HLABC Forum: Spring/Summer 2006

V OLUME 29 I SSUE 2 S P R IN G /S U M M E R 2006HLABC FORUM Gems & Pearls Inside... Conference Reports from CHLA and cyberspace Technology tips: Weblogging and Social bookmarking Member profile: Linda interviews Julie Mason

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 2006/07 HLABC T ABLE OF C ONTENTS Executive President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Treasurer’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4President Website Committee Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Karen MacDonell AGM Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Reports on the CHLA/ABSC 2006 Conference How to... Live to Tell the Tale! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Vice President A Word to the Wise - Its Worry that Kills, Not Work! . . . 8 Information Literacy Expectations and Perceptions . . . . 10Diana Hall A Collections View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 An Open Letter to Cool Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Bioinformatics: a Mini Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Secretary Discover the Leader in You! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Vicki Lee To the Beat of Our Own Drum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Everyones Two Cents (Survey) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 TechnologyTreasurer Weblogging for Health Librarians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Anne Allgaier del.icio.us: A Social Bookmarking System . . . . . . . . . . 22 Getting to Know You: Julie Mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 A Conference in Cyberspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24FORUMKrista ClementGuest editor: The Forum is published quarterly by the Health Libraries Association of BC ISSN: 0826-0125Teresa Lee Submissions and story idea s are we lcom ed. Publication is not guaranteed and manuscripts may be edited. Con tact the publishe r:Website Committee Krista Clement Em ail: kristac@shaw.caRobert Melrose Phone: 250-762-3700Robyn Joy Ingvallsen For HLABC membership information, visit our website at www.hlabc.bc.ca or write to: Anne Allgaier, Tre asurer/Mem bership Library, Prince George Regional Hospital 1475 Edm onton St. Prince George, BC V2M 1S2 em ail Anne.allgaier@northernhealth.ca Fees are $25.00 (regular) or $15.00 (student, maximum 2 years) and include the Forum.

HLABC FORUM Page 3P RESIDENTS M ESSAGEKaren Ma cDonell, President, HLABC & Librarian/Co-Manager, College of Physicians &Surgeons of BCkma c@m ls.cpsbc.ca2005-2006 proved to be a year of furious effort in the building of importantlibrary initiatives, namely the 30th annual Canadian Health Library Conferenceand the Electronic Health Library of British Columbia, e-HLbc. This coming yearoffers all the opportunities and challenges that those initiatives promised. TheCHLA Conference was organized and presented by a highly motivated andcapable team led by Cathy Rayment. Congratulations to the many HLABCmembers who contributed to the success of the conference, both by helping toorganize and host it or through their attendance or presentation of theirresearch.The challenge now lies in applying the gems we gathered from the conference inour everyday lives, both professionally and personally. This may involve stoppingan accepted way of doing something and assessing the effect (maybe it wasntworking to begin with!) as suggested by Sherrilynne Fuller, diving into the abyss What we learned:and building a service for a user group that didnt exist before, as did Megan "Change is an ever presentCrouch, or as Shelley Hourston presented, reaching out to fellow librarians when element in our life and inthings are rocky and you need to shore up your resilience. The Conference also our work. Librarians needtouched on issues of user training, consortia building, programme evaluation andIT implementation, which are core issues for the inaugural year of the Electronic to learn to lieHealth Library of British Columbia, e-HLbc. with it."The HLABC Executive will dedicate a fair bit of our continuing education effortsthis year to helping HLABC members maximize the usefulness of the eHLbcresources, in accordance with a motion carried at the Spring Annual GeneralMeeting. For example, a plan is in the works for a workshop that will focus onnew approaches to training users and offer an opportunity for sharing ourexperiences with library service promotion and implementation of this newinitiative.I am looking forward to a year of working with terrific HLABC Executivemembers, Diana Hall, Anne Allgaier, Vicki Lee, Teresa Prior, Robert Melrose andRobyn Ingvallsen (who is graciously standing in for Robert this summer) and hopeto see you at upcoming HLABC meetings and events.

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 E DITORIAL Teresa Lee, Librarian, Woodward Library, UBC teresa.lee @ubc.ca I have delighted in reading the articles, updates, reports and news items submitted by colleagues in BC. Many of the articles here comment on the What we’re gonna do recent CHLA/ABSC conference in Vancouver in various thoughtful – and often humorous – ways. By all accounts, CHLA/ABSC 2006 Pearls of Wisdom was a about it: hit! We in BC should be proud of bringing together health library professionals "I would like to prepare a from all over the country and beyond in a gathering that was marked by copyright info sheet for excitement, new ideas, and collegiality. my organization. And I want to learn Taiko A conference may take place once a year, but hopefully the connections we drumming…" make will endure. Undoubtedly one of the best things about this profession is its community of professionals. Heres to conference connections! T REASURER S R EPORT Anne A llgaier, Librarian, Northe rn Hea lth Autho rity Anne. A llgaier@no rthernhe alth.ca May 31, 2006 Memberships Lifetime members: 7 New Members: 3 Sandra Barron Brenda Chenosky Danell Clay Renewed for 2006-07: 45 Membership Total 48 Bank Balance $9,898.41 Mutual Fund Balance $1,736.98 TOTAL $10,328.06

