Only one assignment left !

Well I know how I'll be spending my weekend ! I haven't yet started on my individual assignment although I have read most of what I'm going to use and have a few ideas in my head. I was terrified at the beginning of this course and am really pleased I stuck with it as there are so many useful things I've picked up and Gwen and I have loads of ideas we want to share with our colleagues in HEFT some of whom have already done 3Cs so are able to join in our enthusiasm. I managed to submit assignment 6 this afternoon, as a training session I had booked was cancelled and was able to think a bit more deeply about it than I've been able to with some of the others. Hopefully it will generate some comments.

The weekend beckons and apart from my assignment I am off to visit TOHs uncle tomorrow. He a smashing old boy who looks like a combination of Rolf Harris and Anthony Quinn ! He is nearly 80 and spends half his day on the computer. After his wife died a couple of years ago, I introduced him to the idea of compiling his family tree. He now has hundreds of names on it and is travelling all over the country finding new relatives and attending genealogy meetings and local history groups, it's given him a focus, which is great. I haven't yet convinced him to go onto Facebook, but there's still time !

Have a good weekend everyone.

Assignment 6

How will technological trends change the information environment and user behaviour

The information environment is constantly changing as technology advances and user behaviour along with it.

• Information arrives quickly via the internet, but users want it even faster and want it to be relevant.
• Information can be delivered anywhere and that is where users will want to access it, the library will be the last resort
• The form in which the information comes is now diverse, not just the written word. Users will expect to be able to read, look and listen to the information they require.
• Technology invites interaction and collaboration, sharing of information. Users want to be able to engage, create their own space and do what they want in it.

How libraries meet the challenge

• Provide news feeds, RSS and alerts so users don't have to go looking for information, it comes to them.
• Provide e-resources wherever possible so that information can be accessed from wherever the user has a connection to the internet. This can be as diverse as e-journals and e-books to blogs, wikis and interactive websites
• Libraries will need to think about how information via this new technology is delivered, users are often mobile and the hardware needs to be as well. MP3 players and iPODS may need to be bought alongside PCs.
• Librarians will need to be able to offer their users the ability to access social networking and social bookmarking sites which may mean negotiating with IT departments to remove firewalls.

What are the implications for information literacy ?

• The most important implication is the quality of the information which is received and the ability of the user to evaluate it.
• Because wikis are intended to be edited by anyone who can access them, there is the danger of information not being as accurate as it might be, this might be more of a problem for librarians than for users ! Librarians will need to decide what is authoratative and what doesn't need to be.
• There may be an assumption that everyone is able to use the new technology and the social software. Some users may not bother to use the library because they are wary of the new technology or feel threatened by it or even don't see the point of it.

How libraries meet the challenges

• Users need to be made aware of the quality of the information they find. Evaluating and appraising information will need to be built in to information skills training if it is not there already, even at a very basic level.
• The practice of tagging as opposed to cataloguing information may become a difficult thing for librarians to deal with. There should be room for both.
• Libraries will have to make sure that users can use the new technology. Information skills sessions may be run in conjunction with the IT department who may be better equipped to teach about social networking/bookmarking. Less experienced users should not be made to feel unwelcome and tailoring sessions to specialties and departments so they can see the relevance of it may help.
• Librarians may have to rethink budgets. Is it better to appoint another librarian or a piece of equipment ? They will certainly need to be constantly planning and running to stand still. Not joining in is not an option.
• There is a risk that all this shared information, blogging and editing wikis can lose all sense of privacy, librarians should be able to provide an option of complete anonymity when setting up social networking opportunities
• Ultimately librarians need to accept creativity, chill out and go with the flow !

The end of another week

Here we are again, another Friday afternoon and only four weeks left to Christmas !!! even less to the end of the course which I have enjoyed tremendously. I remember Bertha saying that it would be hard work and it certainly has been, but I have learned so much. I am now beginning to seriously consider employing some of the tools I have explored and can see much more clearly how Web 2.0 can be used in the library - and be fun too !!

On the home front I am having my youngest neice, hot from a Geography field trip, for a curry and bed tonight, her parents having gone off on a jolly ! I don't know what there is to watch on the telly tonight, but it will undoubtably be her choice (she's 17) I shall have to button my lip at the prospect of Hollyoaks etc but may be able to confound her by talking about Facebook and other things she won't think her 'barmy aunty' knows anything about ! it'll be nice having a girl in the house - may even get my toenails done !

Have a good weekend all !

Assignment 5 Mashups

I really enjoyed exploring mashups and used the list in Allan Cho’s article
http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/jchla/jchla28/c07-007.pdf to choose from. I began with Biowizard http://biowizard.com which uses NCBI Entrez as its application programming interface (API). Users are able to customize a personal profile, share research interests, upload articles from Pubmed to share and comment on other users’ choices. Photos can be uploaded and users can join groups and chat live with others.
I registered with Biowizard and submitted an article chosen from a Pubmed search on Clinical Librarians. This appeared in the New Submissions after a few seconds and is available for others to comment on or discuss, gaining votes as they do so. I then searched the site and retrieved it, so the system works ! I checked this morning to find 24 votes had been allocated to my submission, so there is more than a little interest in it.
Gwen likened this aspect of Biowizard to a ’virtual journal club’, which would be one use for it.
Try searching for my submitted article and give it some more votes !

