MAHSLIN NETWORK NEWS
A Quarterly Publication
of the Massachusetts Health Sciences Libraries Network
April 2004, Volume 24, Issue 2
MAHSLIN NETWORK NEWSA Quarterly Publication
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This is my last issue as editor of MAHSLIN NETWORK NEWS. I’m grateful to have been selected by my peers to represent such an important function of our organization—publicity. It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this four years as the time seems to have rocketed by. MAHSLIN members have always made this job so easy. Colleagues, your timely contributions made filling the pages of this publication a snap. I hope you will continue to support our new Publicity Co-Chair Michelle Eberle, MLIS, by sending news her way. I’d like to warmly thank Michelle, currently at the RML, for assisting me with this publication during the first three years of my tenure. I’m also grateful to several people who worked with me on PR subcommittees over the last four years. Kudos to Liz Killoran, Peter Droese, and again Michelle Eberle, as well as to the “stars” of the MAHSLIN public service announcement, Roger Manahan, Margo Coletti, and Christine Fleuriel and the members of the subcommittee whose names appear above. May MAHSLIN continue to grow in outreach efforts across the great state of Massachusetts. Our cause is a worthy one.
The MAHSLIN Annual Meeting 2004 “Maximize Your Impact: Service, Skills & Strategies,” held at the Wyndham Westborough hotel, was jam-packed with ideas for Massachusetts medical librarians to excel in their work
The event kicked off with the Annual Meeting proper. MAHSLIN Committee members presented their reports. Elizabeth Fitzpayne, Archives Committee Chair, requested that members consult with her prior to making donations to the MAHSLIN archives, which have been useful in answer historical questions posed to the MAHSLIN Board. She discussed the possibility of writing some articles on the history of the organization. Anne Fladger, Education Chair, reviewed the many educational opportunities offered to the membership during her tenure. Bonnie Hsu, Membership Chair, reported on her recent efforts to attract new members thorough a redesign of the MAHSLIN brochure, and visitation to prospective MLIS students at Simmons College by Anne Fladger and Donna Beales, resulting in the first-time attendance of two Simmons students at the conference. She sees a downward trend in membership numbers. She added that the print version of the MAHSLIN Directory distributed during the conference might be the last printed copy of the tool given to members as the information is now on the MAHSLIN web site. Publicity Co-Chair Donna Beales said she was “pleased to announce that MAHSLIN (had) won an MLA Public Relations Award at the last MLA meeting.” MAHSLIN took the award for its public service announcement, produced last year. Donna, who has not in attendance at MLA at the time, was unsure if the award was granted a top place in the “Other” category at MLA “because the spot was so unusual that MLA made up a category just for it,” or if MLA has always had a catch-all category for its Public Relations Awards. Donna was also honored with a round of applause for the acceptance of her submission to MAHSLIN Logo Contest. Her artwork, one of many submissions, was chosen by the MAHSLIN Board to represent the organization in future publicity efforts. Technology Chair Mary Piorun secured a new Olympus digital camera for MAHSLIN. Mary was also responsible for arranging with the RML to house MAHSLIN’s video collection and arranging for AV equipment at the last NAHSL conference.
The Annual Report from MAHSLIN committee updates is available on MAHSLIN's website.
Anne Fladger reported on the progress of the Hospital Library Standards Ad Hoc Committee.
Anne and her subcommittee members Chris Bell, Florence Mercer and Donna Beales
approached the Massachusetts Medical Society in 2003 in order to address the
role of libraries in continuing medical education (CME) standards. This role
had been stronger up until a recent revision of the MMS standards. The goal
of the subcommittee was to persuade the MMS to adopt the MLA standards for
hospital libraries.
The MMS did not choose to adopt the MLA Standards in entirety, but Anne stated
that the MMS “has not shut the door completely,” and that a letter would be
forthcoming to the MMS drafted by Anne, the MLA, and Jeannine Cyr-Gluck, who
was instrumental in forwarding Connecticut’s successful effort to make the
MLA Standards a reality as a part of CME accreditation in that state. Anne
added that NN/LM has gotten involved. She stated that the New England reps
recently met and “talked through plans to go forward to push the MMS to make
changes to Element 3.5 of the CME standards.” The changes the MMS had agreed
to were positive, but were felt to be, according to Anne, “not enough.” Anne
concluded by saying that despite disappointment over failure of the MMS to
adopt the MLA Library Standards, the MMS now has “a much better relationship
with MAHSLIN, and there is better communication” all
around.
