Get Ready, Here comes 2009!

Dear Staff,
As we wind down another year let me tell you it has been a pleasure working with you and learning what your needs and wants of the library are. I do hope to go up on the floors after the first of the year and share more about the online catalog, the databases, how to access it from remote locations and many of the other aspects that have been developed over the past year. There are over 4,000 full text databases, journals, and books on the catalog now. I hope with the addition of EBSCO A-Z to add another 2,000. I am on the schedule to present the online catalog again this next year and by that time hope I have been to all the floors and departments with demonstrations. The catalog is for everyone, not just the nursing staff and physicians. I am in the process of writing up a small brochure to pass out at orientation meetings and to anyone who wishes one to give you all the addresses, username/passwords, and anything else that would be of interest.
This next year I will not only be calling all nursing departments for their orders of the PDR and NDH, but also will let you know that a copy of "Nursing Standards and Scope of Practice" will be added to your floor libraries as part of you package from the Nursing Administration. Hopefully you will find this new book a great addition to your department.
The Magnet Designation is continually growing on the wiki, please check it out. If you have any questions, concerns, or wish to help call Dawn Bailey x68583 or Joy Frame x68971.
If you have CME topics you wish for the committee to look into, or a presenter you wish to hear, or if you would like to present, please write me at jtallman@cchseast.org or call me at x67727 (216-692-7727).
Have a wonderful and safe New Year.

Reactions and looking to the future.

Dear Staff,
I know it has been over a month since I have signed in to speak with you, but it has been very interesting and busy here in the library.
First of all, I want to thank all of you for your interest in the Internet catalog. Over 125 reference manuals have gone out from the library to help people manage their searches online. If you would like to have more instruction or need help finding a particular subject, please do not hesitate to write me at: jtallman@cchseast.org or call me at x67727 (216-692-7727). I have been asked to repeat the October 2 CME orientation of the Internet catalog for CME in the spring of 2009 for anyone who was not able to come the first time.
Which leads me to my second topic, CME speakers for 2009. We are now putting together the 2009 schedule for CME. If you, or someone you have heard would like to speak at CME, please drop a line and let us know. In January we will be putting together the schedule and would like to be able to vote on all the speakers so we can have a schedule for you as soon as possible.
In the physician library, new books will be ordered in January. If you would like to request books, either new ones or updated editions of those we have, please let me know.
I also will be calling all nursing managers for their needs of new (2009) PDR an Nursing Drug Handbooks for the floors and departments in the month of December.
New Magnet Designation information will be going up on the wiki later today, take a look. This journey will involve all of us and is something to shoot for. For more information please contact: Dawn Bailey x68583 or Joy Frame x68971.

Welcome, Everyone!

Yes, I am actually writing this on Wednesday, but I wanted everyone to feel welcomed to the library blog. I will try to write weekly and let you know any upcoming new books, speakers, or other changes in the library or in CME. Please write to me if you have suggestions, needs for literature searches, and complaints (which I hope there will be only a few. :-) The system librarians have worked very hard to bring you an Internet connection to all of the different sites of good, dependable medical information. The sites basically will stay the same, but there will be additions and deletions when needed. Let us know if you have problems in accessing anything.
Again, I thank you for your support over the years and look forward to working with you in the future.
Joyce

Here we go!

Dear Staff,
The last time I wrote to you it was a month before CME started again. We have just had our first CME last week and though it was not attended as well as I had hoped, it was very well done and extremely interesting. If you would like to see the upcoming schedule, there are two ways to do it:
1- Come on Thursday and pick up a printed schedule.
2- Link over to the wiki or onto Euclid's homepage of the library and you will see the entry CME 2008 listed. There you will see all of the CME presentations for this year.
Of course, you can always call me to find out at 216-692-7727 or x67727.
Am looking forward to seeing more of you on Thursdays.
Speaking of Thursday's CME, on October 2 I will be presenting the library catalog (in which there are over 4,000 books and journals full text now), the new online databases, the online CME, and many other features you can find on the catalog site as well as other dependable websites and database for your medical knowledge/reference and a few more interesting topics also.
The library is now getting together the list of new books which will be purchased in January 2009. If you have a book for the library that you would like to see there, please let me know. If it is for the nursing library, I will let Dawn Bailey know, or you can email/phone her yourself.
For those of you interested in Magnet updates, please look on the wiki where I will post everything that I receive. Also for more information you can call Joy Frame at x68971 or Dawn Bailey at x68583.
To all of you and your family that are returning to school, good luck and the best in your learning.

