Join MIS and Come to Our Section Meeting at MLA

If you haven’t already paid your MLA dues this year I would like to strongly encourage you to do so and also encourage you to be a member of MIS.

 The section is 333 members strong and proud of our accomplishments:

  • Created a MIS LinkedIn group for members to discuss items of interest. 
  • Planned the Top Technology Trends for the 2012 meeting in its own time slot
  • MIS member MLA Zombie Hunt mixing both networking and fun
  • MLA travel scholarship to help support MIS member to attend MLA

If you are a MIS member and you are attending MLA in Seattle I want to invite you to join us at the MIS Business meeting Sunday 5/20 3:30-4:30. 

The business meeting is NOT just for MIS committee chair people, it is for ALL MIS MEMBERS

This year MIS paid members (as of April 2012) who attend the business meeting at MLA are eligible to win an iPad.  We will do the drawing at the conclusion of the meeting and you must be present to win. 

MIS is a great group to join and I hope you will either continue your membership or join us as a member.

MLA Value Survey: One Day Left

Medical librarians if you haven’t taken the MLA Professional Association Value & Planning Survey then please take a few minutes and do so NOW. Your participation will help shape MLA’s future!

The MLA Board invites your participation in a new survey to help shape MLA’s strategic directions going forward and to identify aspects of professional association membership that are particularly of value to MLA members –as well as potential members.  Here’s your chance to share your perspectives on membership benefits, program priorities, professional development, and other activities of the association.  Findings from the survey will be shared in an Open Forum at the upcoming MLA 2012 annual meeting in Seattle.  The survey can be accessed at http://umichlib.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_822PwXB5sqj9HJW and is open through March 30, 2012.

Upgrading iPads

I read an interesting article on the Cult of Mac the other day about upgrading from the iPad2 to the iPad3.  The short answer is don’t bother.  When the new iPad came out some people were disappointed that there wasn’t as big of a technology jump from the iPad2 to the iPad3.  Similar to when the iPhone4S was released, people claimed the iPad3 was a failure for Apple because it didn’t make the iPad2 obsolete.

What I found interesting about  this article is the author, Buster Heine, compares the iPad to the laptop and computer industry. 

“People wishing for product obsolescence with every new iPad are being naive. This isn’t the way technology works, and it would piss people off if it was. We would be outraged if our brand new $1200 iMacs were rendered obsolete within a year by a newer model, yet for some reason many people seem disappointed that Apple hasn’t enacted planned obsolescence for the iPad.”

People  tend to upgrade their phones about every 21 months, but Heines says that most people purchase a main computer and use it for 2-4 years or longer.  According to Heine, the iPad is “leading the charge into the Post-PC Revolution,” and will one day replace your desktop.  The iPad is not a big iPhone it is more of a portable Mac. Therefore, he reasons iPad buying habits should be more reflective of computer buying habits not cellphone buying habits. 

Over the years the Mac has changed relatively little from year to year, but over multiple years the difference between an 2007 Mac and 2012 Mac is noticable.  Heine speculates the iPad will show the same type incremental growth as the Mac.  “The new iPad is only marginally better than the iPad2, just like last year’s iMacs were marginally better than the year before. You shouldn’t feel the need to upgrade, and you never should need to upgrade your iPad every year. The iPad has been magical the entire time, and the iPad you own will continue to stay relevant for 2-3 years. That’s the way it should be.”

Interesting…

I never really thought of it that way, but it makes sense.

Versioning in PubMed

I am really late with this news, my apologies.  A colleague of mine brought this to my attention.  According to the February 2012 Technology Bulletin, PubMed no supports versioned citations.  “Revisions, scientific updates, and updates of reviews are examples of content that could be versioned. Versions are not intended for correcting specific errors in an article, for which published errata notices should continue to be used (see Fact Sheet). ”

As each article is updated the next version will be placed in PubMed with a label next to the journal title indicating the version. (Version 2, Version 3, etc.) 

I guess the good news is that only the most recent version will be indexed and found in PubMed using normal methods (even Googly type searches that really normal people do).  So you won’t be seeing multiple versions in a results list. Thank God.

You can search for older versions by using three different searching techniques (See Tech Bull for images).

  1. Search via the PMID number for the specific version. Example 20029611.1
    The .1 represents version 1.
  2. Search via the PMID number for any version. Example 20029611.*
    The * is the wildcard.
  3. Search via topic and the click on Other Versions link at the bottom of the abstract.

It is important to know that authors do not cross versions.  What I mean by that is if Michelle Kraft was an author in version 1 but not an author in version 2, you can’t do an author search and retrieve the version 1 citation.  My version is lost if you search via my name.  I predict this to be a bit of a problem.  There are too many doctors and institutions that keep track of their publications and when you start telling them their article (no matter if it has been superseded) is not able to be seen by searching their name, it isn’t going to go well.