Other Updates
Elaine Martin of the RML gave a report on the activities of NN/LM in our region. May 1 is the start of the new year for the RML, which has received a $1 million dollar budget, 1/3 of which is for “giveaways.” The RML now boasts “between 400-500 member libraries of all types,” in line with its focus to expand beyond medical libraries. Elaine detailed types of awards available, such as document delivery (smaller) and outreach (larger amounts). Additionally there are technology awareness grants and CE development awards for the asking. The awards process will be using the same model as in previous years.
Len Levin, NAHSL Chair, thanked his program committee for putting together this year’s upcoming conference, to be held in Maine. T. Scott Plutchak will be speaking on the topic “The Revolution is Just Getting Started,” and three Maine novelists will be featured on a thematic twist on “health literacy.” Len announced a new scholarship initiative to support professional development, such as 8 new MLA awards being granted through NAHSL.
MAHSLIN Hall of Fame
The 2004 MAHSLIN Hall of Fame Award went to Anita Loscalzo.
The award, first given in 1998, is awarded by the MAHSLIN Board for exemplary
service to the medical library community in Massachusetts by a MAHSLIN member.
Anita, who has played an active role in MAHSLIN, has also served as its President.
Roger Manahan, Past President of MAHSLIN & presenter of the award, spoke of
Anita’s long career in medical librarianship. “She was on the committee that
started this award,” he informed the members. He recounted how she had come
from Philadelphia to Massachusetts, taking a position at Glover hospital.
Anita thanked her mentors, mentioning Nancy Fazzone, also a MAHSLIN member
who retired
to the South a few years ago, as an influential person in her life.
Anita commented in her acceptance remarks that it’s important to “remember who
we serve.” She referred to the clinicians librarians interact with daily. “They’re
physicians, not docs, and they’re deserving of respect. They work hard.” She
opined, “They’re not patrons, they’re patients. They’re the real reason we’re
in this.” She concluded her brief speech with a heartfelt, “Thank you. I’m
honored.”
A biography detailing Anita’s illustrious career is included in this publication
and is also on the MAHSLIN web site.
Passing of the Gavel
Cindy Hutchison passed the gavel to new MAHSLIN President Kathy McCarthy of South Shore hospital, saying “It’s time for new life, new blood, new ideas.” Cindy added, “How great it is to have worked with the current Board. Thank you all for your hard work.”
Kathy in turn thanked Cindy, and introduced her new Board, VP/President Elect Anne Fladger, Treasurer Molly Foley, Secretary Julia Whelan, as well as acknowledging Cindy as Past President. Her Committee Chairs are: Archives, Elizabeth Fitzpayne; By-Laws, Deanna Lucia; Education, Alison Clapp & Nathan Norris; Membership, Bonnie Hsu; Nominating, Chris Nims; Publicity, Joe Harzbecker & Michelle Eberle; Resource Sharing Jeannie Vander Pyl; and Technology, Daniel McClosky. Noting no further business to be transacted, Kathy then closed the meeting.
Yelling for Mooooore
Kathy’s new tenure got off to a fabulous start with the program selection for the rest of the conference. The first session featured Anne Washburne, an executive at LL Bean. Anne’s contribution was in the area of good customer service, for which LL Bean is famous. Anne’s idea that a shopping, or library, experience should be better than mediocre. “That wasn’t that bad/painful shouldn’t be what we settle for,” she quipped, causing many in the audience to laugh ruefully with her apt description of many failed customer service interactions. Anne emphasized that employees as individuals must internalize ethical and moral standards, such as the standards at LL Bean, which are short and to-the-point. “The best customer service is genuine, from the heart,” she purported. She believes that customer service initiative efforts often fail because standards are not things to live by, and employees are doing things “because the boss told me to,” or for financial incentive reasons, not because they believe in them. She cited a general failure of ethical and moral standards in our society, and looked to 1920’s versions of Emily Post’s etiquette tomes for old-fashioned good advice. She also suggested that “Society doesn’t reward excellent customer service,” and that customer service initiatives must include things like hand-written thank yous that are not mandated, but are spontaneous and genuine. At the afternoon session, Nancy Bennett of Harvard Medical School helped MAHSLIN members explore the idea of learning styles in “Learning Styles: How Adults Process Information.” She talked about different methodologies adults employ when learning a new idea or task. She touched on David Kolb’s learning theories, which separate preferences into four basic areas, “hands-on” types who learn by doing, those who relate new material to their own experiences, those who solve problems through thinking and analytical processes, and those who observe and reflect before coming to any conclusions. Audience members scored themselves for their preferred style, and it was interesting to see the breakdown of different learning types in the audience. Nancy conducted several breakout sessions in which small groups wrestled with applying these concepts to short and long-range educational planning.
