MLA Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn

Facebook was an interesting experience, as was MySpace, but I don't see their applications in a professional medical library setting. I searched for people at our hospital and saw that there were more than 100 registered. When I looked through the list, I expected to see many medical students but was surprised to see very few.

I enjoyed the Circulation Desk video at the Brooklyn College Library myspace site. Both the Denver and the Brooklyn Myspace pages were hard to navigate, in my opinion. I am such a librarian at heart that it was uncomfortable seeing the disorganized chaos on these sites. In a hospital setting, we need to get to information fast and using either Facebook or Myspace is not efficient.

I can see potential applications with LinkedIN, however I prefer not having my identity so exposed on the net. Ditto for Facebook and Myspace.

MLA week 2 blog or wiki?

I think of a blog as a diary or a current awareness list so you can easily keep current with the lastest items of interest. A wiki is more like a collection of articles on a single topic, whether it is broad or narrow. I think both have potential use in the library. I know that our library has been talking about starting a wiki as a place for staff notes. Right now, these are scattered across our front reference desk or in drawers.

Updated MLA CE week 1

Now that I actually read all the requirements for posting this information, I'll finish the rest of my assignment. I have already been using Google Reader for at least 6 months to track some medical library/library blogs. I find this much easier than having items clutter my email. I've set up journal TOC for patrons using RSS and have helped patrons create their own. It is really simple and straightforward. Now that I've embraced this relatively 'new' technology, I find it frustrating that not all journals offer this capability. Cheers and on to week 2.

MLA CE Week 1

I found this exercise instructive. We've been discussing creating a blog as a way to disseminate library staff information for a long time, but have always found reasons not to proceed. So, no time like the present! With blogs & RSS feeds, even the least techno-savvy of our staff can easily keep up to date with what's happening in the our library.

Journals in the hospital library

Journals in the hospital library are most likely your largest budget expenditure not counting personnel. So what techniques are you using to track how these resources are being used? Do you download usage statistics for e-journals and compare them to the cost? At our institution, I've found that it is easy to work with e-journals and usage statistics to justify purchases, but haven't found an equivalent tool for measuring print journal usage.



Yes, we still have print but the numbers dwindle each year as it becomes a matter of balancing convenience with cost. In the rush to provide instant access to articles, we may be losing focus of an important part of collection development --access to the material down the road. In the safe world of print, once we paid for our journal subscription, the issues arrived, were bound and then shelved in the library for use many years, or decades down the road. Can we say that we've been as careful in selecting e-journals? Even with licenses saying that we have access to the content during the time we subscribed to it, if the publisher changes, I've found that this is phrase becomes meaningless. Now what do you do? You had paid for access, assumed it was archival, and now the access has been removed. Do you even have the time to pursue this? My guess is no and we move on by adjusting our holdings statements to reflect the new reality.

I'd love to hear what others think about these topics! Stay tuned.