Eahil Dublin 2009 Workshop

Imagine... The world without journal

Author and presenter: Witold Kozakiewicz, Main Library, Medical University of Lodz, Poland

In the last few years we are witnessing the rapid growth of on-line services including social networking, internet forums, wikis, blogs, Second Life and  the birth of new technologies such as e-paper. Internet access is as common as TV or telephone. One stumbles upon "e-" terms almost everywhere (e-book, e-mail, e-bank, e-library). Would it be possible to wake up some day, and find oneself in the world without paper journals or without journals at all? How can the Open Access movement affect the traditional printed materials? Are we currently experiencing the revolution akin to the Gutenberg\'s invention of movable type printing press? This presentation would show how scientific collaboration might look like in the future, in a virtual world, and answer the question - is there still need for scientific journals in their traditional form? Could they be replaced by new media? What tools are available right now, what will be in a near future for creating "Journal 2.0."

Using Web 2.0 to Cultivate Information Literacy via Construction of Personal Learning Environments within a Medical Ethics Course

Presenters: Sarah Whittaker, Joanne Dunham

Authors: Sarah Whittaker, Information Librarian, Clinical Sciences Library, University of Leicester, UK;  Alan Cann, Senior Lecturer & University Teaching Fellow, Department of Biology, University of Leicester, UK; Joanne Dunham, Clinical Sciences Librarian & Head of Collections & Information Systems, University of Leicester, UK; Steve Malcherczyk, Lecturer in Medical Ethics and Law, Department of Medical and Social Education, University of Leicester, UK; Hywel Williams, Head of Library Academic Services, University of Leicester, UK.

Purpose: This paper will report on a Teaching Enhancement Project aimed at using web 2.0 technologies and personal learning environments to enhance information literacy and student learning, by influencing how and when students learnt, within the context of a medical ethics and law course. Brief Description: Working with the course tutor we generated online learning materials using web 2.0 technologies to push key learning resources to students at the appropriate point in their course.  Delivery of the course was through the institution’s virtual learning environment, Blackboard. Student support was offered through a mixture of face-to-face training and drop-in sessions.

Results/Outcome: The project has been a valuable learning process for us which has informed us of the approach we need to take to integrating Web 2.0 with information literacy.  We concluded that elearning resources must be integrated into the fabric of the course, not as last minute add-ons.  Improving information literacy is a long term goal as it requires developing a mindset as much as a set of skills. We should be aiming for it to become integral to the way that students and staff work.  Library resources work best when tailored to each course rather than generic. Success in developing a community of practice may depend on circumstances. 

Looking Forward: The Medical Ethics and Law courses will continue to develop online and web 2.0 resources. Librarians’ roles will develop and depend on their ability to build relationships and add value to external tools such as Google Scholar. Web 2.0 can facilitate this, but this requires a change of culture for librarians and academics.

Access to health information on the Internet: can social bookmarking systems replace expert gateways?

Presenters:  Valérie Durieux

Authors: Valérie Durieux, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium & Gaétan Kerdelhué, CISMeF, Rouen University Hospital, Rouen, France

Introduction:  Over the last few years, the World Wide Web has become the first and often unique provider of scientific and health information. However, online information lacks organisation and validation processes. In order to overcome these limitations, several solutions have been proposed. One of the oldest ones is Web sites designed as gateways wherein online resources are selected, described and organized by experts and librarians. In this context, CISMeF [http://www.cismef.org], initiated in 1995, catalogues and indexes online quality-controlled resources of institutional health information in French language. More recently, social bookmarking systems rely on Internet users themselves to select, store and describe online resources by assigning them tags. Delicious [http://delicious.com], founded in late 2003, is one of the most used social bookmarking system.  

Purpose: The aim of the present study is to measure the overlap between healthcare resources listed in CISMeF and Delicious. The study tries to determine whether tools such as CISMeF and Delicious are redundant. Are expert procedures, as executed by CISMeF, still needed when faced with the “wisdom of crowds”? 

Methods: Trials were performed on samples of healthcare resources, using a Mash-up application. This tool, created with Yahoo Pipes service, retrieves simultaneously data from CISMeF and Delicious, and aggregates results. It allows to rapidly identify resources listed in both CISMeF and Delicious. For these resources, tags from Delicious users and keywords assigned by CISMeF librarians were compared in order to measure the similarities. Results: There is a low rate of overlap between healthcare resources listed in both CISMeF and Delicious. Furthermore, tags from Delicious users are very different from keywords assigned by CISMeF librarians.

Conclusion: Delicious appears to be more focused on popular online resources concerning general subjects within the healthcare field. Whereas CISMeF, on the contrary, highlights more specific resources regarding specialized topics.

Web 2.0 as a tool for improving communication among international MeSH translators

Presenter: Maurella Della Seta

Authors: Alessandra Ceccarini,  Maurella Della Seta, Maurizio Ferri,  Paolo Roazzi Documentation Service, SIBAE, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.

In the wake of NLM MeSH thesaurus increasing success in biomedical information-related fields, the idea of creating a reference tool for translators in NLM MTMS is making great strides.  Translators in new-entry languages, such as those spoken in Eastern Europe, e.g.,  have recently been involved in this demanding task. They may have to face problems similar to those already witnessed by experienced translators in pioneer languages.  The creation of a dialogue tool for translators scattered over the globe could enhance translation. The old-style print newsletter has now yielded to new tools.  Web 2.0 technology is paving the way to a flexible dialogue tool for multilingual exchange of ideas: a blog for NLM MTMS users. A special section on our ISS website has already been devoted to the Italian MeSH translation (www.iss.it/site/mesh). 

In our expectations,  our website could easily host an open space for all  MeSH translators, with the purpose of improving communication, exchanging ideas, sharing experiences and assessing assessing critical areas. The MeSH translator forum  will be an open-wide eye on a multilingual approach of the biomedicine language, offering new opportunities and facilitating the interaction among people involved in this demanding task.

International Partnership and Collaboration in a Multilanguage Translation Effort

Presenter: Jacque-Lynne Schulman

Authors: Jacque-Lynne Schulman, Stuart Nelson et al. National Library of Medicine Bethesda, MD, USA.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM)'s MEDLINE/PubMed database includes over 15 million literature citations of articles written in 41 languages. Various translations of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) enable users not facile in English to identify articles that are of sufficient potential interest. Translations have generally been performed by individuals sufficiently well-versed in medical nomenclature in English and in the language to which they are translating. A major concern of translators has been, and continues to be, the necessity of staying current with the annual editions of MeSH. Each year, new descriptors are added to the MeSH vocabulary, existing descriptor class names are modified, and some descriptors are deleted. In addition, the entry or cross-reference terms are also subject to annual changes.

To enable the translators earlier and more complete access to the development of MeSH, the MTMS was developed. Before the MTMS, translators received the complete MeSH vocabulary in August. If they wished their translation included in the UMLS, to meet processing deadlines, they were asked to have all translations finished by November. In any event, the changes occurring in MEDLINE at year\'s end required a rapid completion of the translation; In some years, more than 1,000 changes in MeSH must be translated. The MTMS provides the translator teams with ongoing access to the new MeSH version as it is being developed. After several years of operation, it is appropriate to share the actual progress experienced and learn what barriers remain.