submitted by Tomi
Gunn
All releases are also available at www.mlanet.org/press/
May 1999
For more information, please contact Anne
Greenspan at 312/419-9094 x28
JOANNE BOORKMAN TO BE INDUCTED AS MLA FELLOW
JoAnne Boorkman, Head Librarian, Carlson Health Sciences Library, University of California at Davis, has been chosen as a Fellow of the Medical Library Association (MLA). The association chooses its Fellows based on their commitment to furthering MLA’s goals and for their contributions to the health sciences information profession.
One of MLA’s most outstanding leaders, Boorkman has served on MLA’s Board of Directors and on more than fifteen committees, chapters, and task forces. She is a former chair of the Collection Development Section and a past president of the Northern California and Nevada Medical Library Group (NCNMLG). Boorkman, a Distinguished Member of MLA’s Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP), was instrumental in the development of the Academy’s credentialing program. She is also a widely published author and along with MLA member Fred Roper, has co-edited multiple editions of the book, Introduction to Reference Sources in Health Sciences.
Boorkman will officially become a Fellow of MLA in May at the
Awards Luncheon and Ceremony at MLA ’99, MLA’s annual
meeting, in Chicago, IL. MLA is proud to induct Boorkman as a
Fellow and applauds her accomplishments as
a leader in the health information sciences profession.March 1999
For more information, please contact Anne
Greenspan at 312/419-9094 x28
1999 MLA SCHOLARSHIP AND GRANT RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED
The recipients of the Medical Library Association’s (MLA) 1999 grant and scholarship awards have been chosen. Award winners will be honored in May during MLA ’99, MLA’s annual meeting, in Chicago. MLA awards more than $15,000 annually to students and practicing health sciences information professionals. The recipients selected this year are:
Cynthia Lynn Ammons is the recipient of this year’s MLA Scholarship award. A student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and a graduate library assistant for a law firm, Ammons will receive a grant of $2,000 towards her education. The MLA Scholarship is awarded to a student entering an ALA-accredited library school or with at least one half of the requirements of the program to finish in the year following the granting of the scholarship.
Shirley Brooke, Library Associate, Flagstaff Medical Center, Flagstaff, AZ, is the recipient of this year’s EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant. The grant is sponsored by EBSCO Subscription Services and provides medical librarians with $1,000 to attend MLA’s annual meeting. Candidates for the award must have no fewer than two and no more than five years’ experience as a librarian and must complete a 200-word essay expressing why they want to attend the meeting. Brooke looks forward to attending MLA ’99, which she says will enable her to further her education in the field, increase awareness of others, and build a network of colleagues to whom she can turn.
For her project entitled, “Survey of Health Sciences Faculty Use of Library Computer Systems,” Catherine Graber, was chosen to receive the 1999 Research, Development, and Demonstration Project Grant. The grant provides support for research, development, and demonstration projects that will help to promote excellence in the health sciences librarianship and information science field. Through her project, Graber intends to survey the information-seeking behavior of health sciences faculty members, especially with regard to the faculty members’ readiness to switch from paper to electronic information formats.
Elena Leonova of Moscow, Russia, has been selected as the recipient of the 2000 Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship. Since 1991, Leonova has worked as a medical librarian with the Cardiology Research and Industrial Complex of Russian Ministry of Health in Moscow. The fellowship supports a four month program that includes observation and work experience in medical libraries throughout the United States and Canada as well as continuing education courses at MLA’s 2000 Annual Meeting. Recipients also receive stipends and travel allowances during the program.
Tomeka Oubichon, a student at Louisiana State University School of Library and Information Services, will receive the MLA Scholarship for Minority Students. Oubichon presently works as a monograph assistant at Tulane Medical Library. The scholarship of $2,000 is granted to a minority student entering or about to enter an ALA-accredited library school.
Established in 1996 by the Medical Informatics Section (MIS), the MIS/MLA Career Development Grant provides $1,000 to support a career development activity that will contribute to advancing the field of medical informatics. As a recipient of this year’s grant, Ruth Riley, Associate Director, Library, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AK, will attend the conference, Improving Health in a Digital World, which will focus on issues of privacy and consumer health information.
Gang “Wendy” Wu is also a recipient of the MIS/MLA Career Development Grant. Currently the Information Services Librarian for Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, Wu is one of the first in her university to produce library-related Web sites. With the grant, she will attend three two-day courses at the University of Michigan School of Information, where she hopes to learn cutting edge technological tools to remain progressive and to contribute to her university’s IAIMS program.
MLA congratulates all of this year’s scholarship and grant winners and wishes them continued success in the health sciences information profession.
