29 November 2007

NEW EDITION OF ESSENTIAL NURSING RESOURCES

The 24th edition of the ICIRN Essential Nursing Resources list (formerly Essential Nursing References), edited by Susan Kaplan Jacobs and Ysabel Bertolucci “is presented as a resource for locating nursing information and for collection development. The list includes print, multimedia, and electronic sources to support nursing practice, education, administration, and research activities. The most recent editions or websites available are included. The list was compiled to point to pathways for exploration, rather than be an end point, and to expand to multiple formats beyond traditional references.” Some of the resources require a paid subscription.

Contents: (*) indicates new
Meta-sites for nursing information

*Alerting services/blogs/RSS feeds, including forums and electronic discussion lists (formerly Current Awareness)

Archives

Audiovisuals

Bibliographies/book lists

Bioethics

Complementary/alternative medicine

*Consumer health/patient education

Databases and indexes, including core nursing and health care, related/specialized, and evidence-based

Dictionaries

Drugs, toxicology, environmental, and occupational health

Education/career information

Grants resources
History of nursing
*Informatics

*Patient safety

*Public health/disaster preparedness

Statistics

Writers’ manuals and guides

URLs:
Open access PDF version (Nursing Education Perspectives 28(5):276-285, 2007), http://nln.allenpress.com/pdfserv/i1536-5026-028-05-0276.pdf

Open access HTML version, http://homepages.nyu.edu/~skj1/essentialnursingresources2007.html

28 November 2007

USING INTERESTING ITEMS AS AN ANNUAL OUTREACH TOOL

Brian Mathews [Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA] has a great idea on his blog, The Ubiquitous Librarian. At the end of the year, why not create a top 10 list of “interesting” or “important” items—tailored to your customers. You could put the URL and a short annotation—such as why you chose the item. Some ideas: |who won major awards in the field? what are people blogging about? what should everyone know about? And don’t just post it in the library—drop it off in their offices, send it along with books they request, email it, or leave it in the break room. Make it look good! (one page, photos, bright colors). If your customers fall into different disciplines—make different handouts for each not just a generic top 10. Yes, this might take some time, but think how it can make you look relevant and useful.


URL: http://theubiquitouslibrarian.typepad.com/the_

ubiquitous_librarian/2007/11/using-interesti.html

NEW! PHOTOS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

If you look at the right sidebar, just under the "About" section, you will find something new--photos from our trip to Cape Town, South Africa a few years ago. Blogger has a new slide show feature, so I can add these to the blog. I'll change the photos every once in a while, so keep reading the blog!

21 November 2007

US LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS

“METAVID is a project which seeks to capture, stream, archive and facilitate real-time collective (re)mediation of legislative proceedings.” Only in the development stage, this free and open source service is hosted by the University of California at Santa Cruz, but there is information there already. You can search the archives now, follow their blog, and read their wiki and FAQ pages. Video files include closed caption text.

URL: http://metavid.ucsc.edu
Blog: http://metavid.ucsc.edu/blog/
Wiki: http://metavid.ucsc.edu/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

NEW RESOURCES FROM (US) NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

You can now receive news and information from NPR through RSS feeds. News feeds available are: top stories, arts and culture, business, health and science, opinion, people and places, politics and society, U.S. news, and world news. Program feeds are: All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Day to Day, Talk of the Nation, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, News and Notes, Tell Me More, Weekend Edition (both Saturday and Sunday), World CafĂ©, and From the Top. There are also topic feeds (for instance, authors, books, environment, music—various types, politics, sports, etc.) and links to feeds from selected member stations. What a great resource!

Also from NPR is NPR Music, “a free, multi-genre Web site that presents the best of public radio music.” It is a collaboration with 12 public radio stations. They also have a Flash-based media player. Sections include live concerts, studio sessions, interviews and profiles, and song of the day. You can also browse by artist or limit yourself to just one genre (rock/pop/folk, classical, jazz & blues, world, and urban).

There’s more, too. Subscribe to one of their music newsletters: Song of the Day, Music Notes, and All Songs Considered.

