The “Internet” in Space

Earlier in the year, NLM director Dr. Patricia Brennan commented in her blog that there is no internet in space, making NLM services unusable to future colonists and space explorers at this time.    However, Vint Cerf, an internet pioneer, corrected her.  See this blog post from July 18, 2017. https://nlmdirector.nlm.nih.gov/2017/07/18/there-is-an-internet-in-space/

I found this information fascinating.  Just think of the ultimate in outreach – searching PubMed on Mars and beyond. I wonder what the Surgeon General of the Army who first started the collection in 1836 would think.

                                            Rover "Curiosity" on Mars.  Photo from NASA

WHSLA WISDOM CHAT: Wednesday, August 22, 2015 3:00 PM

Wednesday, August 22, 2015 3:00 PM

Guest Speaker:  Gale Hannigan, AHIP

Gale Hannigan, AHIP, is the chair of the MLA Task Force to Review MLA’s Competencies for Lifelong Learning and Professional Success.  She will provide a brief overview of the new competencies and answer your questions.  Members are encouraged to review the competencies before the meeting http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=1217.   After the presentation we will have our usual member news sharing.   Our online discussions are for WHSLA members only. 

WHSLA 2017 Online Meeting - Lightning Talk Lineup

We're very excited to announce the topics our lightning talk speakers will be presenting on at our very first Fall 2017 online WHSLA meeting. As you may have heard, we'll be enjoying a CE course from Michelle Kraft in the morning. Then in the afternoon, librarians from across Wisconsin will be sharing their expertise on a variety of topics you can hopefully apply to your own job. Thanks so much to everyone that submitted presentation ideas!

Adding Activities to Engage your Audience / Rita Mitchell, Aurora Health Care

Shining a Light on the “Dark Web” / Rose Trupiano, Marquette University

UX? We Answer! The Library as a Nexus of Inclusion / Taylor McNeir, Marquette University

Library Friendly Contract Language for Hospital Libraries …  Or how we got our groove back / Michele Matucheski and Kellee Selden, Ascension

Graphic Medicine – comics for your health sciences library / Brenda Fay, Marquette University

Kouze and Posners Leadership Challenge / Carrie Papa-Schold

To stay in the loop about the upcoming online meeting on Thursday, November 2nd, keep checking our website or keep an eye out for emailed communications.

Elsevier Acquires bepress

On Wednesday, August 2nd, news broke that Elsevier had acquired bepress, the company which supports Digital Commons, used as the institutional repository platform for over 500 institutions, predominantly US colleges and universities.

If you're a bepress customer, you're probably very surprised at the news as bepress failed to communicate this development to existing clients before Elsevier made their announcement.

This is certainly not just a health sciences librarianship issue, but advocates of scholarly publication and open access are very concerned about this acquisition. According to the Scholarly Kitchen article, https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/08/02/elsevier-acquires-bepress/:

"Today, Elsevier announces its acquisition of bepress. In a move entirely consistent with its strategy to pivot beyond content licensing to preprints, analytics, workflow, and decision-support, Elsevier is now a major if not the foremost single player in the institutional repository landscape. If successful, and there are some risks, this acquisition will position Elsevier as an increasingly dominant player in preprints, continuing its march to adopt and coopt open access."