On April 27th, Bette Bissonnette will take the baton of leadership, as President of MAHSLIN and I will begin my year as Immediate Past President. This past year was richly rewarding for me personally, and I was honored to serve you in this capacity. We hit some milestones: the premier of a new logo and website, the termination of ILL statistics as we knew them, some fabulous educational programming, and a strategic direction for the next year and beyond – and the year is not yet finished!
I hope that each of you have benefited in some way, great or small, from our work this year. If you have attended a MAHSLIN-produced CE class, breathed a sigh of relief at the demise of the ILL the stats, enjoyed the price break from our STAT!Ref group purchasing contract, or utilized the new website, then we can believe that our work has been worth the effort.
My thanks go to the members of the Executive Board who shared in the work and the decision-making, and to the membership at large who provided feedback, responses, time and effort when asked for. We are fortunate to have such an active, involved and talented community of medical information specialists (aka, medical librarians) in Massachusetts.
Margo Coletti
MAHSLIN President
It is with great sadness that we record the passing of one of the founders of MAHSLIN, Paul Vaiginas, in January of this year. Paul started his medical library career at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in 1970, moving on to the Deaconess Hospital in 1978. When Deaconess Hospital merged with Beth Israel in 1996, Paul helped to ease the consolidation of the two libraries and their perspective staffs with great humor and humanity. He retired from the BI Deaconess Medical Center in 2003.
Paul was the 2001 recipient of the MAHSLIN Hall of Fame award. His biography, posted on the MAHSLIN website, describes the career of a multitalented man who was dedicated to his profession. Because Paul never called attention to himself, few people knew that he had served as a consultant to the Lithuanian Government in the design of their National Library of Medicine in Vilnius. Back here in Massachusetts, Paul had co-founded not only MAHSLIN but also the Boston Biomedical Library Consortium (BBLC).
Paul’s work left a large imprint in our state. He will be missed by many friends and colleagues in Massachusetts and throughout New England.
On Saturday, January 6th, MAHSLIN co-sponsored a CME program at Massachusetts Medical Society, Beyond the Electronic Medical Record: The Value of the Clinical Information Team.
Penny Glassman, Elaine Alligood and Margo Coletti were the librarians/faculty in attendance. Donna Beales who was unable to physically attend sent in a video of her talk.
Donna’s lecture was on integrating literacy assessment into the EMR. Elaine demonstrated the VA’s IMPROVE Knowledge Portal. Margo talked about integrating abbreviation standards into the EMR and Penny demonstrated MyNCBI.
The program was quite successful. The librarian-instructors set out to demonstrate our value to the clinical information team and did just that. This is demonstrated by the following comment on an evaluation form:
“Brought things to my attention I had never considered – such as illiteracy and the issue of abbreviations. Showed me online information sources I didn’t know existed and how to access them.”
These were among the responses when asked on the evaluation form to list “ways in which participation in today’s activity will affect your practice of medicine”:
"I will review the abbreviations used in my lab."
"I will access varying on-line decisions support tools."
"I plan to review questionnaire, consent form, instructional information, and scheduling notice for literacy issues."
The medical librarian provides value to any clinical team - in any healthcare setting. This program demonstrated that fact in concrete ways to approximately 100 Massachusetts physicians. Well done.
This is the first of a series of articles on copyright by Lucretia McClure, Special Assistant to the Director, Countway Library of Medicine. This series is adapted from a talk presented to the BBLC on March 8, 2007 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
Copyright is a complex subject, one that often brings this answer: “ It depends.” The law is vague and individuals are required to make judgments –therefore there is much confusion. Many in our educational and non-profit institutions believe that because it is for education, anything goes. That is not so.
The purpose of copyright is to promote the public welfare by the advancement of knowledge. The law encourages creators by giving them exclusive rights to do certain things with the products of their intellect. The law protects authors and creators of both published and unpublished materials without concern for format. That is an important statement because it means the law does not specify print or electronic and that helps libraries to carry out their services.
So what do the creators get? They have the rights to reproduce a work, make copies, prepare derivative works, distribute the work, perform publicly, and to display the work publicly. And the right to license others to do so. And what do people get? The exemptions or limitations to the rights of the creators and that is the limitation of “fair use.”
We need to know how our libraries can function within the law using the limitation of “fair use.” First let us go back to the word distribute because around that term is where we run into hazards. The law says the creator has the right to distribute his/her works. Then the fair use limitation says users have the privilege of using portions of the works of others for purposes such as criticism, comment, reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research. That is why individuals may come to a library and make a copy of an article or part of a book for their own study and research. And it could be an electronic book or article as well as those in print. Here is the problem we face: users today have the world of the Internet and the computer at their fingertips and think nothing of distributing a great article or other copyrighted pieces to others. They are bumping right against the rights of the creator. It is simply too easy and since it is possible, it is being done. That is why the publishers are so adamant that we are abusing the law in making this possible
There are some basic principles that can help librarians provide the needed materials to its users and still abide by the law in the areas of reserves, interlibrary loan, and photocopying.
