Here are some highlights from the NLM Technical Bulletin issue from May-June, 2012. (more…)

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our 2012 Learning Needs Assessment Survey! More than 200 responses were received, and it is very encouraging to see such strong interest in staying abreast of the emerging areas in our rapidly changing field! Your passion was clearly evident regarding such topics as implementing cultures of evidence-based medicine in your institutions, cultivating health literacy with patrons, and assisting researchers with informatics, scholarly communication, and data curation. (more…)

by Paul B. Drake
Assistant Professor, User Services & Document Delivery Librarian
University of Guam
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library

When the National Library of Medicine announced a new traveling exhibit, A Voyage to Health, in spring 2010, staff at the University of Guam Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library thought it was a good fit for us to host. A Voyage to Health presents efforts in Hawaii to reintroduce traditional navigation and voyaging. As the exhibit brochure states: “By restoring their heritage, this generation of voyagers seeks to heal the people.” (more…)

by Stephen Kiyoi, Second Year NLM Associate Fellow
NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region
UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library

During the month of April, 2012, the RML offered a newly developed training series targeting community college librarians. The series, entitled Navigating the Health Information Maze, was offered in a set of four, one-hour webcasts every Tuesday during the month. Twenty-nine librarians from 24 different institutions took advantage of the opportunity to gain expertise in National Library of Medicine resources; including PubMed, MedlinePlus, the NLM Gallery of Mobile Apps and Sites, and Health Information for Special Populations. Additional information about the series and archived training sessions are available from the preceding series website. Outreach to community colleges is a major NN/LM initiative for the coming year. (more…)

A half-day NN/LM Earthquake Summit was held Friday, April 6, 2012, at the University of California, San Francisco, Library and Center for Knowledge Management. Roughly twenty-five people attended the event, which was organized by Dan Wilson, Coordinator for the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response Initiative. Attendees represented both the Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest regions of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM). The excellent roster of featured speakers included Keith Knudsen, representing the United States Geological Survey (USGS); Monica Gowan, PhD Candidate, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Siobhan Champ-Blackwell, representing the National Library of Medicine; Randy Brawley and Angela Nak, representing the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); and Roberto Lombardi, representing San Francisco Public Library. A detailed meeting report with numerous photos from the event is available from the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit. (more…)

by Kathleen Carlson, MLS, AHIP
Arizona Health Sciences Library, Phoenix Campus
University of Arizona, College of Medicine

On April 3, 2012, more than 600 of the best and brightest young scientific minds were present at the 2012 Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (AzSEF) in downtown Phoenix. The University of Arizona, College of Medicine, Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) was represented by Yamila El-Khayat, Outreach Librarian, Tucson Campus; and Kathleen Carlson, Education Librarian, Phoenix Campus. The librarians demonstrated National Library of Medicine resources, including PubMed and MedlinePlus, using iPads. (more…)

November is National Native American Heritage Month! Beginning as “American Indian Day” in 1915, National Native American Heritage Month recognizes the achievements of American Indians and Alaska Natives during the month of November. The Pacific Southwest Region is home to over 1.1 million American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), nearly 20% of the country’s AI/AN population. Unfortunately, AI/ANs have disproportionately high prevalence of diabetes, suicide, infant death, unintentional and motor vehicle injuries, chronic liver disease, and cirrhosis than other Americans. These health disparities may be the result of inadequate education, disproportionate poverty, discrimination in the delivery of health services, and cultural differences, caused by economic adversity and poor social conditions. As health information professionals, we work not only with our patrons, but we work with our hospitals, our institutions, and our communities. This allows us a unique role in the fight against health disparities: we have the health resources and we have the ability to bring these parties together to make change. (more…)

The NN/LM National Library of Medicine Training Center (NTC), located at the University of Utah, offers in-person and online training related to NLM products. (more…)

In April 2011, The National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health, invited people to show off their apps. NLM challenged people to create innovative software applications that use the Library’s vast collection of biomedical data, including downloadable data sets, application programming interfaces (APIs), or software tools – all of which are free and available for public use. The winners and honorable mentions of the Show Off Your Apps Challenge have been announced, including a winner from NN/LM PSR! (more…)

Do you provide outreach that is not funded by the RML? Do you want an opportunity to show collective outreach activities beyond those funded by the RML? This is a chance to build on each other’s good works. PSR has set up a project called PSR Outreach Connections in which all Network members can participate. This open-ended project highlights training, demonstrations and presentations of PubMed, MedlinePlus and/or other NLM resources that PSR network members present to groups beyond the primary clientele of their library or information center. (more…)