Chances are that by now you’ve heard about Mendeley‘s sale to Elsevier. There had been rumors circulating for some time about the sale, but I heard when they made it official in April – naturally, from a well-informed classmate who heard via Twitter (kudos to @emilyrnlds for the tip).

I thought about posting this in the immediate days after the announcement, but frankly I wanted to see how things would shake out – and naturally, the internet didn’t disappoint.

Twitter users rushed for a pun-filled spin on the issue with #mendelsevier and #mendelete (again, @emilyrnlds led me to those hashtags). But I was curious about some reactions more in-depth than 140 characters, so here’s a round up of what I found:

• The announcement blog post from Mendeley
• Mendeley’s blog post announcing more account storage
• Elsevier’s blog announcement and official press release
• TechCrunch’s article confirming rumors of the sale
• Scholarly Kitchen’s take
• The New Yorker weighs in with a hilarious title
• David Weinberger’s (from Harvard’s Berkman Center & director of Harvard Library Innovation Lab) blog post
• Microsoft Research’s Danah Boyd’s missive on why she’s now deleting Mendeley
• Mendeley’s cofounder, Victor Henning, answers questions cropping up via social media

TL;DR: What does it mean for me?

• If you’ve got an individual Mendeley account, it’ll still be free
• You’ll get more (free) storage – 2GB for individual accounts, 5GB for premium and institutional accounts
• Mendeley will develop an Android app soon to complement it’s iOS usage
• The API will remain open
• Do you care about open access/data? That’s not going to fit into a bullet point – so read on:

I anticipated some of the ire from the Mendeley user community due to the dichotomy between Mendeley’s open “hey come look at what your peer group is reading! Collaborate! Innovate!” culture and Elsevier’s rather…controversial business practices; the New Yorker writes Elsevier is:

infamous for restricting the flow of scientific information so it can sell research papers for as much as fifty dollars a piece, generating profit margins of thirty-six per cent and netting the company billions of dollars in revenue annually. The company has fought legislation designed to open up academic research, offered scholars money to file positive reviews, sued libraries for oversharing, and allegedly published fake journals on behalf of the pharmaceuticals industry.

And indeed this seems to fuel the bulk of the user complaints. As part of his response (linked above), David Weinberger writes:

The idea of my reading behaviors adding economic value to a company making huge profits by locking scholarship behind increasingly expensive paywalls is, in a word, repugnant.

And here is where the Scholarly Kitchen blog shines as a beacon of well-balanced online authorship by pointing out the concerns and how, despite the press releases and blog posts and social media chats from Mendelsevier, they avoid

“the question about whether users have the right to openly share copyrighted or licensed content via Mendeley even if they or their institution subscribe (or if there is a CC-BY-NC license associated with the work)…one that ties into the legal risks around this deal and the longevity of Mendeley’s central premise of PDF sharing now that it’s owned by Elsevier.”

Yet, as Kent Anderson (contributing author to Scholarly Kitchen and CEO/publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery) points out,

“in the long run, it’s likely better for publishers to see [article usage statistics] under the roof of a company with incentive for respecting copyright, rather than an independent wildcard with no such ties…[since] it’s worth noting that publishers tend to take services at face value, as Connotea and CiteULike were used by many platforms across journals, despite being owned by Nature Publishing Group and supported by Springer, respectively.”

Recognizing that this may not be the most popular opinion, I would like to be cautiously optimistic. I think there could possibly be benefits by having a dedicated system backed by a well-funded company to measure the article-level metrics – which is really where I think the next impact factor is going to come from (Jason Priem, a PhD student at UNC-Chapel Hill will convince you of this in one presentation or less). I had the pleasure of hearing Jason speak at the Medical Library Association conference earlier this month, and naturally in the question portion someone asked about Mendelsevier. For now, I’m sticking with his response (which I won’t quote as I’m paraphrasing and can’t recall the exact wording, but it was something along the lines of): Both companies have said they will preserve Mendeley’s commitment to openness, and that’s what I’ll stick to until I see otherwise.

Medical education

Many people believe that there is, or soon will be, a physician shortage. There are nearly 1 million physicians scattered across America representing a ratio of 319 doctors per 100,000 Americans. According to estimates, the AAMC states that there are 13,700 too few physicians for our communities. In contrast to that, the GAO implies that adequate access exists for 97% of Medicare patients. So is there really a physician shortage? I suppose that depends on who you ask [...]

