13th EAHIL Conference - Free communications (other interesting things)

Despite the skepticism

analauda — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:35:11 +0000

Authors:

Ivkovic, Ana, Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract:

Introduction

“Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, blogs or social bookmarking tools provide the possibility to construct innovative article-level or journal-level metrics to gauge impact and influence”.

(Gunther Eysenbach)

Sharing new information amongst peers using modern web technologies will help scholars and scientists to increase knowledge and advance their skills.
Lack of access to new research in medicine, has made communication between medical researchers and scholar necessary. The need for science to be put on public display, posted by medical specialists has led to the emergence of scientific publishing in blogs. Scientific blogging has thus become a scientific source par excellence.

Questions/Objectives

Why do medical librarians have so many difficulties in convincing medical researchers to read science blogs? True, it is not always that simple. Are all blogs of scientific value? Data mining is very demanding work. Or is “value” a matter of trust? Science bloggers inform us about their work and the work of other experts in the same field by pointing towards similar topics. A solution to such mistrust is to join scientific community networks. Blog Network Highlights is a good example of how to use science blogs as a media for spreading scientific news and highlights. Bora Zivkovic, one of the most popular bloggers in science and editor of the Scientific American blog, has succeeded in gathering bloggers from diverse scientific fields into one community.

Methods

Writing about researchers’ achievements, about highlights in medicine, is of the utmost importance. Creating a science blog with one’s own thoughts, results, and reviews is popular, but by no means easy. Recently, the evidence-based articles such as blog posts, have become very common in researchers’ practice and present a valid form in scholars’ literature. These new media are quickly accessible. Contribution of peer reviews by others in new media should follow the new technologies. Peer review brings criticism and makes important role in science. The numerous scientists move science from traditional journal paper into the web space. Although science blogging is not measured as well as are papers in well-established journals with impact factors. The crucial factor is the evaluation of papers. The citation index, or measure of the quality of a researchers’ work is only determined by the number of citations in the scientific literature in citation index databases. That is why skepticism in blogging is widespread among medical researchers.

Microblogging allows faster communication. Research Gate, a scientific network, has gathered scholars with the same field of interest. It allows researchers to post a clinical case, exchange new ideas throughout a discipline, seek advice, upload recent publications and articles, and share new information with other colleagues.

Over the last few years, the number of medical researchers at Research Gate network has been growing. Some mental barriers are falling as is the prejudice concerning displaying work online. Scholars are more willing to share their scientific work updating their status with achievements. As Research Gate is a researchers’ network, new articles appear every day as well as medical practice case reports. By showing the results of their research, scientists can help other colleagues with new discoveries and highlights. Any medical errors which arose by using outdated protocols can be prevented. Old topics go out and new ideas and questions come in. The greater visibility of scientific work has a reciprocal impact to the career of researchers.

Twitter, a social network, offers more possibilities than does communication alone, by reading, tweeting, retweeting. When a particular topic appears as a highlight at social network, it could be current (hot) for very long time, for days, even months. The phenomenon of visibility encourages people with the same or similar interests to feel free to share the information or to voice their own opinion, often leading to lively debate and energetic discussion. The use of Twitter by scholars is playing an ever-increasing role and many tweets are focused on science.

Trust is the main component and that leads to recommended literature by tiny URL. A list of hashtags with various topics is ever-expanding. One of the most popular hashtags is #icanhazpdf, which helps to get at the article behind the pay wall, making it readily available. This represents a good way to share and promote a scientific paper, as well as individual research.

Results

Despite the skepticism, a new generation of medical professionals has started medical blogs, even in Serbia. Moreover, information about other researchers’ work can be found on the blogs of colleagues. Citation in blogs is faster than that caught by traditional bibliometrics. It bridges a gap between scholars, researches, and the audience. In addition, it helps build relationships between colleagues. The use of social networks among scholars, especially in the medical community is of great importance.

Discussion

The possibility for research to be cited on Twitter, with tweeted and retweeted links could change the face of bibliometrics. Bibliometricians and scientometricians still do not focus on research on Twitter, but the number of researchers and followers, and their presence and engagement on Twitter can no longer be ignored. Twitter citations, and linking directly to the information source is faster than the traditional route and could herald a “scientometrics 2.0” as a supplement to traditional scientometrics.

Acknowledgement

Many thanks to our colleague William Russell-Edu for linguistic assistance.

Keywords:

Science 2.0, Blogging, Social networks, Scientometrics, Researchers

References:

McClain C. Deep See News [Internet]. What is Twitter and Why Scientists Need To Use It. Craig McClain. 2010, August. Available from http://deepseanews.com/2010/08/what-is-twitter-and-why-scientists-need-to-use-it/
Eysenbach G. Can Tweets Predict Citations? Metrics of Social Impact Based on Twitter and Correlation with Traditional Metrics of Scientific Impact, J Med Internet Res 2011;13(4):e123) doi:10.2196/jmir.2012
Priem J, Costello KL. How and why scholars cite on Twitter. Proceedings of the Am. Soc. Info. Sci. Tech., November/December 2010, 47: (1): p. 1–4. doi: 10.1002/meet.14504701201
Letierce J, Passant A, Decker S, Breslin J G. Understanding how twitter is used to spread scientific messages. Web Science Conference 2010. In: Proceedings of the WebSci10: Extending the Frontiers of Society On-Line (April 26 – 27, 2010) Raleigh, NC, USA.
Available at http://journal.webscience.org/314/2/websci10_submission_79.pdf
AGU Blogosphere [Internet] Why should scientists use Twitter? José -Viñas. Maria, July 2011. Available at http://blogs.agu.org/sciencecommunication/2011/07/20/why-scientists-use-twitter/ [accessed 10. 01. 2012]
Weller K, Dröge E, Puschmann C. Citation analysis in Twitter: Approaches for defining and measuring information flows within tweets during scientific conferences. 2011. 1st Workshop on Making Sense of Microposts Available at: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-718/paper_04.pdf [accessed 12. 04. 2012]
https://twitter.com/#!/analauda
http://www.researchgate.net/topic/Medicine/