March 1999
For more information, please contact Mary
Langman at 312/419-9094 x16
MLA TO CO-SPONSOR TELECONFERENCE ON COPYRIGHT LAWS IN THE NEW
MILLENNIUM
The Medical Library Association (MLA) will sponsor a video teleconference entitled “Copyright in the New Millennium: The Impact of Recent Changes to U.S. Copyright Law.” The teleconference will provide a forum to discuss two bills passed by the 105th Congress last year that will impact the health sciences information community. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is intended to update copyright law for the digital age in selected areas, and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act gives copyright owners an additional twenty years of copyright protection for their works.
The teleconference, co-sponsored by MLA, the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Special Libraries Association, will air on Friday, May 21, 1999 from noon-3:00 p.m. EDT. A distinguished panel of experts will review the specifics of the new laws, the effect the laws will have on libraries, archives, and educational institutions as they attempt to comply with the new law, and discuss strategies for the community.
Teleconference participants will also learn about a third piece of legislation, involving database protection, which did not pass last year but has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives this year. This bill could have a major impact on the way the research and education community works.
Participants of “Copyright in the New Millennium: The Impact of Recent Changes to U.S. Copyright Law,” may earn up to three MLA continuing education contact hours. The deadline for early bird registration is May 5. For site registration information, visit MLA’s Web site at www.mlanet. org.
March 1999
For more information, please contact Anne
Greenspan at 312/419-9094 x28
MLA SELECTS JUDITH MESSERLE AS MLA FELLOW
Medical Library Association (MLA) Past President (1986/87) Judith Messerle has been chosen as a Fellow of the (MLA). Messerle, Librarian, Harvard Medical School, Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA, will be inducted as a Fellow in May at the Awards Luncheon and Ceremony at MLA ’99, MLA’s annual meeting, in Chicago, IL.
An MLA member for more than twenty years, Messerle has had
an impact on many key MLA programs. During her presidency Messerle
contributed to the development of the association’s constitution,
MLA’s Strategic Plan and since 1989 has served on the Task
Force on Knowledge and Skills, which led to the publication, Platform
for Change, MLA’s educational policy statement. Also a past
president of the Association of Academic Health Science Library
Directors (AAHSLD), she is former chair of the Joint MLA/AAHSLD
Legislative Task Force. An accomplished author, Messerle
co-edited the popular MLA standard text, Hospital Library Management,
which earned her MLA’s Ida and George Eliot Prize in 1984.
MLA chooses its Fellows based on their commitment to furthering the association’s goals and for their contributions to the health sciences information profession. Many have benefited from Messerle’s accomplishments and dedication to the health sciences information profession, which is why MLA is proud to bestow this honor on her.
February 1999
For more information, please contact Carla
Funk at 312/419-9094 x14
NEW LEADERS ELECTED TO MLA BOARD
The voting members of the Medical Library Association (MLA) have selected the new president-elect, three members to the MLA Board of Directors, and nine Nominating Committee members for the 1999/2000 year. The elected officials will begin their terms in May 1999, at the conclusion of the MLA Chicago meeting. The health sciences information leaders chosen for the positions are as follows.
After one year in the president-elect position, J. Michael Homan, AHIP, Director of Libraries, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, will serve as president for the 2000/01 year. In his new position, Homan plans to work to attract new members to the association and forge new and long lasting alliances with affiliate organizations. A twenty-eight year member of MLA, Homan has served as editor of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association since 1995. A Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP), he has also served as chair of the Information Systems Task Force, Scholarship Committee, and the Section Council Advisory Committee.
The following three candidates have been elected to serve on the MLA Board of Directors for three year terms:
Julie McGowan, AHIP, Director, Dana Medical Library, University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care/Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, Burlington, looks forward to encouraging the involvement of each and every MLA member in her role as board member. She believes that the association must do so to ensure that its organizational goals meet individual needs. One of MLA’s most active members, she has served as chair of the Medical Informatics Section, Research Section, International Cooperation Section, and Bylaws Committee. McGowan is the recipient of many professional honors including the MLA Career Development Award in Medical Informatics, and the Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award.
As an MLA board member, Jocelyn A. Rankin, AHIP, Director of the Medical Library and Peyton Anderson Learning Resources Center, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, GA, hopes to encourage MLA members to use sound, practical, research in order to build a solid foundation for the profession’s future. Rankin has served on several MLA committees including the Nominating Committee, and the Grants and Scholarship Committee. Editor of the new MLA book, The Handbook of Problem-Based Learning , Rankin has received several MLA honors including Distinguished Membership in the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP), Ida and George Eliot Prize, and MLA’s Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award.
Jean Shipman, AHIP, Associate Director of Information Resources Management at the University of Washington, Seattle, feels that intellectual property rights management is the most critical issue facing the health sciences librarianship. A Distinguished Member of the AHIP, Shipman has served on many committees including the 2001 National Program Committee and the Governmental Relations Committee. Shipman has also served as chair of the Ida and George Eliot Prize Jury of the Awards Committee.
