Library Grand Rounds - September 2, 2008
DHMC, Auditorium E
Bill Garrity & Tom Mead

Resources demonstrated or mentioned…

• Amazon's Kindle is a digital book device.  It uses the cellular network to download books, magazines, newspapers, and other content.  The cost of network access is built into the cost of the content (no awkward synching to your computer and no separate cellular contract).  Content can be searched and annotated; the device's 260 MB of installed memory holds 150 books.  Future models (late Fall 2008) will be compelling alternatives to paper textbooks and reference books.
  
  
• Photosynth is a semi-beta product of Microsoft's Live Labs.  It knits together multiple flat digital photos to create immersive, 3D, manipulatable panoramas.
  
  
• "Bit Literacy" is the notion exemplified by Mark Hurst that folks who are overloaded in today's digital environment — too much email, too many media outlets, too many photos and other media — can take control of their lives and increase their productivity.
  
  
• VoiceThread's are collaborative, multimedia "slide shows" for photos and other images, videos, and documents. Creators can narrate and caption threads; viewers can leave audio and written comments.
  
  
• Stay current!  Eureka! Science News is an example of a web aggregator for science news, akin to Google News, but with a focus on and better coverage of all the sciences--Astronomy, Biology, Climate, Health, Math, Paleontology, Physics, Psychology. Also, see Bill Garrity's blog!
  
  
• Medpedia is a "medical Wikipedia."  It is in development, from Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other health organizations. There's nothing there yet, but it's something to track.
  
  
• "Social Web-Searching" is the concept of improving one's web-search experience by incorporating elements of the social web.  Examples include Delver and Scour.
  
  
• HealthMap is a web mashup that brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health.
  
  
• Jott allows you to use your cellphone to make email messages (to yourself or others). It will not be free, after September 8, so of course there are competitors: e.g.,  reQall and Dial2Do
  
  
• Jing captures images and video from your computer, so that you can then share that with others.
  
  
• EndNote is one of several bibliographic database programs. EndNote’s new feature (with version 12, known as “X2”) involves fetching the PDFs (full-text) of articles you select. Other programs with similar features are EndNote-Web, RefWorks, and Zotero (a Firefox extension).  “Social” sites for bibliographic references exist, e.g., Connotea and CiteULike.
  
  
• The iPod Touch, from Apple, Inc., is a portable media player and Wi-Fi mobile platform. Basic applications include the browser Safari, the email client Mail, a YouTube interface, Music, Videos, Photos. New applications arrive daily and are accessed via the iTunes Music Store.  Medical applications include: Epocrates,
  Mediquations, Netter’s Anatomy Flashcards.
  
  
• LibX Toolbar for Firefox provides easy searching of the Dartmouth College Library Catalog, the Howe Library Catalog, Worldcat, Search360, Google Books, Amazon Books, and Google Scholar.
  
  
• Evernote allows you to capture information (from your web-searching, your camera, your document, your desktop, your laptop, your email, your cellphone, your PDA, etc.) — and it makes this information accessible and searchable.