New from Google Docs!

You’re probably already familiar with Google Docs, an easy way to create, store and share documents via the cloud. Google has just released a new tool that makes Google Docs even more helpful:  Google Docs Research Tool.  Now any text you type into a Google Document can be searched via Google’s powerful search engines.

Create a new document in Google Docs and type a sentence or two into the document.  Highlight text and right click to reveal and select the Research option. 

Can’t remember where a quote comes from? Type a few words from the quote into your document, right click and Google Docs Research presents a menu of results that may contain the answer.

You can even highlight full sentences and click Research.

Results appear in the Research panel.

Note that as your mouse hovers over any item in the Research panel, you will have 3 options:  Preview | Insert Link | Cite.  Click Preview and a snapshot of the webpage appears.  Click Insert Link and a link to that webpage is inserted for the highlighted terms.

Click Cite and your Google Doc gets a numbered citation after the highlighted text and a footnote at the bottom of the page.   A little housekeeping in the form of some added information (author, source, format) and the footnote is managed.

Google Docs will continue to manage the order and placement of citations as the author edits and adds to the document.

Click on any result, just as you would in Google or Google Scholar to view the result in a new tab.

Some faculty will have reservations about the value of Google Docs Research Tool.  Amanda French of the Center for History and New Media finds that the “research” results may not have the depth required for many papers beyond the freshman year and is not a substitute for the usual research methods in databases or digging deeper into Google’s search results.  Certainly, assessment of the accuracy and reliability of the “research” will still be required. And writers may be frustrated with the footnoting.  The footnote content is very bare-bones, and does not usually include author information and other source information.

Google Docs Research Tool can provide convenient access to quick information and facts. While it is a bit of a lightweight tool for serious researchers, it adds a welcome feature to an already valuable resource.

[Lynne M. Fox, Education Librarian]

New Photography Exhibit

Are you interested in photography? Stop by the Gallery in the Health Sciences Library to view photographs created by a group of local Aurora photographers. Working with the Cultural Affairs Commission of the City of Aurora, the Health Sciences Library will be displaying photography from fifteen different Aurora photographers. The exhibit will be on display June 2 through August 31, 2012.

An Opening Reception will be held on Thursday, June 14 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. Stop by to meet and talk with the photographers.

Health Sciences Library Celebrates Naming of Carl and Kay Bartecchi Special Collections Reading Area

Jerry Perry, Director of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Library, is pleased to announce the naming of the Carl and Kay Bartecchi Special Collections Reading Area in the Library’s Special Collections Room.  Carl E. Bartecchi, MD, MACP, is a Distinguished Clinical Professor of Medicine with the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a longstanding donor to the Health Sciences Library.  His many gifts over the years include a significant history of medicine book collection, a wide array of medical artifacts and curiosities, photographs from his travels to South America and Southeast Asia, and financial support. Dr. Bartecchi lives in Pueblo, CO with his wife Kay, where he has a medical practice.  A thoroughly engaged philanthropist, Dr. Bartecchi is actively involved in service missions to Viet Nam, where he is involved in supporting and improving hospital facilities and medical education.

Dr. Bartecchi is co-author of Living Healthier and Longer: What Works, What Doesn’t, and author of A Doctor’s Vietnam Journal, both of which are in the Library’s collection.

A celebration of Dr. Bartecchi’s many generous contributions to the Library will take place on Friday, June 22, 2012 at 2:30 pm in the Library’s Special Collections Room, 3^rd Floor.  A reception with refreshments will follow immediately afterwards, in the Library’s Reading Room, also on the 3^rd Floor.  Please see the Library’s website at http://hslibrary.ucdenver.edu/about/directions.php for directions.

According to Director Perry, “Dr. Bartecchi is a champion benefactor to the Health Sciences Library.  His gifts cover the spectrum of what it is that we do from our signature facility on the Anschutz Medical Campus.  His gifts of books enhance our collections, the artifacts he has donated enrich our outreach programing to local schools, the art work enhances the experience of users who visit our stunning building, and his financial support has provided new opportunities.  On behalf of the Library’s users, we are thankful to Carl and Kay for their vision, leadership and mission to serve.”

About his donation, Dr. Bartecchi states, “Books and libraries have always been important to me during my medical career.  How wonderful it is to be even a small part of such an advanced, well equipped and beautiful library with its outstanding and supportive staff.  I appreciate this opportunity to share with others my love for the books and artifacts that shaped our medical history.”

Please plan to attend the celebration and reception honoring the naming of the Carl and Kay Bartecchi Special Collections Reading Area, June 22, 2:30 pm. For additional information, please contact Jerry Perry, Director, at 303-724-2133 or jerry.perry@ucdenver.edu.

[Jerry Perry, Library Director]

9 pm Friday, May 25 – Health Sciences Library – Outage of All Online Resources

The Health Sciences Library will be reconfiguring its server room on Friday, May 25, 2012 from 9:00 pm until approximately midnight.  Unavailable resources will include the library’s web page, Find Journals journal portal, Article Linker, proxy server, IMPULSE library catalog, electronic reserves, and streaming media.

If you anticipate a need for a specific resource during the timeframe in question, please contact Jeff Kuntzman on or before May 24 for customized access instructions: jeff.kuntzman@ucdenver.edu

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

Writing Center outpost on AMC closed for summer, reopens for fall 2012.

Last day of business for the Writing Center in the health sciences library was Tuesday, May 8th. Good news is that they will be back for fall term later this year!

Stay tuned

Writing Center Web Site & Contact

Room 1204 in the Information Commons of HSL is available for group study anytime the Center is not open for business.

The Human Touch Literary and Arts Anthology Available Now at AMC Bookstore

Please pick up your FREE copy of THE HUMAN TOUCH  at the Information Desk of the Anschutz Medical Campus Bookstore, Building 500, 1st Floor.