Four weeks and counting...

Dear all,
Well, it will only be four more weeks before we start Continuing Medical Education activities in the Waltz Auditorium at 8 a.m. for this next semester. There will be interesting topics every week, with the week of Thanksgiving off, until December 18 which will be the last one before a holiday break. I hope all of you have enjoyed your summer off and are looking forward to a year of hearing from your coworkers and people from other hospitals on a variety of subjects.
I also want to announce, unless you are already familiar with, that MedlinePlus is now in 40 different languages. To be able to print or read health information in different languages, go to the main page, which can be found on the library catalog, useful website page (if you are on the Intranet), or direct on MedlinePlus.gov. Go to the end of the page and see Multiple Languages. At the top of them you will see the topic, health topics, click there and choose from the list the topic you are interested in. You then can choose the language you wish to see it in. If you notice, the first page will be in English, the second in the language you choose. I hope this will be helpful to patients in the ED as well as on the floors.
If you have any questions email me at jtallman@cchseast.org or call 67727.

Forever Changes

Dear Staff,
Well, as we all know, life does not stand still and changes are inevitable. There are changes on the CME schedule for the fall. This has to do with speakers being asked to speak elsewhere and their schedules also are in constant change.
I have added 100 databases on the Database A-Z. Also there is a place for Online Nursing CME courses. I will be adding more there as I find more places. Databases just for men, women, children and seniors are also in place now. Hopefully this will make your searching quicker. The specific databases are not the same as in the original 100, so check them out. I have been putting all of this on the main catalog page for easy access.
The Phoenix wiki will have on it the updates to Magnet Designation as its main focus. You will be able to access this blog and the main catalog page from there, so actually all three places are connected to each other, so you just need to click to get where you want to be.
I realize that many of you may not know about the catalog, blog, and wiki until October 2, but after that I hope you will utilize this area many times.
Please feel free to write to me to add items, do literature searches, or any other concerns you may have at jtallman@cchseast.org.
Hope you are having a great summer and I am looking forward to seeing you on September 11 for our first CME of the fall season.

Mid Summer Thoughts and Updates

Dear Staff,
As we are in full swing of the summer, the temperatures today are certainly there, and it is time to think of the fall. Continuing Medical Education's schedule is in place and will be updated as I get the information. You will find it on the wiki page attached to this blog and the catalog. Also all of the physicians that are reading this will find a link to online CME, Category 1, and you can click on it and find over 26,000 hours of credit. It is accessible by speciality, alphabetical or just by looking down the areas. Some of them you can get for free, some are to be paid for, but it clearly states this in the description.
I have been putting onto the catalog more databases and websites for you to look at and explore. Some of these you can find by looking on the catalog, some are on pages off the wiki. When you go to the wiki, look to your left for the pages there and you will see different pages. Just click on the one you would like to look at and it will open. More Internet sources are being added as we continue through the summer.
I am looking forward to showing all of the sites and other computer information from Web 2.0 to you on October 2. I think it will make your researching easier to do and communication between all of us easier.
Do hope you are enjoying your summer. Looking forward to seeing all of you at CME this fall.

Looking forward to new challenges.

