Classes November 2015

HSLS offers classes on database searching, software applications such as Prezi, bibliographic management, molecular biology and genetics, and library orientations. For more information, visit the online course descriptions.

Classes are held on the first floor of Falk Library (200 Scaife Hall) in Classroom 1 and on the upper floor of the library in Classroom 2. All classes are open to faculty, staff, and students of the schools of the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, who will need a valid Pitt ID or e-mail account. They are also open to UPMC residents and fellows, who will need to show their UPMC IDs.

No registration is required, except where noted. Classes marked with an asterisk (*) qualify for American Medical Association Category 2 continuing education credit.

Class schedules are subject to change. Please consult the online class calendar for the most current information.

FlashClass

FlashClass is a “deal of the week” Groupon-like offer of timely and useful learning. Each week’s offer proposes one or two topics, and you’re invited to sign up to attend a one-hour class the following week. If at least three people sign up, we’ll hold the class. (We’ll notify you either way.) Winter 2016 FlashClasses start in February.

HSLS CLASSES

EndNote Basics (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Monday, November 2 2-4 p.m.

Focus on Behavioral Medicine: Searching in PsycINFO* (Falk Library Classroom 1)

Tuesday, November 17 9-10:30 a.m.

Painless PubMed* (Falk Library Classroom 1)

Wednesday, November 4 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday, November 19 1-2 p.m.
Monday, November 23 Noon-1 p.m.

PowerPoint for Conference Posters (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Thursday, November 12 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Prezi for Presentations (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Friday, November 6 12:30-2:30 p.m.

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENETICS RESOURCES

RNA-seq Analysis: CLC Genomics Workbench* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, November 18 1-3 p.m.

CUSTOMIZED CLASSES

Customized classes can be developed for your department, course, or other group.

Let me introduce you to…

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Reference Services at HSLS recently underwent a name change to Research, Instruction, and Clinical Information Services. Reference services were traditionally responsible for providing information in response to a question. As defined by the American Library Association, reference services librarians “assist, advise, and instruct users in accessing all forms of recorded information.”1

So why the change? The new name more accurately reflects the changing roles and expertise of the department. No longer is it just responding to questions, although we still answer questions.

  • Librarians are now supporting research by participating in systematic reviews, research grants, and data management.
  • Librarians provide specialized searches for the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols.
  • The molecular biology information specialists support the needs of researchers in this area through consultation and instruction.
  • Librarians provide information literacy instruction to students within their course curriculum as well as individual instruction and provide innovative and timely library based workshops open to faculty, students, and staff.
  • Clinical support is provided to residents and fellows through individual and departmental instruction on evidence-based medicine and clinical research methods. With their expert searching skills, librarians lead clinicians to the information they need to make diagnosis or treatment decisions.

As our services have evolved, it was time for our name to evolve as well.

~Nancy Tannery

  1. RUSA: Reference and User Services Association (a division of the American Library Association) [Internet]. Chicago: American Library Association; c1996-2015. Professional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians; [cited 2015 Sep 17]; Available from: http://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/professional

GenomeTV: It’s TV Worth Watching

To be clear, GenomeTV is not actually television. Rather, it is a YouTube Channel for the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This collection of video resources about genetics and genomics is arranged into six broad categories, with content dating back to the human genome announcement at the White House in 2000. When available, PowerPoint slides accompany the videos.

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Content includes:

  • Workshops and Meetings: recordings of NHGRI/NIH scientific workshops/meetings exploring data and policy issues, clinical approaches, and the latest research.
  • Symposia: playlists from specialized sessions covering the research and accomplishments of specific NHGRI programs.
  • Education and Training: a variety of tutorials and education resources dedicated to informing students, teachers, researchers, and the public.
  • Lectures: individual and series of lectures intended to share current genetics and genomics research and impact.
  • News and Documentary: news about significant discoveries and documentaries explaining NHGRI projects and initiatives.
  • NHGRI Advisory Council: videos from the three annual open sessions of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research.

