Jellies, Anyone?

Just in case you needed a mellowing agent to help you relax this summer (or any time of year), please enjoy this Live Jelly Cam from The Monterey Bay Acquarium. 

BREATHE 

Should older fiction be modernized for young audiences?

 

Not health related, per se, but nevertheless an interesting read from the New York Times (apologies for those that don't have a subscription!). 

In a nutshell, the article discusses the ways in which some publishers have attempted to modernize references in older fiction to make them more appealing to young audiences, being a practice far more common than most people may think. A few examples, all from various books, include: 

• Replacing a reference to a TV show with TikTok
• Adding references to SnapChat and Instagram
• Removing references to phone books
• Swapping out a mention of a snooker table with a PlayStation
• Replacing references to a sanitary belt with sticky pads

The article lists a few books that have been subject to these revisions, all with authors' permission, including the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard, the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (among others).

Publishers that engage in this practice justify their revisions with the claim that younger audiences may become confused when encountering outdated references, which could result in them abandoning the book. 

Some concerns have been raised relating to this practice, mentioned both in the article, itself, and the article's comments, including potential impacts to critical thinking, the erasure of historical context, and discouraging intellectual curiosity in young readers.

What do you think? Should older books be modernized to appeal to new audiences? Do you think young readers would be discouraged when encountering outdated references? 

For my part, I'm becoming increasingly grateful for my dusty, old, physical copies! 🕮 

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day ☕

New YouTube Medical Librarian Vlog

 When I first started as a medical librarian, I immediately went into research mode and Googled Medical Librarian Blogs. Michelle Kraft was at the top of every list I found as the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Library Services and former MLA president, obviously a great follow.

She's expanding her blogging to video blogging on YouTube. Give her a follow to stay up to date. 

Full launch post: https://kraftylibrarian.com/the-krafty-librarian-on-youtube/ 

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWk5Cfo1qRvWwbaPqxjoifQ 

Advocate Health Appoints Karen Hanus to Lead Newly Created Enterprise Library System

Submitted by Barb Ruggeri, MLIS, AHIP

We are pleased to announce that Karen Hanus, MLIS, AHIP has accepted the position of Associate Vice President, Enterprise Librarian for the Advocate Health Library System. She will lead our integrated enterprise library which includes the Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Carpenter Library as well as Advocate Health’s academic and hospital libraries, while continuing to reside in Wisconsin. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Advocate Health enterprise has a combined footprint across seven states – Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Karen brings a wealth of experience as a seasoned library leader, with expertise in both hospital and academic medical library settings. Karen has over two decades of experience working at Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries, where she previously held the position as Assistant Director. Her accomplishments include numerous publications that contributed to the field of library science and scholarly communications, presentations at local and national conferences, and being recognized as distinguished Librarian of the Year for the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association in 2023 and Librarian of the Year for the Wisconsin Health Science Library Association in 2025.

She joined Advocate Aurora Health (later combined with Atrium Health to form Advocate Health) in 2020 and completed the combination of two separate hospital library systems into one. With the new Advocate Health Library System, Karen’s vision and leadership will be instrumental in advancing the integration of our library services to support our learning and clinical communities across Advocate Health.

WHSLA Lunch at MLA 26!

 Join us for a social lunch with WHSLA members during MLA in Milwaukee!

• When: Thursday, May 21st at 12:00 pm (CT)
• Where: 3rd Street Market Hall, 275 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI

Pick up your lunch and WHSLA will reimburse your receipt! See details on reimbursement below:

• Please email your receipt to Karen Hanus (Karen.Hanus@aah.org) by June 12, 2026 if you want to be reimbursed for your meal. Reimbursements can be made by check or Paypal.
• Reimbursement threshold is $35. Tips should not exceed 20% of the bill(s). Alcoholic beverages are not reimbursable expenses.
• Reimbursement applies for WHSLA members in good standing with a paid membership for 2026.

**Posted on behalf of Hayley Severson**

What's your Elevator Pitch?

 

Image created with Gemini AI.

