Rebranding Ourselves for the 21st Century “Report of a Qualitative Study of New England Hospital Administrator Perceptions of the Value of the Library” “Dressed in Overalls & Looking Like Work” “The Media Specialist Role for Medical Librarians” “From Info Gathering to Info Pushing” “A Technology Perspective” |
We look forward to seeing you there!
Detailed Program Schedule available here
Registration Form available here. Note: To take advantage of early bird registration prices, your registration must be postmarked by April 10th!
For more information:
Terri Niland
tniland@hallmarkhealth.org
(781) 306-6606
Submitted by the 2009 MAHSLIN Annual Meeting Planning Committee
Go Green!!
In keeping with the theme of this year’s program AND in an effort to go even just a little green, the print meeting packet that has traditionally been given out at the registration table on the day of the meeting will be available in electronic format only on the MAHSLIN web site.
Please check the web site a couple of weeks prior to the meeting to access the information.
Submitted by the 2009 MAHSLIN Annual Meeting Planning Committee
As part of the planning process for the Annual Meeting, we are exploring the various ways that librarians have stepped outside or beyond their traditional roles, through the use of technology or other means, to better position themselves within their organizations and to change their professional image and/or what others may perceive that image to be.
As part of this exploration, the Planning Committee would like to pull together peoples' stories and experiences into a handout to be given out as part of the meeting. Share your experience! If you are doing something that is different from the traditional librarian's role and you are willing to share your story with colleagues, please put together a few paragraphs describing your experience and email it to Terri Niland at tniland@hallmarkhealth.org.
THANKS!
Submitted by Terri Niland, Chair
2009 MAHSLIN Annual Meeting Planning Committee
Is your membership up to date? This is just a friendly reminder to submit your MAHSLIN dues if you haven’t already done so.
Not sure if you've paid yet? Once per month our dedicated webmaster, Jessi Finnie, makes updates to the directory page. Those who’ve paid 2009 dues will be noted as such under the “dues last paid” line at the end of each entry. If you’d like to confirm whether or not your dues have been received in between these updates, please feel free to email Brandy King, Membership Chair.
You can use the membership form to pay dues and register for the meeting, or if you’ve already paid dues and would like to register for the meeting now, you can use the registration form.
Submitted by Brandy King, Chair
MAHSLIN Membership Committee
Professional Development Day for Area Medical Librarians
Exploring Stem Cell Research: What does it mean for Librarians?
May 13, 2009
Hoagland-Pincus Conference Center
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Shrewsbury, MA
Stem cell research is a hot topic. President Obama recently lifted a ban on the use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund human embryonic stem cell research. He also directed the NIH to review its “existing guidance and other widely recognized guidelines, including provisions establishing appropriate safeguards, and issue new guidance” within 120 days of his order.
This is an ever-evolving field. What does it mean for librarians? Come learn about stem cell research, discuss the intellectual property and bioethical issues, get a hands-on tour of the labs, see a demo of the stem cell registries and banks, and consider the roles and opportunities for us as medical librarians.
Take advantage of this unique opportunity to “look behind the scenes” at an important area of research.
We have applied for CE credits from MLA.
All interested librarians (medical or not) are welcome to register and attend. If you have questions, please contact Barbara Ingrassia.
Program schedule, registration form and directions are available here.
Co-sponsored by the Lamar Soutter Library, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region, North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries, and New England States Consortium Systems Organization (NESCSO)
Submitted by Barbara Ingrassia and Nancy Harger
Lamar Soutter Library
University of Massachusetts Medical School
In late 2008, several of the Harvard teaching hospitals approached Harvard Medical School’s Department of Continuing Education about the possibility of receiving accreditation to offer the Internet Point of Care CME option to our physicians. Unlike most of the community hospitals in Mass. whose CME activities are accredited by Mass. Medical Society, Harvard has its own accreditation for Harvard-sponsored CME and the CME programs sponsored by the Harvard teaching hospitals are accredited by them.
By way of background, Internet Point of Care CME has been adopted more widely in other parts of the country and to our knowledge is not offered in New England. Mariam Muallem (1) provided an early description in the library literature. Current literature in the area of CME (2) talks about some major changes necessary for the future. This option is a step toward fewer lectures, more evidence-based learning, and the link between physician performance and patient outcomes. The physician is not sitting passively in a Grand Rounds lecture, but rather he/she has an immediate patient care query, goes through the process of searching the peer-reviewed literature for information relevant to that patient and then determines treatment based on the best/most current “evidence”. When I initially approached a physician co-sponsor for our application to the HMS’s Department of Continuing Education office, she was enthusiastic believing as I do that Internet Point of Care learning is an ideal way to learn. It also is an opportunity for the library to be involved in CME in a new way.