Content is continually updated and provides users access to information that they would not otherwise discover. For example, thirty videos, slide sets, and PDFs are available from the three-day hands-on workshops of the ENCODE 2015: Research Applications and Users Meeting. Also available are twenty-four videos from the 4th Annual Scientific Symposium of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Additionally, two videos from the 2015 NHGRI Summer Workshop in Genomics: Nursing Faculty and Educators are accessible. As a final example, every two years NHGRI sponsors and posts content for the lecture series Current Topics in Genome Analysis, which reviews the latest advances in genomics and bioinformatics; the next session begins early 2016.

Many of these videos were created and produced by Genome Productions, of NHGRI’s Communications and Public Liaison Branch. They may be freely copied and distributed; but an appropriate acknowledgement is requested. These videos may also be browsed via the search.HSLS.MolBio Videos tab on the HSLS MolBio Web page. For additional information and training on a variety of genomics resources, contact the HSLS Molecular Biology Information Service.

~Carrie Iwema

DMPTool Adds Template for Genomic Data Sharing Policy (GDS)

DMPToolA Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal document describing how your data will be managed during your research and after the project is completed, including sharing resulting data with other researchers, and archiving the data for future access and use. With requirements for DMPs increasing among major research funders such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), where can researchers quickly find assistance writing a DMP?

The DMPTool, an online system guiding researchers in completing this key component, can be accessed on the DMP tab of the HSLS Data Management Guide. The DMPTool has been customized for the University of Pittsburgh: simply select the University of Pittsburgh from the drop-down menu on the Institution Log In page. Log in with your Pitt credentials on the Web Authentication page.

The DMPTool offers templates for NIH, NSF, and other funders, but an important new template is “NIH-GDS: Genomic Data Sharing,” written specifically for the new NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy (GDS). The customized GDS template offers suggested responses and guidance from Pitt’s IRB and Office of Research (OOR) in one location.

To get started using the GDS template, click on Create New DMP, then Select Template. In the list of templates, click on National Institutes of Health to reveal two NIH templates. Select NIH-GDS: Genomic Data Sharing.

DMP GDS Template
GDS Template

After providing some proposal identification information you will be asked to enter the DMP details. The template outline is on the left. The workspace on the right has three tabs: “Instructions” are from the NIH-GDS; “Links” connect to Pitt and NIH-GDS resources; “Suggested Response” is a customized response, added by HSLS librarians, that researchers may modify as appropriate, and includes pertinent fields populated with selections (in brackets) to be made by the investigator. Do not submit without editing to describe your specific study and data.

While the DMPTool offers excellent guidance and sample documents throughout the DMP writing process, Pitt health sciences researchers preferring to review their DMP with a librarian are welcome to contact the HSLS Data Management Group.

~Andrea Ketchum

New Students And Faculty Orientations

(L) Molecular Biology Information Specialist Carrie Iwema   (R) Reference Librarian Andrea Ketchum Graduate and Professional Student Government’s Orientation and Information Fair Reference Librarian Mary Lou Klem speaking at the Pitt Faculty Orientation

(R) Reference Librarian Melissa Ratajeski at the First Year Medical Student Orientation

Every fall HSLS librarians provide library orientations to new students and faculty and this fall was no different. These orientations can be formal presentations about library resources and services or informal information tables at student organization fairs. Sometimes they are a mixture of both. The librarians enjoy the opportunity to welcome these new students and faculty, provide them with a glimpse of what the library offers, and answer their questions. We hope this is just the start of our interactions with these new members of the Pitt community.

NLM’s Citing Medicine Updated to Reflect New Types of References

citing-medicineCiting Medicine: the NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers provides both instructions and examples for formatting bibliographic citations for different types of published and unpublished material. The guide was recently updated with over 40 new examples, including new references for datasets, data repositories, ahead-of-print articles, and more. In addition to the new references, almost all of the manual’s chapters and two of the appendixes were edited and updated. View all of the changes in the Content Updates appendix.