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Poster

The informatics of direct-to-consumer genetic tests

corinegglestone — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:51:02 +0000

Authors:

Egglestone, Corin, Loughborough University, UK

Morris, Anne, Loughborough University, UK

O'Brien, Ann, Loughborough University, UK

Abstract:

Introduction

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests are personalized genetic risk assessments sold directly to consumers over the internet. After purchasing a DTC genetic test, consumers send the company a sample of their saliva, which uses it to scan their DNA for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) which have been associated with various different complex diseases, such as diabetes or cancers. Using this method, companies claim to provide an assessment of the consumer’s genetic risks for these diseases, with the intention of encouraging them to mitigate any high risks by improving their health behaviour (e.g. increasing their level of exercise or improving their diet). However, there have been many criticisms of DTC genetic tests in the literature, including accusations of inaccuracy and unreliability.

One area of concern is the information provided to the consumer by the companies that sell the tests, with worries that the quantity and quality of information provided on company websites is frequently poor, with important information often left out and misleading information often included. For example, one content analysis found that there was a wide variation in the amount and usability of information provided on company websites, and stated that it was “apparent that most users would struggle to find and understand the important information on most sites”.¹ Another study found that a majority of websites did not “meet a minimum set of quality criteria” for the information they should provide, leading to “fundamental information deficits”.² These findings raise questions about the ability of consumers to give fully informed consent to the DNA analysis, and to have access to the necessary information to correctly interpret and understand their results. However, to the authors’ knowledge, no study has actually examined these information issues from the consumers’ point of view.

A second area of concern is the effect that the tests may have on the health behaviour and health anxiety of consumers. There has been much concern in the literature that (contrary to claims made by the companies) results showing an increased risk of disease may not cause an improvement in health behaviours, that results showing a decreased risk may actually encourage people to curtail their healthy behaviour efforts and that the tests may increase health anxiety. However, to the author’s knowledge, only three studies to date have examined the effect of the tests on groups of users. The first of these was a survey of 1048 customers of three of the main DTC genetic testing companies, which found that a third had improved their diet and 14% had increased their exercise levels.³ In the second study, which consisted of interviews with 60 participants who had been given a free test, approximately one third had changed their behaviour and another third were planning to.⁴ In contrast the third study, in which 2037 were provided with a subsidised test, found no significant changes in participants’ level of exercise, proportion of fat in diet or health anxiety after three months.⁵

Objectives

The study had two broad objectives.

Firstly, to investigate the informational aspects of DTC genetic tests from the consumers’ point of view. This included the information need of consumers, where and how they searched for information about the tests and their opinion of the information provided to them by the companies.

Secondly, to assess the effect of DTC genetic tests on consumers’ health behavior and health anxiety.

Methods

The study consisted of an online survey. Respondents were identified and contacted through social media: namely Twitter, Facebook, internet forums and blogs, using a convenience sampling method. The study sample included both actual consumers of DTC genetic tests, and individuals who were considering purchasing a test, but had not yet done so (potential consumers). This allowed a comparison between the two groups, who were asked questions about a variety of issues, including their information needs, information seeking behaviour and current health behaviour and health anxiety.

Results

A total of 275 usable responses were obtained. When respondents were asked where they had heard about DTC genetic tests, the most common response was blogs (35.7%), followed by friends, family or other social connection (29.2%) and the website of a company that sells the tests (24.4%).

The most common information that consumers wished to know before purchasing a test was to do with the coverage of the tests (32.3%), followed by details about the analyses used (21.1%), the cost of the tests (19.3%) and privacy issues (16.8%). The most common information source used by consumers was blogs (22.7%), followed by Google (18.0%), general non-specific websites (18.0%) and articles (11.0%). In total, 13.4% of consumers looked at no information source other than the websites of the companies that sell the tests, 40.1% looked at one other source and 27.3% looked at two other sources. When information sources were divided into suitable and non-suitable sources (erring to the generous side in regards to suitable sources), 52.3% of consumers were found to have not used any suitable sources.

A change in health behavior was reported by 27.3% of consumers, all positive from the consumer’s point of view. Consumers were significantly more likely than potential consumers (p=0.022) to follow a combination of six common health behaviours (intake of salt, fat, fibre and fruit and vegetables, sufficient exercise and lack of smoking). A change in health anxiety was reported by 24.6% of consumers, with 85.3% of these changes a decrease in anxiety, 8.8% an increase and 5.9% a mixture of the two. However, there was no significant difference between the current health anxiety levels of consumers and potential consumers.

Discussion

The results show a large variability in the information seeking behaviour of consumers of DTC genetic tests, with many reporting a detailed search for information and others only a little; although almost all participants looked for some information before purchasing a test. If appropriate information was not provided on the company website, it is likely that those who did little searching were not exposed to it elsewhere, backing up the informational concerns raised in the literature and underlining the importance of good quality information provision by the companies. Given the wide range of topics on which consumers wished information before purchasing, the importance of providing information on all aspects of the tests is also highlighted.

Despite concerns raised in the literature, no negative effects on health behaviour were identified in the study. Also, although a survey of this type can never establish causation (and the convenience sampling method prevents generalisation to the population as a whole), the results appear to show a positive effect on health behaviour in a minority of consumers. Taken together with the previously mentioned studies, these results should somewhat allay concerns about this aspect of the tests. However, it should be noted that some respondents, if only a small minority, reported an increase in health anxiety.

