Season's Greetings

Well - let's just skip November since nothing happened then and move right on to congratulating everyone who passed their courses - both here and CSU. Also congratulations to those who will be graduating in a couple of months. Well done, everyone.

Since it's the library blog, we can't let a reminder to return books pass - just in case someone's reading this! Consider yourself reminded.

Finally, best wishes to everyone for a happy and safe holiday, a special Christmas celebration and a great start to the New Year. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again next year.

Annette

Mind Mapping

Well - it's been a long time between drinks! However this morning I was reading Mercola.com and was reminded by one of his articles that I promised a post on mind maps. What do you Know? It's all been done for me!

So here is the link to the article: Use the web to match your mind
and to the site where the item came from: Lifehack.org

There is a good Wikipedia entry (it's good for some things!) on mind mapping: Mind map

There is free software for mapping on computers, and books by Tony Buzan and Ingemar Svantesson in our library (look on the shelf at LB 1049) which you might find useful.

Remember that mind maps don't have to be major works of art and full of colour and pictures - mine are usually monochrome words and lines with many connecting arrows - if they reflect your learning style and help you organise your thoughts, they will be doing the job right for you.

I would be interested to know what your experiences (good and bad) have been with mind maps. Add a comment sometime.

Ethical thoughts

The topic for the Research class this week and next is 'ethics' - what is ethical behaviour, why are ethical guidelines necessary and what organisations have codes of ethics? - among other questions.

It is necessary to have a clear understanding of ethical matters in your own mind before you can critique what others have done, or know why you must adhere to ethical restrictions when making a research proposal. It's not as easy as you may think to articulate your thoughts.

It will repay dividends later if you spend a little time checking out books or websites on ethics and ethical issues. Distance students have been given some links - if you have found other interesting ones, please share them with us.

Here's one: http://www.womens-health.org.nz/cartwright/unfortunate.htm

New Search Engine

Well, it's been a long time between posts, but with the start of the new semester, it's time to get writing again!

Here is news of a new search engine, supposed to rival Google in reach - Cuil.
Try some comparative searches and see what you think. Leave a comment below - I'd love to get a good discussion going!

From Reuters:

A start-up led by former star Google engineers on Sunday unveiled a new Web search service that aims to outdo the Internet search leader in size, but faces an uphill battle changing Web surfing habits.

Cuil Inc (pronounced "cool") is offering a new search service at www.cuil.com that the company claims can index, faster and more cheaply, a far larger portion of the Web than Google, which boasts the largest online index.

Anatomy assistance online

I was asked this morning about A&P information online, particularly for those whose Marieb CD won't work - so here's what I have come up with:

Get Body Smart

A basic set of tutorials that you need Flash for, but there's enough to keep you busy for a while and some links to good histology sites if you want to go deeper into cells.

Human Anatomy Online

Choose a system, hover over an element with your mouse or choose from a list in a sidebar to get a definition. There is even a section displaying fractures. Again, there are many hours of fun here!

The internet Public Library - Anatomy and Physiology

Links to many online resources. Well worth exploring for further information.

The Visible Human Project

Overview

"The Visible Human Project^® is an outgrowth of the NLM's 1986 Long-Range Plan. It is the creation of complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of the normal male and female human bodies. Acquisition of transverse CT, MR and cryosection images of representative male and female cadavers has been completed. The male was sectioned at one millimeter intervals, the female at one-third of a millimeter intervals.

The long-term goal of the Visible Human Project^® is to produce a system of knowledge structures that will transparently link visual knowledge forms to symbolic knowledge formats such as the names of body parts."

A site to be aware of, but with very big files, even in the samples.

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If you have found any other good sites, please let me know and I will add to the list.

Heart sounds - links

Someone mentioned to me the other day that the Library needed some more items on heart sounds and murmurs. True, we do! However, even if I order some books and audios today, they will take time to arrive, so in the meantime here are some online links you might find useful.

• The Auscultation Assistant

The Auscultation Assistant provides heart sounds, heart murmurs, and breath sounds in order to help medical students and others improve their physical diagnosis skills. Since its creation in 1997, it has logged over 175,000 visits.
An extensive site but be aware that you need to load Quicktime to hear the sounds.

• University of Washington Dept of Medicine Skill Module

A useful site with exam techniques, differential dx, and a range of sounds (the link above will take you there directly) in mp3 form that you can listen to with any media player.

• The Texas Heart Institute

"This collection of heart sounds and murmurs is available for personal use to listen to online or download onto a personal player device. Each sound is labeled with a self-explanatory file name and is available in both PC (mp3) and MAC (mp4) format."

• Wikipedia

Has an extensive description of sounds and links to audio files (some of those above).

Any suggestions for useful additions will be gratefully received.

Using Limits in PubMed

We have just returned from a Research Class field trip to the Philson Library at the Medical School - it was fun, but as always, pointed up how little literature there is in our field.

Although the books on the shelves looked old and scruffy (they were probably just the leftovers, with all the good stuff being on loan), the metres of shelves of journals (and only those going back to the '70s are on display), not to mention the databases of e-resources reinforce the lack of published information on naturopathy, herbs and related subjects we have access to.

However, in the course of the visit, I discovered that some people were a bit lost when it comes to limiting PubMed searches. I touched on this topic 2 posts ago, but will deal with it in more detail now. However, I do urge anyone feeling lost or confused to come and see me, as a few minutes spent together at the computer might save you hours of time.

