Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Open mic #medlibs chat

Edit: Transcript available at http://t.co/oEmxq8MozC  covering our busy fall plans, a helpful resource, statistics in medicine and more! 

What's on your mind and your schedule as we head into August?

Join in the Twitter conversation on #medlibs Thursday, August 1st at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific time!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Library Services vs. Library Space - handle with care

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/15jnYbN 


In these days of online resources, physical library space is of diminishing importance.  So to surrender some library space for some other purpose should not be so bad as it might have been in the days of paper.  But if such a change is not handled carefully (or is rushed), problems can result.  I have been through this experience once already, losing journal storage space, and scrambling to keep only the print journal issues not duplicated online or on microfiche.  In the next "6 to 8 weeks", I will likely lose the library "work room" - which houses the same journal issues rescued from the lost storage space.  On July 25 (9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT), we'll discuss the pitfalls of the process, how best to avoid them, and perhaps how to improve conditions in the end. 

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Professional Development and Staff Training - 7/18

Edit: Transcript available at  

This Thursday, July 18, we'll chat about professional development and staff training. While I don't imagine it being very formal, here are some questions to think about:
-In the current healthcare/economic climate, have you lost support for your own and/or your staff's professional development?
-What resources are you using for staff training/professional development? Have you had any good results with MOOCs or other free resources? What do you recommend?
-Is there anything MLA should/could be doing, knowing that fewer libraries probably have resources even for paid MLA trainings?
-Anybody doing anything interesting for staff training? In any specific areas like leadership, genetics, or special topics?

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Social Media and Consumer Health Information and Patient Education

Edit: Transcript available at  

Tomorrow I will be moderating the #medlibs chat and we will discuss the use of social media for patient education and consumer health.  72% of adults seek medical information online, and between 26-34% (depending on various reports) of people use social media to find health information.  The thought is the trend will continue to grow.
I will be asking these questions (I'm giving them to you ahead of time so you can think about them):
  • How are librarians using social media to provide consumer health information or patient education?
  • How do you measure the effectiveness of a social media health information campaign?
  • What are some barriers to providing patient education/consumer health information via social media?
#medlibs is a active group with lots of ideas and opinions so I am sure we will have more questions as we discuss things, but this is these are the main ones to get us started.

See you all online Thursday July 11, 2013 at 6pm PST and 9pm EST.

*Disclosure Notice*
I am writing a book chapter on this topic and this #medlibs discussion will help me with it.  I may use some tweets or reference parts of the #medlibs chat in the chapter.  I don't want to squelch the overall fun chattiness of the group.  If I use anything I will only refer to tweets that are specifically related to the discussion topic and I will make every effort to let you know I am using your tweet.