HLABC FORUM Page 5W EBSITE C OMMITTEE R EPORTRobert Melrose, Librarian, Down Syndrome Research Foundationmelrose@ dsrf.orgRobyn-Joy Ingvallsen, Royal Columbian Hospitalrobyn.ingvallse n@frase rhealth.caThe past year has seen several changes to the HLABC website; we added bothmember only access, and an executive only access portion of the site. We havealso joined the world of wikis. Current HLABC members create their usernameand password via the splash page of the website (http://www.hlabc.bc.ca/).Once the membership is confirmed the username and password are accepted bythe system, which then permits access to HLABC minutes, the membershipdirectory and to the handouts provided by our guest speakers. The website alsohad a second level of access created in the past year, an executive only portion. What we learned:The HLABC executive section is limited to the members of the current "I now know how I couldexecutive. This section holds HLABC working documents, the minutes template, use a WIKI / RSS feeds inour logo in a variety of formats and other files that the executive need to share. my worklife!"The username and password created for the executive provide them access toboth the membership and executive sections of the site.Another change to the site has been an upgrade to the content managementsystem (Typo3) used for mounting the information The upgrade will be betterable to prevent unauthorized access and to detect viruses or bugs. As theupgrade was applied to the back end of the site there is no change in the publicview. All files were transferred to a new server during the upgrade but pleasecontact the website committee if you find any of the previous files missing.HLABC has also launched a wiki at http://hlabc.pbwiki.com. This site has beencreated for easy collaboration between members of the Health LibrariesAssociation of BC (HLABC), as well as members of the Canadian health librarycommunity interested in sharing information and knowledge. Wikis arecollaborative software that allows sharing without unnecessary cluttering up ofyour e-mail inbox. To find out more about wikis, go to Wikipedia: Wikis. Or tofind out more about how to edit a wiki, go to WikiStyle athttp://yummy.pbwiki.com/WikiStyle. To edit information, contact the webcommittee for password access. Feel free to create a page regarding any HLABC(or related library) project, or email the web committee atrobyn.ingvallsen-at-fraserhealth.ca to set it up for you! The website committee has also taken on the role of Forum co-ordinator. Thisrole involves seeking out guest editors, establishing the submission deadlines andsynchronizing the file transfer between the guest editor and layout editor. Thisyear the Forum editors were Marjory Jardine for the Fall/Winter edition andTeresa Lee for the Spring/Summer edition. Krista Clement has been our layouteditor. Thanks to our guest editors and to our layout editor for the wonderfuljob they have done with the Forum this past year. Any HLABC member can be aguest editor, so please consider being the guest editor for the next Fall/Winteredition of the Forum. Contact either Robert or Robyn for further details.

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 H IGHLIGHTS Annual General Meeting – May 16, 2006 Teresa Lee, Librarian, W oodw ard Library, U BC. tere sa.lee@ ubc.ca Watch HLABC listserv for full Meeting Minutes What we’re gonna do about it: 1. Teresa Prior reviewed the past years highlights and announced Krista "Practise more evidence Clement as the winner of the newly renamed C.W (Bill) Fraser Professional based librarianship – Development Grant. read, critically appraise, do research…" 2. Teresa Prior also presented the treasurers report in place of Anne Allgaier. She noted that HLABC has a large balance. 3. Robert Melrose gave an update on improvements to the HLABC website, and on the Forum, thanking Marjory Jardine for guest editing the winter issue. 4. Robert Melrose also relayed news about the HLABC History Project which Lee Perry will supervise. Shirley Lew of SLAIS will assist with recruiting a student who wishes to complete this as a professional experience project. 5. Charlotte Beck reported on the CHLA Board Meeting. She will continue as board secretary for another 2 years. She noted that NNLH roundtables are moving ahead. 6. Cathy Rayment gave a CHLA conference report and thanked the planning committee. The conference was a great success. 7. New executive for 2006-2007 were welcomed: Karen MacDonell as the new President, Diana Hall as Vice-President/President Elect. Vicki Lee will continue as Secretary, Anne Allgaier as Treasurer, Robert Melrose and Robyn Ingvallsen on the Website Committee, and Krista Clement as Forum Editor. 8. Teresa Prior reported on the official launch of eHLbc on May 16, 2006. John Gilbert and George Eisler were in attendance. HLABC members who worked over the years to make this happen were gratified to see their efforts finally come to fruition. HLABC committed to sponsoring some training sessions related to the rollout of eHLbc by December.

HLABC FORUM Page 7R EPORTS ON THE CHLA/ABSC 2006 C ONFERENCEH OW TO P LAN A S UCCESSFUL C ONFERENCE (AND LIVE TO TELL THETALE !)Cathy Rayment, CHLA/ABSC 2006 Conference Planning Committee Chair & Head ofLibrary Serv ices, BC Can cer Age ncy. craym ent@ bccancer.bc.caStart the planning process way before the event! A year-and-a-half is just barelyenough time,especially in a popular place like Vancouver, where hotel venuesoften get booked years inadvance. We held our first official planning meeting onSept. 23, 2004 – twenty months beforethe event, and wed already been doingwork well before this!Recruit a large group of creative, collaborative, well-organized, hard-working,self-motivated people to do all the actual work. (I have more adjectives andsuperlatives that I could reel off, but you get the picture.) The larger thecommittee, the better. A large committee can be harder for the Chair to What we learned:manage, but they do get the job done. Our final conference planning committee "From the keynote speakerhad 20 people, of whom 12 had been involved since the first formal meeting. Dr. Fuller I was reminded that libraries should try toSeek advice from others. Talk to previous conference planning committees, and provide answersread their reports. Read the conference planning manual. Talk to the Board to questions, not just listsmembers. The conference planning experience varies from year to year, but of resources that mightmuch of the process has been documented by others, so use their expertise potentially be useful."whenever possible.Hold regular conference planning meetings. An email listserv is a huge blessing(and also a curse!) for conference planning, but meeting face-to-face isessential. We held a total of seventeen planning meetings – monthly after thefirst couple of widely-spaced meetings, and moving to bi-weekly in the last fewmonths. Meetings help a large group keep focused, and talking about issues inperson serves to clarify and resolve issues. Do set timelines for meeting agendas,and try to keep the discussion to the time limits. Serve refreshments wheneverpossible!Communicate, communicate, and communicate! A committee that talksfrequently stays together… and will still be talking to each other by the time theconference takes place. A dedicated planning committee listserv is a must, andcommittee members have to be prepared to read ALL the emails. (You may wantto ask your IT dept. for the largest mailbox size possible, as a lot ofdocument-sharing goes on.) A private website for the planning committee tostore documents, minutes and other useful information is a terrific asset.

