Krames On-Demand is now available to the medical center as a one-stop resource for patient-friendly education materials in multiple languages. Topics are designed with health literacy in mind and intended to be easy-to-read.

All topics are available in both English and Spanish. Many are available in additional languages including Armenian, Chinese, Farsi, [...]]]>

Krames On-Demand is now available to the medical center as a one-stop resource for patient-friendly education materials in multiple languages. Topics are designed with health literacy in mind and intended to be easy-to-read.

All topics are available in both English and Spanish. Many are available in additional languages including Armenian, Chinese, Farsi, Hmong, Korean, Portugese, Russian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.  Ten common health topics available in all of these languages are provided in the “Ten Sheets in Multiple Languages” section, covering asthma, birth control, high blood pressure, cholesterol, prenatal care, type 2 diabetes, and other topics.

HealthSheets (health information pages) and medication information sheets (via Gold Standard) can be customized with the patient’s name and additional notes or instructions, and printed with these additions (large print available).

Users can browse by topic area, or search for specific health topics and drugs. Along with specialty/clinical areas, folders of HealthSheets are available for discharge instructions, health promotion, and staff education. Sets of information sheets specifically related to Core Measures and National Patient Safety Goals are also provided.

Vanderbilt users at the Children’s Hospital will see a special pediatric subset of the Krames resource. The complete resource is available through the Digital Library as well as StarPanel. Videos provided by Krames are available at http://www.wired.md/streamed/portal.php?code=VU.

To learn more about using Krames, visit these online support resources.

Install Leechblock (Firefox) or StayFocusd (Chrome) Add StayFocusd to Chrome or Leechblock to Firefox on your computer to create sets of websites [...]]]> As the spring semester wraps up, it’s easy to lose time to common online distractions while trying to study for final exams and prepare other final projects. A few suggestions for keeping focused:

Install Leechblock (Firefox) or StayFocusd (Chrome)
Add StayFocusd to Chrome or Leechblock to Firefox on your computer to create sets of websites you want to block your own access to for a set period of time. This will prevent you from checking a site “just for a second,” when that would usually turn into a time drain. You can also use these tools to keep track of how much time you spend on the listed sites.

Use the Pomodoro technique
Set a timer to do work in 25 minute chunks. When you’re tempted to quickly check your phone, Facebook, tumblr, or other distraction, look at your timer, and commit to waiting until the 25 minutes is up for a break. You may even find that you end up doing more than 25 minutes of work, but should make sure to take breaks as well. You can use any clock, or an online timer that counts down for you.

Turn off your internet access
If you don’t need internet access to complete your work, turn it off, on both your laptops and other devices. This prevents you from seeing distracting notifications from your email or other applications, and stops you from getting distracted by social media and other frequently updating items.

Turn off notifications
If you can’t work without your internet access, turn off notifications. On your desktop or laptop, you might disable notifications about new emails. On your smartphone, turn off as many notifications as possible so you’re not seeing new items for various applications.

Listen to music…or turn your music off!
Some students find that music helps them concentrate, while others find it a distraction. Figure out what works best for you. Some of our staff members find they focus better if they choose music they’re extremely familiar with already (to avoid the distraction of getting interested in new music) and avoid streaming services like Pandora (which offers the temptation of constantly tweaking a station).

A few other tools are mentioned in this post from LifeHacker, How to Deal with Distractions in a Web Worker’s World.

Have tips you want to share? Tweet us @VUMClibrary or share on our Facebook wall.

Features of ClinicalKey include:

To avoid printing, save files to a USB flash drive. Drives are available to borrow for 24 hours [...]]]> As of Tuesday, March 19th, the second phase of Eskind’s printing updates has been implemented, including the following new features:

• Color printing option ($0.25/side)
• Secure release of print jobs
• Option to print from EBL and personal laptops

To avoid printing, save files to a USB flash drive. Drives are available to borrow for 24 hours or can be for purchased at the circulation desk (4GB, $7.00).

Tips for printing:

• The default is to print double-sided black and white ($0.05/side). To print single-sided, you’ll have to manually change the settings in the printing properties (not on print preview), before sending to the printer (Select printer->Preferences->Document Styles: select the radio button for 1-sided).
• We are unable to provide refunds, so if your print job fails to print, see a staff member immediately (during Full Services hours). We can reprint a failed job for the next one hour only.
• Print at your own risk during Limited Services hours – guards will not be able to troubleshoot or reprint the print job.
• Hang on to guest printing cards like cash – it is not possible to replace/refund a lost or damaged card.
• The minimum amount you can add to a Commodore Card/ID badge is $10. Guest printing cards cost $5.
• School of Nursing students: Money given to each nursing student for printing can only be used in the Nursing Computer Lab. It will not show up as usable funds here.

For more information:

• About the Library – Printing – Details on choosing a printer, paying for your print job, securely releasing jobs, and printing from your laptop.
• About the Library – Payment Methods – Information for Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff with Commodore Cards, library guests, and departments.
• First Phase of Printing Payment System Implemented – Previous news post announcing initial changes to the payment printing system.
• Charging Printing Costs to Departmental Accounts – Details on setting up a shared group card for a department.