I then had a look at HEALTHMAP http://healthmap.org I was really impressed with this ! There are many tools incorporated in HEALTHMAP, Google maps, Pubmed, WHO, Wikipedia, Centers for Disease control and prevention, it’s API is Googlemaps. The medical/public health sites mash with Googlemaps to show the prevalence of disease world-wide. Diseases are listed, most prevalent first (cholera!) you can click on a disease to load it onto the map. An information button links to Wikipedia, Pubmed, WHO etc for an explanation of that disease. You can check alerts by country, which are fed by Newspapers and news sites like BBC.
A look at the whole world with all the diseases loaded on could help with your choice of holiday destination ! The UK looks very dodgy, whereas France is clear – do we believe this !!!

How time flies

Well it's Friday again ! I can't believe how fast the time goes these days, must be something to do with being old !!!
I have been gently getting to grips with Mashups, reading around the subject and looking at a few things, so hopefully I can get on with the assignment next week. My group has completed our assignment and are very pleased to have got it out of the way. At work it's been busy again with training and this morning Gwen and I had a lovely session with 53 student nurses using the Kefalonia method. At home I appear to have lost number two son for a fortnight while he house-sits for his girlfriend's parents which will be nice and quiet but I shall miss the comings and goings. Off to the Golf Club dinner and dance tonight, that'll be fun, and back in time to see how much Children in Need has raised this year.

Have a good weekend one and all - we're nearly there !

TGI Friday

Well I've survived another hectic week, masses of training, meetings and an awayday ! and even managed to catch up with my 3CsT3 assignments. I feel particularly pleased with myself because my group has started on our group assignment - thanks to Sandra, and I can see the end of the tunnel !

I have also completed on the sale of my flat this week and am installed in my new home, a great relief to my colleagues who have heard me bleating on about it since April; and number one son is moving back to TGI Fridays in Sutton tomorrow from managing the restaurant on the Hagley Road, a move up the management ladder for him. All in all I think I deserve the champagne which we drank earlier in the week - spoils from our trip to France last month.

I hope everyone has a good weekend, think of me unpacking boxes !!!

Assignment 4: A health related wiki

While I was searching for inspiration, I came across David Rothman's list of medical wikis http://davidrothman.net/list-of-medical-wikis there was nothing on my theme of Epilepsy so i checked out another topic close to my heart (chest?) at the moment www.fluwikie.com but this turned out to be a bit like 'Protect and Survive' so in the end I decided to have a look at http://ebmlibrarian.wetpaint.com. I don't know how I've never come across this before !

As a trainer I found it really interesting with lots of links to useful things for me like training materials, handouts, exercises and scenarios, some of which linked back to CASP, but others were completely new to me. You are invited to add to the scenarios and other materials, which I haven't done yet, but intend to. I also intend to share exercises, it's a great resource for me, I've been looking for a new icebreakers and other exercises for ages.

As a librarian I found the look of the wiki more familiar than some I've encountered with links in a navigation box, rather than just a search facility making it easier to find your way around. At the moment you are invited to' check out the EBCP search engine created by Andrew Booth' (I should have known !)
I really like this wiki and intend using it frequently.

Assignment 3

I have been exploring Connotea, http://www.connotea.org/ which I had never heard of before. I liked the look of the site to begin with as it’s not cluttered and the instructions are clear. I chose to continue with my theme of epilepsy and found searching easy. There were plenty of results from a good selection of clinical journals which were up to date and relevant. There are lists of subject and user tags so you can follow up a subject or someone with the same interest.

The tool is designed specifically for scientists and clinicians and the results of searching reflect that. Although most of the results I found were references from journals it will pick up web pages or blogs as well. This is useful for me as I would like to see entries from sufferers as well as clinicians. Because the tool is aimed at scientists and clinicians Connotea has extra features on some websites such as Pubmed and many journals, where it is able to recognise the page you are on and automatically collect the bibliographic information.

The community pages on Connotea are a Wiki www.connotea.org/wiki so registered users can read write and edit articles about the tool. These include FAQs, a problem page and requests.

I haven’t been able to delve too deeply into the site, as I haven’t had my registration confirmation e-mail back yet ! perhaps this will be my opportunity to use the Wiki !


Using bookmarking tools in libraries could be useful in a number of ways:

Specialist/outreach librarians would be able to collect and share resources with their users/specialty.

It would enable library staff to collect and share information for and between users eg student nurses for assignments

Library staff working in a PCT could share a range of information with library users and their clients, for instance patient information, sufferer’s blogs/ experiences etc

It might enable some library staff to share information on a specific aspect of their work, eg training trends, either within a trainers group or with the rest of the staff in their own library