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 Remember to celebrate your successes – all the way along. Each planning sub-committee has peak activity levels and accomplishments happening at different times, so dont forget to toast the little triumphs that occur throughout the process. If you can celebrate throughout, it makes the going a bit easier. Have a BIG party at the end. Conference planning begins and ends with the people involved, and ultimately What we’re gonna do the committee is what made the conference planning process memorable for about it: me. Meeting regularly with the planning committee for the past twenty "Stay on top of months has given me a chance to get to know these talented colleagues in a technology." way that workplace and professional meetings havent allowed. This must be the truest sign of a successful conference planning committee…that youll miss one another after the conference ends! A W ORD TO THE W ISE - IT S W ORRY THAT K ILLS, N OT W ORK ! Charlotte Beck, Librarian, Woodward Library, UBC charlotte.be ck@ub c.ca One day back in 2004 I agreed to chair the Continuing Education Subcommittee for the 2006 CHLA/ABSC conference. The next day, while questioning my sanity, I realized I had been beguiled by the persuasive powers of Planning Committee Chair, Cathy Rayment, and panic set in. In which I cross a number of bridges – all of which appear to be burning. What if we couldnt find any suitable topics? What if the instructors agreed to teach but failed to show up? What if we couldnt find any suitable and affordable computer labs? What if we offered the courses, but no one registered? In which I realize that many hands make light work. My first worry proved groundless. My CHLA/ABSC Board responsibilities would rule out full-time participation in final preparations of the simultaneous CE events and a co-chair was called for. Christine Marton volunteered and when she needed to move back to Toronto, Teresa Lee stepped up to the plate to take on the coordination of the contracts, CE facilities and food breaks, and the supervision of volunteer monitors. So now there were three co-chairs! In which I take lessons from the past Drawing on information from the previous conferences, surveys and on personal recommendations, we divided the list of key topics of interest among the co-chairs. Finding instructors for the majority of the courses was not the problem I had anticipated. Most of the targeted presenters were willing and available, and contracts were prepared for 13 courses.

HLABC FORUM Page 9A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.In the end we offered 12 courses, 5 of which required computer labs. As thehotel was providing the meeting rooms, our preference was to use UBC Robson,SFU or BCIT downtown facilities. Unfortunately, these spaces could not bereserved until about 2 months before the conference andthe nerves could notwithstand this uncertainty. We provisionally booked lab space on the UBCcampus, which was a good thing as our preferred choice, UBC Robson, turnedout to be unavailable for the Friday classes.Dont count your chickens before they are hatched.By March 2006 we had finalized the slate of courses, confirmed commitmentsfrom instructors and paid down-payments on facilities. Now, would people What we learned:register? The Toronto conference report was released and judging by their "Sarah Greenleysactual CE attendance numbers, wed over-anticipated registration by 50%! Slow presentation analysing theregistration kept me awake in the wee hours of the morning and it looked as pros and cons ofthough we would have to cancel half the workshops. However, on April 7th, the systematic searching vs.deadline for early bird registration fees, 4 courses became fully booked and wehad to scramble to close off online registration. By Conference time the literatureremainder of the courses exceeded their break-even targets and normal sleep surveillance waspatterns returned! elucidating."Give credit where credit is dueFrom the start the first-rate hotel facilities and keen staff, the catchy slogan,and the professionally designed and eye-catching logo all combined to giveimpetus to the planning. The Conference Planning Manual and previous planningcommittee reports were invaluable in providing clear timelines and insightfultips. But most important of all was working with a dedicated group of people,my co-chairs and the planning committee, all equally committed to making theconference a success. This was the best antidote to an overactive imaginationand the unjustified fear of an apocalypse.

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 INFORMATION L ITERACY E XPECTATIONS AND P ERCEPTIONS: A C OMPARISON OF M EDICAL S CHOOL F ACULTY AND S TUDENTS.* Presented by Lindsay Glynn and Sue Fahey at the Canadian Health Libraries Association 2006 Annual Conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Ana Rosa Blue, Librarian, Lions Gate Hospital, Vancouver Coa stal Health Library What we’re gonna do Services, anar osa.blue@ vch.ca about it: "Change the way I view What is information literacy? The American Library Association offers the leadership activities. following definition: Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring Encourage my coworkers individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to and myself to ‘lead from locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." "Information the ranks more often." literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning." Sue Fahey and Lindsay Glynn set out to investigate information literacy expectations and perceptions of faculty and students in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University. The object of their survey was to determine what information literacy skills faculty expect, and perceive, medical students to possess by the end of their 1st and 4th years of medical school, and conversely, what information literacy skills medical students expect, and perceive, they should have acquired by the end of their 1st and 4th years of medical school. Memorial University offers no information literacy component in its curriculum. Nonetheless, at the start of 2006 Fahey and Glynn collected data via two surveys sent to 243 students and 200 full-time faculty. The anonymous online surveys ran for 3 weeks. Fahey and Glynn identified 60 competencies in the following areas: general, PubMed, Cochrane, evidence-based medicine, ethics and copyright, PDAs, and the Internet. The surveys went out by e-mail, and the systems office looked after the coding and responses. Analysis of survey results was done in SPSS by a biostatistician. The response rate was 7.2% for faculty and 9.2% for students. Glynn and Fahey puzzled over the low rates, because the expected return rate was 20%. They speculated that perhaps the surveys were too long, that insufficient reminders were sent, or the surveys were viewed as unimportant and therefore ignored. Of the faculty members who did respond, a significant number selected "no response" to many of the competencies. This was perhaps due to faculty members not understanding the questions, not knowing the answer, or simply quitting before they reached the end.

HLABC FORUM Page 11 Two trends were noted: 1) Students had higher expectations of themselves thandid faculty. 2) Students expected to obtain most competencies early in theireducation, whereas faculty expected competencies to be gained by the end of4th year of medical school or in residency.Despite low response rates, the survey increased the visibility of the library andled to greater contact between librarians and faculty, resulting in a librarylecture and an assignment being added to the curriculum in the communityhealth course.The next steps identified by the authors are to identify actual skill and abilities,develop competency standards, conduct a similar study in Pharmacy and What we learned:Nursing, and compare results with other medical schools. Fahey and Glynn “ Adult learners have ancalculate that it might take 5 – 10 years to carry out these activities. The average attention span ofauthors plan to publish a more comprehensive report of this survey in the 12 to 20 minutes, then youfuture. need to try another methodThis study captures student and faculty perceptions at one Canadian university. of presentation! (From JanIt will be interesting to read the final report and to see how other medical Johnsons ce session onschools compare. teaching tips)”* This is a condensed version of an article to appear in The One Person Library,v. 23, no. 3, July 2006. By permission.-------- American Library Association, "Presidential Committee on Information Literacy.Final Report." (Chicago: American Library Association, 1989).<http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/presidential.htm>.Accessed on 19 May 2006.American Library Association, "Information Literacy Competency Standards forHigher Education." Chicago: American Library Association, 2000, p.2. Sue Fahey is a reference/instruction librarian, and co-ordinator of theNewfoundland and Labrador Health Knowledge Information Network. She has aspecial interest in information literacy and the role it plays in the delivery ofhealth. Lindsay Glynn is an instruction coordinator at the Health Sciences Libraryat Memorial University. Co-founder and Associate Editor of Evidence BasedLibrary and Information Practice, Glynn is completing a graduate diploma inclinical epidemiology. <http://www.chla-absc.ca/2006/>. Accessed on 15 May2006. Canadian Health Libraries Association 2006 Conference website,<http://www.chla-absc.ca/2006/>. Accessed on 15 May 2006.

