President's Message
Improvements to the MAHSLIN Website
Treadwell Library Receives National Award
Service Opportunities for Librarians
A Resource Sharing First
MJ Tooey, MLA President, Visits Massachusetts
From the Education Committee:
-- June 6 Link Resolver Program
-- June 23 Tools for Evaluating Library Services
-- Upcoming Events
Free Video Available
Member News
Member Announcements
MAHSLIN Partner Recognition
Dear MAHSLIN Members,
2006-2007 promises to be a great year for the MAHSLIN membership!
Our Education Committee co-chairs, Alison Clapp and Nathan Norris, have already kicked off the new year with two excellent CE offerings just this month. Participation in, and appreciation of, MAHSLIN CE classes is growing and will continue to grow. Don't miss the education and training opportunities we are offering this year.
This year we are also developing two important initiatives. First, Anne Fladger is going to be gathering the membership this fall to discuss and develop a strategic plan for the organization. The primary objective of this session will be to re-structure and plan for our organization's future. MAHSLIN is one of the strongest health science library associations in the region and we want to be able to attract new members and move the profession forward in the coming years. Look for the announcement of the planning session and plan on attending!!
Secondly, we are developing our Website to increase both its utility to the membership and its visibility to the health sciences library community. Ed Sperr will be spearheading this effort.
Listed below are the MAHSLIN Officers and Committee Chairs for 2006-2007:
President: Margo Coletti ( mcoletti@bidmc.harvard.edu)
Vice President/President Elect: Bette Bissonnette (hsl.bb@stmmc.org)
Past President: Anne Fladger (afladger@partners.org)
Secretary: Julia C. Whelan (jcwhelan@partners.org)
Treasurer: Pat Vigorito (pvigorito@mortonhospital.org)
Archives Committee Chair: Melinda Saffer Marchand (mesaffer@comcast.net)
Bylaws Committee Chair: Kathy McCarthy (Kathy_mccarthy@sshosp.org)
Education Committee Co-Chairs: Alison Clapp Alison.clapp@childrens.harvard.edu and Nathan Norris (nnorris@bidmc.harvard.edu)
Membership Committee Chair: Brandy King (Brandy.King@childrens.harvard.edu)
Nominating Committee Chair: Chris Fleuriel (Christine_fleuriel@dfci.harvard.edu)
Publicity Co-Chairs: MAHSLIN Web Coordinator: Ed Sperr (sperr@nelinet.net); MAHSLIN News Co-Editors: Dorothy Barr (dorothy.barr@umassmed.edu) and Megan McNichol (mmcnichol1@partners.org)
Resource Sharing/ILL Committee Chair: Jeanie M. Vander Pyl (jvanderpyl@capecodhealth.org)
Technology Liaison: Penny Glassman (Penny.glassman@umassmed.edu)
Please feel free to contact any of us. We are working for you!
In the past year, we tackled some very significant projects under the leadership of our 2005-06 president, Anne Fladger. Strategic Planning began with an all-day workshop which inspired Anne and her ad-hoc committee to continue this work this year, opening up the process to the general membership. Our Resource Sharing committee chair, Jeannie VanderPyl, organized a group purchase of STAT!Ref at an incredible discount to the membership. The MAHSLIN website began its redesign with a simpler look and updated content, thanks to Ed Sperr. Alison Clapp and Nathan Norris produced no less than eight (8) education programs for your benefit. And we are working to develop a scholarship for a library science student who is enrolled in medical librarianship. This will be an annual award. We ended the year with an Annual Meeting that exceeded everyone's expectations for attendance and positive feedback. All in all, it was a Very Good Year!
On behalf of the Executive Board, I thank the membership for your support. With your help, we will make MAHSLIN the model of a health sciences library organization.
Margo Coletti
MAHSLIN President
Ed Sperr, our Webmaster, is working with various members of the MAHSLIN Board to make our website even better. Some of these changes include:
Your input is welcome. There is a direct link to Ed on the homepage (sperr@nelinet.net), and always feel free to contact any Board member with suggestions. This is YOUR organization!
The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science selected Treadwell Library as the runnerup for its 2006 Health Information Award. Treadwell was one of ten finalists for this national award that recognizes libraries with outstanding health information programs. Treadwell received the award for ARCH: Access to Resources for Community Health (http: // www.arch -mgh .org). Established in 2000, ARCH is the product of an ongoing partnership with the MGH Community Health Associates (CHA). It provides quality health information selected to meet the specific needs of the diverse communities served by the CHA. Elizabeth Schneider, director of Treadwell Library, recently presented at a symposium held at the National Library of Medicine and accepted the award on behalf of ARCH.
Inspired by our speakers at the 2006 Annual Meeting, MAHSLIN has decided to create a web page listing service opportunities for medical librarians. The scope of this page would include international, national, and local programs, as well as volunteer, grant and donation options. We want the focus of our listing to be on opportunities to use our expertise as medical librarians to improve healthcare for the disadvantaged. Julie Whelan, Dorothy Barr and Alison Clapp are working on this project. Please help them identify resources to include on this web page. They welcome your suggestions and comments.
Resource Sharing among MAHSLIN members now means more than just borrowing and lending ILL articles. After many years of “talking about it,” 23 of our members joined together for a group purchase of STAT!Ref titles. Cooperative purchasing of a collection of 20 textbooks has enabled some hospitals to add electronic titles to their print resources and other hospitals to expand their current online collections while reducing their costs.
