Health Effects of Wildfires

The National Library of Medicine has released a new resource focused on the health effects from wildfires (http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/californiafires.html). The California Wildfires web page includes information on the health effects from fires and exposure to smoke; links to air quality resources, environmental clean-up following fires, and animals in disasters.

In addition, resources for emergency responders and information in Spanish are also included. Searches of NLM databases, such as MedlinePlus, PubMed, TOXLINE, Tox Town, and Haz-Map (occupational health) are provided for additional health information. It also provides the locations of facilities reporting to the EPA Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund sites in and around San Diego (TOXMAP).

This web page is designed to help emergency responders, health care providers, public health workers, and the general public find authoritative and timely information about key health concerns from wildfires. Links to other federal government web sites, including USA.gov, FEMA, and the Department of Health and Human Services are included.

Hat tip to Heidi Thiessen Sandstrom, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Southwest Region (http://nnlm.gov/psr)

Libraries reopening schedule

The Geisel Library building will be open Thursday, October 25-Saturday October 27 from 10-6 for on-campus UCSD students only. The building will be open for study use only - no services will be available, including reserves, circulation, etc. The idea is to give you another place to go if you can’t stand your dorm for one more minute! The Science & Engineering and Special Collections areas of the building will be closed.

Most of the libraries will reopen with services on Sunday October 28:

• BML: 10am-midnight
• MCL: 1pm - 5pm
• CLICS: 1pm-9pm
• Science & Engineering: 10am-11:45pm
• SIO: 12 noon -5pm
• Social Sciences & Humanities: 10am-midnight
• Arts Libraries
  • Film and Video Reserves: 1pm-9:45pm
  • Music, Film and Video Library: 1pm-9:45pm
  • AAL/Slide Collection services: not open
• IR/PS: 1pm-9pm

Closure update: UCSD closed all week

UCSD will cancel classes for the rest of the week, and “non-essential” personnel requested to stay home. As far as we know at this time, libraries will be closed, but several librarians are checking mail coming into the Ask A Librarian webform at http://biomed.ucsd.edu/ask/email.html. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to our Interlibrary Loan or Circulation transaction systems from home Internet connections, so requests will have to wait until the libraries are open again and all staff have access to our systems. Please be assured that any fines resulting from lack of access to campus will be made right.

October 22-23: UCSD is CLOSED

UCSD is CLOSED today, Monday, October 22 and Tuesday October 23 due to poor air quality and concern over the wildfire situation in San Diego. All UCSD libraries will be closed including the Medical Center Library in Hillcrest. Classes are cancelled, and essential personnel should check with their supervisors to determine if they should come to work. Several librarians are checking the Ask A Librarian email form from home and answering questions as best we can without access to our collections or transaction systems.

Google For Your Health

You may go to Google to run your search for health information, but Google also wants to keep your medical records and help you find doctors. If their latest prototype works as they expect, your health-related searches will be better, you will be able to find a local physician, and use Google Health to store your medical information and access it from any computer with Internet access. One question that is unclear at this point is what will be available for free and what will require a subscription.

Google is not the only one experimenting with the personal health record. Microsoft has already announced the availability of their product HealthVault.

Find more details on the Google project, Health Platform, at Informationweek.com.

UCSD Emergency Exercise October 16

On the morning of Tuesday October 16, UCSD will conduct an emergency response exercise on campus in the vicinity of the School of Medicine.  During this exercise, there may be some unusual activity and police presence in some areas and there will be a test of the emergency phone notification system.  The Biomedical Library may experience some disruption due to this exercise. While BML will remain open, library users seeking quiet space may wish to use other libraries.

Citing Medicine

Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors and Publishers (2nd edition, 2007) is available online for free at the NCBI Bookshelf. This helpful guide covers citation styles for over 20 types of publications from books and journals to online resources, discs, photographs and more.

Biomed LInC Orientations

Be all that you can be by signing up for one of the UCSD Biomedical Library Information Commons (LInC) orientation sessions!  This session will show you the wide range of software available on LInC computers, how to get advice and support, and ways you can use the LInC to collaborate with others.  LInC service consultants will also be on hand to give you a technical perspective.  The classes will be held on:

• Oct. 15, 10:30-11:30 in the BML laptop classroom
• Oct. 17, 2:30-3:30, BML computer classroom
• Oct. 19, 12:30-1:30, BML laptop classroom

This will be an hour well-spent.  In addition, all attendees will receive their very own copy of the 24-page Information Commons Student Handbook.  Sign up for one of these sessions at http://biomed.ucsd.edu/services/instruc.htm

Health 2.0

Health 2.0 was a small health-related conference in San Francisco held last month (September 2007) which expected about 100 participants, but found itself with an overwhelming 400 attendees from a variety of fields including tech development, venture capitalists, and even a few health providers.

Matthew Holt, the conference founder, describes Health 2.0 in relationship to Web 2.0, as taking the social networking tools of Web 2.0 and applying them to health “with the objective of affecting health care for the better. As is often the case with “[hot topic] 2.0″, more than one definition exists. The commonality with all of them is that patients and physicians work together to improve the quality of patient care. The reporter (from iHealthBeat) describes Health 2.0 as a movement more than just a conference.

The time seems to be ripe for Health 2.0 to be catching on as more consumers search for online health information, consumer-created online communities have been ongoing for many years now as consumers are more comfortable with technology and Web 2.0 tools, and the growing desire for transparency in health care.

For more details, check out the full article at iHealthBeat

Outage: Ovid Journals, 6 - 9 pm Oct. 6

Ovid will be doing some routine maintenance on Ovid applications on Saturday, October 6th. Journals on the Ovid platform will not be accessible from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.