January 30, 2007
Need Pics for Powerpoint? Check out Flickr -- History, Art, Pathology, Implants, and Much More
There are a lot of sources for images that you could use in your teaching, presentations, and research. You have probably already tried Google Images, which is one of the very finest image search engines. So, if Google Images is so cool, why do I want to talk about Flickr?
In Google Images, you do a search just like for web pages, by typing in keywords that describe what you want. Google finds images that have that word near the image. Sometimes the image is right on target, sometimes it is really strange. In Google Image searches there is also the question of licensing, how to find out who owns the image, is it copyrighted, and can you get permission to use it. Answering those questions can take a lot of work.
In Flickr, you can search, just like in Google, but that isn't the best feature. What makes Flickr so powerful are three main factors.
First, currency. People tend to be loading new images every day of events right around them. This has made Flickr a popular source of images for low end or local news media.
Second, groups. People with similar interests will add their images to a shared collection. Find the collection or group that matches, and you have a much better chance of finding an image that meets your need. This also puts you in touch with people who are creating the type of images you want and find useful, and you can follow that person's new work, if you wish. Flickr will even let you search for pictures just in a group.
For example, the Dentistry Library and Sindecuse Museum are both adding images to a Flickr group for images on the history and art of dentistry. You can go to that group and search for "GV Black" or "Jonathan Taft" or Michigan or bitemark or ... well, you get the idea. If you search in "dentalhistory" for "Michigan", what you find will be more connected with dentistry in Michigan than if you searched "Michigan" in either all of Flickr or Google.
Flickr: History & Art of Dentistry: http://www.flickr.com/groups/dentalhistory/
Third, licensing. In Flickr, the authors are allowed to define the level of access and licensing they wish attached to their images. As soon as you find an image, you can check to see what is expected and what you can or cannot do with the image. Now, this has its good parts and less good parts. Some people choose to block their images from showing to anyone who does not have a Flickr account. Just remember, that if you want to see everything, you might want to consider joining Flickr -- it's free! If you have a Flickr account, you can send messages to someone to ask permission to use one of their images, even if you don't know their e-mail address, so that is another advantage.
Here are some other dental-themed Flickr groups.
Dental Photography: http://flickr.com/groups/12745983@N00/
Street Dentistry: http://flickr.com/groups/streetdentistry/
Dentistry: http://flickr.com/groups/88473280@N00/
The Dentistry Library is planning to have a class on Flickr in the Bootcamp series, so please stay tuned!
Posted by pfa at 03:02 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
Introducing our Omics Blog Series
This time of year, new graduate students are flooding into the School and faculty are intensely working on their research projects while the teaching course load is somewhat lighter than during September through May.
While there are a variety of research areas and interests, the University of Michigan and the School of Dentistry have a committed interest in the research areas that have come to be known popularly as "Omics" (genomics, proteomics, nanotechnology, and related bioinformatics concepts).
In the interests of providing useful information for those working in these areas and those who would like to know more about what their colleagues might be doing, the Dentistry Library today begins a roughly two week series of blog entries on OMICS.
The entire collection of entries will be collected at this location, with more added periodically in the future:
http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/dentlib/archives/resources/research/omics/index.html
Posted by pfa at 01:40 PM | Comments (1)
May 17, 2006
More about Deep Blue
Remember a couple months ago when this blog posted some of the dental faculty publications included in Deep Blue? Well, now you can join those august ranks of faculty whose work will always be remembered. Why will it be remembered? Because more and more faculty are exploring options to archive publications, data, and research images for posterity with the University Library's service Deep Blue. Read on, for a recent press release on this topic.
Deep Blue -- Your work: cited more, safe forever.
The University of Michigan has more than 150 years of experience and expertise in presenting and preserving the world's best research and creativity. With Deep Blue, the UM Institutional Repository, we now have a place specifically for our faculty work. Faculty create it, deposit it online, and decide who should have access. We take care of the rest, for free.
Use it to connect with other scholars: In a cross-disciplinary study, when compared to articles that require paid access, those in systems like Deep Blue "...have consistently more citations, the advantage varying from 25%-250%."[1]
Ask your librarian or send a message to deepblue@umich.edu to get started. For more information about Deep Blue, see http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/about/
1. Based on a study of 1,307,038 articles published from 1992-2003 in biology, psychology, sociology, health, political science, economics, education, law, business, and management. (Hajjem, Harnad, and Gingras, "Ten-Year Cross-Disciplinary Comparison of the Growth of Open Access and How It Increases Research Citation Impact." IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, Vol. 28 No. 4, December 2005, 8pp.)
Posted by pfa at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)
February 17, 2006
For Alumni and other Dental Professionals: Getting Journal Articles
The phone rings. "Hello? May I speak to the librarian? I'm trying to find out how to get a copy of an article that is in your library. I'm sorry to impose, but can you fax me a copy?"
This is a common scenario at the Dentistry Library Circulation Desk. Luckily for all of us, there are good solutions in place for meeting this need.
Solution #1:
The first thing you might want to try would be to go to the Taubman Library's collection of UM or free resources available to alumni and the general public.
Taubman Medical Library: Resources for Alums and Non - UM Health Care Professionals: http://www.lib.umich.edu/taubman/visitor.html
This list includes information about what journals are available free and how to find them, as well as much much more.
Solution #2:
University of Michigan: Michigan Information Transfer Source (MITS): http://www.lib.umich.edu/mits/
MITS can make copies of articles and deliver them in paper or online from any of the University of Michigan Libraries. This service does cost money, and the price goes up if you need it rapidly.
Solution #3:
For healthcare providers, you may also want to consider using the Loansome Doc service from the National Library of Medicine. They have a very helpful guide about how to use the various Interlibrary Loan options that NLM has available.
NLM: Fact Sheet: Interlibrary Loan: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/ill.html
NLM: Fact Sheet: Loansome Doc: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/loansome_doc.html
You can also go to Loansome Doc directly:
Loansome Doc: https://docline.gov/loansome/login.cfm
... or from Pubmed. In Pubmed, go to the blue navigation bar on the left side of the screen, scroll towards the bottom to "Related Resources", and then click on "Order Documents."
Loansome Doc Ordering System: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/loansomedoc/loansome_home.html
Have fun!
Posted by pfa at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)