Please read the announcement below and start cogitating about who among us might be nominated for the Thomson Reuters/Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award. Has anybody developed a really neat Web service or Web tool or contributed to the scholarly corpus in such a way as to meet these criteria: 

1.       The nominee’s application of technology or theoretical work contributes to the science or knowledge of health sciences information transfer and delivery.

 2.    The nominee’s application of technology results in improved health sciences information transfer or delivery or facilitates the delivery of health sciences information.

Personally, I think the projects I work on, ScanGrants (which I ought to be working on right now–but that is between you and me) and ResearchRaven, meet the first criterion in a way. Your job is to say to the MLA “Nahh, Hope is all wet. Now MY application of technology is really something…” or “Give me a break, Hope. I have developed a tool that has so improved health sciences information transfer that you don’t stand a chance…” or “Yeah, right, Hope—I have come up with a tool that facilitates the delivery of health sciences information way more than you could dream of!”

The key thing is for us ordinarily shy and modest PNC members to get out there and nominate each other for these things. Think of all the librarianship journals you could subscribe to for 500 smackaroos. Or you could spend it on a plush hotel room at next year’s PNC/MLA annual meeting in Boise. At the very least you could talk to colleagues and say, “Okay—who has developed something really important?” That is the value of these awards—they get you to looking at your own services in a new ways and realize that they are way more way cool than you realized. Let’s show the other chapters what we can do. Note that the deadline for nominations is November 1, so there’s no time to lose.

Here is the announcement: 

Nominations are being accepted for the Thomson Reuters/Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the use of technology to deliver health science information, in the science of information, or in the facilitation of the delivery of health science information. The recipient will receive a cash award of $500 and recognition at the 2011 Annual MLA Meeting.  All nominations are due November 1, 2010. Visit  http://www.mlanet.org/pdf/awards/rogers_nom_20090714.pdf for more details and the nomination form. Contact Jonathan Koffel, Jury Chair (319-335-9731) or jonathan-koffel@uiowa.edu with questions.

Please join your colleagues for what will be an educational and fun-filled gathering!

Last week I took the plunge and registered for the meeting—here is where you can, too.

And you don’t have to be a PNC member to come. You could be an MLA member from another chapter. If any medical librarians have been thinking of relocating to the Pacific Northwest (and in the case of the PNC that encompasses Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska), here is a chance to talk to those of us who live and work here.

And library school students interested in exploring job opportunities in this region or who have not decided what kind of librarians they want to become and want to meet and schmooze with health sciences librarians to learn about their profession (and I can think of no more uniformly charming, skillful group of people than health science librarians—they are just so nice and so very smart!) will be welcomed with open arms.

You could also be a librarian from another branch of librarianship (say a librarian in academia or in a public library) who finds yourself having to answer health-related questions. PNC/MLA 2010 offers opportunities to brush up on medical topic search skills (there is a continuing education course, for instance, on Third-Party PubMed Tools) and learning all about the new actor of the consumer health scene, the e-Patient (there is a continuing education course on Online Consumer Health and Consumer-Driven Healthcare).

And librarians of all kinds find themselves upon occasion  (eeeeek! oh nooooo!) having to give talks. Luckily, there is a CE session on Creating Effective Presentations. Emerge from that workshop suave and calm and engaging and ready for any audience. No more nerves. Yesssss!

And every librarian in whatever setting would probably head straight for the CE workshop on Managing Information Overload. (Just think how much info there is in this the one blog post you are now reading–I have stuffed it full of links and that is just one blog post–think of everything else you will have to read and absorb today–missed any meetings so far this morning?)

And all of us librarians need to grasp what the explosion in mobile technology means for librarianship. Come hear what a group from Oregon State University has to say in their CE course, Services for Mobile Users. One part is an introduction and one is designed for those who can actually code—whatever your skill level these techno-aces have got you covered.

You can sign up for the whole conference (which is what I am did as I don’t want to miss a minute of it!) or just one or several of the CE courses. 

Decisions, decisions.

