If you’re looking to browse some medical texts on your Kindle Fire the library has a great mobile resource called ebrary*.  You must access this resource from the web browser and after registering for an account you can browse books in multiple categories like Medicine and Science and read them right on your kindle or you can download a portion of the book as a pdf document.

If you’re looking for a little bit lighter reading, I recently came across a pretty great feature on my Kindle Fire. It’s called the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. The Kindle Owner’s Lending Library allows eligible U. S. Amazon Prime members who own Kindle devices to choose from thousands of books to borrow for free including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers. You can borrow one book a month, with no due dates.  You must be an eligible paid Amazon Prime member or a paid Amazon student member.  You can only access the library on the kindle device that is registered to your prime account. On the kindle fire you can access the library directly from the store page. It looks like this:

Image copyright Amazon.com

Another great resource is your local public library! In Greenville, NC we have Sheppard Memorial Library who offers eBooks and audiobooks at no charge with a valid library card through NC Live & 3M.

*the ebrary app is available to download for Android and iOS users; see our Mobile Resources guide for more information:http://libguides.ecu.edu/mobileresources

We’re supposed to be on summer hiatus right now, but we didn’t want you to miss this great article about Stuart Kent. Stuart Kent built tables and chairs for the history collections reading room on the fourth floor of Laupus Library following graduate school and an apprenticeship with Paul Gianino of Greenville, who created bookcases to house the library’s rare and historic collections.

Laupus Library commissioned Stuart Kent, an ECU alumnus and Greenville furniture maker and designer, to craft a 14-foot black cherry wood and glass display cabinet for the second floor of the family medicine center to highlight exhibits from the Country Doctor Museum.The first rotating exhibit, “Compounding Remedies: Tools of the Trade from Early Pharmacies,” will feature artifacts used by country doctors and pharmacists including a turn-of-the-century show globe. Show globes were vases filled with colored liquid used by apothecaries, pharmacies and drug stores to let customers know they could compound medicine. Other artifacts will give insight on how remedies were measured, mixed and dispensed.  You can check out pictures of the cabinet making process on his blog.

In addition to this great project for Laupus Library, Stuart Kent has been awarded an at-large Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and research on the campuses of the National University of Costa Rica and the Tropical Forestry Initiative field station Los Arboles during the 2012-2013 academic year.You can follow him on Twitter (@stuartkentart) to see latest updates about this exciting journey!

The Kindle Cloud Reader allows you to read Kindle books on a Windows PC or Mac using the Google Chrome or Safari web browsers, on Linux computers using Google Chrome, and on an iPad using the Safari web browser. It enables Kindle users to read their Kindle books in the browser “almost without having to install anything” on their devices, “almost” because Chrome users are asked to install optional browser extension that enables offline reading and Safari users are asked to extend 50 megabytes of browser database storage to the web-app for the same purposes. However, I see the reading offline functions as one of the best things about Kindle Cloud. When you’re stuck without a wireless connection all of your books are still at your fingertips without having to download an app to your smartphone, iPad, and laptop or even have a Kindle. Airports anyone? There are some features that are missing from the app and Kindle reader as pointed out by the Unofficial Kindle Blog: While you can read the books in the browser (if your browser is supported), the following features are not available:

• Taking new notes and highlighting (though previous annotations are visible)
• Searching within the book (or your book collection). You can however search within the page using browser search function (Ctrl-F)
• Text-to-speech is not there. Given how complex the HTML document structure is (iframes within iframes and a lot of nested tags) I’m not sure if screen reader software will be able to handle it.

If you are a physician and have your favorite reference texts available in Kindle format there may be disadvantages if your computers aren’t already equipped with Chrome since Medical Centers are usually on a very secure network due to patient information confidentiality and you cannot just download programs to the desktops. Other disadvantages would be if you wanted to highlight or leave a note to yourself in the book for future reference, you would not be able to do that, as well as not being able to search the book or book library for quick reference. But, it does keep you from having to install the Kindle reader if you work on multiple work stations or carry your iPad or Kindle with you.

Since I am already a loyal Chrome user, the browser compatibility isn’t a big deal to me, but I can see how many are being left out with Internet Explorer and Firefox being two of the biggest browser names and they are not as of yet, and may never be, supported by the Kindle Cloud Reader. So, for personal use I see this as a great addition to the Kindle lineup. I love not having to download any applications and having access to read my Kindle books on any computer I’m using and not worry about running my smartphone battery down reading from an app or having my personal computer with me.  If you’d like learn more Information about the Kindle Cloud Reader you can visit Amazon’s website, The Unofficial Kindle Blog or Technorati.

