HON is conducting a new survey on medical Internet usage (Autumn 2004).
Whether you are a non-medical user, a patient, a care-giver for an ill
person or a health professional, your opinion is important
to us and helps us determine current trends and improve the quality
of the medical Internet.
You will need 10 to 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire.
It would therefore be of infinite value to us if you would
visit and fill out the questionnaire at:
http://www.hon.ch/Survey/quest_internet.html
The study is not commercially sponsored. This study has been developed
and conducted by Health On the Net Foundation, an independent
Non-Governmental Organisation dedicated to improving the quality
and accessibility of online health information.
[ from an HON Team email message]

OCLC has released its top 1000 titles owned by member libraries. The top 10 and a link to the entire 1000 titles is located here: http://www.oclc.org/research/top1000/default.htm . There is an additional link on the right side of the page for subject categories such as banned books, and librarianship, but this user could access only the first four categories due to bad web links.

If you are keeping up with open access issues in your library, check out the conversations on this listserv: American Scientist Open Access Forum http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/date.html . Another one is the SPARC-OAF list, at https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/List.html . A recent message on that list announced that Congress has reaffirmed support for the NIH proposal to enhance public access to research information.

"Nation of Learners" funding opportunity, deadline March 1, 2005: http://www.partnershipforlearners.org/ . $3 million will be provided by this new partnership of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to cover competitive grants over multiple years. Grants are to support existing and new collaborations, encourage professional development, and conduct project evaluations to measure effectiveness. Guidelines are available at the site.

Teaching and presenting topics to groups are skills most librarians gain while on the job. There are resources for help with public speaking and presentations. Some of the free resources are:

Presentations: Technology and techniques for effective communication (magazine, http://www.presentations.com ). Be sure to check out this magazine and site when it is time to purchase a new projector or microphone for your training room.

Located on their website is a list of presentation-related associations: http://www.presentations.com/presentations/business_resources/industry_links.jsp

Another great resource is the one hosted by Website Estates. Tutorials, how-to articles on presentation topics, and free PowerPoint templates are available on this site: http://www.websiteestates.com/ .

Interested in community-based health information outreach? The National Library of Medicine is sponsoring an Outreach Symposium on December 2-3, 2004: "Symposium on Community-Based Health Information Outreach" to explore new models of health information outreach. Those interested are invited to view the Symposium live via the Internet. The program and instructions for connecting to the broadcast are on the Symposium website at http://www.nlmoutreachsymposium2004.org
The goal of the symposium is to explore new models of health information outreach that are emerging as technology dramatically changes the abilities of medical and health services libraries to provide resources and services beyond their traditional institutional boundaries. Particular emphasis will be given to consumer health information outreach through community-based organizations. The National Library of Medicine's Strategic Plan to Reduce Health Disparities will be reviewed with special emphasis on NLM's programs targeting Native Americans. The knowledge and insights gained in the Symposium will also inform the RFP for the next National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) contract.
The proceedings of the Symposium will be published in a special supplement to the Journal of the Medical Library Association.

A recent Library Journal on virtual reference services may be of interest: Rethinking Virtual Reference by Carol Tenopir
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA475028?display=Online+DbsNews&industry=Online+Dbs&industryid=3761&verticalid=151&

Google has a search feature for scholarly literature: Google Scholar (beta) http://scholar.google.com/ . Take a look at the About Google Scholar page to learn more about the features and limitations: http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html . The really good news - they direct users back to libraries here:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html#search4 , here http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html#access2 , here
http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html#access3 , and here http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html#access4 .

Thanks go to Jon Harrison of the Michigan State University Libraries for this resource :

Grants for Individuals:Library and Information Science http://www.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/3libsci.htm .
It includes support staff as well as library student and professional grant opportunites. Some resources are only available to Michigan State university faculty, staff and students.

The LIScareer site now has its own blog: http://liscareer.blogspot.com/ . You might want to pass this site on to the new librarians on your team, as well as take a look at it for your own career development needs.

The National Coordinator for Health Information Technology today issued a call in the Federal Register for public comment on "implementing the President's call for widespread adoption of interoperable electronic health records [EHRs] within ten years." The site for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is http://www.hhs.gov/healthit/rfi.html . To locate the Federal Register announcement, go to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/retrieve.html , click on 2004 Federal Register, Vol. 69, and enter the following page number in the search box: 65599 . When that page comes up, you just click on the Next Page link at the bottom of the screen to get to and print off the two additional pages. Please consider sharing this call for comment with fellow librarians in addition to those that administer patient records. Librarians have a big stake in any work towards future information interoperability.

Planning for 2005 National Library Week will probably start soon for your library, if you aren't already deep into committee work. Getting your mayor or governor to sign a proclamation would be nice, and should be one of your easier duties. ALA usually has proclamation text for you to adapt (example here: https://cs.ala.org/@yourlibrary/nlw2003/NLW03proclamation.pdf ). Next, you contact your mayor's and/or governor's office to ask them to sign it (remember to ask if they will allow you and board members/library supporters to be in a photo with them while they 'sign' the document). Examples of two governors' proclamation sites: Nebraska http://gov.nol.org/proclamations/ , and Missouri http://go.missouri.gov/procs/procs.htm . [If there is a page listing all 50 governors' proclamation sites, please send it to me as a comment -TH]

Remember that New Year's resolution you had about getting recognition for your professional experience, accomplishments, and academic preparation? If you are a health information professional, there is still time to send in your application portfolio for membership to the Academy of Health Information Professionals http://www.mlanet.org/academy/ .

Do you serve rural health professionals? Is there an Area Health Education Center on your campus? Do you serve rural health grant seekers? This National Academies Press online book might be of interest to you and your patrons:
Quality through collaboration: the future of rural health care http://www.nap.edu/books/0309094399/html/
Chapter 6 might be of particular interest to those creating shared libraries to support rural health professionals and consumers. Appendix B covers Characteristics of Rural Populations. The book is free to read online, and is available for purchase in hardback or paperback versions.

Blog silence explained: spouse recalled to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spouse is now readjusting to civilian life. If you work with recalled military members or their families, thank you for supporting them.

Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award: Is there an individual librarian in your past that you should recognize for their mentorship or the other work they did to make you the instruction librarian you are today? Nominate them soon - submissions deadline is December 3, 2004. More information is at this ALA site: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlawards/miriamdudley.htm