Research First Aid – How Do I…?
In this episode, Amy and Mark discuss a valuable online resource called How Do I?.
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Three Top Tech Trends for Libraries
We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the librarian who wears her hair in a tight bun, wears comfortable shoes, and who shushes anyone who would dare talk in their library. In fact, you may think that librarians would be the last folks who would invite new and exciting technologies into their libraries for fear of them encroaching on the sanctity of the almighty book. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, librarians are usually the first people to recognize the value in new technologies and eager to share them with the public. In this article we would like to highlight a few of the new technologies that we are using here at the library to help bring you closer to the health information you are searching for.
iPod Touch
We were as excited as anyone when Apple released the iPhone and later the iPod Touch, but it wasn’t until we saw Modality demonstrate their Netter’s Anatomy Flash Cards software that we knew had to offer these incredible devices to our users. Frank H. Netter’s illustrations have helped countless medical students over the years gain a better understanding of the human body and how it works. The fact that Dr. Netter’s works have lasted many years and made the transition through many mediums attests to the timeless quality of his work and we are proud to be able to put them into the hands of our medical students. While it is hard to argue with the portability of a good book we feel that the interactivity that iPods and other portable electronic devices offer can sometimes offer a superior learning experience and we are excited to see where this field goes in the future. Consult our equipment loan page if you would like more information on our iPod Touch loan program.
Jing
I remember my 5th grade teacher assigning the class an assignment to write out the instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She then proceeded to try to follow a few students’ instructions word for word often with unexpected results. The lesson we learned was that it is difficult to write clear instructions for a task no matter how easy or trivial we considered the task.
Often we as librarians find ourselves writing instructions on how to access library information like our electronic resources (a task much more difficult than making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich unfortunately). Also, we are usually in the position of not having face-to-face contact with the people we are trying to help. Web pages and email help with this problem but sometimes we wish we could just record a short movie demonstrating a technique to our users and making it available for them to view later. Luckily, the Jing Project allows us to do just that.
Using Jing we have been able to demonstrate concepts that would just be too cumbersome to try and explain through an email of IM chat. The best way to demonstrate the power of Jing is to show a video that we recorded recently demonstrating how to access a full-text article in one of our online databases.
Pretty cool stuff. Best of all, Jing is free.
Facebook has become the number one destination on the web for many folks. The site has made it easier for friends to exchange pictures and videos and connect in more ways than any one site ever has. While we are still investigating effective ways to use Facebook to share information with our users many libraries have already begun to use Facebook successfully. For example, a few libraries are using the community features of Facebook to create impromptu book clubs, for soliciting feedback on how to improve library services, and for announcing upcoming library events. The power of Facebook to connect individuals cannot be denied and we look forward to being able to use Facebook as one more avenue for having conversations with our patrons.
These are all exciting technologies which mostly did not exist in the past year or two that the the library is actively using to assist us in helping our users. Rest assured that we are always scanning the horizon looking for new and interesting technologies that we can put to use to bridge the gap between you and the information you need.
Material for this article was contributed by Roger Russell
