This issue of the HLABC Forum focuses on intellectual freedom and health libraries. In her editorial, the guest editor discusses how she initially doubted intellectual freedom would be an issue for health libraries based on her research. However, she found few relevant articles were indexed with subject headings related to intellectual freedom, making them difficult to find. She also discovered health professionals had published more on topics like censorship and publication bias than librarians. The issue includes articles on barriers to intellectual freedom in health libraries, as well as reports on upcoming events and initiatives from HLABC and CHLA. It also introduces the screen recording software Jing as a tool for librarians to create instructional videos.

1. Volume 32 Issue 1
Winter 2009
HLABC FORUM
Intellectual Freedom
and Health Libraries

2. PAGE 2 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial...............................................................3
President's Message.......................................... 5
HLABC 2008-2009 EXECUTIVE Treasurer's Report .............................................6
Website Report .................................................. 6
President
Ana Rosa Blue CHLA Report...................................................... 7
Past President Technology: Jing.................................................8
Diana Hall
General Meeting: Laura Watts............................10
Vice President / President-
Elect Intellectual Freedom and Health Libraries.......... 12
Devon Greyson Government-Imposed Barriers........................... 15
Secretary
Elisheba Muturi Getting to Know You Better................................ 18
Treasurer/Membership Upcoming Events................................................20
Anne Allgaier
Website Committee:
Robyn Ingvallsen,
Megan Wiebe,
Doug Salzwedel
Listserv Coordinator:
Kathy Hornby
Forum
Layout:
Krista Clement
Guest Editor: The HLABC Forum is published quarterly by the Health Libraries
Niki Baumann Association of BC, ISSN: 0826-0125
Submissions and story ideas are welcomed.
Publication is not guaranteed and manuscripts may be edited.
For contact information please visit the website:
http://www.hlabc.bc.ca/
For HLABC membership information, visit our website at www.hlabc.bc.ca
or write to:
Anne Allgaier, Treasurer/Membership
Library, Prince George Regional Hospital
1475 Edmonton St. Prince George, BC V2M 1S2
email Anne.allgaier@northernhealth.ca
Fees are $25.00 (regular) or $15.00 (student, maximum 2 years) and
include the Forum.

3. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 3
EDITORIAL:
THE ISSUE NOT AT HAND: THE SEARCH FOR INTELLECTUAL
FREEDOM AND HEALTH LIBRARIES
Niki Baumann is the Guest Editor of this issue of the HLABC Forum, and a
librarian at College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC Library and AskAway.
When the topic of “intellectual freedom in health libraries” was first
proposed, I admit to having been a little dubious. I remembered
having questioned a librarian acquaintance after my first SLAIS class
on intellectual freedom. She happened to be a medical librarian, and
I had asked her about book challenges at her library. She had told
me that she never received any.
As the guest editor, I thought it would be good to learn a little more
about the topic, so, like a good librarian, I went to the library
databases to check out the “literature”. There were some great
subject headings, and I started combining them.
Surprisingly, even the broadest searches, such as (Intellectual
Freedom OR Censorship OR Prohibited Books) AND (Medical
Libraries OR Hospital Libraries OR Nursing Libraries OR Dental
Libraries OR Pharmaceutical Libraries) came up with one or two old
articles.
Was it really possible that Intellectual Freedom was a non-issue for
health libraries?
But no – there had been a controversy earlier in 2008 about the
POPLINE database. The word “abortion” had briefly been listed as a
stopword in this database – but was removed from the stopword list
after a swift hue and cry was raised.
I tried a keyword search for popline AND abortion, and quickly
discovered several articles on the topic. After looking through the
subject headings, I found that only one of these had been labelled
with the subject heading: “censorship”. The rest did not have any
subject headings related to intellectual freedom.
It seemed that you needed to know what you were looking for in
order to find it. How would the lack of intellectual freedom-related
subject headings affect librarians’ ability to find relevant articles? It
had certainly affected mine. Were there other intellectual freedom
issues affecting health libraries that health librarians didn’t know
about simply because they couldn’t find any information about them?
But then, was anyone looking for that information? Before I was the
guest editor of this issue, I hadn’t done any searching for this topic.
As the submission deadline came and went, it became apparent that
hardly anyone else in this Association had anything to say on this
topic either.
One day in January, I needed to do a quick search in PubMed just
as an example. On impulse I typed in the word censorship. Lo and

4. PAGE 4 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
behold, over 200 articles came up. And while many of them were
about different types of censorship (apparently it’s a term used in
statistics and in astronomy), there were plenty of articles on
censorship and health information.
Clearly, there was information out there. I decided to go back to the
library databases and see if a simple keyword search like the one I’d
tried in PubMed would work there too. A search for censorship AND
(health OR medicine OR medical) turned up one POPLINE-related
article and a few on sex-education books being challenged in public
and school libraries. Nothing about publication bias, self-censorship,
or any of the other juicy topics that PubMed contained.
It seemed that the health professionals were a lot more interested in
intellectual freedom than the librarians, if their respective literature
was anything to go by. Furthermore, everyone that I tried to recruit
seemed to have a friend who had an opinion on the topic, but no one
had much to say for themselves. Or else, people did have opinions,
but not the time to write about them.
So here’s a little of that hard-to-find, hard-to-describe, hard-to-inspire
information on intellectual freedom and health libraries. Who knows
– maybe it’s having a greater impact on our work than we think.

5. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 5
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Ana Rosa Blue is a Librarian at WorkSafeBC – Corporate Library Services
Hello, everyone! I am writing this at the end of November. By the
time you read this, the holiday break will have come and gone, as
will the January guest speaker. Amazing how fast time flies when
you are having fun!
Your HLABC Executive team has organized dynamic speakers and
topics for your enlightenment.
In November, 2008, Dr. Irving Rootman, Executive Director of the
Canadian Council on Learning’s Health and Learning Knowledge
Centre and an Adjunct Professor in Human and Social Development
and Education at the University of Victoria, presented a talk on
Health Literacy. His talk and slides will be available on the HLABC
website, in the Members-only section, before long.
In January, Laura Watts, National Director for the Canadian Centre
for Elder Law, is scheduled to speak on patient care implications of
the new Advanced Directives legislation. The presentation will be
coupled with the HLABC’s annual New Year’s brunch.
The partnership between HLABC and the British Columbia Library
Association means that HLABC has an opportunity to organize and
share favourite topics with a larger library community. Please mark
your calendars: the BCLA conference will be held April 16-18, 2009
at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, Burnaby, BC. Feel free to
check out the Conference website:
http://www.bcla.bc.ca/Conference2009/default.aspx
The conference theme is: Be curious, think, learn and share:
explore the possibilities of learning and teaching. HLABC will be
sponsoring sessions on the following topics:
1) Consumer and patient education, 2) Disaster planning – (a full-
day pre-conference session), and 3) Open Access – Co-sponsored
with the BCLA Information Policy Committee and the BCLA
Intellectual Freedom Committee.
The ever-popular Continuing Education day, traditionally held in
June, will focus on Evidence Based Librarianship. In addition,
HLABC will partner with e-HLbc to bring a training session on the
same day. Further details will be forthcoming via the HLABC listserv.
I look forward to seeing you at the BCLA conference in April and at
the CE Day in June.
Sincerely,
Ana Rosa

6. PAGE 6 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
HLABC TREASURER’S REPORT FEBRUARY 6, 2009
Anne Allgaier is Regional Librarian, Northern Health Authority
Memberships
Lifetime Members 7
Regular Members 76
Students 2
______________________________________
Total Membership 85
Current Bank Balance:
Investment Account $ 1,849.54
Chequing Account $ 9,442.87
TOTAL: $11,292.41
Respectfully submitted by:
Anne Allgaier, HLABC Treasurer
WEBSITE COMMITTEE REPORT - NOV 27, 2008
Robyn Ingvallsen is a Library Technician at Royal Jubilee Hospital
Megan Wiebe is a Clinical Librarian at InspireHealth
Doug Salzwedel is an Information Resource Coordinator at Child & Family
Research Institute, UBC, and at Canadian Institute for the Relief of Pain and
Disability
After a busy autumn of training and travel, the Website Committee is
gearing up for an even busier winter and spring. With the welcome
addition of Megan Wiebe and Doug Salzwedel to the committee, the
time has come for an online review and overhaul of the site.
Megan & Doug have been trained on the site and have their own
access, and we can now move forward, with a preliminary plan to
meet December 18, followed by an in-depth January meeting. There
we will review the current content of the site and further develop a
survey for HLABC members to fill out. Included will be questions
regarding what you use, what you don’t use, what you think needs
changing and what you think may be missing. Some current
suggestions include: RSS feeds; Blog listings; and increased
downloads from meetings and speakers.
It’s shaping up to be very interesting, and we look forward to all your
suggestions.

7. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 7
CHLA/ABSC UPDATE: FEBRUARY 3, 2009
Shannon Long is the CHLA/ABSC Treasurer and a librarian at Richmond
Hospital Library
Mark your calendars and keep an eye on the airlines for seat sales!
The CHLA/ABSC annual conference is being held in Winnipeg this
year, from May 30 to June 3.
http://www.chla-absc.ca/2009/
Have a sneak peek at the program at a glance and check out the
fabulous CE sessions that are being offered. Register for the
conference prior to April 10 in order to get the early bird rate.
A three-day Bioinformatics for Health Librarians course is planned
for June 7-9 in Toronto. The workshop is targeted towards
reference, instruction or liaison librarians in the biomedical sciences,
and is intended to provide a foundation to support reference, and
instruction relating to bioinformatics information resources. Course
content will include an overview of basic biological concepts
underpinning bioinformatics. Through extensive hands-on practice
and exercises, it will focus on searching several core information
resources including NCBI and other sources. Registration fees are More information about CHLA
VERY reasonable. Learn, earn 18 CE credits and have a mini- membership rates can be
holiday in Toronto. What could be better? Stay tuned for more found on the Association’s
details. website at http://www.chla-
absc.ca/?q=en/node/100.
Are you considering joining CHLA for the first time or have you
allowed your membership to lapse for 5 or more years? CHLA offers
a 25% discount for new and returning members, and also has a
fabulous student rate of $40 for a calendar year.
The National Network of Libraries for Health, now called the
Canadian Virtual Health Library (CVHL) network, has received some
funding from Canada Health Infoway to help them move the project
on to the next phase. Anyone interested in more information or to
learn how they can support the NNLH / CVHL can check out
http://chla-absc.ca/nnlh/. More information about hospital
The CHLA executive and Jean Maragno are continuing to work with accreditation can be found
Accreditation Canada (formerly CCHSA) to ensure that libraries, at and the changes CHLA
librarians and up to date information resources are included in the is proposing can be found
latest hospital standards. online at http://www.chla-
absc.ca/?q=en/node/258
NEW and noteworthy, especially for our colleagues at SLAIS and the
Langara College Library Technician program! CHLA has created a
new annual student paper competition sponsored by Login Canada.
This year’s submission deadline has already passed but keep the
award in mind for next year, especially if you have regular contact
with super keen health sciences library students. The BC Decker
Research Paper prize is also available those already writing about
their research projects.
The CHLA/ABSC executive board meets again on February 26 and
27 in Vancouver.

8. PAGE 8 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
TECHNOLOGY: JING
Niki Baumann is a librarian at College of Physicians and Surgeons Library,
and a virtual reference librarian for AskAway (post-secondary version)
We’ve all encountered that situation where we’re trying to describe
the location of a link to someone, and they just can’t see it. Maybe
their computer screen is a different resolution, or the link is buried in
a very busy page, or maybe they’re not even on the webpage that
you think they are. Whatever the reason, they just can’t find that link.
Eventually, you manage to communicate with the person, and they
inevitably say, “wow, it was right there in front of my face, and I
completely missed it!”
Well, if a picture says a thousand words, think how much a video
could say. Jing is an open-source programme that allows you to
For more information about Jing, make on-the-fly videos of anything on your screen, instantly upload
and to download the them to a free screencast.com account, and then send the link to the
software, go to: person who’s lost.
http://www.jingproject.com Jing videos can be up to 5 minutes long. With space enough in the
free screencast.com account for approximately 200 videos, you can
also create reusable videos that can be linked from your library
website or blog, explaining how to access library resources. If you
prefer, you can save the video to your desktop.
In addition to making videos, Jing can make screenshots.
PC/Windows users will be impressed with the resolution of the
image, compared to those lo-res “print screen” captures. For both
Windows and Mac users, the advantage Jing screenshots provide is
the ease with which you can upload them to the screencast.com
account and share them with others.
So what’s the catch? Firstly, 5 minutes isn’t enough time to give a
full tutorial on how to search a database, or do any other complex
bibliographic instruction. Secondly, I downloaded Jing two weeks
ago and it has already required me to download updates twice.
Hopefully the rate of updates will slow down in future.
So far, I have created Jing videos showing how to navigate to a
particular database, how to login to an electronic resource, and how
to use a link resolver. I also intend to create videos showing how to
access an electronic article using the citation information. I’m sure
that you can think of even more uses for Jing!
Having used Jing already, here are some tips:
1. When your video starts recording, you have to click once on the
area being recorded – otherwise mouseovers will not work
2. Unlike Camtasia, there is no enhancement of the cursor when
you’re recording – I like to mouseover links several times or
circle the cursor around the link I plan to click, so that the
user’s eye will be drawn to the correct link
3. Assume that your viewer doesn’t have access to speakers or

9. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 9
headphones – if you choose to record sound, ensure that the
video makes sense without it
4. If you don’t record sound, mute your mic before you start so as to
avoid distracting background noise
5. If your video requires logging in, check whether your password will
be displayed or bulletted when you login.
I recommend taking a screenshot of the login page, and saving it
online or on your desktop. Then, open three tabs: the main library
website, the screenshot of the login page, and the database, already
logged in. You can do what the chefs on TV do – show the login
page, and then go to the database that you’ve already logged into.
This also works if you’re accessing the database from a site that
doesn’t require authentication, but you know that some users will
have to login.