Once participants were committed and titles were selected by consensus, implementation was made easier by employing the administrative services of Nelinet. We were also able to keep the cost in line with what our group felt they could afford.
The MAHSLIN Board has made implementing other group purchasing initiatives one of its goals for the coming year. We will be looking at additional resources that our members have indicated they would like to have. We're also hoping that members who were not able to join this first group purchase will be considering doing so next year. If more people participate, the “deal” will be better for all of us.
On June 27, MJ Tooey, Immediate Past President of MLA, visited the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Medical School in Worcester. All Library and RML staff were invited to meet with her, along with the Boards of MAHSLIN and NAHSL. There were great discussions on a variety of topics, and at one point MJ mentioned that her visit earlier this year to the northeast, when even more of us had the opportunity to meet her, was one of the high points of her MLA Presidency.
The recent educational program on Link Resolvers sponsored by MAHSLIN and coordinated by Alison Clapp and Nathan Norris was, to me, one of the best programs I have attended in the last ten years. It was hosted at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute auditorium, a comfortable setting at an accessible location, particularly for those in the Greater Boston area. The cost was reasonable and included lunch. We were allowed to eat in the auditorium, which provided time for sustenance while keeping to the schedule.
Although the agenda was tight, it was not rushed, and there was ample time for questions after each presentation. Penny Glassman's overview perfectly addressed the key issues for understanding how link resolvers work. Her talk was geared to the novices in this area but in no way dumbed down the subject content. The four vendors chosen were suitable for smaller medical libraries. The vendors' presentations were uneven, but we were able to garner essential facts and a bit of each vendor's culture, demonstrated by speakers and handouts. Questions concerning price were answered vaguely with the standard refrain of being able to work with each library on pricing. Some vendors said they would consider consortium pricing.
Clearly, the best part for me was hearing from librarians who implemented each vendor's link resolver. Again, presenters were uneven but delivered critical information such as time required for implementation. One presenter handed out his recent MLA Poster Presentation that compared his library's evaluation process for three vendors and discussed the library's reason for finalizing its choice. Each librarian presenter offered his/her contact information, and this information was included on the program's agenda. Questions from the audience indicated not only great interest but also frustration with some librarians' recent attempts at implementing link resolvers. MAHSLIN plans to post presenters' contact information for those unable to attend, and links to vendor information will also be provided.
Alison [Alison.Clapp@childrens.harvard.edu] and Nathan [nnorris@bidmc.harvard.edu] have indicated that they would be willing to do similar programs if the membership let them know areas of interest.
This was also a highly successful program attendance-wise, with 58 participants! The announcement was posted to ACRL-NEC, the SLA Boston Chapter and the Massachusetts regional listservs. Also, special thanks to Chris Fleuriel for hosting the program at Dana Farber.
June 23rd , 2006 – “Tools for Evaluating Library Services: Surveys and Focus Groups”
This program was the first to be co-sponsored by the MAHSLIN Education Committee and the NASHL Education Committee, and more than 40 people attended this program at the beautiful Tower Hill Botanic Garden!
Attendees learned how to design surveys, as well as how to distribute them and boost participation rates. Additionally, they learned about how to use Survey Monkey, a reasonably priced online survey tool. Finally, they learned how to design and conduct an effective focus group. Attendees earned 4 MLA CE credits for this program.
As measured by both attendance and evaluations, this first joint program was a great success, and we look forward to working with the folks on the NAHSL Education Committee to provide additional programs in the future!
Note: If you are interested in purchasing program materials electronically, please e-mail Alison Clapp at Alison.clapp@childrens.harvard.edu.
Upcoming Events:
Save the Date for the next PubMed Update!
In addition to the NTCC program dates, Donna Berryman has once again agreed to provide us with her famous PubMed Update in two locations:
- Boston (Children's Hospital) - Wednesday, August 23rd from 1-3pm.
- Worchester ( Lamar Soutter Library, U Mass Medical Medical School) - Thursday, Aug. 24th 1-3pm.
Registration for these PubMed updates begins soon!
Mark your calendars for next year's Annual Meeting:
Friday, April 27, 2007: MAHSLIN 2007 Annual Meeting, Massachusetts Medical Society.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has produced a video, Entering a Clinical Trial : Is It Right For You? It is 21 minutes long and discusses both sides of the question; included are patients who started a trial and then dropped out. A “generic” copy, either DVD or VHS, is available with the footage of the involved institutions replaced with clinical scenes.
I do not benefit from this and my only contribution was that parts were filmed in a room of the library.
The video is available online and may also be requested on line or by phone. Information is at http://www.dana-farber.org/res/clinical/trials-info/; request a copy at https://www.dana-farber.org/res/clinical/trials-info/info-request.asp.
Institutions that request three or fewer copies can get them for free. More may be purchased at cost ($3/copy plus cost of shipping).
There are two new members since the Annual Meeting:
Remember the many benefits of MAHSLIN membership, including member rates at educational programs! Join or renew today at http://www.mahslin.org/memberapplication.pdf.
Congratulations to Julia Whelan, who will be moving from her position as Outreach Librarian at Treadwell Library MGH to join the Reference Department at Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
Stephanie Walker is leaving Countway to become Associate Librarian for Information Services at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
Thanks again to our 2006 partners, which only support our annual meeting, but serve to support our mission throughout the year! We greatly appreciate them:
