Biofeedback Newsletter 112

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ACHE Open Education Resources Workshop




The University of South Alabama Libraries hosted the Alabama Commission on Higher Education’s (ACHE) Open Educational Resources Workshop on February 23 at the USA Marx Library.  Featuring speakers from across the Southeast, the workshop focused on initiatives to provide free teaching materials known as open educational resources (OER) to support college and textbook affordability. 

OER is defined by UNESCO as “teaching, learning, or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows free use, adaptation, and distribution”
(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to knowledge/open-educational-resources/).  As the cost of higher education rises, implementation of OER initiatives is being investigated and adopted by colleges and universities across the country to help students defray costs.

Workshop attendees were able to hear both student and faculty perspectives about the impact on students of the rising cost of textbooks. Survey results on the prevalence of OER in the Southeast were shared, as well as lessons learned from the implementation of the state-wide adoption of OER in Louisiana. Workshop attendees were also able to learn about what resources are currently available via the USA Libraries.


If you are interested in identifying resources for use in your courses, please contact Kathy Wheeler at the Marx Library or Jie Li  at the Biomedical Library for more information.
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USA Speech Pathology & Audiology Department and AIDB Team Up with Librarians in Health Workshop



Seated: Member of Poarch Band of Creek Indian Tribe, Dr. Tonia Beverly, Assistant Professor, USA Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology
Standing: Paula Webb, USA Marx Librarian, Eialesha Martin, Member of Poarch Band of Creek Indian Tribe

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians Tribal Community received a wealth of information on hearing and vision loss not only by USA Biomedical Outreach Librarian Rachel Fenske and USA Marx Librarian Paula Webb, but also by the USA Speech Pathology & Audiology Department and Patrice Hall, Hearing Case Manager, from the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind.





Patrice Hall, Vision Case Manager, Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
demonstrates various resources available through her agency.
The workshop was held March 1 in Atmore, AL. Four second-year graduate students in the Doctorate of Audiology (Au.D.) program of the USA Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology performed hearing screenings for this senior community, under the supervision of Dr. Tonia Beverly, Assistant Professor of Audiology, and Dr. Amy Nichols, Audiology Clinic Coordinator. The screenings were followed up with individual consultations providing interpretations of test results and recommendations on interventions to assist in their hearing loss. This event provided a practice site whereby students could actively engage in clinical procedures and gain valuable experience. The senior community greatly appreciated the onsite screenings as many of them would not have had the opportunity to go off-site to have the screenings performed. Providing this service allowed many of the senior participants to learn their level of hearing loss as well as finding out that their current hearing aid devices needed adjustment.

Ms. Hall spoke about the wealth of resources available through AIDB and demonstrated a variety of devices that are available to the community free of charge. She also explained how to apply for hearing and vision devices. Various magnifying devices, amplifiers, large-sized numeral telephones, sunglasses, recreational games in large format, and information on hearing aids were provided in a very informal setting.

USA graduate students in the Doctorate of Audiology program
perform hearing screenings to members of the Poarch Band
of Creek Indian Tribe.


Ms. Fenske and Ms. Webb presented information on the causes and signs of hearing and vision loss in the elderly and the social impact these disabilities make in everyday life. The Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly Screenings (HHIE-S) was distributed and completed as a preliminary tool to determine those needing screenings later in the workshop. Anyone, however, despite their score, could receive a screening. Research on diseases and conditions that result from hearing and vision loss were presented with a discussion of interventions that can control these factors and help alleviate such conditions as loneliness, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s and mortality.

Partnering with the USA Allied Health Department and students along with local community resources provided a wonderful health service workshop that greatly assisted our Native American neighbors. It was teamwork at its best!
Rachel Fenske, USA Biomedical Librarian, Dr. Tonia Beverly and graduate students from the USA Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology.

Rachel Fenske
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What is the All of Us Research Program?


The All of Us Research Program is a historic National Institutes of Health (NIH) effort to gather data over many years from one million or more people living in the United States, with the ultimate goal of accelerating research and improving health.  Unlike research studies that are focused on a specific disease or population, All of Us will serve as a national research resource to inform thousands of studies, covering a wide variety of health conditions.  Researchers will use data from the program to learn more about how individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and biological makeup can influence health and disease.  Participants may be able to learn more about their own health and contribute to an effort that may advance the health of generations to come.  Researchers will uncover paths toward delivering precision medicine.

In the past, medical research hasn’t always represented the rich diversity of the U.S.  The key to the NIH All of Us Research Program is diversity.  The more we know about what makes people unique, the more customized health care can become.  Enrollment is open to all eligible adults who live in the U.S.  People of every race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and sexual orientation are welcome.

For more information on the program see the FAQ at https://www.joinallofus.org/en/faq.
Director, USA Biomedical Library


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Unpaywall: Access Paywalled Research for Free—Legally!

