Free, FAIR, and Fabulous: Five Data Tools to Support Open and Reproducible Research at Your Institution Sean Corning
Background: With more publishers and funders requiring data management and sharing plans, it is important for librarians, researchers and support staff to be aware of the tools available to help them skillfully manage research data. There are a wide variety of tools available, both free and paid, that can work with data but selecting an affordable, accessible tool can be a barrier to use.
Description: This lightning talk seeks to promote awareness of freely available tools for data management, wrangling, and sharing for use in daily work and research projects. The poster will review five data tools: DMPTool, NIH Common Data Elements Repository, NLM Scrubber, OpenRefine, and Open Science Framework and discuss features, usability, and training resources for each. Each tool will have a product guide handout that librarians and instructors can use to create instructional programming at their institution. These tools can facilitate open and FAIR data practices across the research data lifecycle.
Conclusion: Researchers will benefit from increased awareness and access to freely available data tools and the lack of a paywall enables anyone to use these tools regardless of budgetary support or restrictions. As more publishers and funders move to open data frameworks, librarians and the populations they serve, including researchers and support staff, will be more prepared to adhere to data sharing standards and mandates.
Our Positive Approach to Library Planning: Engaging in Appreciative Inquiry at Husson University Shelly Davis
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) takes a significantly different approach to organizational issues, challenges, and concerns by focusing first on what is working particularly well in the organization instead of focusing on problems (as in the deficit thinking approach.) Effort is invested in imagining what it would be like if the “best of what is” occurred more frequently and what resources would be required for this to happen. Based on this, changes are implemented to bring about the desired future. To help Sawyer Library envision its future, an AI endeavor was planned and implemented in the Spring of 2022. Our process and results will be shared in the hopes of inspiring our colleagues to consider using AI for developing and implementing strategies for improvement in their libraries.
From Academia to Front Line: Fostering a Partnership with a Community Health Worker Organization Christina Heinrich
Background: CHW Central—an online community of practice and resource database for and about community health workers (CHWs)—was awarded an Information Outreach Grant from NNLM Region 7 to compile resources and evidence about CHWs. Region 7 recognized a need for a health sciences librarian on the project and contacted the Hirsh Health Sciences Library at Tufts University to identify a librarian to join the team. Similarities in skill sets and goals of public health and information professionals make a strong case for mutually beneficial collaboration1. Yet opportunities for unaffiliated public and community health organizations to partner with academic health sciences librarians remain rare, though not unprecedented2. In this case report, sharing experiential outcomes from the partnership between CHW Central and Hirsh Library serves to inform other academic health sciences librarians seeking collaboration with unaffiliated health organizations; it also provides an example for grant-awarding institutions taking a role in connecting grant-awardees with collaborators.
Case Presentation: As a research and instruction librarian at the Hirsh Health Sciences Library at Tufts University, I very rarely engage with users unaffiliated with academic institutions. For that reason, the partnership required development on my part. On the other side of that coin, library users often have a limited estimation of librarians’ skills compared to how librarians perceive themselves3, which may be especially true for researchers unaccustomed to including librarians on their teams. Intentionally bridging gaps in expectations between me and my collaborators in terms of goals, needs, time demands, and skills required time and attention. However, the services I provided were within my typical scope of experience and knowledge. I worked with the team to develop a search strategy for the CHW State of the Evidence Report 2021 and advised about evidence sources, methods, and citation management. I wrote a manual on searching for and adding literature to the CHW Central resource database in the future, including guidance about copyright concerns. The State of the Evidence Report was completed, and the grant period concluded in 2022.
Conclusion: In feedback from CHW Central, the project leader was emphatic that the inclusion of a librarian on the project raised the standard of literature searching and screening for its resource database and improved the quality of the State of the Evidence Report. While it was the aspect of the project that was the biggest stretch of my skill and experience, CHW Central identified the time I took to understand the goals and needs of the organization as a contributing factor to the success of my participation. Librarians should seek opportunities to collaborate with health professionals to reduce health disparities, broaden our influence, and improve the rigor of evidence syntheses conducted outside the halls of academia. The involvement of grant-awarding institutions in matching librarians with health professionals provides a natural framework to foster collaboration.
References 1. Banks MA, Cogdill KW, Selden CR, Cahn MA. Complementary competencies: public health and health sciences librarianship. J Med Libr Assoc. 2005;93(3):338-347. 2. Bloss JE, LePrevost CE, Cofie LE, Lee JGL. Creating information resources and trainings for farmworker-serving community health workers. J Med Libr Assoc JMLA. 2022;110(1):113-118. doi:10.5195/jmla.2022.1272 3. Fagan JC, Ostermiller H, Price E, Sapp L. Librarian, Faculty, and Student Perceptions of Academic Librarians: Study Introduction and Literature Review. New Rev Acad Librariansh. 2021;27(1):38-75. doi:10.1080/13614533.2019.1691026
Plotting a Revised Course: Refreshing Library Instruction Sessions Ellen Lutz
Informed by some recent ALA publications about library instruction, during this Fall 2022 semester, I modified my (primarily one-shot) library instruction sessions. My goal was to allow students more opportunities to provide input and share their thoughts. In this talk, I will share how it went and what I learned.
Create a New Library Website in Just One Month! Mike Mannheim
Following the shift to online learning in 2020, it became apparent to librarians at Western New England University’s D’Amour Library that their current website could not meet user needs. The library sought out a new website, but because of various delays only began work one month before the start of the Fall 2022 semester. Using LibGuides CMS, the librarians were able to utilize the built-in Boostrap framekwork, a focus on simplification, and various time-saving techniques to create a new website from scratch. The presenter will describe the process undertaken and how the library managed to save time and maintain a focus on resource access, promoting library services and spaces, and maintaining brand identity.
Using Story Time to Teach Children and Adults About Mental Health and Wellness Anne Romano
In these unprecedented times, the pandemic is impacting the mental health of children. Librarians have the opportunity to participate in the Gizmo’s Pawesome Guide to Mental Health read-alongs in schools and public libraries to introduce mental health in a non-threatening way. Librarians also have opportunities to introduce the book to clinicians as a psychoeducational tool. This talk will discuss an outreach project in 2021 that I participated in for a local summer day camp in which 70 students from grades K-3 were read the Gizmo book. In 2022 I was asked to participate in a read-along that took place as part of Connecticut’s Prevention Month. The teaching method can include reading the physical book or viewing an interactive PowerPoint presentation. There are additional activities in the book and on the website for children and adults. Gizmo, a 3.5 pound Miki dog and the subject of the book, is a therapy dog who travels to various events. There is an accompanying school curriculum that was piloted in various states. Librarians can partner with those who spread the message that mental health is just as important as physical health, and if we can start teaching about mental health in elementary schools it is possible to “turn the tide” when it comes to stigma.
Outreach Methods: Knowledge Bursts Susan Warthman
Overview of outreach teaching and learning method: “Knowledge Bursts” at Brigham and Women's Hospital | Brigham Education Institute.