The Invisible Web: A Quick Overview

This article provides a quick overview of recent literature published about the Invisible Web. In particular, this article covers such topics as what is the Invisible Web, weaknesses of popular search engines, types of information found on the Invisible Web, when to use the Invisible Web, search tools and search strategies

Weeding the Circulating Collection at Bailey Library

The weeding process used at Nyack College’s Bailey Library involves a year-round, piecemeal approach during a five-year cycle. The weeding of the circulating collection involves roles for student assistants, librarians, and teaching faculty, and is designed to be user-friendly and yet contain necessary checks and balances

Effects of spiritual care training for palliative care professionals

Little is known about the effects of spiritual care training for professionals in palliative medicine. We therefore investigated prospectively the effects of such training over a six-month period. All 63 participants of the three and a half-day training were asked to fill out three questionnaires: before and after the training, as well as six months later. The questionnaires included demographic data, numeric rating scales about general attitudes towards the work in palliative care, the Self-Transcendence Scale (STS), the spiritual subscale of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT-Sp) and the Idler Index of Religiosity (IIR). Forty-eight participants (76) completed all three questionnaires (91 women, median age 49 years; 51 nurses, 16 hospice volunteers, 14 physicians).Significant and sustained improvements were found in self-perceived compassion for the dying (after the training: P =0.002; 6 months later: P=0.025), compassion for oneself (P < 0.001; P =0.013), attitude towards one's family (P =0.001; P =0.031), satisfaction with work (P < 0.001; P =0.039), reduction in work-related stress (P < 0.001; P =0.033), and attitude towards colleagues (P =0.039; P =0.040), as well as in the FACIT-Sp (P < 0.001; P =0.040). Our results suggest that the spiritual care training had a positive influence on the spiritual well-being and the attitudes of the participating palliative care professionals which was preserved over a six-month period

Web 2.0 Inspirations: Collaborative Chapter Event Planning Using Wikis and Google Docs

Background Philadelphia Chapter--Special Libraries Association • Founded in 1919 • ~ 300 Members • Includes greater Philadelphia region (aka the Delaware Valley): Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware, and southern New Jersey. • Chapter members serve large (QVC) to small (CFAR) companies, universities (TJU), hospitals (Chestnut Hill) and everything in between. • Active student chapter at Drexel University (DUSLA). We also draw library school students from Clarion. Events Traditionally, the Chapter has held 5-8 events per year. Three of these are Chapter traditions: • Annual Banquet (Spring) • Wine & Cheese Reception (Fall) • Holiday Party/Silent Auction (December) We also include 1-2 “professional development” programs (lecture style w/networking time) and 1-2 Continuing Education programs with hands-on learning in the spring and/or fall. The TechTopics Series In the Fall of 2007, Karen Krasznavolgyi in her role as Professional Development Chair organized a series of hands-on TechTopics workshops. The goal was to provide an overview of new technologies, such as wikis, blogs, office applications, etc and how to apply them to your organization. The following 3 very popular and successful programs were scheduled: • The 2.0 Office: More Than Just Wikis & Blogs (Sept.) • Second Life (Oct.) • Firefox Plug-ins (Nov.) All 3 sessions were well-attended with an average of 15 people. Sessions 1 and 3 were also simulcast. Session one (2.0 office) had almost the same amount of people on simulcast as in person. The nature of the Second Life session did not lend itself to being simulcast. It was, however, probably the most lively session held for our chapter librarians ever

Replacement for the 10 page paper? A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medical clerkship

Objective Pilot a group assignment using blogs and wikis to develop evidence-based medicine skills in third year medical students on an internal medicine clerkship. Instead of the clerkship’s previous individual ten-page paper assignment, the students were divided into four groups of sixteen. During the clerkship, students are on geographically dispersed rotations. The earlier ten-page paper had required the students to complete a patient history and physical write-up. With the pilot project, each group was assigned a librarian and a physician faculty mentor. Each student recorded on the blog a clinical scenario and question they encountered. They were encouraged to communicate with the librarian to construct a well formed clinical question. Each student group then came to consensus on which question to pursue and collaborated on a wiki including a list of citations to the best available evidence, a critique of the studies, and implications for the patient

