Archive for LHL Resource

vgordon | April 26, 2013
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Tech Tune-up: 50 sites (Part 1)

Here are the 25+ sites that I presented at the Tech Tune-up on 4/24/13.   Michael Fitts will be posting his list as well. Hope you enjoy visiting these sites! — Valerie Gordon

p.s. Do you have suggestions on other types of fun classes you’d like to see at Lister Hill?  An Evernote Users Group?  Lifehacker Happy Hour? Productivity Tips & Tricks?  Post your comment here or send a suggestion to vgordon@uab.edu

Tech Tune-up:  50 Sites (Part 1)

Productivity

  1. TechLister http://www.lhl.uab.edu/tech/
  2. Profhacker http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/
  3. Study Hacks: http://calnewport.com/blog/
  4. Becoming minimalist http://www.becomingminimalist.com/
  5. Yarny: https://yarny.me/

Plus old favorites: Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/ & Zenhabits: http://zenhabits.net/

Home & Garden

  1. Apartment Therapy: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/
  2. Gardenista: http://www.gardenista.com/
  3. A way to garden: http://awaytogarden.com/
  4. Ikea hackers: http://www.ikeahackers.net/
  5. Take them a meal: http://takethemameal.com/

Plus old favorites: Houzz http://www.houzz.com/ & design sponge http://www.designsponge.com/

More design

  1. Polyvore www.polyvore.com
  2. The sartorialist: http://www.thesartorialist.com/
  3. I love typography http://ilovetypography.com/

Travel

  1. Road trippers https://roadtrippers.com/
  2. Birmingham Library Pinterest Page http://pinterest.com/bplonline/
  3. Storyverse  https://www.smalldemons.com/
  4. IMDB: Downton Abbey: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606375/

Plus old favorites: AirnBnB  https://www.airbnb.com/ & Yelp http://www.yelp.com  & Tripadvisor http://www.tripadvisor.com/

Explore

  1. Open Culture http://www.openculture.com/
  2. Sulia  http://sulia.com/
  3. What NYPL is reading: http://pinterest.com/nypl/what-nypl-is-reading/
  4. Allmyfaves.com http://www.allmyfaves.com/

Plus old favorites:  Stumbleupon http://www.stumbleupon.com/ & reddit http://www.reddit.com/

Smile

  1. Catalog living http://catalogliving.net/
  2. Zoo borns http://www.zooborns.com/
  3. Soulpancake  http://soulpancake.com/
  4. Funny or Die: http://www.funnyordie.com/
  5. LetMeGoogleThatForYou:  http://lmgtfy.com/
Category: Fun, Graphics, LHL Resource, Productivity, Social Media, Uncategorized |
Liz | August 20, 2012
One comment

Portable Information in the Dental Practice

With the wide selection of mobile medical applications available to health care providers, for many practicing dentists and dental students in training there is an increase need to be able to locate vetted information pertaining to the management of the medically complex patient.     Dentists now treat with more regularity persons with special needs whose oral care is challenged by their overall physical fitness.  The Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences licenses several resources, offers a suggested Mobile Technology guide, but there are also many free applications that a dentist can refer to when determining the treatment and management of their patient.   Below is a quick list that I recommend to students, faculty and staff at the UAB School of Dentistry.

FirstConsult is designed for the health care student and is a clinical decision support tool that provides quick answers.    For those who have more experience treating the medically challenged patient, consider DynaMed Mobile as your first choice.  However, both resources complement each other and I have both apps on my smart phone.

The American Dental Association’s Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry offers a web optimized version of its website containing clinical recommendations that include a patient information section.   If you want to wow your colleagues, this handy site will link you to authoritative guidelines to use in practice.

I am a huge fan of Visual Dx, a medical images database.  It is easy for students to use because the search function does not require knowing a diagnosis name.  Antidotal feedback from students who have incorporated this medical application in to their training report fewer mistakes in visually identifying an oral lesion.

Last, two good drug apps are Epocrates and MicroMedex Drug Information.  I personally think Epocrates is easier for the student in training to use.  And, don’t forget to add LactMed which provides vetted information on drug effects on lactation and breastfed infants. 