10. PAGE 10 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE; POWERS OF ATTORNEY &
ADVANCE CARE PLANNING
Laura Watts, LLB, National Director, Canadian Centre for Elder Law Studies
GENERAL MEETING OF THE HEALTH LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION OF
B.C. JANUARY 17TH, 2009
Anne Allgaier is a Regional Librarian for Northern Health Authority
Ana Rosa Blue is a Librarian at WorkSafeBC – Corporate Library Services
Laura Watts’ presentation was on a timely topic – advance planning
for financial and health care decisions when an individual is no
longer capable of making decisions for him or herself. The Adult
Guardianship and Planning Statutes Amendment Act, passed in the
BC legislature in 2007, will change the way BC residents make
decisions about financial and health care should they become
incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves.
The topic addressed by Laura is important for several reasons – top
of the list being that many people admitted to hospital often receive
treatment that is futile. Such treatments may prolong life without any
hope that the condition for which the person was admitted will ever
improve. Such cases raise difficult ethical issues and most of us
may already be familiar with them as they have often been reported
in the media. Avoiding such difficult cases is the goal of completing a
Representation Agreement, an Advanced Directive, or a Power of
Attorney. These documents instruct health care professionals,
friends, and family members of one’s preferences in case one
To view these documents, visit the should become incapable of communicating these wishes oneself.
Attorney General website at:
As the National Director of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, Staff
http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislatio Lawyer at the British Columbia Law Institute and a legislative drafter,
n/current_Consultations.htm Laura is very well acquainted with the issues surrounding an adult’s
incapacity for financial and health care decision-making, and though
this is not exactly an entertaining subject, Laura succeeded in
providing the members gathered at the HLABC’s January 17th
meeting with an engaging and informative presentation.
Laura explained how the Adult Guardianship and Planning Statutes
Amendment Act, 2007 will facilitate improved advanced planning for
health care and financial decisions in case of incompetence of an
individual. It is expected that by June 2009, documents will be
available from the Attorney General that we will be able to use to
facilitate such advanced planning. (These documents are actually
the regulations that go with the Adult Guardianship Act, and are still
awaiting formal approval.)
There is much confusion about the legal status of documents such
as Living Wills, Powers of Attorney, and Advanced Directives. Laura
defined and differentiated between some terminologies, such as the
Law of Consent, i.e. who decides? She explained that a Power of
Attorney becomes null and void if the principal becomes
incapacitated and that a Power of Attorney is for financial decisions

11. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 11
only. In case of incapacity, what is needed is an Enduring Power of
Attorney. The latter includes something called the ‘Springing
Clause’. A Power of Attorney with a Spring Clause remains inactive
until such time as the principal becomes incapacitated. The [regular]
Power of Attorney can have what is called a “Limited Clause”, that is
to say, it is valid only under specific circumstances and can limit the
actions of the “Attorney”. Laura warned the audience not to sign a
blank Power of Attorney. She also pointed out that “Levels of Care”
forms required by some BC facilities are not legal and should not be
signed upon admission to hospital.
One of the problems with completing advance planning documents
is where to access them at a time of crisis? Laura recommends to
put these documents in the fridge, preferably in a Tupperware
container or a Ziploc bag and well-labelled. The other important
thing to remember is to let your friends and family know where these
documents are so that they can be located quickly in a crisis.
Laura also discussed Living Wills and Advanced Directives. But,
she voiced a concern about Advance Directives, providing a vivid
example of one at work. A capable adult can write down in a
specific way, formalized with instructions to not put oneself on a
breathing machine (a common request), but the condition may
require a breathing machine only for a day or two. However, if a
health provider has an Advance Directive in their possession, they
will follow the specific instructions, and be forced to ignore the
specific medical situation confronting them. Laura said that it was
always a good idea to communicate your wishes. In order to
improve communication about these issues, one can also complete
a Representation Agreement. Representation Agreements simply
appoint someone (friend or family member) to make health care
decisions in times of crisis and can override an Advance Directive.
The Adult Amendments to Bill 29 will bring about changes to
Guardianship laws. One of the things that will change is the list of
Substitute Decision Makers, broadening the list of individuals who
can be called upon to make health care decisions for another
person.
Completing Power of Attorney documents for financial planning and
a Representation Agreement or Advance Directive is one of the
nicest things we can do for those we love dearly. It relieves them of
the burden of making these decisions should you become
incapacitated. It also makes it easier for your physician to care for
you in the way you wish, avoiding any potential ethical conflicts.
To find more information about the new act, representation
agreements, discussion papers about these issues, and documents
that can be used, visit the BC Attorney General website at
http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation/links.htm. Libraries are the ideal
public access site for information about these matters. Educating
the public is crucial and what better place to get the most up to date
information than a hospital or public library?