URLs:
RSS Feeds: http://www.npr.org/rss/

Sign up for music newsletters: http://www.npr.org/help/general/new_features_20071104.html

NPR Music home page: http://www.npr.org/music/

TOP 100 MAC APPLICATIONS

For those of you using the “other” computer, Chris Pirillo (a well-respected Mac expert) has compiled a list of his top 100 Mac applications. There’s also a list of honorable mentions. Both lists have links to the actual site. He is planning to add coupons and/or exclusive pricing for any commercial applications.

URL: http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/11/06/top-100-mac-apps/

20 November 2007

TWO GREAT MARKETING RESOURCES


PROQUEST MARKETING TOOLKIT FOR ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Last year ProQuest introduced a marketing toolkit for public libraries—now there’s one for academic libraries. There is “how-to” advice on marketing your library’s online resources, from Beth Dempsey, library marketing expert, speaker, and author; database descriptions that speak “patron” rather than library language; customizable promotional flier, advertisement, poster, press release and radio script; and a digital “commercial” that can be downloaded to the library’s homepage.

The Library Marketing Toolkit was recently mailed to academic libraries across the United States and is available as a free download at http://www.il.proquest.com/division/libraryadvocacy.shtml.


LIBRARY WEBSITE BEST PRACTICES AND RESOURCES

Marylaine Block presented Beyond the Basics: Making the Most of Your Library Website to the Arizona Library Association on 14 November 2007. She has graciously posted many of the examples and resources on her website. Included are: examples of good, user-centered design; use of prime display area for most important content from the users’ point of view; use of movement or animation; library terms that users understand; show off the physical library on your web site (on your main page, with virtual tours, with webcams); put your users in the picture; new site announcement services; library-created databases, digital text collections, topical guides, tutorials, voter guides and community issue guides; building projects: annual reports; strategic plans, surveys made public; blogs; RSS feeds, wikis, invitations to comment or add content; interactive quizzes, online contests and discussions; use of IM or text messaging; personalized portals and other services; toolbars; going where your customers are; websites for specific groups (kids, teens, teachers, parents, seniors; podcasts and videocasts; and other resources on library website design.


Believe me, you won’t find this many links on website design in any other place—at least not for free. Thank you so much Marylaine.


URL: http://marylaine.com/libsite.html

18 November 2007

PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS DATABASE


Library Boy
blogger Michel-Adrien Sheppard [Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa] (http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/) called my attention to this database. Its goal is to "provide the text-searchable electronic versions of all the Custom Unions, Free Trade Agreements, and Preferential Arrangements that have been notified to the World Trade Organization's Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, and are in force, plus many that have not been notified to the WTO". The Faculty of Law at McGill University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) maintains the website.

URL: http://ptas.mcgill.ca/

BRITISH MUSEUM COLLECTION DATABASE


The British Museum has released the first section of what will be a record of every object in their collection. Up now are records for the collection of two-dimensional works (almost entirely drawings, prints and paintings) from all over the world. New records and images are being added every week, but since the entire database contains records for nearly 1.7 million objects, it may take many years for it to be complete. Available information includes object type, material, technique, who created the item, date, school, a description, and in some cases a photograph. Also available will be thesauri and authority files for materials, techniques and place-names. Not included are prices paid and personal addresses.


URL: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_

collection_database.aspx

16 November 2007

MEDICINE AND ADVERTISING: AN ODD COUPLE


Medicine and Madison Avenue is a neat website from the (US) National Humanities Center and Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA). It “presents images and database information for approximately 600 health-related [print] advertisements.” Categories include household products, over-the-counter drugs, personal and oral hygiene, vitamins/tonics/food/nutrition/diet aids; institutional and pharmaceutical; cigarette ad; and supplementary documents such as documents from J. Walter Thompson (an advertising agency), the American Medical Association, popular magazines, advertising press guidelines, Federal Trade Commission documents, and radio scripts. There’s also a timeline overview of significant medical and advertising events from the 1840s to the 1960s. Very specialized, but interesting. You could probably use some of it to promote programs on specific topics.


