RSS for the Health Librarian: Professional, Personal, and Practical Uses and Functions
Presented by Amanda Tiller, Public Services Librarian, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Amanda’s session began with an introduction to RSS, and then progressed with an explanation of aggregator options and the pros and cons of each for use in various settings. She demonstrated how to set up accounts, subscribe and unsubscribe to RSS feeds, and other practical exercises. The session took place in the Health Sciences Library Computer Lab A, and allowed for hands-on practice.
Volunteering in Libraries
Presented by Annette Anthony, Regional Librarian, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Annette outlined the importance of volunteering in our communities. She spoke of her experiences volunteering with the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, and especially the Barbara J. Hopkins Library. Annette, with the help of other volunteer library staff, created an Online Public Access Catalogue for the library, and provide services that without volunteers wouldn’t exist.
Selecting the Selection Tool
Presented by Sue Fahey and Shannon Gordon, Public Services Librarians, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Sue and Shannon began by explaining how the book ordering process at Memorial works, and then moved on to discuss their experiences in evaluating electronic book selection tools. They demonstrated four examples of book ordering tools, outlining some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Trawling the Depths: Data Mining & Visualization for Librarians
Presented by George Beckett, Associate University Librarian, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
George provided a quick overview of how evolving data mining and visualization tools can be used for analysis of large numbers of bibliographic citations. Examples of these techniques were provided with the program Omniviz. George highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of these types of tools and how they fit into the suite of tools that librarians can use to assist their clients.