Please comment on other favorites that you use in practice below!

- Liz Lorbeer

Librarian to the UAB School of Dentistry

Category: Clinical Care, Free, LHL Resource, Mobile, Uncategorized |
Liz | June 12, 2012
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Hot Content: Reporting from the Medical Library Association’s Exhibit Floor

As the procurer of content for Lister Hill Library, I always look forward to my day spent in the exhibit hall at the annual Medical Library Association meeting.   This year’s conference was held in Seattle, Washington and I spent a rainy afternoon checking out the latest online content resources to support education, research and patient care.

Can your MEDLINE (or PubMed) do this?  My exhibit floor favorite is the new visual MEDLINE search filter created by Unbound Medicine.  It’s called Grapherence. The product is due out June 19th .  Expect Lister Hill Library to trial the filter later this summer.  I think you’ll like it! 

A new exhibitor at the meeting, MD Conference Express, publishes the highlights from major medical conferences throughout the world.  Look for Lister Hill Library to offer a trial to the UAB community shortly and let me know if this kind of content is helpful in preparing grant applications or keeping up with the latest in medical trials.

Another product of interest, BioBase, is an online compendium of several specialized databases in the biological sciences and medicine.  What makes BioBase different from other web sites is that it focuses on assisting the scientist in interpreting their experimental data at the bench.  This tool was created for bioinformaticians, computational biologists and genetists.  My initial thought is that those associated with the CCTS might appreciate this product.   Lister Hill will offer a trial to the UAB community later this summer.

The hot talk on the exhibit floor was ClinicalKey from Elsevier Health.  It’s a multifaceted clinical information platform that supports research, learning, and point of care decision making.  The search engine, designed as a clinical insight tool used to discover the most relevant medical content, allows for intuitive searching through controlled medical taxonomy.  ClinicalKey contains expert opinion content as well as the FirstConsult mobile application containing evidence-based information.  ClinicalKey is marketed as a replacement for the aging MD Consult platform, and includes more content and a faster speed-to-answer retrieval.    The UAB community has a trial to ClinicalKey until July 2. Let me know if its thumbs up or down for ClinicalKey by fillling out this short anonymous survey. 

The AMA Publishing Group released the JAMA Network on May 14, 2012.  You’ll find JAMA and the Archives in journals now at jamanetwork.com.  Expect the Archives in titles to be renamed in 2013.  

The American Academy of Pediatrics started a new quarterly medical journal for pediatric hospitalists called Hospital Pediatrics.  The first issue is currently available.  Please let me know if you find the journal’s content particularly useful to your clinical practice.

 Annual Reviews will release a new series next year called Annual Review of Animal & Veterinary Biosciences.  The first volume will be published in March 2013 and the UAB Libraries will have access to the online issues.

F1000 Research, the latest venture from Faculty of 1000, is in the midst of developing an open access site that offers immediate publication of papers by way of post-peer review.  F1000 Research touts itself as a fully Open Access Publishing program in the biological sciences and medicine with its goal to disseminate research and data in real-time. 

I missed the Kaplan Medicine and USMLE World booths, but will follow up with both vendors about possible trials.  Traditionally, these vendors only sold directly to students, so I’m excited that they’re entering the library market.  Stay tuned!

Please feel free to contact me at Twitter if you’d like the library to trial a product that would improve your success at UAB.  I’m at @lizlorbeer.  You can also fill out the Purchase Recommendation Form.   And, if I missed your product, let me know.  I’m always in search of the best content tools for the UAB health sciences community. 

Liz Lorbeer

Associate Director for Content Management

 

Category: LHL Resource, Uncategorized |
Liz | March 21, 2012
One comment

Print vs. Electronic Textbook: What should faculty recommend to their students?

I’m often asked by instructors about students’ attitudes towards digital textbooks.  Many of the print textbooks used in a course are available in electronic format for either purchase or rental and offer attractive reasons for use such as cost, convenience and enhanced functionality.     Yet, anecdotally, instructors report mixed results on student satisfaction with using e-textbooks.  What I hear from our instructors is very similar to what I’ve read in the library science and higher education literature. 