The Nook vs. Kindle debate has been raging for awhile and everyone has their preference about which device they prefer. Each has lists of pros and cons. The Kindle is not backlit so reading in sunlight is easy; one version of the Nook is color and doesn’t need a light. From user interviews, I have learned that the Nook handles and transfers PDF files much easier than the Kindle and only the newer Kindle devices have PDF reading compatibility. Regardless of your favorite, advances in e-Readers, both the Nook, supported by both Barnes & Noble and Books A Million bookstores, and the Kindle supported by Amazon.com, have released a new feature allowing friends to share books with each other.

Nook calls it LendMe™ Technology that lets you share favorite books with friends. LendMe™ books can be lent for up to 14 days. You are able to choose the book you want to share and send it to your friend’s Nook, computer, or handheld device enabled with Nook software. However, while the item is being lent, you cannot read the item simultaneously unless you have your wireless disabled.

Kindle Sharing allows eligible Kindle books to be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle; the Kindle books can also be read using the free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Not all books are lendable as it is up to the publisher or rights holder to determine which titles are eligible for lending. The lender will not be able to read the book during the loan period.

The publishing industry has also become concerned with this process according to The Wall Street Journal:

“In the past few months, online clubs with such names as BookLending.com and Lendle.me have proliferated. The sites, some of which have gathered thousands of users, allow strangers to borrow and lend e-books onAmazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook for free.
The sites are the latest twist in the industry of e-books, which has disrupted the traditional book-publishing industry and changed that business’s economics. Public libraries can’t lend e-books in the Kindle format, though they can for other e-reading devices.

Previously, Kindle and Nook readers were largely limited to sharing e-books with friends because two users needed to know each other’s email address to initiate a loan. The new sites give e-book readers access to a larger network of people and a larger selection of books. The lending sites have drawbacks. One is limited selection. Most major book publishers haven’t made their e-books lendable, and the books can be lent only once and for only 14 days. That means that with every successful loan, the sites’ available library shrinks unless new users with books to lend join.

Some publishers, which are monitoring the sites closely, say they fear that making books available for loan may deter people from buying physical and digital books. The lending sites’ founders say they are helping publishers because their users, after borrowing books, can purchase other books in the same series or by the same author.” [source]

Should libraries be concerned about e-book sharing and these sites that have popped up allowing users all over the country to share books for free? Isn’t that what libraries are all about? Sharing books? With the new e-book technology, I think libraries are definitely going to have to rethink their stance on e-books and loaning programs of e-readers. Whether we as libraries like it or not, e-books and e-readers are here to stay and it’s how we decide to incorporate them into our services whether we get left behind in the technology craze.

Source

The recent adoption and use of smartphones by both consumers and providers of health care are the focus of this timely report by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. The uptake of this technology is rapid; two-thirds of physicians and 42% of the public used smartphones as of late 2009, despite the recession that began a year earlier.

What is it about the smartphone that makes it so attractive to consumers and providers of healthcare? Unlike any other HIT platform, the smartphone is basically an inexpensive handheld computer that enables users to accomplish tasks anywhere, anytime. It is so intuitive and user-friendly that most people can download and use the many available applications, also called apps, without any training or special knowledge about computers.

The creation of applications related to health and health care is also moving quickly. As of February 2010, there were nearly 6,000 such apps within the Apple AppStore. Of these, 73% were intended for use by consumer or patient end-users, while 27% were targeted to health care professionals.

Apps geared to physicians include alerts, medical reference tools, diagnostic tools, continuing medical education, and patient records programs. Consumer-oriented apps include those for medication compliance, mobile and home monitoring, home care, managing conditions, and wellness/fitness.

There are challenges to continued rapid smartphone growth, including business model and privacy issues and Sarasohn-Kahn talks about this in her article. Go here to download a free copy of the article.

This month we’d like to spotlight Black History Month by highlighting some of the great resources on the History of Black Physicians and Nurses.

“Before the Civil War there were both black men and black women nurses. In 1783, James Derham, a black nurse from New Orleans, was able to buy his freedom from slavery with the money he saved from working as a nurse. He later went on to become a well known physician in Philadelphia. He is known for becoming the first black physician in America. Mary Williams and Frances Rose were two black nurses whose names were in the 1840 Baltimore City directory. In 1879 Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first black graduate from an American school of nursing. She became the first professional black nurse in the United States by graduating from the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston.”–A quote from Laupus Library’s “A History of Black Nursing”.