Dear Staff,
It has been a couple of weeks since I wrote last, but it does not mean I have been stagnant. The Cleveland Clinic Health System Library Council has been emailing and working on the catalogs, wikis and blogs so that by the end of the summer things will be as user friendly as we can make them at this time. We are also looking at different programs so accessibility to the catalogs, databases and websites will be easier without having to think of usernames and passwords.
As for CME, the next meeting is July 14 and if you think of a topic that you would like to hear more about or have a speaker in mind, maybe even yourself, who would like to speak, please email me so I can present this to the committee. jtallman@cchseast.org
Have you had time yet this summer to check out the catalog and see the books and journals that are now full text? Many of them are and I hope to have more up by the end of the summer.
Magnet is upon us and I know the introduction was in the recent newsletter. This will be a great challenge and will involve the entire hospital. You may not think it will effect you, but I believe that by the time we have the final inspection everyone will have worked on some part of this project. Do not dismay, I believe we can do this and with all of us together, as the family we are, we will succeed.
Hope you are all having a good summer with your family and friends. I have changed the font in this post, hopefully it will be easier to read.

Changes in the Wiki

Dear Staff,
As we all know, nothing stays the same forever. Sometimes there are moments that we wish would, but alas, they never do. This is the same thing as I am revising and trying to make this blog, wiki, and catalog better for you and easier to use. I have made changes to the wiki so the pages, on the left side, are easier to find. First I put them in alphabetical order, CME is first and that way it will be easier for you to find the upcoming schedules. Also I have added a Nursing Library page showing the new books and a new journal that have come for the nurses in the past year. Hopefully you will find these new materials helpful. The Physician Library has all of their new additions listed and so this will be the end for 2008, but feel free to add your ideas for 2009. The page that said Good links for Librarians is now called Good links to Explore. It has direct links to public libraries, websites for health information and also to the new catalog for the Euclid Catalog. Please feel free to look around. Remember that UpToDate has to be used on campus, but you can email articles to your own account. Also the Nursing Resource is on the Intranet and cannot be accessed off campus either. It is made up of EBSCO, which is CINAL and StatRef. EBSCO can be accessed off campus and if you contact me I will tell you the username and password for remote access to StatRef.
I believe these are all the changes I have made so far. Looking forward to sharing all of this with you on October 2 in CME that morning.

Changes during the summer.

Dear Staff,
I was off for a week of vacation after the last CME finished and want to tell you about some changes that have occurred in the library during this time.
First of all, I decided not to hold you in suspense as to the CME presentation line up until this fall and so on the linked wiki of Phoenix Rising I have added a page that will let you know the title of the upcoming programs and the speakers that will be presenting them. In cases where the speaker does not yet know which of their list of topics they want to present, it will say TBA and I will change it as soon as I know.
Second, for those of you who what to know what new books are coming into the library, these are also listed. If you have suggestions for books or journals for the library, please contact me. Again the email is:
jtallman@cchseast.org .
The page titled Good Websites for Librarians, is not exclusive, it has medical websites and links to local public libraries. Please feel free to look around.
The one most exciting item is that the libraries of CCHS have gotten together and thanks to Michelle from the main campus, have a website that you can go to, to access all the libraries. There are links on both this blog and the wiki page to get you back to the main library website. We hope this will help in your searching for your medical needs.
I do hope you are all having a good break during this summer and I look forward to seeing you all again on September 11 at our first CME this fall. Dr. Mladen Golubic will be presenting "Optimal Diet for Cancer Prevention and Treatment".

Getting ready for the summer hiatus

Dear Euclid Staff,
This Thursday will be our last CME for this semester and I wish to thank all of you that took the time to hear our presenters. This Thursday will be Dr. Hutt and Dr. Brobbey presenting some interesting cases that they have had in the last year. No more information on that as it is to be a surprise and to keep you on your toes to see if you can figure out what they are talking about.
This fall we will start on September 11. I will put the schedule on the blog as it unfolds this summer. Needless to say when I try to do it this early changes are made and then it become confusing to those that think their copy is the correct one. So probably in August I will put out the first listing. If you would like to present at CME, please contact me at jtallman@cchseast.org and tell me not only your name, topic, contact information and any concerns or questions you may have. Our next CME committee meeting is in July, so you have plenty of time to think of a topic and to submit your name to be considered.
I will be gone next week for a vacation. It is one of the easiest times for me to take off as CME is done and the drive for the fall semester has not started yet. I will come back to getting the library together and to receive the new books that have been ordered. Thank you to those of you that submitted names or at least categories of books that you wish to see in the library.
Have a good day and do not forget to submit ideas and comments to the wiki that is connected to this blog site or comments to this post.

