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You know how it goes: You see the list of upcoming HSLS classes. You notice one you’d like to attend when it’s offered in two months. Maybe you even mark it on your calendar. But, by the scheduled date, things have changed, and a competing commitment demands priority.

To address this situation, HSLS will soon be testing a new program of classes inspired by popular deal-of-the-day Web sites such as Groupon and Living Social. Based on just-in-time scheduling, the FlashClass system will propose two topics each week and invite HSLS patrons to sign up for a one-hour class the following week. If enough people sign up, we’ll notify them and then hold the class.

The idea is to shorten the turnaround time between scheduling and teaching a class, to focus on topics you’re interested in at the moment, and to accommodate your shifting schedule.

Watch for FlashClass announcements and e-mails in early 2013. If you’re already on the HSLS Update mailing list, you’ll receive them automatically. Sign up now to add yourself to the list.

~ Patricia Weiss

Utopia Documents is a free Portable Document Format (PDF) reader optimized for scientific literature that brings static articles to dynamic life. Instead of merely enabling you to read an article, Utopia connects to a plethora of online resources that help you not only to further explore the article’s content but also to discover related materials. It combines the reliability and convenience of a PDF with the power and flexibility of the Web.

Upon opening an article, Utopia analyzes its content, and links to up-to-date online resources displayed in a sidebar on the right. The exact content of the sidebar varies depending on available information, but can contain:

• A format style-customizable citation, provided by CrossRef
• The Altmetric score, which is an indication of article impact via blogs, social networking sites, and the media
• Links to related articles, provided by Mendeley
• Copyright information, provided by Sherpa/RoMEO
• Related data from an international repository, provided by Dryad
• Drug Discovery information, provided by SciBite
• Laboratory materials, provided by AQnowledge

Utopia promotes additional knowledge discovery via the “Explore” function. This replaces the sidebar’s contents with information related to whatever you’ve selected within the article itself, such as genes, proteins, drugs, diseases, references, etc. These information sources include PubMed, Wikipedia, UniProt, Quertle, and NCBI databases/tools. You can also search for terms and phrases not explicitly stated in the text of the article, such as from figures.

Utopia also allows users to make private annotations to articles, or to provide public comments viewable by all Utopia users. The “Reflect” tool highlights small molecules and proteins discussed within articles, with links to online data and definitions. The “Figure Browser” makes it easier to see the illustrations in an article. You can even interact directly with live data from articles in the Royal Society of Chemistry publications and Biomedical Journal.

You can download Utopia Documents for Windows, Mac, or Linux free of charge. For more information, view the Introduction to Utopia Docs video, read the Utopia publications, or contact the HSLS Molecular Biology Information Service.

*Parts of this article were reprinted from Utopia Documents.

~ Carrie Iwema

Traditional measures of research impact, such as the ISI Journal Citation Report impact factor, generally focus on the citation counts generated by peer-reviewed journals, which can take a long time to develop—approximately seven years from initial hypothesis to publication, according to a recent BMJ blog.¹ Why wait so long to measure response to your work? Why limit the type of scholarly output measured? Alternative metrics or “altmetrics” allow authors to track the immediate impact of each article, grant, book, presentation, video, dataset or other work produced. Plum Analytics, a new company with offices in Philadelphia and Seattle, has created a personal dashboard for researchers to quantify and visualize the altmetrics of individual scholarly works.

The University of Pittsburgh’s University Library System (ULS) and HSLS have signed on as the first customer of Plum Analytics. We are partnering in a pilot project with selected Pitt researchers to more fully develop the product to help Pitt scholars track, assess, and compare scholarly impact. Using the Plum Analytics tool, researchers can make their scholarship more accessible, promote their research, and connect with other scholars.

Current metrics span five weighted categories of impact:

1. Citations (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar)
2. Mentions (blog posts, news stories, Wikipedia articles, comments, reviews)
3. Usage (downloads, views, book holdings, document delivery)
4. Captures (favorites, bookmarks, saves, groups, readers)
5. Social media (Tweets, likes, shares, ratings)

Social media and Web-based products currently monitored include Dryad, Slideshare, Vimeo, Github, PLoS, Mendeley, CiteULike, YouTube, Reddit, Wikipedia, SourceForge, Figshare, Facebook, Twitter and PubMed. Resulting research directories of linked people, labs, departments, and institutions will strengthen collaborative efforts.

