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2007 Top Technology Trends for Medical Libraries
Panel discussion at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia,
PA, May 21, 2007
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Sadie Honey
Information and Web Services Librarian
Library and Center for Knowledge Management
University of California, San Francisco
The Perpetual Beta
In his article "What Is Web 2.0" Tim O'Reilly discusses treating
users as co-developers on the "perpetual beta" (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=4).
Our users spend more and more time on sites that frequently add new features.
They expect it and are comfortable with it. We should stop spending a
lot of time getting every last detail right - and start working with with
our users. Get a reasonable version of your Web site out there and then
make upgrades based on how your users interact with the resources.
This has ramifications for how we teach too. We are doing our students
a disservice if we teach them step by step how to set a limit in Pubmed
- that step by step method may change tomorrow. Instead, we should focus
on the general way that a resource is structured and provide students
with the time and space to explore and be independent.
Google Jockey:
(all are in beta - go to each and highlight word beta)
http://video.google.com
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/
http://get.live.com/mail/features
Mobile/Wireless Computing and Communication in the Clinical Setting
Because they have found that the Computer On Wheels (COWs) that they have
been using for the last couple of years are too cumbersome to roll into
the patients' rooms UCSF is piloting tablet PCS. This means that chart
information will be entered directly into the electronic medical record,
instead of copied later from handwritten notes.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197007535
Google Jockey:
http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6160839-2.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
PDA and smartphone use continues to increase in the clinical setting.
Most of the Medical students that we encounter at UCSF have one in tow.
At least one survey indicates that PDA use has more than doubled between
2001 and 2006 (** http://healthcare-informatics.com/issues/2007/02/040/
**).
Nurses at St Agnes Hospital in Baltimore can communicate directly with
one another and with patients via wireless communications badges that
they wear.
http://stagnes.netreturns.biz/NewsReleases/Article_Detail.aspx?id=d30c0861-b1ef-41fa-ae81-93e8f10622d1
Google Jockey:
http://www.vocera.com/
Are we designing our resources so that they are visible on small as well
as large computer screens? Are we suggesting to IT that the Library be
a node on that voice activated Vocera network so that a clinician can
easily request a literature search?
Lecture Casting
Many universities are participating in iTunes U, a free hosting service
provided by Apple that allows Universities and Colleges to post podcasts
of lectures, speeches, and other campus audiovisual materials (http://www.apple.com/education/products/ipod/itunes_u.html).
University of Michigan School of Dentistry was one of the first participants.
Many students and faculty however, are not waiting for their institution
to officially participate in a similar program. At UCSF for example, both
the School of Medicine and the School of Dentistry have encouraged their
students to record lectures and post them for their classmates in online
learning environments. UCSF affiliated organizations are also increasingly
posting audio-visual content of interest to patients and consumers. Is
this a collection development opportunity for Libraries?
Google Jockey:
http://www.dent.umich.edu/itunes/
Death of the Desktop?
In February Google announced the release of Google Apps Premier (https://www.google.com/a/)
an online suite of office productivity software. Included are applications
for email, calendaring, word processing, spreadsheets, and instant messaging.
Using these applications, people can edit documents from anywhere that
they have a web connection. Collaboration is built in as well. Will we
sometime soon no longer need desktop versions of these software applications?
Or will concerns about privacy, security, and availability keep us editing
a local copy of our documents? (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40_rip.html)
Other online office productivity applications:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_spreadsheets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_word_processors#Online_Word_Processors
Google Jockey:
https://www.google.com/a/ (click
on School)
Wallace McLendon
Deputy Director
Health Sciences Library
University of North Carolina
MMOG and collaboration among strangers
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (also called MMOG or MMO) are capable
of hosting thousands of players simultaneously, played on the Internet,
in a persistent world where players cooperate and compete on a large scale.