Keywords:

Predictive Genetic Testing, Consumer Health Information, Health Behavior, Direct-to-Consumer, Health Anxiety

References:

Lachance CR, Erby LA, Ford BM, Allen VCJr, Kaphingst KA. Information content, literacy demands, and usability of websites offering health-related genetic tests directly to consumers. Genet Med. 2010 May;12(5):304-12.
Hennen L, Sauter A, Van Den Cruyce E. Direct to consumer genetic testing: insights from an internet scan. New Genet Soc [Internet]. 2010 Jun [cited 17/04/12];29(2):167-86. Available from: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a923175000&fulltext=713240928
Kaufman DJ, Bollinger JM, Dvoskin RL, Scott JA. Risky business: risk perception and the use of medical services among customers of DTC personal genetic testing. J Genet Couns [Internet]. 2012 Jan [cited 17/04/12]; epub ahead of print. Available from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1316mh01q8077251/?MUD=MP
Gordon ES, Griffin G, Wawak L, Pang H, Gollust SE, Bernhardt BA. “It’s not like judgement day”: public understanding of and reactions to personalized genomic risk information. J Genet Couns [Internet]. 2011 Dec [cited 17/04/12]; epub ahead of print. Available from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/k67413m662258789/
Bloss CS, Schork NJ, Topol EJ. Effect of direct-to-consumer genomewide profiling to assess disease risk. N Engl J Med. 2011 Feb;364(6):524-34.

Session:

Session B. Servicing our users

Ref:

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Oral presentation

RBD Santé :The Health Promotion Documentation Network in Brussels

rbdsante — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:46:28 +0000

Authors:

Cueppens, Claudine

Dombret, Danielle

Piret, Samuel

Abstract:

Formed on the basis of voluntary cooperation and close coordination between partners, RBD Santé has existed for over ten years and currently holds twenty-one specialized documentation centers. In fact, the network rallies forces to facilitate access to relevant information, and promotes quality training for network members.

The information in the field of health is sizeable and applicants come from different professional backgrounds (schools, colleges, universities, social workers, medical and paramedical, government, etc.). Unfortunately the public does not know where to send its requests and questions in the field of health promotion. The idea of a Health Promotion Documentation Network in Brussels was born from the will to bring together documentation centers of the Brussels Region and to set up a system of information sharing, dissemination of knowledge and exchange of documentation. Beyond simple a place of exchange between professionals, the network's purpose is to improve the provision of information and offer users the necessary guidance and support in their searches. Network members meet to develop projects, share information, exchange experiences and improve the quality of information retrieval service.

Exploring different professional backgrounds and comparing methods of work can stimulate critical thinking and progress to independent reasoning and reinforce collaborative relationships. This collaboration is valuable in several ways: it allows members to perform their duties with maximum efficiency, it enables direct access to information from other associated resource centers and helps to avoid duplicates. Over the years, the network acquired experience and technical know-how, and searched for ways to restructure itself. It is now managed by a coordinating committee, composed of three volunteer members, and has adopted a charter which confirms the rules of operation and participation for members. The charter ensures membership and participation in the network activities and the respect of the principles behind it. It should also allow new members to gradually enter as actors in an open-remaining process of thought and work. For the sake of sharing and exchanging information, the network organizes for its members information sessions and trainings related to document management in the broad sense (copyrights, creation and management of a website, introduction to various information library systems, etc..

The RBD Santé also maintains a directory providing information about the resource center partners. It presents each center, the range of services, document types available, opening hours and terms of use. This directory is free to the public and people working in the field of health. It is also possible to contact specific network partners, for requests for documentation. An updated edition of the directory has just been published in September 2011 and is available, in paper or digital format. The network has platform on a website that supports the exchange of information which is also accessible to the public. This opening allows everyone to get to know the members, to visit their websites, to be aware of the network activities and to take part in it (http://www.rbdsante.be, website in French language).

The proliferation of digital resources and the need to ensure, for all, better access to reliable background information and personal assistance, will prompt the network to further diversify its activities to meet the needs of its members and users, whose professional activities are related to different evolving areas of health. The future developments of the network will largely depend on the real cooperation of its members and the financial means to carry out some projects.

Current Members List

ANAHM/AFrAHM (Maximilien Lejeune, Michel Joris)
APEDAF (Michel Joris)
CDCS-CMDC (Stephanie Wolbeek)
CEDIF-FLCPF (Claudine Cueppens)
CDSB / CLPS Bruxelles (Mourad Benmerzouk)
Centre Info-Démences IDEM (Lydia Lassaux)
CPMS / PSE – COCOF (Michèle Philipp)
CRIOC – OIVO (Réjane Dethise)
Cultures&Santé (Xhemile Buzaku)
Entr’Âges (Pascale Reman)
Euridis / Parthages (Anne Denhaene)
FARES / Prévention des Allergies (Samuel Piret)
Fil d’Ariane (Jean Houyoux)
Infor-Drogues (Caroline Godet, Joëlle Roelandts)
La Médiathèque (Christel Depierreux)
Ligue Francophone Belge contre l’Epilepsie (Gisèle Motheu)
Observatoire du sida et des sexualités (Delphine Metten)
PIPSa (Maria Sugero)
Prospective Jeunesse (Danielle Dombret)
Psycendoc (Ariane Coppens)
RESOdoc (Yvette Gossiaux)

Keywords:

Health promotion, Network, Brussels

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Poster

SEDIC: health sciences working group, a team without borders

JMCamara — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:03:04 +0000

Authors:

Grupo de Ciencias de la Salud, SEDIC, Madrid, Spain

San-Jose-Montano, Blanca, Hospital de Mostoles, Madrid, Spain

Gomez-Sanchez, Alicia-Fatima, CNIC Fundacion Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

Barredo-Sobrino, Pilar, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Facultad de Medicina, Madrid, Spain

Espantaleon-Agreda, Manuel, Hospital Clinico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain

De-La-Camara-De-Las-Heras, Juan-Maria, Hospital Universitario de La Ribera, Valencia, Spain

Garcia-Martin, M-Asuncion, Hospital Universitario de Cruces, Bilbao, Spain

Abstract:

Introduction

The Asociación Española de Documentación e Información (SEDIC) is a nonprofit professional association founded in 1975 to promote training and exchange of experiences amongst librarians and information specialists in Spain. SEDIC also actively defends and represents the interests of this professional community in submissions to Government departments, the European Union and other international institutions.

