Monday, June 15, 2015

Bi-society Symposium on Laboratory Safety Information

Co-hosted by Division of Chemistry of Special Library Association (SLA-DCHE) and Chemical Information Division of American Chemical Society (ACS- CINF)

7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

DCHE Breakfast and Academic / Corporate Roundtable on Laboratory Safety Information and Practices ($15 - please add the session when registering if you'd like to attend.)

Laboratory safety has been vital to the success of research in both academia and industry. This breakfast / roundtable session will feature updates from vendors, publishers and agencies who provide chemical safety information as a part of their products, followed by roundtable discussions on current challenges and issues in supporting increasing demands on safety information in research laboratories.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will learn up-to-date efforts in providing lab safety information from vendors.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will interact with librarians, information specialists, informaticians, chemical safety specialists, educators and vendors to discuss challenges in providing resources and services on lab safety information.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will have the opportunity to form a special interest group for future discussion and activities related to lab safety information.

Speakers:

• Stephanie Publicker Technical Information Specialist, National Library of Medicine/Specialized Information Services
• Evan Bolton Lead Scientist, National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI)
• Steven Dueball Solutions Manager, Elsevier

Exploring Safety Information Literacy: Towards a Safer Research Environment

A strong, positive culture of laboratory safety is critical to supporting and advancing research excellence. In academia, the frequent turnover of young students doing bench research makes ongoing communication, training, and support essential. Recent laboratory incidents in chemistry labs have catalyzed researchers, educators, safety officers, and librarians to assess what actions are needed to ensure that bench researchers are well-educated and prepared to keep labs safe and productive. A librarian will provide an overview of key resources, search strategies, and best practices for helping users learn how to find lab safety information. We will also hear from a safety officer and an educator about their needs for safety information in teaching. There will be a panel discussion exploring how stakeholders - faculty and instructors, bench researchers, safety officers, government agencies, librarians, and information providers - can collaborate to create a safer lab research environment and foster a robust and positive safety culture. =E2=80=A2 Participants will learn basic skills to search for chemical safety information.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will learn what types of safety information are needed by college lab instructors, and consider how safety may be incorporated into the curriculum.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will understand the incorporation of safety information from the perspective of safety training.

Speakers:

• Grace Baysinger Head Librarian & Bibliographer, Stanford University, Swain Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library
  
• Martin Walker Professor of Chemistry, State University of New York at Potsdam
  
• Robin M. Izzo Director of Environmental Health and Safety, Princeton University
  

Moderator:

• Donna Wrublewski Chemistry & Biological Sciences Librarian, California Institute of Technology
  

12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Enriching research management systems with point-of-need information delivery: case studies with laboratory safety information

Research management systems such as electronic lab notebooks are revolutionizing the workflows of research labs across the industrial, government and academic sectors. To support awareness of safety concerns for particular materials and procedures that researchers use in labs, there is a recognized need to integrate chemical data and safety information directly into the workflow. Facilitating access to available chemical hazard handling and management information as researchers are planning experiments is a goal of several management and information systems. Challenging this scenario are the wide range of potentially relevant information sources and diversity of lab processes. This session will feature up-to-date efforts to build connections and search opportunities across laboratory safety information.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will learn about a breadth of supporting resources from chemical information and chemical safety specialists.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will hear about the opportunities for mapping the landscape of safety information, designing and integrating information systems, and supporting researchers using these systems.

=E2=80=A2 Participants will have a chance to query presenters about the relevancy of the services to their own organizational scenarios.

Speakers:

• Leah McEwen Chemistry Librarian, Cornell University