I am particularly looking forward to the presentation and roundtable on research for those of us interested in doing some in the field of health science librarianship (as PNC members know, I am constantly nagging them to publish, given that they do such neat things that could be written up in the scholarly literature).

And if travel/conference money is tight at your institution PNC members and PNC student members should consider applying for funding from the Professional Development Fund.

Check out this wording

The preferred deadline for submitting an application for the 2010 PNC/MLA meeting will be September 15, 2010, to take advantage of early discounts in registration and lodging. For 2010, there are funds for two member scholarships up to $599 and 2 student scholarships up to $250 for assistance with travel and lodging.

And if you got an award, that would not only help you attend the conference and learn a lot and connect with others in the region, it would be an award to add to your no doubt already impressive CV. What a deal, man! Good for the PNC for providing such funds. If you know any library school students, please let them know about this page.

And this wording,

The PNC Student Scholarship is designed to encourage students’ participation in the PNC Annual Chapter meeting. The PNC Board recognizes that meetings and courses are often cost prohibitive for students to attend. The aim of the fund is to improve access for future medical librarians in the PNC region and to equalize opportunities for attendance at programs and courses which improve the library student’s development.

Bear in mind this wording,

–Applicant must be a current student at an accredited library school.

–Applicant must be a current PNC member, or register to become a member of PNC before the chapter meeting commences.

As someone who recently graduated from library school and is active in the PNC, I would sure advise any library school student to get involved in the PNC. Talk about a nurturing, mentoring group for newbies. At the meeting, I will actually get to meet many of the people who have helped me with question after question about such matters as copyright, the world of grants for library projects, vendor relations, library technology, etc. etc. I have worked in more professions than I care to admit and I have never experienced such professional courtesy as I have known in the PNC. This will be my first meeting and maybe yours. Let’s do lunch at 2010 PNC/MLA.

And I was about to do that and blog about the process here, but I got distracted by reading through the announcement about student scholarships for that event and I thought selfishly, “Yay! A nice little item to put on our beloved ScanGrants.” So I did and here is what it looks like there.

I am always on the prowl for scholarships to list on ScanGrants and as a recent graduate of library school myself I have particular empathy for impecunious library school students interesting in exploring the wonderful world of medical librarianship. So kudos to the PNC/MLA for offering the scholarship  and to Chris Shaffer, of the Oregon Health & Science University Library for sending out the announcement to various places such as to the discussion list of the national MLA (here is what it looks like there) and to Judith Hayes of the Tuality Health Resource Center Hayes in Hillsboro, Oregon for serving so efficiently and selflessly as PNC/MLA Treasurer and handling the paperwork for the very worthwhile endeavor of the scholarship program.

And in this world of social media, we have to spread the word about wonderful things like scholarships. ScanGrants has a Twitter feed and the scholarship announcement got automatically entered into that and I tweeted the announcement on my own Twitter account.

It makes me really proud to be a PNC/MLA member to see that it nurtures the next generation of medical librarians.

I attended the MCMLA annual meeting in Cody, Wyoming in 2008 and as a library student then I was warmly welcomed but none other than then national MLA-president Connie Schardt who asked me if I was interested in serving on any MLA committees. I told her I had indeed just applied to serve on some and have since done so (and encourage you do so). It is quite fun and I am learning a lot by serving on the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section Honors Committee (more ways to learn about things to list on ScanGrants like awards for distinguished service), the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section Membership Committee (useful way to learn how sections keep track of who is actually a member), the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section Newsletter Committee (useful to learn how much work putting together a newsletter is), and the Technical Services Section Program Committee 2010 (good way to see how the program for the MLA annual conference is put together—and boy is that a huuuuge project).

Thus, good for the PNC/MLA for offering the opportunity to newbies in the health sciences librarianship field to learn about how the MLA works as an organization—not to mention the chance to attend edifying talks and skill building sessions. Check out the latest descriptions of the Continuing Education sessions for a start.

Our search and technology whiz Alison Aldrich is offering a workshop on Third-Party PubMed Tools. Boy, does that sound useful! Never hurts to keep up on the latest tools in medical literature search.

