VCA Metadata Project

This year I've been doing some volunteer work for the VCA school of film, for it's 50th birthday. I've been collecting metadata about previous graduates and their final films, and filling in the information that I've gathered into a Google Sheet. It's quite simple work; I've been given two sheets, one with the information that the school already has on the film, and a different sheet to copy this information into, and to add any other material that I discover. There are some overlapping information groups, but the idea is that I need to find more information about the films and the filmmakers themselves. It's interesting work, and it's using some of the searching skills that I've developed through my studies.

My group of filmmakers all graduated in the years 2006-2010. So far, I've found an Emmy winning filmmaker, some freelance filmmakers, a couple of journalists, a convicted pedophile, and a few others who don't seem to have done anything film-related since graduating. I've been doing this since February, but it's great because if I have a lot of homework, I can put it on hold. I can also do it from home, which is ace.

The one issue is the number of graduates. Turns out there are over two hundred of them, and as each one takes me about twenty minutes, I'm going to be doing this for ages. It's fairly simple work, though, it's really more about Google searching.

Here's one of the graduate films which I thought was fairly appropriate for a blog about library studies, Bibliomania:

PREEMPT 1 and 2 Subject Portal

So I finally finished my assignment for Information Discovery, the subject portal on the use of BOTOX for Chronic Migraine. I definitely learned a lot, most of all that I'm very grateful that I don't get Chronic Migraines. The research was fun, and interesting, but I found it more difficult when it came to writing my critically annotated bibliography. Because the articles are all on the same subject, I was repeating myself quite a lot and I began to hate certain phrases that I was using. It was hard to write them all, I could get distracted by absolutely everything around me.

The final list of fifteen sources focusses on the PREEMPT studies, and the studies that resulted from it. I also included journal articles that looked at the injection paradigm, the placebo effect, and the complicating issue of medication overuse headaches. For the sake of variety I found a press release from Allergan and the application to the PBS for the use of BOTOX for Chronic Migraine. My lecturer wanted us to show a range of sources, which was difficult for me. Because my topic was quite specialised, all I was finding were journal articles, and so I used MedNar to find some different types of sources.

Here's my list of the fifteen sources that I used. They aren't in alphabetical order; there is an order to it, but it's my own system. The first four are the original PREEMPT studies, then the injection method that resulted from the studies, then the issue of medication overuse headache. Then there are more general articles on Chronic Migraine, including the economic costs. Finally, the 'just there for the sake of variety' articles - one from Allergan, two by the government.

1. Aurora, S.K., Dodick, D.W., Turkel C.C., ReGryse, R.E., Silberstien, S.D., Lipton, R.B., Diencer, H.C., and Brin, M.F., on behalf of the PREEMPT I Chronic Migraine Study Group 2010, 'OnabotulinumtoxinA for Treatment of Chronic Migraine: Results From the Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Phase of the PREEMPT I Trial', Cephalalgia, vol.30, no.7, pp793-803
2. Diener, H.C., Dodick, D.W., Aurora S.K., Turkel, C.C., DeGryse, R.E., Lipton, R.B., Silberstein, S.D., Brin, M.F., on behalf of the PREEMPT 2 Chronic Migraine Study Group 2010, 'OnabotulinumtoxinA for Treatment of Chronic Migraine: Results From the Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Phase of the PREEMPT 2 Trial,' Cephalalgia, vol.30, no.7, pp804-814
3. Dodick, David W., Turkel, Catherine C., DeGryse, Ronald E., Aurora, Sheena K., Silberstein, Stephen D., Lipton, Richard B., Diener, Hans-Cristoph, Brin, Mitchell F. 2010, 'OnabotulinumtoxinA for Treatment of Chronic Migraine: Pooled Results From the Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Phases of the PREEMPT Clinical Program', Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, vol.50, no.6, pp921-936
4. Aurora, S.K., Dodick, D.W., Diener, H-C., DeGryse, R.E., Turkel, C.C., Lipton, R.B., Silberstein, S.D. 2014, 'OnabotulinumtoxinA for Chronic Migraine: Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability in Patients Who Received All Five Treatment Cycles in the PREEMPT Clinical Program, Acta Neurol Scan, vol.129, no.1, pp61-70
5. Liberini, P., Pari, E., Gazzina, S., Caratozzolo, S., Rao, R., Padovani, A. 2014, 'Technique of Injection of OnabotulinumtoxinA for Chronic Migraine: the PREEMPT Injection Paradigm', Neurological Sciences, Supplement 35, pp41-3.
6. Blumenfeld, Andrew, Silberstein, Stephen D., Dodick, David W., Aurora, Sheena K., Turkel, Catherine C., Binder, William J. 2010, 'Method of Injection of OnabotulinumtoxinA for Chronic Migraine: A Safe, Well-Tolerated, and Effective Treatment Paradigm Based on the PREEMPT Clinical Program', Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, vol.50, no.9, pp1406-1418
7. Negro, Andrea and Martelletti 2011, 'Chronic Migraine Plus Medication Overuse Headache: Two Entities or Not?', The Journal of Headache and Pain, vol.12, no.6., pp593-601
8. Silberstein, Stephen D., Blumenfeld, Andrew M., Cady, Roger K., Turner, Ira M., Lipton, Richard B., Diener, Hans-Cristoph, Aurora, Sheena K., Sirimanne, Mai, DeGryse, Ronald E., Turkel, Catherine C., Dodick, David W. 2013, 'OnabotulinumtoxinA for Treatment of Chronic Migraine: PREEMPT 24-Week Pooled Subgroup Analysis of Patients Who had Acute Medication Overuse at Baseline', Journal of the Neurological Sciences, vol.331, nos.1-2, pp48-56
9. Lanteri-Minet, Michel 2013, 'Economic Burden and Costs of Chronic Migraine', Current Pain and Headache Reports, vol.18, no.1, pp1-6
10. Dougherty, Carrie and Silberstein, Stephen D. 2014, 'Providing Care for Patients with Chronic Migraine: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management, Pain Practice
11. Lipton, Richard B. and Silberstein, Stephen D. 2015, 'Episodic and Chronic Migraine Headache: Breaking Down Barriers to Optimal Treatment and Prevention', Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, vol.55, supp.S2, pp103-122
12. Solomon, Seymour 2011, 'Botulinum Toxin for the Treatment of Chronic Migraine: The Placebo Effect', Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, vol.51, no.6, pp980-985
13. Allergan 2010, BOTOX(R) (onabotulinumtoxinA) FDA Approved as Prophylactic Treatment Option for Adult Chronic Migraine Sufferers, Allergan Inc.
14. Australian Government Department of Health 2013, 1168 - Injection of Botulinum Toxin (Botox) for Prophylaxis of Headaches in Adults with Chronic Migraine
15. Australian Government Department of Health, The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme 2013, Botulinum Toxin Type A, Injection, 100 units/vial, Botox (R) - July 2013