The traditional reserve collection consisted of books and journals or articles owned by the library and, therefore, the library did not have to ask for permission to use them in this fashion. Electronic reserves are different because of the ability to distribute to others. Here are some guidelines that protect the library in establishing electronic reserves:
There is an excellent statement by Georgia Harper at the University of Texas that outlines the reasons how fair use applies to the placing of electronic materials on reserve. See this URL: http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/1-resele.htm.
In the last newsletter, I reported on the neat types of comparative data available through the MLA benchmarking site. However, for librarians who didn’t participate in the MLA data input and need comparative statistics on library services with a very local slant, the website of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners can help you find what you need.
Each summer, for MASHLIN members who are part of state regional library systems, we are asked to complete the "Special Library Survey," for the Board of Library Commissioners. Although the survey is not specific to health science libraries, when the data is compiled by the MBLC, the results are conveniently grouped by "Health/Hospitals." In 2005, 23 health science libraries reported data to the MBLC. Unlike the MLA site, anyone can go to the MBLC site (http://mblc.state.ma.us/advisory/statistics/special/index.php) and view this data. The Summary Report does compile “average” data, but users can also view each individual institution’s reports. You can compare the number of holdings for your library to others in the state, and there is even a simple ILL report of borrows and lends.
Staffing levels are also available, along with numbers of MLS staff. Materials expenditures are provided, but some libraries do not submit all the data requested on the survey forms. Although many of the reported numbers appear suspect by the nature of their rounding to the nearest 100, the reports do give us comparisons that we can use with administrators. If you really need more detail, you also can determine which libraries are similar to yours in collection size or usage and contact those librarians directly.
Just about now, you would have been starting the tedious task of adding columns and rows on your MAHSLIN ILL forms. I hope you are all putting that time into other creative library projects.
Check out new offerings for free distance learning opportunities for Medical Library Association contact hours. Eight NN/LM coordinators attended the MLA web based course development institute in Chicago last year. The classes are finally ready and currently being offered. The MLA institute included 8 other scholars from around the country. Some of the "non-NN/LM" classes are offered for a fee. Many of the classes qualify for the Consumer Health Information Specialization. Look for the CHIS logo. "Caring for the Mind: Providing Reference Services for Mental Health Information" is being offered by Michelle Eberle in February, April and July.
Check out the new distance learning classes offered by the Medical Library Association!
Link for Scholars
http://mlanet.org/education/institute/scholars.html
Link for distance learning classes
http://mlanet.org/education/institute/courses.html
Anne Fladger, Director, Brigham & Women's Hospital Library is happy to announce that Meaghan Muir has been promoted to Associate Librarian. Meaghan completed her library science degree at the University of Rhode Island in September 2006. Previously she had worked as the Library Assistant at the BWH Library and at the Spaulding Hospital Library. Meaghan has prior experience in the marketing and public relations fields. Meaghan can be reached at 617-732-5684 and her e-mail is mmuir1@partners.org.
Christine Fleuriel from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute has been chosen as Clinical Scholar for 2006-2007 by the Cantor Center. The Cantor Center Clinical Scholar designation for Collaborative Research and Scholarly Activities is awarded annually to clinical staff from Nursing and Patient Care Services (NPCS) who work in partnership with the Cantor Center on a research or evidence-based practice project, or as a co-author of a presentation given at a professional conference or of a publication in a peer-reviewed professional journal. Each year, the Cantor Center clinical scholars from the previous 12-months will be honored at a luncheon meeting held by the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) Nursing Research Program in Development.
MLA Webcast: Survival of the Fittest: Strategies to Prove Your Library’s Value (March 7, 2007)
MAHSLIN (with financial assistance from NAHSL) sponsored this program at Children’s Hospital, Boston. The Boston program offered 3 MLA CE credits for attendees. Additionally, NNLM/NER offered MAHSLIN members the opportunity to attend the program in Worcester. The Web cast was broken into three major sections:
The Boston wrap-around session featured:
David Gray, Director, Communications and Public Relations, Mass Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). David spoke on a new three-year marketing initiative. While the MBLC Advisory Committee identified nearly 50 library constituencies, they selected 2 to target for their upcoming marketing campaign. Once they decided on the groups to target, they decided on the messages they want to relay, methods for delivery and finally, measuring the success of the campaign.
Rhoda Moskowitz, MetroWest, described a specific “marketing” type project, a Nursing Toolbox, which the library put on the web.
Anne Fladger described the overall marketing effort of her library. Her marketing efforts include candy at the front desk, business cards including instructions on how to access the library’s online resources. Anne also shared how she received a grant to sponsor Grand Rounds for the over 100 physician’s assistants.