Andrea Michalek, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Plum Analytics, presented preliminary results of the pilot project at the Open Access Week 2012 presentation, “Plum Analytics and Altmetrics: New Methods of Measuring Scholarly Impact,” on October 24 at the William Pitt Union. Two researchers from the schools of the health sciences are featured in the video. If you missed the presentation, it is now available for viewing online. While the Plum Analytics tool is not yet available for general use, stay tuned for further developments.

1. Bower C. “Plum Analytics: a new player in the field of altmetrics?” BMJ Web Development Blog, 2012, http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj-journals-development-blog/2012/09/28/plum-analytics-a-new-player-in-the-field-of-altmetrics/.

~ Andrea Ketchum

HSLS librarians are once again available to chat when you need help with a reference question. Just visit Ask a Librarian and enter your question in the bottom window of the mhsls chat widget to start an online conversation.

Chat is available during regular reference hours, Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. and Saturday noon–4 p.m. You can also chat with us directly in Google Talk or XMPP-compliant chat apps such as IM+, Jabber, and Pidgin. Our user name is mhsls@chat.libraryh3lp.com.

~ Patricia Weiss

In April 2012, the American Medical Association established the JAMA Network to promote integration of JAMA and the nine Archives journals. Since then, The JAMA Network Web site was introduced.

The JAMA Network Highlights

The JAMA Network offers access to a number of innovative features, including:

•  The ability to search all ten journals at once. The search engine uses semantic tagging to link articles by meaning rather than word patterns, resulting in more relevant search results.
• An easier manuscript submission process. “Manuscripts that are not accepted for publication by one JAMA Network journal may, with the authors’ consent, be referred for prompt assessment and consideration by another JAMA Network journal. In addition, information and commentaries about articles published in one journal that have importance and relevance for another journal will be featured across the Network.”¹
• The ability to export images to PowerPoint. Use of images is subject to AMA Terms & Conditions of Use.
• Expanded views of figures and tables within articles by clicking on the table/figure icon.
• Sharing links to Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the Share link in the article toolbox.

 Archives Specialty Journals to Be Renamed

Effective January 1, 2013, the nine Archives specialty journals will be renamed. The new names incorporate JAMA into their titles as follows: JAMA Dermatology, JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Neurology, JAMA Ophthalmology, JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Psychiatry, and JAMA Surgery.

You can find information about other user friendly tools and plans for future products on The JAMA Network.

1. H. Bauchner, D.M. Albert, J.T. Coyle, et al, “The JAMA Network Journals: New Names for the Archives Journals,” JAMA, (2012) 2:1. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.6312.

~ Jill Foust

There’s now a quick and easy way to save a PubMed citation to a My NCBI collection.

Sign in to your My NCBI account, run a search, and view a citation of interest in the abstract format. Click on the “Add to Favorites” icon on the upper right side of the page. The star in the icon will turn blue when selected. The abstract will automatically be saved to a collection called “Favorites.”

If you want to add an abstract to a currently established collection, click on the down arrow on the right side of the Favorites icon. Click on a collection name, or the star to the left of a collection name, and the abstract will automatically be saved to that collection.

If you choose to create a collection, you will be prompted to create a name for the collection. After you click on the Save button, the abstract will be saved to the new collection.

If you are not already logged into your My NCBI account, you’ll be prompted to do so when you click on the “Add to Favorites” icon.

To deselect a Favorite, click on the Favorites icon, or the star next to a collection name.

For further information, please call the Falk Library Main Desk at 412-648-8866 or e-mail Ask a Librarian.

~ Jill Foust

eLife is a timely open access e-journal published under the auspices of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust. The eLife initiative aims to bring funders and researchers together in a unique collaboration with the overall goal to communicate new research findings in life and biomedical sciences.

