Academic Librarians and e-Science

This was presented at the 5th Annual University of Massachusetts and New England Area Librarian e-Science Symposium, Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

Panel Discussion presentation: “Factors Leading to Successful Engagement of Academic Libraries in e-Science,” Mary E. Piorun, University of Massachusetts Medical School.

“This presentation provided an overview of her ongoing dissertation research on academic libraries and e-science, which explores: 1. How and why research universities and their libraries became engaged in e-science, 2. The structural and programmatic changes that have occurred in the library to provide e-science services and programs, and 3. The leadership necessary to bring about those changes.”

Medical Heritage Library

“The Medical Heritage Library (MHL) is a digital curation collaborative among some of the world’s leading medical libraries. The MHL promotes free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine. Our goal is to provide the means by which readers and scholars across a multitude of disciplines can examine the interrelated nature of medicine and society, both to inform contemporary medicine and strengthen understanding of the world in which we live.”  The quote is from http://archive.org/details/medicalheritagelibrary.

New journal–The Journal of eScience Librarianship

I found out about this new journal today, The Journal of eScience Librarianship (JESLIB). The publication “is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that advances the theory and practice of librarianship with a special focus on services related to data-driven research in the physical, biological, and medical sciences.

They have two articles on collaboration in the first issue.

• DataONE: Facilitating eScience through Collaboration
• Building an e-Science Portal for Librarians: A Model of Collaboration

Communication, Collaboration & Collection Development

This looks pretty interesting.

Communication and Collaboration: Collection Development in Challenging Economic Times – Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries.  (Subscription required.)

Current economic challenges have had a profound impact on collection development, as a good budget has become one which merely remains flat in comparison to the many budgets which have been severely cut. While inflation has steadily eroded collection budgets for many years, the Great Recession exacerbated economic woes as both academic endowments and state tax revenues declined drastically. The Health Sciences Libraries of the University of Southern California address these difficult times by communicating and collaborating with colleagues, customers, and vendors.

E-Science Portal at the U. Mass Medical School

Building an e-Science Portal for Librarians: A Model of Collaboration

Purpose:  This poster focuses on the collaboration among science and medical librarians from multiple diverse New England research institutions in designing and aggregating content for an e-Science portal.

Brief Description:  This project is funded through a subcontract with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine New England Region. It is based on a collaborative framework consisting of a project advisory board, an editorial board of content editors, and a web development technical team. This comprehensive portal, aimed at librarians, provides news, links to annotated e-Science resources, and a discussion forum. Members of the portal editorial board include science and medical subject librarians identifying and aggregating content on e-science news/events, tutorials, and current practice accessible through the portal. Editorial librarians are developing a virtual community using social tools to foster discussion and collaboration among New England librarians interested in e-Science. This poster describes the planning process and the roles of the editorial team, project coordinator, and portal design team.

Libraries partnering with hospitals

Ellyn Ruhlmann from the Waukegan (Ill.) Public Library writes in American Libraries, “Libraries, Hospitals Join Forces to Promote Wellness.”

Waiting is never easy for a child. For a child in a hospital, though, it’s really a tough go. The looming surgery, the unfamiliar setting, even just the break in routine all pile on anxiety and make minutes seem like hours. Now many libraries are partnering with hospitals to help ease that anxiety as well as to hook these young captives on reading. The strategy sometimes offers a way to reach new patrons in literacy-challenged communities.

The Chicago Collaborative

I just learned about this organization.

The Chicago Collaborative is a working group established in 2008 to promote open communication and education among the primary stakeholders in the scholarly scientific communication area. Its membership includes representatives from a number of publishing and editing organizations and representatives from the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL).

Navigating Collaboration Webinar Series

Navigating Collaboration: A Crash Course in Connecting with the Community
 
On December 2, 1:00 MT/2:00 , tune into the second episode in the Navigating Collaboration webinar  series,  Keys for Partnership , presented by Bob Engeszer, Associate Director Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine and Susan Centner, Project Director, Missouri Area Health Education Center Digital Library. Log onto https://webmeeting.nih.gov/siobhan  and sign in as a guest. You will need Internet access and a phone.
 
See the archived presentation and resources from the first episode “Definitions” at http://nnlm.gov/mcr/resources/community/collaboration.html
Dana Abbey, MLS
Consumer Health Coordinator
dana.abbey@ucdenver.edu