The Dash

The Dash : Movie (DVD) and Song (CD) Gift Set

Author: Ellis, Linda

Call Number: Simple Truths Bk29 2006 (MMC Library).

Click here to go to Simple Truths. Then click on The Dash book to read more about it and watch the inspiring video.

“When Linda Ellis wrote her poem, The Dash, in one afternoon ten years ago, it would change her life forever. In 239 words, she captured the "Simple Truths" of why we were put on this earth.
Since then, The Dash has been published hundreds of times in books, newspapers, magazines and company newsletters. It has also been read countless times at company meetings, graduations and funerals. In the last three years, Linda has received over one million e-mails thanking her for writing The Dash, and asking the question ... Where can I get a copy?” –Simple Truths

Nancy Schmidt, a long-time Affinity employee, had this to say about The Dash :
“What a GREAT inspirational book! If you haven't had a chance to read this book, please take the time and check it out from the Library at MMC. You won't be disappointed. I have read the book at least 10 times and am still inspired by it. Easy reading, easy to understand and you will wonder why you haven't thought more about what it says in regards to your life. You still have time to change.”

Contact the MMC Library to borrow this inspiring book!

Ext. 3-0342 OR mmclibrary@affinityhealth.org

Database of the Month: Micromedex Drug Information

For easy-to-find, evidence-based information to address both clinician and patient needs, take a look at Micromedex Drug Information.

Find evidence-based, unbiased, referenced information about drugs, toxicology, diseases, acute care, and alternative medicine

Create customized patient information forms, in English and Spanish, about drugs, medical conditions, lab tests and medical procedures

Quickly find drug information, such as drug identification and drug interactions.

Uncluttered, easy-to-locate information

Access Micromedex Drug Information here or from the Library page
under “Most Popular Links”.

For more information about this resource, please call Michele Matucheski at MMC (920-223-0340) or Margo Lambert at STE (920-738-2325).

NLM Drug Information Portal

The National Library of Medicine recently released the NLM Drug Information Portal at http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/ . This tool provides the public, healthcare professionals, and researchers with a gateway to current and accurate drug information from the National Library of Medicine and to other key government agencies.

The Drug Information Portal offers a varied selection of resources and focused topics in medicine and drug-related information, with links to individual resources with drug information and summaries tailored to various audiences. General drug categories from MeSH are also included in the Drug Portal records.
* More than 15,000 drugs are available for searching.
* The search interface requires only a drug name.
* A spellchecker is provided.
* Information buttons and balloon pop-ups guide the user by providing helpful hints or a description of the resource and links to the source website.
-- by The Liaison on NLM Announcements

You will find links to The NLM Drug Information Portal (and other helpful tools) on The Affinity Libraries website under

Find Drug Info for Health Professionals

Drug Info for Patients & Families

Innovations in Medical Education (IME) Video Library

from UW-Madison’s School of Medicine
http://videos.med.wisc.edu/

View cutting edge lectures from UW-Madison at your computer. Topics cover nursing, pharmacy, public health, family medicine, pediatrics and more.

The IME Video Library offers free, high-quality, streaming videos of educational events that have taken place at UW-Madison’s Health Sciences Learning Center.

Who can access the Video Library?
All presentations are open to the public through a simple (no cost) sign in.

Key users include :
* Physicians
* Nurses
* Health Professionals
* Health Consumers

What else can I expect to find?
* Biographies of presenters
* Research links selected by health science librarians
* Downloadable audio-only version of the presentations – MP3s
* Notification features such as email and RSS Feeds

What software do I need to view these presentations?
Videos are either in Windows Media or QuickTime format.

Both players are available as free downloads.

What types of presentations are in the Video Library?
* Expert lectures from the University of Wisconsin

* Invited guest lectures from around the world
* Seminar series including : Cultural Diversity in Healthcare, Population Health Sciences
* Department Grand Rounds including :
* Cardiovascular Medicine, Surgery, and Pediatrics
* Professional Development Seminars

Database of the Month: Evidence-Based Medicine Resources via the Affinity Library Website

If you are looking for Evidence Based Medicine resources to guide your practice, please check out the “Find the Best Evidence: Evidence-Based Practice Tools” on the Affinity Library Services website.

Use the “Best Evidence Pyramid Diagram” to see the range of available tools and their descriptions.

Link directly to Affinity’s Evidence Based Practice resources from the pyramid.

For more information about these resources, or for help with your research, please contact your Affinity Librarians,
Michele Matucheski at MMC or Margo Lambert at SEH.

Need Journal Articles?

If you need to identify relevant articles, try our citation databases. Most have links to the full-text articles.

Not comfortable doing your own searches? Request a Literature Search done by your Librarians, Margo or Michele. We are expert searchers! Just tell us what you are looking for.

If you have a complete citation in mind, check the Affinity Library Services’ A-Z Journals List to see if we have full-text access online or in print.

You can also Request an Article, and we’ll take care of the work in finding it for you. If we don’t own it, we have inter-library loan arrangements with libraries all over North America. We can usually get the article for free or low cost without a credit card.

Let us help you get the info you need!

