Category Archives: Library Services

Library secures award funding for new SLA 3D printer and supplies

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CREDIT: Formlabs

The Health Sciences Digital Library and Learning Center was the proud recipient of the 2017 National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region (NNLM.SCR) Technology Award, which went to the purchase of a new Form 2 stereolithography 3D printer, various resins types, and (coming soon) wash and cure stations.

Library 3D printers are available for campus usage to facilitate exploration and support utilization of this innovative technology in research and clinical settings. UT Southwestern affiliates are highly encouraged to complete a Library 3D printer orientation before using the printers.

Files can be printed via a USB connection from a laptop using PreForm software. The printer is currently available by appointment only in Library Administration at Bass Center (BL5.500); it will eventually be moved to the Digital Media Production Studio at the South Campus (main) Library by early 2018.

The resin types currently available for use with the Form 2 are:

  • Black
  • Clear
  • Dental
  • Durable
  • Flexible
  • Grey
  • Tough
  • White

The award was due to the collective efforts of Jane Scott, Desmond Ho, and Jeff Perkins from the Library’s Digital Services and Technology Planning unit.

What is an archives?

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by Catherine Miller, CA, Digital Archivist, UT Southwestern Library

What comes to mind when you hear the word “archives”? Do you immediately picture your email “archive” or an “archive” that you see on a blog site? Or do you think, “Hmmm, archives says to me dust, old stuff, attics, or basements”? Or do you say to yourself, “I have no conception of what that means”? If any of the above is true, then this is an exciting opportunity to introduce you to what an archives is.

To understand what an archives is, it is useful to compare archives and libraries. Indeed, my favorite analogy for explaining the difference between archives and libraries is the following:

“Libraries are to restaurants – AS – Archives are to grocery stores”

When you visit a restaurant, you select a meal from the menu, and the meal is prepared for you: you receive the meal at the restaurant table as a finished product. When you visit a library, you browse the shelves and select a book to read: the book you choose is the synthesized finished product of research from various sources that have been interpreted for you and presented to you in the neatly bound book you hold in your hands. Conversely, when you go to the grocery store, you are getting the raw materials to assemble a meal yourself. For example, the ingredients for an awesome spaghetti dinner include pasta, tomatoes/tomato sauce, onion, green pepper, ground beef, etc. Just as you have to bring together the various materials to make this awesome spaghetti, archives are all about bringing together records from various creators to tell an awesome story. Working in archives, you become the aggregator of information (the cook, so to speak) who is piecing together the records of history so as to tell a story. With archives, you are the interpreter of records, unlike with reading a book, where the information presented has already been interpreted by the author.

Archives contain unique records that a researcher will not find anywhere else. This is a main distinguishing factor between the work of librarians and the work of archivists. Generally, librarians work with published, widely distributed books that you can find in any library.[1] Archivists generally work with non-published materials such as an individual’s personal papers that you will only find at one institution. For example, the UT Southwestern Archives has the records of Dr. Alfred G. Gilman in our Alfred Goodman Gilman Collection. It was donated by Dr. Gilman in December 2012 and contains records which a researcher will only find by visiting the UT Southwestern Archives. The international impact of research is illustrated in one way by the following document that you will only find in the Archives here at UT Southwestern:

Now that you have an idea of what an archives is and how they differ from libraries, here’s a brief introduction to the UT Southwestern Archives. The UT Southwestern Archives is responsible for collecting, processing, preserving, and providing access to the records essential to documenting the administrative, intellectual, and social life of UT Southwestern Medical Center. The Archives is dedicated to documenting:

  1. The mandated functions of UT Southwestern Medical Center and our University Hospitals: education, research, and healthcare delivery
  2. The governance and administration of UT Southwestern Medical Center
  3. The lives of faculty, staff, students, and alumni of UT Southwestern Medical Center
  4. Parkland Memorial Hospital, which has been UT Southwestern’s long-time teaching hospital

The Archives has both institutional records and manuscript collections that contribute to telling the larger story of UT Southwestern’s history. You can learn more about the Archives’ holdings by visiting our webpage. The Archives holds many photographs documenting UT Southwestern’s built environment, research activities, faculty, students, etc. Over 700 of these photos have been digitized and are available to view online in the UT Southwestern Image Archives.

