The Search Principle blog

What is OpenGrey?

The OpenGrey Repository was launched mid-2011 and succeeds OpenSIGLE, an initiative of L’Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique du CNRS. The project saw the transfer of a commercial database into an open access (OA) environment. It includes 25 years of collecting grey literature by OG’s European partners.

What is in the OpenGrey Repository?

OG now houses over 200 post-publication commentaries written by students in the Master’s Program in Library and Information Sciences at Pratt’s School of Information & Library Science.

This marks the 1^st part of the Enhanced Publications Project, which are openly accessible at Open Grey epository. The 2^nd part will be to carry out work in advance of the 14th Conference on Grey Literature and provide crosslinking data to full-text publications, http://www.textrelease.com/gl14callforpapers.html.

• Linking full-text grey literature to underlying research and post-publication data (Full-Text)
• Linking full-text grey literature to underlying research and post-publication data (PowerPoint)
• Shining a light on grey literature  (PowerPoint)

The goal of the critically reflective teacher is to develop awareness of teaching from as many vantage points as possible. To this end, Brookfield proposes four lenses for teachers engaged in critical reflection: (1) the autobiographical (2) the students’ views (3) our colleagues’ views and (4) the theoretical and evidence-based literature.

In an age of evidence-based practice, a trend that cuts across disciplines and professions, librarians are asking some fundamental questions about their work as information professionals and their roles as educators within the academy….

• Do I regularly get feedback about my classes or workshops from a master teacher?
• Do I have a teaching mentor? Are we part of a community of practice of teachers?
• What can I do to reflect back on my teaching? Should I conduct a self-assessment?
• Do I reflect on what went right (or not)?
• Do I ask ‘why X did not work so well?’ to identify what can be done differently?
• Can I learn from previous workshops to improve on the next opportunity?
• Should I better manage my teaching to avoid excuses for low attendance, interest or lack of success?
• Finally, do you have a process to look back at your teaching over the past year – to identify areas for long-range remedial action?

Here are some examples of librarians ‘reflecting’ on their teaching.  One is ineffective and fails to see where the lack of learning success resides. Review and assess these reflections to see which one is probably more effective in improving one’s teaching:

 A health librarian reflects in two ways on a workshop with medical students

 Reflection 1:      “…the medical students really found that search activity difficult. I thought I’d explained it and since half the class got the concepts – clearly I was good. Group A however had a difficult time. I saw them chatting and they weren’t motivated to ‘get it’. They also seem not to remember anything I tell them; if they would only respect me and concentrate I could teach them.”

 Reflection 2:      “…some medical students found that search activity learnable but others not so much! Perhaps I could improve the introductory material?  The “bridging”? Perhaps I could break concepts down into easier to manage concepts. Could I get their attention by using an innovative teaching technique? I might use more questions and ask group A to comment in order to engage them. I could ask questions until they get it? I could leave them alone for a few minutes too.”

References 

• Biggs J. Teaching for quality learning in university. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 2003.
• Brettle A. Evaluating information skills training in health libraries: a systematic review. Health Info Libr J. 2007 Dec;24 Suppl 1:18-37.
• Brookfield SD. Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; 1995.
• Harker E. Evaluation of teaching and training sessions for maximum impact. Health Information & Libraries Journal. 2009;26(3):252-4.
• Hillier Y. Reflective teaching in further and adult education. London: Continuum; 2002.
• Partridge H, Hallam G. Educating the Millenial generation for evidence based information practice. Library Hi Tech 2006;24(3):400-419.
• Schön D. The reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; 1983.
• Schön D. Educating the reflective practitioner: towards a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; 1987.

see also  Evidence-based teaching for librarians

A set of powerpoint slides including links to an updated version of Finding the Hard to Finds: Searching for Grey (Gray) Literature (March 2012 update).

A little something for my student health librarians in health information sources & services, LIBR534

1. Assume expert roles in biomedical database searching
2. Describe expert role(s) assumed by health librarians in evidence-based practice
3. Knowledge of teaching, learning styles and strategies
4. Learn how to use pre-appraised sources such as Cochrane and UpToDate
5. Be able to search the grey literature using Google, Scirus & web search tools
6. Understand systematic review process; methodologies & statistics
7. Articulate five (5) steps of evidence-based clinical practice
8. Understand hierarchies of evidence to search filtered / unfiltered
9. Search by clinical domain ie. diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, therapy
10. Engage in critical appraisal & reflective practice

Google scholar citations provides a way for you as a UBC scholar to track your scholarship – and connect with others within your discipline [here's mine]. At Google scholar citations  check out who is citing you / your publications, see how your citations can be graphed over time, and compute several citation metrics. Make your profile public so your students (or department head, Dean) can see what you are up to…contact me for more information. Dean Giustini, UBC Biomedical Branch Librarian

Perhaps you have heard about Faculty of 1000?  Open data & Cloud computing?

