Archive for April, 2012

Welcome MLA News Readers!

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

When Kelly Gonzalez asked if she could review my rambling here for the debut of the Blogs to Follow column in MLA News, I agreed but was a little nervous.

When I learned she was also planning on featuring Krafty at the same time, I freaked out since Michelle is not only known by everyone already but she started blogging for medical librarians before I even had librarianship on my radar. To be referred to as a ‘medical librarian mainstay’ by MLA News editor Laurie Thompson is quite humbling.

So, beyond the gracious introduction Kelly has already given you about me in the column, I figured a few additional bits of information might be helpful too.

Who are you and what on earth is an Eagle Dawg?

If you want the full scoop my About section has me in various forms. The short story about the name is that it is the combination of the mascots of the University of North Texas and the University of Washington.  The context is over in this entry, and the portraits on the wall of my site (please tell me the word ‘Boobie’ has not appeared in MLA ink until now) are based on those statues. My office view is not even close to realistic, the ever-present coffee from our BUNN is though.

What continuing education course assignment started all this?

Believe it or not, the 2008 Web 2.0 101: Introduction to Second Generation Web Tools course from MLA. My first post explained that on March 11, 2008. I’m sorry to say the index page for the course works but the rest of the content doesn’t appear to anymore. It’s too bad because my recollection is that it’s a great snapshot documenting how we were approaching learning and using those tools at the time. If you want a good laugh, you’re welcome to see my assignment posts ranging from one of my favorite commercials of all time to strange interactions with a National Library of Medicine mug.

What’s your MBL/NLM Biomedical Informatics coverage?

Here it is! I still refer to my blog coverage instead of the Powerpoint copies sometimes even though the course was 3 years ago and the curriculum has apparently changed a lot.

 Why don’t you blog all that often now?

Part of it has to do with the fact that I was working part time when I was researching and blogging in depth about things through fall 2009. I really miss being able to do that. However, my work day currently starts at 7:15 each morning as I telecommute for an hour before our son gets on the school bus, put in office hours the rest of the time, then race off to an increasing number of activities each night (right now way too much soggy Little League). My husband also is both a full time supervisor and student, and it’s my turn to shoulder more of running the family as he did while I was finishing my degrees.

I will never blog here on taxpayer time. For work I blog over here (want to learn more about MedlinePlus Connect?) and for my LAC co-chair duties over here. That said, I am going to make a renewed effort to write at least one quality post a week here again. There are so many entry fragments I want to finish and share.

Other questions? Let me know and thanks for checking things out!

 

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MLA mobile technology webcast – #mlamobiletech

Monday, April 16th, 2012

Update: Per first Perhaps Bright Idea below, affirmative!

 

On Wednesday April 18th the Medical Library Association is hosting a webcast, Leveraging Mobile Technologies for Health Sciences Libraries, that is 1) On Wednesday again (yay!) 2) Brings back the live studio panel of presenters (yay!) and 3) Has an established hashtag ahead of time (woohoo!)

Everyone already knows what the hashtag is because it’s clearly listed on the webcast website, right?

Well… no.

The hashtag #mlamobiletech is within the guide that is sent to site coordinators, specifically to be used as a way to send in questions during the webcast time to MLA in addition to email.

Establishing a hashtag ahead of time for the MLA webcast is a very welcome step in the right direction. However, it will requires a lot of effort for MLA staff to filter questions from our natural social communication channel discussion of the webcast content, resources, and thoughts that are being shared both during and after the webcast.

Perhaps Bright Ideas:

  • Should we preface our #mlamobiletech webcast tweets with a Q: to make it easier for MLA staff to identify and convey our questions?
  • Will MLA staff relay #mlamobiletech questions to the presenters to answer verbally, or will they be tweeting answers too?
  • If the latter, could they preface an answer with an A: so it’s clear?

We have come a long way since last fall’s MLA Webcast: Change and WTH? and I want to acknowledge that but still see opportunity for improvement. What do you think?

Side note: If it hasn’t been abundantly clear already due to my abysmal lack of posts this year, literally all of my professional brainpower is being used up between the job that pays me and helping to coordinate an incredible local assistance committee to bring you the best experience possible at MLA 12 in Seattle.  I decompress every night by indexing the 1940 census (my goal is 1,000 names by April 30th) instead of thinking more about medical librarianship or I’d never sleep. Trust me, this is just a temporary phase.

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