The registration page is here.  (That was what I had meant to get to before  I got off on the tangent of writing this post about the scholarship). Early bird registration ends September 25th at midnight. I am definitely going. I have never been to a PNC/MLA meeting before and I definitely want to make this one so as to meet and greet out little scholarship winner and say, “Have you chosen a great profession or what!?”

I went to the service for Dorothy in her hometown of Buffalo, Wyoming a few weeks ago and it was very moving to be in a packed church and to be among so many people who had known Dorothy all her life and who knew her long before we all were lucky enough to have done so. As I rode the bus into Buffalo late at night, there was a single star in the sky. It was gentle and radiant and welcoming and I think it was Dorothy. That was so like her.

I am very grateful to Linda Katz and Elizabeth Lund of the MLA News for sharing the news about Dorothy’s death with the rest of the MLA.

Here is the notice:

Dorothy O’Brien, former head of library services, Samaritan Health Services, Corvallis, OR, died May 12, 2010, after three years of coping with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with courage, grace, and good humor. She was sixty-six. According to numerous accounts, O’Brien personified the best of medical librarianship, with stellar search skills, an exceptional mastery of collection development and library management, and a keen interest in new technologies. According to Hope Leman, Center for Health Research and Quality, Samaritan Health Services, who worked with and was mentored by O’Brien, her “ability to find, sometimes under very short notice, a key sentence among the dozens of pages of a plethora of articles found via very sophisticated medical literature search methods . . . was an endless source of wonder.” According to Leman, O’Brien was charming, warm, and approachable and an “engaging raconteur,” a “shrewd bargainer with vendors,” and a “careful steward of library funds.” A longtime member of MLA’s Pacific Northwest and Midcontinental chapters, she will be remembered as a role model for health sciences librarians and for her determination and sunny disposition, even as she battled a serious illness.

As I rode through PNC and MCMLA country on that trip I recalled Dorothy recounting how librarians helped each out in person in the latter region. And as names of towns were announced  (like Kalispell, Montana where our friend and PNC member Heidi Sue Adams is a medical librarian—Heidi wrote an immensely touching recollection of Dorothy for Dorothy’s family) I thought how lucky relatively small communities like Corvallis are to have had such talented people as Dorothy applying their professional skills. I grew up in Corvallis and am grateful for that.

At the service, I got to meet Michlene Mankin, Medical Librarian of Campbell County Memorial Hospital of Gillette, Wyoming (who knew Dorothy well from Dorothy’s years there and would say whenever I called on an interlibrary loan matter, “We still miss her here!”).

I got to speak a bit at the service and managed to say (as it is hard to speak when one is very sad) what moving notes from librarians from all over the country came in after Dorothy died. Many of the writers said how proud she made all of us to be librarians. There was so much to admire in Dorothy as a citizen, friend, human being and family member that it took some doing to get in to say what a fine librarian she was! I said, “I am here today representing the MLA!”

As I travelled on the bus, I read through stacks of library-related periodicals (Searcher, Computers in Libraries, Online) and as I read an article in Searcher called, “Getting a Move On: Some Thoughts on Moving a Library Collection” by Walter Nelson.

I recalled that was of the first things Dorothy did when she came to Corvallis. One of our chaplains at the service for her at our hospital recalled touchingly how excited she was about undertaking that monumental project and how well she executed it. I came to the library long after that not really grasping how much work she had put into making the library such a pleasant, well-organized place. That was Dorothy for you, modest but accomplished.

And as I read through other articles I thought of the range of talents medical librarians need and how much I learned simply by watching Dorothy and doing what she said (and watching her tactfully set things right when I got befuddled). Heidi of the PNC and Michlene and Pat Hamilton of the MCMLA (who wrote me a sweet note saying that it showed how important Dorothy was to all of us that we were sending someone on an epic bus ride to her service!) and all of you are carrying on that tradition.