THE HUMAN TOUCH is the literary and arts anthology of the Anschutz Medical Campus of UC Denver.  The Human Touch strives to develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis, empathy, and self-reflection to promote humane medical care, by offering an outlet for the creative expression of the connection between patients, family, and health care professionals.  Writings and artworks are juried anonymously. They foster an understanding of cultural and social contexts of the experiences of illness and the way medicine is practiced. Editors are students in the School of Medicine, staff and faculty of the Anschutz Medical Campus. Authors and artists are students, staff, health professionals, and patients from the University of Colorado community.

This publication is being offered FREE to members of the community through the generous support the School of Medicine. The Human Touch is produced by the Art and Humanities in Health Care Program (Therese Jones, PhD, Director and H. N. Claman, M.D., Associate Director) of the Anschutz Medical Campus Center for Bioethics and Humanities.

A copy of the anthology is also available for checkout at the Health Sciences Library, in the Drs. Henry and Janet Claman Medical Humanities Collection.  The collection is located in the 3rd Floor Special Collections Room, call number WZ 350 U58h.   An electronic copy is  available in the Digital Collections of Colorado, at http://goo.gl/8WEcS

Removal of “List of all journal providers” from Find Journals page

We have decided to disable/remove the part of the “Find Journals” page under “List of All Journal Providers” which you can find when you go to Find—Journal Titles— (http://dy3uq8jh2v.search.serialssolutions.com/) for a variety of reasons. The main problem is that the url for the journal provider doesn’t always match the url of the journal, which causes errors.

If you have questions, please contact heidi.zuniga@ucdenver.edu

Librarian Picks: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

In Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese blends medicine, culture, religion, and family saga into a compelling Zhivago-esque tale set in India, Ethiopia and New York. At the start of the novel, a nun trained as a nurse in India and a surgeon trained in Scotland arrive in post-World War II Ethiopia to work in a small medical clinic.  Sister Mary Joseph Praise and Thomas Stone form an efficient surgical team, providing services valued by emperor and everyman. When Sister Mary Joseph Praise dies while giving birth to twins and Stone abandons his twin sons, the remaining doctors step in to raise Marion and Shiva Stone.

While the story is set mostly within the political turmoil of 1960’s and 1970’s Ethiopia, the novel makes significant historical events personal.  Marion Stone, the novel’s narrator, moves from Ethiopia to New York, and grows to adulthood and advances through his medical training.  Marion observes the world around him, describing political events, the poverty and humanity of the patients, the skill of the doctors and aides, and innovative practice of medicine in challenging settings.  Verghese avoids stereotypes and simplifications to portray life and death at the clinic and the unforeseen consequences of individual choices.  In doing so, he banishes western preconceptions about African medical care.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese is in the Amesse collection, first floor Commons alcove, call number F VERGHESE CUT.

[Lynne Fox, Education Librarian]

The Communication of Science/The Science of Communication

Recently, Tom Bartlett (of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Percolator blog) asked “Is Evolution a Lousy Story?” He reviews the work of Dan McAdams on storytelling and its role in helping humans make sense of their lives. Evolution is a tough concept to understand through story, McAdams claims, because “there is no protagonist, no motivation, no purpose.” Bartlett points out that evolution has pretty tough competition in the drama of the creation story, featuring some strong plotting and “heroes, villains, nudity” – not to mention a few centuries of repetition and familiarity.

What’s a scientist to do? It turns out that communicating scientific knowledge in a compelling manner is getting lots of attention.  From the grant-getting PI who asks “What story are we telling in this application?” to the physicians we see regularly on the evening news, many scholars are thinking about how to communicate effectively and clearly.  Take climate change as an example:  Why do so many scientists agree and so much of the public disbelieves that climate change is occurring?

According to Richard C. J. Somerville and Susan Joy Hassol, authors of  “Communicating the science of climate change” the problem originates in the fundamentally different ways scientist and non-scientists communicate.  Science communication begins with the background, provides supporting details, and then supplies the results and conclusions.  (Show of hands: how many of you read the last page or two of a scientific article first, then go back to the start?) Somerville and Hassol recommend starting with the “bottom line”, explaining why the public should care, and then providing the supporting details.

Their other recommendations include:

1. Put scientific findings into context – listeners don’t always have the basic understanding of a topic, so establishing some baseline of shared knowledge is helpful
2. Use metaphors, analogies, and points of reference
3. Anticipate common misunderstandings
4. Make your message “simple but memorable”, personal, and immediate
5. Let your passion show
6. Pair up with a professional communicator – a journalist, storyteller, or marketer – to help craft your story
7. Practice, practice, practice.

Need more advice on crafting a scientific message for a wider audience? Read Randy Olson’s Don’t be such a scientist: talking substance in an age of style. Olson left a career as a professor of marine biology for film-making and also has some simple and direct advice for communicating more effectively.  He draws from the fields of acting, mass communication, storytelling, and film production to suggest methods for crafting a more accessible message. Olson sums up the scientist’s task fairly simply: get “out of your head, into your heart . . . with humor, and, ideally, . . .  sex appeal.”  For most people, effective communication involves telling them why to care and helping them care because they like you.  Maybe that’s difficult because it’s just SO unscientific!

Why bother? Because you’ll educate and persuade, but you’ll also empower your audience: “People like it when they understand something that they previously thought they couldn’t understand. It’s a sense of empowerment.” (Neil Degrasse Tyson)

[Lynne M. Fox, Education Librarian]

FYI: Voice Command for iPhone

For iPhone users without Siri voice control, Vokul provides a voice command system for hands-free operation of iPhone.

[Lynne M. Fox, Education Librarian]