Medical practice

Why spend over 7 years training someone to fill that void (4 years of medical school and at least 3 years of residency training) when other clinicians can be trained in less time? Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) take a fraction of the time to train relative to physicians and produce similar outcomes in certain studies [...]

The underserved

One of the major elements impacting the care of the underserved will be the implementation of the Medicaid expansion in 2014. Originally, the Affordable Care Act would have used Medicaid as a vehicle to provide health insurance coverage to approximately 16 or 17 million Americans under 138% of the federal poverty level [...]

Read the full post here:  Reflections on medical education, medical practice and the underserved

THIS RT @archivesnext: Why isn’t New Orleans Mother’s Day parade shooting a ‘national tragedy’?bit.ly/YMbVBO via @twttimes

— Ayla Stein (@TheStacksCat) May 16, 2013

MT @umhealthsystem: Marie Janus, home for Mother’s Day after becoming our 2000th liver transplant recipient: umhealth.me/10tFx3p

— UniversityofMichigan (@umich) May 13, 2013

From there, I looked to #NationalWomensHealthWeek and #NWHW to find the most interesting tweets about Women’s Health.

Happy National Women’s Health Week! at.wh.gov/l3Q5H, twitter.com/whitehouse/sta…

— The White House (@whitehouse) May 15, 2013

@alzheimers_nih Ah, yes, asking for help! Sometimes it seems stressful, but is esp important for caregivers! womenshealth.gov/publications/o… #NWHW

— womenshealth.gov (@womenshealth) May 16, 2013

RT @aauw: Remember when a Harvard doctor suggested that educating women would cause infertility? flip.it/q9jmS #NWHW

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) May 14, 2013

Initiative on #Diabetes & Women’s Health: working on quality of care for women at risk for gestational diabetes. go.usa.gov/T7rx

— CDCChronic (@CDCChronic) May 16, 2013

Ladies, remember to take care of your health, nutrition and well being!! #NationalWomensHealthWeek #NWHW twitter.com/AllenbyDerm/st…

— Allenby Dermatology (@AllenbyDerm) May 16, 2013

Exciting developments in helping preserve chemo patients’ fertility #NationalWomensHealthWeekvia @naturenews nature.com/news/drug-save…

— Ovuline (@ovuline) May 16, 2013

Take control of your health this #NationalWomensHealthWeek “Why don’t patients behave more like consumers?” tedmed.com/talks/show?id=… #TEDMED

— APTA Women’s Health (@womens_PT) May 13, 2013

Wondering how the health care law improves women’s health? #NationalWomensHealthWeek INFOGRAPHIC (via @womenshealth) twitter.com/PPSNE/status/3…

— PlannedParenthoodSNE (@PPSNE) May 15, 2013

I don’t know if Angelina Jolie decided to hold her press conference because it was National Women’s Health Week, or because she just felt is was the right time, but the revelation of her prophylactic double mastectomy certainly had people talking about women’s health issues. It started with an outpouring of support and well wishes for Jolie and evolved to include conversations surrounding Supreme Court cases, economic and healthcare realities, and patent law. You can follow these conversations on #brca and #breastcancer.

Angelina Jolie: “I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.” nyti.ms/10wszSl

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 14, 2013

The battle over BRCA1: @cbsandrew on the court case looming behind Angelina Jolie’s op-ed theatln.tc/13xsovp

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) May 15, 2013

Some doctors worried that Angelina Jolie’s disclosure could be misinterpreted by other women nyti.ms/10oViww

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 15, 2013

#SciAmBlogs on Jolie and breast cancer today: bit.ly/140ppLh and bit.ly/140qxyy and bit.ly/13iHy4f (so far)

— Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) May 15, 2013

Learn more about #BRCA 1 & 2 mutations: We’ve extended free streaming of IN THE FAMILY until 5/26 to.pbs.org/16XKlDR @pbs

— POV (@povdocs) May 16, 2013

#myriad‘s breast cancer gene test now costs $4000 – bit.ly/YV7YNj many people will die because of this outrageous patent #brca

— Glyn Moody (@glynmoody) May 15, 2013

Two of my relatives (maternal grandmother & aunt) have had breast cancer. So my DNA might be violating Myriad’s patent as we speak. #BRCA

— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) May 14, 2013

Finally, I came across a reference to #WD2013 which is the annual Women Deliver conference. This global conference is being held in Kuala Lumpur May 28-30, 2013. While you may not be able to attend in person, they will have online streaming content. The conference focuses on the “health and empowerment of girls and women” through political and economic engagement, particularly as it relates to maternal and newborn health and wellness.