Our association is organised into technical working groups, the oldest being the Health Sciences Working Group (HSWG), which was formed in 1997 to promote the activities of health sciences information specialists and also to support and give continuity to the Jornadas Bibliosalud, the biennial Spanish conference on information and documentation in the health sciences.

Since October 2006 new members have joined the HSWG and the members are working together to expand the group’s horizons and to better adapt to our changing social and professional context.

Objectives

In 2007 the HSWG defined its main purpose as the provision of support for the career development and progress of health sciences information specialists in their different work areas. Secondary objectives are the following:

To facilitate cooperation, information sharing and exchange of experiences among members of the profession.
To improve working skills and to adapt them to new technological environments.
To standardize the different types of professional profiles and their work environments.
To promote emerging work areas (Open Access, digitalization, etc.) in the health information field.
To create channels and forums for communication and information dissemination.

Methodology

The HSWG conducts an annual review of the state of the information specialist’s profession, and develops a strategic plan with several action lines. Each of these action lines is led a group member, and these subgroups define the actions and activities to be carried out each year. At the end of the year the HSWG as a whole evaluates the actions taken, and makes recommendations for their further development and improvement as required, and also defines new goals for the next year.

Results

The implementation of the HSWG annual strategic plans has resulted in the following action lines and their corresponding activities:

2007. Two action lines were enacted. The first set up a National Workshop to exchange technical information and share experiences among the members of our professional community, and the second was aimed at establishing standards for hospital health science libraries. The result was the celebration of the 1º Jornada técnica de Bibliotecas de ciencias de la salud en el siglo XXI: electrónicas, digitales, virtuales e híbridas (1st Workshop on Health Sciences Libraries in the XXI century: electronic, digital, virtual and hybrid).

2008. The first two action lines were continued and two more were added, one for the creation of free training workshops and other for the implentation of learning resources centres (Centros de Recursos para el Aprendizaje y la Investigación; CRAI). The result was the celebration of the 2º Jornada técnica de Bibliotecas de ciencias de la salud en el siglo XXI: electrónicas, digitales, virtuales e híbridas (2nd Workshop on Health Sciences Libraries in the XXI century: electronic, digital, virtual and hybrid) and workshops on “Integration of the Learning Resources Centre Model in Health Sciences Libraries”, “Intellectual Property Rights in the Health Sector”, and “Creative Commons in Health Sciences”.

2009: Established action lines were maintained, and a new one was started to update the information on the web of the HSWG and to write specific posts on the SEDIC blog. As a result workshops were held on “Web 2.0 Tools in Science Health Journals”, “Corporate Communication Web 2.0 Strategies in the Health Sector”, “Social Relationships in Health Sciences Libraries: Relations with Professionals and Users”, and a number of blogposts about activities in our field.

2010: All action lines were maintained except the learning resources centres (CRAIs) study, which was replaced by a new action line studying information literacy in health sciences. Active action lines this year led to the following workshops: three editions of the workshop “How to Publish in Scientific Information and Documentation Journals”, two editions of the course “Emotional Intelligence for Professionals in the Health Sciences”, one edition of the course “Netvibe Development for the Integration of Information in the Health Sciences: the Medical Information Library and Knowledge (MILK) Project” and one edition of the workshop “Information Literacy in the Health Sciences”.

2011: Established action lines were maintained, and a Twitter account was opened to facilitate and dynamize communication between professionals in our field. Related to this, three courses were organized: “Internal and External Impact of the Implementation of Quality Control Processes in Libraries and Information Centres”, “Web 2.0 Managers: Management of Personal References in the Web 2.0 Environment” and “Holding Effective Meetings with Multidisciplinary Groups in the Health Sciences”.

The results are shown in the poster using Ishikawa Diagrams that reflect the cause-effect relationship of each research area and the related activities.

Conclusions

The results of the HSWG’s activities show that the creation of a strategic plan with annual action lines provides a working mechanism for helping workers in our field meet current needs and adapt to changing professional and technological environments.

Through the continued search for topics of interest and the creation of opportunities for knowledge exchange, our Health Sciences Working Group has become an important resource for health information specialists in Spain. Furthermore, our group has established itself as the major working group within the SEDIC, allowing information professionals in the health sciences to maintain a high profile in our professional community.

Keywords:

Group Processes, Societies, Planning Techniques, Spain, Education Continuing

References:

Kelly K. Health Science Libraries: future trends. An Leabharlann: The Irish Library. 2009;18(1):12–7.

Kronenfeld MR. Trends in academic health sciences libraries and their emergence as the «knowledge nexus» for their academic health centers. J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 ene;93(1):32–9.

Lynn VA, FitzSimmons M, Robinson CK. Special report: symposium on transformational change in health sciences libraries: space, collections, and roles. J Med Libr Assoc. 2011 ene;99(1):82–7.

Vera Alamo FR, Soto García MG. EL proceso estratégico en el sector público: análisis en el contexto de las universidades españolas. Investigaciones Europeas de Dirección y Economía de la Empresa. 2007;(2):113–29.

Wildridge V, Childs S, Cawthra L, Madge B, Wildridge V, Childs S, et al. How to create successful partnerships—a review of the literature. Health Information & Libraries Journal, Health Information & Libraries Journal. 2004 jun 1;21, 21(s1,):3, 3–19, 19.

