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…
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…
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…
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…