12. PAGE 12 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM AND HEALTH LIBRARIES: THREE
ARTICLE SUMMARIES
Niki Baumann is a librarian at College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC
Library, and a virtual reference librarian at AskAway (post-secondary
version)
Full text of all of the original articles is freely available online. Articles
were found in PubMed.
Kempner J. The Chilling Effect: How Do Researchers React to
Controversy? PLoS Med. 2008 Nov; 5(11): e222.
In 2003, ten NIH grants, eight of which were for research related to
sexual behaviour, were challenged by members of the U.S.
Congress. This challenge grew to include 250 grants when the
wrong list was sent to the NIH Director. Although every grant was
found to be “scientifically sound”, and funding was in all cases
continued, the author of this study sought to determine if the
controversy had affected the behaviour of the researchers whose
funding had been threatened.
After collecting 30 interviews and 82 surveys, Kempner determined
that many of the researchers had changed their behaviour due to the
controversy. The most common response (51%) was to remove “red
flag” words from their grant proposals. For instance, one researcher
described changing the words “sex workers” to “women at risk”.
According to the researchers, NIH project officers often
recommended this type of rewording strategy.
This strategy appears relatively benign – the research was still being
conducted – it was just harder to find. More sinister was the reported
24% of researchers who described changing their studies, or
dropping them completely. For instance, some began studying the
behaviour of mainstream rather than marginalised populations.
Others put their controversial studies on a back burner.
Less prevalent responses included looking for alternate sources of
funding, finding new jobs, emigrating, or leaving academia.
However, Kempner found that about 10% of researchers became
even more determined to carry out their controversial research,
although some also reported self-censoring “red flag” words.
Kempner acknowledges that this information may contain a
sampling bias, as interviewees and survey respondents may have
represented the researchers who had the strongest opinions about
the effect this controversy had on their research.
What does this information mean for health librarians? It reminds us
to keep current with the buzzwords under which researchers may
hide their controversial research. When searching for information on
a controversial topic, it may be worth trying keyword searches as
well as MeSH to see if some of these “politically corrected” articles
have also gotten past the NLM indexers.

13. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 13
Lexchin J, Light DW. Commercial Influence and the Content of
Medical Journals. BMJ. 2006 June; 332(7555): 1444.
Lexchin and Light describe some of the potential commercial
sources of bias that may affect publication of articles on
pharmaceuticals and the pharmaceutical industry.
Journal editors may have conflicts of interest that may affect the
selection of articles and the process of editing the articles. Lexchin
and Light cite two studies on the existence of conflict of interest
policies in medical and science journals. In both cases, less than
half of the journals had or planned to implement conflict of interest
policies. One of the studies went on to show that several of the
existing policies did not cover all potential types of conflict of interest.
Authors of the articles published in journals may also have
undisclosed conflicts of interest. Lexchin and Light cite a study
wherein it was found that “8%...of [sampled] original articles …in four
major journals failed to declare conflicts”. Upon reading the
executive summary of the original article, I determined that this
meant that 8% of the articles did not disclose an actual conflict of
interest (i.e. it did not mean that the 8% simply failed to provide a
conflict of interest statement).
Another potential source of bias was article publication in journal
supplements. Lexchin and Light explain that drug companies fund
the publication of supplements. Publishing greater numbers of
articles in a supplement results in greater revenue for the publisher.
The authors suggest that this may result in the publication of articles
that were not of sufficent quality to be published in the non-
supplement issues of the journal.
Many journals provide reprints (i.e. copies) of their articles for a fee.
An article containing results that might induce consumers to buy a
pharmaceutical product would generate more revenue, as the
pharmaceutical company may purchase many reprints of the article.
Editors might choose to publish such an article rather than an article
with less lucrative contents, if the journal is short of funds.
Medical associations also obtain funds by publishing advertisements
in their journals. Lexchin and Light cite a study of five associations
that obtained between 2-31% of their gross funding from journal
advertisements. This gives the associations a strong inducement to
preferentially publish articles meeting the approval of their
advertisers. The authors describe a case in which the Annals of
Internal Medicine published an article that was critical of the drug
industry. The journal subsequently “lost an estimated $1-1.5 million
in advertising revenue”.
The authors list several recommendations for action. These fall
under several categories:
Disclosure: Journals should disclose their sources of income. Editors
and authors should disclose conflicts of interest.

