Library of the future - the new UChicago library has a stunning design and functionality

The University of Chicago’s new Mansueto Library is a futuristic bubble of a building that uses an automated retrieval systems that holds the books in steel cases 50 feet below ground.

While many academic libraries are digitizing and moving holdings off site, Manseuto is the largest and latest of about 24 libraries that use the system.



The $81 million Mansueto library (Mr. Mansueto founded Morningstar stock info service) has capacity for 3.5 million volumes.

The Mansueto library is also focused on digitizing its collection and has a lab for both digitization and conservation:

- it mends paper and rebinds the university’s books — some of them papyrus
- it also scans books for its partner, Google Books

It takes 5 minutes for a student to get a book after the request is placed electronically:

- 5 cranes run along parallel tracks; one is activated and locates materials using bar codes

- the crane removes one of the 24,000 containers, each weighing up to 200 pounds and transports it to an elevator, which lifts it to a librarian's desk

Some students apparently like the new library so much that they record poetic videos of "Rain in the Mansueto": "A quick capture of what I think was the first rain storm for the new Mansueto Library at the University of Chicago. My phone's mic really couldn't do justice to the sound, but it was a pretty exciting deep almost-rumble. You also can't capture the immersive fish-bowl-ness of it; it really is all around you. I can't wait for a storm during the day... or a blizzard."



References:

The Bibliotech: Library of the Future, Now. NYTimes.

The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library

Building the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library (video)

The loss of the centuries-old idea of a library building as the place to go to read and to look for information. Johns Hopkins Medical Library Is Closing Its Doors to Patrons and Moving to Digital Model (http://goo.gl/BWjjO and http://goo.gl/KN55o). According to the article, Johns Hopkins will transition the current medical librarians to "informaticians" embedded with the clinical teams.

Disclaimer: I am an Allergist/Immunologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago.

Comments from Twitter:

@aptronym: Very impressive but what happens if there's a power outage, eh?

@BiteTheDust: they provide long ladders?

@DrVes: power outage at University of Chicago's Mansueto Library: http://t.co/fHbuIf2A

@aptronym: Ha! Two weeks after opening and a power outage meant #nobooksforanyone. I always ponder the effects of outages.

The (imperfect) future is here: tracking gadgets are all the rage at CES 2014

Three wearable health trackers are ready for your wrist right now: Nike FuelBand, Jawbone Up and Fitbit Force. The WSJ puts them through their paces to see which may work best for you. In my case: none. Priced at $150, all them do too little for too much money:



Why limit your options to a wrist band? Spark Activity Tracker can be attached to any piece of clothing and it waterproof:



The connected toothbrush by Kolibree knows if you're brushing all 4 quadrants inside your mouth, and more more importantly, if your kids use the toothbrush at all (the app allows up to 5 profiles):

The Number of Tweets Predicts Future Citations of a Specific Journal Article

Citations of journal articles and the impact factor are widely used measures of scientific impact. Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and social bookmarking tools provide the possibility to construct article-level or journal-level metrics to gauge impact and influence.

Between 2008 and 2011, all tweets containing links to articles in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) were data mined.The tweets were compared to subsequent citation data 17-29 months later.

4,000 tweets cited 280 JMIR articles. The distribution of tweets followed a power law, with most tweets sent on the day when an article was published (44% of all tweets in a 60-day period) or on the following day (16%), followed by a rapid decay.

The Pearson correlations between "tweetations" and regular citations were moderate and statistically significant (0.42 to 0.72).

Highly tweeted articles were 11 times more likely to be highly cited than less-tweeted articles.

Top-cited articles could be predicted from top-tweeted articles with 93% specificity and 75% sensitivity.

Tweets can predict highly cited articles within the first 3 days of article publication.

Social media activity may:

- increase citations
- reflect the underlying qualities of the article

Social impact measures based on tweets are proposed to complement traditional citation metrics. The study author proposed a "twimpact" factor that measures uptake and filters research resonating with the public in real time.

After the initial publication, some science blogs have pointed out potential issues and conflicts of interests in relation to the topic and the single author who is also the founder, owner, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal. You can find more by performing a Google search for "twimpact" factor or checking the references section at the end of this post. Overall, I think this is an interesting concept and Gunther Eysenbach did a great job focusing the attention of the journal publishers on Twitter and Facebook as distribution channels that can also guide in measuring the impact of their articles.

References:

Can Tweets Predict Citations? Metrics of Social Impact Based on Twitter and Correlation with Traditional Metrics of Scientific Impact. Gunther Eysenbach. J Med Internet Res 2011;13(4):e123.

New research plus twitter. Does it make a difference in the clinic. Heidi Allen Digital Strategy in Health.

'Highly Tweeted Articles Were 11 Times More Likely to Be Highly Cited'. The Atlantic.

Twimpact factors: can tweets really predict citations? BMJ.

Tweets, and Our Obsession with Alt Metrics

Image source: Twitter.com.

Comments from Twitter:

@paediatrix:  Interesting. Makes sense

Harris Lygidakis @lygidakis: And Twimpact Factor is a good sign of what's ahead!

Eric Topol: The wireless future of medicine (TED Talks)

Eric Topol says we'll soon use our smartphones to monitor our vital signs and chronic conditions. At TEDMED, he highlights several of the most important wireless devices in medicine's future -- all helping to keep more of us out of hospital beds.

Square For Mobile Payments At Political Fundraisers, Any Future Use at Doctor Offices?

Square is an innovative way to let people quickly and easily accept physical credit card payments from their mobile phone. The service was started by the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Here is how Square works: A small device attaches to the phone via the headset/microphone jack. The device gets the power it needs to send data to the phone from the swipe of the card, and sends the information over the microphone connection. The device is compatible with both the iPhone and Android. It’s similar in some ways to PayPal, but anyone can now accept physical credit card payments, too. With no contracts or monthly fees. People are sent receipts by text and email. If you haven’t seen Square in action, check out this video:



References:
Square Now Being Used For Mobile Payments At Political Fundraisers
Video: Jack Dorsey Talks Square And I Buy Him Coffee With It
Square Turns Your iPad Into A Cash Register

Updated: 04/03/2010

Selected videos from TEDxMaastricht "The Future of Health"

TEDxMaastricht is the European stage for bright ideas, bold thinkers and innovators in medicine and healthcare. The playlist embedded below includes 16 videos:



References:
TEDxMaastricht selected videos with comments. Laika's MedLibLog.