This leads me to ask the following of members of Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association (and librarians in general):

Have any of you have bothered to put together a Wikipedia page about your library? If not, what presence does your institution as a whole have on it? It seems to me that in these days of Twitter and Facebook Wikipedia is no longer the hot commodity for Web presence it once was (if it ever was).

Is Wikipedia passé as a marketing vehicle? Can it, indeed should it, serve as one? If not, why not?

And have you ever noticed major and/or dangerously incorrect statements in Wikipedia and did you bother to go in and fix that and did the fix stay?

Our membership committee includes 7 PNC members from different regions to help with renewals and gather news. Till now, communication by e-mail has been clunky and time-consuming, so we decided to try Webex. It was a happy experience, despite my first-time hosting anxiety, and last-minute arrival to the meeting thanks to a malfunctioning watch. In less than 3 minutes, I was able to dial in and access the meeting room. The others were already there, including one “on the road!” PNC does not have a 1-800 number for WebEx, so calling in will involve charges to your institution or will use your cell phone minutes; but joining the meeting by computer is free. WebEx guides you to adjust your computer’s speakers to hear the audio, and your microphone or headset with microphone so you can speak.

The program allows the host to share documents, their desktop, PowerPoints and videos, a whiteboard, or browser. The host can also make any other participant a presenter temporarily, allowing them to show the above, annotate a document or write on the whiteboard. I put our agenda, and a RegOnline membership snap-shot on the desktop for them to see. I was also able to go on the Internet, demonstrate where the PNC Blog is located on our website, and explore some of the Hope Notes so we could learn more about the Blog.  We decided that members should have ready information about using the blog to encourage  their contribution. 

Regarding WebEx, everyone agreed it provided a productive and informative meeting. They are keen to meet again next month aready!  If you would like to hold an online meeting to further PNC business, please contact one of your board members about WebEx.

More details about the meeting are available at http://pncmla.org/pncmla2010. A hotel reservation form is available via the PNC blog at http://www.consortiumlibrary.org/blogs/pnc/ and on the conference website.

If you are looking for fun things to do in Portland around the conference, check out TravelPortland or WWeek. Interested in what Portland has to offer for food? Check out Food Cart Finder, Chowhound, or one of a myriad of chocolate tours or happy hour sites (Portland Happy Hour, Portland Bar Fly, Happy Hour Guidebook, Unthirsty).

If you have questions about the meeting, please contact Dolores Judkins at judkinsd@ohsu.edu or Todd Hannon at hannont@ohsu.edu.

Laura

Laura Zeigen
Oregon Health & Science University

Things are really shaping up for a great conference. Kudos to the Annual Meeting Planning Committee for continuing to put together a great program and for working on providing quite specific details about the meeting. Indeed, they are providing so much detail that I think I had better sign up for the CE session, Managing Information Overload.

I have never been to an annual meeting. I will be a newbie. Any suggestions on how to get the most out of the conference, old hands? Comfortable shoes? Will there be hash tag for the conference for tweeting it?

There are so many things to look forward to at the conference. Here are several examples. I am looking forward to the poster session, the paper presentations and the STAT talks. I am really eager to hear what way cool things you have all developed and to steal your ideas (just kidding on that last part).

And it will be useful to hear the Medical Library Association update. I am on the newly formed Technology Advisory Committee, for instance, and that committee has been mucho busy with all kinds of things and, given my information overload problems, it will be useful to get a recap of all that. There has been steady work on improving the MLA’s own site itself, for instance. See here and here and here and for some info about some of the improvements that came from the implementation of the MLA’s Association Management System (AMS).

And we will get an RML update (always useful to gain a firmer grasp of the many services it offers to all of us) and one on the NLM. Given the increasing public interest in Open Access issues and the legislative activity on the Federal Research Public Access Act that should be a lively, edifying session.

And the conference will end with Invitation to PNC 2011—our hardworking fellow PNC member Liisa Rogers is already recruiting for members of the organizing committee for that. It will be a tall order to top the jam-packed program of the 2010 one. But the energy is infectious–I am getting so pumped! How about you?