Research of a Medical Librarian

What an interesting set of tools are available to us through Social Networking. This was an introductory class yet I felt I learned a lot. There is certainly more available than I’ll use either professionally or personally. At the same time, I’ve already starting adding some of the skills I hadn’t used before

I’ve been happy with del.isci.ous. I like the online bookmarking more than I would have guessed and have set up quite a few new tags with more to come. My biggest problem is that I accidentally imported all my bookmarks from my work computer so now I have hundreds of imported, not tagged entries. I’m slowly going through and cleaning those up.

I now have accounts in Facebook and LinkedIn. I don’t use the professional one much, yet, but am connecting with friends and family through Facebook. I don’t know if I’ll ever make a pod cast or web cast - those are potentials that will suddenly fit a bill in the future. I finally had to try to import a YouTube video, though, and was glad. Now I have the Interval Library at a place I can easily tell other people about.

Probably my major problem with any of the classes with the the online documents. I really like what I’ve been able to do in Google Docs. Yet I can’t seem to share any of my work. I see a good possibility with those here at work for someone else, but only if I can figure out the sharing problems I’ve had.

Now I can let all these tools settle in my head for a while. I know that the best thing I can do is not concentrate on them for a while. That’s when my brain will start working in the background and I’ll have more “aha” moments. I may find these tools invaluable then.

Thank you to the Medical Library Association (MLA) for sponsoring this online class. Thank you, too, to all the different people who took time to put together the sessions and make them interesting. This was a group effort that worked well.

Our final Social Networking Web 2.0 class is about mashups. This is one of those terms I’ve heard and vaguely understood, just hadn’t investigated.

Mashups are another tool that I don’t think I’ll be using any time soon, especially for work. What I may do is explore them further for my personal web site. One of the mashups mentioned was to match books to locations using Google Maps and ISBNs. That would be a fun addition to a book review web site. It’s not something I would consider attempting for a couple months. Then if that works, it may suggest possible applications for work. For now, I don’t see any.

In the meantime, I checked out some different mashups for our classwork. I had a lot of fun at Star Viewer. My love of science fiction and outer space shows up in that choice. I was finding the maps and movies fascinating and had to remind myself that I’m at work so couldn’t spend a couple hours checking out the different stars, galaxies, nebulae, etc. That is a good combination of maps, tags, and movies.

“One challenge is to find enough time to learn about Web 2.0…”

Cho A. (2007) An introduction to mashups for health librarians. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association. 28:19-22.

‘Nuff said.

We are in the last week of the Continuing Education for MLA on Social Networking. Last week (and I didn’t blog it then…) we studied podcasting and webcasting. Last week was also an extremely busy week for me, including getting my new laptop to replace my older desktop.

There’s an unfortunate side effect of a new computer that I forget until it happens again. Many of my setting in the browser, software programs (like my Word icon menus), audio programs, etc, disappeared and have to be reset. Some of them are, but not all.

Among other things, this affected listening to the podcasts that were assigned. I didn’t have the proper players downloaded any more, so had to stop and reinstate a few of those. Since I couldn’t start the lesson until Thursday, I didn’t finish listening to those until Friday.

The YouTube webcasting had a different set of problems. I love a YouTube piece called Interval Library.

But when I tried to add it to this blog from YouTube, YouTube kept giving me an error with connecting to WordPress. I then tried entering it through WordPress and finally was able to make it work. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

There is another video I saw recently that I wanted to add to my personal blog, which is through Blogger. I had no problems inserting that one through YouTube. I found I couldn’t edit later, though, because there’s a missing end tag that I haven’t discovered yet. If I leave the post alone, it works fine. If I try to add tags, it won’t save again.

Once again I know our library isn’t ready for using podcasting or webcasting. I appreciated their uses through the universities and hospitals for lectures, repeating programs, etc. It would also be useful for the safety videos all hospital employees have to watch.

As I’ve said before, we’re different here. There is no obvious use for the technology now. I appreciate having the knowledge and ideas, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next 6 months or so something will come up that could benefit from this. If so, then I’ll look into using seriously rather than for fun right now.

Jim Butcher 4-5-08

Originally uploaded by vcrom

This week we are working with online photograph services like Flickr. I already had a Flickr account established. I added a new picture today that I took about two weeks ago when I was being a fan rather than a librarian.

Jim Butcher writes an urban fantasy series featuring wizard Harry Dresden. They’re based in Chicago and Harry is one of those good guys who comes on on top after he has taken lots of beating. I’ve been reading the series for years. Butcher visited San Diego to promote his new book. Now I have my own signed copy.

What was new to me was using Flickr to send a photo straight to my blog - interesting. Next I’ll have to try sending this photo to my Facebook account..

I have already used Flickr for work. When we had the open house for our new space I took pictures of the party.Then I uploaded them to Flickr and sent out an invitation for everyone in my division to see the pictures. A few people checked them out. Later I did the same with our Christmas party photos. More people checked those.

Since we don’t use photos much in my library otherwise, I don’t see myself using this site for integral library work. I may surprise myself, though. One of the advantages of this class is the ways thoughts perk in the back of my mind. What I can’t imagine using right now may be very helpful next week or next month.

One of the interesting facets of this MLA social networking course is being forced to try these different tools that I’ve heard about in different places (such as LifeHacker or from David Rothman). When I signed up for Google Docs I wasn’t sure because I get a 1984 (”Big Brother is watching”) feeling.