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 A C OLLECTIONS V IEW Lee Perry, Reference/History of Medicine/Collections Librarian, Woodward Library, UBC lee.perry@ ubc.ca How does a collections librarian profit from going to CHLA? I asked myself this question as I was thinking about my conference experience. A bit of reflection and a perusal of all the notes Id taken revealed that it was indeed a What we’re gonna do worthwhile experience for me. The role the vendors play in our annual about it: meeting is responsible for this to a large extent, although I certainly gleaned “ Find a creative way to some useful tidbits from contributed papers by librarians as well. get information to more people in the hospital. .... For a collections librarian the vendors at the conference are a great resource. Read all the handouts I I went armed with several questions, particularly about pricing on specific received Create a list of eresources. Very seldom can a large institution get this information without all the websites that I asking directly; the website will give ‘contact us information only and email have never heard of and inquiries often result in a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. But I got direct answers visit them” from the McGraw-Hill representative, and others, which pleased me. And I discovered interesting things. I have been feeling badly for about two years Editor - A LL? A mbitious! about UBCs decision to dump Login as a vendor when we switched to Coutts, but was relieved to discover through the Login rep that Login in fact supplies Coutts. (The circuitous route of course takes longer!) Having the Elsevier rep on site to explain why a number of ejournals on ScienceDirect, formerly available to us, had mysteriously disappeared was comforting. As it turns out, it wasnt Elseviers fault; the societies had withdrawn the rights. CISTI, though, seems to be flogging the same old books every year (for example, Canadian Medicinal Crops, 1998.) The vendors participated also in the contributed papers sessions and I guess this is all right (as long as we have full disclosure). Sandy Iversons (EBSCO) talk was a rundown on ejournals – a good summary pointing out all of the pitfalls and difficulties. Or was it a pitch for the purchase of an eResource Management Tool? Never mind, we are currently trying to make one work at UBC. Brian Lapeer of Dynamed straightened us all out on evidence-based treatment (on which his product is based) versus other therapies that are out there, used for millennia, and sometimes featured in textbooks, but havent been through the randomized controlled trials mill yet. But collections librarians love the vendors; we couldnt do our jobs and our conferences would look much different without them. They treat us very well and add significantly to making the conference the enjoyable experience it is. Among the library-contributed papers Bill Poluhas on the development of a library collection of assessment tools or toolkits for the use of the School of Medical Rehabilitation at the University of Manitoba drew my attention. This is something we do not have at Woodward Library, but perhaps we should? Bill outlined the rather daunting obstacles to purchasing such items. Only credentialed professionals (such as faculty) can purchase the tools and there

HLABC FORUM Page 13must be a guarantee that they will be used for teaching purposes only. Lockedcabinets and liability-type loan agreements are among the complications forcirculation staff. These items are expensive and the University of Manitobalibrary had a special grant, so perhaps it is not something that Woodward willdo. In any event I copied down the titles of the print reference books hereferred to and made sure that we have those!These are just a few examples of why my conference fees were well-spent. Notto mention I had fun!A N O PEN L ETTER TO C OOL T OOLS SUCH AS RSS, W IKIS, ANDB LOGSPeter T yrrell, Senior Co nsultant, And ornot C onsulting Inc.ptyrrell@andornot.com What we learned: “ The term Mashing, andDear Tools, that it is the combination of a different onlineIt was my pleasure to introduce you to a packed computer lab full of health portals to create a newlibrarians that sumptous Friday afternoon in May. May the 12th, I think it was, information base.”just before CHLA 2006. What a day that was. You were shy at first, but youreasy, breezy sense of fun and fresh scent quickly translated into street cred forthose health lib mavens.Do you remember how we totally, like, made that wiki together, all of us? Athttp://pbwiki.com? Where you can make "a free, password-protected wiki aseasily as a peanut butter sandwich?" Good times. PBWiki, I was told afterwardsthat some of them participants smuggled you home and set you up for their ownpurposes. You sly devil.Tools, did we not also set up a blog at http://blogger.com for each and everyone of us? The laughter. The tears. The time I blew my nose and hoped nobodywould notice. We have to hold on to memories like these, Tools, for time is acruel mistress. "When I have seen by Times fell hand defacd" and all that.RSS, we will not omit to mention you. How we subscribed! To searches, toPubMed, to our own blogs, to podcasts! I couldnt believe everyone actually sangalong to the RSS song. Oh yeah, I made that part up. But everyone singing an RSSsong together would have been pretty frickin awesome.When I beheld the room suffused with Learn waves, and saw the Savv-o-meterapproaching critical, I felt very proud. Thank you, Tools. Truly, you are so cool.Congratulations and thanks to everyone who attended!

