Spotlight on the Collection: Health & Medicine

In honor of the nursing class that is gracing us with their presence here this morning (and also the gentleman who just told me he had bedbug bites), I thought it would be a good time to spotlight some of the Reference Department's helpful resources for health & medicine.

If you cannot find a particular disease in JAXCAT, Health & Wellness Resource Center is an excellent place to start. Even though it is considered more of a "consumer health" database (as opposed to Health Reference Center Academic and Medline), many entries include articles from academic and medical journals.

Once you've determined what general areas some of their more specific queries fall within that didn't show up in the catalog (what, you knew that Thromboangitis Obliterans--or Buerger's Disease--was a circulatory disorder?), you can then point them in the direction of broad-based reference books to check the indexes.

Omnigraphics' Health Reference Series are a good choice. For one, they are authoritative and comprehensive, which is nice. But even more importantly, they are bright red and easy to find on the shelf. Simply go to the 600s, look for the eye-catching color and choose the correct malady: respiratory, endocrinological, etc., and let the customer enjoy.

If these don't work, you can always fall back on a good Google search. The Mayo Clinic and WebMD have good, practical information as well.

Google Tips: Boolean & Synonym Searching

Did you know...

Google supports Librarian-approved Boolean operator searching, but just not the way you may be accustomed to?

For example, Google already assumes the AND operator in all searches with two or more words. To use the OR operator, simply use "or" between words or phrases when searching. To use the NOT operator to exclude a search term, choose the minus sign (-keyword). A search for bass -guitar will hopefully yield more results for fish (and beer!) instead of music-related links.

Also, have you ever searched for a keyword but thought that an unknown synonym might be a better choice? By using the tilde character (~), you can perform a similar word search (~keyword).

New Reference Books - 10/27/08

The Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus (R 232.90803 Encyclopedia). Great, I now have Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" running through my head. Anyway, from Amazon:

This "Encyclopedia" brings together the vast array of historical research into the reality of the man, the teachings, the acts, and the events ascribed to him that have served as the foundational story of one of the world's central religions. This kind of historiography is not biography. The historical study of the Jesus stories and the transmission of these stories through time have been of seminal importance to historians of religion.

Disease Management Sourcebook (R 616.044 Disease). Disease Management Sourcebook addresses Americans' growing health concerns by providing facts about navigating the health care system, communicating with health care providers, and finding and evaluating health information. It discusses patient rights and responsibilities, privacy, medical errors, and health care fraud, and also explains assistive technologies available to help people who have chronic illnesses and provides tips for dealing with legal, financial, and health insurance matters. Facts about medications—including prescription, generic, over-the-counter, and counterfeit drugs—are included. The book’s end section features a glossary and directories of resources for patients and their families and caregivers.

Free Phones

This has been coming up a lot this week, so I wanted to give everyone a "head's up."

If you haven't already had a customer ask for "free phones," you will soon enough. According to this story, Safelink Wireless is now offering a free phone program for low-income families.

The service is designed for those who are already on government assistance, such as Medicaid, food stamps, etc., though Florida's Public Service Commission offers rebates for qualifying applicants through their Link Up and Lifeline programs.

Most of the customers who have asked about this so far have not been very computer literate, so please be patient while helping them navigate to the application page. Also, as one would expect the free phones seem to be generating lots of demand, so the Safelink page can be slow to load at times.

Refman Receives Coveted Award

Jacksonville, FL (AP) -- A librarian known only as "Refman" was being heralded as a hero by Jacksonville Public Library (JPL) officials today after finding 100% of the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) requests submitted to the Periodicals Department.

The award was given after it was learned that Refman had found and copied the one article that was being requested this morning.

Heather Campbell, Grand Poobah of ILL, presided over the ceremony, which was attended by many dignitaries, including ILL staff, two visitors and a volunteer of unknown derivation.

"It is my distinct honor and pleasure to award Refman with a "Phil" smiley-face sticker, in a color of his own choosing." Refman chose blue, as it's his favorite color. The smiley face awards given for Outstanding ILL Fill Rates are known throughout the Library industry as "Phils," an obvious and playful take on fill rates. Librarians are of course a rambunctious bunch known for their outrageous sense of humor.

Refman was most gracious in receiving this high honor, and visibly moved.

"There are so many people that I'd like to thank. I don't want to leave anyone out, but this is so unexpected, so please bear with me." His eyes began to mist over as he reflected, "Usually, there is always that one book on knitting dog sweaters that is missing or a Ladies Home Journal partially destroyed by vermin with the requested page chewed in half...." His voice trailed off as he shook his head and tried to regain his composure.

"First, I'd like to thank God, my lovely wife Erin, my mom, my little brother who's always supported me -- Hi Jeff! -- other extended family members, my first mentor GM, boss-ladies Julie Mcneil and Karen Jessee, my friends and colleagues in Reference, Periodicals & Non-Fiction -- I'm sorry I can't name you all -- and indeed, throughout the whole building..."

Someone began to play music on an old cassette deck in the corner to signify that it was time to get back to work, or go to a commercial -- anything. Refman only talked louder and more frantically.

"...all my wonderful sponsors, NEFLIN, FLA, Quaker State, Goody's Headache Powder, the boys back at the shop, the whole crew really, the guy on the elevator who told me 'good luck' when I went for my interview at the old library...."

Finally, Security was called in to politely escort Refman back to the second floor, but not before he got a final word in.

"...and friend and Good Samaritan Jani French, who sat with me while I waited for AAA to come that one time when I had a flat tire and my spare was flat too..."

He was whisked away to his own department where he spent the rest of the day basking in the glory that goes with winning a Phil.

A high-ranking Library official wishing to remain anonymous said that while the award was a great achievement, it was more of a "feather in his cap" rather than being an impetus for a salary increase.

New Reference Items - 10/17/08

There are only a few new items to tell you about today:

First, we have Life Events and Rites of Passage (R 306 Hill). This includes customs and symbols of major life milestones in the US, including baptisms, weddings & funerals. Inexplicably, library milestones such as the first time you caught a customer watching porn or enjoying a smorgasbord of buffalo wings, jelly-bellies and remnants of partially chewed sunflower seeds while browsing Myspace were not included.

Next, we have the Chronicle Financial Aid Guide, 2008-09 (R 378.302573 Chronicle). Includes scholarships and loans for prospective college students, including contact information. Originally we had two copies, but in my never ending quest to attain the elusive 2% increase in printed materials circulated, I put one in Non-Fiction.

[see JPL's FY09 Service Priorities]

Finally, I'd like to present Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia (R 503 Van Nostrand's 2008, v. 1-2). Hey, wasn't Kramer's doctor alter ego on Seinfeld called Dr. Van Nostrand? It all makes sense now.

Refman Welcomes You

Hello everyone.

Since I'm now enrolled in the very time consuming and laborious JPL 2.0 Training (note to managers -- if you can't find me, umm, I'm probably doing homework or something), I thought I would apply my newly acquired skills from said training and bring my previous publication -- This Week in Reference -- into the 21st Century and be a bit more interactive.

I plan on using this space to keep everyone up to date on new arrivals, shifting & weeding, and other things that have something to do with Reference.

Also, various Reference-related rants may be published here at my discretion (or indiscretion as the case may be).

If you have a blog, or use a Web-based aggregator such as Google Reader, you can subscribe to this site to be notified of updates. Or I can just email the link each time I guess.

Alright people! Let's get wiki with it!