Hospital Librarianship: Health Sciences Library Closings
Many libraries across the United States have closed, and other libraries are facing closure. A study of health sciences library closings found that from 1989–2006…
FYI: Harassment
A post recently by a lawyer and the namesake of Heather Hansen Presents raised a proposition recently about harassment that intrigues her. Saying in a…
FYI: Stress
Do you go home unable to forget or leave at work: the confrontations, contagions, constraints the consternations, contentions, condemnations the conundrums, consternations, convictions any or…
Expert Searching: My Experience at NLM Working on the Genetics Home Reference
In March 2017, I had the honor of working at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). I was given a tour of the clinical hospital…
FYI: Death and Taxes
Nothing in the world (to put a twist on writing by Benjamin Franklin) is certain but death and taxes. What library isn’t familiar with both?…
Hospital Librarianship: Education and Travel by Hospital Librarians: Results of a Survey
MLA frequently offers webinars for a charge to members. I knew from my personal experience that my hospital library does not have an education budget,…
FYI: The Latest about Sci-Hub
Something probably falling under the definition of a “statement or report disseminated without a source of truth or veracity”—in other words, a rumor—appeared recently in…
FYI: Eponymous Librarians
An article in College & Research Libraries recently took issue with the upshots of “Criteria for Determining Predatory Open-Access Publishers” by Jeffrey Beall. The authors…
Hospital Librarianship: Collaboration to Achieve Innovation
Submitted by Wanda Sebrena Thomas, Skelton Medical Library, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, GA; edited by Angela Spencer, AHIP Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in a hospital…
Expert Searching: Health Care Professionals Work to a Set of Standards: Shouldn’t We?
Submitted by Brooke Ballantyne Scott, Jackie MacDonald, Susan Baer, Ashley Farrell, AHIP, Marcus Vaska, Pat Lee, and Danielle Rabb, Canadian Search Standards Working Group Health…
FYI: Barbara Alice Ringer
Remember the reportage here in June of 2017 that the House of Representatives in DC had approved a bill to take from the librarian of…
FYI: Predators in the Periodicals
As if libraries (and patrons presumably) do not have enough to worry them—like ransomware, acts of terrorism, rascals in raincoats, news that is fake, theft,…
FYI: Whither Books and Learning?
Demise of books? If the findings of a survey outlined in an article published by Inside Higher Education are indicative of trends to come, then…
Leadership and Management: The Value of Transparency
I’ve never bought into the concept of “wearing the mask.” As a leader, the only way I know how to engender trust and buy-in from…
Hospital Librarianship: A Workplace Solution and Rewarding Collaboration
Edited by Angela Spencer The Saint Marys* staff library supports the health care information needs of staff and affiliated students at Mayo Clinic Hospital–Saint Marys…
FYI: “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking…”
A finger-tip camera to assist the visually impaired While “giving the finger” to a patron would, hopefully, prompt an image of a prosthetic—created by stereolithography—being…
Expert Searching: Why Don’t Simple Searches [Always] Work?
Edited by Melanie Norton Many researchers and doctors search a database as if it were a medical Google. Using a simple search that relies on…
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…
Expert Searching: How “Healthy” Is Your Search For Health Promotion Evidence?
Edited by Melanie Norton Healthy People 2020 If you are searching for health promotion evidence, Healthy People 2020, a national health promotion program to improve…
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…