Daniel McDonald | JoHILA Editor

2023 in Numbers

Medline Citations Indexed (Annual): 1369611
Medline Citations Cumulative Total: 29807639
Medline Journal Titles: 5282
Pubmed Searches 2.58 Billion

No wonder you are tired.

2023 in more numbers

RELX Total dividend paid to shareholders: 54.6 pence
RELX total payments to journal article authors, peer reviewers, HREC members: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (ALIA lawyers redacted further comments)

2023 in point of care tools: a comparison of UpToDate and Dynamed

ALIA lawyers really redacted further comments

2023 in collegial banter about the football

ALIA lawyers strongly suggest not printing such defamatory remarks about the Collingwood football club and their many supporters.
ALIA lawyers instead suggest emphasising the Brisbane Lions won the more important competition, the AFLW. And Spain won the Women’s world cup. And the Matildas almost did. And Sam Kerr scored that goal. With that calf.

2023 in quotes

There is nothing new about dodgy information galloping ahead of truth, especially in times of crisis. Shakespeare opens Henry IV Part II with Rumour alone on stage, “stuffing the ears of men with false reports”. The difference now is that Rumour moves at the speed of a photon down an optical fibre, while evidence seeps in slowly like ink drying on a notepad. ~ Rafael Behr

Since its launch in November last year many people, most buzzing with a kind of algorithmic awe, have sent me songs ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ created by ChatGPT. There have been dozens of them. Suffice to say, I do not feel the same enthusiasm around this technology. I understand that ChatGPT is in its infancy but perhaps that is the emerging horror of AI – that it will forever be in its infancy, as it will always have further to go, and the direction is always forward, always faster. It can never be rolled back, or slowed down, as it moves us toward a utopian future, maybe, or our total destruction. Who can possibly say which? Judging by this song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ though, it doesn’t look good, Mark. The apocalypse is well on its way. This song sucks.

What ChatGPT is, in this instance, is replication as travesty. ChatGPT may be able to write a speech or an essay or a sermon or an obituary but it cannot create a genuine song. It could perhaps in time create a song that is, on the surface, indistinguishable from an original, but it will always be a replication, a kind of burlesque. Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend. ChatGPT’s melancholy role is that it is destined to imitate and can never have an authentic human experience, no matter how devalued and inconsequential the human experience may in time become. ~ Nick Cave

2023 in international health library journal content

The Americans
1. Introducing the Journal of the Medical Library Association’s policy on the use of generative artificial intelligence in submissions [link]
2. PubMed’s core clinical journals filter: redesigned for contemporary clinical impact and utility [link]
3. Optimizing the literature search: coverage of included references in systematic reviews in Medline and Embase [link]
The Canadians
1. Leveraging Wikipedia in undergraduate health sciences education: a key tool for information literacy and knowledge translation [link]
2. Scaffolded, embedded required: information literacy education in undergraduate health sciences [link]
The Europeans
1. PubMed, Clinicaltrials.gov: a critical analysis of new features after three years from the launch of the new release. Results from an interactive training course [link]
2. Same search, different results: algorithm bias in various Discovery Tools in library search [link]
3. Norwegian Medical Librarians’ Views about the Future [link]
4. Report from the Training, Education and Development for Medical Information and Library professionals (TrEDMIL) sub-group of EAHIL [link]
The Brits
1. An overview of the capabilities of ChatGPT for medical writing and its implications for academic integrity [link]
2. Identifying knowledge practices in an infodemic era: Rediscovering the professional identities of LIS professionals in an infodiverse environment [link]
3. Drug information-seeking behaviours of physicians, nurses and pharmacists: A systematic literature review [link]
4. How research into healthcare staff use and non-use of e-books led to planning a joint approach to e-book policy and practice across UK and Ireland healthcare libraries [link]
The Hospitalists
1. The Hospital Library and Hospital Librarian Contributes to Patient-Centered Care [link]
2. Transitioning from Academic Librarianship to Hospital Librarianship at the Nation’s Oldest Medical Library [link]
3. Clinical Librarian Rounding in Community Hospital Internal Medicine Residency: 2022-2023 Pilot Program Survey Results and Evaluation [link]
4. The Best RX is Better UX: Redesigning, Migrating, and Usability Testing a Hospital Library Website [link]
5. Microsoft 365 Apps for Library Statistics [link]
6. Just Breathe: Building Wellness into a Hospital Library Space [link]
The JERMLs
1. Database Search Translation Tools: MEDLINE Transpose, Ovid Search Translator, and SR-Accelerator Polyglot Search Translator [link]
2. Article Processing Charges in Gold Open Access Journals: An Empirical Study [link]
3. Epistemonikos: A Free Database for Medical and Systematic Review Researchers [link]

2023 in non-JoHILA Australian health library journal content

Government-supported clinical knowledge and information resource portals are key to ensuring quality, safe health care and evidence-based practice – the Australian context [link]
Technology and informatics in Australian health libraries [link]
Health librarians as part of the perioperative care team [link]