Auditorium Presentation

SMIL and Zooming in the Tufts Health Sciences Database - more multimedia for teaching

Susan Albright and Elizabeth Eaton
Tufts University

Abstract:

TheTufts Health Sciences Library has been developing a "virtual curricular multimedia library" for the Tufts University School of Medicine for the past three years with grant assistance from the National Library of Medicine. The database was demonstrated at last year's Slice of Life Conference. The database has grown in contents and use as can be seen by our statistics: 270,000 content hits in the first semester vs. 85,000 content hits in all of last year.

Since last June we have changed the stucture and added to the contents. An SQL database structure with Apache. Two projects which have been "in the works" for some time, one by Dr. Tom Linsenmayer for a Histology course and another by Dr, Brien Barnewolt for the Clinical Skills Course, are both important new multimedia inclusions in the database. Over 1400 new images were digitized for new Histology Labs. Using the Live Picture server and the flashpix image format new histology labs offered in the computer lab have completely replace the labs formerly offered using the eight headed microscopes. We will show these labs and how the former histology images were integrated into the labs. Dr, Barnewolt shot video of all the tests taught during the clinical skills course. Integrating these videos with still Netter Images, building on our strategic partnership with Novartis Medical Education, and displaying them using SMIL (synchronized multimedia) and the Real Server has proven useful as both an in class teaching tool and a reference tool for second year students in Physical Diagnosis.

Benefit in Attending Session:

The attendeee will learn more about the benefits of a curriculum database as opposed to course web pages. We will also demonstrate how we put together a synchronized multimedia presentation using SMIL and the Real Server. Finally the attendee will see how we use of the Live Picture server to simulate the function of a microscope for teaching.

Susan Albright
Health Sciences Library
Tufts University
145 Harrison Aveneu
Boston, Massachusetts 02111
 
617-636-6708
Fax Number:
617-636-4039
salbrigh@opal.tufts.edu
web: hsdb.hsl.tufts.edu
 
Elizabeth Eaton
Tarik Alkasab
145 Harrison Avenue
Health Sciences Library
Tufts University
Boston, Massachusetts
 
617-636-2481
Fax Number(s):
617-636-4039
eeaton@opal.tufts.edu
talkasab@opal.tufts.edu