Did you know that millions of research papers are available for free on government and university web servers, legally uploaded by the authors themselves, with the express permission of publishers?  One company, Unpaywall, has created a browser extension that automatically harvests these freely shared papers from thousands of legal institutional repositories, preprint servers, and publishers, making them all available to you as you read.Users of Unpaywall can view more than 52% of research papers for free.  According to their website, they are able to so because Unpaywall gathers its content “from legal sources including repositories run by universities, governments, and scholarly societies, as well as open content hosted by publishers themselves.” Source: http://unpaywall.org/faq. Currently in the Google Chrome Web Store, Unpaywall has over 157,000 users and is also available as Safari and Firefox extensions. Simply install the extension, and it will display a gold, green, or bronze tab at the right-hand side of the screen when you encounter a paywalled article.A gold tab indicates that the article is available from a fully open access journal.Green means the article is on a preprint server or institutional repository. Bronze designates an article which is free to read on the current page, but published in a toll-access journal. Regardless of the color designation, adding the Unpaywall browser extension can help you find open research articles with little to no fuss.

USA Electronic Resources/Collection Development Librarian



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Poster Session Presentation at Medical Library Association Annual Meeting


Rachel Fenske
Rachel Fenske, Information Services/Outreach Librarian from the USA Biomedical Library, presented a poster session at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta on May 22, 2018, “PATHS (Parent/Patient Access to Health Resources) Leading to Improved Health Outcomes” describing the patient/family education program implemented at the University of South Alabama (USA) Children’s & Women’s Hospital.  The project, funded in part by a NNLM SE/A Technology Improvement Award, provides patients and family members of those newly diagnosed with pediatric cancer and other chronic illnesses a means of acquiring and using reputable, easy to understand, health resources during the educational processes while at the hospital.  Android tablets are used to access MedlinePlus, Patient Education Institute’s X-Plain® videos, Genetics Home Reference, Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center, and a host of other NLM/NIH resources at their convenience.  Access to various NLM resources, specifically MedlinePlus, has led to increased confidence in the parent’s    and patient’s ability to locate quality health information.  As part of her project, she also collected data to determine the efficacy of the various educational interventions employed in the project surveying the usefulness and convenience of using the Android tablets, the continued use of the NLM resources by the parents and patients after discharge, as well as the likability in reading and viewing material in their native language. 
Rachel Fenske


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USA Biomedical Library Receives 2nd NNLM SE/A Technology Improvement Award




Rachel Fenske

Rachel Fenske, USA Information Services/Outreach Librarian, was a recipient of a $15,000 National Network of Libraries of Medicine Southeastern/Atlantic Region Technology Improvement Award in June 2018 to expand her patient/family education program to all units of the University of South Alabama (USA) Medical Center and the High Risk OB and Mother/Baby units at the USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital.  

This award will enable the purchase of thirteen Android tablets and rolling bedside stands to be distributed to the pre-admit, cardiac, chronic illness, medical, surgical, trauma, and oncology units of the USA Medical Center and to the prenatal, maternity, and high risk obstetric units at the USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital.  The tablets will enable nurse educators to teach patients about their condition, various procedures and medications while at their bedside.  Resources from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health can be consulted with ease as health care professionals complement and expand their existing education protocol.  

With the additional funding provided by this award, the initial project that began with a $5,000 NNLM Award in 2016 for various departments of the USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital (specifically pediatric, NICU, hematology/oncology and USS HOPE Infusion units) will now expand across the USA Health System, providing a wealth of quality health information that is easy to understand and easily accessible.  

These resources will help patients and families locate reputable and current information needed to comprehend serious illnesses, in a format that is suitable for different learning styles while assisting patients when making informed decisions about their health.  Rachel is extremely happy and grateful to NNLM SE/A for allowing her to continue the patient education program that has helped so many at the USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital and will continue to benefit the residents of Mobile and the surrounding communities.
Rachel Fenske

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USA Copyright Policy

Did you know the University of South Alabama has a copyright policy?  (See http://www.southalabama.edu/departments/research/resources/CopyrightPolicy.pdf.)  USA is not alone: universities often develop copyright policies to create a common understanding about what copyright is, since copyright law is far from intuitive.  Such policies are useful to ensure consistency and fairness.  Also, several sections of the copyright law require a relevant institutional policy in order to qualify for a statutory safe harbor, such as those found in the TEACH Act or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The University of South Alabama Copyright Policy lists the rules for determining ownership of copyright, based on both the category of copyrightable work and the category of author.  There are three categories of copyrightable works, a “directed work” created at the direction of the university, traditional or “non-directed works,” and sponsored or externally contracted works, such as grants.  Categories of author include faculty, executive, administrative, managerial, staff, or student.

While I will refer the reader to the actual policy to parse the intricacies of determining copyright ownership, it appears that USA retains the copyright for works created under the direction of, or with substantial support from, the university.  As an illustration, works created by an employee within the scope of his or her employment is considered to be a “work for hire,” aka “work made for hire,” (see 17 U.S.C. § 101 for a definition http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#101)  and it is well settled in US copyright law that the employer (or commissioner of the work) retains copyright ownership of the copyright, as is the case at USA, absent an agreement between the university and the employee creator.

The USA Copyright Policy also contains a discussion of shop rights and information on copyright revenue sharing.  In addition, as typical of many research institutions, the University of South
Alabama also has a separate policy for patents, in contrast to other universities that have one combined policy covering both copyrights and patents or other forms of intellectual property:  see:
http://www.southalabama.edu/departments/research/resources/PatentandInventionPolicy.pdf.
Trey Lemley

(Originally published in Biofeedback 107 - October 2015.)





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