URL: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/mma/

FOUR INTERESTING NEW WEBSITES


UNDERSTANDING PARLIAMENT?!
The UK Parliament now has a website with a glossary—“Parliamentary jargon explained.” Absolutely fascinating.
URL: http://www.parliament.uk/about/glossary.cfm


MAPS OF THE WORLD
This site has maps of almost anything you could want: cruises, honeymoon destinations, time zones, cities, USA state symbols, earthquakes, etc.
URL: http://www.mapsofworld.com/


COUNTRY PROFILES, FROM A CANADIAN VIEWPOINT

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has published cultural profiles of over 100 countries that have sent immigrants to
Canada. It “provides an overview of life and customs in the profiled country…and the customs described may not apply in equal measures to all newcomers form the profiled country.” These are fine, but I prefer the CultureGrams, published by ProQuest. Originally written by Brigham Young University, they are “concise, reliable, and up-to-date reports on more than 200 countries, each U.S. state, and all 13 Canadian provinces and territories.”
URLs:
Canadian Cultural Profiles:
http://www.cp-pc.ca/
CultureGrams:
http://www.culturegrams.com/


GREEN SEARCH ENGINE
Greener
is designed to “find green products, services, organizations, information” in over 9 million pages. There is no sign of who put the site up, so I’m a bit leery of it.
URL:
http://greener.com/

15 November 2007

GREAT FIREFOX EXTENSION


Read it Later (beta) is a wonderful extension for Firefox that allows you to save pages of interest to read later. It eliminates cluttering of bookmarks with sites that are merely of a one-time interest. I really use and like it.

“When you come across something you want to read later, simply click the ‘Read Later’ button and the page is instantly inserted into your reading list. Then when you have some free time, just click ‘Reading List’ and it’ll randomly pull up something for you to read (or you can choose which article to read). When you are finished, click Mark it As Read and it will be removed from your list. If you found what you read to be worth bookmarking, you can use the dropdown under Mark it As Read to add it to your Firefox bookmarks or any online bookmark service such as Del.icio.us.”


URL: http://www.ideashower.com/ideas/active/read-it-later

FREE US COURTS OF APPEALS AND SUPREME COURT COMING SOON

Public.Resource.Org and Fastcase, Inc. will release a large and free archive of US federal case law, including all Courts of Appeals decisions from 1950 to the present and all Supreme Court decisions since 1754. The archive will be public domain and usable by anyone for any purpose. You can find more information at http://onward.justia.com/
useful-tools-web-sites-195-free-courts-of-appeals-decisions-
from-1950-and-all-us-supreme-court-decisions-since-1754-
coming-soon.html

14 November 2007

A NEW WIKI FOR PHYSICIANS

WiserWiki “is a wiki that will allow accredited physicians to comment, collaborate and update medical information online and is viewable by everyone. The site was originally seeded with content from John Noble’s Textbook of Primary Care Medicine (3rd Edition). In answer to the question, What is the purpose of this site? the site says, “We hope to provide a trusted forum for physicians to collaborate and contribute professional-level medical content that can be viewable by everyone. WiserWiki is one example of our commitment to explore innovative tools to help medical professionals access the most up-to-date medical information available. As of now, the site is still in ‘Beta mode’ as we test new ways to make it better for you as a user!”


There are ads, but it looks interesting.



URL: http://www.wiserwiki.com/Main_Page

WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND--BOOKS REDUX

“Why Bother Studying Book Use at All? Patrons Want Everything on the Internet”

“There was a time when libraries installed radios in reading rooms and turned them on for important events such as presidential speeches. As radios became common household items, that practice disappeared. We suspect that patron use of the Internet in libraries may be a similar phenomenon. Laptop computers with wireless Internet connections are now common, and it may not be too many years before a home without a fast Internet connection is as unusual as one without a radio. When that day comes, libraries (while still being a supplier of online materials) had better be prepared to meet the demand for what is still our most popular item: books.”

Greiner, Tony and Bob Cooper, Analyzing Library Collection Use with Excel©, Chicago: American Library Association, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8389-0933-1, US$40.00 (ALA members $36.00), pp. 6-7.

