This article was written by Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS, Librarian for Digital LIfe
Last week, Dan Wilson, Deborah Halsted, and Shari Clifton received a request from a public librarian in Texas. The three are co-authors of the book Library as Safe Haven: Disaster Planning, Response, and Recovery; A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, which was published jointly by the American Library Association and the Medical Library Association, in 2014.
Covering topics such as developing a risk assessment plan, drafting a service continuity plan, and effective use of mobile devices and social media during disasters (as well as providing sample plans and manuals), it was clear why, during the coronavirus pandemic, the Texan librarian had written to make the following request: Would the co-authors consider making the e-book edition (which normally retails for $58.00) available for free?
Wilson, the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library's Associate Director for Collections & Library Services, was a natural choice to co-author such a volume: for seven years (2007-2014) he served as the Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s (NNLM) Emergency Response Initiative, a role in which he worked with different NN/LM regions to help their member libraries be better prepared for a disaster.
"What started out with an emphasis on local library disaster planning", Wilson says,"expanded to working with public libraries and helping them become a strategic partner in their community’s disaster response."
In addition to Library as Safe Haven, Wilson, having been approached by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in 2018, contributed materials for a series of courses which lead to NNLM's Disaster Information Specialist certification. This course, Wilson was told recently, has been taken over 800 times in the last quarter; its popularity, the success of Library as Safe Haven, and the current coronavirus certainly contributed to the fact that Wilson and NLM are now in talks about how he can add pandemic planning content to the course.
And the request made by the Texas librarian?
"This made sense to us" replies Wilson, speaking of himself and his co-authors,"so we posed the idea to ALA Editions... (who) just agreed to make the electronic version freely available."
Find it here: https://www.alastore.ala.org/LibraryAsSafeHavenPDF and share with any librarian whom you think could benefit from it.
If you have questions about disaster planning, collections, or library services, contact Dan Wilson: Dan@virginia.edu
This post was written by Andrea Denton and Kimberley Barker.
On March 5, 2020, the Library hosted "Visualizing Information and Data in 20/20", aka “Viz Day”, an event which brought together experts in data services and those who were eager to learn more about the field.
Viz Day was the brainchild of Research and Data Services Manager Andrea Denton and Clinical Librarian Kate Joshua, who applied for (and were awarded), a Claude Moore Health Sciences Innovation grant to fund the half-day event. She and the working group envisioned it as, "... featuring a resource fair and skill sessions to provide a venue for Health System faculty, staff, and students to learn about ways to visually display their results and data more effectively."
The Resource Fair included UVA service providers who shared information about their resources via exhibit tables located on the first floor of the Library. These providers included:
Accessibility Partners at UVA
Research and Data Services | Health Sciences Library
Video Production Services | Health Sciences Library
iTHRIV/TriNetX Live
Research Data Services + Sciences | University Library
Research Computing | Office of the Vice President for Information Technology
Scholars' Lab | University Library
The following skill sessions/demonstrations were given in Library classrooms, and attracted over 100 attendees:
"Creating a Custom Business Intelligence Solution", Dave Lewis, MEd, School of Medicine
"What’s So Great About Data Visualization Using Tableau?", Nancy Kechner, Ph.D., Research Data Services + Sciences, University Library
"Turning Video into Objective Data for Medical Education Research", Neeral Shah, MD, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Department of Medicine
"Patient Cohort Exploration: TriNetX", Johanna Loomba, BS, CCRC iTHRIV
"How Humans See Data: Best Practices for Data Viz", Marieke Jones, PhD, Health Sciences Library
"Creating Interactive Visualizations in R with Shiny", David Martin, MS, Health Sciences Library
"Turning Video into Objective Data for Medical Education Research", Neeral Shah, MD, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Department of Medicine
"Pitfalls and Errors in Data Visualization and the Importance of Data Integrity", Zachary Henry, MD, MS, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Department of Medicine
"Access and Visualize Publication Impact through the Web of Science" Arian Abdulla, PhD, Health Sciences Library
"Infographics: a Novel Tool in Medical Education for Gastroenterology" Joseph Mort and Joanna Odenthal, School of Medicine
The Health Sciences Library had earlier in the year committed to the goal of "greening" its events, and so the planning committee purchased compostable plates, cups, utensils, and recycled napkins, and also avoided plastic- specifically plastic water bottles- buy choosing water in glass bottles. Further, the planning committee and the Health Sciences Library's administration worked with UVA Recycling to provide labeled bins for recyclable, compostable, and landfill-bound event waste.
Of the event, Denton said that its success was, "...due to combined efforts of nearly everyone on the Health Sciences Library staff", and expressed gratitude to her event partner, iTHRIV, and event sponsor, Research Computing (Office of the Vice President for Information Technology). With exhibitors and attendees interested in a repeat event, Denton has stated that, "Information and data visualization remain exciting topics with much potential for sharing and discussion, and a future Viz Day would most likely be even more successful."