Connie Schardt wouldn't be at PNC/MLA this year. Rather, she will be receiving the Mid-Atlantic Chapter Librarian of the Year award at the same time! Congratulations,Connie!

Western States Chiropractic College is taking applications for Assistant Librarian (32 hrs/wk; .91FTE). This is a faculty tenure-track position with rank. Responsibilities include audiovisual collection development and cataloguing, bibliographic instruction, reference, web page maintenance, and public access computer planning & organization. Applicants must have an ALA accredited MLS degree, several years of health sciences library experience, and OCLC cataloguing skills as well as knowedge of MeSH and NLM classification. Also required are bibliographic instruction, Internet, and online searching experience. The position will start January 4, 1998.

Please send cover letter, resume, and three references to:

Alan Toothaker, Director of Human Resources
Western States Chiropractic College
2900 NE 132nd Ave.
Portland, OR 97230-3099
(503)251-2819 Fax: (503)251-5723

[Originally posted June 3, 1997 on Hlib-NW]

In May ago I posed to this list the question "what are the 3 most pressing issues facing you as a medical librarian in this region?" Here's a summary of the responses:

I got 29 responses in 2 days. All were thoughtful; some downright eloquent. I got the feeling I had pushed a hot button for some.

16 respondents are in hospital/clinical settings; 12 in academic settings; 1 in a corporate setting.

Boiling many variations in theme down to nuggets, the 29 respondents indicated 2 very clear concerns that dominated all others. Each of these 2 had as many different shades and spins expressed as there were respondents. But, with some license, I think it's fair to lump them under these broad headings:

1. Managing and providing access to electronic information resources.

This (and it's many variations) was favored as #1 or #2 by 16 respondents -- 10 hospital and 6 academic. Variations ranged from licensing issues, to technical aspects of desktop delivery, to delivering resources to distant users, and all shades in between.

2. Managed care and downsizing/merging.

Again, many variations on this theme; some having to do with the bottom line focus of short-sighted administrators and others having to do with the implications of serving increasingly diverse groups of users, in long-term care facilities and home health care settings, for example. This one was favored by 11 respondents: not surprisingly, mostly (but not all) on the hospital side (8 to 3).

There was no clear choice for the 3rd spot. Technically, with 4 votes, "serials inflation/collection cuts" was a distant third.

We quickly drop to those that were mentioned twice: upgrading obsolete hardware/software, increasing funding from outside sources, meeting demands for consumer health information, and web site development/management/training.

There were many more unique responses. You can argue that any of these could be grouped in various ways but I ran out of time and energy to do so. Here's a sampling of them:

- the chokehold that commercial publishers have on libraries
- intranet development
- the continuing disintegration & fragmentation of knowledge resources
- changing and updating technical skills of library staff
- practice guidelines development
- too much focus on technology instead of users
- having to do more with less
- lack of professional contact with librarians
- security of library materials
- information systems are institution-based rather than patient- or even provider-based

For what it's worth, this biased sample provides a snapshot of what we as a professional group are thinking about these days. There is some diversity within a broad consensus of opinion, as you might expect; some small surprises perhaps but no big ones.

Neil Rambo

We are currently operating 4 separate library systems while trying to pretend we are one library on 4 sites. It isn't working. (slight understatement!!). We are planning to convert the 4 systems to one integrated system and I am interested in talking to anyone who has done a project like this. One system is MARC; the others are not. We are running: InMagic, Sydney Plus (2 sites), Columbia Library System. We want all data to be MARC format. If you've had experience with this pleases contact me directly. TIA, Kim

Kim Polvi, Manager
Acute Care Libraries
Calgary Regional Health Authority
Foothills Medical Centre
Phone: (403) 670-2496 Fax: (403) 670-1174
Kim.Polvi@CRHA-Health.Ab.Ca

Greetings all:
Grandchild number 8 arrived this morning (August 29th) at 4:29 a.m. today.
Brock Evan Werder. 8 lbs, 1 oz. That makes 4 grandaughters, and 4 grandsons - nice evem numbers.

William H. & Doreen Smith, Fairbanks, Alaska