*Parts of this article were reprinted from the National Library of Medicine – Citing Medicine and Citing Medicine Has New Examples announcements. Continue reading

Treasures from the Rare Book Room: John Hill’s Family Herbal

Hill01Herbals or herbaria—books describing herbs and their medicinal uses—are among the earliest literature created. They may be in the form of manuscripts, scrolls, codices, or loose sheets. Falk Library has several 18th century herbals, but the 1822 edition of John Hill’s Family Herbal is particularly interesting for three reasons: it has color plates unlike earlier herbals in our collection, it has an interesting provenance, and it was written by an author with a notorious reputation.

John Hill (1714-1775) was a polymath, a Georgian botanist, author, and self-promoter. He started as an apothecary, and rose to be the highest paid journalist of his time. Though he lacked a formal university education, he published extensively in botany, medicine, geology, history, and astronomy. He was a brilliant and prolific writer whose books were very popular. His “famous five” potions to cure most common afflictions brought him fortune. This helped to fund his lavish life style, but did not prevent him falling into debt and dying in poverty. Hill introduced the Linnaean classification of plants into England. Though hard working and ambitious to the extreme, his obnoxious behavior earned him epithets like “despiteful” and “shameful” by his contemporaries. He fell into oblivion until George Rousseau published, The Notorious Sir John Hill: The Man Destroyed by Ambition in the Era of Celebrity, in 2012.

The Family Herbal was originally published in 1755. The 1822 edition has beautiful hand-colored plates. It’s an excellent example of a book loved and well-used as indicated by the collector’s ex libris, (his signature), the handwritten index inserted at the end of the volume, and the need to re-back the original leather binding damaged by frequent use. The book belonged to a well-known dentist, William H. Trueman, founding member of the State Dental Society of Pennsylvania. His personal library of 1,250 volumes was eventually donated to the Dental School Library at Northwestern University, although several books, including this one, were acquired by Pitt’s former Dental School Library, and subsequently integrated into Falk Library’s Rare Book Collections.

~Gosia Fort

HSLS Staff News

The HSLS Staff News section includes recent HSLS presentations, publications, staff changes, staff promotions, degrees earned, etc.

Publications

Authors’ names in bold are HSLS-affiliated

Jonathon Erlen, history of medicine librarian, published, “New Dissertations,” in Nursing History Review, 24: 176, 2016, and along with Jay Toth, published, “American Indian Dissertation Abstracts,” in Indigenous Policy Journal, 2015, 27(2): 68.

Charlie Wessel, head of research and reference initiatives, was acknowledged as an additional contributor in the article, “Septic Shock: Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment,” in JAMA, Aug 18, 2015, 314(7): 708-17.

Presentations

Presenters’ names in bold are HSLS-affiliated

Barbara Epstein, library director, presented a lecture titled, “The Changing Landscape of Health Sciences Libraries,” at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 17, 2015.

Kate Flewelling, outreach coordinator, NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region, moderated an expert panel and presented a workshop called, “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning,” at the Public Library Emergency Preparedness Training Summit, in Lancaster, PA, on September 23, 2015.

Fran Yarger, associate director for digital library services, was the keynote speaker at the Annual Presbyterian University Hospital Nursing Alumnae Association meeting held in Pittsburgh, PA, on September 19, 2015.

Classes October 2015

HSLS offers classes on database searching, software applications such as Prezi, bibliographic management, molecular biology and genetics, and library orientations. For more information, visit the online course descriptions.

Classes are held on the first floor of Falk Library (200 Scaife Hall) in Classroom 1 and on the upper floor of the library in Classroom 2. All classes are open to faculty, staff, and students of the schools of the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, who will need a valid Pitt ID or e-mail account. They are also open to UPMC residents and fellows, who will need to show their UPMC IDs.

No registration is required, except where noted. Classes marked with an asterisk (*) qualify for American Medical Association Category 2 continuing education credit.

Class schedules are subject to change. Please consult the online class calendar for the most current information.

FlashClass

FlashClass is a “deal of the week” Groupon-like offer of timely and useful learning. Each week’s offer proposes one or two topics, and you’re invited to sign up to attend a one-hour class the following week. If at least three people sign up, we’ll hold the class. (We’ll notify you either way.)

HSLS CLASSES

Advanced PowerPoint for Presentations (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, October 28 9-11 a.m.

EndNote Basics (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Thursday, October 15 10 a.m.-noon

Painless PubMed* (Falk Library Classroom 1)

Thursday, October 8 3-4 p.m.
Wednesday, October 14 Noon-1 p.m.
Monday, October 19 4-5 p.m.
Tuesday, October 27 9-10 a.m.

PowerPoint for Conference Posters (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Tuesday, October 6 9-11 a.m.

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENETICS RESOURCES

Gene Regulation: TRANSFAC, NextBio, ENCODE* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, October 7 1-3 p.m.

Pathway Analysis: NIH DAVID & IPA* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, October 21 1-3 p.m.

CUSTOMIZED CLASSES

Customized classes can be developed for your department, course, or other group.

SciENcv for NIH Biosketches: the Basics for Investigators and Delegates

SciENcv is NCBI’s new online tool for generating biosketches for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Unlike previous versions of the biosketch, now only the investigator writes key elements of the biosketch, such as personal statements and contributions, as they must be tailored to each grant application. However, a delegate can manage many other details and produce a biosketch formatted to the new NIH specifications.

My Bibliography is a critical component of the biosketch creation process. There is currently no other automated, reliable method to enter publications into a new biosketch: thus every investigator’s My Bibliography must be updated before beginning the biosketch process. Too busy? Add a trusted delegate to your team to manage both My Bibliography and SciENcv.

To add a delegate, login to your My NCBI account, and then click on your username to access Account Settings. Scroll down to Delegates and click on Add a Delegate. Add the delegate’s e-mail address and then click on OK. The delegate will quickly receive a confirmation e-mail message from NIH. (If the message is not there, check the e-mail service’s spam filter.) The delegate must click on the “acceptance link” within the message to activate access.

Confirmation in Delegate’s My NCBI Account
Confirmation in Delegate’s My NCBI Account

A confirmation message will appear in the delegate’s My NCBI account. Click on Confirm Connection.

Where can the delegate find and manage the investigator’s My Bibliography and SciENcv? In their My NCBI account, they should look for the Collections portal—this is where My Bibliography for other investigators will appear. Each will be named “My Bibliography – [Last Name Investigator].” Click on that link for full management access. In the SciENcv section, links to investigators’ SciENcv biosketches will be listed. Include the investigator name in biosketch filenames to help maintain order.

For more information, email Andrea Ketchum or visit the SciENcv LibGuide.

~Andrea Ketchum

Director’s Reflections…Welcome to All New and Returning Students and Faculty!

Barbara Epstein HSLS Director bepstein@pitt.edu
Barbara Epstein
HSLS Director
bepstein@pitt.edu

The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS), located in Falk Library on the second and mezzanine floors of Scaife Hall, offers premier services and a comprehensive collection of information resources. The vast majority of our books and journals are available to you electronically at any time, wherever you are. Use your computer or mobile device to do a literature search, read an article, or borrow an electronic book. If we don’t have what you’re looking for, request it through document delivery (now there’s no fee!).

Falk Library has casual seating, group rooms for collaboration, and quiet study areas with newly-reupholstered comfortable chairs. Pull over a traveling whiteboard to diagram your next project. Continue reading

Is Access to CINAHL Necessary for Allied Health Scholarship?

