...my excuse being a very busy week following my annual leave. I've also been trying to get my head round all the concepts in last week's readings - I'd never heard of Mashups before.
Mashups
I liked the idea of Biowizard, which had some similarities to CiteULike. Users can search PubMed and submit their favourite articles - a good way to share and promote the best research.
Healthmap is interesting. You can find out where in the world there have been outbreaks of specific diseases and you could use it to check whether you might catch something nasty before you book a holiday. It uses Google Maps and other data sources to provide a comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases.
Search Engines
These use Web 2.0 technology to allow you to create your own search engine. I think this could be a really useful tool on a library website. Rollyo allows you to specify a list of authoritative websites and the search is narrowed to pages from these websites, so that you can be sure your users are finding reliable information. A Swicki takes this one step further - it learns from its users so that search results are affected by what they are interested in.
Friday, 22 June 2007
Monday, 11 June 2007
Wikis
I was very dubious about the possible benefits of wikis before starting this course and I still have many reservations, but I can see that they are a good medium for the exchange of ideas. I'm even thinking that a wiki might be the best way of sharing information and discussing issues within the West Midlands about a National Core Content group I'm a member of. The thing that worries me most is how easy it is in a public wiki for anyone to change things, so that you can never be sure how accurate they are. On the other hand if the wiki is made private a lot of the collaborative elements are lost and the administrator could take on the role of censor - only allowing certain individuals the right to edit content.
The wiki I've chosen to look at in more detail is:
Flu wiki
http://www.fluwikie.com/
This wiki was set up as a forum for individuals to exchange ideas on what should be done in the event of a flu pandemic. I thought it would be of interest to both those involved in health care, especially public health and general practice, as well as the general public. It aims to provide reliable information (as neutral as possible) and to look at solutions to the problems that will arise should there be a pandemic.
There is an enormous amount of information here. I liked the short list of FAQs which act as a sort of index to the site and to further information. I also liked the 'Exploring the Flu Wiki' section which explains all about wikis in general, plus giving TOC, index and glossary.
It's very easy to keep up-to-date with the latest flu news, which is organised by country and there are RSS feeds for the different pages.
The publisher and editors are very active on the site, so you feel that they would be quick to spot any vandalism. They respond to queries very quickly and it's right up-to-date.
The wiki I've chosen to look at in more detail is:
Flu wiki
http://www.fluwikie.com/
This wiki was set up as a forum for individuals to exchange ideas on what should be done in the event of a flu pandemic. I thought it would be of interest to both those involved in health care, especially public health and general practice, as well as the general public. It aims to provide reliable information (as neutral as possible) and to look at solutions to the problems that will arise should there be a pandemic.
There is an enormous amount of information here. I liked the short list of FAQs which act as a sort of index to the site and to further information. I also liked the 'Exploring the Flu Wiki' section which explains all about wikis in general, plus giving TOC, index and glossary.
It's very easy to keep up-to-date with the latest flu news, which is organised by country and there are RSS feeds for the different pages.
The publisher and editors are very active on the site, so you feel that they would be quick to spot any vandalism. They respond to queries very quickly and it's right up-to-date.
Thursday, 31 May 2007
Social Bookmarking
CiteULike
http://www.citeulike.org/
CiteULike seems like a brilliant idea for academics and professionals, especially for someone involved in writing up research/thesis/dissertation. Being able to save the citations for one's bibliography at the click of a mouse would be really useful. It becomes a bit more laborious if it's not an article from one of the journal archiving groups which Citeulike currently supports, but worth the extra typing or cutting and pasting to keep everything together. The list it supports is pretty comprehensive, although I notice it doesn't support either Dialog or Proquest! The reason it only supports certain groups is to ensure that only peer-reviewed articles are publicised on the site - this prevents spamming and people posting articles to advertise particular sites.
It would be a useful tool for libraries to be able to save search citations - these could then be shared with the relevant user(s). By choosing appropriate tags, it could be used as a current awareness service.
Once you have signed up, you can browse the postings in a topic and find other users with similar interests and see what they've posted. You can add pages that you're interested in to your watchlist so that when something new is added to that page you are alerted. This means you don't have to keep visiting the page because all the articles on all the pages you are interested in are aggregated in chronological order.
