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Library Services April Update

Spring has sprung! We’ve been busy here in Library Services and we are excited to share our updates with you. This month’s update includes a retirement announcement from a long-time staff member, information on navigating federal health data and misinformation, and a tool you can use to keep your research organized. Let's spring right in!Pamela Barnard retired April 1st1 minute read timeCongratulations to Pamela Barnard on her retirement! Pam’s last day was Tuesday, April 1st. Pam has been with Allina Health for 30 years as a Knowledge Consultant Librarian. Pam supported and served countless numbers of clinicians, leaders, staff, patients, and families throughout Allina Health. Her expertise, insights, kindness, humor, and hard work ethic have made her an amazing colleague and friend. Pam’s strong connections and foundational knowledge will be greatly missed. We are excited for her to start her next chapter. Navigating Changes in Federal Health Data Access4 minute read timeThere are many questions and much uncertainty around the state of health data from the CDC and other health departments. Library Services is here to help you in the ever-changing federal government landscape.The New England Journal of Medicine published “Disappearing Data at the U.S. Federal Government | New England Journal of Medicine” last month, offering their perspective on this topic and its possible consequences. What we knowMany data sets were removed and/or altered.Some of these data sets were made available after court decisions. Find more specifics about this on the STAT website, an online newspaper reporting on health, medicine, and life sciences.There are resources available to find missing data sets, or other data sets that may suffice for your research purposes.How can I access removed data sets or other health information?STAT and the Internet Archive, another online resource, have archives of federal health data sets. However, these platforms are not the easiest to use. Library Services is here to help you find potential alternatives. Email us at library@allina.com.More informationThe Medical Library Association, our professional organization, published a statement. Read “Protecting Access to Health Information: the Critical Role of Libraries, NLM, and NIH Funding”.Library Services will continue to watch the situation and provide updates when relevant.Check out our new subject guide: Health MisinformationFrom our media ecosystem to dinner table conversations, health misinformation is pervasive in our lives. It is more important than ever to be alert and respond to health misinformation to keep our patients, our communities, and ourselves safe and healthy.Library Services can help you do that. Our new Health Misinformation subject guide is full of resources to help you address health misinformation. Spring Cleaning with Zotero1 minute read timeSpring is a time for cleaning. Do you need to clean up your research? Zotero is a free, easy-to use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research. With Zotero you can:Obtain citations about any websites or references with a single click. Research can be sorted into collections and tagged with keywords. References and bibliographies can be seamlessly added to any text editor including Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs. Zotero lets you build a collaborative bibliography and share a library with as many people as needed at no costs. For more information about Zotero, visit our Citation Tools page or request training by emailing library@allina.com. That is all for our April update! To learn about how Allina Health Library Services can make your work easier, visit our Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com....

Library Services March Update

March brings spring and new updates from us here at Library Services. Take a couple minutes to read about our Clinical Practice Guidelines, how you can support Minnesota's Health Library, and learn about our new e-book offerings!Easily access trustworthy clinical guidelines0.9 minute read timeLibrary Services offers easy access to Clinical Practice Guidelines to help stay current with the latest research standards and recommendations when caring for patients with specific conditions. How to access our Clinical Practice GuidelinesGo to our Library Services webpage.Select the down arrow under Subject Guides from the top menu and select Guidelines.From here you can:Browse more than 20 specialties and subspecialties.Search all database guidelines for all disciplines and specialties under the Quick Links section.Still need help?Schedule a 15- or 30-minute consultation with a librarian on the Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com to learn how to use our library resources and tools.Help us expand Minnesota's Health Library to all Minnesotans1.4 minute read timeThe University of Minnesota and Minitex (Minnesota Office of Higher Education) is looking to develop the Minnesota Electronic Health Library (MeHL), but state funding is needed. Why it matters:Free online health information resources are often incomplete or inconsistent with results.Licenses for professional-level health information are costly and vary between institutions.Our state’s health care providers, educators, students, researchers, patients, and caregivers don’t have access to the information they need to support their work and training, or to promote patient engagement and informed decision-making.This 24/7 online library will help people access: clinical support tools (e.g. DynaMedex)prescription drug referenceslearning and development tools (e.g. Dynamic Health CDS & Skills)full-text books and journals (e.g.CINAHL/Medline Ultimate).Take actionCheck out the following ways you can help us secure additional funding:Share your personal or professional story on how access to health information has helped you. Submit your story here.If you have questions, visit MeHL or email us at Library@allina.com. New eBooks!0.5 minute read timeLibrary Services has recently acquired over 30 new eBooks. Some of our newest acquisitions include:2025-2026 Perianesthesia Nursing Standards, Practice Recommendations and Interpretive StatementsDemystifying Integrated CareGlobal Health and NursingGuidelines for Perioperative Practice 2025Handbook of Basic and Clinical Ocular Pharmacology and TherapeuticsTranscultural nursing: assessment & interventionView all of our new eBooks.All eBooks can be accessed on an Allina Health computer. If you are attempting to access eBooks remotely, contact Library@allina.com for further assistance. That is all for our March update! To learn about how Allina Health Library Services can make your work easier, visit our Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com....