The eLife journal is expected to be launched this winter. In the interim, the full content of its first collection of articles is now available and can be accessed at eLife: The Journal, the National Library of Medicine’s PMC digital journal archive, and its mirror sites including UK PubMed Central.

Access to the full content of the journal is free and available immediately upon publication. All content is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Fast facts about eLife:

• Scope: Research communication in life and biomedical sciences
• Audience: Researchers, in particular early-career researchers
• Review Process: Swift, transparent, fair and constructive
• Access: Open
• Content: Value is added by inclusion of rich media presentations, accessible data, metrics to track the impact of contributors, and avoiding the imposition of extraneous limits on articles
• Editors: The 21 member international Senior Editorial Team and 175 member Board of Reviewing Editors represent a wide array of expertise
• Publishing Fees: None (for the time being)

To view the author and reviewer guides, direct your browser to the eLife Manuscript Management System.

*Parts of this article were reprinted from eLife.

~ Ester Saghafi

The National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) long range plan includes working with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) to establish disaster response plans for libraries, as well as encourage librarians to aid in disaster preparedness and response and recovery efforts. HSLS, as the regional medical library for the NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), has developed an emergency preparedness liaison network to support this effort across Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Emergency preparedness liaisons will:

1. Raise awareness and promote continuity of access to knowledge-based and emergency-related health information before, during, and after local, regional and/or national emergencies through promotion of NLM and NN/LM emergency preparedness and disaster information courses and resources, such as the “10 Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning” class, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit, Disaster Information Management Research Center, and the Disaster Information Specialization Program.
2. Facilitate communication among NN/LM MAR, Network members and NLM in the event of a local, regional and/or national emergency.
3. Encourage medical and public librarians to get involved in emergency preparedness outreach within their institution and community.

On November 14 and 15, 2012, MAR hosted a training session for MAR staff and MAR’s newly identified emergency preparedness liaisons, led by Dan Wilson, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness Coordinator. Mr. Wilson provided an introduction and background of the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response Initiative, as well as an overview of the liaison structure in other NN/LM regions.

Cindy Love and Siobhan Champ-Blackwell from NLM’s Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) also participated in the training via remote connection. DIMRC connects librarians, emergency responders, medical personnel, and public health workers to health information resources and technology for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Love and Champ-Blackwell provided a presentation on DIMRC resources, such as disaster and emergency response tools and the Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. They also provided an overview of the Disaster Information Specialization Program and discussed disaster health information outreach projects supporting partnerships between libraries or information centers and non-library organizations with disaster-related responsibilities.

~ Renae Barger, MAR Executive Director

The Medical Heritage Library (MHL) is a digital repository whose aim is to promote free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine and health care. MHL is a collaborative effort of some of the world’s leading medical libraries, including The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, The New York Academy of Medicine, and many others.

The MHL’s growing collection includes thousands of digitized rare medical books, pamphlets, full journal runs back to the 19th century, and films, with representative works from the past six centuries. All of these are freely available through the Internet Archive. This massive digitalization project allows researchers to take advantage of this tremendous resource from their desktops.

For additional information about the Medical Heritage Library, contact Jonathon Erlen at erlen@pitt.edu.

*Parts of this article were reprinted from The Medical Heritage Library.

~ Jonathon Erlen

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

News

Barbara Epstein, HSLS director, was elected to a three-year term (2012-2015) on the Board of Directors of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL). AAHSL membership is composed of academic health sciences libraries whose medical schools are members of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Publications

Michelle Burda, Network and Advocacy Coordinator, NN/LM MAR, along with co-author L. Citrome¹, published “A Clinician’s Best Friend: The U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Patient Resources” in The International Journal of Clinical Practice, 66(11): 1018, Nov 2012.

¹New York Medical College, Valhalla, N.Y.

Jonathon Erlen, history of medicine librarian, published “Current Journal Articles on Disability History: Dissertations” in H-Disability: an H-Net Discussion Network, 137, Oct 2012; “Dissertation/Theses” in Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 29(2):419-20, 2012; “New Dissertations” in Nursing History Review, 21:155-160, 2012; and Disability Studies: Disabilities Abstracts” in The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 9(3):60-62, 2012.

