March 1998

MLA RECOMMENDS INCREASE IN NLM FUNDING FOR 1999 FISCAL YEAR

The Medical Library Association (MLA) recommended that Congress provide an additional 15% increase in fiscal year 1999 funding for the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Marianne Puckett, AHIP, Associate Professor, Medical Library, Louisiana State University–Shreveport, testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on January 28. Puckett is chair of the Joint MLA/Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) Legislative Task Force and vice-chair of the MLA Governmental Relations Committee.

Emphasizing the importance of NLM services to the medical library community, Puckett gave MLA’s recommendations that included funding for basic NLM services and personnel, the NLM Outreach Program, and access to quality health care information.

Following Puckett’s testimony, Congressman John Edward Porter (R-IL), chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee, spoke highly of medical librarians and stressed their important role in providing quality health sciences information.

March 1998

MLA/NLM LEITER LECTURE BROADCAST VIA SATELLITE

Jean-Claude Guedon, Ph.D., professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, has been selected the MLA/NLM Leiter Lecturer for 1998. In honor of the Medical Library Association’s (MLA) Centennial anniversary, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and MLA are making the lecture available via satellite for the first time.

Titled, “The Digital Library: An Oxymoron? A Colloquium to Honor Medical Librarians,” the free teleconference is scheduled for May 12, 3-5 p.m. EST, and is expected to draw more than 3,000 viewers at approximately 200 locations across the United States and Canada.

Participants will be allowed to tape the conference, which in addition to the lecture will include a panel discussion featuring:

* Robert S. Braude, AHIP, Assistant Dean, Information Resources, Wood Medical Library, Cornell University Medical College, New York, NY
* Michele S. Klein, AHIP, Director of Library Services, Medical Library, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Detroit
* Lucretia W. McClure, AHIP, Librarian, Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY
* Judith Messerle, AHIP, Director, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.

For more teleconference information, please visit the MLA Web site, MLANET (www.mlanet.org) or contact Kathleen Gaydos, coordinator of continuing education at 312/419-9094 x29 or mlapd1@mlahq.org.