Check out the new look and features of MedlinePlus!

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MedlinePlus has received a major redesign and the reviews are positive! Many of the changes are in response to user suggestions. Take a look at this consumer health site to see how it can provide the best information for patients, staff, and their families.
New features include:

  • Easy-to-Read content and Medical Dictionary highlighted on home page
  • Drugs & Supplements page with new links to related topic pages
  • New Videos & Cool Tools page includes tutorials, calculators, quizzes and games
  • Unique color schemes for English and Spanish content
  • Health topic pages and interactive tutorials have a share button for Facebook, Twitter, and more

MedlinePlus is the National Institutes of Health’s Web site for patients and their families and friends. Produced by the National Library of Medicine, it brings you information about diseases, conditions, and wellness issues in language you can understand. MedlinePlus offers free, reliable, up-to-date health information, anytime, anywhere, in multiple languages.

Web-based photo exhibit on Dallas medical history coming in 2011

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The Library has received a Historical Preservation and Digitization Award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region (NN/LM SCR).
The award will be used to digitize photographs in the Library’s UT Southwestern Archives to create a web-based chronicle of Dallas medical history from 1890-1975. The most important 50 photos will comprise an exhibit titled, "Medical Milestones in Dallas". An additional 450 photos—chosen from about 7,000 in the Archives—will supplement those in the exhibit. The photos will be accessible from the Library’s website.
The award was announced on June 30, and the project will be completed by March 31. Photos to be digitized will be selected by Bill Maina, Archivist. The Principal Investigator for this award is Matthew Zimmerman.
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3505 with the Houston Academy of Medicine – Texas Medical Center Library.

USMLEasy FAQ: The basics to get you started

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What is USMLEasy?

  • An online, customizable test preparation tool for medical students who are preparing to take the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE).

Why should I use USMLEasy?

  • Simulates the actual computer-testing interface (FREDv2) on the USMLE exams (Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3), with timed exams.
  • Includes more than 6,800 USMLE-format questions from McGraw-Hill’s test preparation books.
  • Provides targeted remediation based on test results with links to selected readings from 31 books from AccessMedicine‘s Lange Library.

Who can access USMLEasy?

  • Access is restricted to affiliated faculty, staff, and students of UT Southwestern.

How do I get access to USMLEasy?

  • On-campus:
 Use Library’s Quick Links (on left side of Library web site).
  • Off-campus:
 Use Library’s Quick Links, then authenticate using VPN.

How do I create a USMLEasy personal account?

  • Login to USMLEasy thru the Library’s web page.
  • Fill in the form on the right hand side of USMLEasy’s UT Southwestern Medical Center Library access home page.
  • Once you have created a USMLEasy personal account (versus anonymous user), you must always login to USMLEasy thru the Library’s web page, then sign in with your personal username/password. You may also use this same username/password in My AccessMedicine.

What if I need help?

Library Toolbar: Immediate access to your Library's resources

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Now you can have the resources of the Library’s Web site available whenever you browse the web! Visit the Library’s home page and you will be presented with an option to download the toolbar automatically if you have not installed it on your browser. You may also download directly from the toolbar download page.
The Library Toolbar lets you:

  • Access Library resources and services from any site on the web.
  • Search key Library resources, including the catalog, ejournals, MEDLINE, and PubMed, from anywhere on the web.
  • Have the Library’s Quick Links always available.
  • Have Library QuickLinks always available
  • Receive news feeds from Library News, UT Southwestern’s News and Publications, and major biomedical journal titles (e.g., JAMA, NEJM, Nature, Science).
  • Ask for help with Library research and resources from any web page.
  • Renew materials easily.
  • Quickly access University calendars.
  • Optionally access your email (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.), weather forecast, and online radio player.

Currently, the Library Toolbar works with Internet Explorer (v. 5.5 or later), Firefox (Mac, Linux and Windows) and Safari (Mac only). Visit the Library Toolbar FAQ page for more details.

Mixed recycling comes to the North Campus Branch Library

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The North Campus Branch Library is participating in a new North Campus recycling program expansion. In addition to the current paper and cardboard recycling, the new program will accept mixed recyclables, including clean plastic bottles and containers and clean metal containers (e.g., aluminum or tin cans).
A list of all eligible items is posted by the tall blue recycling bins, and more information is available at the UT Southwestern Green Champions FAQs page.
For any question about campus recycling or the Green Champion program, please contact Robert Watts in Physical Plant.