The next day I was presented with a potential use for it that could be beneficial for my coworker. One task she has is to creating meeting minutes weekly for the executive group. She sends an email asking for agenda items, collates them, then sends them out to be ranked, and then creates the agenda after receiving rankings of importance of the agenda items. This requires multiple emails between people. Google Docs or a similar type program may work for her.

But I’ve had collaboration problems. I created a short presentation in preparation for the talk I’ll be giving next month. I tried to share it as per our instructions, one with the above mentioned coworker. It doesn’t seem to have worked. I tried a second time, still with no success. To increase the frustration, there appears to be problems at Google today. When I was switching between Docs and Reader, my browser froze. I ended the program and couldn’t restart it. I finally had to shut down my computer and start all over. My browser finally started working again.

Because of it, I don’t know if my second collaboration attempt succeeded. I’ll talk to the recipients later.

Right now I’m still ambivalent about using Web Office tools. I looked at Zoho and Microsoft Live. The Microsoft Live review link was to PC Magazine, so I checked the other online office tools programs as well. PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice is for Google Docs.

Would someone tell me why I have been avoiding del.icio.us? As part of our assignment I signed up yesterday and started seeing good applications today. I have a few medical research search engines in my regular bookmarks. There are others I’d add but it’s getting messy, especially when I don’t remember what the brief title means.

So I started opening them and adding del.icio.us tags to them. Plus I came across another one today that I didn’t have time to investigate. So I tagged it and can easily go back to it without feeling like I’m adding to an unwieldy list. The del.icio.us personal bookmarks screen is easy to read and the tags are easy for me to follow.

I also quickly decided to set up two accounts - one for professional tags and one for personal (i.e. fun) tags. That way if I decide to share my del.icio.us account later with my colleagues, it won’t be cluttered with my book review or scrapbooking sites.

While del.icio.us will probably be a good tool for me personally, I don’t know yet if it will be helpful at my work library. Before I could consider adding it (or any of the social networking tools we have been using in this continuing education class) I’d have to consider how to present it so that my patrons would think it’s the best library help since emailing them a pdf file (they love that one for quick articles) .

After Facebook, we were to join LinkedIn, the professional social networking site. We also were to make some connections. The first thing I discovered is that other employees that I know in my own company are already members. So I tried to connect with them. So far, I haven’t received a response. Since I’m not sure how they’re notified of the contact invitation, I don’t know how long it takes.

I can see the professional potential for LinkedIn in both the job market and the sales contacts market. I also see its potential for networking within your own field. But again, because of the type of library I have, I don’t think it’s going to benefit the work done in my department.

From what I see, the social networking sites expand the community groups such as the Rotary Club, church youth group, or Jaycees to a wider range. The face to face contact is lost, which is important. Yet the larger audience can be beneficial.

Yesterday The Krafty Librarian had a blog about the Digital Skills Divide that is important here. These types of online tools help widen the divide. People who don’t get linked in can easily fall behind even if they are now digitally savvy and can use the computer and Internet. While this probably won’t affect the professionals who use my library, it a factor to consider when I have the occasional opportunity to work with people in different arenas. Introducing them to tools like Facebook may seem like fun to them, but can also help them improve skills they can use in life.

The MLA Social Networking class this week has us joining Facebook. I’ve done that, and can see how it can be fun. My daughter has a Facebook account, so I’ve made her my friend and left her a birthday message. I also added the PubMed Search and WorldCat applications. I was supposed to add the UAB library catalog application, but was still learning. I made myself a fan, but didn’t add the application to my profile. Since I won’t use that catalog again, I decided not to add the application.

Like with the wiki class last week, I don’t see a good application of the Facebook or social networking capability at my work. Perhaps I have tunnel vision, but I don’t think so.

I realized this week one reason is because our writers have a writing program that covers some of what we need in a shared setting. More than one person can write a section, but only one at a time (similar to a wiki). It’s not done on a web page like a wiki, but has to be checked out and checked in. They can also use this software to communicate like in Facebook.

It’s interesting to have the Facebook account for now, but I don’t know if I’ll maintain it after our class is finished or not. In the meantime, I’ll learn a little more about it and keep it in mind when different needs come up at work. Perhaps it will have a future function.

In the MLA social networking course we’re working on Wikis this week. I’m still not sure if I have an immediate application at work for this technology.

My library is very non-traditional. My customers/users/patrons (have we found a good word yet?) are a small, finite group. The writers all use a specific publishing program that acts like social software wherein they check out whatever they’re working on, then check it back in for someone else to work on, if needed. They library only gets involved on the research side and supplying the resources they need. But something may present itself to me.

I have found a good personal application for a wiki, though. I have belonged to the book club at my library for the past 3 years. More than once I’ve considered creating a web page for the group. Yesterday I set up a wiki page instead - The SDCL Poway Library Book Club. I sent an announcement to all the members who have email (one doesn’t own a computer). I’ve already had two members sign up. It will be interesting to see if anyone else actually tries to change the pages or if it is left up to me. Some never may because they don’t use their computer as much.

I was impressed how easy it was to set up the pages. One of the people who signed up last night signed into the site as I was working on it. She was able to see the work in process as it changed - how cool!