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Poster

SMH Baltic Sea Region Cooperation: “Transfer of Knowledge”, partnership programme with medical libraries in Northwest Russia, 2004 – 2011 : an asymmetrical partnership?

astrid.muller — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:02:33 +0000

Authors:

Müller, Astrid, University of Oslo, Medical Library, Norway

Husem, Elisabeth, SMH, Norway

Romuld, Signe, Norwegian Board of Health Supervision, Norway

Abstract:

Introduction

Health information without frontiers, this year’s conference motto, inspired us to take a closer look at our own partnership programme. SMH (Section for Medicine and Health of the Norwegian Library Association) has for a long time been involved in international cooperation with the focus on our neighbouring countries around the Baltic Sea.
The overall objective of this particular partnership programme is to enhance and develop library and information services to healthcare personnel through strengthening and improving professional knowledge among librarians in the medical and health sciences. The librarians’ professional development and their improvement of the English language are given priority.
The programme is built on experience achieved during the Nordic-Baltic health libraries programme 1994-2004.
Continuing education courses, study tours and participation in EAHIL conferences have been the main activities. The study tours and conference participations have been for one to four persons at a time.

Questions/Objectives

One of our goals is to make this project sustainable so that our Russian partners themselves can take more responsibility for future courses.

English as the only language for the courses proved to be a bit too ambitious, and in the beginning, we provided translations into Russian. We wanted to find out if the participants felt their knowledge of English had improved over the years.

International cooperation is a challenge and requires commitment, time and money. What are our experiences so far? Do we have an equal partnership or is it more a “development aid programme”?
The enthusiasm shown by all the involved parties has been an important motivation and condition for the project. However, we feel that there is some lack of progress in our partnership. Good communication and mutual trust is very important, but language problems and cultural differences may have caused confusion now and then. Do we know that the "Transfer of Knowledge" programme is relevant to our colleagues in Russia? Do they honestly tell us about their needs, or do they just accept what we propose?
Until now, the project has been fully funded by different Norwegian institutions, such as the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, SMH and the University of Oslo. Russia is a wealthy country. Do the libraries benefit from this wealth?

Method

We e-mailed a short questionnaire about the partnership to 35 of the participants. The sample chosen was not random. We chose among the most consistent participants.

In a cover letter, we explained the need to evaluate the programme and urged them to respond in order to keep the programme going. We also encouraged them to forward to names we might have missed. The deadline was two weeks, extended to three after a reminder.

We used the free version of the online survey tool SurveyMonkey that allows max 10 questions. The idea was to keep it short and simple. The responses would be anonymous. The questions were made by reviewing our objectives for the cooperation, including applications for financial support from various Norwegian institutions.

Most of the questions had a 5-point rating scale with the opportunity to give comments.

A similar survey was also distributed to 13 of the non-Russian lecturers and facilitators in order to see if the experiences matched those of the participants.

Results

From the 35 participants in Russia, 12 completed the survey (34%)

The 10 questions to the participants:

Has your participation in TOK been useful for your daily work and has it increased your competence in librarianship?
Response: Useful to very useful
If you answered positively to question no. 1, have you shared your new knowledge with those of your colleagues who did not participate?
Response: Some ( not much)sharing
Have you widened your professional network through participating in TOK?
Response: Only 1 had not widened her network one way or another
Have you improved your knowledge of English through your participation in TOK?
Response: From very little to very much
Are there any local sources of funding for courses and professional development that you can apply to? Can you give some examples of courses you have attended?
Response: 3 yes, 4 no, 5 don’t know. 3 have given examples of other courses they attended
If you were going to arrange a course yourself, what would you choose?
Response: In addition to what we suggested: Teaching different groups (students, post-graduates etc), psychology of teaching, web 3.0, fundraising and communication with state government
Would you have participated in TOK if your institution had to pay a fee?
Response: Most did not know
Web 2.0: Have you used anything of what you have learnt in your job? Do you have any examples?
Response: Most have not used, two have done a lot. One gave an example
TOK: Do all the involved parties learn from each other? Is it a mutual cooperation?
Response: More or less
10. Praise and criticism: What has been good and what could have been done better?
Response: Overall - very good. – “A good translator into Russian is necessary”.

From the 13 lecturers, 8 completed (61 %). The number of questions was halved. Primarily we would like to find out how the lecturers, from outside Russia, experienced this partnership programme.

The lecturer respondents were more positive in all respects. They also gave more comments on both the professional as well as the social side of the partnership.

Discussion

It was very satisfying to see that all respondents found project useful. The low response rate from the participants however was a disappointment. Due to the low rate the sample is hardly representative and we must be cautious in interpreting findings.

The low response rate may be due to various reasons: Have all received the e-mail? Low motivation to respond, ambivalence or politeness, language limitations, other library traditions.

To answer our question in the title: Yes, the partnership is asymmetrical as long as one partner provides lecturers and money. We have attended a couple of conferences in Norway dealing with experiences in cooperating with Russia – not politically, but from people to people - both with Norwegian and Russian participants. Most of the experiences are similar; as long as a Norwegian institution funds the project there is an interest. This diminishes when trying to make the partnership more equal.

It takes time to build relationships, and to be successful and sustainable there must be a two way process.

The motivation for continuing the cooperation has always been strong among the “Transfer of Knowledge” organizers. It has been a great pleasure meeting colleagues from different places, as both teachers and participants, and a good friendship has developed among us.
However, can we assume that the motivation will remain if the so-called “cooperation” continues to be unequal? It becomes more and more difficult to get full economic support without contribution from the partner. Will other types of international cooperation emerge?

Keywords:

International Cooperation, Medical Libraries, Programme Evaluation, Transfer of Knowledge

Session:

Session C. Outreach

Ref:

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Oral presentation

Visual Analysis of the Networks from Brazilian Research Groups in Nursing

Sibele Fausto — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:08:41 +0000

Authors:

Fausto, Sibele, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Pinho, Paula H, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Oliveira, Marcia AF, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Angelo, Margareth, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo,Brazil

Silva, Isilia A, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Turrini, Ruth NT, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract:

Introduction

In Health Sciences, research collaborations are a common fact, and one of the motivations in the formation of research groups is the free association of researchers with thematic affinity for theoretical and technical complementation [1-2]. In Brazil, there is the incentive on the part of public policy, through the scientific and technological development agencies, in shaping research groups with the aim, among others, to maximize the allocation of resources for research. This study aimed to identify and visualize the networks from research groups in the area of Nursing registered in the Directory of Research Groups, a database maintained by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, an official organism of Science and Technology sponsored by the Brazilian Government.