This is a screenshot of the home page of PubMed - you can click on the picture to enlarge it or use the link and open your own page (press ctrl-t to get a new page if you like). Notice the Limits tab - highlighted and circled. Click on that and you will get a page that looks like this:


These options give you scope to set as many or few limits as you wish - you can click the box to get free full text only, or choose both highlighted boxes to get free full text and abstracts (not all articles come with abstracts and it can be useful to exclude those which don't from your search).

You can choose Human or Animal (leave the boxes unchecked if you want both), similarly with Gender, Language, and subsets of Journals (this last is not usually very helpful for us) - there are more choices than the page shows, as you can see by the accompanying scroll bars.

Below these fields, you get:


Types of Article (very useful for sorting out clinical trials or reviews) and Ages which is bound to offer you the range you need, from infants to elderly.

Once you have checked all the boxes you think will narrow your search sufficiently, click on Go at the bottom of the page, and the limits will stay until you clear them or log out.

Remember you can have your search results emailed to you or printed in a variety of ways - unfortunately the menu didn't stay open for the screenshot, but drop it down and have a look at the options.

Please let me know if this has been helpful, or how I can make improvements to the instructions. Happy searching!

Graduation 2008

How does the time go by so fast?! I was going to write this up soon after the event, but now a month has gone by and still I've written nothing. Luckily there haven't been many readers, either, but it would be nice to have a comment or 2 - I would be spurred into action more often.

Graduation went off smoothly again this year on Friday March 14th. With a small group graduating (10) we held the ceremony at the College, which made a very 'family' occasion.


We paraded as usual through Ellerslie, deciding to process just as the rain decided to come down for the day. There was not another shower for the rest of the day. Lyn Angel from CSU was concerned that the brand new hoods (our graduates were the first to wear the new gold and red colours) would be ruined, but fortunately, despite a soaking, they survived unscathed. Even our trenchers survived their drenching. The walk was curtailed because of the weather, so we didn't enjoy the applause of all the shopkeepers in Ellerslie, but the graduates were cheered by friends and family lining the route.

The speaker for the ceremony was Melissa Jones, who regaled the graduates with some tales from practice, along with good advice for life after study. As the Diplomas were awarded, graduates were presented with tussie-mussies made from garden plants.

Lyn Angel spoke (mostly about the exploits of CSU) before capping the graduates who now had their hands full with parchments, trenchers and tussie-mussies. The Oath was taken, after which class representatives, Caroline Marshall and Meryn Wakelin, spoke in thanks to family and staff. The proceedings concluded with afternoon tea.

Extended Library hours

Great news! As a service to our valued customers, we will be trialling late night library opening on Mondays until the end of the semester. The library will stay open until 8 p.m. on a self-help basis (I will be going home at my usual time. :-) )

I will also be here on the 4th Saturday of each month (9.30 a.m.-12 noon) for the rest of the semester, starting on April 26th - yes, I know it's the day after Anzac, but if we don't start then, there won't be many Saturdays left!

If you make good use of these hours, we will continue in the second semester.

I'm looking forward to seeing some keen distance students on the Saturday mornings.

Searching for stuff

If you've ever looked for anything on the Web, chances are you have used a 'search engine' from your browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox or something similar). Most of us go to Google as a matter of course - you can start from www.google.com or from a search box at the head of your browser.

Generally, a 'quick and dirty' search without too many parameters should give you some results in the first 3 pages (it's generally not worth digging any deeper). However, remember that Google is not the only search engine you can use. If you have a visual style of learning you might like Kartoo which, like Google, gives you access to images and videos on separate pages. Other meta-search engines are Ixquick and Dogpile. Try the same search in different engines and see which you prefer.

Other tips for searching include use 'limiters' - these limit your search to the exact parameters you want. They can be much more powerful than the standard 'Boolean operators' (AND, OR, NOT) that you can use in a search box. Most online library catalogues will give you boxes (or fields) to fill in to restrict your search by date or type of publication as well as many other combinations. AccessIt has an Advanced search feature that allows you to limit or include many fields.

Pubmed has a very comprehensive set of limiters (click on the Limit tab below the search box) - practice using these to refine your search down from many thousands of articles to the few that are really useful for you.

Remember to ask for help if you feel confused. If you are on campus, I am happy to sit at a computer with you - you will have most of your questions resolved in a few minutes. If you are not at the College, just send an email or give me a call - again it won't take long to solve a problem.

If you have any tips to share, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

A good book for seeing research analysed

I am reading The Cholesterol Myths (Ravnskov, Uffe (2000), The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease, New Trends Publishing, Washington, DC), and have come across some of the best 'analysis in action" I have read for a long time. It's clear, direct and easy to follow, unlike the publications it is dissecting.

If you are studying a research paper this year, I would advise you to at least skim read the chapter "Myth 2" for an object lesson in critiquing research. Look for it soon on the library display shelves (near the journals) or at WG 120 on the general shelves.

Ravnskov has a website: http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm, and there are many interesting links (for and against his views) if you would like to do a web search.

Referencing help

Referencing (especially constructing a list that won't lose marks) can be confusing to anyone. I still have to consult my Assignment Guide frequently - even after years of advising others!

For help, I have put together a Powerpoint presentation that covers the basics of what you need to know, though you will find there are many exceptions and finer points that can't be covered in a beginner's guide. Please feel free to ask me for help whenever you are confused.

There are also many other sites on the Web that will be helpful - check out my del.icio.us links (hint: click on the My Del.icio.us heading and check the Referencing tag) below. Be careful - not many sites give instructions for the Harvard style we use.

Libraries can be fun

This is the new SPCNT library blog - I will be posting tips, tricks and wrinkles for using libraries and discovering information. Comments and suggestions for topics are most welcome.