It's May: What's going on at Euclid.

To the staff here at Euclid.
I hope to post weekly as to what is going on in the library so you can check and know what is coming up as far as CME, what new books have come in, and any training that is library associated. This blog may also contain other subjects to keep you intuned with libray happenings.
CME for this semester is winding down, the three activities left are:
May 8 - Dr. Young on the topic HPV vaccine
May 15 - Dr. Pioro on the topic ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease
May 22 - Dr. Hutt on interesting cases
The next CME then will be after Labor Day, September 11. We are trying to let everyone get back into the school schedule before starting up again, hoping for a larger attendance. If you would like to present an activity, please do not hesitate to call my office (216-692-7727) or email me at jtallman@cchseast.org so your name can be presented at the next CME meeting in July.
I am in process of ordering books for the physician library. If you have suggestions, please let me know using the contact information above.
This fall I will be presenting a CME on blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and a number of websites/databases and our own catalog where I have just put in over 4,000 full text journals and books for you to be able to access from your home or public library.
The wiki attached to this blog is available to you for quick link (threads of conversation) and I will try to check it out daily for news and to answer questions. You can always use the contact information above, or on our catalog there is a drop down menu for 'Ask the Librarian'. On this menu you will find the print catalog (it includes the electonic part I have mentioned above), useful websites, and where to put in requests for books, articles and research questions.
Have a good day.

Eight weeks and mixed feelings

Well, I have finished the eight weeks and even though I will be going back into the blog, wiki and retrying some of the material presented to us I will say I am glad this is the end. Working on something by yourself is one thing, trying to find time during the week to do it is something else. I know in my blog posts I have been vocal on things I found frustrating, especially when I read the comments of others and they seem to not be having any problems. I think I have always been looking at it from the aspect, can I use it here in my library. Since some of the websites are blocked, then it seemed as if the whole week was not needed as I could not access it unless from home and the hospital has it so the two are very separate.
To answer the questions from this week before I finish my final wrap up, here it goes:
I actually looked into two mashups. One just for fun and the other for reference for work. The one for fun is called "Wheel of Food", where you put in the zip code of where you are, what meal you are looking for and it gives you four or five places to go to eat. Very interesting and alot of fun to play with. The second mashup is actually a wiki called " Librarian Chick". The site is for those of us with no money and yet we want to be able to explore, learn, and and educate ourselves as to what is out there on the Internet. It has free audio books, text books and eBooks. Also there is a Learning Center where there is free educational information, sites, games and software. It is updated frequently and all links are verified. I was so inspired with this site I emailed the link to friends of mine that are in the public library sector for use on some tough reference questions.
When I went onto exercise two on Rollyo I did not have a problem finding the librarian blogs searchroll and doing the search for privacy, but I was kind of surprised to the scarcasm they expressed. It seems that most think there isn't any privacy anymore, no matter how much on the different sites you are promised to be secure. Therefore, big brother is always watching and the only privacy is at night, in your bedroom with the curtains pulled. Now that is really scary that you must think that you are constantly being watched, but I can understand that when everything we do now is via computer and any of the administration can 'check in' to what we are doing. I guess the world has changed, but I am not always sure it is for the better.
All in all this has been a good experience, I love this blog and hope to get the wiki up and running more, delicious is just wonderful, Google.docs is a God send for those of us who cannot afford Microsoft, and photo sharing is very nice also. At least when someone talks about a blog, wiki or whatever I will not look completely dumbfounded.
Thank you to all of the instructors for their time and effort in putting this together, answering our questions and the support. With so many of us across the country it would not have been easy.
And with that I will end today, try to get my work out and work on this material to bring more polish to my blog and wiki as I will try to keep them up and utilize them to communicate to others in the future.