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 B IOINFORMATICS: A M INI L ESSON Sally Taylor, Librarian, Woodward Biomedical Library, UBC sally.taylor@ ubc.ca BLAST! No, thats not an expletive but actually one of the tools we learned about in the CE session Bioinformatics Information Resources presented by Dr. Joanne Fox, Research Associate and Head of Support & Training at the UBC What we’re gonna do Bioinformatics Centre. Joanne, who teaches a fourth year microbiology course about it: on bioinformatics and participates in the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshop “ I would like to modify series, tailored the session for librarians whose knowledge of genetics may be the way I teach a few years out-of-date (ahem). workshops to make them more exciting for the Bioinformatics is a research field that integrates the use of computers, participants and make software tools, and databases in an effort to address biological questions. We sure they get the most tend to think of genes and proteins but bioinformatics could be used to out of the sessions.” understand cells, entire organisms, and even their interaction with the environment (an area of research called Systems Biology). Of interest to health researchers is how diagnosis and treatment could be personalized based on someones genetic makeup, a scenario that became possible with the mapping of the human genome. Librarians may be heavy users of PubMed but many of us ignore the 20+ other databases available through the NCBI Entrez search engine. Joanne offered us no escape but led us gently into the Nucleotide database (aka GenBank), the database that holds DNA sequences of specific genes. By searching "avian flu," we found sequences for the Influenza A virus submitted by researchers who are studying the virus. One of the powerful features of Entrez is the linking between databases. Using Links from the GenBank record, we connected to the Taxonomy Browser for information about the virus, the Protein database to learn about the protein that is coded by the DNA sequence, and to PubMed for the bibliographic citation where the authors published the sequence. We also linked from the GenBank record to Related Sequences, in the same way you might select Related Articles in PubMed. This is where BLAST comes in. Its the tool used to identify similar sequences among all the sequences in GenBank, and is of interest to researchers because related sequences may share similar biological functions. Heres an exercise we did in class for you to try. * Start in familiar territory (i.e. PubMed). * Search: avian flu genome sequence * Using Links, find an article that is linked to the Nucleotide database (not all are). * Examine the GenBank record; notice that it looks quite different from one in PubMed.

HLABC FORUM Page 15In the second half of the workshop, Joanne introduced us to three GenomeBrowsers, tools that are used to navigate the entire human genome and toaccess knowledge attached to the raw sequence. Using the UCSC genomebrowser, we navigated the region of the human genome for BRCA1 (BreastCancer 1 Gene). Using the browser, we zoomed in and out, and moved along thegenome to find neighbouring genes. We only skimmed the surface of thebrowsers functionality but one could appreciate the variety of options availableto researchers with the scientific know-how.I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. Joanne did a wonderful job of presenting acomplicated set of resources to non-scientists. She used analogies (baking acake) and examples (avian flu) that we could easily understand, and her passion What we learned:and knowledge of the subject were evident. We also had a chance at the end to "An opportunity totalk briefly about Open Access, an important issue to libraries and the scholarly network and to meetcommunity. Bioinformatics goes hand in hand with Open Access. Researchers others, apart from CE andsubmit sequences to Open Access databases like GenBank and commonly share conference speakers andcomputer code. The researchers at the UBC Bioinformatics Centre led by FrancisOuellette are strong proponents for Open Access and typically publish in OA sessions, is the mostjournals. important aspect of CHLA/ABSC."Definitions* Gene – length of DNA that codes for a specific protein* Genome – total genetic information of an individual; made-up of all the genescontained in a single set of chromosomes* Genomics - the analysis of all genes and transcripts within the genome* Proteomics – the analysis of the complete set of proteinsResources* What is Bioinformatics?http://bioinformatics.ubc.ca/about/what_is_bioinformatics/* NCBI databases: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ [click on All Databases]* Linkage s between NC BI da tabases: http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/Database/datamodel* UCS C Genom e Brow ser: http://genome.cse.ucsc.edu [click on G enom e Brow ser]G OSSIP A FTER THE C ONFERENCE.(what non-attendees had heard about us - wink wink. From the survey - p.18) Aquarium Reception and Banquet Dinner were both excellent.Pleasant atmosphere and afriendly conference. Paper quality varied according to individual information needs andpreferences. The program was very good, and the person felt that they got a lot out ofit! Good range of sessions Great kick off for eHLbc. Very specialized presentations thatdo not provide the average worker with handy or useful tips for practice once theyreturn home. [Editor - OUCH!] I heard the Embase session was fantastic. Our designatedLibrarian sent around a report of the activities that she did and the differentworkshops/lectures types she attended. It seemed really interesting. Our delegate wasvery impressed with the reception and banquet facilities. Heard whats happening nextwith the CHLA Standards. Posting to the Website, 2 new committees forming.... Greatconference CE session about systematic reviews was excellent. Greenlee presentation onevidence based products vs systematic reviews particularly good

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 D ISCOVER THE L EADER IN Y OU ! D EVELOPING AND R EALIZING YOUR L EADERSHIP P OTENTIAL. Presented by Laurie Scott, Daniel Phelan and Wayne Glover, CE Course Offered at the Canadian Health Libraries Association 2006 Annual Conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Ana Rosa Blue, Librarian, Lions Gate Hospital, Vancouver Coa stal Health Library What we’re gonna do Services, anar osa.blue@ vch.ca about it: “ Keep on top of For a synopsis of the course and biographies of the presenters, please visit: scanning my health http://www.chla-absc.ca/2006/ under the ‘Continuing Education tab. information/librarianship listserves - scan at least Leadership is a fascinating subject. There is much to know and learn. A the subject lines once a half-day session was insufficient time to do this topic justice. As one of the day.” winners of the CHLA/ABSC Chapter Scholarship for Leadership Development it was a thrill to attend Discover the leader in you! Developing and realizing your leadership potential. I would like to thank Karen MacDonell from the Medical Library of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. for supporting the scholarship application, and to the CHLA Board for awarding it. This workshop solidified my conviction that leaders are: inspirational visionaries who are ethical and respectful of others. They are effective communicators with courage and commitment. Leaders are selfless creatures who empower those around them to fully use their talents. The workshop explored the following issues: traits of leaders, good leaders vs. good managers, determining ones own leadership potential, taking on a leadership role in ones job and professional associations, and leadership institutes. Traits of leaders include: being good listeners, seeing the big picture and having a plan, charisma and passion. Leaders are inspiring, forward-looking, and decisive. They are agents of change, and lifelong learners who never give up. Leaders are born with an aptitude to lead. As with other aptitudes, leadership qualities can be developed with guidance and nurturing. This workshop was one step in the right direction. Being a good leader is different from being a good manager: Leaders have traits that make them good managers. The difference between managers and leaders, according to Warren Bennis, is that: "The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing." How to determine ones own leadership potential: To "discover the leader" in individual participants, the facilitators provided a "Checklist of Leadership Qualities" so participants could rates themselves, on a scale of 1 to 10. The checklist served as a good starting point for discovering the leader within.