In the last session we were joined once again by Nancy Houfek from the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. Nancy had previously regaled us with her presentation skills expertise at the last MAHSLIN Annual Meeting in 2003.
Nancy has us on our feet shaking our shoulders and doing vocal gymnastics, sounding roughly like the human equivalent of driving a standard automobile through all five gears. We practiced power yelling using pitch and volume control.
Next, she has us wriggle our face muscles around to loosen them up, and then our limbs, resulting in some collegial contortions worthy of Harry Houdini.
Then she invited several good sports to the front to demonstrate vocal and body language delivery, including Chris Fleuriel, Florence Mercer, Julia Whelan and Peter Droese.
One participant commented with wry amusement to a visiting GSLIS student from Simmons College, “When we invited you to come, I’ll bet this wasn’t quite what you expected from your medical library colleagues!”
All in all, the 2004 MAHSLIN Annual Meeting was a resounding success. Congratulations to new President Kathy McCarthy and her planning committee for creating such a fun and memorable conference, which has us all yelling for “mooooore!” along with all of those other words we practiced with musical lilt.
BWH Library Gets Grant to Serve People with Disabilities
The Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Michele and Howard Kessler Health Education Library has been awarded a two-year Serving People with Disabilities grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The grant was awarded with funds provided under the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The Kessler Library will use the $20,000 grant to help increase awareness of the library’s resources to the hospital’s staff, patients and the community overall, providing technologies and resources in many alternative formats to address a variety of disabilities. In addition, library staff and volunteers will undergo training on disabilities issues to improve service levels and provide end-user training to patients and families. “The LSTA grant will remove barriers to the library’s resources for individuals with disabilities and enable us to improve access to health information for the hospital’s patients, family members and the BWH community,” said Cara Helfner, MSLIS, program manager, Kessler Library. The grant will enable the Kessler Library to equip an adaptive workstation so that individuals with disabilities can utilize the library’s online health education resources. The workstation will include a screen reader and specialized mouse and keyboard units. The library’s Intranet and Internet sites will also be enhanced for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compatibility. In addition, library users will have access to TTY telephone service, a Books-by-Mail program for those who find it difficult to physically visit the library, and consumer health materials in alternative formats, such as books-on-tape and Braille.
The Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network (MAHSLIN) is pleased to announce that Anita B. Loscalzo, Research Librarian, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Boston University School of Medicine, has been elected to the MAHSLIN Hall of Fame in recognition of her professional achievements and contributions to MAHSLIN and to medical librarianship.
When Anita completed her second term of service as Chair of the By-Laws Committeee in the Spring of 2003, she also came to the end of a span of sixteen years during which, with one break, she served on the MAHSLIN Executive Board in several capacities. Her first office was the same as her last, Chair of the By-laws Committee from 1987-1991. Concurrently, Anita also served on the Ad Hoc Committee on Downsizing from 1989-1991 and from 1991-1992 she was Chair of the Resource Sharing Committee. Anita returned to the Executive Board as Editor of the MAHSLIN Network News from 1996-1998, and continued with a three year commitment as Vice-President, President, and Past President from 1998-2001. During her year as past President, she also chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Librarians in Massachusetts.
During her MAHSLIN Board years, Anita was also active in the Medical Library Association as a member of the Hospital Libraries Section Standards Committee and as a member of the 1998 and 2003 NAHSL Conference Committee and NAHSL Executive Board. She is a distinguished member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.
Members of MAHSLIN who purchased raffle tickets for one of the exquisite quilted hangings that Anita donated to the NAHSL Scholarship Table will be interested to know that since her retirement from the MAHSLIN Executive Board, Anita has been working for a Master of Arts degree in Textiles, Clothing and Design with an emphasis in Quilt Studies through the University of Nebraska Distance Learning Program. In affiliation with this program, Anita was curator of an exhibition at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell entitled "Free Motion Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Machine Quilted Quilts" which opened on March 25, 2004 and will be on view through May 30.