Methods

The search in the directory was through 63 keywords of the Nursing area, identifying a total of 429 research groups. The data obtained were treated and standardized to allow their inter-relationship with a tool for Social Network Analysis [3], resulting in a high density network. Next step was performing an analysis of subsets of this network, through the themes of research, to a better visualization of the configuration of the groups involved with each topic.

Results

Results are presented in Figure1.

Discussion and conclusion

It was possible to highlight and view research groups working in nursing in Brazil on 14 different thematics: Fundamentals of Nursing, Nursing Practice, Ethics and Nursing, History of Nursing, Nursing Education, Management of Nursing Services, Nursing Care, Public Health and Nursing, Nursing and Family, Nursing in Mental Health, Nursing in Child Health, Nursing in Adult Health, Nursing in Women's Health and Nursing in Occupational Health. This study indicated which themes have a greater number of groups involved (Fundamentals of Nursing, Ethics and Nursing and Nursing Education), as well as those emerging themes, with the involvement of a low number of groups, as seen, for example, in Nursing in Mental Health and enlightens the configuration of the Health Information generation in Nursing in Brazil. The study of networks allows a broader exploration of the scientific research environment, offering support for the decisions and assessments, to both educational institutions and research funding agencies.

Keywords:

Research Subjects, Research Groups, Social Networks, Nursing, Health Information

Legend Figure:

Figure1: Nursing research groups by thematic

References:

Beaver D (2001). Reflections on scientific collaboration (and its study): past, present, and future. Scientometrics, 52(3): 365-377.
Sonnenwald DH (2008). Scientific Collaboration. ARIST, 42(1): 643-681.
Borgatti SP (2002). NetDraw Software for Network Visualization. Lexington, KY: Analytic Technologies. Available: https://sites.google.com/site/netdrawsoftware/home. Accessed: 15 april 2012.

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Poster

Health information without frontiers: creating a Catalogue of Biomedical Journals in Portuguese Language

slopes — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:02:07 +0000

Authors:

Lopes, Sílvia, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Fernandez-Llimos, Fernando, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Lopes, Pedro Faria, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract:

Introduction

Portuguese is the official language in eight countries (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe) with more than 240 million people. Portuguese is also official language in about 20 Intergovernmental organizations. Portuguese is the sixth spoken language in the World by number of native speakers. However, the presence of Portuguese language in scientific communication, and especially in biomedical literature, is lower than expected. Due to the vast number of scientific journals, access to scientific literature is no longer done through manual search of printed journals tables of contents. The enormous amount of information makes it difficult to find the required information, constituting the Information Paradox. The necessity to create an International Catalogue of Scientific literature appeared in the 19th century (1). Due to the lack of information technologies (IT) at that time, this universal catalogue disappeared few years after its creation. More specific secondary sources were created some years later, such as Index Medicus for medical journals. With the advent of computers and then telematics, Pubmed was created, as well as the more generalist Science Citation Index. The inclusion in those secondary sources is a major goal for journal editors, since not being included leads to their complete obscurity. Secondary sources have a strict journal selection process (2). Several biases were found resulting from this selection process, namely geographic and language biases (number of journals published in the U.S. and in English is disproportionally high). However, publishing in native languages and in local journals is a convenient practice for some types of articles. Epidemiological studies from a restricted geographical area or health economy analysis associated to local policies or local clinical practice guidelines, may not have interest for an international audience, but may be highly relevant for a country interests. We found a considerable amount of papers mapping the literature in Portuguese or by researchers from Portuguese-speaking countries in health sciences. The sources for data gathering are major secondary sources that have different journal selection policies that may exclude many national journals (3,4). Identifying all the biomedical journals in a country, not only those indexed in major databases, is not a simple task (5). To accomplish this task, a search will be conducted in national and international databases.

Objectives

We propose to identify all the biomedical journals publishing articles in Portuguese in countries members of the CPLP [Community of Countries of Portuguese Language] to create a catalogue of biomedical journals in Portuguese language (that should be the first step of our project that aims to improve the visibility of biomedical journals in Portuguese language).

Methods

The methodology adopted could be divided in several steps: identify the national and international resources (databases or websites) to know the biomedical journal in Portuguese language, establish the criteria to select journals and the important fields to retrieve data for the future catalogue. Therefore, we choose Scopus, Ulrich Database, Journal Citation Reports, Pubmed, Free Medical Journals, Índice de Revistas Médicas Portuguesas, DOAJ, Redalyc, Lilacs-Express, Latindex, and Portal de Revistas Científicas em Ciências da Saúde. Regarding journals identification, the first criteria was related with subject area – Biomedical Journals. After that we limited our results to Portuguese language, defined that publication country should be Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal or São Tomé e Príncipe (the eight countries with Portuguese as official language) and, finally we selected only the active publications (since this option was available). These tasks were executed for each selected database/site. The results were exported to an excel file, with the following fields: Title, ISSN, Country, Subject, and indexing database, which allow us to characterize and analyze our set of biomedical journals in Portuguese language. The last step is to eliminate duplicates and supplement each title with the missing information.

Results

As preliminary results were identified all the biomedical journals in Portuguese language, from all the databases. The result shows a predominance of Brazilian Journals. We didn’t found any journal from other CPLP countries, except Brazil and Portugal. At this stage, it was possible to identify 173 Brazilian journals indexed in Scopus, 213 indexed in Scielo, 45 in Medline and 46 in ISI databases. Regarding Portuguese journal, we found 11 indexed in Scopus, 6 in Medline and 3 in ISI (namely, JCR).