HLABC FORUM Page 17Taking on a leadership role in ones job and professional associations: A goodway to develop leadership abilities is to participate in ones professionalassociation. Taking on responsibility is a leadership trait. Participating in anassociation provides opportunities for personal development and ways to giveback to your profession. There is no excuse for not getting involved. Is a leadership institute right for you? A few of the institutes mentioned wereACRL/Harvard Institute, Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute and the MPLALeadership Institute. It is worthwhile investigating institutes provided by onesorganization or local universities, especially business schools. Individuals need todetermine which institute is right for them. An important task of this half-daycourse was the personal action plan participants were asked to think about andact upon once they returned to work. The purpose of the action plan is to What we learned:motivate participants to start developing leadership skills and/or take on a "Working in a corporateleadership role. The facilitators fulfilled their agenda. But the work of further environment, Ive heard sodiscovery and meeting ones leadership potential – to take home what was much aboutlearned in the workshop, read more on the topic, get involved in professionalassociations, act on ones personal action plan and start cultivating the qualities evidence-based medicineof great leaders – depends on the individual. and its impact on medical Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, c1989. librarianship. Ive finally<http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/features/leader/leader.html>. Accessed 28 got a grasp of what its allMay 2006. about."T O THE B EAT OF O UR O WN D RUMTrina Fyfe, Northern Health Sciences Librarian, Geoffrey R. Weller Library, UNBCtfyfe@un bc.caSince the conference I have been trying to get an estimate for the Sawagi Taikodrumming group to provide entertainment at a conference Im helping toorganize in Prince George. Sawagi Taiko was fantastic! I thought their drummingcomplemented the conference and our ever evolving roles as health librarians.On its website the group describes the reason its members play taiko: toovercome "stereotypes of Asians as quiet and hardworking but basicallymechanical and uncreative." The group states that Sawagi Taiko is the "vehicleto show the power and creativity of Asian culture, particularly of Asian women."The group offers "an alternative to the stereotype of Asian women as quiet anddemure."This outlook translates to our profession well. Traditionally, some would say,librarians are considered "quiet and hardworking but basically mechanical anduncreative." The CHLA conference once again proved that this is not the case.The conference is our vehicle to show our ability to be creative and to makegreat contributions to the profession and to the health communities with whichwe all work.For more information about Sawagi Taiko:http://www.shinnova.com/part/86-sawa

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 E VERYONES T WO C ENTS: RESULTS OF THE POST-CONFERENCE SURVEY Teresa Lee, Librarian, W oodw ard Library, U BC. tere sa.lee@ ubc.ca Krista Clem ent, BC C ancer A gency Libra rian, Kelow na BC kclem ent@ bccancer.bc.ca After the 2006 CHLA/ABSC Conference, an online survey gathered responses to the event from across the country. The survey ran from May 19 - 29, 2006. A total of 133 responded, of which 77% had attended the conference. (See following graphics for full details). Two-thirds of attendees either responded What we’re gonna do that they had learned "a significant amount" or "plenty," and named CE about it: courses, contributed papers and formal social events as the three most “ We were thinking of personally and professionally valuable activities of the conference. redesigning our catalogue homepage - When asked to reflect on one thing theyd learned at the conference, now were inspired to do respondents gave a range of answers, from the copyright CE course and it.” practical techniques for gathering grey literature to Dr. Fullers keynote remarks and the fact that "BC natives lie about how much rain they get"! Generally, however, the majority of comments on this question named some aspect of CE courses, with grey literature, cool tools, systematic reviews and copyright being the most popular topics. Survey respondents also shared their specific post-conference resolutions, some of which were to bring "renewed energy to the work place," to "find some champions to establish an eHealth Library in Alberta," to apply new technology and training methods," and "to incorporate a patient focus into the librarys role." More conference comments are in the sidebars throughout this issue of the Forum. 1. Did you attend Conference? Although 133 people entered the survey, most later questions were answered by 70 or fewer respondents. That’s still triple our usual Forum we b survey participa tion!! 2. More than half of those not attending the conference, had heard something about it. Conferences have the potential to benefit even people who didn’t attend them! Next tim e yo u go to an event, think abo ut w hat you will “take ho me w ith yo u.” 4. How MUCH did you learn?

HLABC FORUM Page 19This question was a 4-point scale. Although most described their learning as“significant,” the av erage score fell very close to the centre o f the chart. Even m oreinteresting was that early responders were much more likely to say they learned“plenty,” and the a vera ge score gradua lly droppe d ov er the tim e the survey w as o pen. Asign that respon dents recalled less at a greate r distance from the event?6. Do conferences CHANGEbehaviour (or at leastintentions)?Conference is like New Yea r’s :abun dant in resolutio ns. A thirdof us resolved to a dd MO RE toour a lread y busy sc hedules. Iwish some evidence-basedresearch revealed areas of ourbusy work which are really notproductive, so I could reso lve tocut back o n those area s... only one person thou ght so. Cha nge in practice m ight indicategreater efficiency rather than more w ork - improvements which m ight even reduceworkload? Finally, to those brave folks who withstood temptation and made noresolutions at all ... hey! Did you think you came to conference just for the social events?What is this, a party? Get with it and pick up a load of guilt like the rest of us! (Justkidding)8. SIGNIFICANCEOka y, I apolo gize. I wa nted a ranking FROM 1 to 7 , and m any w ere co nfused . There a reseveral ways to read the results. One can look at average scores: definitely continuingeducation courses and contributed papers are highly valued. Social events, formal orinformal, are also very important at conference. One also can look at the highest ratingfor a single activity, and see that exhibit halls exhibited split personality, some ratingthem low, and some rating them high. Perhaps a reflection of the “collections librarian”viewpoint (see article p.12) I also note that many people were not able to attend vendorsponsored courses, informal social events, and even the CE. I am intrigued by this table,but hesitate to draw too many conclusions from it. Clearly there was something foreveryone, andeveryone foundsomething ofvalue forthem selve s.