08 November 2007

PROMOTIONAL IDEAS


These two are great articles about librarians and change, with good ideas for physical changes.

Johnson, Tim, The new libraries, University Affairs, December 2007, http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2007/december/new_
librarians_01.html

Hume, Christopher, Librarians at the gate, Toronto Star, 3 November 2007, http://www.thestar.com/News/article/273124


At first glance this one seems frivolous, but it is full of great promotional ideas.

Block, Marylaine, Librarians: The Party People, http://marylaine.com/party.html

FACULTY WANT ONLINE, NOT PRINT

Faculty members overwhelmingly prefer using online material to printed material, according to the results of a survey released this week by Ebrary, a company that provides electronic content and technology to libraries, publishers, and other businesses. The survey shows that half of faculty members prefer electronic resources, and 18 percent prefer print. Another 32 percent said they had no preference. The results were based on responses of 906 faculty members from 300 colleges and 38 countries.


From an article by Andrea L. Foster in The Wired Campus (an online feed from The Chronicle of Higher Education), 8 November 2007. If you are in an academic library, you really should be getting The Wired Campus via RSS feed or email every day. There’s great stuff in it.



URLs:

The full article: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2531

Register to read the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?

sm=PgvLHSl_2fYAN_2fsblRBJYqqg_3d_3d


07 November 2007

HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION

“HuriSearch is the only comprehensive search engine specialised in human rights information. It targets persons working with or interested in human rights, who need powerful search tools to access up-to-date and relevant information including: human rights monitors and researchers, students and academics, diplomats and persons working in international organisations, politicians and journalists.”
There is direct access to the content of over 3000 human rights websites, with over three million indexed pages. It crawls every 24 hours for the Intergovernmental Organisations, National Human Rights Institutions, and Academic Institutions and every 8 days for the NGO collection. You can search by language, by organisation, or by country. The site “guarantees” that it is completely independent from political or commercial interests.

URL: http://www.hurisearch.org/

LIBRARIANS AT THE GATE

"Cities worldwide are investing in libraries as never before, hoping for that `Bilbao effect,’ the kind of civic shot in the arm only an ambitious building can provide. In its modest way, Toronto is no exception.”
This is an excerpt from a neat article by Christopher Hume (Urban Affairs Columnist) in the Toronto Star.

URL: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/273124

CREATE AN RSS FEED WHEN THERE ISN'T ONE

If the web page you want to follow doesn’t have an RSS feed, use Page2RSS to create one. You can even add a button to your browser to make it easier. It works on either Internet Explorer or Firefox, too.

(I found this on the Librarian in Black blog, which does have an RSS feed.)


URL:
http://page2rss.com/

03 November 2007

HELP FOR PARENTS OR LIBRARIANS HELPING PARENTS

Parent Hacks: Daily parenting tips from the real experts—actual parents explains itself as providing “everything that was left out of the instruction manual. Oh Yeah. There is no instruction manual.” This collaborative site is read by over 20,000 people via email or you can subscribe to its RSS feed. I’m not a parent (except for two cats), but it looks like there are some very helpful tips here.

URL: http://www.parenthacks.com

A SEARCHABLE ONLINE BIBLE

BibleGateway.com has the entire content of the Bible, searchable, and in multiple versions (the default is the New International Version). There’s also the verse of the day, contests, tutorials, and a “listen to the Bible” feature. From Gospelcom.net. Very simple to use and very useful.

URL: http://www.biblegateway.com

WEB 2.0 FOR IDIOTS

Valleywag, which bills itself as “Silicon Valley’s Tech Gossip Rag,” has a great post—Web 2.0 for Idiots. It starts with Tim O’Reilly’s attempt to simplify Web 2.0 and ends with “what I think is the minimum for Mom” (or anyone else). It is a graphic that simply says: “Web 1.0—They make it for you; Web 2.0—You help make it.” Great!

URL: http://valleywag.com/tech/web-2%270-to-english/
web-20-for-idiots-317835.php