How to make a brain in a lab

How do you grow a brain in a lab? Why simply grow brain organoids of course! According to this TED-Ed video, a brain organoid is a collection of lab-grown neurons and other brain tissue that scientists can use to learn about full-grown human brains. 

2018 MLA webinars - which ones should WHSLA pursue funding for?

A post from Dora Davis, WHSLA Professional Development Coordinator

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello WHSLA,

As you may have seen, MLA has released the dates and descriptions of all of their planned webinars for 2018.   As WHSLA Professional Development Coordinator, I am reaching out to all of you to help gather some information as I decide which webinars should receive priority for GMR funding applications on behalf of WHSLA. 

My goal is to apply for funding to host the webinars with the highest amount of interest first.  Since we can only apply for funding once per quarter as WHSLA, my secondary goal is to help facilitate code sharing with other organizations that may receive funding and have extra codes available since we are now able to share codes.  (As was the case with yesterday’s webinar and SWHSLs generous offer to share their extra codes with WHSLA members.)

You can see the list of the webinars and their descriptions here: 2018 MLA Webinars.  

Please take a moment to read the descriptions and then take the brief survey here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N2VMPWD 

Once you’ve read through the descriptions, the survey should only take you about 2 minutes. 

If you require any further information, feel free to contact me.

Dora Davis

WHSLA Professional Development Coordinator

==================================

2018 MLA Webinars*

Feb 27, 1:00pm–2:30pm, central time: Developing and Managing a Systematic Review Service

March 27, 1:00pm–2:30pm, central time: Matching Review Type to Research Question: Which Review Is Right for You?

April 24, 1:00pm–2:30pm, central time: Selecting Systematic Review Software on a Shoestring

June: Plan to Succeed: The Basics of Library Project Management

July: Aligning the Three Pillars of Effective Instruction: Outcomes, Teaching, and Assessment for Health Sciences Librarians

August: What is Genomic Medicine?

September: Critical Appraisal of Quantitative Resources; Putting the Quality in Qualitative: Tips for Evaluating Qualitative Research Articles

October: From Idea to Reality: Successfully Plan and Promote Library Events

November: Using Stories to Support Academic Instruction and Health Education

December: Why Do We Lead? An Introduction to Values-Based Leadership

*This information is accurate as of 2017. MLA reserves the right to alter topics and change scheduling.

Oondaadiziikekwe (midwife) Helping Native American Women Reclaiming Natural Birth

Wisconsin Public Radio has a great afternoon show that I usually listen to on the way home from work. Last Friday, Central Time shared a story about a movement in Native American and Indigenous midwifery to return to and incorporate traditional ways of prenatal and birth care. Minnesotan Doreen Day, herself an Ojibwe midwife, shares her mission to promote indigenous birth practices.  

Listen: https://www.wpr.org/listen/1217651 

Download: http://mp3.wpr.org/download.php?f=ctm180119k2.mp3

https://www.bcmidwives.com/indigenous_families.html

Sesame Street's newest character - Julia, a muppet with autism

Julia, Sesame Street's newest character, celebrates her one-year anniversary in a couple of months. If you aren't familiar with Julia, have a listen. 

Sesame Street has a history of showing diversity of ethnicity, language, and more on their show and Julia's appearance isn't the first time autism has appeared on the show. In 2015, Abby Cadabby introduced us to some of her human friends that have autism. 

Providing culturally competent care - encountering our own biases

This Tuesday's post comes courtesy of Elissa Kinzelman-Vesely at Ascension WI Libraries. Thanks, Elissa! 

----------------------------------------

"I’m taking a class through the NNLM: From Beyond Our Borders: Providing Multilingual and Multicultural Health Information.  One of the resources to which the instructor, Derek Johnson, points his students is the Harvard University's Project Implicit website.  We used it in the context of understanding cultural diversity and overcoming our implicit biases to provide culturally competent care.

This is what the slide from our educational module states:

The dynamics of difference refers to the different factors that can influence cross-cultural interactions. This might include bias based on historical cultural experiences, such as a mistrust among cultural groups that have previously experienced discrimination and unfair treatment, or even an implicit bias that we might not have recognized."

• Read (or listen) to the following story: Can Health Care Be Cured Of Racial Bias?

• An optional activity for you is to visit Harvard University's Project Implicit website and take one (or more) of the Implicit Association Tests. The tests are designed to measure thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. Please read over the information and disclaimer and then proceed to selecting a test: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

http://radio.wosu.org/post/can-health-care-be-cured-racial-bias

What is the Point of the Regional Consortiums?

