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Table of Contents
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November - December 1998 Volume 21 Number 6 Copyright, 1998 |
DENVER HEALTH & MEDICAL HOSTS DECEMBER 9TH MEETING
SUBMITTED BY GLENN PFLUM
This month's membership meeting on December 9, 1998 at Denver Health Medical Center will offer a little more than our usual program. Lynne Fox from Denison Memorial Library will be offering a two hour program on "It's About Time, It's About Space: Time and File Management." Lynne's program has been approved for 2 MLA CEU credits for those people wanting to pay for the cost of materials. The program will start at 9:00 a.m. and go until 11:00, after our 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. refreshments. For a complete description of the program and cost, see the flyer included with this mailing.
The program will be followed by a short break from 11:00 to 11:15 and continue with our business meeting from 11:15 a.m. to Noon. So, be prepared to stay a little longer and learn about Time and File Management. Be prepared for the New Year!
ELECTION OF OFFICES IN DECEMBER
SUBMITTED BY THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE
The Nominating Committee will be presenting the following candidates at the December business meeting for 1999/2000 offices:
GENE STORTZ, SECRETARY
Graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in zoology, University of Michigan with AMLS . Worked for the Wayne County Federated Library System before moving to Colorado. Spent 13 years at the Colorado State Library working primarily with libraries in state-funded institutions (i.e., prisons, mental hospitals etc) as well as continuing education and the reference department. Worked for the University of Phoenix doing literature searches for students (in the dark ages before everyone could do their own!). Spent a year at Denver Medical Library, and recently have done part time stints at Denver General Hospital, Children's Hospital, Denver Botanic Gardens and currently dividing time between Denison, Saint Joseph and the Denver Botanic Gardens. Previously served a year as CCML secretary. Married, with two daughters in college. Spare time activities include remodeling old homes in the Congress Park neighborhood and triathlon training.PAUL BLOMQUIST, PRESIDENT-ELECT
Paul Blomquist's work in libraries in the Denver region for the last 22 years, includes 18 years in the Denver Public Library as a science and business librarian where he put to use undergraduate majors of math & chemistry as well as accounting-the accounting was earned while at DPL. In 1995, Paul moved over to the Denison Memorial Library at the University of Colorado Health Science Center and immersed himself in the world of medical librarianship. As an academic medical librarian, Paul has developed special expertise in working with the chemical database on both Dialog and STN as he interacts with researchers, students, and practitioners. Paul is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program for library science at Emporia State University. Married with two daughters, Paul spends quality time with the family in the mountains, either enjoying hiking trails in the summer or the ski slopes in winter. Paul and his wife, writing as a team, have published four books - the latest, due out this December, is their second hiking book of trails in Gunnison County. Active in Denver theatre for the last 9 years, Paul has performed in several plays; however, he currently restricts his performances to camera work for both commercials and industrials. A native of Colorado, Paul is most obnoxious when he nostalgically recalls Denver of the Fifties and Sixties. This tendency is mitigated by a wife who is from Philadelphia, and two daughters who know how to roll their eyes.JEFF KUNTZMAN, TREASURER (2-YEAR TERM)
Jeff is Internet and Instruction Librarian in the IME (Information Management Education) Department of Denison Library. He also works on the Denison web site. Jeff came to Denison in 1995 with an MLS from the University of Arizona. He has a BA in German with a minor in Russian, also from the University of Arizona. Jeff is currently working on a certificate in Network and Unix Administration from the University of Denver. Jeff grew up in Casper, Wyoming before moving to Arizona to go to college. He is engaged to be married in the summer of '99. In his spare time, Jeff is an avid computer gamer, despite the fact that he is easily defeated by the son of his fiancée, 9 year old Casey.
PROPOSED FEDERATION OF COLORADO LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS
SUBMITTED BY PAT NELSON
The PREZ group, a loose-knit organization with representatives from five statewide library associations (CLA, CEMA, SLA, CCML, CoALL), created a task force to explore the feasibility of a federation of Colorado library associations. A report, made available in August 1998, identifies the possible benefits to uniting under an umbrella organization. These include improved communication, resource sharing, permanent office support to assist with membership databases, directories, newsletters, and other tasks, shared educational opportunities, more political clout, and reduced leadership and volunteer burnout. Issues to be addressed are loss of unique identity and autonomy for member organizations, working with an umbrella governance structure, and financial impact. The report did not include financial pro-jections.