Also joining the board in May will be Nancy I. Henry, Health Sciences Reference Librarian, Pattee Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, elected Section Council Chair at the 1998 Annual Meeting, who will serve as Section Council Liaison. Henry is currently a member of several MLA sections including the Relevant Issues, Nursing and Allied Health, and Public Services Sections. A widely published author, she is also a recipient of the ISI/Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award for creating an researching the Human Nutrition Home Page on the HealthWeb internet site.
| Virginia M. Bowden | Dixie A. Jones | Julia Sollenberger |
| Karen A. Butter | Joanne G. Marshall | Kay Cimpl Wagner |
| Dottie Eakin | Debra C. Rand | Elizabeth H. Wood |
Complete text of candidates’ background and statements can be found on MLANET.
February 1999
For more information, please contact Sioux
Johanssen at 312/419-9094 x23
MLA RELEASES NEW INFORMATICS DOCKIT
With the increasing amount of information available, health sciences information professionals must know how to navigate this, sometimes conflicting, information efficiently. The challenge to these professionals and health science educators is to develop effective methods for teaching students the skills and tools of information management, or applied informatics. To aid in this process, the Medical Library Association (MLA) has recently released the latest in a series of DocKits, entitled DocKit #11: Informatics in Health Sciences Curricula.
DocKit #11 provides health sciences professionals with current examples of librarians’ informatics-related teaching methods. Compiled by MLA members Janis F. Brown, AHIP, Associate Director, Education Resources, University of Southern California, Norris Medical Library, Los Angeles, and Gale G. Hannigan, AHIP, Director of Informatics for Medical Education, Texas A & M University, College Station, the dockit also contains ideas for medical librarians and other educators involved in informatics curricula.
DocKit #11: Informatics in Health Sciences Curricula can be
ordered from MLA headquarters at a cost of $30 for members and
$35 for nonmembers, which includes shipping and handling. To place
an order, call 312/419-9094 x19,
e-mail mlafa@mlahq.org, or visit the MLA catalog on MLANET at
www.mlanet.org/publications/kits/dockits.html.
February 1999
For more information, please contact Carla
J. Funk at 312/419-9094 x14
J. MICHAEL HOMAN TO SERVE AS MLA PRESIDENT FOR 2000/01 YEAR
The ballots have been counted and results are in: Medical Library Association (MLA) members have elected J. Michael Homan to be the association’s new president-elect for the year 1999/2000. Homan, Director of Libraries, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, currently serves as editor of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (BMLA), MLA’s quarterly journal.
In the more than twenty-five years since Homan first joined MLA, he has proven to be a leader within the association as well as the health sciences information profession. As editor of BMLA for the past four years, Homan guided the start of the publication’s electronic evolution with the availability of the BMLA electronic table of contents.
A former MLA Board member, Homan has chaired numerous MLA committees including the Scholarship Committee, the Section Council Advisory Committee, the Information Systems Task Force, and the Pharmacy and Drug Information Section. He is also a Distinguished member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP).
Among the most important issues facing medical librarianship today, Homan feels that structural changes in health care delivery, rapid advances in information technology, and copyright and fair use of electronic information are some of the most critical.
“MLA has done a great job of responding to the major issues facing the profession and must make an even stronger effort as the association enters its next century,” he states. “We must also continue to build the MLA virtual association so important to reducing barriers, promoting collaboration, attracting new members, and serving as a model for the possibilities that abound in the networked environment.”
MLA congratulates Homan on his new position and looks forward to working under his leadership and guidance as it embarks on its second century.
February 1999
For more information, please contact Kathleen
Gaydos at 312/419-9094 x29
NEW EDUCATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE DEBUTS ON MLANET
The Medical Library Association (MLA) has made furthering continuing educational goals easier for health sciences information professionals by launching its new Educational Clearinghouse on MLANET. The clearinghouse benefits course developers, instructors and participants by providing a listing of courses approved for MLA continuing education (CE) contact hours.
The listing allows users to search for courses by subject, instructor, chapter region, course date, course title, course number, experience level, area of knowledge, or other key words. Updated monthly, the Clearinghouse, also provides CE event organizers with instructor information, approval expiration dates, participant levels, and course prerequisites.
Course developers who are interested in having their continuing education course approved or renewed by MLA will soon be able to obtain approval and renewal applications from the clearinghouse. A listing form will also be available for instructors who would like to list or update their already approved course on the clearinghouse. All forms will be downloadable as PDF files.
MLA’s headquarters staff together with the Continuing Education Committee, which coordinates the association’s continuing education efforts, spent months planning, organizing, testing, and designing the clearinghouse to make it as effective and informative as possible.
“MLA is proud to offer a tool that will allow health sciences information professionals to plan more effectively for continuing education and credentialing opportunities,” said MLA President Jacqueline Donaldson Doyle.
MLA’s Educational Clearinghouse can be found on MLANET.