McGoogan News

Dogs, snacks, and extended hours for exam week

Posted by Heather Brown | November 29, 2018

To help students relax while finishing out the semester, the McGoogan Library of Medicine will host relaxation breaks during the weeks of December 3 and 10. All are welcome.

Events include:

Pet therapy: Volunteers from Paws for Friendship, a local pet therapy organization, will bring dogs to the library to help students and others de-stress, on the sixth floor of Wittson Hall on Tuesday, December 4, from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Healthy snack break: Grab a healthy snack in the Linder Lounge located on the sixth floor of the library. Snacks will be available (while supplies last) starting at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 6.

Relax with animals: Enjoy calming views of puppies, kittens and other animals livestreaming on a monitor in the library’s sixth floor lobby area.

Wellness Corner and the Reflection Room: For additional relaxation, don’t forget to spend time in the library’s Reflection Room located on the eighth floor, or the Wellness Corner, located on the northwest side of the sixth floor. Massage chairs are located in both areas.

Extended Hours: The library will have extended hours during final exam week:

  • Sunday, December 9: 1:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
  • Monday, December 10 through Thursday, December 13: 7:30 a.m.-12:00 midnight

Winter break hours will begin December 14. For a full listing of the library’s hours, please see the library website.

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Exhibit on display: From DNA to Beer

Posted by Heather Brown | November 11, 2018

The McGoogan Library of Medicine will be hosting From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, on the 6th floor of Wittson Hall from November 12th to December 14th.  The traveling exhibit, created by the National Library of Medicine in cooperation with the National Museum of American History, explores some of the processes, problems, and potentials inherent in technologies that use living organisms.

Microbes—tiny organisms too small to be seen with the naked eye—have altered human history. Life forms such as bacteria, yeasts, and molds can cause sickness or restore health, and help produce foods and beverages for our consumption.  Scientists, in partnership with industry, have developed techniques to harness the powers of these microbes. In recent years, headline-grabbing technologies have used genetically modified bacteria to manufacture new medicines. Drawing from the collections of the National Museum of American History and the National Library of Medicine, From DNA to Beer will help to promote public understanding of the dynamic relationship between microbes, technology, and science and medicine.

The six-banner traveling exhibition presents these case studies of major scientific and medical accomplishments in the fields of biotechnology while showcasing the union with industry in how to best market and produce such discoveries to the public at large.

After viewing the exhibit, visitors are encouraged to enter a drawing to win an Amazon gift card.

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How to Find OERs for Health Sciences Curriculum

Posted by Christian Minter | October 26, 2018

Open Educational Resources Logo

Are you a faculty member looking for creative ways to customize your course materials? Or maybe you’re a student looking for additional resources to help you understand a new concept. Then open educational resources (OERs) may be for you!

The United Nations defines OERs as “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium … that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.” These materials can include books, documents, multimedia, or online modules and courses that are provided for free to reuse as part of learning activities. Many OERs are intended to be available to the public, however, some may be limited to access within a specific institution.  The benefits of using OERs include lower costs for learners and the open sharing of knowledge. It also provides the opportunity for faculty to create or adapt materials to the specific needs of a course.

You may not be ready to create a brand new OER yet, however, there are many resources already available for you to use. This list will highlight just a few OER repositories to help you get started.

UNMC E-Learning Gallery 

The UNMC E-Learning Program provides resources to support faculty and students in creating innovative e-modules. Many of the modules are also available for reuse in the E-Gallery. The gallery includes twelve categories of information. Faculty can fill out a brief form to request permission to link to a module in their course.

MERLOT: Health Sciences 

MERLOT is online repository that includes over 4,000 open educational resources for all areas of health sciences. It includes simulations, animations, reference materials, games and more. Created and maintained by the California State University System.

Open Michigan 

Open Michigan includes open educational resources for multiple areas of health sciences including dentistry, medicine, nursing, public health, and pharmacy. The University of Michigan provides access to course materials, videos, lectures, and more.

MIT Open Courseware 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology provides a website of undergraduate and graduate open courses. The site is searchable by type of collection or material, topic, department, and instructional approach. Resources include images, simulations, lecture notes, textbooks, and more.

NCBI Bookshelf

The National Library of Medicine provides free access to books, reports, and other documents in life science and healthcare.

Looking for more resources? Send an email to askus@unmc.edu or contact your Liaison Librarian.

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Get More Visibility for Your Conference Posters

Posted by Heather Brown | October 24, 2018

You’ve presented a poster at a conference. It may or may not be on the conference website and may or may not be freely available. Since the conference, people around the world have found your abstract and would like to view the poster, but unfortunately it may not be available.  

Now is your chance to increase the visibility of your work and share it worldwide. The library can host your poster in UNMC’s institutional repository, DigitalCommons@UNMC. The repository is indexed in Google and Google Scholar, making your work easy to find. Additionally, you will receive monthly usage reports and can obtain more in-depth metrics in the Author Dashboard. 

“DigitalCommons provides an excellent opportunity to gain more exposure for our academic work. The research in the field of Medical Imaging & Therapeutic Sciences is somewhat limited. With the help of DigitalCommons, we can reach a wider audience and share what we are doing here at UNMC with not only our colleagues, but students (both current & potential), university partners & funding agencies. We would encourage all faculty to consider adding their work to the DigitalCommons” – Tanya Custer MS, R.T.(R)(T), Assistant Professor, Distance Education Coordinator Medical Imaging & Therapeutic Sciences. 

Some questions we’ve received about placing conference posters in DigitalCommons:

What if I plan on writing an article based on the poster? Posters are generally not perceived as prior publication, though embargoes are available within our system. 

Does the conference have copyright over my poster? Most conferences do not require a copyright transfer. The poster remains under your copyright. However, some conferences may hold the right of first publication and thus the poster cannot be deposited in the repository. The library can help you investigate these issues. 

How can this be a part of my workflow?
Once you’ve completed your poster and are ready to have it printed or to upload on to your conference’s harvester, submit to DigitalCommons through this form. We will post it after the conference date unless you specify otherwise.  

To learn more about submitting your poster, please email us at digitalcommons@unmc.edu.

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