Learning on demand: online AV

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 50, No. 1, January February 2008, Page 31 College Library
By: Linda Clendenning Karen MacDonell, PhD, MLIS Judy Neill

When knowledge is sought as a part of ongoing medical learning, information resources should be readily available and in formats congruent with different learning styles for physicians. Now entirely new formats are available for free through the library: MP3 files and online video.  

Audio lectures in MP3 format from the Audio-Digest Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the California Medical Association, may be listened to online and also downloaded to MP3 players such as iPods. Almost 500 lectures cover a range of medical specialties. The sources of the lectures are recordings of recent medical seminars, university short courses, conferences, and symposia deemed by Audio-Digest as current, significant, or controversial, and acknowledgment of meeting sponsors is clearly indicated. 

Continuing medical educational video programs may be viewed on your computer through the College Library’s subscription to NCME TV. The content is more limited in quantity than the Audio-Digest audio files, with just five video files currently available: In-Hospital Stroke, Tips for Preventing Malpractice Claims, Elder Abuse, Avian Influenza, and Medical Ethics and End-of-Life Decisions. New programs are posted monthly.

Access is free to College members to both the audio and video programming, an important feature of learning tools meant to be used on an ongoing basis. User names and passwords are available to College members by contacting the College Library (604 733-6671, medlib@mls.cpsbc.ca).

—Linda Clendenning
—Karen MacDonell
—Judy Neill

Linda Clendenning, Karen MacDonell, PhD, MLIS, Judy Neill. Learning on demand: online AV . BCMJ, Vol. 50, No. 1, January, February, 2008, Page(s) 31 - College Library.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

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