FYI: “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking…”
A finger-tip camera to assist the visually impairedWhile “giving the finger” to a patron would, hopefully, prompt an image of a prosthetic—created by stereolithography—being fashioned…
MLA Research Training Institute Launched, Next Step in MLA’s Goal to Advance Research
The Research Imperative Task Force is thrilled to announce the launch of the new MLA Research Training Institute for Health Sciences Librarians (RTI). The first…
FYI: Sci-Hub and Chatbots
The continuing saga of Sci-Hub and scholarly publishing Ahhhhh… there is nothing like the mystery of a spellbinder. There is one percolating in publishing and…
Hospital Librarianship: Introducing the Solo Librarians SIG!
Submitted by Louise McLaughlin, Health Sciences Library, Woman’s Hospital, Baton Rouge, LA, and Ellen M. Aaronson, AHIP, Medical Library, West Hills Hospital & Medical Center,…
FYI: Medicare and Degrowth
Libraries and the Medicare “maze” Golden and crisp, succored in a comforter of green, protected from the elements, fresh and crunchy…what is it? Zea, of…
Leadership and Management: The Role of Servant Leadership
“Servant leadership,” as written by Robert Greenleaf in his 1970 essay The Servant as Leader challenged more traditional leadership models of the time. His original…
FYI: TSA, Fines, Funding
What are YOU reading on your next flight? “Tattlers never prosper.” Have you ever heard that from a grandparent or an aunt or uncle removed…
Hospital Librarianship: How Was I Affected by Downsizing?
Edited by Angela Spencer Good question. Worth pondering. Huge paradigm shift. I never imagined that my medical library would be downsized. At the time of…
FYI: Changes
The “battle” over copyright Who has the right to settle copyright? A battle on the subject is materializing in the Capital pitting opponents against each…
FYI: Text Classification Systems: Whimsy and Structure from G org s P r c (aka Georges Perec)
Submitted by Kelly Evans, Library, and Frank Houghton, Department of Public Health and Health Administration, Eastern Washington University–Spokane Editor’s note: The FYI column, normally compiled…
Hospital Librarianship: Budgets
Edited by Angela Spencer Let’s talk budgets. I confess, I shuddered at the mere mention of the word. I groaned at the work necessary to…
FYI: Look, Grow, Provide
Sound—or Look—Familiar? Just picture it, or maybe you can remember it because it happened to you: A patron standing in front of you at the…
FYI: What’s in the Library?
To carry, or not to carry Never can tell who or what is going to come through the front doors. Guns are a possibility that…
Hospital Librarianship: Preparing a Library for a Hospital Merger
Submitted by Isaac Huffman, AHIP, System Library Services, Providence Health & Systems, Olympia, WA; edited by Angela Spencer The hospital buying spree has taken on…
FYI: “ACK!” Have We Been Hacked?
Remember when “being hacked” only meant being angry or offended at someone. Now, “being hacked” means being assaulted or mugged electronically…which oddly enough leads to…
I’ve earned my credential. What about you?
When the MLA board of directors hired me to serve as MLA’s executive director two years ago this month, they asked me to obtain the…
FYI: Spinning Your Wheels
Is there huffing and puffing in YOUR library? Did a craze to huff and puff and sweat in the library begin in 2016? Here in…
Leadership and Management: Champion “Team You”
As we embark upon a new year, many of us have a routine of setting goals for the year in our personal and professional lives.…
Liaison Committee on Medical Education Requirements and the “Born Digital” Library
Submitted by Elizabeth R. Lorbeer, AHIP, Library, Western Michigan University School of Medicine–Kalamazoo, and Nadine Dexter, AHIP, Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, University of…
An Anthem for Librarians?
Submitted by Frank Houghton and Kelly Evans, Eastern Washington University–Spokane Dear Editor, If you have studied history at college, as both authors have, it is…