Every few years, I like to revisit my elevator pitch.   Not just for higher ups and execs in the organization who didn't even know we offered Library Services, but for people in the community who've never heard of a medical librarian.  Of course, their first thought is that we just trundle a book cart around to patients with fiction and magazines. Ha!

Use this formula to  develop your elevator speech:

 

I am _______

I help ______

Do _______

So they can _________ 

 

Here's mine at present:  

I am a medical librarian.   I help doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals save time finding the best evidence and info they need to take care of their patients.

What's your elevator speech?   Leave a comment to share yours ...

How relevant is this concept anymore in a world of quick AI answers?  

Is there a need to add something to address that new reality?

UX blog post: Searching for author names in PubMed

 

Image by Pat from Pixabay

 Searching for authors in databases like PubMed can feel a bit like finding a needle in a haystack (especially when you're faced with searching for entire departments of authors!). This new UX Database Tips Blog post, written by yours truly, has some tips for author searching PubMed; a discussion of some of PubMed's quirks for such searches; and an Excel workaround, which has saved me countless hours in generating searches for departments with 100+ authors.

Happy reading! May your search syntax be spotless, your internet connection swift, and your coffee (or tea) ever hot!

Misinformation in artificial intelligence tools: The game is afoot!

Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay

I came across an interesting (and rather alarming!) read from Nature.

In the study, researchers posted two papers to a preprint server discussing a fake disease called Bixonimania, with the purpose of seeing whether existing large language models (LLMs) would reference the papers in its health advice. The researchers included multiple "tips" in the papers' full text identifying them as fake (my favorite was an acknowledgment to someone from the Starfleet Academy!). 

Despite these obvious tips, not only were the papers cited in LLMs' generated summaries, but were cited by a few peer reviewed publications as though they were legitimate sources! The researchers deduced this latter result may be attributed to authors' relying on AI generated references for their research without reading the full text.

This study illustrates not only the dangers of relying on LLM-generated summaries for advice (especially when that advice is medical!), but also relying on these summaries for generating citations for one's research. 

Even AI literature summarizers that are supposedly dedicated to academic and medical research are subject to these pitfalls. Myself and my colleagues at the Ebling Library have compiled several examples of such AI tools citing lower quality studies, and, in many cases, wholly misrepresenting the contents of the articles they cite.

As those who have read about my previous clown shenanigans are all too aware (here are my first and second blog posts on the topic, if you would like some humorous reads!), even AI tools designed to "read" full text PDFs don't always pick up on obvious red flags, and can misrepresent the contents of an article. 

As librarians, catching AI in these errors can feel a bit like detective work; however, what with all the hype relating to AI in research, alerting researchers to the current limitations of these tools is essential. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes would say, "The game is afoot!"

Counting down to MLA: 29 days to go

 MLA '26 is coming up fast. The Local Arrangements Committee just had its last preconference meeting and things are getting launched.

I’ll be honest: last year was my first MLA, and I spent a good chunk of it feeling a bit like an outsider. It seemed like everywhere I turned, everyone already had their "squad" and knew exactly who was who. If you’ve ever walked into a conference lobby and felt that sudden flash of uncertainty, you know exactly what I mean.

That’s a big part of why I’m handling things differently this time around. Instead of just attending, I’m volunteering for a little bit of everything. If you’re looking for a way to meet people but "networking" feels like a chore, volunteering is actually a great hack. All the shifts are paired with another colleague, so you’re naturally working alongside someone new. It takes the pressure off making small talk because you actually have something to do together.

Plus, if the cost of registration is a hurdle, the conference offers a pretty great trade: if you volunteer for 6 hours (and they don't have to be all at once), you get free registration for one day.

You can check out the volunteer spots on the Sign Up Genius here. (You might be able to guess that I'm on the Volunteering and Hospitality group for LAC. 😉)

---

What I’m Looking Forward To

When I’m not helping out, there are several sessions I’m genuinely excited to see. My "must-watch" list is definitely leaning toward how we handle AI and how we support our residents and students in the clinical environment. A few that caught my eye:

• The AI Transition: I’m curious to see the breakdown in Comparing AI Chat Tools and PubMed for Medical Literature Searches and how we should be looking at our library websites in this new "AI Age."

