It's Academic

New role: Supporting evidence synthesis projects as a hospital librarian

March 9, 2023

If someone had told me that three years ago that I would be working with clinical staff to help them support research in an effort to provide better clinical care, I would have not believed it would have been possible. However, here I am in the very beginning stages of learning how to better support clinical staff with their research. Little did I know that I would indeed be asked to support such rigorous and systematic processes as evidence-based synthesis research. In order to be in a place to help, I had to reach out for assistance with learning how to best do this. This blog post is a listing of resources that have helped me in me learning journey. I have to date, become more confident in my advanced searching abilities through these trainings and have made some wonderful fellow librarian colleagues who are great support.

Happy Reading and feel free to reach out with any questions you may have!

Marlowe

bogino@rowan.edu

Networking and Learning Opportunities

Medical library Association Caucus List servs

Systematic Review, African American Library Alliance Discussion group, Evidence-based Practice

American Library Association – Interest Groups

ALA Evidence Synthesis Interest Group

Training and Education

University of Minnesota Evidence Synthesis Institute

Duke University Evidence Based Practice training (freely available to view library guide but there is also a workshop)

University of Michigan Systematic Review Workshops

New York Medical College Critical Appraisal Institute

Comment on NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access

March 7, 2023

tags: open access, open science

by Darren G. Poley

When the National Institutes of Health established its Public Access Policy in 2008, it was promoted by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.

In 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memo on “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research” that establishes new guidance for improving public access to scholarly publications and data resulting from Federally supported research.

So, the NIH continued its commitment to providing public access to scholarly publications and data resulting from the research it supports with its 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing policy.

Now the National Institutes of Health has opened a period for receiving public comment on the “NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research.”

Melanie Dolechek, Executive Director of the Society for Scholarly Publishing recently reiterated to its members, “The NIH Public Access Plan outlines the proposed approach NIH will take to implement the new guidance, consistent with its longstanding commitment to public access.”

The Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central.

Comments must be submitted at https://osp.od.nih.gov/nih-plan-to-enhance-public-access-to-the-results-of-nih-supported-research. Responses will be accepted through April 24, 2023.

Connect and Communicate Presents: You’re Wrong About: Student Digital Literacy

March 1, 2023

by Alex K.

Presented by

Carmen Cole, Emily Mross, and Andrea Pritt

Wednesday, March 22 at 2:00 pm EST

Registration Link

We may (incorrectly) assume that because most of our students were “born digital,” and have never known a time without computers in their classrooms, that they are innately digitally literate. However, interactions with students at all levels in a variety of settings have demonstrated that some students struggle with or are unaware of basic digital literacy concepts and skills. In this session, librarians will discuss how they have incorporated digital literacy objectives into their instruction. Participants may share their experiences with this challenge and how they have or would like to address it within their discipline’s curriculum.

Carmen Cole is the Information Sciences and Business Liaison Librarian at Penn State University Libraries, University Park. Emily Mross is the Business Librarian and Outreach Coordinator at Penn State University Libraries, Harrisburg. Andrea Pritt is the STEM Librarian and Data and Collections Coordinator at Penn State University Libraries, Harrisburg.

We will mute participants on entry into the Zoom room. Session will be recorded and available on YouTube after the session. We will enable Zoom’s Live Transcription feature during the session.

If you would like to present with C&CS, please contact the C&CS team.

This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, Governor.

Support is also provided by the College and Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association.

Detecting AI Created Essays

February 28, 2023

by Alex K.

Like many people within higher education, I’ve been watching the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool with trepidation. The ChatGPT software is a marvel of software development. A few weeks ago, I prompted ChatGPT to write a one page essay about the life of George Washington, only to see it immediately write a paper that would receive a passing grade in most classes. While ChatGPT has been reported to sometimes give inaccurate statements, there were none in this essay. The writing, though simple in style, would be perfectly acceptable in most classes. The ease with which this could be used to cheat was my immediate concern. How would this affect student learning? Would there still be a point in assigning essays for students if they were merely going to use AI to write for them?

Those questions are still open to debate, but at least options to combat ChatGPT are starting to emerge. This morning I came across an NPR story that mentions a tool for detecting AI generated writing, it’s called GPTZero. GPTZero attempts to detect portions of a paper that are AI generated and render a score for how much of the document is AI written, which seems similar to how Turnitin delivers a score for content that is copied. While I haven’t tested GPTZero yet, I’ve already shared it with a few professors. As we get closer to finals I’m curious if we start to see papers appearing that faculty suspect are AI created. If so, this might be our best way to spot them.

We Were Made for This

February 27, 2023

tags: leadership, networking

by Amanda Boyer

This semester the focus on our institution has been all about budget cuts. I imagine most of you are facing similar struggles with your own organizations. It has been disheartening to be told things like, “Even some of the good things we’re doing will have to go.” For example, I have written in the past about a free pantry I help to operate out of our library, which provides students with food, personal hygiene, and health items. We have just been told that until we come up with a way to get some of the items donated, we can only afford to purchase food items. One thing I have observed in every library I have worked at is the deep compassion and care we librarians have for our patrons.

Libraries are not just about caring for the information needs of our users. We all care so deeply about nurturing the whole person. Something that has given me comfort during these times of significant budget cuts is that this is not a new challenge for us. Libraries have always had to be resourceful and attempt to provide the most on the least. In a sense, we were made for times like these. While many of the meetings I attend with colleagues from across campus are a bit depressing as they all are about the budget cuts, I also find I am constantly brewing with ideas of how to make this work. I refuse to follow the advice of even the good things will have to go.

Our entire profession is dedicated to research and operating with all the information in hand. I believe we can use these strengths to be a beacon of hope in our institutions right now. Our university is currently on a hiring freeze, as are many right now. This has left many people feeling exhausted and overworked as they deal with increasing workloads and no hope of vacant positions ever being filled. I have been encouraging my colleagues to take advantage of our students. I have been urging my colleagues to offer more work study positions and internships in their offices. While it is not ethical to expect our students to take the place of full-time staff members, there are certainly projects and tasks we can hand off to them or have them assist with. I’m currently working on a collection review and diversity audit of our children’s literature collection, and I’ve hired a student worker, who wants to work as a children’s librarian, to assist with checking to see if titles are on the shelf and looking are their physical condition. This has freed me up for the more complex work of meeting with the Education faculty and researching what we have and what we need.

As our organizations call on us to make cuts, we need to help our colleagues in other departments who may not be as familiar with operating on less. This is a great time to lean on our strengths as information professionals and help support our institutions through these tough times. We are all so resourceful, and now, our colleagues from across campus need our resourcefulness. Let’s get to work!