Database of the Month – MDConsult

If you want a single place to find news, articles, guidelines, and patient information resources, look no further than MDConsult.

Review more than 50 electronic, full-text leading reference books
Access full-text articles in more than 80 journals and the Clinics of North America
Browse more than 1,000 peer-reviewed practice guidelines
Create customized patient education materials
Obtain CME credit
Locate drug information provided by Gold Standard
Keep current with news updates and selected articles from prominent medical journals
Create a personal MDConsult account from an Affinity Computer and access MDConsult from any computer with Internet access.

Access MDConsult here or from the Library page under “Most Popular Links”.

Literature Searching (aka, Research on Behalf of AHS Staff)

You may not realize that Affinity Librarians offer research services (literature searching) in the areas of health and wellness for all Affinity staff members and volunteers. If you need health information, or if you need information for patient care or other work-related projects, you can contact Michele Matucheski at MMC (920-223-0340) or Margo Lambert at STE (920-738-2325) and we can do the research for you. Simply let us know what you need and we’ll get the information to you as soon as possible.

If you wish, you can also complete this online form and we’ll do the rest.

Affinity CME Video Blog

Affinity Health System CME Offerings (aka The Affinity CME Video Blog) via your computer at http://affinitycme08.blogspot.com/

You can also find it by navigating to :
Affinity Intranet Home Page > Library > Affinity CME Video Blog
or
CME Page > Affinity CME Video Blog

What is it?
* A regularly updated website where you can access internet video presentations of continuing medical education (CME) lectures previously presented at Mercy Medical Center. We are now beginning to add other programs from around Affinity.
* Access is 24/7 - on your own schedule
* Access from your work or home computer
* Better use of time (not spent in travel to the presentation site)
* So more of you can "attend" these lectures without physically being there

ANYONE can watch the videos.
However, only medical staff will be eligible for CME credit.
Fill out the CME Evaluation form and submit it to Carole Carow at Mercy Medical Center to get CME credit.

For an intro about the CME Video blog itself, visit the sites below :
CME Video Blog FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
CME Video Blog and Library Orientation (Documentation and Handouts), July 11, 2007
CME Video Blog and Library Orientation Video
CME Video Blog System Requirements

Simple Truths at MMC Library

In effort to “Make Affinity a better place to work,” Affinity Library Services recently purchased a new series of books and DVDs from Simple Truths. Simple Truths shares quotes, stories, and short inspirational films about making a difference.

* Watch some of their inspiring (and short) movies here.
* Sign up for the Simple Truths free emailed newsletter.
* Contact the MMC Library to check out or reserve the books.

Looking for a quote or meditation to open a meeting? You’ll find it in these Simple Truths books!

Thanks to Dawn Auclair for suggesting this series.

Featured Database of the Month: MedlinePlus

Looking for quality health information from trustworthy sources?
Try MedlinePlus.



Information is geared to the public
Use MedlinePlus to find information about medical conditions, medical tests, and general health and wellness
Excellent for Patient Education materials
Created by the same people who compile Medline for health professionals, MedlinePlus provides health information written in everyday language
MedlinePlus is available free of charge
Search MedlinePlus from any computer with Internet access
Information comes from medical encyclopedias, dictionaries, medical organizations and other sources that have been screened and proven reliable by The National Library of Medicine
In addition to articles, watch videos of medical procedures and listen to online tutorials

Affinity Library Blogs

Did you know … The Affinity Libraries maintain two blogs with new messages posted regularly. A blog is like an online diary or journal with the latest entry listed first. We use it for announcements, news, and featured resources.

What’s New at Affinity Libraries?
Most of these posts are published in The Weekly Employee Newsletter. An easy way to find a past article, or post, is to use the “Search This Blog” Feature. All prior library posts are listed and available back to 2005 in the Blog Archive.

New Books at Affinity Libraries
We post three new books every week—usually consumer health-related for the widest appeal.

You can stay current with Affinity Library News by visiting our blogs and signing up for email notifications. By signing up, you will receive an email message with each new post.


You can also add them to your Google Reader. What’s this?

PDR Pros & Cons

One of my fellow Librarians in Florida created a helpful little PowerPoint Presentation to illustrate the pros and cons of the PDR, that heavy drug book people always ask for.

Physicians’ Desk Reference : Pros and Cons (ppt) * by Patti Reynolds, MLIS
(Affinity Access only)

Ms. Reynolds presents some surprising facts you probably didn’t know about the PDR, and why it is usually NOT the best available source for drug information. She also offers several alternatives for quality drug information.

For starters, try the following on the Affinity Libraries Intranet site (Affinity Access only) :

Find Drug Information for Health Professionals

Drug Information for Patients and Families


* Used by permission. Edited to reflect Affinity Drug Resources.

Featured Database of the Month: Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database

In April we are featuring the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database.

Affinity’s newest database offering, this resource was suggested by medical and nursing staff and provides high quality information for professional staff and patients.

• Objective and thorough enough for medical professionals yet presented in a way that is accessible to patients.


• Search for information on various natural medicines, including effectiveness, individual ingredients (sugh as Ginkgo Biloba extract), and drug interactions.


• The database provides information about how the various sections are created and describes the criteria used to rate each product's safety and effectiveness.


