Category: About the Blog

An Introduction

Enough lurking! I’m finally going to introduce myself and resurrect the Physio-Blog,

Hi, my name is Suzanne Geba and I’m taking over where Eugene left off. First, let me tell you a bit about myself, and what I hope to bring to this blog.

I am a librarian in a unique position. I don’t work in a physical library, seldom handle books, and serve a specific set of users across the beautiful province of British Columbia: the 1800+ members of the Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia (PABC). Our library is fully digital. At its core is the excellent eHLBC collection of health databases, however, when needed I “borrow” electronic resources from public libraries and academic institutions, and of course find stuff using good old Google.

Reference questions are handled via email or IM (try the “Ask Librarian” chat box when I’m online). I also offer database workshops, provide access to new information technologies and sources, and do my best to keep members up to date with current physio information. That’s my job in a nutshell.

So, what up with the blog? After all, it’s been a few months without a fresh post.

While it is true, that Eugene Barsky (now at UBC) is no longer the author of this blog, his past contributions are still happily with us. Truth be told, blogging in someone else’s shoes is just a wee bit challenging, and it may take some time to find my stride. In the meantime I welcome comments from anyone, anywhere.

Since Eugene’s departure my position is no longer affiliated with the University of British Columbia, and for this reason, the main focus of the blog will be on serving PABC members, but hopefully viewers from all over will continue to visit and find something worth while.

This is simply my intro post, but I will be back soon and on a regular basis. Hi for now!

Suzanne, PABC Librarian

About the Blog Main

ta ta for now – Eugene Barsky’s departure and the physio blog

Post author By Eugene Barsky
Post date February 15, 2008
7 Comments on ta ta for now – Eugene Barsky’s departure and the physio blog

Eugene Barsky photo

This is my saddest post on this blog. Well – because this is my last one. I was offered and decided to accept a new tenured track librarian position with the Science and Engineering Library, University of British Columbia.

It means that I will not continue my blogging here. The newly hired librarian – Aditi Gupta – will be holding the fort and keep updating you as for the news in physiotherapy informatics.

The blog does not die – which is a very good thing for me 🙂

I decided to omit the name of the University of British Columbia from the blog’s title, since it will not continue to be affiliated with the university where I work…

I will greatly miss all British Columbia physios I worked with during the recent years – amazing group of people! I enjoyed it so much! Thank you to hundreds of you who used our library services. Thank you for all your kudos and for being such a great users group – you are a dream of every professional librarian!!

Thank you also to all physical therapists out there that came to read our blog more than 102,000 times during the last two years. Thank you for spending the time with us. I hope you found something useful while being here.

Thank you to all health librarians who came to use our blog as a learning tool and as an example of outreaching to a diverse community of users. I have always appreciated your feedback and respected your opinions.

Particular thank you to those individuals that inspired me and served as my mentors, colleagues and friends: Dean Giustini, Sally Taylor, Lindsay Ure, Katherine Miller, Susan Atkey, Sheryl Adam, David Rothman, Simon Neame, Mark Rabnett, Barbara Saint, Charlotte Beck, Lee Ann Bryant, Aleteia Greenwood, Allan Cho, Brian Lamb. A particular big thank you to the Physiotherapy Association of BC CEO – Rebecca Tunnacliffe, who ALWAYS supported me and my work with the physiotherapists!!

Ta Ta for Now – we are all off to new adventures 🙂

** Photo by Martin Dee

About the Blog Main

About us and this blog

Yesterday, being asked about the nature and affiliations of this blog, I decided to add a short “About Us” post here.

So, this blog was created and is regularly updated by me – Eugene Barsky. I am a Physiotherapy Outreach Librarian at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Possessing a Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree from SLAIS, UBC, and BA in Psychology from Ben Gurion University, Beersheba, Israel, I previously worked in clinical research (St. Paul’s Hospital, UBC) and in pharmaceutical industry regulatory intelligence (QLT Inc.).

At this recent position, which I started in mid-February 2006, my mandate is to work with British Columbia practicing physiotherapists, who belong to the Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia (PABC)

My objectives for this post are: 1) Provide online and in-person information services to PABC physiotherapists; 2) Design and deliver information instruction programs using various methods and technologies; and 3) Participate in the planning and implementation of policies, guidelines, procedures and anticipating the information needs of PABC members.

This blog is only one of the many tools I offer to PABC members, other tools also include a specialized physiotherapy search engine, personalized research services, reference services, podcasts, webcasts, online tutorials, and various information workshops, for more on these you can take a look on my “vision” presentation to PABC members here.

This blog mandate is to: 1) Discuss physiotherapy informatics with an emphasis on Evidence-Based Practice; 2) Present new physiotherapy information (focus on BC and Canada); 3) Encourage comments and information sharing among physiotherapists; and 4) Encourage international collaboration

I welcome all your comments and areas of interest on this blog, please do share these with me, and feel free to share our blog posts with other worthy people 🙂

I am very fortunate to enjoy a full support from both the UBC Library and PABC (thank you Simon and Rebecca!), and if you have any complains or might feel insulted by my posts, please let me or my boss @ UBC know about that.

Thank you all for visiting this resource – in two weeks that we are alive, our pages were viewed almost 600 times already! Excellent start, I believe. Looking forward to working with you!

Eugene