You might want to hear about Figshare.

“…Figshare is the brainchild of Mark Hahnel, who realised that a large amount of data generated during the course of his PhD would never get published as it did not show any significant difference. He also realised that redoing expensive research experiments and duplicating data could be drastically reduced by simply sharing this already generated data by putting it up in a proper format in a searchable database…” Singh, 2011 Figshare is a newly-relaunched web-based repository designed to enable researchers to share their research outputs in an easily citable, sharable and discoverable manner. Its platform is easy to use and aims to help researchers get credit for all their research (both positive & negative results), while moving knowledge forward. Figshare is supported by Digital Science, a sister company of Nature.

Figshare is a form of cloud computing enabling researchers to publish datasets, tables, videos, figures and other knowledge objects. All file formats are uploadable including multimedia, video and data, and information typically moved to the backs of papers in appendices or supplemental sections. Up to 1GB of data can be stored privately for free, and users have unlimited space for publicly available research.

Scientists and researchers can publish null results on Figshare, avoiding the file drawer effect while helping to make scientific research more available for the peer review process. Figshare uses Creative Commons to allow research data-sharing, while allowing researchers to choose when they want their data made public. Scientists are concerned about unfettered openness. As Professor Peter Murray-Rust of Cambridge says, “the primary purpose of publication for most academics is self-advancement”. Yet the notion of being secretive in scholarly work and scientific research is slowly breaking down.

Finally, Figshare focuses on giving users credit for all of their research; with increasing evidence for open access and its role in increasing impact, this is imperative. By using traditional impact measures (i.e. number of citations) with altmetrics, Figshare provides more depth, realtime measurements and a host of other benefits.

Follow on Twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/figshare

Reference

• Figshare: Interview with Mark Hahnel | Gobbledygook
• FigShare: striving for greater efficiency in scientific research. Claire Bowe
• Is the Open Science Revolution For Real? Wired Science 2012
• Singh J. FigShare. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2011 Apr;2(2):138-9.

The Osler Library for the History of Medicine at McGill University is Canada’s foremost scholarly resource in the history of medicine and one of the more important libraries of its kind in North America.

The Osler Library has a collection of 8000 works relating to the history of medicine much of it donated by Osler himself. In fact, Osler’s ashes are kept in the library as a memorial. The library’s website provides an overview of its collections and describes its holdings of archives, manuscripts, incunabula, portraits and artefacts. Online access to the Library catalogue is available through McGill’s central library catalogue. The site also provides easy access to the Osler Library newsletter and a range of other library publications, including the Osler Library Studies in the History of Medicine series. The newsletter is accompanied by an author and subject index. The site hosts a number of virtual exhibitions relating to the life of William Osler and the Osler Library.

The Osler collection is one of the most extensive in the world, ranging from Sumerian tablets to medieval Arabic manuscripts.

Holdings & services

The Library comprises a circulating/reference collection of secondary literature and journals on the history of the health sciences, as well as a collection of primary materials (pre-1914).

The collection of historic volumes assembled by the Library has grown to close to 100,000 volumes. The archives and manuscript collections are devoted to Osler and the history of medicine at McGill University, Quebec and Canada. Decriptions of archival collections can be browsed at http://osler.library.mcgill.ca/archives. Services included reference, interlibrary loan, image reproductions, tours, and a visiting fellowship for scholars. Databases have been developed to find our collection of almanacs (http://osler.library.mcgill.ca/almanacs) and reprints (http://osler.library.mcgill.ca/reprints/) and an index of Canadian medical obituaries (http://osler.library.mcgill.ca/cfstand/).

See also David S. Crawford, Famous physicians in history and William Osler

References

• Gray C. The Osler Library: a collection that represents the mind of its collector. Can Med Assoc J. 1978 Dec 23;119(12):1442-5.
• Lyons C. From Osler’s Library to the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal: an overview. Can Bull Med Hist. 2007;24(1):189-203.
• Lyons C. E-Resources at the Osler Library: special collections databases, the Canadian Health Obituaries Index File, and the Bibliography of Canadian Health Sciences Periodicals. Watermark (Arch Libr Hist Health Sci). 2006 Summer;29(3):65-6.
• Wallis F. Osler Library Studies in the History of Medicine. Osler Libr Newsl. 1990;63(February):1.