2021 – Page 4 – HSLS Update

HSLS Congratulates Barbara Epstein on Her Prestigious Career

It is with mixed emotions that we would like to congratulate Barbara Epstein, HSLS Director, on her retirement after 17 years as director and a long career at Pitt. During her time with HSLS, Barbara has been an essential part of the library’s success. We have had the pleasure to not only work alongside Barbara but also to thrive under her excellent leadership. While we are saddened to see her leave, we would like to take a moment to reflect on her many noteworthy accomplishments.

Barbara has been an instrumental leader in health sciences librarianship. She became the 2017-18 Medical Library Association (MLA) president, after serving as president-elect the previous year. In addition, she was on the MLA Board of Directors and Executive Committee. During her time with MLA, she had the opportunity to connect with officers of health sciences library associations from Europe, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Africa, and the U.S. to share ideas and challenges. She was selected to present the Janet Doe Lecture at MLA’s 2015 annual meeting. In 2016, MLA bestowed the honor of Fellow to Barbara based on her accomplishments and contributions to the health sciences information profession. Continue reading →

Make File Management Simpler with Version Control

Works in progress can become unruly. As a piece of research code grows, it often spawns new files that iterate on the original: this version fixes one bug but introduces another, or that version swaps two similar functions. The same is true for manuscript drafts which pass among co-authors, accumulating new text (and usually new filenames) as they travel. It can be difficult to tell these versions apart from each other, or trace the history of how one version evolved from another. Version control systems make this work easier.

Version control is defined as “a system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later” in Pro Git (second edition, 2014), an excellent open textbook by Scott Chacon and Ben Straub. Version control allows a user to see all changes made to a file, who made the changes, and when they were made. It can let an author approve or reject edits made to a manuscript, or quickly determine which set of figures are the right ones to submit to a journal. Continue reading →

EndNote 20: What’s New and What’s Not?

If you’re a regular EndNote X9 user, you may have seen a pop-up notice encouraging you to upgrade to the new EndNote 20. EndNote 20 is the latest version of the software, and looks much different from prior updates. Despite the visual makeover, much of the functionality is the same. Cite While You Write in Word has not changed, and most features remain. So what’s different about the new EndNote?

New Design

While EndNote 20 retains the three-paned structure of EndNote X9, the interface has been simplified. Previously you could search PubMed and other databases by switching to Online Search or Integrated Mode. EndNote 20 has combined that feature into the main library, essentially making Integrated Mode the default. EndNote 20 also has a darker color scheme and larger displays. The toolbar has been removed and replaced with a few large icons above the middle library pane. Continue reading →

Does My Funder Require Me to Publish Open Access?

If you have ever received grant funding for your research, particularly through a federal agency such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), you may be aware that there are requirements for making your research available to the public. For example, NIH’s Public Access Policy states that “all investigators funded by the NIH submit…to PubMed Central an electronic version of their final peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication” within 12 months. Many federal agencies in the United States have similar policies, designating a specific repository for submission of final research manuscripts within a certain time frame. These policies can be located on the funder’s website or by browsing a resource such as SPARC’s Browse Article and Data Sharing Requirements by Federal Agency. Continue reading →

Remembering Nancy Tannery

Colleagues and friends mourn the death of Nancy Hrinya Tannery, MLS, former HSLS Senior Associate Director, who passed away on Friday, May 14, 2021.

Nancy had a long history of service to the University and to the profession of health sciences librarianship. She completed an undergraduate degree from Penn State in medical technology, and enjoyed a 20-year career in research before earning her MLS degree from Pitt. She began her career as a Reference Librarian at HSLS in 1996. Her professional skills as a Faculty Librarian and ability to lead and mentor led to a steady rise through a succession of HSLS management positions. Nancy left HSLS in 2017 to serve as Assistant Provost, and retired from the University in 2020 with emerita status. Continue reading →

2021 MLA Participation

HSLS librarians were active participants in the Medical Library Association’s Annual Meeting from May 10-27, 2021.

Immersion Sessions

Helena VonVille, Research and Instruction Librarian, presented “Protocol Development Using Health Research Reporting Guidelines and Critical Appraisal Tools.”

Tess Wilson, All of Us Community Engagement Coordinator, NNLM, presented “Leadership and Management Best Practices for Leveraging Community Connections to Improve Access to Health Information.” Continue reading →

Featured Workshop: Exploring and Cleaning Data with OpenRefine

HSLS offers classes in a wide array of subjects—molecular biology, database searching, bibliographic management, and more! You can quickly view all Upcoming Classes and Events or sign up to receive the weekly Upcoming HSLS Classes and Workshops email.

This month’s featured workshop is Exploring and Cleaning Data with OpenRefine. The workshop will take place on Friday, June 11, 2021, from 10-11:30 a.m.

Exploring and Cleaning Data with OpenRefine is a workshop that introduces participants to the basics of working with OpenRefine to clean, organize, and transform messy datasets.

OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful, free, open-source tool for working with unorganized tabular data. Since OpenRefine works offline in a web browser, your private data is not uploaded to the cloud and will stay on your local computer. Note that you are always working on a copy of your data, your raw data files are kept in their original form. Another benefit of OpenRefine is that while the program has a graphical interface, the system documents steps that have been completed to allow for reproducibility in data cleaning. These steps can be saved as JSON scripts and used to automate steps to clean other similar files. Continue reading →

PRISMA 2020: Updated Systematic Review Reporting Guideline

PRISMA, the well-known guideline for reporting a systematic review (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), has recently been updated. The original document was published in 2009 with the intent of helping researchers transparently describe methods used to find, select, critically appraise, and synthesize the findings of individual research studies. PRISMA Endorsers include nearly 200 journals that have formally endorsed the use of PRISMA 2009, and an evaluation of the endorsement has been shown to be associated with improvements in reporting quality.