The most popular MMOGs are MMORPG or Online Role-Playing Game beginning
with Dungeon in the in the 1980's/90's and evolving to games like today's
World of Warcraft. Real and virtual worlds have begun to blend together.1
My personal interest in MMOG's involved as my kids began playing Sims
in the 90"s on stand alone computers and then evolved further when
my son began playing World War II with friends around the world on the
Internet in the new millennium, shouting out profanity laden directives
to army buddies around the world with each play seeing a different perspectives
of the landscape. What really caught my attention was when my son's platoon
was trying to take a village and he received an urgent message from his
South African friend that there was a sniper right above him behind the
church steeple - his South African buddy could see the threat but my son
could not. My son thanked him profusely while his platoon buddies from
Germany and Canada took the sniper out while he sat frozen in the church
door.
Simultaneously as my son was cursing and killing and taking villages
in his virtual war game with his comrades from around the world, I was
working the UNC-CH Health Sciences Library Collaboration Center where
we were mounting an 8 X 10 12.5 million pixel display wall and accompanying
access grid that connected 3,600 research centers over the Internet from
around the world - we also were simultaneously exploring ways to enhance
the collaborative use of graphics including and beyond the display wall
that would allow multiple researchers from multiple disciplines to interact
and participate jointly in the resolution of problems thick with real-world
genomic data that could only be understood by virtual representation.
It would have taken a rock or perhaps a brass door knob not to see and
draw parallels between what my son was doing and what we are trying to
do at our collaboration center -- solving a problem by jointly sharing
information from various perspectives with strangers from around the world.
How much more comfortable, I thought, it would be when my son's generation
reached the collaboration center with his well worn, practiced view of
addressing real world problems virtually and collaboratively.
1paraphrased from Wikipedia
Google Jockey:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/
http://www.dayofdefeatmod.com/media.php?type=screen&cnt=4
http://www.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Virtual_Surgery.jpg
Technology enhanced visualization and containerless content
Seeing things differently result in seeing different things. At UNC I
ask our liaisons who work directly with our health science schools to
be on the lookout for researchers gathered around a monitor trying to
see and share. They are perfect candidates for large 6 X 8 display walls,
12.5 million pixels strong. In genetic research specifically, the data
chokes on itself and there are limits to how the data can be explored.
An increasingly valuable method for looking at and manipulating data is
to use software that converts data into visual models that depict relationships.
As the data changes, the visual depiction of the data changes. Large displays
allow 8-12-16 researchers to see new patterns and make observations…
together. Libraries, from the beginning of our provision of audiovisual
services, have striven to make information more accessible and easier
to absorb by providing complementary visual formats. Large, high-definition
display walls will be a growing technology trend.
It is interesting to contemplate the synergy that will result when large
displays equipped with user friendly technology conjoin with containerless
content. As pieces and parts of background research data that make up
traditional journal articles and monographs are freed up and become manipulable,
it is reasonable to foresee that our enhanced technological environments
will allow the previously restricted background data to be transformed
into new discoveries…which positions the future health sciences library
into being as much a place of discovery as it has been a treasure of discoveries.
Google Jockey:
http://www.cyviz.com/Education.htm
http://www.renci.org/
http://www.nat.vu.nl/~tvdscha/icwall/information/pages/info03.htm
http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Collaboration/ccdisplaywall.cfm
Bart Ragon
Assistant Director of Library Technology Services and Development
Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
University of Virginia
Cloud Architecture
Tagging, sometimes known as folksonomies, is a user-generated taxonomy
often employed in Web 2.0 products like Flickr, del.icio.us, and blogs.
Tagging is a potentially controversial topic for librarians because it
involves a form of self-cataloging that does not use controlled vocabulary.
Internet users may discover an entry (photo, citation, blog entry) and
then follow the tag descriptors to retrieve additional entries with the
same tag. Librarians will find this concept familiar in how they use MeSH
Subject Headings to retrieve results from different information discovery
systems. Tagging's tragic flaw is ironically part of its appeal. Since
there is no controlled vocabulary tagging can respond quickly to changes
in terminology and word usage. However, general Internet users are untrained
in the classification of materials and thus may add irrelevant or senseless
tags.