What is the Point of the Regional Consortiums?

By Michele Matucheski, MLS, AHIP

At the Fall Board Meeting in December, there was some discussion about removing the notation on the WHSLA Membership forms about a member’s respective regional consortium : Fox Valley (FV), North West (NW), South Central (SC) , or South East (SE), since 2 of these regional consortiums have since disbanded. Because I’ve been around long enough to know the histories (I keep the FRVALC Archives and their website), I offered to share an explanation.

In short, the regional consortiums formed in the early 1970s to facilitate resource sharing among health science libraries (Tech Schools, UWs, nursing schools, and special libraries including hospital libraries and some corporate libraries).  They developed regional networks for ILL so that there would be a more local response for resource sharing, rather than going directly and immediately to the medical schools in Madison and Milwaukee.   Since the consortia members met regularly and knew each other, they would also develop their journal collections regionally.  They developed a union list, or group journal holdings list, in which at least 1 member committed to holding / keeping at least 10 years’ worth of any given title (ie JAMA, NEJM, AJN, etc.) in the region.  I remember making decisions on what to keep or toss in my libraries according to our commitments to the FRVALC union list. 

Nowadays, online collections, library closures, consolidations, space reductions, and Docline Free-Share have made this original resource sharing purpose much less important.

The second main goal of the regional consortiums was/is continuing education.  This continues to be important for some regions, and the main reason for getting together.  At FRVALC, we often showed the MLA Webcasts with grants from the GMR or WHSLA.  Though MLA’s new licensing model allowing WHSLA to apply for access and CEUs for all our members, may lessen the need to gather in the same physical space for these webcasts, as has been required by previous licensing.    That said, I would argue that getting together fosters conversation and a deeper grasp of the material presented when you can discuss it with people in the same room with you. 

Times have changed.  I rely on my local FRVALC Consortium much less for resource sharing and ILL, and much more for continuing education opportunities, networking, and problem-solving.  I look forward to the spring and fall meetings when I can get together with the other members and discuss the issues I’m struggling with, and the successes.  Someone in the group can usually suggest a solution, or share what they did at their institution.  It’s a support network.  Like WHSLA, FRVALC has also worked through our own existential crises, and the members who remain continue to see the value in the FRVALC Consortia. 

The Consortiums work with WHSLA, but they have their own set of bylaws and live independently of WHSLA. Some consortiums have fallen away, it’s true, but 2 remain strong and vibrant.  They will continue whether or not WHSLA lists them on the membership form, or recognizes them going forward.  The regional consortiums are PARTNERS with WHSLA; they are not products of WHSLA.  WHSLA didn’t create them.  WHSLA doesn’t have oversight over them either.   In the past, we tried to set the annual WHSLA meeting in a different part of the state each year, and it was helpful to know who was in each region, and who you could draw on to work on the annual WHSLA Mtg.  Not all regional consortium members are WHSLA members; and not all WHSLA Members are part of a regional consortium, though there is some overlap. 

One of the big differences between the regional consortiums and WHSLA is that membership goes by institution vs. personal membership as with WHSLA.  And since the regional consortiums also invited academic librarians, and other staff to participate, they may have many other specialties and responsibilities besides health science librarianship.  Often it’s the ILL people at the UWs who joined us.  At smaller institutions, it may have been the clerical staff who were also in charge of CME programming – not necessarily people with MLIS degrees, or a commitment to the profession.    That’s one reason it was difficult to keep some groups going.  Another reason was the physical distances between members in the Northwest region.  It was difficult and time-consuming for them to get together.  Again, the library closures and consolidations also had an impact. 

For those of you who are interested, the remaining active Consortiums do have websites where you can learn more :

FRVALC – Fox River Valley Area Library Consortium

SWHSL (pronounced ‘swizzle’) -  Southeastern Wisconsin Health Science Library Consortium

Spotlight on Brenda Fay - Librarian Specialist at Aurora Libraries

Brenda Fay

Former Research and Instructional Services – College of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies Librarian

Raynor Memorial Libraries – Marquette University and

NOW: Librarian Specialist, Aurora Libraries

Brenda’s new email:brenda.fay@aurora.org

 

After hearing about Brenda’s honors course at Marquette, I thought it was time to turn the tables on our WHSLA blogger and learn more about our colleague and the course she taught this past semester.  I interviewed her recently.--- Barb Ruggeri

How did you get the idea for Graphic Medicine- Illness, Disease, and Health in Comics?