14. PAGE 14 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
Prevention: Minimising conflicts of interest would presumably
minimise bias.
Investigation: An independent body should study potential sources of
bias described above, and determine the extent to which they
actually influence article publication.
This article created a compelling case for the need for further
investigation into the influence of commercial interests on the
publication of medical and scientific studies. Lexchin and Light make
use of several studies and cases, but more evidence, preferably with
larger sample sizes and greater evidence for causality, is sorely
needed. When such evidence is available, it may be easier to prevail
upon journals, editors, and authors to implement the disclosure and
prevention suggested by the authors.
Hall R, de Antueno, Webber A. Publication Bias in the Medical
Literature: a Review by a Canadian Research Ethics Board.
Canadian Journal of Anesthesia. 2007; 54(5): 380-8.
The authors investigated the 190 protocols that met the criteria for
review of the Capital District Health Authority Research Ethics Board
between 1995-1996. 84 of the protocols resulted in publication.
Trials in phases 3 or 4 were more likely to be published than trials in
phases 1 or 2. Furthermore, studies that had positive results for the
main focus of the study were more likely to be published than studies
that did not.
The type of sponsor of the trial also influenced the likelihood of
publication. Studies sponsored by federal granting agencies were
significantly more likely to be published than those sponsored by
pharmaceutical companies. However, studies by pharmaceutical
companies were more likely to be published than those sponsored
by the local health authority.
Of the 84 published studies, 71 reported statistically significant
findings. Data on time to publication was only available for 53 of the
trials – for those, time to publication did not vary between studies
with statistically significant findings and those with statistically non-
significant findings. However, only 15% of the published trials
contained statistically non-significant results. It was not clear whether
this resulted from lack of pursuit of publication or rejection by
journals, but either way, this result was evidence for the existence of
publication bias.
The authors used the PubMed database to search for published
articles for each of the 190 trials (except for those studies that were
known not to have been completed). They acknowledge that the
results of the study may have been affected if the trials were
published in journals not indexed by Medline.

15. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 15
GOVERNMENT-IMPOSED BARRIERS TO ACCESSING INFORMATION
ON CONTROVERSIAL HEALTH TOPICS: THE POPLINE KERFUFFLE
AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT
Devon Greyson is an Information Specialist at UBC Centre for Health
Services and Policy Research
What Went Down?
You may have read about it back in April. I saw it first on Rachel
POPLINE Database:
Walden's Women's Health News blog, but word spread like wildfire
http://db.jhuccp.org/ics-
across library blogs, women's health blogs, and listservs such as
wpd/popweb/
CANMEDLIB and WMST-L.
What was sparking all this interest? POPLINE, "the world's largest
database on reproductive health, containing citations with abstracts
to scientific articles, reports, books, and unpublished reports in the
field of population, family planning, and related health issues," made
abortion - and all abortion related terms - search stopwords. A
librarian who noticed that a search for “abortion” was turning up zero
hits inquired about the glitch and was apparently told that “We
recently made all abortion terms stop words. As a federally funded
project, we decided this was best for now.”
USAID:
POPLINE is funded by United States Agency for International http://www.info.usaid.gov/
Development (USAID), and maintained at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication INFO Project:
Programs' INFO Project. USAID has come under fire from women's http://www.infoforhealth.org/
health advocates in the past for policies such as its Mexico City
Policy prohibiting any international NGOs that receive USAID Mexico City Policy:
funding from performing or “promoting” abortion. http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/glo
In an article in Wired Magazine, ALA president Loriene Roy stated bal_health/pop/restrictions.h
her concerns over the Mexico City Policy unduly influencing tml
information resources developed with U.S. federal funding:
"Any federal policy or rule that requires or encourages information
providers to block access to scientific information because of
partisan or religious bias is censorship," she said. "Such policies Wired Magazine article:
promote idealogy [sic] over science and only serve to deny http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/
researchers, students and individuals on all sides of the issue 2008/04/administrators.html
access to accurate scientific information."
While we library-folk can use various tricks, such as using the
subject heading hyperlinks embedded in the records, to try to
circumvent the stopword problem, this solution was neither
completely effective nor accessible to non-expert searchers of this
internationally used, public database.
One email turned into another email, turned into a listserv post,
turned into a large Internet outcry over this new policy of blocking
access to information about an essential women's health issue.
Outraged librarians and other activists flooded POPLINE with
comments. Not two whole days after the outcry began, Michael J.