Curious to learn more about the UT Southwestern Archives and about the work that archivists do? Send us your questions at archives@utsouthwestern.edu!

[1] There are exceptions to this rule in the library world, with rare book libraries and special collection libraries being two immediate examples.

Coming in November — Key Class Series!

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Attend any or all of the “Key Classes” of our most frequently requested topics! Classes are free, hands-on, and open to all faculty, students, clinicians, and staff of UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University Hospitals. Don’t delay: register now in Taleo Learn, but be advised that seating is limited!

For more information on the “Key Classes” or other training/class topics, please email LibAsk@utsouthwestern.edu or call 214-648-2001.

Class Title: Expert Database Searching
Location: South Campus Library Classroom (E2.310A)
Date: November 2, 2017
Time: 1 – 3 p.m.

Locate electronic full-text articles using the Library’s wide range of databases, including Ovid MEDLINE®, Embase®, PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus. Learn how to utilize Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and keywords to narrow your search to locate exactly what you’re looking for. Each database has its own unique way to search effectively and one method does not fit all.

Class Title: Evidence-Based Practice
Location: South Campus Library Classroom (E2.310A)
Date: November 7, 2017
Time: 1 – 3 p.m.

Evidence-based practice is an approach to clinical practice that revolves around using the best available clinical evidence when making treatment decisions about individual patients. One of the biggest challenges of evidence-based practice is locating and identifying the best available clinical evidence and determining which resources to use when gathering evidence. This class will introduce the number of systems developed for the identification of best evidence resources for clinical evaluation.

Class Title: EndNote X8 Citation Management
Location: South Campus Library Classroom (E2.310A)
Date: November 14, 2017
Time: 1 – 3 p.m.

How much time do you spend on your reference section? This key class will include:

  • Creating and organizing an EndNote library
  • Adding references to a library both manually and by using direct export or filters
  • Using the “Group” function to organize references
  • Inserting and editing citations in a Word document using EndNote’s Cite While You Write (CWYW) function
  • Formatting references in different reference or output styles
Class Title: Introduction to Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis
Location: South Campus Library Classroom (E2.310A)
Date: November 21, 2017
Time: 1 – 3 p.m.

This class will review methods used by those performing systematic reviews and meta-analysis, including building a team and formulating a research question and hypothesis, as well as methods for searching the literature, abstracting information, and synthesizing the evidence both qualitatively and quantitatively. We will also cover how to formulate an answerable research question; define inclusion and exclusion criteria; search for the evidence; extract data; assess the risk of bias in the underlying studies; perform qualitative synthesis, meta-analysis, and sensitivity analysis; and assess meta-bias.

Prices change for Interlibrary Loan on July 1

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Beginning July 1, 2017, all affiliated clients will be charged for all Interlibrary Loan requests. This change, which was recommended by the Library Advisory Committee and supported by the Dean’s Office, will mark the first time that the UT Southwestern Library has ever charged students, residents, and fellows for regularly delivered materials.

The pricing model will look like this:

Delivery Speed Cost per Item
*(Affiliated)		 Cost per Item
**(Not Affiliated)
Regular
(2-10 Days)		 $5.00 $13.00
Rush
(By the end of next business day)
Not available for book requests		 $15.00 $60.00

Please note: We will continue to provide materials – both books and articles listed in our catalog at the Joint Library Facility (JLF) – at no cost for a regular delivery.

This change is being made for two main reasons:

  • Decline in state revenue funding
  • UTSW clients making requests for items to which we already have access

In 2016, approximately one in every three InterLibrary Loan requests were for documents that UTSW clients can currently access.  To remind clients to first look to see if the Library has access to their articles before placing the request, we have recently added links to Ejournals A to Z and related tutorials and PubMed on the ILLiad login page.

Once this policy takes effect, Library staff will cancel article requests that can be obtained through Ejournals A to Z to help save our clients money.

Check out the Library’s updated Nursing Portal!

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The Health Sciences Digital Library and Learning Center provides reliable information resources that nurses can use. The Nursing Portal was updated based on recommendations and suggestions provided by UTSW nurses and is designed to assist nurses in identifying, accessing, and utilizing Library resources to support patient care, quality improvement, research, policies, and procedures.