The PRISMA 2020 Statement is now freely available from PLOS Medicine and has also been published in several other journals. The 2020 Statement provides a brief history of the development of PRISMA guidelines to date and, like its predecessor, contains a checklist and flow diagram. A second article, the PRISMA 2020 Explanation and Elaboration document, provides detailed rationales for the inclusion of each item in the PRISMA checklist, as well as real-world examples of reported items. Continue reading →

Important Changes Coming Soon to the Way You Log in to NCBI Accounts

Did you know that your PubMed searches and auto alerts are saved in My NCBI through an NCBI account? You may also be using your NCBI account to access SciENcv and My Bibliography. Significant changes are coming very soon to NCBI accounts. After June 1, 2021, you will no longer be able to use your NCBI account to log in and no new NCBI direct logins can be created. Why the changes? NCBI is transitioning to third-party logins that have the highest level of security.

What are your options?

If you are affiliated with Pitt and currently have an NCBI account, you can continue to use your account, but you’ll need to add Pitt as your third-party login. Here are the step-by-step instructions: Continue reading →

Creating Accessible Panopto Videos

To comply with Pitt’s new EIT Accessibility Policy, HSLS strives to create digital instructional materials that are accessible to all users. As part of this effort, HSLS instructors have adapted their methods when teaching via Zoom to ensure that all virtual learners can attend and participate in live HSLS classes. HSLS has also made accessibility improvements to recorded instructional videos hosted on Panopto (also known as Pitt Video/Lecture Capture). If you create and share Panopto videos, try implementing the following practices used by HSLS to create a more inclusive learning environment:

Ensure the video is properly captioned. Closed captions make your video accessible to the hearing-impaired community and can also improve the viewing experience for all users.

Any PDFs that you include in your video stream should be formatted as fully accessible files. You should also verbally introduce the PDF so that visually impaired users know that the file is available.

Continue reading →

One-Click Access to PDF from PittCat

The new version of PittCat is a collaboration between HSLS, the University Library System, and Barco Law Library.

PittCat search results for individual articles now include links to offer quick access to popular ways to access articles.

PittCat users can click links below an article of interest to download article PDF, view issue contents, or read online. — Article titled, “Clinical and virological data of the first cases of COVID-19 in Europe: a case series,” as viewed after searching in PittCat.

Below the article citation, you may see a link to directly download article PDFs (“Download Article PDF”), when available, or directly access the HTML article (“Read Article”). Continue reading →

COVID-19 Vaccine Forums

The Annals of Internal Medicine has produced a series of on-demand Vaccine Forums:

Forum 1: “What Physicians and Health Care Professionals Need to Know”—The Science, The Approval Process, The Development of Clinical Guidance, The Political and Public Policy Environment.
Forum 2: “Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination”—Effective communication strategies for promoting COVID-19 vaccination confidence and uptake and combating misinformation.
Forum 3: “Allocation and Distribution”—Practical information and unique insights and strategies about the allocation and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Forum 4: “Practical Clinical Considerations”—Infectious disease experts discuss the impact of COVID-19 variants on vaccine efficacy, comparative effectiveness of the different vaccines, and post-vaccine behavior recommendations.

Annals also makes available a free collection of COVID-19 content.

*Article derived from Doody’s Core Titles/Doody’s Review Service email communication.

Treasures from the Rare Book Room: Strong Together—Delpeuch’s History of Gout

Leather bound book titled La goutte & le rheumatism

The first edition of La goutte & le rheumatism (Paris 1900) at Falk Library is a lovely copy in a very attractive leather binding. Its author, Armand Delpeuch (1856-1901) was a physician at the Tenon and Cochin Hospital in Paris. In 1900, he published an article in La Presse Medicale, describing a new sign of aortic insufficiency, a rhythmic bobbing of the head synchronized to a heartbeat. He proposed to call it “De Musset’s sign,” after French writer Alfred de Musset, who displayed the same characteristic head-shaking. The eponym coined by Delpeuch is used to this day. He also published the history of the gout from antiquity to the end of the 17th century. It was the authoritative source on the history of this disease for more than half a century.

Delpeuch’s book is not very old or rare, nor is it a unique copy. What is so special about it then? It is valuable because of the context in which this book exists. It is a part of our Rodnan Collection. Continue reading →

HSLS Staff News

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

Names in bold are HSLS-affiliated

News

Francesca Yates, Research and Instruction Librarian, completed the MLA Continuing Education course, CAIFL: Critical Appraisal Institute for Librarians, on March 16, 2021, earning 35 MLA CE credits.

Publications

Jill Foust, Research and Instruction Librarian:

Evans MA, Buysse DJ, Marsland AL, Wright AGC, Foust J, Carroll LW, Kohli N, Mehra R, Jasper A, Srinivasan S, Hall MH. Meta-analysis of age and actigraphy assessed sleep characteristics across the lifespan. Sleep. 2021 Apr 5:zsab088. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsab088. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33823052. Continue reading →