Week 7 and frustrations again....

Well, we are now at week 7 and I was wondering about YouTube and so I was excited to try it out. But as we were to go to Odeo and make an account, I was dissappointed as even though I finally got to find the "health" postings, I did not find anything I wanted to make an account to. There seemed to be a number of slow or 'page not founds' as I went into look around. I finally left Odeo and went onto YouTube. I did find a wonderful video about the NLM being used with rural communities as the doctors and nurses went on their rounds. The video was eleven minutes long and told of how they entered the symptoms and it helped in the diagnosis. Unfortunately when I went back to look for it again, I never found it. I would have been nice to have added it to this blog as I think others would have liked it. If I find it again, I might try it. Since YouTube cannot be accessed at work, it seems like so many of the items in this course cannot be, I am not sure of the significance to them. They are fine for entertainment and maybe for education, but the firewalls for medical facilities make them unavailable. Because of this I do not see that this service is of much help and usefulness to us.
I do get tired of having to put so many hours into these assignments on my own time, family time, because they are not accessible at work. I think that the assignments like this week and the third week with Facebook should be put down as extras and try to keep the assignments to items that we can do while at work.
I have enjoyed the variety of subjects we have been exposed to,but the time involved is alot more than that described in the beginning.

Week 6 Full week, but what a week

This week has started out very busy at work with getting ready for the CME presentation on Thursday, with a doctor that did not think he had to follow the OSMA rules, to a church board meeting, a presentation at Kent State on Wednesday, shopping for a new car, working the Siberian Husky Dog rally and dog show on Friday and Saturday, and then ending it all on this Sunday with church congregational meeting and afternoon concert. But I did have enough time to try this photo part of our course and I thought it would be very useful for having a flicker account to be able to keep your photos that you come across in one spot that you could get to on any computer. I am not sure about everyone elses jobs, but if I am not on campus, my computer is off limits to me. Therefore unless I can save things, privately, somewhere else, I have very little access to them and then must stay past my shift to work on anything not job related. I believe that learning about del.icio.us, Google.docs and flickr are three of the most important things we can explore beside having our blogs and wikis. I thank MLA for doing this for us. I did not put a picture on Facebook because I have such a hard time with Facebook closing down my computer and that is assuming I can get in. MySpace is easier, but with having yahoo, I really do not have a reason to use the two others.

Outline for Kent State School of Library and Information Science Panel of Special Libraries

The outline that has just been posted to the blog is the one I am planning to use as I am part of a panel for Kent State's library class on April 16,2008. I wanted to see if docs, spreadsheets, and presentations could be sent to blogs so I could let others know they are here to see. I find Google Docs very helpful and it also keeps you from spending alot of money to just do basic office duties as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I thank MLA for showing us this.

Small Hospital Librarians:

Being a Jack-of-all-Trades with Determination

1. Deciding on what area you would like to work in as a librarian and then sticking to that dream.

· Possible part-time positions

a- get your ‘foot in the door’

b- experience

· Work on this job as if it is the ‘perfect’ job for you.

a- show them what you can do, build your reputation

· Patience – Determination

a- can take years

b- go on interviews for other positions - experience

c- do not get ‘stuck’ thinking there is only one position

2. Finding Euclid

· Job description

· Catalog: hand-typed, card

a- Title, Author, Subject, Union

b- Shelf list

c- Journal cards

· Electronic Catalog – becoming a Webmaster

a- Catalog up

b- Adding websites

c- Adding online full text journals and books

· Ordering books for hospital

· Copying articles

a- volunteers as staff

· Interlibrary loans

· Research for articles

· Bibliographies

3. CME – Continuing Medical Education

(Grand Rounds, Clinical Conferences)