When a mother dies, her kids are 10x more likely to die w/in 2 yrs of her death. We’re working to change this bit.ly/13xB8ld #WD2013

— Jhpiego (@Jhpiego) May 16, 2013

Interested in #WD2013 but can’t get to Malaysia? Never fear! Watch online w/ @womendeliver‘s live webcasts. Schedule: ow.ly/l4cef

— GirlsGlobe (@GirlsGlobe) May 16, 2013

New York Public Library, 1915 from the Copyright Office Collections via Shorpy

Project Overview

I was working with OUD’s Foundation Relations division to create content for their new information portal for faculty, foundations.umich.edu (which requires a UMich log-in). My goal was to create foundation profiles that would synthesize large amounts of information and clarify the foundation’s interests and application process to decrease the barriers to faculty application.

The Process

I pulled together information from a variety of sources, including internal research from Development, publicly available foundation funding activities, and coverage of limited submissions/managed foundation from the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects. I also utilized library resources such as Foundation Directory Online and the Chronicle of Philanthropy, as well as scouring the foundations’ web presence through their sites and social media accounts.

I would then synthesize this massive amount of information into a concise and palatable web profile tailored toward faculty researchers who might be asking themselves, “Does my research align with Foundation X’s mission, and could we be a funding match?“

Takeaways

A collaboration between librarians and development officers seems both natural and fruitful. There is a trove of information out there, and synthesizing it can certainly be aided by development’s expert knowledge of the funding relationships and a librarian’s capacity for effective information organization. My supervisor likened the process to the resource pyramid for evidence-based medicine:

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Resources. Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries. 2008. 6 Apr. 2012. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~biomed/resources.htmld/guides/ebm_resources.shtml

And when I thought about the process for actually creating these foundation profiles, it became clear to me that I too was elaborating on building blocks of knowledge about specific funders, and using each new building block to inform the next, so I came up with a development evidence pyramid:

I also was able to draw useful parallels from both my coursework at the School of Information and my professional experience as a University Library Associate:

• Understanding your audience is paramount: information has to be timely & relevant
• Iterate: Fail quickly and improve work based on feedback.
• Awareness is crucial: a resource is pointless if no one knows about it.

TL;DR: Are you a faculty member (or do you work with faculty members) and are seeking funding? Explore this resource!!

And, if you have the time, swing by the Hatcher Gallery today from 10 am to noon – the other ULAs and I will be presenting on our projects!

With this context, I was unsettled to read headlines last week informing me of the “new” G8 opinion that “Rape must be outlawed as a weapon of war.”  I thought to myself, “Surely rape perpetrated as a weapon of war is already outlawed…” Upon researching, I found that despite the recent flurry of activity surrounding the subject, wartime rape IS already a criminal offense under the Geneva Conventions. It’s just that the world has just been looking the other way as the offenses pile up, with little political will at the highest level  to prevent or prosecute the pandemic of sexual violence committed during, or as a strategy of, war.

The Geneva Conventions, first established in 1949, mandate the humane treatment of individuals during conflict worldwide, with different protections for combatants than for civilians. The Conventions also enumerate specially “protected persons,” including women. New projects like Women Under Siege are documenting the chronic failure of the Conventions to protect women and girls (and civilian men and boys) from sexual violence during past and current conflicts, from the Holocaust to modern-day Libya.

In the face of mounting evidence of the perpetrators of wartime rape continuing with impunity, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has been outspoken in his call for G8 leaders to take action, creating the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative. With Hague’s leadership, the G8 decided on a new resolution:

“ …obliges its member states to develop a comprehensive protocol for investigations, and says amnesties for sexual violence must be excluded from all peace agreements. It promises to review the training provided to national armies, police forces and peacekeepers to ensure that those deployed to war zones can respond adequately, and supports the employment of international experts to help build judicial capacities in countries that request help. The declaration also calls for enhanced support for the victims of rape and the inclusion of women in peace negotiations.”