A robust core journal collection that meets the needs of the allied health sciences is crucial to a functioning health sciences library. Allied health professionals require literature to support evidence-based practice, curricula, and licensure activities.1 A previous analysis between CINAHL, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and MEDLINE concluded that the number of unique nursing titles indexed in CINAHL but not covered in MEDLINE was small.2,3 Hill’s 2009 study focused on the coverage of nursing and allied health subjects in CINAHL and Scopus and concluded that while there was significant overlap, there was not enough evidence to determine that CINAHL coverage is redundant. We compared the current allied health journal coverage in CINAHL with that of Scopus to determine the number and types of journals available exclusively through CINAHL. Continue reading

Delve into the World of Genes, Genomes, & Microbes with InfoBoosters

In conjunction with the National Library of Medicine exhibit, From DNA to Beer, the HSLS Molecular Biology Information Service (MBIS) is presenting a special hands-on workshop profiling a recently developed Web-based tool that harnesses Internet technology to improve online searching and information retrieval.

As life sciences research becomes more interdisciplinary, the scientific papers we read increasingly include genes, proteins, microbes, methodologies, and biological concepts outside of our domain of expertise. It is necessary to learn more about these lesser-known terms to thoroughly comprehend such articles. Information is readily available in various molecular databases, but they are scattered throughout the Internet and can be challenging to locate. It would be immensely useful and time-saving to directly link online articles to these databases, thereby allowing readers to promptly gather information while actively reading articles.

To fulfill this unmet need, the Health Sciences Library System developed “InfoBoosters”—an easy to install Web browser widget that connects digital texts to databases and retrieves relevant information on demand. As an example, upon selecting a term for a gene/disease/drug/microbial organism and then clicking on the installed InfoBoosters button, pop-up windows appear with pertinent information retrieved from NCBI databases (Entrez Gene, PubMed, MedlinePlus, TOXNET, etc.) and Wikipedia. Application of this powerful tool will provide readers with revealing information not directly described in the text and potentially foster the creation of new hypotheses.

This workshop introduces attendees to InfoBoosters, shows how to create unique InfoBoosters, and covers various applications of this new tool.

What: “Delve into the World of Genes, Genomes, & Microbes with InfoBoosters”

Who: Ansuman Chattopadhyay, PhD, Head of MBIS

When: Monday, September 21, 1–3 p.m.

Where: Falk Library, Classroom 2

~Carrie Iwema

HSLS’ Regional Medical Library Provides Outreach to Veterans

HSLS serves at the Regional Medical Library (RML) for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region (NN/LM MAR). As one of eight RMLs in the country, we work under a five-year, federal contract with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to support their efforts to advance the progress of medicine and improve public health by providing U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and improving individual access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health.

vfw 3One of the ways we accomplish this is by exhibiting at national, regional, and state meetings of health professionals, public health workers, library associations, and organizations that represent consumers. NN/LM MAR librarian coordinators provide information about biomedical and health information products produced by NLM and available online at no cost.

In the past year, NN/LM MAR staff introduced NLM resources to nearly 3,000 professionals throughout our four-state region of Delaware, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by exhibiting and offering continuing education programs at 39 meetings or conferences. Many of the attendees provide services to minority, immigrant, rural, and underserved communities without access to library services and in need of quality, evidence-based resources for clinical decision making and patient education.

Most recently, NN/LM MAR exhibited at the 116th National Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Conference, a five-day event held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. In addition to conversing with VFW and Ladies Auxiliary members from all over the world while staffing the exhibit table, NN/LM MAR offered a health information workshop twice each day titled, “Combatting Information Fatigue: Health Information Resources for Veterans.”

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Soldiers, veterans, and military families are a priority outreach group for NN/LM MAR. We have partnered with groups such as the Veterans Mental Health Coalitions, Delaware Military Community Partners, VA health system, as well as various social service agencies and public, academic, and hospital libraries to provide health information education and programming to this important population. We are in the process of forming a regional working group to promote NLM resources and encourage health information programs that connect libraries with organizations providing services to soldiers, veterans, and their families.

If you are interested in learning more about NLM resources for soldiers, veterans, and their families, or if you know of organizations that would benefit from education on such resources, contact us at nnlmmar@pitt.edu.

~Renae Barger, Executive Director, NN/LM, Middle Atlantic Region