Library spotlights Facebook this month

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Social media is becoming a popular topic around UT Southwestern. Did you know the UT Southwestern Library Facebook page was one of the first departmental pages on Facebook? The Library wants to help others define their social media presence and policy by featuring a survey, class, and webinar all dedicated to Facebook this month.
The Library will conduct a brief online questionnaire via Survey Monkey this month to assess the effectiveness of its Facebook page in promoting Library resources, services, programs, and events. The questionnaire will be active until March 22, 2010.
On March 16, a new Library class for anyone who participates on Facebook is Managing Personal Privacy on Facebook from 11 a.m. to 12 noon in E2.310A. This class will discuss ethical issues surrounding personal use of social networking sites by biomedical professionals as well as explain Facebook’s new privacy policy and settings for personal pages.
The Library will sponsor a special one-hour webinar on March 25 at 12 noon in the Library Administration Conference Room. The webinar is entitled Facebook & Twitter: Legal Liabilities & HIPAA Compliance in Healthcare and is intended for UT Southwestern administrators in need of guidance in establishing a social media policy and presence. Enrollment is on the Library Classes page. Space is limited to 30 attendees.

EZProxy or VPN: Choose the best way to access your Library resources

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The Library now offers two ways to access electronic resources from off-campus: EZProxy and Juniper VPN (Virtual Private Networking).
EZProxy is a fast, easy, web-based way to access Library resources. In the past, EZProxy could only be used to access electronic journals, but as of March 1, 2010, it can be used to access all Library electronic resources (ejournals, ebooks, databases, etc.), with the exception of UpToDate.
Juniper VPN provides access to UT Southwestern resources through either a secure web gateway (for web resources only) or a client download (for a more secure connection to the UT Southwestern network). With Juniper VPN, users may access Library resources as well as other UT Southwestern and departmental resources.
To understand the differences between VPN and EZProxy, see the chart below:

Table showing VPN and EZProxy Comparison

eRA Commons simplifies management of Public Access Policy compliance

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Complying with the NIH Public Access Policy can be confusing, but for researchers who have linked their eRA Commons and My NCBI accounts, it has just become a little easier.
Within My NCBI, a new “Awards View” has been added in the “My Bibliography” section. This “Awards View” color codes your articles to let you see at a glance which are in compliance with the Public Access Policy and which still require your attention. For articles that are not compliant, a new pop-up wizard can help you begin the manuscript submission, link to a previously-submitted manuscript, or determine if your article is exempt from the policy. You can also now designate an assistant to manage your compliance for you.
For full details, please see the NLM Technology Bulletin post, My NCBI: Managing Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy Using My Bibliography.

Photos from UT Southwestern Library Archives and History now in Flickr!

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Highlights from the UT Southwestern Archives and the History of the Health Sciences collection are now available in Flickr, which is an image and video hosting web site and an online community.
Flickr is a place to share photos and videos in multiple ways. Explore a collection through tags, or view a set of photos as a slideshow.
The Library’s Apothecary Jars Collection includes the majority of pictures of the beautiful jars that were used in apothecary shops – early equivalents of what we call “pharmacies” – to hold medications and ingredients. Each picture in the collection is categorized within four distinct categories (botanical contents, historical interest, pain relief, and symbols) and includes a description of the jar’s contents and its use.
However, little is known about a few jars, and these photos are the included in the Flickr collection. We invite your help in identifying these jars and what they might have contained. Also, what is their age and country of origin? Were they for display use only, or were they working jars in an apothecary shop? Are they replicas or antiques? If you know anything about these jars, help us expand what is known by commenting on a photo or tagging a photo with a note.
Subscribe to our Flickr Photostream via RSS to stay up-to-date as we add more photos from the Archives and History collections beyond apothecary jars. The UT Southwestern Archives contains campus publications, unpublished documents, yearbooks, and more. Medical artifacts, books, and journals recording the history of medicine and other health sciences are available in our History collection. We’ll be looking to you to help us:

  • Identify unknown people in photos
  • Share how particular medical artifacts were used
  • Provide local historical information

Get the best evidence for your medical decisions! Register for the March 2nd class.

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On March 2, the Library will offer a class from 11 a.m. to 12 noon titled “Identifying Evidence-Based Medicine Resources.” You can sign up on the Library’s Class Registration page.
The class will explore the three major EBM databases on the Library web site:

  • ACP PIER: Presents evidence-based clinical information on diagnosis and treatment. Produced by the American College of Physicians (ACP), and presented on the STAT!Ref platform.
  • DynaMed: Gives evidence-based, clinically-oriented summaries of more than 3,000 topics, including 800+ pharmaceutical summaries based on AHFS Drug Information.
  • UpToDate: Provides specific practical recommendations for diagnosis and treatment. Access allowed only from on campus.

For more information about EBM resources or the class, or to request an individual training session on EBM resources, contact Laura Wilder by email or by phone at 214-648-3518.