Discussion

The results obtained, show us that there is a clear predominance of Brazilian journals. Journals from other countries, except Portugal, were not found. The presence of these journals in international secondary sources is still limited. Not all journals have assigned ISSN. Several errors in the analyzed databases were found, hindering the task of identifying the journals and distinguish the duplicates titles. Various journals with the same title were identified. We also found several equal journals’ abbreviated titles, about different journals. This could contribute to non-distinguish journals title. Since databases have different structure, each one with specific and different fields, it’s very difficult to create a complete and with non-errors file. Also, for the same title, it was identified different information in different databases. Through the journals websites we can identify the incongruous information. However, not all scientific journals have a webpage. In the next stage of this study, we’ll analyze all the titles, one by one, to identify and correct the errors now found. As final remark, it seems really important to create a consistent catalogue of biomedical journals and made it available to research community, librarians and publishers.

Keywords:

Scientific journals, Portuguese language, Visibility, Bibliometrics, Health information

References:

Goode GB. The Ideal Index to Scientific Literature. Science. 1895 Apr19;1(16):433-7.
Ruiz-Perez R, Delgado Lopez-Cozar E, Jimenez-Contreras E. [The Institute for Scientific Information journal selection criteria. Its application to Archivos de la Sociedad Espanola de Oftalmologia]. Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol. 2006 May;81(5):245-68.
Montenegro M, Costa T, Lopes S. [Separating the wheat from the chaff: open access journals with impact factor]. Conferência Luso-Brasileira de Acesso Aberto. Universidade do Minho. Braga (Portugal), 2010.
Meneghini R. International visibility of Brazilian research output in public health. Cad Saúde Pública. 2010;26(6):1058-9.
de Freitas AE, Herbert RD, Latimer J, Ferreira PH. Searching the LILACS database for Portuguese- and Spanish-language randomized trials in physiotherapy was difficult. J Clin Epidemiol. 2005 Mar;58(3):233-7.

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Poster

Finnish Veterinary Terminology: translating medical and veterinary subject headings using collaborative process

raisa.iivonen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:46:06 +0000

Authors:

Iivonen, Raisa

Lipsanen, Päivi

Siirala, Esko

Muhonen, Ari

Abstract:

Aim

Viikki Campus Library is responsible of the animal health information services in Finland. It started a network consisting of veterinary, medical and linguistic specialists to collaborate in translating veterinary entries in medical thesauri, i.e. FinMeSH. The Library is using its interface Termix to index veterinary books, articles and other material in its databases. Lack of accreditation of the veterinary terms has prohibited the development of ontology projects.

Methods

The Library initiated two meetings in autumn 2011 to discuss the future project. Veterinary authorities, members of the Faculty and the Finnish Veterinary association, information specialists and other interested in translation and linguistics gathered to start planning and forming the network. Without collaboration of as many as possible interesting groups this kind of project would be impossible.
The core of the work is to translate MeSH and other thesauri into Finnish – a language with no structural relations to Indo-European languages such as English, German or French. A consistent, systematic and relatively long tradition of translating medical entries into Finnish is in the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim. Its publications anchor the new medical terms into Finnish language. Outcomes of this work are e.g. Lääketieteen termit and the database FinMeSH, which is used through the interface Termix, created and maintained by Terkko, the medical library.
When the semantical part of the work is reliably done, then it is possible to create user-friendly applications using ontology as means. The ONKI service contains Finnish and international ontologies, vocabularies and thesauri needed for publishing on the Semantic Web.

Results

High quality ontological service will be created based on deep expertise of the veterinary profession and research. User friendly interfaces will upgrade the open access services provided by the University, when self indexing is made easier. Several thesauri as Agriforest, YSA and FinMeSH are the tools that both librarians and veterinarians apply in their daily work in producing, delivering and searching new information.

Discussion

Collaborative network discussing new entries is and ideal tool, but finding right people and motivating them into a voluntary work is not an easy task for the library.

Conclusions

Collaborative development of terminology is a fruitful way of improving the quality of thesauri.

Keywords:

medical subject headings, Veterinary Medicine, ontologies

References:

Soualmia, L.F., Griffon, N., Grosjean, J. & Darmoni, S.J. 2011, "Improving information retrieval by meta-modelling medical terminologies", Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 6747 LNAI, pp. 215-219.

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Poster

Sound Selection: podcasts prove positive

Daniel_McDonald — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:25:48 +0000

Authors:

McDonald, Daniel, Toowoomba Clinical Library Service, Australia

Hawcroft, Roger, Toowoomba Clinical Library Service, Australia

Abstract:

The Toowoomba Clinical Library is part of a publicly funded hospital and health network which employs 4000 staff and which serves a rural and urban population of 280 000 people over 100 000 square kilometres in southern Queensland, a region of Australia. The library has introduced and established a service whereby clinically-oriented digital audio recordings are provided to the health professionals throughout the region it serves. Sir Muir Gray has consistently argued in many forums that in the 21st Century, knowledge is the key element to improving health. He has claimed that the greatest future advances in healthcare will come not from new inventions and discoveries but from the application of what we already know. As well, Jaron Lanier has argued that it is people who are meaningful and not merely abstract networks of information. To that end it is the work of the library and its information professionals to meet the need of putting the right information in the right context and the right container for the right client. This provision of digital audio recordings is one small contribution towards meeting that need. This narrative describes its inception as an occasional project meeting the needs of one client, through to its progression as a fully-fledged library program offering a diverse and detailed collection to all staff.

Where did we start?

