New Home for Optometry Library

In preparation for the new health sciences library to be open in 2017, the print collection of books and bound journals located at the Weston A. Pettey Optometry Library will be moved to the MD Anderson Library. The collection will be fully searchable in the catalog, and users are encouraged to locate books using the online catalog search and request feature. There will be a daily courier service between libraries when these materials are needed. Items can be sent to any branch library or delivered directly to departmental mailboxes for faculty of academic departments with no branch library. Alternately, users may access the collection in the basement of the MD Anderson Library. For more information, contact the Optometry Library at 713.743.1910.

At the end of the Fall 2016 semester, the staff and services of the Optometry Library will move to the Doctors of Texas State Optical Alumni Education Center, Room 186 Auditorium, on the first floor of the University of Houston College of Optometry (located in the recently constructed Health and Biomedical Sciences Building 1). While the Optometry Library is in its temporary location, it will continue to provide full library services to the faculty, staff, and students of the UH College of Optometry. The space will include reserve materials, a computer lab, study spaces, models, and microscopes.

The new health sciences library will be located on the second floor of the forthcoming Health and Biomedical Sciences Building 2. In addition to optometry, the library will serve other programs including pharmacy, graduate nursing, and new health professions programs such as physical therapy. Features of the new library include four study rooms with large, flat screen monitors that can be connected to laptops, a conference room, a classroom, and both group and quiet study spaces. Resources such as computers, microscopes, white boards, and anatomical models will be available. While the library will house course reserves, only a small print collection will be located there.

Libraries, Engineering Collaborate on New Makerspace

The department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the MD Anderson Library at the University of Houston are partnering to develop an exciting new makerspace. The goals of this collaboration are to advance student success, foster entrepreneurial spirit, and rekindle the culture of learning through tinkering and invention.

The makerspace, to be centrally located on the first floor of the MD Anderson Library within the Learning Commons, will offer a highly accessible and specially equipped area for building objects and devices combined with a social culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration. All students on the UH campus, regardless of their college or department, are encouraged to explore the space and all that it offers.

Low-power electronics, embedded computing, signal processing, sensors and low-power actuators, and the emerging field called the Internet of Things will be the focus of the MD Anderson Library makerspace. While electronic devices and computers pervade our world, the science and engineering behind them tend to hide in plain sight of their users; particularly K-12 students, their parents, and national policy makers. Electronics and computers have been miniaturized down to the nanoscale, commoditized, deeply embedded, and hidden within a wide range of consumer products. Smartphones pack an unprecedented suite of sensing, imaging, computing, and communication capabilities that were unthinkable not long ago. Yet, the younger generation is at risk of growing up oblivious to the sciences of the digital world even as they remain the most ardent users. Electronics and computing form the valuable science behind our modern world and must be made visible to the next generation of inventors.

Kits consisting of electronic and small mechanical parts, cables, books, and electronic learning materials to help students build meaningful projects will be available through the makerspace. Students will be able to experiment with these kits in the library makerspace or check them out for use elsewhere. The library will also provide a set of basic electronics test and measurement tools, for example, oscilloscopes, digital multi-testers, function generators, logic analyzers, and controlled power supplies, along with instruction manuals.

The new makerspace will open in the MD Anderson Library Learning Commons in the Fall 2016 semester.

ORCID: Helping Make Connections

ORCID IDs provide a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes one researcher from another. More precisely, an ORCID identifier reliably and unambiguously links scholars with their complete, correct, and current scholarly output. It is also very useful when integrated into key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission since it supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, thus ensuring that a researcher’s work is recognized. By integrating ORCID identifiers across the research workflow, the scholarly community will be better able to distinguish and track the unique contributions of individuals as authors, researchers, grantees, faculty, and inventors.

During 2016, a number of scholarly publishers have indicated that they will begin requiring ORCID IDs for corresponding authors at minimum. Publishers requiring ORCIDs include the Royal Society, IEEE, and the Science journals, to name a few. Further, a number of funding agencies have been requiring ORCID IDs since 2015 and include Autism Speaks, the Wellcome Trust, and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The potential exists for other publishers and funding agencies to follow suit and require researchers to have ORCID IDs. Additionally, over the last several years a number of grant and manuscript submission systems have adopted ORCID, providing researchers the opportunity to identify themselves with their ORCID ID.

It’s simple and fast to create one, and ORCID also connects to a variety of systems in the research workflow bringing the benefits of interoperability (i.e., savings of time and effort) to authors and researchers. So far, over two million researchers have registered for ORCIDs.

If you would like more information or assistance in creating an ORCID account, please contact Adam Townes, research support coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries, or your subject librarian.

UH Librarians Promote Data Literacy in the Health Sciences

Healthcare workers increasingly depend on data for decision-making, but students frequently graduate with limited data literacy skills in health science professions. Porcia Vaughn, biochemistry, biology, and nursing librarian, and Josh Been, social science data librarian, have joined forces to address this need. Working with the UH School of Nursing and the health education program within the UH College of Education, they developed curriculum and data tools to help health students acquire real world analytical skills.

Socio-economic data can be used to identify and target areas for health intervention. Using these types of data, nursing students developed an education program focused on exposure to lead risk in Fort Bend County, while health education students were able to identify medically underserved areas and food desert regions in Harris County. Additionally, health education students used data visualization tools to explore the effect of peer relationships on alcohol consumption habits.

Been and Vaughn provided in-class activities that allowed students to critically think through real world health issues. These activities led students to create implementation plans for community health education initiatives in the community. These are just two examples of how librarians can enrich the teaching curriculum by providing hands-on experience with data analysis skills that directly influence real world outcomes.