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 and AALL recommend Federal Depository Library Program Reforms
The Medical Library Association (MLA) and American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) have submitted recommendations for change that will update the Federal Depository Library Program…
NLM FY 2018 Funding Update
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s Fiscal Year 2018 bill, S. 1771, provides the National Library of Medicine (NLM) with $420,898,000. During the spring Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task…
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…
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…
MLA and AAHSL Recommend NLM FY 2018 Funding
The Medical Library Association (MLA) and Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries have recommended that the National Library of Medicine receive at least $412,097,000 in FY…
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…
Legislative Task Force Goes to the Hill
Front Row (left to right): M.J. Tooey (MD), Ruth Riley (SC), Mary Langman (IL), Susan Clark (MS), Irma Ivette Quinones (PR), Neville Prendergast (LA). Back…
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…
MLA AAHSL comments NIH data strategies
The Medical Library Association (MLA) and Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) have filed [Link removed (comments)] with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that…
MLA AAHSL comments NLM strategic plan
The Medical Library Association and Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries have submitted comments in support of the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Strategic Plan. 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…