In 2011, I attended a major conference graphic novel conference in Chicago.  I was intrigued by the concept but not really sure how to apply it to my work at Aurora.  I started following authors and reading blogs.   At Marquette, the freshman students enrolled in the honors program need to take an additional 1-credit honors course.  Anyone can teach an honors course, you just have to make a proposal to have it accepted.  It was fairly easy to get it approved, I would be compensated for my work, but I could not do any work for the class during work time at the library.  I worked on reading articles about graphic medicine all summer.   I lined up some guest speakers, including James Sturm  who skyped in to talk about his pilot project with graphic novels and veterans.  After we read a graphic novel on Parkinson’s, I had a neuropsychiatrist come in and explain about the tests that are given.

How was it received?

I am very pleased by the students’ progress and how they developed a completely different perspective on comics.  Nine of the twelve students who signed up for the course were premed or health science related students.   They commented they learned more about other health sciences occupations from this course than any other.  They also learned about the other side of medicine, coping with disease from a patient’s perspective.     I was particularly happy to watch one student who original came to class with the attitude that this was the only thing that worked in his schedule and he had no interest in comics.  He became very engaged during the course and became enthusiastic about graphic novels.  In an anonymous survey, two students who were exposed to graphic novel presentations on mental health revealed that they had decided to seek counseling.  One of the books presented was “The Next Day” a graphic novel told by those who had survived suicide attempts.

Brenda- how did you become a librarian?

I attended UWM and was very “wishy-washy” over a major.  I had taken a vocational test and it suggested a librarian, biologist or a chemist.   I wasn’t ready to become a librarian; I completed a degree in conservation biology.  But I did take a job in a public library shelving books.  My first job out of college was a high school library aid.    At that point, I realized I did want to become a librarian and I enrolled at UWM.  I worked in public library, then at Aurora.  While at Aurora, I was particularly proud of being on the team that created the institutional repository.   That project really helped change attitudes at the hospital of what the library could do for the institution.  I came to Marquette 16 months ago.   I am pleased to announce that I will be returning to Aurora on January 8.  My official title is Librarian Specialist, reporting to the new library director who is succeeding Kathy Strube.  I have learned a lot at Marquette, it will be hard to leave.

  

Hobbies:  With my four-year-old son, Ronan, my only hobbies are hanging out with him!  He attends 4K at a Spanish/English language school. One of our favorite things to do is learn Spanish/English songs together.  

MORE ON GRAPHIC NOVELS IN MEDICINE:
Brenda’s course description:
Graphic Medicine: Illness, disease, and health in comics

Can a patient’s story be as exciting as a superhero’s? This seminar will look at comic and graphic novel representations of illness, disease, and health. Seeing cancer, mental health, disability, aging, neurological disorders, and more through the eyes of patients, nurses, and doctors can help us understand and empathize, as we never could before. You’ll hear from nurses, doctors, and comic artists themselves before getting a chance to create your own four-panel comic. 

·         Graphic medicine website: includes reviews https://www.graphicmedicine.org/comic-reviews/

·         Introduction to graphic medicine (NNLM webinar, March 2017) https://youtu.be/C_1qompM8BQ

Books to check out

             Mom’s Cancer by Brian Fies (this is the book that really started the genre in 2006)

Rosealie Lightning by Tom Hart

My Degeneration: a journey through Parkinson’s by Peter Dunlop-Shohl

The rise and fall and rise of aspirin

This week brings us a video from TED-Ed on the history of aspirin. I had read that willow bark was commonly used in ancient times to relieve pain, but I didn't know all the developments and discoveries that led us to what is on the drug store shelves today. See what you think. 

CRISPR and stem cells could speed studies of rare diseases

CRISPR and Stem Cells Could Speed Studies of Rare Diseases (from NOVA Next)

"Alicia Burns is afraid to close her eyes, and more afraid for her children to sleep. Sometimes she’s scared to move, or breathe. The fear comes, she said, when “I have a big meal with family and start feeling ill and light-headed. I’m gardening and the sun is beating down on me and I feel faint.”

“Cardiac arrest can happen at any moment.”

Burns, 38, is a mother of six and describes herself as a happily married housewife. But the internet knows her as “Brugada Girl.”

Though she was hospitalized once in her 20s for heart attack-like symptoms, it wasn’t until her young, healthy father died in his sleep that Burns followed up. After a parade of electrocardiograms (EKG) and appointments where her faintness was dismissed by doctors, Burns was diagnosed with Brugada Syndrome, and began writing a blog."

Read more...http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/crispr-and-stem-cells-could-speed-studies-of-rare-diseases/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/crispr-and-stem-cells-could-speed-studies-of-rare-diseases/