16. PAGE 16 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
Klag, MD, MPH, Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health released a "Statement Regarding POPLINE
Database," in which he said he was just informed about the blocking
of searches for abortion in POPLINE and "could not disagree more
strongly with this decision." Klag explained:
“USAID, which funds POPLINE, found two items in the
database related to abortion that did not fit POPLINE criteria.
The agency then made an inquiry to POPLINE administrators.
Following this inquiry, the POPLINE administrators at the
Statement Regarding POPLINE Center for Communication Programs made the decision to
Database: restrict abortion as a search term.”
http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealth
news/press_releases/2008/ While this statement confirmed that the change was directly the
popline.org result of USAID's intervention in the database administration, it
raised as many questions as it answers. What were those two
items? How exactly was this “inquiry” made that the challenge of two
items in the collection would trigger the blocking of any search on
abortion or a related term?
What Went Right?
Some blogs and lists which While we are left with unanswered questions about the specifics of
spread the word: the POPLINE debacle, it's reasonably easy to identify what went
Rachel Walden’s Women’s wrong: politically motivated government policy interfered with access
Health News Blog: to health information. However, what went right is a different
http://womenshealthnews.wordpre question all together, and perhaps a useful and instructive one for us
ss.com/2008/04/02/why-is- to consider.
a-government-funded-
reproductive-health- In the POPLINE case, a librarian noticed that abortion was no longer
database-blocking-users- a searchable term in the database and sent out an email about it.
from-searching-for-abortion- The email was passed along on various health librarian and feminist
articles/ listservs and public outcry was raised. Who-knows-how-many of us
Librarian Activist Blog: emailed the POPLINE admins and blogged it with outrage, and
http://www.librarianactivist.org/200 within two days the dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
8/04/03/government-funded- Public Health issued a public statement assuring the world that this
database-censors-the-word- would be rectified and investigated.
abortion/ Wow. Keen librarian eyes + electronic communication and
RH Reality Check Blog: information sharing + immediate online organizing and protest +
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog responsive administrator = restoration of information resource. In
/2008/04/03/your-search-for- this case, at least. Not in all.
abortion-yields-nothing
CANMEDLIB Listserv: Not in the case of the Canadian Health Network (CHN), which was
http://www.chla- shut down after months of protest by health librarians, a petition,
absc.ca/?q=en/node/53 multiple high-profile newspaper articles, and various other media
WMST-L Listserv: attention. What were the essential differences we can identify in
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~koren these two situations, and that can we do in the future to make our
man/wmst/wmst- information resources more like POPLINE and less like the CHN?
l_index.html Here are some thoughts:
- US vs. Canada: The US is generally more political & inflammatory,
and Canadian librarians will be aware of and act upon a US-based
issue, although the opposite is not generally the case.

17. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 17
- Hierarchy vs. Diffusion: POPLINE is housed at/maintained by a
single institution with important people who could be embarrassed at
the top of the chain of command, while the CHN, as I understand it,
was purposively built on a distributed model.
- Specific interest vs. general resource: It's hard to argue than
another resource could easily replace POPLINE, as there aren't
really other reproductive health focused databases like it (are
there?), and - however their scope or quality may vary - there are
other websites that aim to be broad consumer health resources. It
may also be significant that POPLINE is not really for everyday use
of the general public, but more for scholars and health professionals.
- Interdisciplinary appeal: The scope of POPLINE, while specifically
focused, had broad interdisciplinary appeal. While reproductive
rights info access was indirectly damaged by CHN removal,
POPLINE is obviously related to reproductive rights, and thus
feminists signed on the campaign en masse.
While we are still struggling to understand exactly what the causes
and effects of both the CHN shutdown and the POPLINE debacle,
we need also to look to the future. The challenge facing those of us
who are concerned with access to health information is to figure out Social Justice Librarian:
how future projects can be built in a way that helps any threat to http://sjlibrarian.wordpress.com/20
information access play out in a POPLINE manner, not a CHN one. 08/06/27/further-thoughts-
on-the-popline-debacle-
Note: This article draws heavily on blog posts I wrote on the topic last what-went-right/
spring. For original posts, see Social Justice Librarian.

18. PAGE 18 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
GETTING TO KNOW YOU BETTER
Linda Howard is a librarian at Fraser Health Library Services
Doug Salzwedel is the librarian at UBC for the Canadian Institute for
the Relief of Pain and Disability and the Child & Family
Research Institute. He is also serving on the HLABC’s web
site committee. Linda Howard recently interviewed Doug for
the Forum.
Tell me about your current position. Who are your users? How do
you typically spend a day?
I’m a UBC employee, but split my time 60/40 between the Canadian
Institute for the Relief of Pain and Disability (CIRPD) and Child
& Family Research Institute (CFRI). At CIRPD, I’m working on
a disability prevention and management web portal project
with varied stakeholders and a Web 2.0/social networks
project focused on improving sleep health which will be
targeted at hospital staff, clinicians and the general public.
At CFRI, I provide database training and literature search strategy
development and appraisal for residents, fellows and
researchers carrying systematic reviews and other research
projects. Since I essentially have two jobs with a surprising
amount of overlap between them, I wouldn’t say that I ever
have a typical day, which keeps things interesting!
What attracted you to library science as a career option? What
do you like best about librarianship? What do you like least?
Like many librarians, I placed a high value on working in a helping
profession. I was particularly drawn to the notion that
providing access to information can be a remarkable means of
reducing inequality among people from all walks of life. What
do I like best? I’m always on a learning curve! I love being in
a profession that is finding ways to adapt to changes in
technology and society without losing the core values and
strengths associated with librarianship. I least like the struggle
that some health libraries face in terms of being recognized as
valuable contributors to clinical practice and to clinical
research support, but I think that this is a challenge that we are
capable of overcoming as a profession.
Tell me a little about where you grew up.
I got to experience a variety of settings while our family moved back
and forth between B.C. and Alberta a few times. I was born in
Edmonton and saw my first NHL game there, so I haven’t
managed to migrate to the Canucks yet, even after all these
years. In B.C., I’ve lived in Terrace, Prince George, Victoria
and Vancouver. When I was 8, we lived in the NWT for a year.
It was the first time in my life that I became aware of issues
such as racism and extreme poverty. I’ve now been back in
Vancouver for about 8 months, after spending the past several
years in Ontario and Québec.

