Finding Statistics in Health Research

Last week’s HLABC workshop covered a range of topics. In the morning, Dr. Brasher provided a session on statistics in the medical literature. She recommended a book called The Cartoon Guide to Statistics. The content from her workshop will be posted soon.

In the afternoon, we had three SFU librarians (Sylvia Roberts, Carla Graebner, Andrea Cameron) discuss the difference between statistics and data. They also showed us some of the major publishers of statistical information (intergovernmental, governmental, non-profit, commercial), and where to look for numbers, tables, time series and other files.

Here is some of the content:

Finding Statistics for Your Research:

Google reader replacements

In the 2013 iteration of LIBR 559M – Social Media for Information Professionals there was some good discussion of the various Google reader replacements available. The document that was being passed around was crowdsourced but LIBR 559M students added to and improved it considerably. For more information, see Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

To download a current version of this Word file, click rss readers june 2013. Here’s a screenshot of page 1 of 3. Some of the top readers are/were:

Feedly: http://www.feedly.com/

igHome: http://www.ighome.com/

Netvibes: http://www.netvibes.com/en

OldReader: http://theoldreader.com

RSSOwl: http://www.rssowl.org/

Kevin Read Wins 2013 Fraser Prize in Medical Librarianship

Kevin Read, Canadian health librarian, archivist and data specialist, completed his dual Master of Library and Information Science and Master of Archival Studies degrees in 2012 at UBC’s iSchool (School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, SLAIS). During his studies, Kevin worked at UBC’s Biomedical Branch Library. In 2012, Read won a coveted spot in the National Library of Medicine’s Associate Fellowship program for 2012-2013. His success in being selected for this program is a testament to his talent & hard work.

It’s my pleasure to announce that Kevin has won the 2013 Fraser Prize for medical librarianship. I knew Bill Fraserwho, in addition to being a leader in the field, was a kind and gentle man ~ and a great colleague. Kevin has all of the qualities required to win the award: 1) success in courses in medical librarianship 2) an interest in medical librarianship as a career and 4) collegiality as a personal trait. On winning the prize, Read said: “Winning the Fraser prize means a great deal to me as I believe it to be a true representation of my passion for the field and my ongoing commitment to excellence …hard work and collaboration. It is an honour to be mentioned in such distinguished company.

The ongoing debate between the value of print & “digital” reading

I am shoring up evidence to present to my users regarding the physiological and psychological (i.e., learning) differences between reading print books vis a vis online texts and wanted to draw everyone’s attention to an important study out of the National Literacy Trust in the UK. In Canada, we used to have a similar group but I believe its funding was cut.

The National Literacy Trust recently released “Children’s on-screen reading overtakes print reading” where ” .…for the first time children are said to be reading more on computer screens and other electronic devices than they are reading books, magazines, newspapers and comics. This is potentially detrimental to children’s reading levels as those who read daily only on-screen are much less likely to be good readers than those who read in print. The National Literacy Trust is calling for a healthier reading balance using both books and technological devices… http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/media/5371

  • there seems to be a growing body of evidence that online reading is less engaging and less satisfying (even for “digital natives”). For those of you interested in generalizability of the above study, ~34,910 young people aged 8 to 16 were surveyed; 39% of children and teens read using electronic devices, but only 28% read print materials every day. Those who read only onscreen were three (3X) times less likely to say they enjoyed reading and a third less likely to have favourite reads.
  • Young people who only read onscreen were two times less likely to be above-average readers than those who read daily in print or both in print and onscreen.

National Literacy Trust Director, Jonathan Douglas said:

“…our research confirms that technology is playing a central role in young people’s literacy development and reading choice. While we welcome the positive impact which technology has on bringing further reading opportunities to young people, it’s crucial that reading in print is not cast aside.”

 I’d appreciate any similar studies that you see as I have most of the major literacy studies due to the reviews in the literature. Thanks, dg

ps. Some of you may know about the phenomenon known as computer vision syndrome. Sore, red eyes from working too much at computer screens. I keep best evidence here: http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Computer_vision_syndrome and use it to discuss with my user groups.

