To the Membership:
Happy New Year, everyone. Or, as a very young friend of mine used to say, "Happy New You!"
Although January starts us off on a brand new calendar year, it is the three-quarter mark in our MAHSLIN year. Members are knee-deep in whatever projects, committees, reports, etc. that their institutions demand or that they are pursuing independently.
The Executive Board and Committees have also been Making Things Happen. Our first order of business, carried over from the 2005-2006 year, was to select and implement the new MAHSLIN logo, visible here in this newsletter and on our newly redesigned MAHSLIN website.
The MAHSLIN website, our second project, though still being tweaked, is up and ready for public viewing. I hope you will find it both visually appealing and user-friendly. Please give us your feedback!
My thanks go to Ed Sperr, MAHSLIN Web Coordinator, who designed the site with input from the rest of the ad-hoc committee: Dorothy Barr and Megan McNichol, Publicity co-chairs; Brandy King, Membership chair; Nathan Norris and Alison Clapp, Education co-chairs; Anne Fladger, Past President; Margo Coletti, President.
Please feel free to contact me (mcoletti@bidmc.harvard.edu , Ed (sperr@nelinet.net) or anyone on the Web Development committee if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions.
The MAHSLIN Membership Brochure also underwent a major redesign. Brandy King led the project with input from April Silver, Nathan Norris, and me.
Finally and most important, the Strategic Planning Task Force has met and developed some ideas for moving MAHSLIN into the next decade. Anne Fladger chairs the Task Force which includes me, Bette Bissonnette, Alison Clapp, Lucretia McClure, Nancy George, Andy Dzaugis, Jeanie Vander Pyle, Dorothy Barr, Nathan Norris, Brandy King and Roger Manahan. The Task Force has identified a number of goals and objectives which have been presented to the Executive Board. The Board will prioritize and fine tune the goals which will then be presented to the membership at the 2007 Annual Meeting for member input. Stay tuned …
Also stay tuned for an upcoming Bylaws change which will allow for online voting of Bylaws changes. (Sounds like a chicken and egg proposition, doesn’t it?).
As I’ve said, we’ve all been busy. We’ve had a lot of participation from the membership which has allowed us to move forward and Make Things Happen. Thanks to all of you and…
Happy New You!
Margo Coletti
President
On Saturday, January 27, 2007, MAHSLIN and the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) are jointly sponsoring a CME program, Beyond the Electronic Medical Record: The Value of the Clinical Information Team. Among the faculty are four Massachusetts librarians: Elaine Alligood, Donna Beales, Penny Glassman and Margo Coletti. To illustrate the benefit of having a Medical Librarian on the Clinical Information Team, we will demonstrate how approved medical abbreviations, plain language and knowledge based information can enhance the EMR, adding quality and safety.
The program starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 1:00 p.m., followed by lunch (included in the $40 registration fee). Please go to the MMS website for more information and the schedule, as well as a downloadable brochure and registration form.
The MAHSLIN membership year runs from January to December, so now is the time to renew your membership! If you joined or renewed after September 1, 2006 you do not need to renew at this time.
The membership application is located at:
http://mahslin.org/resources/memberapplication.pdf
If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me!
Brandy King, MAHSLIN Membership Chair
First, reports of recent programs.
MLA Webcast: Moving at the Speed of Byte: Emerging Technologies for Information Management (November 8, 2006)
With thanks to Julie Whelan at the Countway Library for help in locating a meeting space, MAHSLIN sponsored this webcast in Boston at the Harvard Medical School as well as at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. In spite of some transmission difficulties, this program was packed with speakers and ideas and offered an excellent overview of Web 2.0 and the various social networking tools. The Boston location featured a wrap-around session, and two MAHSLIN members described their use of some of these tools. If you were unable to attend the session but are interested in the presentations, the handouts are available on the MAHSLIN website:
Once again, our members are involved in some exciting new services and have generously offered their expertise to those who would like to see if these new technologies can be useful to their libraries.
Copyrights…and Wrongs—Losing Our Balance in the Digital Age
(December 14, 2006, Robert Oakley, Boston Library Consortium)
This presentation by Robert Oakley, Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, was both an overview of the topic as well as an in-depth look at some of the significant issues raised by the digital environment. The second half of the presentation focused on recent issues including:
VCR Technology – Sony vs. Universal Studies. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act countered some of the findings in the VCR case and gave control back to the owner/manufacturer.
MGM vs. Grokster. This challenge to the Betamax case above was not successful. “We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties”.
Post-Grokster (advice given by Robert Oakley for use on a college campus):
The final portion of the program covered:
Orphan Works – Currently, if you make a "reasonable effort" to locate the copyright owner and are unsuccessful, it is okay to use the work for either a commercial or non-commercial use. While the formal bill is dead for this year, Oakley recommends that librarians make their voices known on this issue when the bill is reintroduced.
