Equipping PhD researchers for social media success

Social media is increasingly recognised as an important feature of academic life and institutions are investing in training sessions to help doctoral students towards this. However, what this training consists of, and how sessions are best run is less clear. In this post, Mark Carrigan and Ana Isabel Canhoto share their experience of designing and delivering online social media training “bootcamps”. They highlight the advantages of regular, online sessions over the traditional model of a one-off face-to-face workshop in terms of inclusivity, learning and networking

Partnering across libraries and institutions to manage veterinary grey literature

A significant portion of the literature of veterinary medicine is grey literature. Each of three national libraries of the United States (National Library of Medicine, National Agricultural Library and Library of Congress) covers some portion of the veterinary literature. There is no comprehensive plan to collect, ensure access and preserve the veterinary grey literature. Objective: Conduct a needs assessment to use in developing an action plan to improve access and preserve the veterinary grey literature Population: All libraries serving veterinary schools accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Methodology: Focus Group: In September 2007, seven veterinary librarians from across the United States met at Texas A&M University for a 3-day session to discuss issues surrounding the veterinary grey literature, brainstorm ideas of potential remedies, and create the beginnings of an action plan. This group of librarians represented several different academic veterinary libraries and the AVMA. Survey: In March 2008 a survey on veterinary collection practices, emphasizing archives and grey literature handling, was sent to librarians at all AVMA accredited schools of veterinary medicines. Results: Response rate for survey completion was nearly 75%. Conclusion: Preservation/digitization projects which leverage institutional repositories of participant institutions. The current environment, with increasing opportunities for digitization of information resources and the growth of institutional repositories in universities, provides the foundation and potential solution for enhancing access and preservation of veterinary grey literature

Concept and design of a genome-wide association genotyping array tailored for transplantation-specific studies

Background: In addition to HLA genetic incompatibility, non-HLA difference between donor and recipients of transplantation leading to allograft rejection are now becoming evident. We aimed to create a unique genome-wide platform to facilitate genomic research studies in transplant-related studies. We designed a genome-wide genotyping tool based on the most recent human genomic reference datasets, and included customization for known and potentially relevant metabolic and pharmacological loci relevant to transplantation. Methods: We describe here the design and implementation of a customized genome-wide genotyping array, the ‘TxArray’, comprising approximately 782,000 markers with tailored content for deeper capture of variants across HLA, KIR, pharmacogenomic, and metabolic loci important in transplantation. To test concordance and genotyping quality, we genotyped 85 HapMap samples on the array, including eight trios. Results: We show low Mendelian error rates and high concordance rates for HapMap samples (average parent-parent-child heritability of 0.997, and concordance of 0.996). We performed genotype imputation across autosomal regions, masking directly genotyped SNPs to assess imputation accuracy and report an accuracy of >0.962 for directly genotyped SNPs. We demonstrate much higher capture of the natural killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) region versus comparable platforms. Overall, we show that the genotyping quality and coverage of the TxArray is very high when compared to reference samples and to other genome-wide genotyping platforms. Conclusions: We have designed a comprehensive genome-wide genotyping tool which enables accurate association testing and imputation of ungenotyped SNPs, facilitating powerful and cost-effective large-scale genotyping of transplant-related studies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13073-015-0211-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Basic list of veterinary medical serials, third edition: using a decision matrix to update the core list of veterinary journals

Objective: This paper presents the methods and results of a study designed to produce the third edition of the ‘‘Basic List of Veterinary Medical Serials,’’ which was established by the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section in 1976 and last updated in 1986. Methods: A set of 238 titles were evaluated using a decision matrix in order to systematically assign points for both objective and subjective criteria and determine an overall score for each journal. Criteria included: coverage in four major indexes, scholarly impact rank as tracked in two sources, identification as a recommended journal in preparing for specialty board examinations, and a veterinary librarian survey rating. Results: Of the 238 titles considered, a minimum scoring threshold determined the 123 (52%) journals that constituted the final list. The 36 subject categories represented on the list include general and specialty disciplines in veterinary medicine. A ranked list of journals and a list by subject category were produced. Conclusion: Serials appearing on the third edition of the ‘‘Basic List of Veterinary Medical Serials’’ met expanded objective measures of quality and impact as well as subjective perceptions of value by both librarians and veterinary practitioners

VetPrint: Building an International Print Preservation Program for Veterinary Literature

Presentation at the joint meeting of ICAHIS 7: International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists,11th International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML), and the Medical Library Association Conference. Boston, MA. 2013 Also available at https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:31902