The Personal is Professional?

I remember the slogan ' the personal is political' from the feminist movement in the 70's. It has certainly played out in some twisted ways. I find myself wondering, in these toddler days of online social networking, how the blurring of the boundaries between public and private life will play out over the next few decades.

Have you 'googled' yourself recently? Find anything you wouldn't want a prospective employer to see? Patients can google their physicians, students their teachers, and vice versa. I know my curiosity sometimes leads me to information that, I'm probably better off not knowing. If I'm facing a complex surgery how does it affect my peace of mind to know that my surgeon is a big fan of slasher movies?

Things should get even more interesting as new tools like Google Wave emerge which will take email where it has never gone before. Here's a post about it from Roy Tennant's blog, Digital Libraries: "Google Wave" Aims to Transform Online Communication

Apple Developers Converge

They're everywhere you look: nerdy guys (where are the girls?) in black-rimmed glasses, rumpled cotton shirts and cut-off cargo pants, pockets overflowing with what?...stuff. They've descended on San Francisco's Moscone Center to learn about how to develop applications for Apple's iPhone.

And not just a few of them are developing health care apps. They're not dumb, these developers. They know that the percentage of us in the geriatric category will be will be increasing over time and that our physicians will want instant, seamless, anywhere/anytime, HIPAA-compliant transmission of the data necessary to take care of us. I want them to have that...I want my providers to be able see my real-time ECG strip, my MRIs, my lab values, my blood gases, and whatever else they might want want to see. Let 'em see it all, instantly, from wherever the heck they might be.

Take a look at one of the new iPhone apps that will let them do just that.

Blogging from my iPhone

And they said it couldn't be done. Well, maybe it should't be done. But at least I know it can be done. I'm at MLA (Medical Library Assoc) meeting in Honolulu and didn't feel like bringing my laptop. Hence the need to blog via iPhone.

There is some actual work being done here by a few select individuals. See the official meeting blog: http://npc.mlanet.org/mla09

Oops, gotta run. Can't be late for the luau.

The Who, What & Where of Swine Flu Information

I'm on a disaster outreach listserv that deals with the role of libraries and librarians in dispensing disaster and pandemic information on topics such as the recent swine flu outbreak. The librarians on this listserv are particularly proactive and see the dissemination of disaster-related information as something that they are uniquely suited to do because of their technical expertise in web content posting as well as their ability to find, evaluate and synthesize information.

Well, one of the most active librarians on the list was complaining that she got her hands slapped because she was posting links to a variety of swine flu related information on her library web site. Her administration told her to cut it out because they didn't want people to panic. This kind of directive goes against the librarian grain, because we feel that, in general, more and better information makes for less panic, not more, and probable better outcomes for all concerned.

I think this controversy will die down as soon as everyone in the organization gets onto Web 2.0 technology. Or maybe it won't. Maybe it will intensify for a while. Everyone will know how to create web pages with links to information, Google Flu maps, and widgets of all flavors, and they won't have to rely on one IT-based webmaster OR one librarian who knows how to cut code or use web editing software. The underlying issue, though, will remain: who in the organization will be responsible for putting up the official content on the official web site? Through my Web 2.0-colored glasses, I'd say, "let them collaborate".

Swine Flu Alert

Click here for a comprehensive list of links relating to Swine Flu

Another page of links from the Specialized Information Services at the National Library of Medicine.

And handy box with links that you can put on your own home page using the "Get widget Now!" link

Is the Internet Making us Stupid?

In this thought-provoking podcast several brain gurus and media experts make the argument that the Worldwide Web is creating generations of information-addicted people who crave distraction, have difficulty focusing, can't analyze complex issues, and pride themselves on being multi-taskers when they're really just inefficient serial taskers, crashing their cars while chattering blythely on cell phones. I'm so glad to know this. Now I can blame the Internet for my ADD tendencies. And I'll be extra careful with my mobile telephony.

Google and User Happiness

I was interested in the presentation Daniel Russell made at Mt. Zion's H.M. Fishbon Memorial Library in November, 2008 because he's Google's main man in charge of "user happiness." Also because Google is the 800 pound gorilla in the information jungle, where librarians sometimes feel like an endangered species.

Yesterday I gave a PubMed coaching session to a physician who Googles using natural language queries to find journal articles on specific clinical topics. Most of the time he considers his searching successful; that is, he can find one or two good articles. That's all he wants anyway. His only complaint is that he can't always get full text; hence his request for a PubMed coaching session from yours truly.

I start with the unhappy news that PubMed includes links to free full text only when provided by open access publishers. Most publishers want to be paid for their content, so libraries spend millions of dollars providing that content to their affiliated users, something most people don't recognize or understand. I end with some good news/bad news: open access publishing may some day replace the existing subscription-based scholarly publishing model. But probably not in our lifetime.

Then I give my spiel about how using PubMed's controlled vocabulary MeSH (medical subject headings) can increase precision and recall and is especially useful for very complex searches or very exhaustive ones, such as when you're designing a research project and absolutely, positively have to know everything that's been published in your area of research. I could tell he wasn't buying it. Too much work for too little return. He was perfectly fine with his established system of Googling. The truth is that not everyone wants or needs to be a PubMed virtuoso. But if you'd like to add to your PubMed searching repertoire, please give me a call, 206-6639. It's free...except for your time, that is.