Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Connecting with Our Users During Covid-19: ThedaCare Library

Thanks to Diane Giebink-Skoglind for sharing her story of connecting library servies with ThedaCare staff during COVID.

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Basically as a result of Covid-19 and special demands resulting from the pandemic, the library has had a chance to reach out farther and further within the organization.  Examples include:
  • Working in Employee Health monitoring and transcribing employee call related to exposure, testing and next steps during the surge.
  • Reaching out and connecting with the Infection Prevention team has kept me busy with literature searches/articles.   Also, I now regularly contribute to new provider and nursing newsletters, update more influential staff on resource updates, (as a result, information gets spread more effectively and wider), monitor various scientific websites like Nature, New York Times, The Atlantic, Scientific American, STAT News, Advisory Board, Becker’s, etc., to supply articles of interest. Due to kind call-out from the CMO, the library is experiencing more recognition and demand. 
  •  In addition, I am presenting to on-boarding new physicians on library resources as part of that orientation team and augmenting pre-existing on-boarding of newly hired nurses.  Finally, I am providing nursing leadership with more resources and contributing to more committees and initiatives.



Friday, March 26, 2021

De-stress at your desk!

A co-worker attended a session of the NNLM’s Blossom conference and found these resources really helpful. They're online for anyone to download and print.







 

Responding to the Covid-19 Infodemic: An NNLM Virtual Symposium April 8-9

 








Registration is open for a new NNLM virtual symposium focused on addressing the COVID-19 Infodemic in our communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the disparities of underserved, minority and underrepresented communities. This includes ensuring equal understanding of accurate health information, education in hard hit communities and valuing inclusion in clinical research to overcome COVID-19.

The NNLM Virtual Symposium is an opportunity to address misinformation and mistrust, raise awareness about the pandemic and efforts to combat it. Symposium attendees can expect to come away from this experience with a better understanding of COVID-19 as well as strategies and programs that can be used to engage with communities. Learn more and register here.

Monday, March 22, 2021

Crash Course in Counter 5 Metrics

 

Do you need a crash course in the new Counter 5 Metrics?  We knew it was coming.  Many of our vendors / publishers have stopped producing usage stats in the old familiar Counter 4 format, and are only offering stats in Counter 5 now.  

There's a lot to know, including:

  • New definitions of the Counter 5 metrics:
    • Total vs. Item vs. Unique Investigations
    • Total vs. Item vs. Unique Requests

  • What's the difference between investigations and requests?
  • How and what do they count (or do NOT count)
  • How do they translate to the old Counter 4 usage stats.  
  • Just what stats should I be tracking now?
  • What reports will give me those stats?


Here are some additional learning resources to get you started:

The Counter Project Foundation Classes video series on YouTube.

  1. Metric Types *
  2. Reports *
  3. Metrics & Reports: Putting it all Together *
  4. Attributes, Elements & Other Slightly Techy Things
  5. Book Reports
  6. Database Reports
  7. Journal Reports
  8. Understanding the Use of Open Access Content
  9. Working with Counter 5 Reports in Microsoft Excel
  10. Platform Reports
  11. Usage in the Time of the Pandemic


Handouts and Guides:

THE FRIENDLY GUIDE TO RELEASE 5 FOR LIBRARIANS

Written by Tasha Mellins-Cohen, this guide will help librarians prepare for Release 5 of the COUNTER Code of Practice. This publication provides a wealth of information about the new Metrics, Master Reports and Standard Views. It also provides a helpful section which maps the key Release 4 reports to their Release 5 counterparts. You will also find several user scenarios, that come together in a set of COUNTER Release 5 reports.  

    • MM's note: This guide seems to track along with videos 1-2-3 of the Foundation classes listed above. 
  • Journal Stats
  • Book Stats 

Silverchair Counter 4 to Counter 5 Release Transition User Guide


More videos:

A Practical Guide to COUNTER Release 5 from ASERL on Vimeo (November 2020)


Another 1-hour video by NASIG (from 2017)

Some useful notes:

Counter 5 Metric Types & Definitions:




What's the difference between Investigations and Requests in Counter 5?

  • Total Item Requests appears to be equivalent to the old Fulltext Views or FT Requests in Counter 4.  
  • Total Item Investigations appears to count the total clicks on the site.  
    • Total Item Investigations is a good metric for citation databases like Cinahl, since users may interact with it more looking at abstracts, or clicking out to a linkresolver to get fulltext elsewhere, or ordering via an ILL form.
  • Accessing an item as FT counts as both a request AND an investigation (an expression of interest). 
  • But the new Counter 5 metrics eliminate the double counts when someone pulls up the html, and then pulls a pdf as well.  

Friday, March 19, 2021

Not-Throwing-Away-My-Shot Video to Promote Covid Vaccines

  

LINK TO VIDEO

Vax’n 8, a group of physicians from Northern California working in a variety of specialties in medicine, are proud to present “My Shot!”, a song adapted from the hit Broadway show Hamilton.

“My Shot” addresses the social, scientific and political issues currently affecting the decision to receive the vaccine against the virus SARS CoV-2, or COVID-19.

While we completely respect everyone’s freedom of choice, we as a group of physicians support and encourage everyone who can to receive a vaccine based on our understanding of both the science behind its safety, and the global imperative to bring population immunity to the point where the pandemic can finally come to an end.

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Liz Suelzer on MLA's New Podcast

 


WHSLA's own Liz Suelzer was the guest on the first episode of MLA's official podcast, Press, Play, Connect.  

MLA Podcast 001: Sally Gore Interviews Elizabeth Suelzer, AHIP, about scientific article retractions.

