What is Happening at MLA

I will be at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, my posts about the meeting (along with other posts from Official MLA Bloggers) can be seen on the Official MLA Blog.

You can also follow along with a lot of other librarians at the meeting (not just the Official Bloggers) by following the #mla2010 hashtag on Twitter.  You don’t even have to have a Twitter account to follow the 140 character conversation.  Just go to Visible Tweets and watch the conversation flow in.  If you are on Twitter make sure you make your account public if you want to interact with fellow #mla2010 people (you can always reset it to private after the meeting).

Friday Fun: Ghosts in the Library

No this isn’t a Halloween post that was accidentally released early.  The New York Public Library contacted the folks at Improve Everywhere to stage a scene from Ghostbusters in the library to help bring awareness about the library as they face a funding cut of $37,000,000 which could cost 700 employees their jobs, the closure of 10 branches, and force the the library to be open four days a week instead of six. 

 Click the link to watch the YouTube video.
Improv Everywhere’s NY Public Library Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters entering NY Public Library looking for ghosts.
Ghostbusters entering NY Public Library looking for ghosts.

The video is funny, but the back story and preparation that the Improv Everywhere people did before hand is pretty interesting.  Check out their post, “Who You Gonna Call“, to see that there was a lot more than just running in the library in costumes.  They had a map of the reading room, planned camera angles, etc.

I am not sure what the relationship between ghosts and Ghostbusters have to with library funding cuts.  My guess their intention was to get the attention of people through a viral video and then mention the funding cuts to the  already attentive audience.  Which this has done because it has been picked up by many news outlets already.  Bravo.  A win, win for both the library and the improv group.  There was definitely a creative mind(s) at the library, because I am pretty sure that most people would not have thought of this approach to address the funding issue

MCR Offers Free Class on Mobile PubMed

Every fourth Wednesday of the month from March through July 2010 the MidContinental Region presents information and instruction on resources from the National Library of Medicine. The call these sessions Spotlight! On National Library of Medicine Resources and they are free. 

The next two sessions are all about mobile resources, on June 23, 2010 the session will focus on Mobile PubMed and on July 28, 2010 it will be on Mobile MedlinePlus & MedlinePlus Twitter.   

If you are interested in the June 23, 2010 class Register online at http://tinyurl.com/mcrclasses (registration is not required but is appreciated).  Those who take the one-hour class and complete the exercises and class evaluation are eligible to receive 1 Medical Library Association Continuing Education credit.

If you aren’t available to take the class on the date that it is offered or if you are interested in previous classes the MCR has presented, check out their website and scroll to Previous Sessions where they have links to the archived recordings.

MLA Information for Midwest Chapter Members

There is lots of information at MLA and sometimes it is hard to keep up with all of it.  Clare Leibfarth will be wearing two blogging hats at MLA this year, she will be one of the Official MLA Bloggers reporting on events at MLA on the Official Blog and she will posting “newsy items of particular interest to chapter members” on the ConnectMidwest Blog.  Already she has posted a great run down of what Midwest members are doing at MLA, including Ruth Holst who will be giving her Presidential Inagural Address on Tuesday. 

So check out the ConnectMidwest Blog to get information from the Annual Meeting that is of particular interest to the Midwest Chapter members.  Thank you Clare for providing a unique perspective to meeting for us in the Midwest, I just hope you find time to eat in between posts.

Privacy is the Cost of Convenience in an Online World

Before I even had a chance to check my Bloglines feed, gabinator alerted me to a really great post by T. Scott about privacy and Facebook.  He discusses the outrage some feel about the way Facebook handles users’ privacy.  Apparently there are 170 privacy options within Facebook and while I think 170 options are too many and I favor something a little simpler, in general I have to agree with Scott when he says,  “If you want all of that information to be that private, what in the world are you doing on Facebook in the first place?”

I am dumbfounded by the stories I hear from librarians about patrons who refuse, due to privacy concerns, to give the library their address or phone number (despite assurances that we do not release that information to anyone unless they have a court order) but they have no problem talking loudly on their cell phone about their illness and doctor’s opinion on it. 

Privacy in an increasingly online and networked world is difficult because we have grown accustomed to convenience.  Back when I was in high school people were just beginning to dip their toes into AOL.  None of my friends had email. Digital cameras were in the relm of 007. Video cameras were still ginormous contraptions that caused your shoulder to start to ache and then go dead within the span of 5 minutes.  People bought airline tickets from travel agents or they called the airlines.  People paid their bills by mail with stamps.  If you wanted to keep in touch with friends or family you called them (and paid for long distance) or wrote a letter. 

Twenty years later (ugh am I really that old), things have changed.  I can order Chipotle from an iPhone app and the share with the world via FourSquare that I am at the Chipotle store picking up my burrito bowl.  Not only does everybody have email, many people have 3-4 accounts.  Phones include still and video cameras, are the size of a pack of cigarettes, people are canceling their landlines.  People are posting the cell phone videos and pictures online.  Banking and bill paying is done online.  People submit online vast amounts of personal information including dates their home will be left empty all in an effort to get a good deal on an airline ticket.  While people still talk on the phone, the art of letter writing is quickly becoming extinct.  And the ultimate in convenience, we can communicate online and read about what our “friends” and family are doing without even seeing or speaking to them (sometimes for years). 

Today we give up a little bit of our privacy for the modern online convenience of life.  How much we are willing to give up is really up to ourselves.  However, I would venture to say that there is more about a person online than they realize.  That is because they were willing to trade a little bit of their privacy to do something.  Whether it buying a new house (guess what many counties property records are online), banking online, or buying an airline ticket, the price for this online convenience is privacy.  If you truly want to be private then you have to ween yourself off of our modern day online life. 

For those of you who don’t want to go completely off the grid, you have to realize the price for communicating with  friends and family via Facebook is a certain amount of your privacy.  Knowing what you want to remain private and what you are willing to allow open is the key.  If you don’t want people to know about it, or if you feel uncomfortable that a total stranger might know something about you, don’t ever put it online.

Friday Fun: What do Zombies Have to do with Accessing the Medical Library Remotely

Question: What do zombies have to do with accessing the medical library resources remotely?

Answer: In case the world goes all Shaun of the Dead, the University of Florida Libraries recommends accessing the library resources remotely from a safe and secure area where authorized users can use UF’s remote resources to research survival skills. 

The University of Florida Libraries created a diaster preparedness LibGuide in case there should ever be an outbreak of ZBSD (Zombie Behavior Spectrum Disorder).  The complete UF Zombie Attack Disaster Preparedness Simulation Exercise is archived in the UF Institutional Repository and available to view. 

The UF Zombie Attack Disaster Prepardeness Simulation Exercise offers great insights on dealing with a national disaster such as ZBSD.

Thank you dial_m and jannabeth for directing my attention to this.  I would consider myself fairly knowledgable of ZBSD and from my vast research (including much of what is cited in this exercise) a diverse aresnal works best for protection, however I would not recommend LPs (as mentioned in the exercise) they have been proven ineffective as demonstrated in this short video clip (Wright 2004).

What Programming Do You Want To See from the MIS Section?

As of this MLA Meeting I will be the Chair-Elect of the MIS Section. The Chair-Elect is also the Program Chair for the next meeting. Beth Whipple has done a great job as Program Chair and I want to make sure I continue with the good work.

In order to do that I want to specifically poll the MIS member, or others not in the MIS section but like to frequent our programs (and if you like our programs why not join us?). What types of programs do you want to see from the MIS Section for next year? Feel free to comment.

MLA 2010 What Would You Like To Read About

Once again I will be blogging about MLA as an Official MLA Blogger on the Official MLA Blog.   (Notes: Don’t forget to post the feed into your feed reader.  The blog is mobile friendly, click on the link on the side.)

Many of the other Offical Bloggers have begun to list on the Blogging Calendar what events they plan on covering.  Last year I ran the Official Blog and at the end of it I sent a survey out to readers to determine what they liked/disliked and what they wanted to see more of on the blog.  Many people wanted to see more coverage of other events and not as many duplicate entries.  While it is nice to get two different perspectives on something like the Presidential Address, the results of the survey indicated that readers wanted to hear about other presentations at the meeting that were not covered on the blog.

So in light of last year’s survey I am encouraging everybody who reads this blog to please leave a comment as to what you would like to see to covered.  Please look at the Blogging Calendar and my Google Calendar of MLA (below). My Google Calendar is a listing of what events I plan on attending. I won’t be blogging about every event I attend because there isn’t enough time, but as an Official Blogger I want to try and report back on the things that the membership would like to know more about. If you see something on my Calendar that you want me to specifically blog about or you want me to go to an event that isn’t covered by another Official Blogger then suggest it. I can’t promise that I will post on everything that everybody wants. However, if I can’t get to it, at least I have feedback so that we can learn what types of things are important for your meeting blog.

Elsevier: “Robust Financial Performance in Unprecedented Global Recession”

According to Reed Elsevier’s 2009 Annual Report  they experienced “robust financial performance in unprecedented global recession.” Greeaat, glad somebody did.  The rest of us dealt with budget losses, lay offs, hiring freezes, furloughs, pay cuts or no raises.  And Elsevier wonders why some librarians get so angry at their pricing models. 

According to page 6 of the report “The Elsevier science and medical business (44% of adjust operating profits) had a relatively robust year.  In a challenging academic budget environment, the journal business entered 2009 with good subscription renewals from 2008.  In health Sciences, growing online sales in medical reference, clinical decision support and nursing and health professional education were partly held back by weak promotion markets.  In the near term academic budgets will remain under pressure and wear working with our academic customers to ensure that their growing information needs and goals for greater research efficiencies are met with the confines of their tighter funding environment.”

We all realize they are a for profit company and they are in business to make a profit.  I am all for making a profit.  But I kind of feel a little uncomfortable and conflicted, especially when I read the post “Elsevier 2009 $ 2 billion profits could fund worldwide OA at $1,383 per article.”

For the most part I have stayed out of the whole OA debate, there are others on both sides of the issue who are way more informed than I am on the subject.  But it would seem that as librarians are struggling to make ends meet with their shrinking budgets, the current method by which Elsevier (or other for profit publishers) price their resources will need to change for so that Elsevier and publishers can still remain profitable.  Because if the library doesn’t have the money, they can’t buy any resources.