The wrap-around ended with a brief description of how Marilyn Steinberg at the Mass. College of Pharmacy and Health Professions uses her role as library liaison to market the library to those specific faculty members. Marilyn brought samples of the library information brochure and handouts.
The take away message is that marketing should be a constant activity and many of us do not have a formal strategic plan for marketing! If you were unable to attend the program, you have the option of watching the webcast from your desktop (2 MLA CE credits can be earned!) until April 12th. Please email Alison Clapp for access information. (Alison.clapp@childrens.harvard.edu)
Friday, June 29, 2007
Getting Magnetized—Search and Service Strategies for Nursing Excellence
Kirstein Conference Room, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston
MAHSLIN and NAHSL are co-sponsoring the above class. This will be a 6-hour program, which will provide 6 MLA CE credits for attendees. Our instructor will be Peg Allen, and she is recommending that we team up with nurses involved with education from our institutions to attend this program. Peg also noted that it now more difficult to become re-accredited, so this class can help both toward the initial accreditation process and also with re-accreditation. Peg is one of the “expert” searchers in the field of nursing and we are delighted that she will be bringing one of her courses to New England!
Sincerely,
Alison Clapp & Nathan Norris
Co-chairs, MAHSLIN Education Committee
http://www.mahslin.org/education.html
8:45AM – 3:30PM
Massachusetts Medical Society Headquarters, Waltham, MA
John Halamka, MD, Chief Medical Information Officer, Beth Israel Deaconess
MedicalCenter
Standards Harmonization for Healthcare
Georgia Peirce, Director, Promotional Communications & Publicity, Patient Care
Services, Massachusetts General Hospital
A Culture of Safety: It’s a Great Time to be a Librarian in Health Care
Margo Coletti, Library Director, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Medical Abbreviations: The Good, The Bad & the Deadly
Donna Beales, Library Director, Lowell General Hospital
But Words Can Never Hurt Me: The Role of Literacy in Patient Safety
Samantha Dumaresq, Pharm. D, Clinical Pharmacist, Saints Medical Center
Implementation of Medication Reconciliation at a Community
Hospital
Karen Jacobs, EdD, Professor of Occupational Therapy, Boston University
Library Ergonomics
Continental Breakfast (7:30AM–8:45AM); Business Meeting (8:45–9:45AM);
Morning Program (10:00AM – Noon); Afternoon Program (1:00PM – 3:30PM)
Registration: Member $60 ($100.00 after 4-13-07), Non-Member $85 ($150.00 after 4-13-07),
Student $15.00 ($45.00 after 4-13-07)
includes continental breakfast, lunch & snacks
For more information contact:
Bette Bissonnette
978-934-8308
bbissonnette@saintsmedicalcenter.com
A group of medical education librarians from New England (see below for a list of names and institutional affiliations) invite you to join Libraries in Medical Education Special Interest Group (LIME-SIG) within the Northeast Group on Educational Affairs (NGEA). NEGEA is one of four regional groups of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Educational Affairs (GEA). NEGEA’s purpose is to promote excellence in the education of medical students, residents, and physicians through the professional development of medical educators. For more information on NGEA visit their website at http://www.medschool.pitt.edu/negea/home.html.
This LIME-SIG has recently been approved by NGEA. We hope that a LIME SIG will provide a valuable opportunity for medical librarians to communicate and collaborate with each other and with NGEA members, to keep abreast of ever changing trends in medicine, and to reinforce our essential role in medical education.
We hope to contribute a poster to the NGEA Annual Educational Retreat, June 8 - 9, in Stony Brook, New York. http://www.medschool.pitt.edu/negea/about_retreat.html If you are interested in joining this initiative or if you have any questions, please email Lauren Maggio at lmaggio@bu.edu. You may join our discussion list and learn about our plans and activities as well as adding your ideas, talents and energy to our endeavor.
| Lauren Maggio Boston University lmaggio@bu.edu |
Len Levin University of Massachusetts Leonard.Levin@umassmed.edu |
| Janet Crager Brown University Janet_Crager@brown.edu |
Lora Thompson Dartmouth Medical School Lora.L.Thompson@Dartmouth.edu |
| Elizabeth Richardson Tufts University ericha02@tufts.edu |
Evelyn Morgen University of Connecticut emorgen@uchc.edu |
| Hongjie Wang University of Connecticut wang@nso.uchc.edu |
Julie Whelan Harvard University Julia_Whelan@hms.harvard.edu |
| Donna O’Malley University of Vermont donna.omalley@uvm.edu |
Janis Glover Yale University Janis.glover@yale.edu |
Send your news to Meg McNichol at mmcnichol1@partners.org or Dorothy Barr at dorothy.barr@umassmed.edu. Both are your MAHSLIN Newsletter co-editors.
Thanks to all of our contributors for their articles!