For several years the library had loaned, first audio cassette and later audio CD programs as a regular part of the circulation service. With the increasing ubiquity of the MP3 player, either as stand alone or as part of smart-phones and computers, for music and entertainment, we had begun to investigate whether there was a role for that technology in the health information arena. A paper published in November of 2007 by Ashok and Priya Roy seemed to reinforce our still nebulous thoughts. They quoted a Pew Internet study that found more that 22 million American adults owned iPods or MP3 players, and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the web. They explored a number of intersections of training and podcasting in adult education, including a program at Duke University where all incoming first year students where supplied with iPods, but much of their discussion surrounded possibilities rather than extant services. It wasn’t until a request from a palliative care doctor, one of Lanier’s “meaningful people”, that our thoughts took a concrete direction. This doctor was travelling frequently and wanted to redeem the time by listening to material relevant to his field. There was next to nothing available in established collections and not wanting to return to the client empty-handed library staff began browsing the web trying to ascertain what was available for health professionals. Amongst some obscure material were enough quality resources to convince this doctor of its worth, so once a week two or three audio CDs were created from MP3 files which had been found on the web and downloaded. From the library’s perspective this experience proved mutually beneficial. Sourcing the material was low-cost, and through evolving search strategies an increasing wealth of sources of freely available MP3 files relevant to our professional community was discovered.

What did we do?

In reflecting upon this work we realised this individual and very particular occasion of service was eminently scaleable. It seemed clear there was enough quality and relevant content available to be worth our investment in time and resources. By the late 2000s shared and shareable information was no longer the sole domain of the printed word and for some time the spoken word had been recorded and published online. We also speculated that many busy practising clinicians would value listening to scholarly communication either instead of or alongside the written word, as such information presented as conversation or lecture can be easier to digest and taps into modes of learning which differ from the printed or screened word. We also suspected most of the content was “grey” and not being listened to by those who could most benefit from it. Not all health professionals are tech savvy, and those who are may still not have the time and intellectual energy to practically acquire and play these recordings.

To this end we set about determining the best way to link our clinicians with this audio information. We realized CDs had many limits so pursued the idea of purchasing iPods and making them borrowable. We bought ten iPods but again it was Lanier’s insight of people who are meaningful which gave our ideas and the technology the direction and focus it needed. We sharpened our attentions onto junior doctors. They rotate through the major clinical areas of the hospital so building a collection of podcasts around their needs would ensure most of the clinical disciplines would be addressed. We imagined residents or interns starting a new rotation coming to borrow an iPod preloaded with audio material relevant to each particular discipline. We knew not all the material would be directly applicable to their circumstances and abilities, but enough would, and sometimes it is good to be stretched and exposed to exotic instruction, and one press of the skip was always available. In adopting this approach we also knew that having subject-specific iPods would mean consultants or nursing staff who specialise in those areas would find the players just as useful.

With an audience in mind and iPods accessioned and available for circulation, we turned our attention to content. This we built through intensive searching and much browsing, trying a variety of techniques and terms and learning where sites typically post their audio content. The vast majority of material collected has been freely available on the web, but we do maintain a small number of subscriptions to commercial audio medical education providers that deliver regular material in MP3 format. The collection is now beyond 1800 files but is not static, and we are continually adding to the files as new material is posted or as we come across new troves. The type of material we download varies greatly and includes specialist presentations, summaries from key journals, lectures from conferences and specialist societies, continuing medical education sessions, and interviews with leading researchers. By and large the content is rich in diversity, of good quality and well-presented.

What have we achieved?

In mid 2008 we launched the availability of the iPods with a viral marketing campaign, which generated substantial interest. We were worried the idea would flare and die away quickly, but this has not proven to be the case. At least seventy-five staff have borrowed one of the ten iPods the library has populated with subject-specific content and made available for loan. One aspect we were slow to grasp initially but have quickly capitalised on is the number of staff who have their own MP3 players, particularly with the proliferation of smart phones. Consequently it was the content alone they were interested in. With this access mode in mind we have built an Endnote library that not only helps track and describe the collection, but allows staff to browse what is available and generate their own “playlist”. This is increasingly the dominant mode of access, with over two hundred additional clients having received content independent of the borrowable iPods. Feedback received informally and through a structured survey has been uniformly positive, with comments typically highlighting the ease of access and quality and relevance of the material provided. As well, increasingly interactions with this content are not static but iterative, with clients coming back asking for more material after their initial exposure. As this service has matured it has diversified, with targeted sub-sections of the collection placed in specific department areas to allow staff easy browsing and access, while the library has also begun making consumer-oriented audio material available for distribution to patients. This extends the scope for librarian – clinician collaboration which can only improve the nature of the service and enhance the involvement of the library in the clinical community.

Description of this project in industry publications has led to opportunities for collaboration with other hospital libraries throughout Australia. The audio collection and model of service have been shared, while methods for comparative evaluation are being explored. It is also encouraging to note this project was runner-up in the 2010 ALIA/IOG Excellence award and was the recipient of the 2011 HLA/HCN Innovation prize.

Conclusion

Through this project, clinicians in Toowoomba have had the opportunity to listen to digital audio recordings they would never otherwise have heard. This has expanded the knowledge base of the local clinical community, which in turn results in better-informed decisions for patient care. Ultimately patient care is where health library best practice should be measured, and it is where we believe that this project has made a significant contribution.

Keywords:

MP3-Player; Libraries, Digital; Education, Continuing

References:

Brice A, Muir Gray JA. What is the role of the librarian in 21st Century healthcare? Health Info Libr J. 2004; 21(2): 81-3.
Lanier, J. You are not a gadget: a manifesto. New York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2010.
Roy AK, Roy PA. Intersection of training and podcasting in adult education. Australian Journal of Adult Learning. 2007; 47(3): 479-91.

Session:

Session E. New technologies

Ref:

Category:

Free communications

Type of presentation:

Oral presentation

Finding the Borders in Information-Without-Borders: Creating a Canadian Indigenous Peoples Search Filter

Sandy Campbell — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:04:08 +0000

Authors:

Campbell, Sandy

Behn Smith, Daniele

Dorgan, Marlene

Tjosvold, Lisa

Keywords:

Search filters, Canadian Indigenous Peoples, Information Storage and Retrieval, Medline