Students like the option of purchasing a required textbook in either print or electronic format, but left to decide on their own, many  still select the print textbook.  However, this decision can be swayed if the instructor shows the class the e-textbook on an electronic device.   This includes the instructor recommending, but not endorsing, sites where the e-textbook can be purchased, demonstrating popular web-based functionalities of the e-reader, and letting students know a print copy is available at the library should they need it.   (Make sure to communicate with your library liaison should you need a print copy of the textbook available in the Lister Hill Library Schools Collection).

To buy or to rent?  Many of the e-textbook web sites offer the ability to purchase chapters or rent an entire work for a prescribed amount of time.   This benefits both instructor and student if only a portion of the textbook is being assigned or the book is for a special topics course.  Many instructors seem reluctant to lengthen their required reading lists, but the flexibility in being able to rent or purchase select portions of a textbook allows for a cost-conscious approach for students.  Where the rental model may not be ideal is for the health sciences student that uses their fundamental textbooks later for preparing for licensing exams or as reference during residency.  

What students generally dislike about e-textbooks is the perceived monotony of reading on an electronic device and poor functionality of the e-reader.  Both will strongly dictate whether the student will abandon the digital book for the print copy.   Students who have no choice but to acquire the e-textbook generally report less satisfaction with the course.  This is why selecting a textbook that is available for purchase in both print and electronic format is so important. 

Recent studies, however,  show students are generally satisfied with e-textbooks and that overall satisfaction and use is increasing.  I believe the reason for the increase in satisfaction is two-fold.   First, electronic devices and e-readers are improving to support content distribution and secondly, instructors are becoming savvier in using technology in the e-learning environment.   By no means are digital textbooks better than their print counterpart.  Most e-textbooks still lack value-added, interactive features, such as image manipulation, short videos, and the ability to add customized content and this is where most instructors still voice their frustration.

Liz Lorbeer, Associate Director for Content Management

 

Category: LHL Resource, Productivity, Research, Uncategorized |
Lee | November 7, 2011
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Introducing LHL Mobile

Check out Lister Hill Library’s two new sites for smartphone and tablet users!
screenshot of the mobile webpage

Pictured above is a streamlined version of our regular site. To access it on your tablet, just scroll down to the bottom of our web site at www.uab.edu/lister and select mobile.

Or, scan this QR code with your smartphone to go directly to the mobile site, then bookmark it.

QR Code for Mobile Website

We’ve also created a Mobile Technology LHL Guide specifically for smartphone/tablet users. This guide includes:

  • Suggested medical apps for physicians, nurses, students, and researchers
  • Information on productivity apps
  • Apps for calculators, codes, pharmaceutical information, and popular databases.

Check it out here!  libguides.lhl.uab.edu/mobile

Category: Free, LHL Resource, Mobile |
Lee | October 20, 2011
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New! PubGet for the iPad

Many UAB researchers use Pubget, the biomedical search engine that provides the results as PDFs. PubGet includes all of PubMed and more, and provides one-click access to the articles that UAB licenses.

The PubGet Mobile website allows researchers to read articles on their cell phones and is especially useful for browsing the latest issue of key journals, but it requires the reader to be online.

The new PubGet iPad app is now free to download at the Apple app store.  This app features:

  • PubMed ArXiv, JSTOR, & IEEE abstracts and articles
  • Author, journal or topic searching
  • Advanced searching
  • Customizable list for browsing latest issues of journals
  • PDFs of the articles that UAB licenses and any freely available

PDFs can be saved to the library for viewing later even when offline. So you can read your saved articles on airplanes, which is great for travelers.

Below is a screenshot of a Pubget search result list from the app.  You can expand the screen as shown on the right, and enlarge fonts, graphs or images when reading the PDFs using your fingers on the touch screen.