Nancy Tannery, senior associate director, along with co-authors Lauren A. Maggio¹, Kathy J. Davies², Nancy Allee³, Jim Beattie⁴, Donna Berryman⁵, Dawn Littleton⁶, and Kerry O’Rourke⁷, published “Literature Searching in Medical Education: Online Tutorial Development from Idea to Creation” in Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 31(4): 372-82, Oct 2012.

¹Lane Medical Library and Knowledge Management Center, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, Calif.
²Greenblatt Library, Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta, Ga.
³Health Sciences Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
⁴Bio-Medical Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
⁵Health Science Libraries and Technologies, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y.
⁶Mayo Clinic Libraries, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Rochester, Minn.
⁷UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Library of the Health Sciences, New Brunswick, N.J.

Presentations

Barbara Folb, public health informationist and reference librarian, along with co-author Elaine Hicks¹, presented a poster, “Competency-Based Information Literacy Instruction in Public Health: Library and Faculty Collaborations” at the American Public Health Association annual meeting, San Francisco, Calif., on Oct 29, 2012.

¹Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, La.

Congratulations

Congratulations to three HSLS staff member who were honored for milestone anniversaries as University of Pittsburgh employees: Philip Bittenbender (10 years), Dennis Miller (10 years), and Angie Zack (5 years). Storage Specialist Bittenbender is responsible for overseeing the operations of the HSLS offsite storage facility at Lexington Technology Park in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood. Miller is a library specialist and a member of Metadata Services team where he participates in bibliographical maintenance work for electronic resources as well as copy-cataloging for serials. Zack is a Web & application programmer.

HSLS offers classes on database searching, software applications such as Adobe Photoshop, 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. They are also open to UPMC residents and fellows.

No registration is required for any of these classes. Seating for classes is first-come, first-served, until the class is full. 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.

Faculty, staff and students of the schools of the health sciences will need a valid Pitt ID or e-mail account to attend these classes. UPMC residents/fellows will need to show their UPMC IDs.

 

HSLS ORIENTATION

Introduction to HSLS Resources and Services at Falk Library

(Meet inside entrance to Library)

Wednesday, January 9

9-10 a.m.

Also offered upon request to groups or individuals. Call 412-648-8866.

SEARCHING DATABASES

Painless PubMed* (Falk Library Classroom 1)

Wednesday, January 9	noon-1 p.m.
Monday, January 14	3:30-4:30 p.m.
Friday, January 25	11 a.m.-noon
Tuesday, January 29	9-10 a.m.
Wednesday, February 6	11 a.m.-noon
Monday, February 11	1-2 p.m.
Thursday, February 21	noon-1 p.m.
Tuesday, February 26	9-10 a.m.

Testing Beyond the Laboratory: Finding Testing Instruments Used in Research and Clinical Settings* (Falk Library Classroom 1)

Monday, January 7

11 a.m.-noon

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENETICS RESOURCES

Locating Gene/Protein Information: Literature (Part 1)* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, January 16

1-3 p.m.

Locating Gene/Protein Information: Literature (Part 2)* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, January 23

1-3 p.m.

Genome Browsers 1* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, January 30

1-3 p.m.

Genome Browsers 2* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, February 6

1-3 p.m.

Gene Regulation Resources* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, February 13

1-3 p.m.

SNPs & Genetic Variation* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, February 20

1-3 p.m.

Cancer Informatics* (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, February 27

1-3 p.m.

SOFTWARE TRAINING

Adobe Photoshop (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Tuesday, January 15	12:30-2:30 p.m.
Monday, February 11	nooon-2 p.m.

Advanced PowerPoint for Presentations (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Tuesday, January 8

noon-2 p.m.

EndNote Basics (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Wednesday, January 16	9:30-11:30 a.m.
Monday, February 4	noon-2 p.m.

PowerPoint for Conference Posters (Falk Library Classroom 2)

Tuesday, January 29

noon-2 p.m.

CUSTOMIZED CLASSES

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