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 TECHNOLOGY W EBLOGGING FOR H EALTH L IBRARIANS* Eugene Barsky, Physiotherapy Outreach Librarian, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, UBC eugene.barsky@ubc.ca Before 1997, the term weblog just didnt exist. By 1999 there were only a few hundred blogs. Today, the search site Technorati.com tracks almost 29 million What we’re gonna do of them. Weblogs, or blogs, have been defined as online journals, published about it: chronologically, with links to and commentary on various issues of interest. “ Stop doing the clerical chores” Blogs are easy to create and publish for many reasons. First, one need not know how to code HTML to create a web page. The software will do that for you as they all have built-in templates. Second, the weblog writer does not have to arrange any space on a server as most weblog tools provide free hosting space. The only work that the weblog writer needs to accomplish is creating the text. Its that simple. This ease of online publishing has made weblogs an international phenomenon, and numerous librarians and library staff (including yours truly - http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/) have recently created them. Frequently blogs are networked between several people and several members post thoughts that often revolve around a common theme. A January 2005 Pew/Internet memo, "The State of Blogging," found that 27 percent of Internet users said they read blogs - a 58 percent increase from the previous survey in early 2004. The memo is available at: (www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf). So yes, this is a widespread and popular Web trend. Many medical librarians have already jumped on this web-bandwagon; some of these blogs I read include Michelle Krafts "The Krafty Librarian" (http://www.kraftylibrarian.blogspot.com/), and Dean Giustinis "UBC Academic Search - Google Scholar Blog" (http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/googlescholar/). Other library blogs I subscribe to include Gary Prices excellent "ResourceShelf" (http://www.resourceshelf.com/), and Jenny Levines "The Shifted Librarian" (http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/). For entertainment, I like reading my RSS feed from The International Herald Tribune blogs (http://blogs.iht.com/). Those of us who havent started a weblog, but are considering doing so, might get started right away (yes, right after finishing this article!). While there are many weblog software tools available, users may want to try Googles Blogger (www.blogger.com), MoveableType (www.movabletype.org), or Live Journal (www.livejournal.com) to get started. All these publishing tools are easy to use, cost nothing (or next to it), and can have a weblog up and running in a matter of minutes.

HLABC FORUM Page 21It will take you about ten minutes to start your first blog by going through thesimple steps at Blogger (www.blogger.com). After deciding on a user name andpassword, you title your blog and choose a template (which can be changedanytime) for your page. You also create a profile and this enables others to findyou (and also enables you to locate people with similar interests).Admittedly, blogging is not for everybody; you have think about content that youare willing to share. It takes me approximately an hour a day to find content andwrite a meaningful post on our blog. It is a good idea to stay focused - if youmaintain a library blog, it should reflect the professional standards you apply to What we learned:every other publishing venue. The content you track should be distinctive, the “ ackkk! i just got backsort of material that no one else could present more effectively than you. A from mla so my mind islively discussion and presentation help to define a sense of community and stuffed with mla learningsidentity. at the moment!!! sorry, but i cant answer thisIf you want to search for other peoples posts on their blogs, here are two of themore robust (in my modest opinion) search engines that specialize in indexing question at the moment.”weblogs: Editor - perhaps we learned that too many conferences can* Technorati - http://www.technorati.com/. This is one of the biggies, and it is be too much of a good thing??able to search through almost 29 million blogs. One of the handy featuresinclude searching for blogs by subject; however this feature is not perfect. Forinstance a search for dermatology blogs retrieves only eight hits(http://www.technorati.com/blogs/dermatology).* Google Blog Search - http://blogsearch.google.com/. This is a powerful searchengine for self-publishing weblogging content. The good thing is that many ofthe standard Google commands are supported. For instance, you can searchblogs by author (inpostauthor:) or by words in title (inblogtitle:). For instance,lets use some command language to see posts on my blog- inpostauthor:EugeneBarsky blogurl:http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/I definitely agree, not everyone is born to blog, but blogging deserves a closelook, not only because of its simplicity, but also because of its potential to opena communication channel and a new zone for professional practice, particularlyin our specialization of health sciences librarianship.* This is a condensed version of an article to appear in JCHLA / JABSC 27: 33-34(2006)

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 DEL . ICIO . US: A S OCIAL B OOKMARKING S YSTEM Patricia L. Foster, Library Assistant, Woodward Library, UBC Scenario: Youve accidentally deleted your Firefox profile and with it all of your carefully collected resource bookmarks! Oh no! Fast forward to a free, stable, web-based social bookma rking system that can be accessed from any com puter, has a unique URI for referrals, a subscription feature and metatags for searching. Two such What we’re gonna do system s are fu rl (http://w ww .furl.net/) and del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/), with about it: del.icio.us being currently the most popular and a personal favourite. “ More efficient collection development” Del.icio.us is based on a folksonomy tagging system. You may recall taxonomies from high school biology. A taxonomy is a classification system that categorizes living organisms by phylum and genus. A folksonomy is similarly a classification system, but one b ased on ind ividual users perso nal m eanings. Acc ording to the Wik ipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy): "The freely chosen labels – called tags – help to improve search engines effectiveness because content is categorized using a familiar, accessible, and shared vocabulary. The labeling proce ss is called tagging ." For each b ook ma rk you add to your a ccou nt you can create a series o f tags. T his allows other users to search a variety of topics efficiently and subscribe to tags of interest to them. For example, if you wish to learn more about the popular Ruby programming language, a subscription to the Ruby tag will direct all new bookmarks with that tag to be delivered to your account inbox. They can then be added to your account if you wish to include them in your collection. Del.icio.us is not just limited to being a collection of favorite websites for entertainm ent. It can be used, for exa mple, as a resource list for a com pany project, a professors reading list for students, or a business professionals referral page that shows his or her colleagues what is new in their field. An interesting aspect of free web-based software is that often the product is repurposed by the user. The user in fact becomes the developer by finding new and innovative uses for the software. Generally the del.icio .us w ebsite is w ell orga nized a nd intuitiv e for the new user. The possibilities for uses are inexhaustible. However, the instructions for setting up a tag subscription are virtually non-existent and it took even an experienced webbie like me a while to figure out how to set up my inbox to receive entries for the tags I wished to su bscribe to.