You can also type notes and save them with the PDFs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Limitations:

According to the team at Pubget, there are planned updates to improve the functionality of the library.  Right now, it is not possible to sort or search by author or journal, organize into folders, or delete articles that have been read.  Articles from certain publishers do not display well.  And there is no app for Android or other platforms.

In the meantime, Pubget users who would find the limitations restricting can use the Pubget Mobile website while online, and export the articles they select into another app they have downloaded.  The free Apple iBooks app works well for this, and allows deleting and sorting by title, author and category.  There is a similar free eBook app in the Android Market. Both save the PDFs for viewing offline. Another option is to search Pubget on your computer and save the PDFs you select to a cloud app like Dropbox that syncs with your tablet or smart phone for later viewing offline.

The PubGet support team is very responsive to suggestions and problem-solving. There is a support button under the Settings icon found on each page.

Category: Free, LHL Resource, Mobile, Research | Tags: ,
Lee | September 22, 2011
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MD Consult Mobile with First Consult App

"screenshot of MDConsult on iphone" Lister Hill Library licenses MD Consult, a popular clinical tool that provides searching of textbooks, journals, the Clinics (review articles), drug information, and images. MD Consult also includes patient education handouts and CME. Clinicians can “stay in the know while on the go” with MD Consult Mobile, included in our institutional access. A mobile-optimized website, MDC Mobile works on any smartphone or tablet with Internet access.  Using MDConsult Mobile, you can:

  • Use “Quick Reference” links to growing list of medical topics
  • Search books, the Clinics, journals, MEDLINE®, practice guidelines and images.  Read full text and view images on your phone/tablet.
  • Email content links to yourself or a colleague

Follow these four steps to get started:

  1. Access MD Consult from a computer within the institution
  2. Click on “Create an Account” in the top right
  3. Complete the registration form, create a username and password, click “Submit” and log out
  4. Log into MD Consult Mobile by visiting http://mobile.mdconsult.com from a mobile browser. or scan the code below:

Note: Users must log out of MD Consult on the workstation before logging into their phone.  Create a shortcut to the link on your phone/tablet for easy access going forward.

The First Consult iphone/ipad app is offered free to UAB users, because we have an MD Consult institutional site license.  First Consult is clinical support resource designed to serve as a quick reference at the point of care. Main content is stored on your device so you can use it when there is no Internet connection. It integrates seamlessly with MD Consult when online to provide additional content.

Download First Consult from the Apple App store (free) and then log in with your MD Consult user name and password or scan this code.

Here is a video demonstrating the iPhone app.

This one shows how the First Consult app and MD Consult (for in-depth information) work together.

I found First Consult to work very well on the iPad.  The screens were easy to navigate, the links were fast on the UAB network, and there is a lot of information quickly available as shown in the screenshot below.

 

Category: Clinical Care, LHL Resource, Mobile | Tags: , ,
Liz | August 15, 2011
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SpringerImages Mobile Application

I recently found a free medical images application for my Apple iPhone called SpringerImages.    What I like about this mobile app is that it offers over 150,000 images in the biomedicine disciplines including figures, graphs, photos and tables.  The images can be shared through e-mail or saved to iPhone photos to be used later.   Its producer is Springer Science+Business Media, a leading scientific publisher known for disseminating some of the world’s best scholarly research.  The free images are associated with journal articles published at SpringerLink.

The Images app is easy to download and use.  There is a basic search box in which to enter keywords or browse by subject collections.  If you’re looking for something specific use the advanced search option to limit a keyword search by publication, author or type of image.  Once you find the image you want, it’s easy to navigate to the accompanying article through the “Details” button and find information regarding copyright.  Springer allows the images to be used for non-commercial use without seeking permission first.

I have been using the Images app to help students find appropriate illustrations for their presentations.  I find that the app works equally well on the iPad too.   Overall, this is a handy app to have on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.  It’s a great lookup tool to compare your research results, refresh lectures or presentations, or refer to when visually learning a new subject area.  You can download the app at: http://www.springerimages.com/mobile/

- Liz Lorbeer

Category: Free, Graphics, LHL Resource, Mobile |