· Committee – secretary

· Initial contact, by doctor – then it is all in your hands

· Activity Checklist

· Inspections (OSMA)

4. Programs – you as speaker to physicians and on floors to nurses

5. AV Person

6. Notary – optional, but a possibility at any place

Week 5 and Hanging in There

This has not been one of my best weeks, personally or professionally. Just alot of "Murphy Law" days, but I did love learning about Google Docs. I have uploaded a document, spreadsheet and a PowerPoint presentation that I have used, or going to use and put it there. Being on Google I can get it anywhere and work on it. This is wonderful as I do not have the funds to buy Outlook by Microsoft for my Word, Excel and PowerPoint features. Now I can work on something at work or home and then send it wherever it needs to be. I looked at Zoho and WEbex, but not being a free site completely and Google being one, well it does not take a genius to figure where I put my vote. This week has been as useful as last week and I am very glad I continued in this course, especially after all the talk about not finishing that have been on the listserv etc. Thank you again for all the good information as I will be using it this fall when I present the Grand Rounds Continiuing Medical Education for the physicians and staff. But I forgot to answer the question from the homework: Yes I see this being the way of the future. I see us working via computers and sending messages back and forth, possibly never seeing members of a committee as they may be worldwide instead of just down the hall or across in the next building. It is a little scary to think you may just be at work in a cubicle or maybe just at home and doing all your work from there, depending on your job. Those of us remembering the times when you got 'real' people when you called a business instead of a computer voice will feel sad that those personal days are gone. Yet when you think of the convience of leaving voice messages instead of calling back a dozen times to find the person 'in', it seems to save alot of time and frustration. Times change, I am not always sure if it is for the better or worse, maybe I will never know.

Glorious week 4, what a great thing to learn.

After all the trials of week 3 and hitting firewalls everwhere....needless to say Facebook and I are on the outs forever, well, now we go to week 4. Had a little trouble with doing the buttons, but finally figured it out and from then on it was clear sailing. Can see where I will be adding to my bookmarks as I continue working.
The potential here is great as I can now access my favorites from anywhere and not just from the computer where I originally am at. This will be helpful when I present not only to the Kent State School of Library and Information Science Special Library class later this month, but also to the staff who look for articles and other research articles and then have to go home or elsewhere. They can now 'take with them' their research and continue anywhere...on vacation if they wish or at a conference.
I do believe this weeks assignment is much more helpful than trying to be a social butterfly of week 3. Thank you for showing us this tool.

Trials and Tribulations of Week 3 of MLA 2.0

I will admit that this week has not been fun at all in any sense. I enjoyed learning about blogs, RSS and wikis and even if my pages are not as indepth as others, at least I could see results. To answer the admin comments on my comments, yes I am using Internet Explorer and no I do not have Firefox...but neither does my hospital. I have spent about 12 hours on this assignment this week, not much fun for my family, and most of that rebooting my computer as Facebook continually kept freezing everything. I finally stopped trying to use my work email address and went to my yahoo one, at a public library to try it. (Facebook even froze that computer and had to reboot.) After another hour I had gone through the exercises. This week to finish I have been on four different computers, in four different locations trying just to do one assignment. Not much fun.
Yes, networking and sharing is part of our lives, but between Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpace, I would not give you a quarter for any. Linkedin, which my hospital will allow me to view, I find rather worthless and there are other job websites out there alot easier to use. MySpace is the best of the three, and that is sad in itself. I think of what we have learned in this course so far, I like the wikis to communicate within the library community. If you do not want to use your own email address, like yahoo, then tell everyone about your wiki.
So to the four questions at the end of the week:

• How can social networking be use by MLA to connect members - for upcoming events and changes in Mesh or such, yes it could be used. Should it be used with the three websites we were to explore, definitely not. Surely there can be a better way.
• Should your library have a Facebook or mySpace page? No, end of story.
• Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites? Of course, there are privacy concerns for all of us. Being public servants our data is out there already. Just Google yourself and see what comes up. Try Ancestry.com and you may be surprised what is available.
• What did you like or not like about your experience with Facebook or MySpace. Well, I believe I have already answered that. It's all just a bad dream that I wish to forget.