The process to gain accreditation from HMS involved filling out their Course Proposal document with the librarians from the participating hospitals offering input. Once the HMS Dept. of Continuing Education decided that the proposal meet their initial criteria, they invited myself and the physician co-sponsor to attend their January meeting to describe in greater detail how this CME option would be implemented. Our proposal included sample online forms which are very similar to those used by other institutions offering IPoC CME. Each one of our hospitals will determine which products are included on the resource list, but most of the rest of the form will be the same.
A library’s involvement in this type of CME activity can vary. At a minimum the librarian will need to track the completed forms and report yearly the names and number of credits earned by the physicians in their hospital. Each Harvard teaching hospital has its own internal CME administration and will work within that framework. HMS let us know that everyone completing the online form would receive 1.0 Category 1 CME credit which is higher than most other institutions who offer .5 credit. Harvard supported a strong librarian role and requires that the librarian contact everyone submitting a completed form and offer feedback. Because we have just introduced this option, we do not have any data on how frequently staff will use this option. For the future, we are investigating whether this option is something which we will be able to offer our nurses through a different accrediting body.
If you would like to look at the Children’s Hospital Boston Internet Point of Care forms, they are accessible on the internet:
http://www.childrenshospital.org/healthprofessionals/cme/cmeReport.html
Submitted by Alison Clapp
Manager, Library Services
Children's Hospital, Boston
I don't know about you, but sometimes I find that I don't end up going to my feed aggregator because, even though I've really whittled down what I keep up with, there are still so many things to read I know I'll get caught there for quite a while!
For the feeds I'm especially interested in keeping up with, I have chosen to use an RSS to Email service called FeedMyInbox.
What I like best about it is that there is no account to sign up for that would force me to make up yet another combination of one of my 3 email addresses and 5 typical passwords. Rather, you just enter the address of the website you want to get the feed from, enter the email address you want the feed sent to, and confirm by clicking on a link they send you. After that, any time the blog is updated, it shows up in your inbox!
Submitted by Brandy King
Librarian, Center on Media and Child Health
Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health
Gale Cogan, the former medical librarian at Saints Hospital in Lowell, MA, has just returned from Cambodia where she visited the medical library at Sihanouk Hospital in Phnom Penh. Gale, for those of you who do not know her, was traveling in Cambodia with her husband, Gil, in the late 1990’s. After learning that there was a desperate need for a medical library, she requested donations of books and journals from her MAHSLIN colleagues, shipped them to the Hospital, and then returned to Phnom Penh to organize the library and train personnel. This was the first English language medical library in the country. It is still considered the best one and it is widely used.
Through a misunderstanding with Born, the librarian she had trained there, Gale told us last year that they were no longer seeking print materials. Wrong! She has since learned that they now are eager for our book (but not journal) donations – medical, surgical, and especially nursing. Please gather your older editions together (but not too old), and contact Gale. She will pick them up and arrange for their shipment to Cambodia. Please let us continue to help this library and the medical personnel of that country.
Gale has moved from Westford to Boston, so it is best to contact her by email at zgcogan@gmail.com or telephone her at 857/233-2866.
Thanks so very much!
Submitted by Melinda Marchand
Manager of Library Services
Medical Library and Lund Community Health Library
Emerson Hospital
The Faulkner Hospital Patient/Family Resource Center now publishes an electronic version of its newsletter so visitors can read about the newest resources, services and events. The Adobe PDF version will be posted quarterly, and will contain book, database and website reviews, in-depth looks at parts of the consumer health collection and information about upcoming Open Houses.
View the first online edition (Winter 2009) here. The Spring edition will be out in April. We welcome your feedback.
Submitted by Cara Helfner
Director of Library Services
Faulkner Hospital
Recession Deal - Act Now - Offer Ends SOON!!The Special Libraries Association is celebrating its Centennial on June 14-17, 2009 in Washington, DC. To help librarians facing difficult strategic decisions about spending, the SLA is extending its member rate for registration to MLA members as well. If you act immediately, you can claim the MEMBER early-bird rate of only $395 for three full days of keynote speakers such as Colin Powell, choices of hundreds (over 300 actually) educational sessions, 250 exhibitors, and fun!
You must act by April 3, 2009. Visit the conference web site to learn more and to register.
It’s going to be an exciting conference and close enough to be affordable.
Submitted by Dorothy Barr
MCB Librarian
Ernst Mayr Library
Harvard Universtiy
The MAHSLIN Network News co-editors, Sally Gore and Cara Helfner, welcome your suggestions and submisstions of news, updates and educational opportunities that you wish to share with the MAHSLIN community. Cara will be editing the Summer edition of the newsletter, so please contact her via email if you have anything you would like to contribute.
We look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting on April 24!