I have been a provisional member of AHIP for the past 5 years. Today, I submitted my application for full membership to AHIP. I don’t anticipate any issues with attaining full membership and I expect to hear the decision in the next few months. I will post updates as they become available.
UPDATE: As of August, 2023 my full membership to AHIP has been approved.
From idea conception, to MACMLA conference poster, to possible professional publication. Today, I submitted my paper on the impact of library instruction on medical student information seeking behavior to the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA). I believe the editorial process, including peer review, will take some time but I will provide updates as they become available. Fingers crossed, I will have a new publication to add to my CV before too long!
UPDATE: My article was accepted for publication this summer and published in the October JMLA issue
DML is getting a new library management system (LMS), Koha. A new LMS will impact the DML Catalog, where users search for books and eBooks, the DML circulation system, and patron records. Cybertools, our current LMS, is no longer a sustainable option for us. For my part, I am looking forward to a fresher interface design and hopefully some additional functionality. The launch date for Koha is May 22.
I already have an opportunity to put the training I received in my NNLM Fundamentals of Health Sciences Research Data Management course to use. I have been asked to revive, refresh, and present a Searching for Datasets workshop, formerly created and presented by a colleague that is no longer at DML. The Searching for Datasets workshop is one of several in a series of data-themed workshops presented by DML.
I will begin the workshop with a general overview of open science and the open data movement. Then I will introduce different types of data repositories that have grown out of that movement. I will suggest a few free tools that one can use to search for data, including datasets specific to the DC population. Finally, I will close with a few issues to keep in mind regarding data reuse, and discuss some tools that can help with data cleanup.
To build on recent IRB training opportunies, I attended a session of the Georgetown Office of Research Quality Assurance (ORQA) Clinical Research Coordinator Seminar Series. Today’s session outlined strategies for improving communication with potential trial participants during the consenting process. Tips included:
I received a request to join another scoping review team, this one on the topic of the treatment of dementia with light therapy. Counting the Inclusion review and the Patient Navigator review I am now juggling 3 scoping review projects in various stages of completion. I am always happy to participate in review projects and I wish I could take on more of them.
Since coming back to campus, Georgetown has offered Covid testing for its students and employees at a few locations. Starting this month, Georgetown is transitioning its testing protocols from staffed testing centers to Covid test vending machines. I was skeptical at first but the process is free, easy and one can get their PCR test results back in about 24 hours. I continue to test weekly to keep myself and others safe.
In my December 8, 2021 post, I proposed an idea for a paper or poster for a future conference. Today, I presented my Grand Rounds poster at the 2022 MACMLA conference in Richmond, VA. This is the 4th poster I’ve presented as an information professional: the first for my LIS 619 Preservation class, the 2nd for the Fall 2015 HLA/HASL conference and the 3rd for the 2019 MLA conference. I may attempt to expand this most recent poster into a paper. More on that to come…
There may be no busier month in the academic year for this instructional librarian than September. The IMHS class lectures have begun, along with EBM small group sessions. I provide fall cohort orientations to NURO 540 course, the MS Physiology capstone course, the Family Medicine Clerkship cohorts, the Global Health and Epidemiology course, the Dermatology residents, and the second year EBM students. On top of that there is grading to be done for several of the groups mentioned above. It’s busy but I enjoy it. Teaching is by far the most rewarding part of my job and it’s what I do best!
In April 2022, the keys started to stick on my MacBook Pro. I requested a replacement and after many, many forms and follow up emails and waiting, my laptop arrived today! It doesn’t quite measure up to the old one, in terms of processing speed and storage, as I could only get approved for a standard issue laptop but that’s the best I could do. Storage is less of an issue as we can store all of our files in Georgetown Box but I am worried about processing speeds when I work with large image and video files. So I may try to work on my current laptop until the bitter end, when the keys go from just sticky to totally stuck.
Angela Barr MLISc 