Patrons using the public desktop computers will be asked to enter payment information prior to printing. Payment can be made using funds on a Commodore Card/ID badge or via a Guest Printing Card (learn more about printing [...]]]> As of Tuesday, March 5th, EBL has implemented the first phase of the new printing payment system.

Patrons using the public desktop computers will be asked to enter payment information prior to printing. Payment can be made using funds on a Commodore Card/ID badge or via a Guest Printing Card (learn more about printing and payment methods).

To avoid printing, save files to a USB flash drive. Drives are available to borrow for 24 hours or can be for purchased at the circulation desk (4GB, $7.00).

Additional changes coming soon will include updated equipment, color printing, secure release of print jobs, and the ability to print from EBL and personal laptops.

Entry screen for payment information. Enter your VUnet ID and password to use funds from your Commodore Card/ID badge, or your “zzz….” username (no password) to use a Guest Printing Card:

This change will help us be more environmentally friendly by reducing paper waste – last year EBL users printed more than 2.1 million pages, almost as much as all other Vanderbilt libraries [...]]]> This March, the Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL) will join the rest of the Vanderbilt libraries in implementing a payment system for printing.

This change will help us be more environmentally friendly by reducing paper waste – last year EBL users printed more than 2.1 million pages, almost as much as all other Vanderbilt libraries combined.

You’ll see two major changes in the library:

1. We will make it easier to convert material to PDF mode, and download to a flash drive to save or send.
2. We will replace our current printing honor payment arrangement with the pay-for-print system currently in place at other Vanderbilt libraries and computer labs. The charge will be $0.05/page and payment will require a Commodore Card account, or credit card or 1180 to purchase a guest or department printing card.

We appreciate your support of this effort to be a greener library, and have received very positive responses from leadership of the Schools of Medicine and Nursing. The EBL will work to make the changeover as smooth as possible for our patients, faculty, and students.

We expect this change to take place the week of March 4th. Details on how Vanderbilt students and guests will pay for printing and instructions on how to use the new system will be provided on our website as we make the change, and we’ll post additional news and details here and on our Facebook and Twitter accounts as that happens.

Never fear! The Eskind Biomedical Library staff is ready to teach you the most efficient and simple way of being compliant using PubMed‘s My Bibliography feature. This powerful tool provides NIH compliance current status on your publications. If [...]]]> Confused about the NIH Open Access mandate? Worried that some of your published articles are non-compliant?

Never fear! The Eskind Biomedical Library staff is ready to teach you the most efficient and simple way of being compliant using PubMed‘s My Bibliography feature. This powerful tool provides NIH compliance current status on your publications. If some of your articles are non-compliant you will learn the steps you will need to take to achieve compliance.

Make a request via https://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/diglib/services/request.html?type=training for individual or group training. You can request to learn more about compliance issues and compliant journals in general, or to get help submitting your specific manuscript for compliance.

These courses are entirely online, and allow students to explore a wide variety of topics, especially they might [...]]]> Vanderbilt has entered the world of the MOOC (massive open online course), offering a selection of free online courses available to all through Coursera. Several courses start this spring, including at least one relevant to healthcare.

These courses are entirely online, and allow students to explore a wide variety of topics, especially they might not have access to locally or because of time restrictions. Keep in mind that traditional college credits are typically not offered.

Upcoming Vanderbilt offerings include:

You can go ahead and sign up now for any of these Vanderbilt-led courses. Coursera also has classes from many other institutions on lots of different topics, including biology, medicine, information technology, and others.

Other popular MOOC sites include edX (content from MIT, Harvard, and others) and Udacity (lots of tech-oriented courses), although Vanderbilt has not partnered with those providers.

The Knowledge Management Team at the Eskind Biomedical Library is pleased to announce the availability of highly-customized patient education material for a varied set of diseases and health conditions. Developed as part of a multi-phase, two-year research grant funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-06-10-0186-10), the content integrates both health [...]]]>

The Knowledge Management Team at the Eskind Biomedical Library is pleased to announce the availability of highly-customized patient education material for a varied set of diseases and health conditions.  Developed as part of a multi-phase, two-year research grant funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-06-10-0186-10), the content integrates both health literacy levels and learning style preferences to maximize the usefulness of the information for patient healthcare encounters.

Customized content is available for:

• Alcoholism –  http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/alcoholism
• Cataracts – http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/cataracts
• Diabetes – http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/diabetes
• High Blood Pressure - http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/hbpressure
• Kidney Stones – http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/kidneystones
• Obesity – http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/obesity
• Pressure Sores – http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/pressuresores
• Retinopathy – http://tiny.mc.vanderbilt.edu/retinopathy

To learn about the early research findings, you can read our recent publication in the October 2012 issue of the Journal of Health Communication’s special issue on health literacy.  Additionally, consult the EBL Research website for more details.

If you have questions or would like print versions of this material, please contact the Knowledge Management team.