Friday, August 24, 2012

buh-bye Medline (Ebsco), hello Medline (PubMed)

Most of you who have had the library talk on Medline have been shown Medline/PubMed through the free site provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

For a few years, we've ALSO had access to Medline through the Ebscohost search engine.  It was a freebie that came with a subscription that has recently been canceled (EDS, the search system that USED to be under the red search box on the library home page, before we started moving to the new catalog search).

Our access to Medline through Ebscohost has now expired.  Alternatives?

If you're addicted to searching medical and health science content using the Ebsco search engine, try the health articles quick search from Ebsco.  It still searches through CINAHL, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, and Health Source.  The first results screen is limited to results with full text, but that option can be unchecked to see more results.

If you're hard-core Medline and want to stick to that source, keep using Medline with PubMed from the NLM.


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

New catalog and new ejournals system

The new catalog is here!

It's linked under the red search box on the library home page.
  • It shows books, e-books, and DVDs at our library and at 70,000 other libraries
  • It searches some of the articles available from the library (from the All tab or the Articles tab)
  • It has an "A to Z"  ejournals list - the equivalent of Journal Finder except that print journals are not yet available there
This Tips page has more introduction.

On the library home page, you can still choose "library catalog" then "old search" to use the old catalog.  And you can still choose "Journal Finder" to use Journal Finder.  We'll have the old catalog and Journal Finder until 2013.

Monday, August 13, 2012

More lactation room(s!!) on campus in fall 2012

This fall, a number of nursing mothers rooms (lactation rooms) are being added on the main UNCG campus.

Summary of lactation spaces that will be available starting this fall:


  • McIver Nursing Mother's Room, Room 341 - Private permanent room.  No reservation system, unmediated access (show up, lock the door behind you). Contact Maggie Chrismon at 334-3502 or email at mgchrism@uncg.edu
  • Bryan Nursing Mother's Room, Room 344G - Private permanent room. No reservation system, unmediated access (show up, lock the door behind you). Contact Paige Hall Smith atphsmith@uncg.edu
  • Jackson Library Nursing Mother's Room, Jackson Tower 570 - Private permanent room, available on first-come first served basis during library operating hours. See Check Out Desk for room key. Contact Ann Perdue at ahperdue@uncg.edu or Lea Leininger at laleinin@uncg.edu.
  • Health and Human Performance Nursing Mother's Room, Room 126 Center for Women's Health and Wellness - Flex space (a private, safe, and clean space can be provided upon request). Contact Paige Hall Smith at phsmith@uncg.edu
  • Gove Building Nursing Mother's Room-  Flex space (a private, safe, and clean space can be provided upon request). Contact Jeanne Irwin-Olson at jrirwino@uncg.edu.






Digital Media Commons coming to Jackson Library

Need to create a brochure, a PowerPoint presentation, a podcast, brief video, or other digital media?  Looking for help, hardware, software, or a recording space?

The Digital Media Commons will be answering that call starting on August 20, 2012!

It will be located in Jackson Library basement.  Primarily for UNCG students but also open to UNCG faculty and staff.

Want to learn more? There will be an open house on Tuesday September 18, 2012, from 4-5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

Again not library news, but a very timely article.

If you feel like you've already been practicing classic time management techniques (prioritizing, to-do lists, etc) and are looking for something beyond that...give this article a try:

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time. Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review 85 (10), Jan 1, 2007.


Premise = time is very limited

But energy can be intentionally and systematically renewed

Adopt practices and develop rituals in several domains
  • physical energy - encourage sleep (set earlier bedtime, etc.), regular breaks from desk to accomodate "ultradian rhythm"
  • emotional energy - deep breathing to derail fight/flight, increase positivity through regularly scheduled appreciation, shift self talk away from victim role by using new lenses to interpret situations (in which ways is the other person correct?)
  • mental energy-multitasking reduces productivity due to time spent switching back and forth between tasks, while finishing work for the day identify the most challenging task for the following day then the next morning start with that task
  • spiritual energy - schedule time regularly for "sweet spot" activities (=feelings of "effectiveness, effortless absorption"), live your core values (treat others as you'd like to be treated)

Making a quick start on my own energy management, I'd like to send a big thanks to the UL Staff Development Committee, especially Sean who has been rocking the devpt activities, for this brown bag session!




Evaluating (health) information and engaging students

This morning I met with Jane Harris, an instructional technology consultant with the School of HHP who is beyond cool. We started planning a workshop about evaluating online health information.

Before our meeting, Jane sent me a link to a Digital Literacy session (non-health related) that she presented for the Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference.  Wow. Just wow.  I sent Jane a link to Evaluating Internet Health Information from the National Library of Medicine. It's a very helpful tutorial and my main go-to source for this topic.

The meeting opened with the suggestion that we provide a session with minimal lecture and keep the students "doing and sharing out" because "lectures are so 19th and 20th century." 

Jane had great ideas for providing information to students beforehand, leading and recording discussion, etc. 

I am getting really pumped about meeting new students next week at orientations, then during in-class visits.  But I gotta say, I'm especially excited about this session.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Digital Media Commons coming in August!

A new Digital Media Commons is scheduled to open in the Jackson Library basement on Monday August 20th.

It's intended to provide UNCG students with a technology-rich work space for designing, editing, and producing multimedia, from posters and PowerPoint to podcasts and video shorts. Consultations and assistance will be available in addition to presentation practice rooms and individual recording rooms both reservable online. Equipment will include touch screen flat-bed scanners, Windows workstations, and Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Firewords, Flash, and InDesign.  Faculty and staff will also be welcome to use the services and facilities.


The website should have more details soon.