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By Alicia Gallegos, special to the Reporter During a student demonstration in 2010, instructors at Stanford University School of Medicine loaded a children's wagon with all the learning materials medical students traditionally acquire in their preclinical years. The towering stacks of paper rose 3 feet high.

Scott, An interesting article. I know that medical schools (and allied health education, including nursing) have been leaders in adopting new technologies for educational purposes. Medical schools immediately identified a use for using podcasts to teach medical students how to detect abnormal heart sounds! Research quickly followed to prove this to be the most effective form of teaching normal and abnormal cardiac sounds. This learning concept is also used to teach radiology residents how to recognize normal and abnormal blood flow sounds when examining vessels (arteries/veins) using doppler ultrasound. Pharmacy schools (and departments) have utilized iPads/tablets/smartphone to run apps (http://www.appszoom.com/android-apps/pharmacology) that include entire pharmacology drug reference lists, commonly used drugs/medications, standard dosages, etc. for quick, searchable referencing.

Scott, I am curious about the level of security placed on the wireless networks used in hospital environments. The more mobile the physicians, nurses and caregivers, the more secure the wireless networks need to be. What measures are being taken to guarantee secure airwaves? Bill

To discover how a newly developed library mobile website performed across a variety of devices, the authors used a hybrid field and laboratory methodology to conduct a usability test of the website. Twelve student participants were recruited and selected according to phone type. Results revealed a wide array of errors attributed to site design, wireless network connections, as well as phone hardware and software. This study provides an example methodology for testing library mobile websites, identifies issues associated with mobile websites, and provides recommendations for improving the user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] [Abstract from ESC Academic Search Complete database] Link: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.library.esc.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=32d26eef-5aab-4af2-ad1a-c9624344797d%40sessionmgr115&hid=126&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=83583519&db=a9h Pendell, K. D., & Bowman, M. S. (2012). Usability Study of a Library's Mobile Website: An Example from Portland State University. Information Technology & Libraries, 31(2), 45-62.

- The purpose of this paper is to get an insight in users' opinion on library resources/services on small screen mobile devices. Objectives were to establish which types of small screen mobile devices are used and to find out is there a tendency for using academic and educational contents on such devices. Furthermore, aim was to identify whether the users need mobile friendly library web site and services at all. Also, what library resources/services and to what extent respondents consider as the important ones for mobile friendly customization. Finally the results would serve as an orientation in building mobile friendly library web site and services. The author believed that the users were still unaware of the possibility of accessing library web sites and services through mobile devices in general; therefore, this survey also had a role of raising awareness and stimulating their interest. - The survey was focussed on small screen mobile devices with screen size up to seven inches (17.1 cm). Data collection was performed through a questionnaire containing ten questions. The authors received 295 questionnaires, out of which 285 were taken into account. - The survey found that the largest number of respondents own smartphone/tablet/phablet. The results show that small screen devices are, to some extent, used for educational, academic and informational purposes (reading of e-books and e-journals, education, data checking, internet searching and searching of handy information), but non-academic purposes still predominate (texting, reading e-mails, phone calls, taking pictures). Overall 64 percent of the respondents has expressed need for small screen mobile devices customized library resources/services, but there are 30 percent of undecided respondents. Pazur, I. (2014). Attitude of the rudjer boskovic institute's scientists to the small screen mobile devices library services. Library Hi Tech, 32(4), 628-644.