Open letter of complaint to publishers of Pediatrics

If you haven't seen this already, Oliver Obst, Head of the Central Medical Library at the Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster, and past Vice-President of the German Medical Library Association, has written an open letter of complaint to the American Academy of Pediatrics, publishers of Pediatrics. In it, Obst states his objection to the price hike for subscriptions and the cost of site licences. 'As long as you keep to this pricing scheme, you are no longer "dedicated to the health of all children".'

Better Connected Intranets

For those of you involved in the development of your organisation's intranet, the April '07 issue of CILIP's magazine, Update, has a news story (p.11) featuring the release of a report from the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), Better connected intranets: emerging good practice.

From the report's introduction,

Intranets have been a neglected area for development compared with public websites, but now the demand for service transformation is putting much greater emphasis on the requirement for employees to have easy access to information that they need for their work. Using ideas, experiences and lessons shared at a series of workshops in 2006, we have investigated what good practice in developing intranets involves.

Unfortunately the report is not a free download but the Update story does outline the top 10 applications for intranets.

• phone directory
• bulletin boards: classifieds, discussion, lost and found, events
• HR applications: absence recording, flexi-time mgt, expense claims
• job vacancies
• room bookings
• catering: lunch menus, online food ordering
• geographical information systems
• committee information system: agendas and minutes
• leader's briefing/monthly message from heads of directorates
• employee discounts: cut-price cineman tickets, restaurant meals, travel

It also shares these great ideas:

• photo libraries to help employees who are preparing web pages, leaflets and other publications
• a chief executive's blog (variation on the monthly message)
• turning the intranet's "how do I?" section into a wiki so employees can share their knowledge with others

HLA makes submission to Valintus

In the lastest issue of HLA News convenor, Heather Todd, makes reference to the business case being developed by Valintus [on behalf of the Health Information Management Principal Committee (NHIMPC), which is a Principal Committee of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC)] to determine the viability of the national licensing of key Electronic Clinical Knowledge Resources (ECKR) for health professionals employed in the government sector – Australia wide. HLA has now forwarded its submission to Valintus. Please contact Heather Todd should you like a copy.

Bumper issue of HLA News just published

The first issue of HLA News for 2007 has just been published. HLA members will have received their copy by email overnight.

In the lead article Lindsay Harris proves a superior tour guide as he tracks the journey towards national access to electronic health information; Desley Reid-Orr recounts the difficulties encountered when searching for grey literature in health care; and this issue's Left Field column is penned by David Hansen, leader of Health Data Integration and e-Health Metadata and Ontologies research projects at the e-Health Research Centre, who provides insight into the importance of semantics in healthcare. Also read reports from the HLA symposium, Information Rx, and the two day NSW Health Libraries workshop held late last year, and much more!

Thanks goes to our sponsor, EBSCO Australia. You can find a product update from EBSCO on page 11.

If you are an HLA member (or think you are!) and didn't receive the newsletter, contact me directly.

HLA News is the quarterly bulletin of the Australian Libraries and Information Association’s group, Health Libraries Australia (HLA). It has the simple aim of reporting the practices, policies, research, events and initiatives of Australian health and biomedical libraries, which may influence the practice and thinking of HLA members and other health and biomedical library workers. A by-product of this is a publication that showcases Australian health and biomedical library practice to the rest of the world.

Calling all special libraries: ALIA's Great Ideas LIW Competition

You've got until this Friday (20th April) to submit your dream Library and Information Week promotional idea to be in the draw to win a funky @ your library USB wristband. There will be one winner from each sector. Health librarians are known for their great ideas so get cracking!

Library and Information Week 21-27 May 2007

ALIA Election Results/Board changes

The following positions/changes come into effect as of the ALIA AGM on May 15:

• Derek Whitehead (Swinburne Uni of Technology) has been elected Vice-president / President-elect. You can keep up with Derek's ALIA activities via his blog Derek's ALIA Blog;
• Damian Lodge (Centre for Information Studies , Charles Sturt Uni) and Kate Watson (Uni of the Sunshine Coast) have been elected as Directors;
• Roxanne Missingham (Aust Parliamentary librarian) will take over from Dagmar Schmidmaier as ALIA President; and
• Of interest to health, Anne Ritchie's (Dept of Health and Community Services, NT) term as a director comes to an end while Philip Keane (Royal Adelaide Hospital - IMVS) continues as a director into 2008.

See ALIA Board of Directors for more information.

Roadshow: Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia

education.au is holding its first seminar for 2007. Guest speaker is Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Hear, discuss and debate how the way knowledge is created is changing.

Health librarians, if you get a group of 10 ALIA members together you will receive a 10% discount on the price ($300 which includes GST, morning tea and lunch). Forward details of your group of 10 including name, position and the location you would like to attend to Jill Yvanovich at ALIA national office. Attendance can earn you 5 points in the 'informal learning activities' category of the ALIA PD scheme.

Dates and times:

23 April Adelaide Hilton Hotel, 9:30am - 4:00pm

24 April Perth Burswood Entertainment Complex, - 9:30am - 4:00pm

26 April Sydney Hilton Hotel, 9:30am - 4pm

27 April Melbourne ZINC at Federation Square, 9:30am - 4:00pm

Judy Burnham's "Web 2.0: Tools for Clinical Practice"

In case you missed the post on the aliaHEALTH discussion list Web 2.0 junkies and novices should check out Judy Burnham's (University of Alabama) Web 2.0: Tools for Clinical Practice.

Thomson Scientific update sessions

Thomson Scientific will be conducting Web of Knowledge and Bibliometric Analytical tools update sessions across Australia late May/early June. RSVP is required, no later than May 5th, as the sessions have a fixed capacity. Contact Dharshani on 61 2 8587 7704 or dharshani.goonetilleke@thomson.com for more information or to book.

Perth, 9-11.30am 31st May
Curtin University of Technology
Room 218, Level 2, Robertson Library (Building 105)
Kent Street, Bentley

Melbourne, 9.30-12pm 1st June
University of Melbourne
Tute & Committee rooms, Baillieu Library
Gate 12, Royal Parade, Parkville

Sydney, 9.30-12pm 4th June
University of Sydney
Training Room 3, Fisher Library
Eastern Avenue F03, Camperdown Campus

Adelaide, 9.30-12pm 5th June
University of Adelaide
Ira Raymond Room, Barr Smith Library, North Terrace Campus

Brisbane, 9.30-12pm 6th June
University of Queensland
Library Conference Room
Duhig Building, St Lucia

Health LIS 2.0

I have only just stumbled across the blog Health LIS 2.0 after browsing the L2.0 presentation Gillian Wood and Graham Spooner delivered at the Information Rx Symposium. The comments collected during their presentation are quite fascinating!

With its health library focus this is a blog worth subscribing to.

Info Rx presentations

Presentations from the HLA Symposium, Information Rx, have been added to the ALIA HLA web site. Presentations up so far include:

• What's Expert About Expert Searching?
• HLA Input into National Health Information Provision
• Library 2.0
• Chasing the Sun
• Seamless e-Resource Integration

Some presenters have submitted for publication and as such are unable to provide their presentations. We plan to link to the published papers once they become available. Stay tuned.