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  • NIH Research Access Mandate

    The newly enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764) includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online access to findings from its funded research. This is the first time the U.S. government has mandated public access to research funded by a major agency.

    Under the Act, researchers will now be required to deposit electronic copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine’s online archive, PubMed Central. Full texts of the articles will be publicly available and searchable online in PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication in a journal. From ATA report:

    “Facilitated access to new knowledge is key to the rapid advancement of science,” said Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Nobel Prize Winner. “The tremendous benefits of broad, unfettered access to information are already clear from the Human Genome Project, which has made its DNA sequences immediately and freely available to all via the Internet. Providing widespread access, even with a one-year delay, to the full text of research articles supported by funds from all institutes at the NIH will increase those benefits dramatically.”

    Further reading:

    ATA: Public Access Made Law

    NIH Public Access Homepage

    NIH Public Access Policy - Not Mandatory Yet  

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    Second Life & Social Networks Slides

    UPDATE Second Life & Social Networks

    second life & social networks

    A few of us HSL librarians are putting together a presentation to library staff introducing Second Life and Social Networks. I’m gathering my online resources on this Squidoo lens: http://www.squidoo.com/hslibrarysocialnet this iLib page.

    UPDATE - 24 hours on Squidoo: I am underwhelmed. What bothers me about Squidoo is the ads. My work is not a sacrifice on Mammon’s Altar. While I appreciate the Squidoo Lens concept of facilitating the compilation of multimedia resources in support of learning, teaching or informing on a subject or set of ideas, the Squidoo platform is not more effective than using a blog or wiki in concert with an RSS feed display application  (Grazr of feed2js are two good ones; del.icio.us, blinklist, and other social bookmark sharing sites have native applications). Folks without blogs or wikis, or anyone looking for an easy accessible free online platform for compiling and sharing content will probably really appreciate Squidoo as long they aren’t bothered by their content being heavily framed by ads. For my purposes a blog page is effective.

    The presentation will be a basic introduction and should be helpful to anyone looking for a place to begin learning about social networks and second life, particularly related to health information.

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    LILRC Health Information Search

    embedded google maps

    As seen on our Directions & Maps page: the new Google Maps web embedding feature.  It works/ looks great.

    embedded google maps

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    Summer at the Health Sciences Library

    It’s a busy summer at the Health Sciences Library. A notably large number of students are collaborating in the group study area, studying in the quiet study area and working in the computer labs. Having a busy library is a nice reminder that the library–its staff, facilities, services, and collections–is a vital part of the health sciences campus. In a time when our expanding array of good electronic resources along with the convenience of remote access sometimes seems to obscure the value of the library as a space, the human traffic this summer is welcome evidence of the library’s continuing importance as a place and excellent learning environment.

    busy summer screenshot

    > Click here to view the Busy Summer 2007 slide show

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    interactive web content: blogs & wikis

    This basic introduction to blogs & wikis is part of the Summer 2007 Science and Research Awareness Series (SARAS) organized by the Stony Brook University Medical Center Department of Anesthesiology. SARAS consists of lectures, experts views, video workshops and hands-on-workshops, with events taking place at various SBU Health Sciences Center locations throughout July. Though designed for high school and undergraduate students, it is open to everyone who is interested in biomedical sciences, informatics, and research technology.

    Besides serving as an introduction to blogs and wikis (applications that may require little introduction to today’s high schooler and undergraduate), it underscores the library’s dynamic presence on the Web and offers examples of medical informatics, scientific, and professional blogs and wikis.screenshot blogs & wikis

    http://ms.cc.sunysb.edu/~dachase/dynamo/blogwikiweb.htm

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    Health Data & Statistics on the Web

    US Government Health Agencies & Programs

    US Health Data & Statistics Resources

    New York & Long Island Health Data & Statistics

    Other Sources of Health Data & Statistics

    Select Finding Aids

    Sources for Legislation

    U.S. Sources

    • GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html)
    • Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov/)

    State Sources

    Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine

    A good flash tutorial from the NLM detailing and applying a systematic evaluation process to online health information:

    The tutorial includes a checklist of evaluation questions to ask when considering an Internet health information source:

     

    NLM checklist

     

     

    Looking for more resources on evaluating Internet health information?

    Related resource:

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    Tools We Use: WordPress & PodPress

    A popular blogging platform, WordPress is distinguished by its dedicated, active developer community. WordPress is free and open source, allowing programmers to use WordPress code in developing plugins, themes, and other resources to freely share with other WordPress users. Themes and plugins greatly enhance the WordPress blogging experience, and contribute to an overall robust application; plugins include RSS, AJAX, and podcasting tools, to name a few.

    The Health Sciences Library iLib blog is powered by WordPress and utilizes the PodPress podcasting plugin as a platform for online tutorials, podcasts, and other multimedia learning tools and resources for health sciences education and practice. Online tutorials provide support for the educational mission of the library by demonstrating and explaining databases, other online library resources, and multimedia web tools.

    Some advantages to both users and the library in using a WordPress blog for multimedia resources:

    • PodPress supports a myriad of multimedia file types (not just audio) & features a built-in media player
    • For librarians, IT staff, and other content creator/managers WordPress is database driven, organized and easy to update
    • For the user it is easy to access the most up to date content—on site, or via the RSS syndication feed.

    Listen to the podcast:

    icon for podpress  WordPress & PodPress: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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