The Executive Committee discussed the possible benefits and costs to CCML of joining a statewide library federation. There was consensus that the cost of federation support is very likely to exceed the benefit to CCML. Concern was expressed that CCML would lose its unique identity and compromise its ability to serve the specific needs of its members if it is subsumed within a larger organization. Members ex-pressed similar concerns at the October 28th meeting and a motion was passed to support the views of the Executive Committee. We will not pursue federation membership at this time. Please direct any concerns and comments on this issue to Pat Nelson at pat.nelson@uchsc.edu.
CCML EXECUTIVE LUNCH CHANGE
SUBMITTED BY GLENN PFLUM
The date for the CCML Executive Lunch has been changed. The old date was March 11, 1999. The new date is Wednesday, March 10, 1999. The lunch will be held at Racine's in their banquet room from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Keep an eye open for more information, but mark your calendars now.
LIBRARY COOPERATION COMMITTEE SURVEY
SUBMITTED BY CATHERINE REITER
The Library Cooperation Committee has created a web survey to collect data about consumer health services provided by CCML member libraries. The results of the survey will be published on the CCML web page in February 1999.
If you are a CCML member, please identify one person in your library to fill out the survey. It can be found at http://www.ccmlnet.org/library_survey.html or go to the CCML page and click on CCML Library Survey. The survey will be available by December 7th and responses will be collected until December 18th. Your responses can be recorded and transmitted via the web form or you may print the form and mail your responses. If you are unable to print the form, please contact Sandi Parker at 303-315-4875 to have a copy mailed to you. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact any member of the Library Cooperation Committee-Joyce Condon, Carol McMurry, Susan Osborn, and Sandi Parker. Thanks for your participation!
BOOK REVIEW
SUBMITTED BY DICK MAXWELL
How many times have you wished that you could launch a brick through your monitor's screen and have it bounce painfully (but…maybe…not lethally) off the forehead of whoever designed the web site you're trying to use? If you've never had the urge, then you might not see the need for a book such as Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, by Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville (O'Reilly & Assoc., 1998), now in the Isabelle T. Anderson Collection.
The authors both own MILS degrees from the University of Michigan and are partners in a company which specializes in "information architecture design." Their intent is to offer a guide to web site design emphasizing, shockingly enough, common sense. As they move through the more technical aspects, they continually return to a reminder that the users are the ones who really matter. In the first chapter they describe a process of brainstorming what the site should offer, how it should look, and how it should operate, and they advise doing it by creating your own "consumer sensitivity boot camp." They describe the necessary collaborative effort involved in creating a site representing a large organization, then talk about organizing information, designing the navigation systems, labeling, searching, and thinking about how the mechanical aspects do or don't really help someone coming into the site to find information. The common sense that they rely on may limit the potential readership of a book that manages to make its points without getting bogged down in too much technical detail. After all, in most organizations (this may or may not include the one I work for), some nearly anonymous person creates and maintains the site, and finds many of your suggestions simply annoying. To take a look at a site the authors put together, try the Henry Ford Health System at http://www.henryfordhealth.org.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
SUBMITTED BY KATE ELDER
Conferences and Events
STAYING POWER: TRIBUTE TO CCML'S FAITHFUL
SUBMITTED BY BARBARA L. WAGNER
MEMBERSHIP QUIZ
SUBMITTED BY THE MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
MUSINGS FROM MAXWELL
New information continues to fly by at warp speed, ensuring that no one can keep up with everything in his or her own field, let alone with what's happening in other disciplines. So, as a service to curious but overburdened readers, here are some notes about a few articles, plus miscellaneous bits of other things intended to expand your horizons.
