency services regarding electronic and information technology resources being accessible to people with disabilities, closed captioning is available on this and future RML Rendezvous webcasts.

For more information please visit How do I connect to the Rendezvous? to test your computer connection as a Flash update may be needed. We look forward to seeing you at the webcast!