Sally Gore sat down with Liz Suelzer, MCW Libraries, Medical College of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, to learn about the fascinating 2019 JAMA Network Open article she coauthored, “Assessment of Citations of the Retracted Article by Wakefield et al with Fraudulent Claims of an Association Between Vaccination and Autism.”*

Press, Play, Connect is the official podcast of the Medical Library Association. Join Sally Gore and Emily Hurst as they interview librarians and discuss ideas from the medical library world. Sally is the Manager of Research and Scholarly Communication Services at the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Medical School. Emily Hurst is Director and Associate Dean of the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

All Episodes

  



Assessment of Citations of the Retracted Article by Wakefield et al With Fraudulent Claims of an Association Between Vaccination and Autism.
Suelzer EM, Deal J, Hanus KL, Ruggeri B, Sieracki R, Witkowski E.JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Nov 1;2(11):e1915552. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.15552.PMID: 31730183 Free PMC article.

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Connecting with Our Users During Covid-19: Ascension Wisconsin Library Services Part 2

 

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts showcasing how WHSLA members and their libraries responded to serving our users in creative ways during COVID-19. 

WHSLA Blogger, Michele Matucheski shares their outreach efforts for Ascension Wisconsin Library Services.


The Ascension Wisconsin Library Newsletter

Although it's been nice not having to take care of a physical library space, working from home has allowed me more time to write articles to promote Library Services for our own What's New Library Blog.    My goal in the past was to put out 2-3 articles a month and then target specific groups (Physicians, Nurses, Rehab, etc.) who would be interested in that content with direct emails.   

With the pandemic, I was finding more and more juicy things to share on the blog, not just the usual how-to-search library databases, etc.  During the pandemic, I expanded the topics shared on the AW Library blog to include not only Covid updates, but videos on how to cinch up a surgical mask, or tips for Zoom calls, interesting podcasts, important / timely articles, etc.

There were so many more posts that I was reluctant to send out separate emails for each article as I had been doing. I did not want to be mistaken for a spammer, or junking up anyone's email box.  So I took a cue from Brenda Fay and our own WHSLA Blog, and started grouping messages from the same month together into a monthly newsletter post.  Every post includes a link back to the AW Library home page, and contact info for our Librarians.  

Here's an example of a recent issue:

AW Library Newsletter - February 2021 - Covid Updates - Vaccines - CME - Drug Info Sources - Nurses Choice


The title of the post doubles as the subject line.  I try to include as many topics as might prompt them to want to read more.  It helps them scan the content quicker.
  

Where do you get the email lists?

I use a few ready-made distribution lists / email groups within the organization covering Physicians and Providers, Nursing Leaders and Clinical Nurse Educators or Rehab, asking them to forward on within their own wider networks if they see something relevant.    In a large organization, it can be a challenge to identify the email groups you should use.  It may help to ask someone who might know such as the admin assistant for Nursing, or The Medical Staff Office.    In one market, the Medical Staff Office forwards the Newsletter on to all Physicians, since those distribution lists are closed.  You could also develop your own lists, too.  We are not allowed to send messages to ALL Associates.  Only Marketing can do that.  

Speaking of Marketing -- If you can enlist the help of someone in your company's Marketing / Communications department.  They usually have someone in charge on internal communications, and would be able to give you some ideas on the best ways to do that -- wither with newsletter formats, tools, and distribution.  

For our New Issue Alerts (etoc) Service, I have curated multiple distribution groups for each journal.  People sign up for the titles they are interested in.  There's no reason you couldn't take a similar approach with your Library Newsletter where people opt in, and develop your own email groups.  

Does it work as outreach?

Every time I send out a new issue of the newsletter, multiple people write back with unrelated questions.  They may be looking for an article, or they need a search done, or want to sign up for New Issue Alerts, etc.  In my mind, the email newsletter as outreach was successful.  It reminds people we're still here, that we've got resources to help them -- including the Librarians who provide the service. 

What about the Stats?
When I sent individual articles as separate posts, I never knew how many people read the articles, much less opened the messages.  

By switching it to the Newsletter format, article titles link back to our Library Blog, where I can check stats on what articles seemed to go viral, and which ones flopped.
This can help direct topics for future articles, if we have a better idea of what seemed popular.




Where do we go from here? Ideas for the future?  
With all the advances in technology, I've been wondering how we could take it further?  Could we use text messages? Would that work if the articles showcase library links and resources they might not be able to access on smartphones?  
Could we set up our own Library App?

Challenges to Overcome ...
Remote authentication has been a challenge for us since we can't offer Open Athens (IT sees it as a security risk).

The biggest challenge is how to stay in front of our users without crowding them, or junking up their mailboxes. 

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Connecting with Our Users During Covid-19: Ascension Wisconsin Library Services Part 1



This is the fourth in a series of blog posts showcasing how WHSLA members and their libraries responded to serving our users in creative ways during COVID-19. 

WHSLA Blogger, Michele Matucheski shares their outreach efforts for Ascension Wisconsin Library Services.


Welcome Messages to New Physicians & Providers

One of the other things we started is sending a welcome email message to New Physicians and Providers (Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants) around the state.  Since we no longer do in-person library orientations, this is the next best thing for introducing them to Library Services and what we can offer to help support their practices.


How did we get the list of New Providers?  We asked the Medical Staff Office to include us when sharing the report of new and departing providers.  This has been wonderful for consistency, and making sure we catch everyone.  Prior to that, it was only by happenstance that we heard about new Providers.  


I set the basic text up as a template in Gmail (The equivalent would be a saved signature file in Outlook), then I can personalize the message, adding their name and anything else that seems relevant.  I usually add links to ebook collections from CK and AccessMedicine reflecting their specialty.  If it's for a PA or NP, I'll often add info about Patient Education resources, too.  


Here's the basic text [Feel free to borrow it and adapt for use at your own institutions.]: