Web 2.0 Inspirations: Collaborative Chapter Event Planning Using Wikis and Google Docs

Background Philadelphia Chapter--Special Libraries Association • Founded in 1919 • ~ 300 Members • Includes greater Philadelphia region (aka the Delaware Valley): Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware, and southern New Jersey. • Chapter members serve large (QVC) to small (CFAR) companies, universities (TJU), hospitals (Chestnut Hill) and everything in between. • Active student chapter at Drexel University (DUSLA). We also draw library school students from Clarion. Events Traditionally, the Chapter has held 5-8 events per year. Three of these are Chapter traditions: • Annual Banquet (Spring) • Wine & Cheese Reception (Fall) • Holiday Party/Silent Auction (December) We also include 1-2 “professional development” programs (lecture style w/networking time) and 1-2 Continuing Education programs with hands-on learning in the spring and/or fall. The TechTopics Series In the Fall of 2007, Karen Krasznavolgyi in her role as Professional Development Chair organized a series of hands-on TechTopics workshops. The goal was to provide an overview of new technologies, such as wikis, blogs, office applications, etc and how to apply them to your organization. The following 3 very popular and successful programs were scheduled: • The 2.0 Office: More Than Just Wikis & Blogs (Sept.) • Second Life (Oct.) • Firefox Plug-ins (Nov.) All 3 sessions were well-attended with an average of 15 people. Sessions 1 and 3 were also simulcast. Session one (2.0 office) had almost the same amount of people on simulcast as in person. The nature of the Second Life session did not lend itself to being simulcast. It was, however, probably the most lively session held for our chapter librarians ever

Replacement for the 10 page paper? A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medical clerkship

Objective Pilot a group assignment using blogs and wikis to develop evidence-based medicine skills in third year medical students on an internal medicine clerkship. Instead of the clerkship’s previous individual ten-page paper assignment, the students were divided into four groups of sixteen. During the clerkship, students are on geographically dispersed rotations. The earlier ten-page paper had required the students to complete a patient history and physical write-up. With the pilot project, each group was assigned a librarian and a physician faculty mentor. Each student recorded on the blog a clinical scenario and question they encountered. They were encouraged to communicate with the librarian to construct a well formed clinical question. Each student group then came to consensus on which question to pursue and collaborated on a wiki including a list of citations to the best available evidence, a critique of the studies, and implications for the patient

4 wikis + 4 blogs + 70 third year Medical School Students = Improved students’ confidence in practicing EBM. A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medicine clerkship.

PowerPoint presented at national Medical Library Association conference in Washington DC on May 25, 2010, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Section Program: Beyond Cool: Reflecting on Web 2.0 Adventures and Misadventures