Tags are visually displayed in "Tag Clouds" where more prominently
used tags are larger than lesser user terms. In a site like Library Thing,
for example, one can visually see trends in subjects or authors by scrolling
though these respective Tag Clouds. With enough people tagging their books,
a collective thought emerges as inappropriate and lesser used tags become
small and insignificant in relation to the greater consensus. In this
way, Tag Clouds can transform a disorganized and unreliable cataloging
technique into a navigational component approaching semantic structure.
Google Jockey:
Flickr
Photo - http://www.flickr.com/photos/truebavarian/47452892/
Tag Cloud - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/
del.ic.ious
Example - http://del.icio.us/search/?fr=del_icio_us&p=library+technology+&type=all
Tag Cloud - http://del.icio.us/tag/
Library Thing "Tag Cloud"
Subject - http://www.librarything.com/tagcloud.php
Author - http://www.librarything.com/authorcloud.php
Technorati "Tag Cloud"
http://technorati.com/tag/
OPAC 2.0
With the current gambit of online collaboration tools, open-source software,
and other Web 2.0 utilities, one might wonder when library ILS will jump
into the fray. Librarians are bombarded everyday with amazing Web 2.0
technologies that can create communities and enhance services. At the
same time many libraries are held back by OPACs, frustrating not only
librarians, but users as well. Enter OPAC 2.0. There are two initiatives
that give hope to libraries and their users. Evergreen is an open source
ILS developed by the Georgia Public Library Service. The product offers
innovative features that many for fee catalogs do not have. Amazon like
features such as a Bookbag can be shared, made private, and subscibed
to via RSS. WorldCat Local will allow libraries to combine the cooperative
power of member libraries. A press release for the University of Washington's
beta version of Worldcat.org Local was released on April 30, 2007. WorldCat
Local can access not only networked bibliographic data, but local data
as well.
Google Jockey:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/evergreen/
http://gapines.org/opac/en-US/skin/default/xml/index.xml
http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/200659.htm
http://www.lib.washington.edu/about/worldcatlocal/what.html
Mashups
In a mashup, two different and distinct sources of data are mixed to create
a third. Mashups have become easier after the growing prevalence of technologies
such as RSS. In medical libraries, where publishers and content owners
often protect their data, it has been difficult to create mashups that
are relevant to library patrons. However, there are examples of library
mashups that show the potential uses of this technology. Superpatron's
Ed Vielmetti's wall of books, for example, pulls and links book covers
to catalog information from the Ann Arbor District Library. OCLC held
its first ever Mashing up the Library competition in 2006, challenging
libraries to create their own mashups. At this point, mashups generally
require some degree of programming knowledge. But tools such as Yahoo
Pipes are now being developed to make it easier for non-technical people
to create mashups on their own.
Google Jockey:
Wall of Books
http://www.superpatron.com/wall-of-books/aadl/aadl-fiction-20060322.html
Mashing up the Library
http://www.talis.com/tdn/competition
Yahoo Pipes
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/
LibrarianinBlack Yahoo Pipes Tutoral
http://mrspeaker.webeisteddfod.com/2007/02/10/yahoo-pipes/
HEALTHmap
http://www.healthmap.org/
Eric Schnell
Associate Professor and Head of Information Technology
Prior Health Sciences Library
The Ohio State University
All of us have some memories of our first exposure to video games. For
me it was Pong; two black and white lines trying to hit a single pixel
block bouncing around the screen.
Gamers have always been stereotyped as being for nerds. For many adults
games are still seen as kid stuff. Those stereotypes do not represent
the generation of today. Today, gaming is a part of life.
Virtual spaces are at the core of the concept of Web 2.0.
