Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Medical Library
OUWB Medical Library
Volume 13, Issue 3, May 2023
Newsletter Archive

Construction News, New Librarian, and MLA Highlights!
Welcome back to another edition of the Medical Library Newsletter. We've had a bit of a hiatus but have returned to bring you the latest updates on all the happenings of the Medical Library here at OUWB. 
This month's newletter features:

Library Hours and Housekeeping
Library Building Hours
Library hours will remain unchanged moving into the summer months. Kresge Library will be closed on May 29th for Memorial Day, which in turn closes the Medical Library spaces. Please plan accordingly! 
  • Monday - Thursday: 7:30a - 11:00p 
  • Friday: 7:30a - 8:00p
  • Saturday - Sunday: 10:00a - 6:00p

O'Dowd and Medical Library Renovations
Both the OUWB Medical Library and the O'Dowd building will have renovation projects starting in the summer, and we wanted to remind medical students of potential study spots available to them in the event that a favorite space is made unavailable. It is the hope that the renovation projects will be staggered in such a way that the Medical Library and O'Dowd spaces are not offline simultaneously, but should that happen we have other options as well.
On Campus - Kresge Library has ample spaces - especially during the summer when many other students are off campus. You can find study spaces on nearly every floor of the library. Individual spaces can be reserved on the first, third, and fourth floors. The third floor of Kresge is designated as a quiet study space for the entire area, while the second and fourth floors are better for collaborative studying. 
Off Campus - Corewell William Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak Medical Library has study spaces available in the East Student Area and the Administration Building which are available 24/7 with your Corewell Health badges. Space has also been made available at the Troy Corewell campus location. 

Virtual Reality Program 
The Medical Library now has a page on its website for our Virtual Reality Program, which serves as an alternate method of study or as a tool for relaxation/exercise. The library has purchased a Meta Quest 2, which is a portable and wearable device that comes pre-installed with apps for meditation, anatomy, clinical simulation, and more. 

The Medical Library has already hosted several successful events featuring the headset and it is the hope, should this program prove successful, to provide more learning avenues of this nature as well as more headsets for checkout and use. Yes, that's right, we have made the headset loanable, meaning any medical student or faculty can check it out for a two-hour time period.

To see what apps we have on the headset and for more general information, please visit our newly established VR Program page on the Medical Library website. 

A New Medical Librarian at OUWB
The Medical Library has promoted a new Medical Librarian! Mr. David Stewart began his new position as Medical Librarian at the beginning of May and is very excited for the chance to work with facutly and students in a more direct manner.

David Stewart has been with OUWB Medical Library since 2018 as a Medical Library Assistant. In that capacity, he performed services ranging from ordering supplies to creating publication reports to helping out with events. He has a diverse and extensive background in the information sciences that spans over two decades both in public and academic environments.

Mr. Stewart received his Masters of Library and Information Science from Wayne State University in 2011 and served in several libraries, including Oakland Community College as an Adjunct Librarian, before joining Oakland University.

Mr. Stewart is a member of multiple organizations, including the Medical Library Association, the Metropolitan Detroit Medical Library Group, and the Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association. Mr. Stewart is a graduate of the 2023 OUWB Diversity Cohort and currently serves on Kresge Library’s Sustainability and Events, Exhibits, and Marketing Committees. He has also recently welcomed a new baby in the household.
Keep an eye out in this space next month for news about our second new librarian!

MLA Conference Round-Up
The Medical Library Association held its annual conference this month from May 16th-19th in Detroit and several OUWB Medical Librarians were in attendance. We thought this month's round-up could include some interesting take-aways from the conference that are available to view:
  • The MLA Connect blog, which is open to the public, has a nice overview of the event in some of its recent blogs. Of particular note are the blogs about the Terri Givens and Craig Robertson plenary sessions.
  • You may have heard of predatory publishing, but have you heard of predatory impact factors? Mary Frances Lembo from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and James E. Manasco, a retired librarian, gave an insightful talk about publishing metrics and in particular the darker side of them. One place to find more information about misleading metrics is Beall's List, which outs the predatory metric sites so you know who to avoid (hint - never pay for an impact factor).
  •  Artificial Intelligence and Language Models were hot topics at the conference, with presentations about using AI screening to help with systematic reviews or how to use ChatGPT generated PubMed search strings. The University of Florida as is at the forefront of this AI explosion and has recently installed one of the world's largest supercomputers on its Gainsville campus to assist with the massive processing that AI potentially requires.
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