The Laupus Library devotes a portion of its website to Diversity. This month we are highlighting the History of Black Nursing. There is a short history but also included are links for more information and a book list. This website is updated monthly with new information on Diversity topics.

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/laupuslibrary/diversity/index.cfm

“Seven medical schools for blacks were established between 1868 and 1904. In 1895, there were 385 Negro doctors, only 7 per cent from white medical schools. In 1905, there were 1,465 Negro doctors, only 14.5 per cent from white medical schools. Almost 2,400 physicians were graduated from Howard and Meharry medical schools from 1890 to the end of WWI.” – A quote from Duke University’s Exhibit “Black History Month: A Medical Perspective”

Duke University’s Exhibit Black History Month: A Medical Perspective highlights important people, the history of medical education, historic black hospitals and a chronology of achievements.

http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/hom/exhibits/blkhist/

“In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African Americans seeking a medical education were faced with difficult prospects. Few medical schools would admit a black student regardless of their academic excellence.” –A quote from “Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Surgeon”

The Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Surgeons exhibit by the National Library of Medicine was actually displayed at the Laupus Library and it offers a brief history of the African American Surgeon.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aframsurgeons/history.html

“In 2008, the American Medical Association apologized for its long history of racial discrimination. For more than a century, the AMA implicitly excluded black doctors from its ranks. And during the Civil Rights era, the group failed to champion efforts to end segregated health care. The effects of discrimination in organized medicine have been long-lasting. Today, black doctors are underrepresented in health care professions and health disparities among minority populations are widening.” –A quote from NC Public Radio.

North Carolina public radio shares with us an interview between Host Frank Stasio with East Carolina University Medical Historian Todd Savitt; Author Spencie Love; Doctor Gloria Frelix, president of the Old North State Medical Society; and, Doctor Paul Cunningham, the then incoming Dean of ECU’s Brody School of Medicine that you can stream live.

http://www.wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0723abc08.mp3/view

The National Library of Medicine’s new service called “Turning the Pages” has made it possible to virtually flip through six treasured 16th century books from the National Library of Medicine’s collection.  Developed by the British Library, Turning the Pages, was created for visitors to touch and turn the pages of virtual books displayed on a touch screen monitor in an intuitive manner. The National Library of Medicine became the first US site for Turning the Pages in 2001, converting books from their own historic collection in the biomedical sciences to this format. The National Library of Medicine has now made this service available to everyone with online selections such as Johannes de Ketham’s Fasiculo de Medicina, Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, and the newest selection Hieronymus Brunschwig’s Liber de Arte Distillandi. Not only can you flip through the books page by page with their interactive interface but, you can also hear audio clips about the history of the book and download or print high resolution images of the pages.

If you’d like to learn more about the technology behind the Turning the Pages visit their website or get started Turning the Pages of these beautiful texts.

Physicians at Doylestown Hospital in Pennsylvania needed something that is a beeper, cell phone, and tool for getting information about patients in real time. According to a recent article from Apple,  the “iPhone became an instant favorite among Doylestown physicians, in part due to its ease of use.” The physicians rely on iPhone features like push email, calendar, and contacts from Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. One of the greatest uses has been the ability to give doctors secure mobile access to the hospital’s electronic medical records system, MEDITECH Client/Server 6.0. “Literally anywhere a physician is in the world, as long as that doctor has secure access to the Safari browser on iPhone, they can access patient information.” The iPhone has helped the Doylestown medical team work more efficiently, improving communications not only between doctors, but throughout the local healthcare community.

The key to using smart phones in hospitals is secure access, which is one reason some people are concerned about people using the iPhone.  The Krafty Librarian points out that at a majority of hospitals “Blackberry’s are the only mobile phones that are able to access email from off campus.  Many hospitals were very reluctant to allow iPhone users the same type of email access because of security concerns.“ iPhones simply were not created with the business user in mind. However, an exciting new app may change all of that. Citrix Receiver is a free app that enables iPhone and iPod touch users to run any Windows application as a service on their device. Connecting to a Citrix XenApp environment, iPhone fans can securely work with apps from Oracle, SAP, McKesson, Cerner, and other vendors. The only information sent over the wireless connection consists of screen taps, gestures, keyboard input, and screen updates so it is simple to keep data secure. In enterprises, such as hospitals that depend heavily on Citrix already, we should see more hospitals allowing the same types of access to iPhone users that we already see with Blackberry users.