So if you don’t have the PMID number it is going to get clunky to find an older version.  If you can’t find a citation you have to double check the citation (spelling, numbers, etc.) but now the possibility lies that you retrieved no results because it is an older version, NOT because the citation is incorrect.

There are also some funny things going on with date as well that people should be aware of.  “PubMed will set the DateCreated for the new version to the date the citation is added to PubMed. We will retain the Entrez Date, which defines the display order in PubMed, as the original date unless the publisher supplies a new PublicationDate. If the PublicationDate on the new version is different, we will modify the Entrez Date so the citation will display at the top of the search results.”

I understand and like the idea of having different versions within PubMed, but I am not sure this done in the best way.  I think you need to be able to find older versions other than just by knowing the stupid PMID number.  How many people know the stupid PMID number.  Usually we librarians are verifying the citation to GET the PMID number.  I think you should be able to do an author search and retrieve the older version.  Now there should be some serious marking on the citation indicating it is an older version and a new version exists (way more markings than NLM will slap on a citation).  By not including the older version of an article when doing an author search, not only are they saying to the authors that their article has pretty much disappeared but it makes finding articles from a citation list a real pain in the butt as well.  There are lots of researchers who look at the citations at the end of the article for their own research.

What do you think?  I am not as big of a PubMed searcher as other librarians. I am an Ovid gal (thinking how this will effect searching Ovid MEDLINE hurts my brian too much) so there are others with much better PubMed searching skills and I would love to hear there thoughts.

Congrats LJ Mover & Shaker Cheryl Rowan

I want to congratulate all of LJ’s Movers and Shakers, but as this a blog on medical librarianship, I want to specifically congratulate Cheryl Rowan.

Cheryl is the Public Health Coordinator for National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region and she is being recognized by LJ for providing innovative outreach to the states within the SCR.  Some of her accomplishments are, “From Beyond Our Borders: Providing Health Information to Refugee Populations” (her newest class), “promoting Health Literacy Through Easy-To-Read Materials” (tutorial), and “Health Statistics on the Web: It’s as Easy as..1, 2, 3!” (tutorial)

Click here to read the Mover & Shaker article on Cheryl. 

Don’t forget to start thinking of other medical librarians who would be good candidates for the 2013 LJ Movers & Shakers.

Bearded Pigs at MLA’12

The Bearded Pigs is the World’s First (Only?) Open Access International Librarian Rock Band. They have been playing at MLA for the last 8-10 years (who’s counting when time flies and you are having fun).  This year the band will be playing both on Sunday and Monday.  A double header!

On Sunday May 20th all are invited to join them for a night of dancing and drinking (cash bar) in “Grand C” of the Seattle Sheraton Hotel.  They’ll start up around 8:00 and play until 11:00.  Now, putting on a rock show isn’t free, so for those of you who want to help the Pigs cover their expenses for putting on the show you might want to consider joining the Thicket Society.  It is $40 for a single membership, $75 for a couple AND you will get a cool limited edition Bearded Pigs MLA’12 concert t-shirt and pin (another piece of flare for your badge).  Just go to http://beardedpigs.net/thethicketsociety.html and you can pay by PayPal or snail mail.  Remember, you don’t have to join the Thicket Society to enjoy the fun on Sunday, all are welcome.

On Monday the Pigs will be playing at the Armadillo Ball.  What is the Armadillo Ball? It is  is a scholarship fundraiser for the Southern Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association (SCC/MLA). Because it is a fundraiser, the ball isn’t free, your ticket into the ball is an armadillo pin (usually costs around $10).  Armadillos can be bought at the door or from an SCC/MLA member.  Not only is the armadillo important to get you into the ball, but it is another crucial piece of flare for your meeting ID badge.  People have whole herds of ‘dillos on their badges. 

I hope to see you there!

Spear Phishing?

I think by now everyone has heard of the term phishing as the gathering information online on an individual or group of people.  But today I read of a new type of phishing, spear phishing.  Spear phishing is using information for pinpoint attacks. 

It is apparently pretty successful because recent spear phishing attacks have “ensnared” several top U.S. government officials and RSA (you know the company that makes those SecurID tokens) and defense contractor Lockheed Martin (using information from hacked from RSA).  According to a CNNMoney article, the attackers were able to trick people into opening email attachments that appeared to come from trusted sources or colleagues.

While we don’t know exactly how hackers were able to hack the government officials and RSA, we do know that many believe that social media sites, especially LinkedIn, serve as a hacker’s gold mine.  According to the article, at a DefCon security conference where they staged a hacker game, Google and LinkedIn were the most widely used resources.

All it takes is getting the name of one of your coworkers and a well created email to get you to click on a link. 

Everything is on the Internet, while I don’t want to discourage people from connecting to family, friends, colleagues and coworkers, but you may want to use some discretion when connecting.  Obviously on Facebook you want to lock down your site.  On LinkedIn, maybe you might not want to put down everything about your current job.

Get Paid to Help Create a Next Generation Resource Tool

InContext is partnering with LWW/Ovid to redesign the next generation of electronic information resources for medical professionals.  Based on previous in-depth observational interviews, InContext has proposed some solutions and ideas to better support people who access journal articles online or conduct literature searches.  Because this is a “next generation” project, InContext is especially interested in working with people who own and smartphones and/or tablets  for work or personal use. 

They are testing their ideas for this next genration project by conducting in-person, paper prototype interviews.  The interviews normally would take 90-120 minutes.  Ovid/LWW is offering an honorarium for participation.  They will be doing interviews March 15-20 and March 29-April 4.

If the idea of being on the ground floor to help shape and create a better tool for accessing online journal articles and conducting literature searches is interesting to you AND you like getting paid for your ideas, then go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LWW_Study to see if you qualify to participate.

Hostile Takeover of Your Phone

It used to be that computer viruses pretty much stayed in the realm of computers. Phones weren’t in that worrisome category yet.  Well time to start worrying a bit.  A recent demonstration at the RSA security conference showed how clicking/tapping a bad web link on your smartphone could give the hacker complete control of your phone.

Uh oh.

According to the article, How a Web Link Can Take Control of Your Phone, by Tom Simonite from Technology Review all it takes is a simple web link to take control over somebody’s cell phone. Simonite described how George Kurtz and colleagues from security company, CrowdStrike, were able to view all calls, texts, activate the microphone to listen, steal data, and the location of the cellphone. 

Kurtz and colleagues played out a scenario on stage that involved hacking a real, unmodified Android phone. Kurtz, playing the role of a busy investor at an industry event, received a text message claiming to be from his mobile carrier asking him to download an update to his phone’s software. When he clicked the link in that message, the phone’s browser crashed and the device rebooted. Once restarted, the device appeared unchanged, but a silent, malicious app had been installed that relayed all his phone calls and text messages to the attacker, who could also track his location on a map.

Basically it is kind of like what Reese and Finch do each episode in the TV show, Person of Interest. Now instead of pointing at the device to gain access the hackers send an email or text message.

While the attack happened using a phone using Google Android OS 2.2 version, it can happen to Android OS 2.3 and other devices, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, etc.  According Simonite, “WebKit, the browser component that was exploited, is also at the core of the Web browsers found in Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices, BlackBerry phones, and Google’s TV devices.”

Now this type of hack isn’t cheap but it isn’t outrageously cost prohibitive either, and it only took them a few weeks to do.  The article states they spent $1400 on the black market for information on the 14 known unpatched bugs in WebKit which allowed them to gain full “root” access to the phone and use it install a remote access tool.

This type of hack while a virus isn’t at the viral stage yet.  It still is at the level of attacking a specific individual’s phone not whole bunch of phones.  According to a CNET news article, “An attacker would have to know in advance what operating system the device was running and tailor the message, either SMS or e-mail, to that person to trick them into opening it up and acting on it. This could be particularly dangerous for high-profile targets, such as government officials and CEOs who have a lot to lose if their phone calls and data on their devices were compromised.”

While the average person probably isn’t going to be a victim of this, it is a good reminder that our cell phones are mini computers now and can be vulnerable. 

 

Free Webinar: Demystifying Research Simplfying the Critical Appraisal

A while back ago Ovid hosted a really good webinar on ebooks and on March 7, 12pm EST they will host the webinar, “Demystifying Research: Simplifying Critical Appraisal.”

The webinar is free, you don’t have to be an Ovid user to attend.  If you are busy that day you can still register and you will be notified when the webinar is archived and available to watch. 

Here is a brief description of the webinar:

 Are you often frustrated when you read research studies? Do you sometimes wonder why they are so challenging? Would you be interested in learning how to use the tool of research to help you improve your patient outcomes through evidence-based practice? If you answered yes to any of these questions, join us for the Webinar: Demystifying Research: Simplifying Critical Appraisal

Anne Dabrow Woods, MSN, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC, Chief Nurse of Wolters Kluwer Health / Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Journals and Ovid Technologies, and Maureen “Shawn” Kennedy, MA, RN, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Nursing, will have a discussion with Dr. Ellen Fineout-Overholt, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN, to address the steps to critically appraise research evidence and demonstrate how to embrace the process of distilling the pearls that research has to offer.

Dr. Fineout-Overholt is currently Dean & Professor, Groner School of Professional Studies and Chair, Department of Nursing of East Texas Baptist University. Additionally, she is one of the authors of AJN’s, award winning, Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step series. 

For some reason everything that is supposed to happen in March for me is happening this week.  I am going to try and attend it live but if I miss it, I will definitely catch it when it is archived and available.

Here is the link to register http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=399336&s=1&k=024FF768A8F5F7EC09DA0C82711231FF