19. HLABC FORUM WINTER 2009 Page 19
Tell me about your educational, academic background. Where did
you go to library school?
I have a BA (Psychology) from Alberta, a BA (Applied Geography)
from Ryerson, and my MLIS is from Western Ontario. I was
living right across the street from the Faculty of Information
Studies in Toronto at the time that I reluctantly chose to leave
Toronto to take advantage of the co-op option offered by
Western. It was the right decision, as I was fortunate enough
to be hired by Jessie McGowan for an 8 month co-op stint at
the Ottawa Hospital. After graduation, I spent 2.5 years in the
Information Management Division of the Chief Information
Officer Branch at Treasury Board in Ottawa before moving (for
the long haul, I hope!) back into health sciences librarianship
when I joined the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Population
Health.
The theme of this issue of Forum is intellectual freedom. What role
do you think health librarians can play in promoting intellectual
freedom?
We all know that knowledge is power. As librarians, we are uniquely
positioned to recognize and support the right of all human
beings to have their privacy respected and to have the
freedom to access and read the materials of their own
choosing. As health librarians, we can do this by ensuring our
collections reflect the widest possible spectrum of published
thought informed by evidence and by ensuring that those
collections are available to our clients. We can also continue
to support open access publishing initiatives and the concept
of the Right to Know, as expressed by organizations such as
IFLA.
What would your ideal library look like? What services would it
have?
The short answer would be “any library which meets and exceeds
the needs and expectations of its users”. My ideal library
would have both physical and virtual components to be
accessible to patrons 24/7 and would take advantage of the
latest Web 2.0 tools and technologies to remain relevant and
user-friendly. As with architecture, the form and function
would draw on lessons from the past while benefitting from
advances in technology to provide a warm, welcoming, open
experience. I particularly like the model provided by the Irving
K. Barber Learning Centre.
What do you think the future of librarianship will be?
I think that we will have to stay ahead of the curve by acquiring new
skills and by continually asking ourselves how we can adapt
our abilities and knowledge to best position the profession to
benefit from and contribute to the technological advances
which impact information retrieval, access, storage and
management. It’s very heartening to see a younger generation

20. PAGE 20 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 1
of health librarians embracing these changes.
What books are you currently reading? What are the titles and
authors of some of your favourite books?
I tend to be more drawn to non-fiction than fiction, but I’m currently
reading Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. As
a guilty pleasure, I like science fiction, so I recently bought
books 1 and 2 of A Time Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke.
What do you like to do for fun off duty?
I love to travel and am trying to save for that ‘next big trip’ as I’m
feeling the two year itch after going to Italy in 2007. I enjoy
biking, hiking, working out, hunting down great coffee, cinema,
and trying new restaurants (Dine Out Vancouver was not kind
to my Visa bill!). I’m still looking for that elusive Vancouver pub
that reminds me of the ones I’ve experienced in the UK and
Ireland (and even Ottawa), but I do have a fondness for the
Alibi Room and the Irish Heather in Gastown.
If you won a million dollars in the lottery, how would you spend it?
How would it change your life?
A million dollars doesn’t go far in Vancouver! I’d likely buy my mum
the house she’s always wanted and share some of the
winnings with friends. For myself, I’d take some time off to
travel, probably to Chile and Argentina, but who knows?
Its been a pleasure getting to know you a little better, Doug. Thank
you for the opportunity.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mar 25 DC - 103d ASIL Annual Meeting American Society of International
Law (ASIL)
April 16-18 Lower Mainland - British Columbia Library Association
May 23-27 Halifax NS - CALL/ACBD Annual General Meeting
Jun 14-17 DC - 100th SLA Annual Conference & INFO EXPO, Special
Libraries Association
May 15 - 20 Hawaii - MLA 2009 Annual Meeting and Exhibition
May 30 – Jun 3 Winnipeg MB - CHLA/ABSC
Jul 9 -15 Chicago IL - ALA Annual Conference
Jul 25 DC - 102d AALL Annual Meeting American Association of Law
Libraries (AALL)
Aug 23 - 27 Milan - World Library and Information Congress: 75th IFLA
General Conference and Assembly
Oct 17-20 Seattle - PNC/MLA Annual Meeting