A.R. Dykes Library Blog

The New Literacies Alliance (NLA) offers free modules embedding into Blackboard (Bb) on evidence-based practice, reading scientific research, information literacy, and more. These are self-paced modules that support the development of critical thinking and research skills (see picture one below).

This is a project led by librarians across the nation, including one of KUMC’s own, Prasanna Vaduvathiriyan. The curriculum is “built on the ACRL Information Literacy Framework (and related) standards, that helps all students start at the same level for library and research instruction”. You can review the 13 courses on their website, which will include information about each course.

Why use NLA modules? 

1. An entire module is embedding into Bb with a couple clicks
2. BB’s gradebooks are updated within minutes for modules/knowledge checks completed
3. Students learn foundational concepts
4. Can be used to review concepts such as developing a research question or informational practices like evaluating source authority

Adding modules to Blackboard course sites

1. Decide which NLA Module you want to use (NLA Modules descriptions and URLs)
2. In the location in your course site where you want to deploy a NLA module, click (+), then Create, then Teaching tools with LTI connection.
3. Edit the link title.
4. In the Configuration URL box, add the correct link from the list below.
5. Click Open in new window (this is always a good practice for linked content.)
6. To add the module as a graded course activity, tick Create grade book entry for this item and assign point value, due date, etc. If you don’t check the box, students will be able to complete the modules as a supplemental activity, but their access and performance are not reported back to Blackboard.
7. Click Save.

For assistance

For technical help with NLA modules, please contact TLT@kumc.edu.

Open Educational Resources

The NLA modules are a verified example of quality Open Educational Resources (OERs) created for educators and students. OERs aim to provide resources that are free and that remove barriers to students and faculty alike. There are many available OERs for the health sciences. If you are interested in learning more about them, read through the Dykes Library’s OER Resource Guide or contact your librarian liaison.

Both TLT and the Dykes Library are here to help with your classroom needs and to assist in finding the resources available to support you. Consider using the NLA modules or other OERs in your next semester.

Mental illness is common in America.  In 2022, there were 59,300,000 Americans (23.1% of the adult population) with any type of mental illness.  Prevalence rates vary a bit by ethnicity, age and gender, but the total number clearly represents a wide swath of Americans.  While the prevalence of serious mental illness is less, at 6% of the population, getting care for any type of mental health condition can improve an individual’s quality of life. However, only about half of people with a mental illness receive treatment.

The discrepancy between the number diagnosed and the number getting treatment can, in part, be attributed to the stigma attached to mental illness.  The public, self- and structural stigma attached to people with mental illness often results in lack of treatment and a variety of other negative outcomes:

• It can lessen self-esteem, causing people to believe that they can't succeed or make their life better
• It may make it difficult for family, friends, co-workers or others to understand the condition
• It can be harder for people to find jobs, find housing, go to school or do social activities
• It can lead to bullying, physical violence or harassment
• Health insurance may not cover treatment for mental health conditions or may only partly cover it

     (From Mental health: Overcoming the stigma of mental illness)

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has an article discussing nine ways to fight mental health stigma.  The nine methods mentioned in the article are below, with added links to specific, relevant resources that will further enhance your understanding.

• Talk Openly About Mental Health – “Supporting a Loved One Dealing with Mental and/of Substance Use Disorders: Starting the Conversation”
• Educate Yourself and Others – a School of Nursing team has put together a Mental Health Toolkit with a wide array of high quality information sources and tools to help you understand mental health.
• Be Conscious of Language
  • “Reframing Language: Why Changing Our Thinking, Our Actions and Our Language Matters”
  • “Your Language Matters”
• Encourage Equality Between Physical and Mental Illness – “Parity of esteem: Addressing the inequalities between mental and physical healthcare” 
• Show Compassion for Those with Mental Illness – “Tips For How to Help a Person with Mental Illness”
• Choose Empowerment Over Shame – “On the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness: Stages, Disclosure, and Strategies for Change”
• Be Honest About Treatment – “Never Be Ashamed of Seeking Help”
• Let the Media Know When They’re Being Stigmatizing – “Is mental health still misconstrued on screen?”
• Don’t Harbor Self-Stigma – “You are NOT Alone”

We hope these resources will ease your approach in talking with someone in your life about your mental health or who may be suffering from mental illness.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, and needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text 988.

Recently, we are observing an exponential growth in the production of scientific literature. While this has benefited us gaining new knowledge in education and healthcare, it also makes it difficult for us to locate the best information on a topic. When conducting literature searches for finding scientific studies, using National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is crucial. Searching with MeSH could add value to your literature searching skills and increase precision to the search results.

What is MeSH? 

MeSH are the official vocabulary that describe the subject content of an article in Medline. It branches out from broader to narrower terms that are arranged in a hierarchical order. There could be typically 5-12 vocabularies assigned to articles that are indexed in PubMed (Medline).

Where can you find MeSH?

• On the Entrez MeSH database; it is also available at the bottom of PubMed homepage that allows to  build searches.
• Ovid Medline database, Clinical Trials.gov, and Cochrane library
• Directly from NLM’s  standalone MeSH Browser to find the vocabularies.

What’s new about MeSH?

NLM ensures accuracy of MeSH with annual revisions and updates. In 2025, there are  interesting expansions, additions, and deletions that might help you to improve the research.  Below are some examples

MeSH Tutorials 

• Introduction to MeSH
• Finding keywords for publications 

Have a suggestion to improve the subject headings and/or vocabularies? Write to  NLM help desk. 