Analysis of Surface Runoff

A mathematical model of surface runoff is presented which is of use in building a model of erosion processes. The method used for deriving the conceptual model of surface runoff is based on the mathematical expression of the basic laws of movement of water -- the equation of continuity and the equation of motion. Both equations form a system of nonlinear partial differential equations with two unknown functions expressing the depth and velocity of the movement of water along the slope, in dependence on their location on the slope, and time. The input variables of the model are the intensity and direction of the impinging raindrops, the intensity of infiltration and the physical characteristics of the slope (gradient, length and properties of soil surface). Extensive laboratory experiments have been carried out to determine the functional dependence of tangential stress on the depth and rate of runoff from different types of soil surfaces. Further, the conceptual model of surface runoff has been simplified to a kinematic one by using a simple relation between depth and rate of surface runoff instead of the equation of motion. Two empirical parameters of this relation have been determined by using data from the above mentioned laboratory experiments during calibration of the kinematic model. The kinematic model is recommended because of its simplicity with regard to simulation of the surface runoff formation from individual slopes within the watershed. The model is a multipurpose one. It may be used either for hydrological purposes (simulation of surface runoff characteristics) or for soil conservation purposes. The model outputs are surface characteristics (depth, velocity, rate). It is possible by comparing the surface runoff velocity with the critical nonscouring velocity for given field conditions to determine the critical slope length which is the basis for planning efficient soil conservation measures

The Effect of Required iPads on Library Use

OBJECTIVES Measure the impact on Library use of a new requirement by anaccelerated, one-year nursing program that all students haveiPads loaded with the required texts and determine whether theLibrary should continue offering these books in print. Poster presented at Medical Library Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA 2012

Quality of life and the risk of contracting malaria by multivariate analysis in the Brazilian Amazon region

BACKGROUND: The incidence of malaria in the Amazon basin is closely related to social inequalities, given that precarious economic and socio-environmental conditions represent favourable factors for the transmission of the disease in tropical regions, such as the Brazilian state of Pará. In the present study, an association was found between the variation in a quality of life index (QLI), based on the socioeconomic differences between the municipalities of this state, and the risk of contracting malaria, based on the Annual Parasitic Index (API), with the primary objective of providing guidelines for the development of effective strategies for the control of the disease. METHODS: The API scores for the years between 2003 and 2011 were collected from the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s DATASUS database, and socioeconomic data for the 143 municipalities of Pará were obtained from the 2010 census. The data were analysed using multivariate factorial and correspondence techniques. RESULTS: The QLI was calculated for each municipality, of which, 69.23% were classified as having a poor or regular quality of life. The municipalities with poor QLI scores also presented moderate to high rates of malaria, with probabilities of 80.97% and 95.13%, respectively, while those with good QLI scores had low rates of malaria, with a probability of 79.24%. The results indicated a concentration of malaria in the south-west of the state of Pará, with an increase of 8.82% in the incidence of the disease over the study period, and the northeastern and Marajó mesoregions, where there was an increase of over 90%. In south-eastern Pará, by contrast, there was a marked reduction (78%) in the incidence of the disease, reflecting the heterogeneous distribution of malaria among the different municipalities and mesoregions of the state, especially those with moderate to high risk of transmission. CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm that malaria is endemic to Pará and is typical of the state’s poorest areas, and that the distribution of the disease within the state indicates an intimate relationship with the living conditions of the population, affecting primarily the economically less privileged sectors of the society

An Interdisciplinary Approach to a Dental Information Technology Course

Purpose: To develop an interdisciplinary course to teach dental students about evidence-based dentistry, development of search strategies, critical appraisal of literature, and dental informatics. [See PDF for complete abstract