• Researchers update the database daily, so the information is current.


• For those who wish to see the studies cited in the articles, direct links to the study abstracts are provided.

Access the National Medicines Comprehensive Database via the Library webpage. It is listed alphabetically on the right under the “Most Popular Links” heading. Please be sure to logout when you are finished.

PubMed Citation Matcher

PubMed Citation Matcher -- a useful tool to fill in the blanks!

Find complete citations when you have only partial information.

Fill in the details you have, click GO and PubMed Citation Matcher will do the rest ... like Magic!

Using Google Phonebook to find Contact Info and Directory Listings

Finding People is one of the trickiest tasks on the internet.

Finding fellow Affinity staff is easy—Use the Phone Book on the Intranet, or Outlook. But sometimes we need to locate contact info for people not on staff. The AT&T White & Yellow Pages on the Intranet only covers The Fox Valley. What if the person or business lives beyond the Fox Valley?

The Internet offers many directories that allow you to search, but often require payment to see the results.

One free option is to use Google Phonebook. Google’s phone directory for business and residential listings is integrated into the Google Search Engine.

To use the Google Phonebook directly, type phonebook: before your search.
To find the Smiths in Oshkosh, type phonebook: smith Oshkosh

This will get you a list of all the Smiths in Oshkosh, complete with their phone numbers, street addresses and maps. Since Smith is such a common name, you’ll probably want to give Google a few more clues (first name or initials, zip code, state, phone number) to help zone in on just the Smith you’re looking for.

Google pulls this info from local phone directories and internet phonebook searches already publicly available. To have your residential phone and address information removed from the Google PhoneBook, click here.
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Still can’t find the person?
It may be that the person has a cell phone. Cell phone numbers are not listed in public phone directories.
The person may have an unlisted number.
Perhaps the person’s home phone is in someone else’s name?
Perhaps they live somewhere else?
Sometimes the numbers listed are outdated.

Reverse Lookup
To do a reverse look-up (when you want to know who belongs to what phone number), simply type the phone number into the main Google Search box. (You don’t have to specify phonebook for a reverse lookup.) Use the this format for best results : 555-555-555.

Remember, cell phone numbers are not considered public information.

If you still can’t locate contact info, Library Staff may be able to help.

Free Trial for NCMEtv

Through April 15, 2008, we will be doing a free trial of NCMEtv.

Many of you are already familiar with NCME. They produce the high quality CME video programs we show when a scheduled speaker is unable to attend. The Affinity Libraries have subscribed to NCME for many years. Soon, NCME will no longer be providing phycial DVD or videos in favor of their new online NCMEtv delivery program.


We need your help in determining if this would be a useful subscription for Affnity.


Benefits :

• Wider access available at your computer desktop 24/7
• Same cost as for monthly DVDs with much wider access
• Online submission of CME Tests
• Instant CME Certificates

Questions : Will it be used? Only YOU can help us answer this question ...

More Info (Affinity Access only):
NCMEtv Brochure

NCMEtv Registration Info Step-by-Step

Free Trials Evaluation Form We want to kow what you think!

You will also find links at the top of the Affinity Library web page.

Wildlife Siting at Mercy : Bald Eagle

This week, while eating lunch in the Mercy Cafeteria, I saw a majestic Bald Eagle swoop down over the frozen pond. The white head and tail were unmistakable. It was quite a sight to behold!

Several years ago, I created a list of animal sitings in and around the Mercy Pond in Oshkosh, WI. If you've seen animals not already on the list, please let me know, and I will add them.

ScienceDirect eJournals Available Online

325 new ejournals including old favorites like :

· American Heart Journal
· American Journal of Cardiology
· Annals of Emergency Medicine
· Heart & Lung
· Journal of Pain & Symptom Management
· Journal of Pediatrics

Visit the complete list here.

As of January 2008, Affinity Libraries are no longer receiving print copies of these journals. Instead, we now have reliable online access to these plus many more titles through ScienceDirect. As long as you are accessing these titles via an Affinity computer, you should be able to access full-text cleanly and effortlessly.

Access to our complete list of ScienceDirect titles is integrated into everyday Library tools and resources like :
OvidSP (Medline and CINAHL)
Google Scholar
A-Z Journals List
PubMed LinkOut

That means, if you are searching a database like Medline, the results come up with links to the full-text articles, when available.

Ask us about online Tables-of-Contents : a efficient way to keep up with new developments in your areas of interest.

Your Librarians,
Michele Matucheski, MLS, AHIP email via Outlook or 3-0340 (phone)
Margo Lambert, MLS email via Outlook or 8-2857 (phone)

Featured Databases of the Month: Ovid and Cinahl

When you hear librarians talk about searching Ovid, Medline and CINAHL are most likely the databases being used. Here is some general information about these resources:

The intended audience is health professionals
A search in CINAHL will lead to articles in Nursing and Allied Health Journals
A search in Medline will lead to articles in Clinical Medical journals
Since Affinity offers extensive online journal collections, many articles found using CINAHL Medline are available directly through Ovid, saving valuable time
Use CINAHL and MEDLINE to locate research on medical conditions and treatments