The really sad part is that a few other of my colleagues have contacted me this week and are having as many problems as I have. One has even stated that she is also ready to quit also and so we may have started with over 700 of us, but how many will actually finish? Something to think about. We can only hope that the next weeks will be better.

Week 2 of MLA Web 2.0

Well, this has been different than the first week and I am not sure if I have accomplished everything as I have looked on the MLA Class pages of blogs and wikis and do not see myself added as I have seen others, so maybe I have not done everything, but I have tried. (Now is not this a long string of ideas put together in one sentence.) This week has been more of a trial as it has been Holy Week and my church commitments came first and so it slowed me down in getting this assignment done. I have enjoyed the mental exercises and can see a possibility in using wikis with my online catalog for the staff. I am thinking of adding it later, as I want to become more familiar with this resource, to the catalog page and then list directions for online searching, new arrivals of print and online books and serials, and leaving a place for others to add comments and ask questions.
I consider the blog my journal of activities and an information page. (Actually my hospital holds firewalls against my PubMed RSS feeds and so they cannot be searched unless I am at home, but you have heard of the firewall problems here on week 1.) The wiki is more like a bulletin board. It is in constant change and updating as information is added in. It is more for the quick look for the answer to a question than the blog where you read through a 'diary' of information that may not be pertinent to your needs. So on a blog I will be giving a more indepth explaination of a topic and the wiki will be the 'short and sweet' information to allow you to perform a function or get the information you need.

Activities at work and Week 1 of MLA Web 2.0

I must admit that when I started this week, I was not sure if I could finish this assignment for the MLA Web 2.0. At work they block YouTube and there are a number of firewalls that prohibit videos and other databases. One such database is MDConsult. Even though our hospital subscribes to this database, they have a firewall up so that off of our catalog, run by CyberToolsForLibraries, we cannot go out to MDConsult. This is very frustrating as CyberTools has put together a wonderful service to get us fulltext books and journals through their efforts in working with MDConsult, PubMed, and EBSCOhost. The support team at CyberTools is wonderful and stayed with me on the phone for over an hour helping me add this service to our catalog. Unfortunately when I actually tried it, the firewalls were up. I have then tried EBSCOhost and some of that does go through, but there is alot of work still to be done. I know CyberTools will be there with me to help until all of this is up and running. They are truly fabulous people!
As for learning how to set up a blog and add feeds to it, this is wonderful! I have had a good time in doing this and am anxious to show our staff that they also can do this. I think some of our doctors will go crazy in knowing they can do this from their offices and homes. This is what they truly want to do, get the information from their favorite journals as quickly and yet easily as possible.
I am speaking at Kent State University School of Library and Information Science at the class of Special Libraries in April and I am going to include blogging and RSS in my talk to show them how to do this and how this will make their lives easier, no matter what job position they will acquire.

Why I chose this title

I named this blog Phoenix Rising Librarian as it relates to the library I work in. It did not have a full time librarian and the librarian they brought in from another hospital came only once a week until her library stopped even that. She then had to call in all of her information to a volunteer, in his seventies, and he had to do all the work.
When I came three years ago the library still had a hand typed card catalog. Within three months, three other local hospital libraries and myself joined forces and with CyberToolsForLibraries created a union catalog for all of us. Since then we have been adding material, both book and journal, and also electronic links. The catalog has grown to add website/database pages, material request pages, and quick emails back to the librarian besides the print catalog. As the staff of the hospital is learning what is available, they are becoming more excited and are utilizing the library and its services more.
The Phoenix is rising and I hope in time will sing as the library becomes very much a part of the hospital staff services.