HLABC FORUM Page 23G ETTING TO K NOW Y OU : A M EMBER P ROFILE OF J ULIE M ASONAn inte rview of Julie Mason, (Librarian, Chilliwack Gen eral Ho spital, Fraser H ealthAuthority; Julie.Maso n@frase rhealth.ca)By our k een re porter Linda How ard (Librarian, Surre y Mem orial, Fraser H ealth A uthorityLinda.Howard@fraserhealth.ca)Julie Mason is a librarian with the Fraser Health Authority based at ChilliwackGeneral Hospital. She provides library services to staff, medical residents andphysicians at Chilliwack General Hospital, MSA Hospital in Abbotsford, MissionHospital and Hope Hospital. She has held this position for the past 18 months.Julie has a BA in Speech Sciences and an MLS from UBC. She lives in Abbotsfordwith her husband Mike. Linda Howard recently interviewed Julie for the Forum.Question: What attracted you to librarianship? What we learned:Answer: My mother, a teacher, took me to the library often when I was growing “ Keynote speaker and theup. Wed bring home 2 or 3 bags full of books! I also spent a lot of time in websites she mentioned inlibraries as a student. I always felt libraries play a strong role in the community her presentation. and ....Iand are essential for lifelong learning; this made me feel that librarianship was always love to hear whatan important profession. I am the eldest of three so I was involved in helping my Dean and Eugene are up tosisters do research for their assignments and assisting them with findinginformation. Librarianship feels like a natural role for me and it was an obvious these days...”choice.Question: What do you like most about your job?Answer: There are always challenges—new issues and challenges are emergingall the time. I enjoy the academic environment, and the staff and residents atChilliwack General Hospital seem to really appreciate the work I do. There isalso a sense of camaraderie among the health librarians that I enjoy. This job isan opportunity for continuous learning.Question: What is one of the most interesting and challenging questions youhave had recently?Answer: To find how to calculate the intraocular lens power prior to performingcataract surgery on patients who have already had Photorefractive Keratectomy(or Lasik surgery).Question: Tell me a little about where you grew up.Answer: I grew up in Richmond and went to school there from kindergarten tohigh school. My mother is a teacher, so my family put great emphasis on schooland libraries. I spent a lot of time at Richmond Public Library. Libraries werethe centre of this community.Question: What are you currently reading?Answer: I just finished reading "The Kite Runner." I found it moving andastounding. It wasnt a book you can take lightly.

VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2 Question: Where did you meet your husband? Answer: I met Mike via an online dating website—we both noticed that we had so much in common. We will have been married a year this July. Question: What do you like to do for fun? Answer: I really enjoy our home theatre for watching films and television What we’re gonna do shows. I also enjoy exploring parks and hiking. I am starting to get interested about it: in artistic photography and am eager to learn more. "Try to find some champions to establish Question: What is a recent film that you liked? an eHealth Library in Answer: We recently rented a DVD called Water. It was about a very young Alberta." widow in India, early in the 20th century. The movie depicted the struggle between preserving traditional values and the movement towards human rights and liberties. Its a beautiful film. Very touching. Question: Do you have any professional or personal goals you have identified for the future? Answer: I would like to further develop my skills as a health sciences librarian by pursuing continuing education opportunities and reading as much as I can. As for personal goals, Im dreaming of touring Europe and Asia someday... Question: What is one of your most visited web sites? Answer: So many of the requests I receive have to do with guidelines and standards of practice, so I find that the CMA Infobase is a website that I use regularly for clinical practice guidelines. Thanks for letting me get to know you a little better, Julie! A C ONFERENCE IN C YBERSPACE Patricia L. Foster, Library Assistant, Woodward Library, UBC The HigherEdBlogCon 2006 – "Transforming Academic Communities with New Tools of the Social Web" (http://www.higheredblogcon.com/) – was an online conference held April 3-28, 2006. This innovative conference was planned by participants from 30 North American institutions using wiki social software. The wiki acted as an online collaborative tool for developing and planning group projects. The organizers created a weblog which was used as a website for the conference, with the lectures presented in a variety of formats. Every kind of social software was in the mix: blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting…you name it! The presenters used this social software to connect with other presenters, librarians, educators, researchers and students. Interactivity was encouraged by asking virtual conference participants to post comments on the presentations, discuss them in their own blogs and submit reviews for future publication. As a professional library assistant and social software fanatic I was keenly interested in the second weeks topic: The Library & Information Resources

HLABC FORUM Page 25( http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/library-information-resources/ ).It was right up my alley and I planned on writing a review for my blog once I hadfinished the conference. Brian Lamb of UBC Office of Learning Technology offerssome screen shots and commentaries of the conference on his blog: (http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/brian/archives/024860.html ). The plenary Iparticipated in was entitled, "Patrons in the Drivers Seat: Give AdvancedTool-Sets to Library Patrons" (http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/patrons-in-the-drivers-seat-giving-advanced-tool-se ts-to-library-patrons/ ) by John Blyberg of Ann Arbor DistrictLibrary. There were two issues raised by Blyberg that caught my attention. The What we learned:first item I considered was the "virtual card catalogue." As Woodward Library is a “ That I know much morebiomedical research library, allowing patrons the ability to create their own than I thought I did (andinventories of previously used resources as well as items of interest would be of still have so much more togreat benefit. This has definitely been on the wish list of many a researcher. learn - ie grey lit)”Moreover, being able to create lists that the public can then view by going to aunique URI would be an added bonus. For example, a course instructor would beable to refer students and colleagues to a URI that features a list of resources heor she has been looking at.The second item is the library patrons ability in the future to add content to thecollection. As John Blyberg mentioned this might include historical photographsand potentially other media such as podcasts of conferences and politicalspeeches. Recently I attended the Northern Voice 2006 blogging conferencewhere podcasting and the subsequent posting of these casts on blogs acted as arecord of the event and allowed access to those who were not able to attendlectures in person.I enjoyed this style of conferencing. It was very convenient with no travelinvolved or high conferences fees. I participated in the lectures and listened tothe podcasts at my convenience and I was also able to initiate some globalconversation on these topics by posting comments and writing about them in myblog (http://careerspaceezine.com). I googled my name recently and found thata librarian in Saskatchewan has bookmarked my blog in the social bookmarkingsite Furl! However, despite my satisfaction with this experience I still prefermeeting people in the real world. I would argue that while information is useful(and addictive) the people who create, research, and explore their own ideasand inspirations are intriguing in their own right and we miss something of theirpersonalities in cyberspace. I would suggest that future online conferences be acombination of cyberspace and "press the flesh." What we learned at CHLA/ABSC 2006: "BC natives lie about how much rain they get."

HLABC Forum: Spring/Summer 2006

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HLABC Forum: Spring/Summer 2006 Document Transcript