Recently I gave a high level presentation and overview of Library Services and focused attention on three major talking points – Content/Website, Services, and reaching Library Staff.  I didn’t want to overload the audience because I really wanted them to walk away with at least one piece of information they felt was relevant to them. 

When I give this type of presentation, I often wonder when I start talking about various resources available through the Library – what is/are their current “GoTo” info resource(s) they count on when conducting research?  Well, this time around, I decided to ask!  The target audience was incoming graduate students and after going around the table to find out what resources they use, PubMed and Wikipedia rose to the top.  Continue reading →

When I first saw the word “DORA”, I automatically thought of Dora the Explorer, an American animated television series that focuses on a Latina girl named Dora Marquez who embarks on quests escorted by her talking purple backpack and anthropomorphic monkey companion named Boots. Each episode is based on Dora’s travels and the various obstacles and conundrums they must solve to the delight of young television viewers.

Another “DORA” recently surfaced and the intended audience is the scientific research community (declaration went public on May 17, 2013).  The acronym stands for “Declaration of Research Assessment” and as of the writing of this post, has signatures from 310 organizations and 8,106 individuals who support this initiative.  Like Dora the Explorer, the originators are also embarking on a quest to change the way in which the output of scientific research is evaluated by funding agencies, academic institutions, and other parties – to find a better way to assess the impact of scientific research. Continue reading →

I was drawn to a recent article (April 18, 2013) published on the American Cancer Society website entitled “Can you trust that medical journal?” written by Dr. Ted Gansler.  It seems that Dr. Gansler’s article was the end result of a piece he read in the New York Times which questioned the ethics of some journal publishers.

A national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reported that “Thirty-five percent of U.S. adults say that at one time or another they have gone online specifically to try to figure out what medical condition they or someone else might have.”  This represents one in three American adults who have used the web to retrieve information about a medical condition. The report refers to these individuals as “online diagnosers.” Continue reading →