HSLS Staff News

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

News

Sri Chaparala, Lead Bioinformatics Specialist, has been promoted to Librarian III, a testament to her outstanding contributions to the HSLS Molecular Biology Information Service. She has spearheaded innovative bioinformatics workshops on cutting-edge topics and provides tailored consultations. She has also co-authored 12 peer-reviewed academic publications, demonstrating her meaningful impact on the Pitt research community.

Kelsey Cowles, Research and Instruction Librarian, has been promoted to Librarian II. In this position, Kelsey is responsible for identifying opportunities for library involvement in interprofessional education and community engagement. She also serves as a co-liaison to the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, providing research and scholarly support and instruction for the school’s faculty, staff, and students.

Rebekah Miller, Research and Instruction Librarian, has been promoted to Librarian III, reflecting her successful advancement and accomplishments as primary liaison librarian to the School of Nursing, co-liaison to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, lead for the Seed grant-funded project “Disrupting Health Dis- and Misinformation in the Patient Care Setting: Open Educational Resources for Nurse Education,” and work in misinformation education.

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Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy

HSLS is offering a new anatomy resource for Pitt users to explore. Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy was developed by the pioneering surgeon, anatomist, and educator Dr. Robert D. Acland. The project began in 1993, sparked by a suggestion made by a student who was impressed with the quality of Dr. Acland’s lecture slides. The atlas offers an immersive learning experience, consisting of a series of videos that guide learners through the intricacies of human anatomy.

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All of Us Research Program Initiative

Envision a vast repository of health data, encompassing insights from a million diverse Americans—especially those often overlooked in conventional research—poised to redefine the medical landscape. The All of Us (AoU) Research Program, backed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), embodies this vision. The extensive AoU datasets comprise Electronic Health Record (EHR) data, surveys, physical metrics, and whole genome sequencing for approximately 410,000 participants. While the program aspires to propel health research forward and elevate precision medicine, its intricate data framework and stringent security measures have sometimes made it appear as an enigmatic treasure to the broader research community.

MBIS to the Rescue!

Our dedicated team at the Health Sciences Library System’s Molecular Biology Information Service (HSLS MBIS) has taken the initiative to demystify these datasets. Through a valuable partnership with the Department of Biomedical Informatics, we have launched a strategic educational initiative that has already yielded positive outcomes and continues to do so. Since February 2023, our efforts have empowered over 52 researchers with the tools and knowledge to access and analyze the intricate AoU data.

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Access Update for PMC COVID-19 Collection

The National Library of Medicine shared an update on access to coronavirus-related articles in the PubMed Central (PMC) COVID-19 collection after the end of the public health emergency on August 29, 2023:

“Changes made to address the expiration of article-level license terms following the end of the public health emergency

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) collaborated with publishers and scholarly societies to expand access to coronavirus-related journal articles in PubMed Central (PMC), a digital archive of peer-reviewed biomedical and life sciences literature. Through this collaboration, more than 50 publishers made more than 350,000 coronavirus-related articles accessible under various article-level license terms through the PMC COVID-19 Collection (previously the PMC COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Initiative). This collaboration made a significant collection of coronavirus-related information immediately accessible to researchers to accelerate discoveries about COVID-19.

As COVID-19 emergency declarations expired in the United States and around the globe, so too did article-level license terms for use of some of these articles. Most of the articles deposited in the PMC COVID-19 Collection will remain available in PMC and available for bulk distribution and reuse, and all citations will remain searchable in PubMed […]”

More information is available from the PMC COVID-19 Collection and PMC COVID-19 Collection FAQ webpages.

Treasures from the Rare Book Room: Expanding the Gout and Rheumatism Collection

Antique books lined up so their spines are visible.
The first set of books received from the Osial Collection.

A generous gift is coming to the Rare Book Room at Falk Library. Dr. Thaddeus Osial is donating his extensive library of nearly 150 books on gout and rheumatism, which will expand and enhance Falk Library’s existing collection on the subject. When combined with current HSLS holdings, including the library of Dr. Gerald Rodnan, the incoming donation from Dr. Osial will cement the gout and rheumatism collection as the largest subject collection in the Rare Book Room.

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HSLS Staff News

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

News

Kelsey Cowles, Research & Instruction Librarian, has been nationally recognized by the Medical Library Association for earning a Level I Systematic Review Services Specialization (SRSS) certificate. The SRSS was created by a team of national experts on the medical librarian’s role in systematic reviews. The SRSS certificate indicates that Kelsey has advanced literature searching, communication, and other skills that enable her to play a central role in systematic review projects as a co-investigator.

Your Library Welcomes You!

The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) is pleased to welcome you to the 2023-2024 school year! Our faculty and staff are looking forward to serving your research and instruction needs in the year ahead.