My only criticism is that there's no Help facility and it was quite difficult to find out how to delete a posting.
The idea of social bookmarking in general seems a good one for libraries. It would be useful to share bookmarks amongst library staff, both locally and more widely. From my own point of view it would be a much better way to save my bookmarks because I'm constantly moving from one computer to another.
http://www.citeulike.org/
CiteULike seems like a brilliant idea for academics and professionals, especially for someone involved in writing up research/thesis/dissertation. Being able to save the citations for one's bibliography at the click of a mouse would be really useful. It becomes a bit more laborious if it's not an article from one of the journal archiving groups which Citeulike currently supports, but worth the extra typing or cutting and pasting to keep everything together. The list it supports is pretty comprehensive, although I notice it doesn't support either Dialog or Proquest! The reason it only supports certain groups is to ensure that only peer-reviewed articles are publicised on the site - this prevents spamming and people posting articles to advertise particular sites.
It would be a useful tool for libraries to be able to save search citations - these could then be shared with the relevant user(s). By choosing appropriate tags, it could be used as a current awareness service.
Once you have signed up, you can browse the postings in a topic and find other users with similar interests and see what they've posted. You can add pages that you're interested in to your watchlist so that when something new is added to that page you are alerted. This means you don't have to keep visiting the page because all the articles on all the pages you are interested in are aggregated in chronological order.
My only criticism is that there's no Help facility and it was quite difficult to find out how to delete a posting.
The idea of social bookmarking in general seems a good one for libraries. It would be useful to share bookmarks amongst library staff, both locally and more widely. From my own point of view it would be a much better way to save my bookmarks because I'm constantly moving from one computer to another.
Monday, 28 May 2007
Blogs
Well, it is a bit sad doing my homework on a Bank holiday, but here are my thoughts on blogs.
In order to generate discussion, they need to have stimulating content and it's important to keep the purpose of the blog in mind - headlines need to be relevant and meaningful. Regular posting keeps readers interested, but it seems that long posts, as long as they are well written, get more comment and links.
For use in a library context, I like the interactivity aspect of having a blog and being able to get immediate user feedback. One could be used for current awareness services. However, a lot of promotion would need to be done in order to make users aware of it. We are already aware that large numbers of our users don't even know of the existence of our website and online library catalogue which have been around for years!
In order to generate discussion, they need to have stimulating content and it's important to keep the purpose of the blog in mind - headlines need to be relevant and meaningful. Regular posting keeps readers interested, but it seems that long posts, as long as they are well written, get more comment and links.
For use in a library context, I like the interactivity aspect of having a blog and being able to get immediate user feedback. One could be used for current awareness services. However, a lot of promotion would need to be done in order to make users aware of it. We are already aware that large numbers of our users don't even know of the existence of our website and online library catalogue which have been around for years!
Monday, 21 May 2007
RSS feeds for oncologists
Medworm
http://www.medworm.com
Medscape Hematology-Oncology
http://www.medscape.com/hematology-oncology
http://www.medworm.com
- good selection of feeds on cancer
- well categorised
- filter function similar to subheadings in Medline
- 'Suggest a category' box if you can't find what you want
- RSS explained for new users
- can limit search to 'news', 'journals' etc.
- UK based
Medscape Hematology-Oncology
http://www.medscape.com/hematology-oncology
- good range of resources
- need to register
- reliability of information
NLH Directory
http://www.library.nhs.uk/rss/directory/
I've included this because, although there aren't yet very many feeds for oncologists, it gives very good instructions on RSS and it is very clearly set out. It is very much a 'work in progress', but looks very promising.
Friday, 18 May 2007
What I've learnt so far about RSS...
PROS
- Cheap, quick and easy way to keep websites up-to-date
- Can monitor the media on particular topics e.g. major news feeds on healthcare items
- Easy to subscribe and unsubscribe
- Easier than creating bookmarks
- Bypasses email so it doesn't get mixed up with correspondence
- Can archive and sort
- Security/privacy
- Can create feeds based on keywords
- Difficult to monitor success - no registration or subscription
- Need to use separate software
- Can't reply or communicate with the information source
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
First post
Just trying to get the hang of this. Well, I've managed to edit my profile which is a start... Now to see if this works.
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