Finding my voice

My first assignment for Information Discovery was a report on Web-Scale Discovery Platforms. While I found this whole assignment difficult, the hardest part for me was writing the report itself. I come from the essay world - these are what I'm used to. I like the structure of them, the ease of writing that I've always felt with essays. With an essay, you pick your argument, you find your points to argue through your research, and then you argue it. There's no "you" in the essay, no feelings or opinions or judgement. A report, though, is entirely different. This is all about you. It's awful!

I've really had to try to forget everything that I've been trained to do in my previous studies. The whole idea of putting me, or mine, or I into an assignment sends a shiver down my spine. But I did it, and I hated it, and I don't think that I did very well but it's done now and I'm moving on. 

One advantage of looking at Web-Scale Discovery Platforms in my first assignment is that I'm probably in a better position going into the next assignment than some others in the class - now that I know what discovery platforms are (they're the single-box search engine that connects the library collection with the databases that they have access to into one search) I think that I'll be able to use them in a more efficient way when searching for information on my next assignment.

The next assignment is a critically-annotated bibliography, where we find at least fifteen sources on a subject for a 'client' and write up a short abstract for each of them. Because I work for a doctor one day a week, I hit him up for a topic and I'm now researching the use of BOTOX in relieving migraines. It's an interesting subject, but I have no idea what a lot of the articles I'm reading even mean! Medical journals are very technical, written with people who are working in the field in mind, so I think that a lot of it is going to go completely over my head. It's going to be an interesting challenge.

Twitter

Now that I've been using Twitter for a couple of weeks, I'm ready to concede that it does have some good points. I follow ABC news, and I've found that it's a good source for news and other information. I don't have a television, or really listen to the radio, so unless I read a newspaper or go online I can often miss important things. So that's one good thing.

I'm also following Marshall Breeding, who's a bit of a big-time guy in the world of Digital Information Management. I actually discovered him for Information Discovery, but some of the articles that he posts onto his Twitter account are quite relevant to this course. He also has a website which is full of interesting information. Judy O'Connell, who I've mentioned on here before, is also on Twitter, and she posts some good links for Information Management.

My favourite Twitter account, however, is louis as art. I'm not at all a One Direction fan, and I'm not even sure if it's pronounced the French way or not, but some industrial person has taken the time to find artworks that are evocative of photographs of Louis from One Direction. And some of them are brilliant. Here's a few examples:

sunrise // chris hobel pic.twitter.com/g4Kjv4AMBB
— louis as art (@artlikelouis) March 19, 2015

(one more first day of spring post) abstract knives // unknown pic.twitter.com/ZkjFlugYKL
— louis as art (@artlikelouis) March 20, 2015

pink shadows // ellen ys - #KCA #Vote1DUК pic.twitter.com/0qxaCAwTnu
— louis as art (@artlikelouis) March 28, 2015

I also just taught myself how to embed tweets! Took me a little while, but after last weeks class in HTML, I didn't panic, I followed the instructions, and did it myself! It really is amazing what I'm learning here.