The HSLS Update is how we stay connected with the Pitt health sciences community. Through this monthly newsletter we share important updates, relevant news, and how-to articles. This special issue will also highlight HSLS services and resources you should know about as you start the academic year.

In addition to the HSLS Update, here are more ways to connect with us online:

 

Recent Changes to the Journal Impact Factor

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) from Clarivate is one of the most well-known research metrics available to authors and others who are involved with research assessment. It’s a journal-level metric that uses two years of citation data to help give an idea of how often documents from a journal are getting cited by other papers. Having a high JIF in an assigned subject category can be one indication that a journal is well-read and visible. This makes the JIF a metric that authors can use, alongside other important considerations, to help decide where to publish.

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Studying, Using Technology, and More at Falk Library

Falk Library is welcoming students, faculty, and staff at our new entrance in Alan Magee Scaife Hall’s West Wing. The library is located on the Mezzanine (M) floor of the building, just below Floor 3. If you’re coming from Lothrop Street, the lower building entrance leads you directly onto the M floor, and the library is just down the hall!

Visitors to Falk Library have access to two floors of study space, including carrels, booths, tables, and group study rooms. Geared towards group learning and collaboration, the group study rooms provide integrated technology for wirelessly projecting to a large screen and wall-to-wall whiteboards. Reserve your spot using the Group Study Room booking system. Large rooms seat up to 10 people, while smaller groups of up to four people can use the Consultation Room.

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Remote Access and Persistent Links for HSLS Resources

Are you working from home or somewhere off-campus and need access to an e-journal article or an e-book at 4 a.m. on a Sunday? No problem! You can access HSLS resources remotely.

Maybe you are adding links to resources in your syllabus, presentation, Canvas site, or other course material. This article will also cover forming and sharing durable library URLs, ensuring students can access materials on campus or at home.

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Level Up Your Research Skills with HSLS Instruction

Did you know that HSLS offers you expert instruction on a variety of topics? Our goal in offering instruction is to help you (or your students) be a more efficient, effective researcher – and this includes getting grants, analyzing your data, publishing papers about your research, and more. Whether you are a staff member, faculty member, postdoc, resident, fellow, or student, read on to learn about what HSLS can teach you how to do.

The classes we offer cover a range of topics each term, including:

  • Author’s Toolkit. Navigate the publishing process and highlight the impact of your research.
  • Citation Management. Determine which citation manager is best for you and then dive in with basic and advanced EndNote and Zotero classes.
  • Data Science. Organize, use, share, and increase the reproducibility of your research data.
  • Molecular Biology. Learn how to use databases and software tools for your molecular biology research projects.
  • Visual Design. Use simple tools to design reports, flyers, and infographics and illustrate scientific figures.
  • Literature Searching. Effectively search databases for biomedical literature.
  • Special Topics. Explore other topics such as combatting misinformation, Wikipedia for the health sciences, and using DistillerSR for systematic reviews.

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Meet the HSLS Liaison Librarians

Liaison librarians are HSLS librarians who have expertise in a specific area or who are integrated into one of the schools of the health sciences. Liaisons are familiar with the resources and services at HSLS and can act as a link to the support you need. For example, liaisons can offer the following services:

  • Provide customized instruction within a curriculum to teach research or information literacy skills to students.
  • Give recommendations for embedding streaming media and other HSLS resources into course syllabi
  • Collaborate on research and grant projects
  • Provide expertise in specialized areas such as data management, molecular biology software, scholarly publishing, and research impact.

If you are beginning a research project or preparing a course, consider reaching out to your liaison librarian as part of the planning process for an introduction to the resources available at HSLS.

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Manage and Share Your Data with HSLS Data Services

One of the best ways to ensure that research is robust, reliable, and replicable is to maintain organized, documented, and accessible datasets. The HSLS Data Services team can help you find, manage, publish, and share your data for any type of research project. We offer consultations, classes, and customized trainings in the following areas:

Research data management and sharing

Organizing files, writing documentation, and sharing datasets for reuse are crucial practices for improving the reproducibility of research. We offer personal consultations on data management topics at any time and teach workshops throughout the semester. In particular, we offer:

  • One-hour Introduction to Research Data Management classes that are suitable for everyone, but may be especially helpful for new graduate students and project staff
  • In-depth workshops on file-naming best practices, writing a data management plan for grant applications, and responsibly reusing data (or making your data available for reuse)
  • One-on-one meetings on writing and implementing a data management and sharing plan (DMSP) for the NIH’s data management and sharing policy, which went into effect in January 2023
  • Review of data management and sharing plans prior to submission with grant proposals. If you write your plan using one of the templates at DMPTool (dmptool.org), use the “request feedback” tab to get comments and suggestions. Please allow us at least five business days for an initial review of your plan.

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