• Clinical Support: The sessions on Neurocritical Care Rotations and Building Family Medicine Resident Research Capacity are right up my alley, especially as we look at how librarians can better mentor early-career researchers.

• The Fun Stuff: I’ll definitely be at Making Library Statistics Collection and Reporting as Gouda as Possible. I’m a sucker for a lean approach—and an even bigger sucker for a cheese pun.

I'm excited to see the full program and plan out my days soon!

If you’re heading to the conference, please come say hi if you see me around. Whether it’s your first time or your twentieth, I’d love to connect and make the community feel a little smaller and more welcoming for everyone.

Article of Interest: The ChatGPT Symptom Spiral: Be Careful Asking Chatbots about Your Health

 

Image by Gemini to accompany this article summary. 

 

The ChatGPT Symptom Spiral

Be careful asking chatbots about your health.

By Sage Lazzaro

 

Read this article at The Atlantic.

 

[If you don't have a subscription, you may be able to use a "gift" article, or order it through ILL. 

If none of those options work, I've included an article summary below ...] 

 

I'm sure most librarians who work in consumer health saw this coming.  We know people google their symptoms, and consult WebMD, and then get spun up with catastrophic diseases that do not apply to their own personal case.  

But wait -- Chat GPT offers some new hazards in the healthcare arena when it comes to health anxiety and even addiction to the AI interaction.

Here's a particularly juicy quote:

“Because the answers are so immediate and so personalized, it’s even more reinforcing than Googling. This kind of takes it to the next level,” [said] Lisa Levine, a psychologist specializing in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and who treats patients with health anxiety specifically.

Here's the Gemini summary of this article:

The Atlantic article titled "The ChatGPT Symptom Spiral" (published in April 2026) explores how generative AI is intensifying "health anxiety"—a condition where individuals excessively worry about illness or bodily sensations.

Here is a summary of the key points from the article:

1. The "WebMD" Effect on Steroids

While previous generations turned to Google or WebMD to search for symptoms, ChatGPT has taken this behavior to a more intense level. Unlike a static list of symptoms, the chatbot provides immediate, personalized, and conversational responses. This "human-like" interaction can make the information feel more authoritative and tailored to the individual, which often deepens the user's fixation on a potential diagnosis.

2. The Cycle of Reassurance-Seeking

Therapists interviewed for the piece explain that health anxiety is fueled by a need for certainty.

• The Problem: ChatGPT is "affirming and never tiring." It will answer the same question 100 different ways, providing temporary relief (reassurance) that quickly fades, leading the user to ask more questions.

• The Result: This creates a "compulsion" or a "symptom spiral." Instead of learning to live with uncertainty—a key part of anxiety treatment—users become addicted to the chatbot's instant feedback loop.

3. AI as a "Compulsion"

The article highlights that for some users, checking symptoms with AI has morphed into a habit they struggle to resist. One psychologist, Lisa Levine, noted that because the tool is always available (24/7 in your pocket), it removes the "friction" that might otherwise stop someone from spiraling. It acts as an enabler for OCD-like behaviors centered around health.

4. Risks of Misinterpretation

While AI models have become more sophisticated in 2026, they can still:

• Hallucinate or misinterpret the severity of minor symptoms.

• Reinforce biases or "sycophancy" (agreeing with the user’s fearful prompts rather than correcting them).

• Encourage "cyberchondria," where a user provides a list of vague symptoms and the AI generates a terrifying, though statistically unlikely, diagnosis.

5. The Clinician’s Perspective

Therapists are now including "AI limits" in their treatment plans. Just as they once told patients to stop "Googling" their symptoms, they are now treating ChatGPT as a primary trigger for mental health crises and are working to help patients recognize that the chatbot is a language predictor, not a medical professional.

Bottom Line: The article warns that while AI is a powerful tool for information, its conversational nature makes it uniquely dangerous for those prone to health anxiety, potentially turning a simple search for medical info into a debilitating psychological loop.