With her study of the history and art of quilting and course work in museum studies, Anita is resuming a commitment to her first academic field of study. She received her B.A. degree cum laude in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania and then, as she explains it, being a very practical person, Anita entered the library school of Drexel University and earned her M.S. in Library Science in 1973. As an undergraduate, she worked as student assistant in the Rare Book Collection of the Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania; she also volunteered as in the library of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, indexing the Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin. From 1977-1978, Anita served as Manuscript Librarian at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
Anita's first position in medical librarianship was as Reference Librarian/MEDLINE Analyst and then Head of Reference at the Hahnemann Medical College of Medicine Library. She credits the years she worked in this small academic medical library, where the professional staff worked in all areas of the library, with giving her the opportunity to develop the skills she would need throughout her career as a solo medical librarian. It was at Hahnemann that Anita acquired her expertise in searching the MEDLARS system and as a teacher of online searching skills. She later taught the basics of searching MEDLINE as a guest lecturer at the Simmons College course in Health Sciences Librarianship and an instructor at the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Following the Loscalzo family's move to the Boston area, Anita became Medical Librarian at Glover Memorial Hospital in Needham from 1982 - 1987. She recalls that she was mentored through this first job as a solo librarian by her CIR colleagues Sandy Clevesey, Nancy Callander, and Chris Bell, and was first recruited to the MAHSLIN Executive Board by Nancy Fazzone. After leaving Glover, Anita undertook several major library reorganization projects as a consultant for the Corporate Health Services Library at Digital Equipment Corporation, the Professional Library at Braintree Hospital, and the Corporate Industrial Hygiene & Toxicology Library also at Digital Equipment Corporation. Her career as a biomedical research specialist librarian began in 1990 at the Cardiology Research Department at Brigham & Women's Hospital. Anita became Research Librarian at the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute of Boston University, a research laboratory with a staff of 100 which is directed by her husband, Dr. Joseph Loscalzo, in 1994 and continues in that position today. Anita provides expert searching, reference services, as well as training and support in information management and retrieval. She participates in journal club and research conferences, manages print collections, and provides editorial assistance to principal investigators.
Anita's career as a librarian has been distinguished by the values of community and collaboration - values which our profession holds in common with the quilt makers whose art form Anita now studies. Throughout the years that she has served MAHSLIN, the hospital library community, and the biomedical research community, Anita also served as a trustee of the Dover Town Library, chairing the Board of Trustees from 2000-2002 and as a library volunteer at the Dedham Country Day School. Other community organizations which benefited from Anita's participation include the Board of Directors, Friends of the Dedham Public Library, the Board of Directors, Friends of the Dover Town Library, the Dover Town Library Long-Range Planning Committee, and the Powisset Garden Club. In recognition of her contributions to librarianship and with gratitude for her service, MAHSLIN is now deeply pleased to honor our distinguished colleague, Anita Loscalzo, and admit her to the MAHSLIN Hall of Fame.
MAHSLIN Resources available through the RML
Videotapes owned by MAHSLIN will soon be available through the RML and may be borrowed free of charge by MAHSLIN members. The items will be posted on the MAHSLIN web site www.mahslin.org & can be located in the U Mass Medical School catalogue.
People & Places
Jenny Olsen writes: I am delighted to announce that Trish Reid has joined us as a Medical Librarian at Somerville Hospital Campus. She earned a Masters degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College and a MA in Film Studies from University College Dublin. Trish came to us from Emmanuel College where she was a reference librarian. Trish was also a reference librarian at Belmont Public Library. Trish can be reached at 615-591-4288. Her e-mail address is: preid@challiance.org
Peter Droese, Health Policy Librarian for the Office of Medicaid in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, has co-authored an article in the March issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association, titled "A selected, annotated list of current materials that support the development of policies designed to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.” Peter has also recently become engaged to Michelle Brown, grants compliance manager for East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. An October wedding is planned.
The following was submitted by Bonnie Hsu, current MAHSLIN Membership Chair: “Rachel Vigneron, is the Librarian from Auten Riggs Center. Rachel's father was my college instructor way back (40 years ago) in Taiwan. He went there to teach English as Second Language (a year or two after he graduated from Harvard) at my alma mater. Since then, he and his family have been in many countries teaching and researching. A couple of months ago, he tracked me down and we reminisced and updated each other. I found out that his daughter is a medical librarian in Massachusetts, his home state. I called her up and made sure she attended the annual meeting. We met there. She learned more about MAHSLIN and I caught up on news about her father.”