To support these policy changes, the G8 nations have also pledged an additional $36 million in funding.

Sexual violence at any time is unacceptable, and this new resolution from the G8 addresses the widespread recognition that women, girls, men and boys are especially vulnerable during periods of conflict. The G8’s recent efforts will not be sufficient to end sexual violence in conflict, but are a necessary and welcome steps towards the Millenium Development Goals to protect women and children’s health and promote gender equality worldwide.

To learn more, visit the Taubman Health Science Library’s Sexual & Reproductive Health research guide.

In December 2013, THL staff offices will move to temporary space in the Neuroscience Hospital Building 2 (NHB2) until the construction project is complete. The public parts of the library will also be relocating, though we don’t have the exact location yet. Stay tuned for details of that space closer to the time of the move.

As a primarily digital library, the majority of the THL collection remains accessible from other campus locations, including other campus libraries. Print library materials are readily available on request for delivery to campus libraries or, for U-M faculty and graduate students, to their campus offices.

We’re excited about our new facilities and look forward to returning to the THL building in Fall 2015. In the meantime, we’ll be working with the health sciences schools, the provost’s office, and the rest of the university library to minimize the inconvenience and disruption.

The sessions are broken out as follows:

Publications

• Tuesday, May 14, 9 am – 5pm (EST)
• Wednesday, May 15, 9 am – 12 pm (EST)
• Read the full agenda here.
• View the webcast here.

Data

• Thursday, May 16, 9 am – 5 pm (EST)
• Friday, May 17, 9 am – 12 pm
• Read the full agenda here.
• View the webcast here.

The sessions are sponsored by the following veritable bevy of organizations:

]]> http://thlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/public-comment-meetings-on-access-to-federally-supported-data-publications/feed/ 0 irinazey NAS webinar sponsors http://thlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/are-doctors-nicer-to-normal-weight-patients/ http://thlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/are-doctors-nicer-to-normal-weight-patients/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 11:00:54 +0000 ekerby http://thlibrary.wordpress.com/?p=4679 ]]> From the New York Times:

Are doctors nicer to patients who aren’t fat?

A provocative new study suggests that they are — that thin patients are treated with more warmth and empathy than those who are overweight or obese.

For the study, published in the medical journal Obesity, researchers at Johns Hopkins obtained permission to record discussions between 39 primary care doctors and more than 200 patients who had high blood pressure.

For the most part, all of the patients were treated about the same; there were no meaningful differences in the amount of time doctors spent with them or the topics discussed.

But when researchers analyzed transcripts of the visits, there was one striking difference. Doctors seemed just a bit nicer to their normal-weight patients, showing more empathy and warmth in their conversations. Although the study was relatively small, the findings are statistically significant.

Read the full article here.  Many of the reader comments are quite interesting!

From the TODAY Show:

For the next generation of doctors to develop a better bedside manner, it’s important to spend some time in a stable.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Allan Hamilton of the University of Arizona Medical Center, Tucson, is using his ranch for a first-of-its-kind class to help train first year medical students, bringing the humans in close contact with large flighty four-legged patients who can’t talk and who can be highly — and violently — reactive to doctors who aren’t attuned to their patients’ body language.

[...]

Hamilton believes that the program can build better doctors, helping them to overcome fear and improve confidence.

“Probably even more important is it saves doctors,” he said. “Our salvation is going to be to go back to what really makes us fulfilled, which is this essence of human-human interaction and the ability to take somebody in the most dire of circumstances and say,’grab my hand I know we’re going OK we’re in this together.”

Read the full article and watch the video here.