Source: Nursing Portal: Health Sciences Digital Library and Learning Center. Nakashima, C., and Scott, J., 2017.

The Nursing Portal’s resources are organized into seven categories:

  1. Databases – include CINAHL, Clinical Skills, ClinicalKey for Nursing, UpToDate, and more
  2. Electronic Books – search the Library’s collection of more than 1,500 nursing books
  3. Journals – explore the Library’s collection of more than 750 nursing journals
  4. Nursing Resources – check out links to web and Library-subscribed resources
  5. Patient Resources – links to Library-subscribed patient education handouts
  6. Local Nursing School Libraries – links to libraries of local CCNE and ACEN accredited nursing programs
  7. Evidence-Based Practice Portal – provides an overview of EBP for clinicians as well as how to develop a PICO question, use the EBP Pyramid, and find evidence in web and Library-subscribed resources.

Library services for nurses include:

For more information or to schedule training with a health sciences librarian, please visit the Nursing Portal or contact us by completing the Ask Us form or call 214-648-2001.

Coming in April – Key Class Series!

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Attend any or all of the “Key Classes” of our most frequently requested topics! Classes are free, hands-on, and open to all faculty, students, clinicians, and staff of UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University Hospitals. Don’t delay: register now in Taleo Learn, but be advised that seating is limited!

For more information on the “Key Classes” or other training/class topics, please email LibAsk@utsouthwestern.edu or call 214-648-2001.

Class Title: Expert Database Searching
Location: Clements University Hospital, Conference Room 3.512
Date: April 4, 2017
Time: 10 a.m. – noon

Locate electronic full-text articles using the Library’s wide range of databases, including Ovid MEDLINE®, Embase®, PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus. Learn how to utilize Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and keywords to narrow your search to locate exactly what you’re looking for. Each database has its own unique way to search effectively and one method does not fit all. You are welcome to bring your laptop computer.

Class Title: EndNote X8 Citation Management
Location: Clements University Hospital, Conference Room 6.422
Date: April 11, 2017
Time: 10 a.m. – noon

How much time do you spend on your reference section? This key class will include:

  • Creating and organizing an EndNote library
  • Adding references to a library both manually and by using direct export or filters
  • Using the “Group” function to organize references
  • Inserting and editing citations in a Word document using EndNote’s Cite While You Write (CWYW) function
  • Formatting references in different reference or output styles

For personal assistance with your EndNote library, please bring your laptop computer.

Class Title: Evidence-Based Practice
Location: Clements University Hospital, Conference Room 6.314
Date: April 18, 2017
Time: 10 a.m. – noon

Evidence-based practice is an approach to clinical practice that revolves around the use of the best available clinical evidence when making treatment decisions about individual patients. One of the biggest challenges of evidence-based practice is locating and identifying the best available clinical evidence, and determining which resources to use when gathering evidence. This class will introduce the number of systems developed for the identification of best evidence resources for clinical evaluation. You are welcome to bring your laptop computer.

Class Title: Introduction to Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis
Location: Clements University Hospital, Conference Room 6.314
Date: April 25, 2017
Time: 10 a.m. – noon

This class will review methods used by those performing systematic reviews and meta-analysis, including building a team and formulating a research question and hypothesis, as well as methods for searching the literature, abstracting information, and synthesizing the evidence both qualitatively and quantitatively. We will also cover how to formulate an answerable research question; define inclusion and exclusion criteria; search for the evidence; extract data; assess the risk of bias in the underlying studies; perform qualitative synthesis, meta-analysis, and sensitivity analysis; and assess meta-bias. You are welcome to bring your laptop computer.

2017 Medical Student Research Forum posters now available online

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Posters presented at the 55th Annual UT Southwestern Medical Student Research Forum are now available through the UT Southwestern Institutional Repository’s Annual Medical Student Research Forum Collection, along with a booklet containing information on all posters.

Beginning in 1962, the UT Southwestern Medical Student Research Forum is an annual event celebrating research conducted by UT Southwestern medical students. The event is open to any medical student who participated in research, whether through the Summer Research Program or a yearlong program like HHMI.

