Registration is open for the next offering of the “A Librarian’s Guide to NCBI” course in bioinformatics. The class, which is sponsored in part by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), trains participants in the use of online molecular databases and other resources from the NCBI. The course is intended for librarians whose area of focus is health sciences or a related subject, and it does not presume any previous knowledge of molecular biology and genetics. Staff from libraries that already use bioinformatics resources or plan to implement them will be given priority.
The course consists of two sessions, one online and one in-person. The online session, titled “Fundamentals in Bioinformatics and Searching”, is asynchronous and lasts from October 26 to December 11, 2015. This part of the course will familiarize participants with bioinformatics resources and the best strategies for using them in reference and instruction. Participants must complete the online session in order to take the in-person class, which will be held from March 7 to March 11, 2015, at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. The in-person session will focus on how molecular data are produced and used in research.
The deadline to apply is September 14, and those selected will be notified around October 5. Participation is limited to 25. There is no charge for either of the courses (including room, board, and meals for the in-person session). For more information, including instructions for applying, go here.