Have you noticed that good science is a rare commodity in anything coming out of Hollywood? Now there is some logic to this...spending a week watching cells become a colony in a Petri dish is not the sort of thing from which Clint Eastwood blockbusters usually spring, but it would be nice to see a little more glorification of the real work of science. It's right there waiting to be exploited. For example, if this paper from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States isn't in fact a plot synopsis for a horror movie, it should be: "A Mutant Cytochrome Beta5 with a Lengthened Membrane Anchor Escapes from the Endoplasmic Reticulum and Reaches the Plasma Membrane." Obviously it's already building toward a sequel. Look out, Steven Speilberg, here come E. Pedrazzini, A. Villa, and N. Borgeses. From Public Health Reports, there's an article entitled "The Need for Epidemic Intelligence." They may be setting their sights a little high, here. Most of us would be delighted to see even an occasional isolated case. And from another issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, S. Govindarajan and R. Goldstein ask the nonmusical question: "Why are Some Protein Structures So Common?" Well put. They seem to show no class or breeding, and you simply can't take them anywhere. How about further proof, should you need some, that there's a publishing home for whatever you want to research and write up, if you're willing to hang in there and accept a few rejections. In Perceptual and Motor Skills we find "Wearing Baseball-Type Caps: Another Look," by John Trinkaus and Maria Divino. The title is notable for two things: one said and one unsaid. First, the actual focus of the article is on the wearing of these caps backwards. That's not made clear, but should be lest a lot of potential readers overlook it. And second, this is "another look." Think about it. This is a subject worthy not only of study, but of follow-up! It turns out, by the way, that it's a fad, and that, by actual count, backwards is still the choice of fewer than 33% of college students. From the American Heart Association comes a flyer for a meeting entitled "Public Access Defibrillation II." What a concept! Instead of waiting for the paramedics to arrive after you arrest, your companions just hurry you to the nearest defibrillator booth (most likely a horizontal version of the old phone booth, and also coin-operated), the automatic paddles slide into place after a squirt of grease, and ZZAAPP!...you're up, feeling refreshed, and back on the sidewalk headed once again for the theater, where the curtain isn't even up yet on Act One. There's bad news for fans of all animals, great and small, but good news for collectors in a letter written to Nature by Massiomo Zerani, with the headline: "NO Sexual Behavior in Newts." It doesn't take extensive training in animal behavior and reproductive biology to figure out the long-term results of this sort of thing. No, there's no need to go for Speaker Gingrich here...much too easy a target. Along the same lines, from our old friend the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, etc., comes a report from Thomas Eisner, et al. "Chemical Basis of Courtship in a Beetle (Neopyrochroa flabellata): Cantharidin as Precopulatory 'Enticing' Agent." If it works, and if it can entice species other than Neopyrochroa (trust me, I've seen them), there could be the potential for some real profits here, not to mention extensive before-market research by the delighted discoverers. While we're on the subject, Science reports that work is being done on breeding "Studly Sheep by Non-Mendelian Means." If you care...and you should...what researchers from Utah and Belgium are looking for is "bulging hindquarters and well-sculpted muscles." They were so intrigued by these big guys that they mapped the mutated gene causing it, and even named it callipyge, which, as you must have guessed, is Greek for "beautiful buttocks" (save this, it might be useful someday on a homemade valentine). Unfortunately, it's apparently a wild and crazy kind of gene, which breeders complain only works its magic randomly. There is great disappointment in certain circles. Some of the ads in publications such as Science and Nature are truly for specialized audiences. Would you care to buy some Solid Water? We're not talking about the frozen kind, now. This room temperature stuff is from a company called Gammex RMI. It's "Stable...No Changes with Time or Temperature," and comes in "Easily Stackable Slabs." It also stays "Rigid - Does not Bend." Needless to say, it's also "Machinable." This must have a myriad of uses, but it probably isn't what you need when you're trying to stay hydrated to avoid another kidney stone. Finally, here's some good news for those who are constantly forced to explain that they just "can't be in two places at once." The answer to the problem exists, and it's available from Genome Systems, Inc., whose ad reminds you that they are the ones to call when you need to "Get Clones Quick."
| 1998 | |
| July | 9 Exec. Committee meeting 27 Council Quotes deadline |
| August | 5 Mailing deadline 12 Mailing 26 CCML meeting |
| September | 10 Exec. Committee meeting 28 Council Quotes deadline |
| October | 7 Mailing deadline 14 Mailing 28 CCML meeting |
| November | 9 Council Quotes deadline 12 Exec. Committee meeting 18 Mailing deadline 25 Mailing |
| December | 9 CCML meeting |
| 1999 | |
| January | 14 Exec. Committee meeting 25 Council Quotes deadline |
| February | 3 Mailing deadline 10 Mailing 24 CCML meeting |
| March | 11 Exec. Committee meeting 22 Council Quotes deadline |
| April | 7 Mailing deadline 14 Mailing 28 CCML annual meeting |
| Council Quotes is a bimonthly publication of the Colorado Council of Medical Librarians (CCML). CCML / P.O. Box 101058 / Denver, CO 80210-1058. Subscription is a benefit of membership. Editor, Mary Walsh; Assistant Editor, Jeff Kuntzman; Contributors, CCML members. |
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