An explanation of the differences between the #DSM and the RDOC favored by NIMH: newyorker.com/online/blogs/e…#MentalHealth

— Scattergood Fdn (@ScattergoodFdn) May 9, 2013

Our @childinmind blogger on the #DSM, NIMH on mental illness: Both miss relational, historical context of being human bo.st/17NZHLJ

— Boston Health News (@BeWellBoston) May 9, 2013

Dr. David Kupfer Responds to Criticism of #DSM5 by @nimhgov Director alert.psychiatricnews.org/2013/05/david-… #DSM is strongest system currently available

— American Psychiatric (@APAPsychiatric) May 6, 2013

No One Is Abandoning the DSM, But It Is Almost Time to Transform It ow.ly/1VVUK6 by @ferrisjabr at #SciAmBlogs

— Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) May 7, 2013

I decided to explore #Psychology further on Twitter and see what else might be going on around the world.

Why social science studies are so WEIRD: slate.me/10Gcs4w #psychology

— Slate (@Slate) May 8, 2013

This is your brain on food commercials… oxford.ly/18Ug7Rd by @umich prof Ashley N. Gearhardt #psychology

— Oxford Academic (@OUPAcademic) May 8, 2013

Facial visualizations of women’s voices suggest a cross-modality preference for femininity. goo.gl/EEgUK #psychology #neuroscience

— J.-François Gariépy (@JFGariepy) May 8, 2013

In exploring the #psychology hashtag, I found out that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I went on to review hashtags related to that effort including #mhm2013, #mhmwellness and #mentalhealthmatters.

May is Mental Health Month: Use our 31 Ways to Wellness #mhmwellness bit.ly/13Gic2h

— MentalHealthAmerica (@MentalHealthAm) May 9, 2013

Very timely return of Hyperbole and A Half, it being #mhm2013 MT @alliebrosh New Blog Post: Depression Part Two bit.ly/15NRlpU

— Rachel Donahue (@sheepeeh) May 9, 2013

Reentry supports & SOAR can help those exiting jails/prisons navigate their pathway to wellness pra.tw/kNpj8 #mhmwellness #mhm2013

— SOARWorks (@SOARWorks) May 8, 2013

Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S. nyti.ms/132PIRn @nytimes @taraparkerpope #mhmwellness

— Jaime M. Sanders (@migrainediva) May 7, 2013

Here’s the journal paper on using #acetaminophen (#Tylenol) to buffer #psychological pain bit.ly/10rUAQE #brain #neuroscience

— The Connectome (@theconnectome) May 8, 2013

It’s #CMHAMentalHealthWeek, and #CAMH is partnering with @tvo to launch #MentalHealthMatters. More info: ow.ly/kKbO0

— CAMH Foundation (@endstigma) May 6, 2013

Amazing pieces at today’s Walk-a-Mile in My Shoes @macmhb #WAMrally #mentalhealthmatters twitter.com/mpaetow/status…

— Michelle Paetow (@mpaetow) May 8, 2013

Thank you to all who came today to the Walk-a-Mile in my Shoes rally! We had one of our best turnouts yet #WAMrally twitter.com/MACMHB/status/…

— MACMHB (@MACMHB) May 8, 2013

Thursday was Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Sadly, there was not a standardized hashtag for it, so the information ended up being spread between a variety of conversations including #MentalHealth, #SpeakUpForKids, #HeroesofHope, #pediatrics, and #endstigma.

Today is National Children’s #MentalHealth Awareness Day. Visit our Child & Adolescent page for resources & research: bit.ly/d2cYDJ

— Mental Health NIMH (@NIMHgov) May 9, 2013

What Mental Health Supports are Available in #Schools? ow.ly/kKyZo via @nasponline #speakupforkids

— Child Mind Institute (@ChildMindDotOrg) May 6, 2013

Does it matter which parent your “brain genes” came from? stan.md/YFAuCF #genetics #neuroscience #pediatrics

— Stanford Medicine (@SUMedicine) May 8, 2013

@samhsagov @ameracadpeds offers new tips for high school grads as they transition to college or work. bit.ly/10v5OUA #HeroesofHope

— Amer Acad Pediatrics (@AmerAcadPeds) May 9, 2013

Kids resilient but need support, Cleveland case shows usat.ly/144rh5h via @usatoday #health #pediatrics

— Becca Westelman (@becwes) May 9, 2013

Pleased to co-host Mental Health First Aid training today w/ @repronbarber and @replynnjenkins 1.usa.gov/10j8lvt #EndStigma #mhm2013

— Rep.Grace Napolitano (@gracenapolitano) May 8, 2013