Section 108 Exemption for Libraries – While you are allowed to make 3 digital/replacement copies, there are still lots of unresolved issues. One question is if or when these replacement copies can be used if the work has not yet deteriorated. Another question revolves around on-site versus off-site use of these copies. Section 108 has interlibrary loan and e-reserves implications as well. The Register of Copyright identified the gaps in Section 108 in a digital environment and has appointed a study group whose report is due in 2007. ALA and ARL already have some of their reservations up on their respective websites.
Google: Publishers Program and Google: Library Program – The speaker mentioned some of the issues identified with the Google digitization projects including the publisher opt-out program and its precedent setting aspect (what about Yahoo and Microsoft wanting to do similar projects?). He indicated that as the publishers realize the opportunities to garner royalty payments from online chapter or print on demand downloads, they might be more receptive to the project.
E-Reserves – Recently this has become a very contentious topic between libraries and publishers, and in 2006 publishers threatened legal action against Cornell University over their e-Reserves. One important factor is the difference between e-Reserves and Coursepacks. Publishers have been successful in cases involving Coursepacks, which contain the majority of the reading for a course, so e-Reserves which resemble Coursepacks could cause problems. In response to the threatened legal action, Cornell has posted "Cornell Electronic Course Content Copyright Guidelines" and "Cornell Course Reserve Guidelines" on the library’s website. These guidelines are a good starting point for anyone with questions about this topic.
MLA Webcast
Survival of the Fittest: Strategies to Prove Your Library’s Value
March 7, 2007, 1:30 p.m.—p.m.
We’ll be sending more information on our local hosting plans soon; for now, more information on the Webcast can be found on the MLA Website:
http://www.mlanet.org/education/distance_ed/marketing/
For those folks who are attending our January 23rd program on Health Literacy, note that the program will begin promptly at 9:00 AM, with pre-registration starting at 8:30. A light breakfast will be available during pre-registration - see you there!
Thank you,
Alison Clapp & Nathan Norris
MAHSLIN Education Committee Co-Chairs
P.S.: don’t forget the MAHSLIN Annual Meeting, scheduled for Friday April 27 at the Massachusetts Medical Society Headquarters in Waltham. The theme this year is Patient Safety and an exciting program is planned. Be sure to mark your calendars!
One of our members has these thoughts on a recent article in ACP Observer:
Transparency? Blogging? Critiquing? Accountability? Disclosure?? Fair or foul??
Some of you may search Physician Profiles on the Board of Registration in Medicine, which is great source for background information - see www.massmedboard.org.
On a different note, recently I noted via the ACP Observer a reference to "ratings" sites on doctors by supposed patients. These sites differ in origin, but it is apparent that all MDs should & will be aware of these new Internet resources, which inevitably will create controversy.
The article lists four websites. Most likely there are more of these. However, I was amazed to find my own Brookline MD in two of the ratings sites (he has great scores)!
RatingsMD this week lists 1174 MA doctors (1135 last time I looked a week ago or so). See RatingsMD FAQ page for explanation. On RatingsMD, the "patient" is not required to enter his/her name or e-mail address, but doctors’ names are out there ... .
Submitted by Ellen Fulton, RN, MLS
As we all breathe a sigh of relief for NOT having to ever fill out another MAHSLIN ILL report form, there are still a few among us that occasionally wonder how our library services compare to those in other institutions. Or perhaps your administrator is questioning the value of the services you offer, and you need some comparative data to support your existence. Where can you find the numbers you need?
If you participated in the last (2004) MLA Benchmarking Network, you can easily run reports in six different service areas with 16 custom variables to show how you compare to other libraries locally, regionally and nationally. Those who entered their data can display customized “Your data” responses with comparisons to medium, mean, third quartile and maximum responses. If you didn’t participate in the 2004 benchmarking project, you can still purchase access to the comparative data of the 344 libraries that did.
Reports can be custom generated to compare other libraries in Massachusetts, by regions, by number of beds, FTEs, annual budgets, number of physicians, outpatient visits or admissions. You can compare your library’s staff hours to those with similar demographics, or compare your expenditures for journals, print or electronic resources. Perhaps you’re considering asking your medical staff for a monetary donation. You can use the MLA Benchmarking data to support your request, by finding out similar hospital libraries have received donations up to $80,000 a year!
Resource sharing is more than just sending and receiving articles. It is also sharing information on the types of services we offer, the staffing levels we have achieved or lost, and how much we spend for books, journals and electronic resources. Since many of us work in environments where we don’t have many opportunities to share professional information that would be helpful in planning our services, a resource like the MLA Benchmarking Network can help fill that void.
So now that we won’t have to spend time filling out the MAHLSIN ILL form, use those few hours to explore the MLA Benchmarking Network database. Some of the data will surprise you. Stay tuned for more information on ways to find comparative library data.
Don’t forget to check out the new MAHSLIN website, where you can renew your membership and find out about programs past and present. Plus, notice the new blog, where timely information will keep appearing. Note that you can get an RSS feed for the blog, and keep up with what’s happening so much more effortlessly. Enjoy!
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!