for 1997-1998
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| Welcome to the Medical Library Association-Pharmacy and Drug Informatics Section's Information Section! Designed with the membership in mind, this web page offers access points to information about the section, MLA and informatics programs. Access is given to all section members and to prospective members. | |
| From the Chair | UPDATE:Spring, 1997 |
| Pharmacy and Drug Information Section Programs for the 1997 Annual Meeting | |
| MLA Cookbook Project | |
| Cyber Corner | |
| PDI
Section Election Results
for 1997-1998 |
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| Please send feedback to: Elizabeth Wood, woode@ohsu.edu. | |
I hope to see you at the Embase Lecture and the Automation Forum with the Hospital Libraries Section that Elizabeth Wood has worked diligently to organize. Plan to join me for the Section Business Meeting on Monday, May 25th. We will be starting at 7:30 am. instead of 7:00 a.m. as listed in the program. We will have a brainstorming session about future activities for the PDI section and the normal officer and committee reports. Your input is very valuable and feel free to submit written or electronic suggestions if you can not attend.
Major thanks to all officers, committee members, and other members of the PDI Section. It has been a memorable experience and I have enjoyed getting to know you better.
See you in Seattle.
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The EMBASE lecture will take place on Tuesday morning, May 27th, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Check your final program for the room and join us for some vital information and a thoroughly enjoyable lecture.
The Automation Forum will take place on Monday, May 26, 1997 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. It is a collaborative event sponsored by the Hospital Libraries and Pharmacy and Drug Information Sections. The Title of the Automation Forum is "Networking Micromedex in a Hospital or Multiple Site Setting." The moderators for the forum are Lois Weinstein (Hospital Libraries), Director, The Medical Library Center of New York and Elizabeth Wood (Pharmacy and Drug Information), Head of Research and Reference Services, Biomedical Information Communication Center, Oregon Health Sciences University.
The forum will also include a panel of experts:
Patty Davies, Oregon Health Sciences University
Debra Rand, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Dennis Ritchey, Kaiser Permanente, Southern California
BACKGROUND: The emphasis today is on providing heath care personnel, patients and caretakers with information when they need it and where they need it so that they can make educated decisions. The Micromedex product covers drug reactions, patient care, acute care, toxicology and several other topics critical to those both working or receiving hospital care. To provide this information medical librarians have explored using electronic means to reach their patrons. The Automation Forum is an event where audience participation is the format, so questions and individual experiences are most welcome. The experts on the panel are involved in all facets of networking Micromedex. Each panelist will give a 5-7 minute talk about his or her project and then take questions from the audience. Refreshments will be served.
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MLA members and their friends are welcome to submit recipes for the MLA Cookbook. The criteria for submitting a recipe is that it is one of your favorites or a favorite of your family, friends, or colleagues. Relatively easy preparation and quick cooking times are also good characteristics. Ethnic dishes, potluck specials or other satisfying food items are all needed to provide plenty of recipes for the first MLA cookbook. Friends of Dan are encouraged to submit recipes of memorable dishes shared with him.
Another facet of this book is its publication in time for MLA's 1998 centennial. Cookbook sales will begin at the Philadelphia meeting. A special feature of the cookbook will include historical graphic material that will be solicited from the special collections of MLA member libraries; details will be announced later in the year.
To make editing and publishing easier, electronic mail will be the preferred means of submitting your copy. Direct all submissions to:MLAckbk@listserv.acns.nwu.edu. For members without e-mail, seek a colleague who can submit the material for you since all copy must be in digital format. All submissions should use the following outline; lack of any information will make the editorial work more difficult.
- e-mail address
- work phone number
- mailing address
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Search engines scan the Internet and build a database of documents and their contents. When you type in a term or phrase, the search engine compares your request to the indices of concepts and keywords gathered by the search engines. What many search engines attempt to do is to rank WWW pages by their "relevancy" to your request. The closest matches are then returned to you as "hits".
Different search engines will use different techniques to retreive and arrange information from the WWW. A similar search in different search engines will have different results due to variations in which pages are covered by each service and the way that the service breaks down the content of these pages. It is not surprising tht a simple query will retreive thousands of "hits" when you consider the millions of web pages out there.
One problem that complicates matters is that humans and computers may not share the same criteria for what determining the relevancy of a web page. Let's take "AIDS" as an example. If you are interested in the subject of "AIDS," you are likely to be interested in information about AIDS and not simply the word itself. A site may discuss the subject of AIDS in detail and yet not use the word "AIDS" frequently enough in comparison to other sites. Compound this problem with the fact that many words such as "AIDS" have multiple meanings and can be used in many different contents. Most search engines do not discriminate between uppercase and lowercase characters so that "AIDS" and "aids" are indistinguishable from one another.
Ideally, a web page should stand on its content to determine its relevancy. Instead of working to enhance the content of the site, some page designers will attempt to deceive the search engines into thinking that the page is more relevant to a topic than it actually is. These page desingers seek to enhance their relevancy ranking by repeating keywords ad nauseam. This process is referred to as "spamming." You may not actually see the repeated keywords for the page or camouflage them in the text of the page by setting the font color for these words to match the color of the page background. The idea is that the searcher won't see it, but the search engine will, and when it counts up the number of times a term appears on a page, it may return the spam-infested page as a "highly relevant" site.
You can try to spot pages intested with repetitions by entering a phrase containing any keyword repeated four or five times within quoatation marks into a search engine. You can then go to one of the pages retreived by the search engine. If you do not see the keyword visibly repeated at least four or five times in the text of the document, save the page as a plain text file (.txt) and view it in a word processor. (Those of you who use Netscape can also select the "View" command and then select the "Document Source" option). The plain text will show the HTML coding used to create the page. You should now be able to locate the repetitious terms.
I was surprised at the number of different terms used by these unscrupulous pagemasters. It's one thing to add words to your page which at least match the content of your page, but some predatory spammers will take the process a step further. They will include words which have absolutely nothing to do with the content of the page in an attempt to expose their pages to as many people as possible. One technique is to copy the terms most frequently entered into search engines onto their pages. Even more startling was the case I found during the holidays. A search for "tickle me Elmo" retrieved a sexually explicit site which turned out to have many hidden words of a non-sexual nature placed within the page. The list included many different terms from the following categories: cities and countires, company names, brand names of products and servcies, names of popular websites, financial concepts, electronic and computing jargon, sports teams, musical instrukments, medical terms, TV and movie titles, even the names of major religious works were included. Scientific and library related terms such as "fluorescence spectroscopy" and "Library of Congress," were found on the page. Anyone entering these phrases could have found themselves being directed to a XXX-rated page.
Does spamming work? No one really nows for sure. The key is to approach the results of search engine inquiries with skepticism. Is someone trying to sell you something? Is the page biased? I saw a weightlifting page which had a token disclaimer about not offering medical or pharmaceutical advice. It then went on to extol the virtues of anabolic steroids, and scoff at the risks associated with their use. It even went as far as describing how you can get your hands on veterinary steroids over the counter in Mexico. Look for the web pages of organizations you deem to be reputable and reliable and see if they have links to other pages in the field. Use these sites as your jumping off points to other pages. Finally, ask your colleagues. Word of mouth can often help to quickly lead you to pages that have value as information resources.
If you are interested in learning more, the following pages provide a great deal of information on the subject of search engines and how they work:
The Spider's Apprentice: How to Use Search Engines
http://www.monash.com/spidap.htmlA Webmaster's Guide to Search Engines and Directories
http://calafia.com/webmasters/Sink or Swim: Internet Search Tools & Techniques (Version 2.0)
http://www.sci.ouc.bc.ca/librHow to Search the Web: A Guide to Search Tools
http://issfw.palomar.edu/Library/TGSEARCH.HTMA Higher Signal - To - Noise Ratio: Effective Use of Web Search Engines
http://www.state.wi.us/agencies/dpi/www/srch_bib.htmlEvaluation of Selected Internet Search Tools
http://www.library.nwu.edu/resources/internet/search/evaluate.htmlPlease note: Inclusion in "Cyber Corner" does not constitute an endorsement by the Medical Library Association.
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We accomplish this in a variety of formats: books, DocKits, and BibKits. The invaluable multivolume series Current Practice in Health Sciences Librarianship is the primary example of our book publishing efforts.
DocKits are designed to provide practical, immediately useable information by presenting compilations of representative, unedited documents from health science libraries accompanied by brief analyses. They allow readers to examien and compare policies, forms, and documents developed at comparable institutions. The second edition of the first DocKits, Professional Position Descriptions in Health Sciences Libraries by Carolyn Weaver, is the most recent DocKit.
BibKits are current guides to the literature in all formats in specific subject areas. Our first BibKit, Communication Sciences and Disorders by Judith L. Anderson, is now available. And watch for our first electronic publication coming soon!
Book publishing is currently done in cooperation with Scarecrow Press, a Division of University Press of America. Beryl Glitz is Managing Editor of Books. She oversees the review and revision of manuscripts. DocKits and BibKits are produced from camera-ready copy at MLA Headquarters. Carolyn Reiter (Denison Memorial Library, Universify of Colorado, 303-270-6444, catherine.reiter@uchs.edu is DocKit coordinator. May Prottsman (Lyster Army Community Hospital, Ft. Rucker, AL, 334-255-7350, prott@awanet.com, is BibKit coordinator.
For guildelines on how to submit a proposal, see our home page at http://www.kumc.edu/MLA/books.html or contact MLA's director of communications, Kim Pierceal (312-419-9094; pierceal@mlahq.org).
The Books Panel welcomes suggestions and submissions for potential publication throughout the year. Proposals for new publications are considered twice a year and are due April 1 and October 1. Send completed proposals, questions, and ideas for new formats or topics to Elizabeth Wood, Chair MLA Books Panel, Oregon Health Sciences University Library, P.O. Box 573, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97207-0573; 503-494-3472; fax: 503-494-3428; woode@ohsu.edu.
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I am pleased to announce the election results of the Pharmacy and Drug Information Section of the Medical Library Association for 1997/1998.
Judith Emde is elected to Chair-Elect.As current chair, I want to thank both Judith and Patricia for agreeing to serve in these positions and continuing their superb service to our section. Thanks to Vee Kwon for her excellent work as chair of the nominating committee.
Patricia Nolan is elected to Secretary/Treasurer.
The PDI section is also happy to recommend Vicki J. Killion for a representative to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Libraries Section.
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Please send newsletter contributions to:
Andrew Hamilton - Online Analyst
National Online Training Center
New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
telephone: (212) 822-7358
fax: (212) 534-7042
e-mail: ahamilton@nyam.org
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