For the last four years, presentation posters have been submitted to the Institutional Repository collection. Each publicly-available poster in the collection includes additional descriptive information, as well as a citation formatted according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, which can be used with CVs or in various applications.

For questions about contributing content in general to the UT Southwestern Institutional Repository, contact Cameron Kainerstorfer at archives@utsouthwestern.edu.

Library’s Systematic Review Service officially launches

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Are you preparing for a “systematic review”? Systematic reviews aim to identify and synthesize all of the scholarly research – including both published and unpublished studies – on a particular topic. They are conducted in an unbiased, reproducible way to (1) provide evidence for practice and policy-making and (2) identify gaps in research. If you’re not sure that a systematic review is the right type of literature review for you or you would like to learn more about systematic reviews, see our Systematic Review Portal.

The UT Southwestern Health Sciences Digital Library and Learning Center offers a systematic review service to faculty, post-doctoral and graduate students, and research staff. For an overview of the systematic review process, the Library offers training on the following topics:

  • Overview of the process
  • Systematic review standards (IOM, PRISMA, Cochrane)
  • EndNote
  • Characteristics of a systematic review
  • Development of the research question
  • Potential databases for searching
  • Strategy development
  • Grey literature

Librarians are experts in the field of research and provide in-class instruction on systematic review methodology. To request an instruction session or workshop, fill out the Ask Us Form and indicate your interest in systematic reviews.

Beginning FY 2017, there is a fee for a librarian’s contribution to a systematic review. Librarians are included as authors on systematic review publications based on their valuable contributions to the review, including:

  • Identifying relevant databases and other sources for searching the scholarly literature, including grey literature.
  • Designing and implementing complex, database-specific search strategies.
  • Using reference management software and other tools for managing the study gathering and selection process.
  • Creating search alerts to ensure that new studies are found while the review is in progress.
  • Guidance on the systematic review process and protocol development.
  • Translating the protocol across multiple databases.
  • Conducting and documenting the search in multiple databases.
  • Providing protocol and results from all databases
  • Finding and evaluating systematic reviews that have already been published.
  • Delivering citations in preferred citation management software (e.g., EndNote).
  • Providing basic guidance on screening process (overview of Covidence or DistillerSR, if selected for purchase).
  • Writing methods section.

According to Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews, which was published in 2011 by the Institute of Medicine, the systematic review team should “[work] with a librarian or other information specialist trained in performing systematic reviews to plan the search strategy” (p. 266). Your UTSW librarians are happy to partner with you as you begin this considerable process. If you have any questions about this service, please email us at LibAsk@utsouthwestern.edu.

The Librarian is in! New in-person Library research support available in 2017

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the-librarian-is-in-1Need help with EndNote citation management? Researching a topic? Using one of the many library database resources? David Rathvon, the UT Southwestern Health Science Digital Library & Learning Center’s Client Experience Program Coordinator, will be available to provide in-person research assistance at the North and South Campus Library locations.

David will be at the North Campus Library on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and at the South Campus Library on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 10 a.m. and 12 noon.

December Library Toy Drive to benefit Dallas County children

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libtoydrive
Brother Bill’s Helping Hand needs gifts for their annual Children’s Christmas Celebration for the children of Dallas County, and the UT Southwestern Library is providing a drop-off location for gifts at all Library locations from December 1-16, 2016.

If you would like to participate, please bring a new, unwrapped toy to the South Campus Library (E2.200), North Campus Library (ND2.300), or the Bass Building (BL5.500) by December 16. Alternatively, you may purchase toys from their Target online registry; items purchased online will ship directly to them.

All toys should be less than $12.00. Suggested items are listed below:

  • Coloring Books & Crayon Sets (ages 3-5)
  • Matchbox & Hot Wheels (ages 3-5)
  • 4-piece PlayDoh sets (ages 3-5)
  • Board Games (ages 6-8)
  • Lego Sets (ages 6-8)
  • 6″ puzzles (ages 6-8)
  • Jenga Game (ages 9-11)
  • Nerf Footballs (ages 12-14)

If you need more information, please call 214-648-2001.