Ten (10) portals & 7.77 million views on HLWIKI

HLWIKI International is an online encyclopedic source of information about health libraries, social media and information technology topics. The wiki is used by information professionals and health professionals around the world. HLWIKI has grown to ~1000 topics, and as of June 2013, 7.77 million page views. The advisory team of medical librarians has has recommended a number of other portals be created to aggregate and group content thematically. As HLWIKI grows, the plan is to provide better subject access to entries and metadata to draw distinctions between material. This wiki is open to suggestions and additional members so please contact the wiki administrator.

In the meantime, see our ten (10) portals on health librarianship, social media and a range of information technology topics…

I. Canadian consumer health information (CHI) portal

II. Data science portal

III. Health librarian competencies (draft)

IV. History of medicine portal

V. Information technology topics

VI. Managing health libraries portal

VII. Medical education portal

VIII. Research Portal for Academic Librarians

IX. Social media portal

X. Teaching library users

UBC iSchool Student, Helen Halbert, Wins 2013 Login Paper Prize

It’s my pleasure to announce that Helen Halbert one of the student librarians at the UBC Biomedical Branch Library has won the 2013 CHLA/ABSC Login Student Paper Prize for her paper “The state of clinical librarianship in Canada: a review of the literature, 1970 – 2013″. The award comes with a $500 cheque from Login Brothers Canada.

Helen’s paper examines the history of clinical librarianship in Canada from 1970 to 2013 seen through the lens of practitioner narratives and published literature. While no reviews of clinical librarianship in Canada were found in the literature search, there were many project descriptions in articles and published reports that have provided insight into the field during its formative period in Canada from the 1970s.

What is the Future of Health Librarianship? led by Dean Giustini

At the 2013 CHLA/ABSC (Canadian Health Libraries Association) Conference in Saskatoon, delegates tried a new type of discussion forum called a fishbowl. It was a success. The main question we sought to answer was: “What is the Future of Health Librarianship?” See the recap: http://www.chla-absc.ca/node/1258

Here are the #medlibs directions for our Thursday May 30th at 6pm PST (9pm EST)

  • Where are we going in health librarianship? and how are we going to get there?
  • Many of our colleagues are facing budget cutbacks and library closures; so what will become of the one-librarian hospital library?
  • Both UBC and McGill in Canada are closing (or contemplating the closure of) medical libraries.
  • Let us know what you think are the biggest threats / opportunities for health librarians in the next few years.
  • Join us for this inspired tweet chat (sure to be spirited) about the future of our field…

Advocacy in Action re: LAC Roundtable

Storified: Heritage Roundtable on Library & Archives Canada, 2013/05/07 http://sfy.co/fJsu #lacpanel #cdnpoli #saveLAC


  • Progressive Librarian’s Guild’s statement http://plggta.org/archives/201
  • BCLA’s statement http://bibliocracy-now.tumblr.com/post/50658397169/my-statement-to-the-heritage-roundtable-on-lac-17-may
  • The MOOC’ification of the Academy

    The brouhaha in the US over the MOOC’ification of university courses has now taken a turn into a critical post-excitement debate about how best to receive a proper university education these days. To be certain, the discourse takes us way beyond discussions of flexible learning (although that’s certainly a part of it).

    What I find extraordinary are the many universities rushing into MOOCs spending precious dollars (and political capital) on relatively unproven, untested teaching platforms (and pedagogies). It’s happening in Canada as well but American faculty members are now asking their administrator overlords (and university presidents) to take a step back and (re)consider in an age of deep fiscal restraint.

    Below is a snapshot of my Twitter feed today re: MOOCs (live links are provided below). Even if you find the whole issue a real bore you’ll find some aspects interesting such as the renaming of MOOCS as “Massively Obfuscated Opportunities for Cash”. The second link and the talk about DRM (and alliances being forged between private companies and publisher) is especially salient. Librarians (and academics) should take note. This MOOCification thing will be a controversial but necessary part of our work in the years ahead…

    Dean Giustini, UBC biomedical branch librarian