Implementing Web 2.0 tools into health library practice and outreach
Social software in UBC Physio Outreach
By Eugene Barsky, Simon Neame, and Rebecca B. TunnacliffePresented at the CHLA Conference on May 31, 2007
http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/
Goals of this session
Introduce social software to health librarians
Provide personal experiences
Engage Canadian health librarians in dialogue and debate on utilizing social software in daily practice
Physio outreach project – whom do we serve?
We serve 1,700 practicing physiotherapists in BC
The challenge is to serve diverse information needs of practicing health professionals: clinical and research
Social tools to be covered…
Blogs
RSS feeds
Podcasting / Audiocasting
Instant messaging
Wikis
** For more social software in health libraries, see Guistini & Barsky CE class
on social software (2007) >> http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca
What is blog?
A frequent, chronological, and personalized publication of web content
Pros of blogs: No need to know html coding No need to find server space Usually free Allow interactivity and sharing
How we use a blog?
UBC Physio Info-blog is the central communication tool for the physio outreach librarian (http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/): Workshops Audiocasts Tutorials New services and tools, etc.
What is RSS?
Pushed vs. pulled content from blogs and websites
Instead of you going to check for new info – the info comes
to you
How we use RSS feeds?
Physio Blog RSS feed
Mix RSS from medical databases (PubMed and CINAHL) -
http://www.feeddigest.com/
RSS feed mixing for Health & Science info (CBC, BBC, NYT,
IHT)
How we use RSS feeds?
Feed to JavaScript - http://feed2js.org/
What is podcasting?
Audio files, thrown on RSS feed
Download themselves to the subscribers’ machines
Average size of recording into mp3 is 1MB for one minute
Because of the file sizes (50-60MB), we also use audiocasting – no automatic downloads
Don’t need iPod
How we use podcasting?
Record local rehabilitation sciences workshops and seminars [http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/podcasts/]
Support UBC Physio School systematic reviews course by recording students’ presentations
Store and preserve the content on UBC institutional repository [https://dspace.library.ubc.ca]
We use Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ – free open source software (can run from USB memory)
How we use podcasting?
What is Instant Messaging (IM)?
A system which allows instant text communication between two or more people through a network
Very popular with NextGens
How we use IM:
An IM gadget (MeeboMe) is installed on the blog
Personalization with a photo
Found to be pretty popular
Messages are private
What is wiki?
An online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org
Medicine - http://davidrothman.net/list-of-medical-wikis/ (by David Rothman)
How we use wiki?
Create and share new health information for health librarians - UBC HealthLib-Wiki - http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca
Questions?
** photo credit - nikalway
Contact info
Eugene Barsky, MLISPhysiotherapy Outreach LibrarianIrving K. Barber Learning CentreUniversity of British ColumbiaPhone: (604) 827-4088Fax: (604) 822-9122Email: [email protected] MSN/Meebo: [email protected] Blog: http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/ Web: http://www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/