Interesting SciHub News
Wow it has been a while since I have published. Hopefully, I won’t have that kind of blogging break again.
As librarians we all know there are many ways to get scientific articles, some are legit while other methods are illegal. SciHub is one of the illegal methods. For those of you who haven’t heard of SciHub, think of it as Napster for scientific articles. Alexandra Elbakyan, participated in research forums where scientists asked each other for research papers. Elbakyan created SciHub as an automated method to share those papers. The process made it easier for people without access to paywalled papers or ...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - December 6, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Predatory Publishers
A recent article in The Guardian “Predatory publishers: the journals that churn out fake science” reported on an investigation (in collaboration with German broadcaster Norddeutsher Rundfunk) into predatory publishers and fake science.
According to the article more than 175,000 scientific articles have been produced by the five largest “predatory open access publishers” and 5,000 scientists at British universities have published in predatory publications in the last 5 years. The article mentions that many of the researchers were “exploited by the publishers, who aggressively seek new busin...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - August 13, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The Donut Hole of Library Access
We have heard of the donut hole for Medicare prescription drug coverage where people experience a coverage gap for their prescription drug coverage. I think there is a donut hole for medical information. There are doctors, nurses, researchers who are affiliated with an institution (but not officially part of the institution) or they are private practice who have privileges but are not employed by the hospital. These people often fall in the donut hole for access to medical information.
There are more and more of these people as universities buy hospitals but the university doesn’t/can’t provide library reso...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - July 16, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Medlibs Needs RA21 on Their RADAR
I attended remotely, the RA21 webinar Friday morning and it was interesting. I hope they recorded it and will make the recording available for everyone because this needs to be on the radar of medical and hospital librarians…now. Those attending MLA in Atlanta there will be session Sunday 4-4:20 Leading Easy Access to Content: RA21 Pilots Transform Researcher Productivity and Privacy in the Hyatt Regency Embassy C.
Why? The publishers are looking to do away with the current method of online resource authentication, IP validation. There is a whole slew of reasons as to why IP validation has problems, one of the bi...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - April 27, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
National Guideline Clearinghouse is Dead
AHRQ’s National Guideline Clearinghouse will be gone after July 16, 2018. Federal funding through AHRQ will no longer be able to support the NGC as of that date. According to their April 23rd announcement, they are receiving “expressions of interest from stake holders” in carrying on the work, but there is no clear timeline or idea if/when something like NGC will be online again. Their website provides a contact name and email for questions regarding this, however my guess is they don’t have many answers or else they would post another announcement.
The “NGC supports AHRQ’s mission...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - April 25, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Databases PubMed Source Type: blogs
Library Phishers
I just read the post “Silent Librarian: More to the Story of the Iranian Mabna Institute Indictment” and it was very eye opening. The United States Justice Department, FBI, New York FBI, and US Treasury announced charges against nine Iranians for conducting a huge cyber theft campaign. Prosecutors state the nine Iranians worked for the Mabna Institute and stole more than 30 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from universities, companies, and governments around the world. That is roughly the equivalent to 8 billion double sided pages.
There were more than 750 phishing attacks identified t...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - March 27, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Submissions Wanted: JMLA Virtual Projects Section
Submit Virtual Projects for JMLA Virtual Projects Section by March 31, 2018
The Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) Virtual Projects Section Advisory Committee is seeking current, innovative and notable technology projects in health sciences libraries for the 2018 JMLA Virtual Projects Section. The previous Column format for JMLA Virtual Projects is transitioning into a Section format this year, which will appear on an annual basis in the October issue of JMLA.
To be considered for the Virtual Projects Section, please submit a 200 word abstract of your virtual project, including why it is innovative/notable...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - March 16, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Hiring a new librarian? Are new graduates qualified?
Believe it or not some librarians are retiring and some libraries are hiring. I know, I heard the same story 20 yrs. ago in library school about the wave of librarians retiring and the need to hire a bunch of librarians to fill those open positions. Instead of a giant wave of retirements, I think it has been a gentle rise over time. Instead of filling every single open position retirement brought, I think there has been closing of libraries, not filling positions, or restructuring positions for a different type of fill. However, not all positions will be left unfilled. I know of a library that will probably have at...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - February 22, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
My First Year as Director: Things I Have Learned
I officially became the Director of my library in September of 2016, but I shadowed the old director until November. So to me I kind of count November as to when I really became the Director. The time has gone by quickly. I have learned a lot of things. I thought I would share them, just as I shared about what I learned as President of MLA.
So here are a few things I learned:
You Need Friends:
No matter if you are new to an institution or have been there for 20 years (as I have) there will be certain departments in your institution that will befuddle you and they will always befuddle you. At some institutions, you ha...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - December 21, 2017 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Concerned about Net Neutrality Contact Congress
I’m sure you have all heard about the FCC not taking (or looking) at any public comments regarding Net Neutrality. However, you can still voice your opinion on Net Neutrality by contacting your members of Congress. It is particularly important to contact them if your Congress person is on one of the committees that oversees the FCC. (Go to links highlighted below, click “about” and find out if your state and Congress person is listed)
(I am re-posting what I was sent from the MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force)
Through the ALA Washington Office we have learned that last week, Federal Communications Com...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - November 28, 2017 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Systematic Review Search Strategy Development: (Very Nearly) A Thing of the Past?
A guest post by Rachel Pinotti, MLIS, AHIP
Recently, a faculty member sent me a copy of a June 2017 editorial published in Annals of Internal Medicine entitled Computer-Aided Systematic Review Screening Comes of Age along with the article which it accompanied. The editorial argues, in short, that machine learning algorithms generate superior results to human-designed search strategies. It asks (and answers), “Is it time to abandon the dogma that no stone be left unturned when conducting literature searches for systematic reviews? We believe so, because it has a deleterious effect on the number and timeliness of updat...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - September 11, 2017 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
PubMed ’s Backdoor Makes Me Question Quality
Ok, I am dancing in my seat saying “I told you there is a problem with PMC as the backdoor to PubMed.” I know it is gloating but librarians get so little to gloat about so forgive me.
Back in 2011 I wrote the post, Backdoor Method to Getting Articles into PubMed: Is indexing so important? At the time I was more concerned about the findability and lack of indexing of PMC articles that found their way into PubMed. It wasn’t until a few years later with the popularity of Beall’s List did I begin to think about the quality of PMC articles now in PubMed. In a discussion on the Medlib-l listserv reg...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - September 7, 2017 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Unsustainable Costs of Library Resources
Sometimes I feel like medical librarians have been talking to brick walls. Either that, or we are talking to bobble heads who don’t really listen to us but nod their heads in agreement.
I get a weekly email summarizing the healthcare industry. It is broken into local and national information and it is often an interesting quick read. Today I read the article “US medical expenditures on the rise, except for primary and home health.” The largest expenditures were attributed to prescribed medications, specialty physicians, visits to the emergency department and inpatient hospitalizations. While that ...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - July 18, 2017 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: KraftyLibrarian Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
