Week 7

In Michael’s talk this week we saw the comparison of how we divide our time on our devices. My time turns out to be more “me time” and very little shopping.   For our library, our medical students are aware of needing our collection and  access anywhere. A few years back it was a test and learn experience with EZ prozy. Students on rotation could sometimes access our resources and sometimes not. Finally, our IT dept. started contacting the different hospitals to let them know what our ports for Ez prozy were. The cooperation between us and the hospitals has worked out well. The students are happy.

I was interested in the Pew Internet mentioned during the MOOC and took another look at the information there. What were people using to look things up? What were they looking up? All most sounds like week 6, but anyway here are a few of the things I found.

In this article Tracking for Health it says that their tracking is often informal:

• 49% of trackers say they keep track of progress “in their heads.”
• 34% say they track the data on paper, like in a notebook or journal.
• 21% say they use some form of technology to track their health data, such as a spreadsheet, website, app, or device.

but they also find that:

• 46% of trackers say that this activity has changed their overall approach to maintaining their health or the health of someone for whom they provide care.
• 40% of trackers say it has led them to ask a doctor new questions or to get a second opinion from another doctor.
• 34% of trackers say it has affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition.

This is a list of some of the information people are looking for online.

Pew Internet: Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project:
http://www.slideshare.net/PewInternet/2013-7-26-13-rise-of-epatients-medical-librarians-la-jolla-pdf

The % of adult internet users who have looked online in the last 12 months for information about…
55    Specific disease or medical problem
43    Certain medical treatment or procedure
27    How to lose weight or how to control your weight
25    Health insurance, including private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid
19    Food safety or recalls
16    Drug safety or recalls
16    A drug you saw advertised
15    Medical test results
14    Caring for an aging relative or friend
12    Pregnancy and childbirth
11    How to reduce your health care costs
20    Any other health issue
72    at least one of the above topics

Back to the lecture, I thought it was interesting that the book by John Seely Brown, Social life of information was mentioned in relation to privacy. That by the year 2047 it will be inevitable that our information will be out there. A few things mentioned were the houses that would have wi-fi, augmented reality, and wearable tech. With the social connections of checking in, maps and 4 square, being used even more in the future, it makes me wonder how worrying about privacy will really matter. There will be so many things to keep track of it’s a little scary.

Our guest lecturer really hit the mobile road. To think he was there among the trees and lakes and then got a great shot of a Moose too. Thanks for that @janholmquist. One main theme was to use the right tools.  Jan’s point was to have knowledge of them so we could decide what tool we need to use and learn about.  . We take a look at toos, get the general idea but would not be able to demonstrate it. So if we think something is right for the library, learn it. Be curious, and make conversations. Thanks Jan for the beautiful surroundings of the lecture.

 

 

 

 

 

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