Open Password – Wednesday June 8, 2022
#1083
MeSH 2022 – ZB MED – National Library of Medicine – FAIR file formats – Open Science – Internationalized Resource Identifier – TermCurator – MEDLINE – PubMed – DIMDI
GBI Genios – Relaunch – Beta version – Werner Braun
Working Group of Special Libraries (ASpB) – Specialist conferences – Kerstin Schoof – Monika Sommerer – Karin Schmidgall – Thomas Arndt – Special libraries – Reconstruction of technical and scientific libraries – Internationalization – IFLA – ASLIB – National literature supply – Special collection areas – Library associations – Overall library supply – Specialist information – Information dissemination – Literature research – Commercial databases – Commercialization – Automation and rationalization – Virtualization of libraries – Virtualization of books and libraries – Marketing of information services – Customer surveys – One person library – Management issues – Competitiveness – Shortage of young talent – Universal and special libraries – Information and media literacy – Society for librarianship and documentation of agriculture – Practical workshops – DFG funding – Virtual specialist libraries – Portals – Special collections and their visibility – Spirit and cohesion of the founding years – Corona – Virtualization of the specialist conference – MeetAnyway – Susanne Brahms – Jürgen Warmbrunn – Wolfrudolf Laux – Paul Kaegbein – Networking – Feedback from participants
Free access and FAIR file formats
German MeSH 2022 published
(ZB MED) MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings – an internationally recognized and globally used biomedical thesaurus. The English-language original is published by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). As the German counterpart, ZB MED – Information Center for Life Sciences takes over the translation and provision for the German-speaking area. The current 2022 edition of the German MeSH is now available for download in various FAIR file formats as well as XML and CSV files under the CC BY 4.0 license.
The semantically FAIR formats that ZB MED offers include RDF/XML or JSON-LD. They make it possible, for example, to use software solutions for data analysis – including those with artificial intelligence – directly. The data does not need to be additionally converted and prepared.
The CC BY 4.0 license guarantees reuse in the spirit of Open Science. Both the reproduction and distribution as well as the modification and further processing of the German MeSH terms are expressly permitted and possible free of charge.
Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI) for the German-language MeSH terms . The IRI service provides all the information for a German MeSH term on an HTML page, thus enabling versioning. The visibility of outdated terms that have been used in the past is therefore still guaranteed in accordance with the FAIR principles.
ZB MED uses the specially developed TermCurator to translate the medical subject headings. The semi-automatic translation tool offers, among other things, an integrated multi-stage curation process.
The MeSH thesaurus as a polyhierarchical, concept-based keyword register for biomedical terms includes the vocabulary that appears in the NLM databases, for example MEDLINE or PubMed. In addition, it is one of the most important sources for a controlled biomedical vocabulary – for example for the categorization and analysis of literature and data sources.
The MeSH is revised annually and expanded to include new terms. For the German-language version, ZB MED then translates the newly added terms and adds additional synonyms. ZB MED created the German MeSH for the first time in 2020. Previously, responsibility lay with the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information (DIMDI/BfArM).
To download
https://www.zbmed.de/open-science/terminologien/deutscher-mesh/
Further information
- to the terms of use for the German MeSH
https://www.zbmed.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Open_Science/MeSH_Download_2021/Nutzungsconditions_Deutscher_MeSH_ZB_MED.pdf - to the Medical Subject Headings https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html
- to the United States National Library of Medicine https://www.nlm.nih.gov/
- to the CC BY 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.de
letters
Relaunch of GENIOS
activated for a taster
Dear Doctor. Bredemeier!
The beta version of GENIOS with our new interface is now open to all visitors at beta.genios.de with selected databases and functionalities for testing. Take a look!
Even though document retrieval on our beta version at beta.genios.de is not yet possible for all users and not all functions and content have been activated yet, we would still like to invite you to take a look!
The following databases have been added since our last newsletter:
New database
New database
Moment – Konstanz booklets on media studies
New database
New database
New database
Exposé – magazine for academic writing and publishing
New database
FZG – Freiburg Journal for Gender Studies
New database
ZDfm – Journal for Diversity Research and Management
New database
ZeHf – Journal for empirical university research
New database
ZRex – Journal for Right-Wing Extremism Research
Werner Braun, Marketing Manager GENIOS
Working Group of Special Libraries (ASpB)
75 years of changing challenges have been faced
and the spirit and solidarity of the first year are still there
A wide range
of topics over the decades
Make the best of
what is possible in Corona times
The Special Libraries Working Group is 75 years old and has held 38 specialist conferences during this time. Open Password saw this as a good opportunity to conduct a written interview with the outgoing chairwoman Kerstin Schoof and the current board members Monika Sommerer, Karin Schmidgall and Thomas Arndt and to look back with them at the current challenges and forward.
Second part
Karin Schmidgall
_____________________________________________________
A wide range of topics over the decades. But the spirit and solidarity of the first years are still there.
_____________________________________________________
How have the thematic focuses of the ASpB changed in recent years?
Karin Schmidgall : The first conference was 75 years ago, which is a long time span. It’s worth taking a look at the conference archive, which you can find on the ASpB website. It documents 38 meetings in 19 real locations and last year virtually. The themes of the first decade are characterized by the reconstruction of technical and scientific libraries and the cooperation between them.
The association’s work was expanded in the 1960s. There are lectures on IFLA and ASLIB (the British Association of Special Libraries), libraries report on their work, including many corporate libraries, the circle is expanding, documentarians are also there. National supply of literature is becoming an important topic, as are special collections and the work of specialist libraries. The lectures reflect the beginnings of the automation and rationalization of library management and the machine processing of data.
In the 1970s and 1980s, opportunities for cooperation were sought: the large library associations emerged, the library plan appeared in 1973, and special libraries discussed their political role in overall library provision. Specialist information and the provision of information are becoming central terms, as are literature research and (commercial) databases. The ASpB is expanding the dialogue with the specialist working groups and representatives are presenting their work. The commercialization of data offerings is increasing. Lectures like “What we really need: The online library!” show the euphoria and optimism of this time.
The topics of the 1990s are IT-heavy, it’s about the virtualization of books and libraries and the use of the Internet. The lecture titles “Can we create the virtual library – organizational and personnel effects of electronic services” and “Why do books?” give apt impressions of that time. Creating and marketing information services are among the new areas of activity, as are customer surveys as part of strategy development. The term “One Person Library” is spilling over into Germany from the Special Libraries Association environment, and OPLs and their needs are becoming more noticeable. Management issues are increasing. After reunification, the ASpB conferences were attended by 450 participants at peak times.
In the 2000s the questions are asked: Are libraries competitive? What funding opportunities are there? The relationship and cooperation between universal libraries and special libraries are examined, portals are created, and virtual specialist libraries are funded by the DFG. Information and media literacy is emerging as a new field of work and is reflected in the topics of the conferences, as well as open access, long-term archiving, e-learning, document servers, retro-digitization, electronic publishing and resource discovery systems. But topics such as occupational safety and property protection are also discussed. ASpB conferences are held in collaboration with the GBDL (Society for Libraries and Agricultural Documentation), and practical workshops are integrated into the conference program.
The 2010s begin with a “shot across the bow” as the DFG’s regular funding to build up collections for special libraries is discontinued. Topics include: funding opportunities, marketing and self-presentation of the library, smart library concepts, the “embedded librarian”, libraries as a third place, open source and research data. What we are particularly pleased about are the lectures on special collections and their visibility, because this is where there are collections that are incredibly exciting to research.
From the very beginning, the focus was on foreign countries, the relationship with publishers and the book trade was examined, and there were timeless topics such as construction and copyright issues. Contributions such as “Saving space in magazines and archives” or “Photocopying in copyright”, which were given in 1956, could also be given in 2023. The topic of training runs through all decades. The lack of young talent and the idea from 1946 that special libraries should train the next generation themselves is more relevant than ever, even if the choice of words and directness of the speeches from the early minutes seem strange today.
The discussions have not been recorded since 1987 and the last conference proceedings were published in 2009 under the beautiful title “The Power of Digital Clutter”. Even if the decision was the right one given the increase in Power Point presentations, it is regrettable to note that the documentation of the conferences from 2011 onwards has become incomplete.
The spirit and cohesion of the first years, the will to create something together, can still be felt at the ASpB conferences today. For me, an ASpB conference is training, exchange, networking and inspiration. It is part of my professional life. The viewing program allows you to look over the shoulders of colleagues. I come back from every conference with new ideas, and it’s just a joy to meet many colleagues every two years – the celebration evenings remain unforgettable.
Thomas Arndt
_____________________________________________________________________
The virtual conference was successful, but we still didn’t learn how to celebrate digitally.
_____________________________________________________
The 38th conference represented a particular challenge for you because of Corona. What goals did you realistically set for yourself in terms of content and organization and to what extent were you able to achieve them?
Thomas Arndt: You say it. The organization of the ASpB conference 2021 was full of challenges in many respects. Not in terms of content, we have not made any changes to the processes of organizing the 37th conference in 2019 in Frankfurt am Main. We already found a location for the conference in Marbach in 2019, formed a local committee in 2020, sent out the call for papers in 2021 and put together the program from the submissions. The program was not shortened. The one and two half-day program of an on-site conference became two full days of the program for our virtual conference.
We have therefore achieved our goal of offering participants, as usual, a colorful bouquet of topics, reports and solutions.
We had to significantly change the organization around the content. By switching from the offline world to the online-only world, we have broken new ground. None of us had any experience or even traditional approaches to fall back on. In contrast to normal conferences, the companies were cautious about their participation. Conference platforms had to be examined and compared, registration and payment systems and video platforms had to be set up. After the decision to hold the paid virtual conference was made in mid-April 2021, we were able to open registration at the beginning of July. All selected systems were configured by us, adapted for the conference and administered during the conference.
150 participants got an idea of it. As the board, we are happy to take their praise for the organization and the many relevant contents of the conference with us into our further work for the ASpB. I have to thank our service provider MeetAnyway. From the very beginning, the platform was further developed according to our requirements, so that a very good software environment was available for the conference at the right time.
Afterwards, it only hurt me a bit that we couldn’t celebrate the conference, which was our anniversary conference, on a larger scale with more participants and guests of honor. We haven’t learned how to celebrate digitally after this conference either.
Monika Sommerer
_____________________________________________________
Make the best of what is possible.
_____________________________________________________
What were the special highlights of the 38th ASpB conference and what lessons did you learn from this conference?
Monika Sommerer : The conference was characterized by exciting lectures and an online platform that made a company exhibition possible as well as topic-specific and personal get-togethers in small groups. The special highlights this time, however, were the anniversary contributions to our 75th anniversary: The journalist Susanne Brahms put together a film for us with the participation of our member libraries, which gives a wonderful insight into the diversity of the special libraries in the ASpB. It was premiered as part of the ceremony and can now be viewed on our website. Dr. Jürgen Warmbrunn, library director of the Herder Institute in Marburg and ASpB chairman from 2004 to 2012, looked back on our long history of the association in a very interesting lecture. There were also touching greetings from the honorary members of our advisory board, Prof. Wolfrudolf Laux, and the now 97-year-old Dr. Paul Kaegbein.
It was always clear to us that despite all efforts to transfer the conference to the virtual world, the personal and often accidental contacts – whether they took place during coffee breaks, at the celebration evening or simply on the way from the hotel to the lecture room – could not be replaced. One lesson we have all learned from the pandemic situation is that it is still worth remaining flexible and making the best of what is possible. According to the consistently positive feedback from the participants, we succeeded very well.
Read the final episode: Compact, clear and rich in content, that’s how it should stay – we can’t imagine virtuality as a future conference format. With hybrid you have to see. – Retain institutional memberships through value-added events. Make personal memberships more attractive. – Prospects for the coming years
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