Second Life
1) Second life is an Internet-based virtual world developed by Linden
Lab. A downloadable client software enables its residents to interact
with each other through avatars, providing an advanced level of a social
network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse.
Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in
individual and group activities, create and trade items (including virtual
property) and services from one another. It is a diorama that is a partially
three dimensional full-size replica or scale model of a landscape typically
showing historical events, nature scenes, and cityscapes.
Individual worlds are known as islands.
While Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, it does not have
points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of
the other characteristics of games. Avatars can also ride in vehicles.
fly, and teleport.
There are two main methods of text-based communication: local chat, and
global "instant messaging". Chatting is used for public localized
conversations between two or more avatars, and can be "heard"
within 25 m.
2) Among the more active educators in Second Life are librarians. There
are numerous libraries within what is referred to as the Info Islands.
Virtual reference desks within Second Life are staffed by real life volunteer
librarians for many hours every week. They also teach workshops there
to help librarians and educators learn more about Second Life.
3) The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the Universty
of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers continuing education courses on virtual
world librarianship.
4) In November 2006, The Alliance Library System (ALS) announced that
the National Library of Medicine/Greater Midwest Region has awarded
ALS a $40,000 grant to provide consumer health information services in
the virtual world of Second Life. ALS is working on the project in partnership
with the University of Illinois Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria,
Central Medical Library, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in
the Netherlands, and TAP Information Services.
HealthInfo island is focussing on three main targets:
1. Consumer Health Information
2. Educational, Clinical or Research activities
3. Experiment and development of new ways of interaction between users
and libraries.
When one 'enters' HealthInfo Island's Medical Library all looks normal,
if 'normal' includes floating books, improbable abstract architecture,
and a talking sculptures. On the second floor the National Institutes
of Health have taken over the floor with poster displays, a videocast
about the NIH, NIH RSS feeds, and a meeting room for presentations.
5) A fly though....
6) Second Life is also being used as an art form. Machinima is the art
of making real movies in virtual worlds. Movies made in Second Life use
the world's building, scripting, and avatar customization tools, working
in real-time collaboration with people around the globe. You can use Second
Life as your own virtual back lot, soundstage, choreography studio, costume
and prop repository, and special effects house.
Google Jockey:
1) http://secondlife.com/
2) http://sllibrarians.ning.com/
3) http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/Second_Life.html
4) http://infoisland.org/health_info/
5) http://bones.med.ohio-state.edu/mla/mla2.avi
6) http://www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=secondlife
7) http://secondlife.com/showcase/trailercontest_2006.php
Why Are These Important to Health Sciences Libraries?
Researchers there report that playing action video games, specifically
first-person, an hour daily sharpens visual acuity and coordination.
1) Second Life has recently emerged as one of the cutting-edge virtual
classrooms for major colleges and universities, including Case Western
reserve, Harvard, Vassar, Pepperdine, New York University, and Stanford.
In some cases Second Life is being used as a recruitment tool while in
other cases it is being used as an insdtructional platform
2) The utilization of virtual spaces is becoming very commonplace in areas
where the outcomes need to be simiulated. Companies are being developed
that focus on the educational possibilities of Second Life.
3)Another example is the Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness
Program's Pay2Train initiative. The goal is to provide opportunities for
training through interactive role playing for emergency preparedness.
4) Lastly, in the development of future virtual worlds, the Croquet project
takes the concept of metaverse one step further. It views it as a starting
point for a new form of future computer operating systems.
In closing, as librarians we know that information tools can change the
way in which people think and behave. Just look how the Mosaic web brower
affected our world. The media we use and the tools with think with change
us forever. It is encumbent upon us as library professionals to learn
how to use these new tools in order to meet our customers where they are,
not where we want them to be.