Library Services February Update

Library Services looks back at 2024It was a busy year for Library Services. Some highlights include:seeing a five-year high for literature search requests with 1,298 completed searches. presented twice as many library presentations in 2024 than 2023. This resulted in nearly 1,200 Care Team Members accessing information on how to use the library and our tools.filled 5,607 full-text articles and interlibrary loans to staff.developed six new specialty library guides. added 57 new e-books to our collection.Through our services, resources and tools, Library Services supports everything from evidence-based clinical policies and practices to patient safety to direct patient care. Learn how you can work with us.We look forward to supporting even more of you with your important work this year. View our 2024 Annual Report here.AI is Reshaping Medical Literature AI has led to exciting new breakthroughs across multiple specialties including better polyp detection in colonoscopies, more targeted medications in primary care and reducing diagnostic errors. One downside from these AI-related breakthroughs is the lack of guardrails and detection mechanisms for AI-generated content in medical literature. Why it matters: AI-generated literature in clinical journals poses three risks to academic and public interest: Difficulty for average citizens and scientists to determine AI-generated text from genuine research.Fake or disreputable studies will eventually flood even reputable databases (e.g. UpToDate, Micromedex) with dubious information or nonsensical content.Potential, serious harm to the public from an abrupt loss in confidence with scientific data. Dig deeper: Harvard Kennedy School’s Misinformation Review found that two-thirds of scientific research in Google Scholar shows evidence of ChatGPT-generated content. Of that, 14.5% of health and clinical studies contained ChatGPT-fabricated data. The way to win: Library Services can help steer you to reliable, peer-reviewed literature for decision-making and evidence-based research. Contact us Library@allina.comVisit our home page Home - Library Services - LibGuides at Allina Health Library Services Sign up for the Library Services newsletter.The National Black Nurses Association: from invisibility to influence Professional associations can be powerful tools to promote and nurture their members’ careers and professional identities, as well as help drive policy changes. In celebration of Black History Month, we are highlighting The National Black Nurses Association. The NBNA was founded in 1971 and according to the current president, Sheldon Fields, PhD, RN, it was created to advance healthcare for all communities, but with a special emphasis on historically underserved, marginalized black and other communities of color. With that broader goal, NBNA promotes community service, health policy and advocacy, workforce expansion, and professional development. An example of NBNA’s advocacy, along with the Black Nurse Collaborative, an associated group, was the work done around COVID-19. According to the website, there are over 4,200 members from over 100 chapters from 33 states (including Minnesota). ...

Library Services January Update

Library Services kicks off the new year with new subscriptions, staff Welcome to 2025! We have a lot of exciting things happening this month. Most exciting is that Patient Education and Library Service are now a team. Joining the Patient Education department is Deb Kamholz, Patient Education specialist, and Ryan Fauglid, Patient Education associate. Deb joined Allina Health in 2005 as the marketing and communications manager at Owatonna Hospital and joined the Allina Health Corporate Communications team in 2011. Ryan is a recent college graduate from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communications with a minor in Public Health. Both Deb and Ryan have excellent communication, design, and health literacy skills and are a great addition to the team. Find out more about Patient Education here. Journal subscriptionsIn addition to new staff and services, we are also excited to announce that by cleaning up some redundant subscriptions, we were able to free up funds for three new journal subscriptions:Journal of Arthroplasty Annals of Rheumatic Diseases Prenatal DiagnosisThese journals were chosen based on demand. If you’d like us to consider a new journal, email us at library@allina.com. Facebook, Instagram break up with fact checkersFor many consumers, social media is their only source of information. Recently, Meta announced that Facebook and Instagram would be removing restrictions on speech and ending fact-checking. According to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, fact-checkers create “too much censorship” and are “too politically biased [which] has destroyed more trust than they created.” Ironically, fact checkers do not censor content. The implications for health informationFacebook and Instagram serve billions of users and provide news and health information. Removing fact-checkers will have major implications for us in health care. As health care professionals, we will need to be alert to misinformation on social media platforms and respond to misinformation. How can Library Services helpFortunately, you can count on Library Services to steer you toward reliable information with respected resources for health-related topics that you can share with patients. Email Us for literature searches and full-text articles.Schedule time to meet with Library Services to help you identify misinformationVisit our Health Misinformation Resource page. Recreating Library Services for hospital patients On a recent tour of the Hennepin County Library Special Collections in Minneapolis, we learned there was a tradition of public libraries offering library services to patients in the hospital. We weren’t aware of that, and it struck us how, in some small way, we are continuing this tradition with our Little Free Library at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Thank you to all who recently donated books for our patients and Care Team Members to enjoy! Public Library Services were offered from the 1920s to the mid-1960s at several metro hospitals, including Abbott Hospital. Photo courtesy of the Hennepin County Library ...

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