Want to discuss and learn more? Connect with one of the research librarians

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is the sole source of federal funding for public and state libraries such as the State of Kansas Library and provides funding for resources, computer/wi-fi accessibility, and interlibrary loan services that all Kansans may access free of charge. For a fact sheet on how the IMLS funding benefits Kansas, click here.

Through its IMLS funding the State of Kansas Library provides all KUMC library users access to a number of EBSCO research databases, including:

The elimination of the IMLS would remove the financial support provided to the State of Kansas that mitigates the cost of research databases, and could result in the removal of continued free access to these databases for all Kansans and KUMC library users. 

For more information on the IMLS and its positive impacts, click this link to learn more.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. In observation, KUMC is holding several events throughout the month. After attending one of these events, the library has added two of the local organizations to an online resource guide that includes social and public services. These two organizations that support those affected by domestic violence and/or sexual assault are MOCSA (Metropolitan Organization Countering Sexual Assault) and Rose Brooks. You can find out more of the great work they do by continuing to their websites. On the resource guide, you can find a PDF titled “Community Resources Guide”, curated by library specialists, that contains a broad range of community resources in the Kansas City area.

Doing a simple internet search on domestic violence, sexual assault, or virtually any other topic can result in an overabundance of results, which can be very overwhelming. KUMC’s library guides exist to help users focus on trusted websites, data, and resources that will help them in their research and educational endeavors, and KUMC librarians spend a good deal of time updating an curating reliable information and resources. So, next time you are inundated by a large number of so-so search results or want to save some time by getting directly to quality resources, check the library guides developed by your librarians or reach out to us by text, chat, or email!

We're excited to announce that Dykes Library has entered into three new open access funding agreements. KUMC corresponding authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication in eligible journals during the agreement term will have their article processing charges (APCs) waived. 

1. Cambridge University Press
   1. Agreement term: 2025
   2. Over 350 eligible hybrid and fully open access journals
2. Institute of Physics (IOP)
   1. Agreement term: 2025-2026
   2. Most journals are eligible
3. PLOS
   1. Agreement term: 2025-2026
   2. All PLOS journals are eligible

Why Publish Open Access?

1. Publishing open access advances global equity. Researchers around the world who lack funds to acquire paywalled articles may access your research without subscription fees. 
2. Equitable access to research will lead to increased citations of your articles. 
3. Increased access to research accelerates scientific findings and drives innovation.
4. Publishing open access under Dykes Library's agreements allows us to achieve the full value of our open access investments. 

Visit our Open Access publishing guide for more details about publishing under these agreements, as well as our other open access funding opportunities. 

Happy publishing!

The staff and librarians of KUMC’s A.R. Dykes Library support many different information needs from KUMC library users, including all KUMC students, staff, faculty, and affiliated researchers. We use a variety of online resources such as the library's public homepage, its interlibrary loan requesting service, and its research guides to address some of these needs. These resources, though, are by nature broad in scope and don't answer every unique question that KUMC library users may have. For specific user inquiries, librarians provide research consultations.

What is a Research Consultation?

Research consultations are direct meetings or interactions between a librarian and an individual or small group of library users. To me they are a process of mutual learning and sharing of knowledge. Many KUMC library users possess knowledge and ideas from their experience and domain expertise that librarians don't have; conversely, librarians know how to connect that knowledge and ideas to relevant tools, resources, and services that help the library user to achieve their goals. That partnership and chance to learn from each other is an invaluable asset to all KUMC students, staff, faculty, and affiliated researchers looking to enhance their research knowledge and skills

Consultation Topics

Librarians assist with a number of different topics in research consultations, including research best practices, creating research questions and search strategies, locating publishing/library-provided funding options, advising with non-legal guidance on the use of copyrighted works in student theses and dissertations, setting up and troubleshooting in EndNote 21 and Covidence, and addressing faculty needs in supporting information and resource access in curriculum materials.

Consultation Questions

To get a feel for what this process is like, it may be helpful to see examples of actual questions from library users I've encountered during my time at KUMC:

• “Would you give me an opinion on a journal that emailed me directly? I’ve got a paper I need to resubmit somewhere, but I’m always a bit leery of the solicitations.”
• “What are the copyright rules of using an article the library doesn't have access to in my classroom?”
• “How do I find articles that talk about populations with respiratory illnesses living in urban environments are affected by excessive heat?”
• “How do I properly cite and comply with copyright best practices for using two figures in my dissertation?”
• “What kinds of databases can help me search for developments and research in medical education?”

These are some examples of the kinds of questions Research and Learning librarians can help answer in research consultations.

Scheduling a Research Consultation

All research consultations are free of charge and can occur in-person, via Zoom/Teams, and via email correspondence depending on the question. Sometimes a topic is more straightforward, sometimes it requires a quicker back and forth verbally.

The best method for scheduling a research consultation is by navigating to the Research and Learning page on the library homepage. There, a library user may locate their school's Research and Learning liaison librarian to email directly or schedule a consultation using the librarian’s scheduler tool. This will show librarian availability so a user can easily find a time that suits both the user and librarian.

If a library user isn’t sure who to set up a consultation with, email dykesresearch@kumc.edu.