Second Life and virtual worlds offer librarians an opportunity to experiment
with business models, test strategies and learn effective tactics. It
allows for social engagement and encourages asynchronous learning. It
is a low-barrier, high bang-for-the-buck way for librarians to explore
the use of virtual worlds in the support of teaching, learning, and information
services.
Google Jockey:
1) http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i37/37a02901.htm?rss
2) http://www.angellearning.com/secondlife/
3) http://play2train.hopto.org/
4)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6vZqC8SsL8
5) http://croquetproject.org
Eileen Stanley
Formerly Library Director
Allina Hospitals & Clinics
Minneapolis, MN
InfoButton
As a follow-up to last years session "Integrating Reference Information
into the Electronic Health Record: Practice and Standards" I want
to update you on the status of the HL7 Infobutton Standard. Dr. Guillerme
del Fiol informed me that the Membership approved the standard in January
and at the May Working Group Meeting there should be a final announcement.
Implementation by vendors is in development and there are two types of
implementations, using either XML or URL. The specification is available
at http://tinyurl.com/ywkf9r.
Several of our well known Information Tool vendors are actively pursuing
use of the InfoButton and as your organizations are selecting and implementing
EMR systems one of the considerations they should make is what vendors
are compatible with the selected EMR and what content the clinicians will
be needing/wanting. A program to demonstrate pilot versions is being planned
for the fall AMIA meeting.
Google Jockey:
** http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/integrating.php
**
http://www.micromedex.com/products/infobutton/
http://www.ovid.com/site/products/tools/ovid/ClinicalResource.jsp
http://pier.acponline.org/info/pierinf_integration.html
http://www.clinicaldecisionsupport.com/products.html
Learning 2.0
Stephen Abram and Helene Browers have sparked a growing movement inspiring
library staff at all levels to learn and innovate using Web 2.0 technologies.
Stephen's Feb. 2006 article in Information Outlook (the SLA newsletter)
titled "43
Things I Might Want to Do This Year" led directly to the development
of Helene Browers staff development program, PLCMC
Learning 2.0. She set up a series of tasks using free Internet technologies
and devised a sequence and schedule to help all staff progress through
23 selected technologies that her library's customers and employees had
inquired about. The program was completely built on Web 2.0 technologies
that are freely available on the Internet.
These sites include:
At the end of the program last fall Helene posted an invitation to all
other libraries to customize the program for their own sites and a long
list of admiring copycats is cropping up. The original idea posted by
Stephen Abram is based on the website 43
Things which promotes goal setting and inspiration.
Google Jockey:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_2_10/ai_n16133338
http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/
http://www.43things.com/
Wallace's Wrap: Initial thoughts on summary/wrap-up
Health sciences libraries work in relative isolation in their efforts
to harness emerging technologies usually with scarce resources to play
with and live in 2nd Life long enough to create a meaningful application
for our users. Yes, there are NLM/NIH efforts and IAIMs efforts to explore
and create new technologies and keen interest in HL7 standards but the
consumer driven technologies and the social networking technologies do
not hang around long enough to write, receive, and complete a grant to
study them. Often by the time our radars detect the presences of a technological
trend, our users have moved on. We remain in a race to embrace consumer
driven technologies before our users have driven them into the ground,
abandoning the latest for the next greatest. It strikes me that among
health sciences libraries we go it alone - consulting with our colleagues
and friends, keenly observing a handful of technology pioneers and building
upon their pioneering spirit.
But what if we changed that model. What if we acknowledged that technology
has the power to transform our profession just as technology has begun
to transform the information seeking behavior of those we serve. What
if we approached what I believe to be numerous willing and supportive
groups like MLA and the Medical Informatics Section (sponsor of this panel)
and proposed the creation of a Wood's Hole type experience for those keenly
skilled, aware, and motivated to study and harness emerging technologies
for the good of our users and our profession. This annual "emerging
technology camp" would, over time, build a permanent community and
culture that would also attract technology savvy staff to the health science
library profession. A small step, perhaps, but a reverberating one…
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