Annual MLA Meeting

Medical Library Association

On Sunday Jennifer presented a paper at the Annual Meeting of the MLA. The paper, co-authored by Jennifer, Sandy and Dr. Marion Slack from the College of Pharmacy, described a role-playing approach to teaching how to search scholarly literature. Jennifer spoke to a full house and answered several questions – a very successful presentation.

Brooke, Annabelle and Jeanette were co-authors, along with several other people, of a paper presented by Keith Cogdill from the University of Texas, San Antonio. This paper described the Frontera Collaboration, our collaborative project on border health information involving Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

Jennifer presented another paper on Tuesday, this one co-authored by Dr. Marie Chisholm-Burns, Sandy and several others. Her presentation described the process of carrying out a systematic review of the pharmacy literature looking for evidence of the effect of pharmacists as team members on patient care. Again this was a very full room and Jennifer answered several questions and spoke to some audience members after the talk.

Also spotted at MLA were Clinical Education Librarians Kathleen Carlson from ASU, Marni Ditmar from TMC, Sally Harvey from Good Samaritan/Banner Health and Kathy Zeblisky from Phoenix Children’s Hospital. (Please let me know if I missed anyone.)

The meeting included many interesting papers and plenary speakers. I hope that those who attended can share what they learned with everyone else. I think everyone who attended has returned with new ideas, new information and new energy!

Authors! Artwork??

Congratulations Sandy, Jennifer M., and Joan
Sandy, Jennifer Martin and Joan have coauthored a paper with Marion Slack from the College of Pharmacy and Jim Martin from the Main Library. The article titled, “Effectiveness of a Liaison Program in Meeting Information Needs of College of Pharmacy Faculty” was published in the January 2011 issue of Medical Reference Services Quarterly and describes the use of focus groups in measuring program effectiveness. The article can be downloaded at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a932726497~frm=titlelink

Congratulations Jeanette and Jacque
Jeanette and Jacque are co-authors on an article in the MLA News that describes the Tribal Connections/Four Corners 2010 Conference in Gallup, NM. Yamila, Jacque, Jeanette and Gary were among the many participants in this meeting. I can’t post a link because the newsletter is available to members only but the library has a subscription as do many of the librarians.

New “Artwork”
Check out our new wall hanging in the office – you can’t miss it. It’s a large poster listing our Mission, Values and Strategic Directions. We’re hoping that it will serve as a constant reminder of our goals for the coming year(s).

Posters, posters, posters, 24/7, Reception

Research Day
On Wednesday the AHSC presented the “Frontiers in Biomedical Research” Poster Forum on the AHSC plaza. AHSL was represented by two very nice poster presentations. Jennifer Martin and Sandy Kramer displayed their poster describing a literature-searching project in the College of Pharmacy. Our second poster presented work done on the Frontera Collaboration for border health by Annabelle, Brooke, Yamila and Jeanette. You can see Jennifer and Sandy’s poster on our website at:
http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/about/presentations.cfm and I’m sure that any member of the Frontera team will be happy to share their poster with you. Thanks to everyone who made this event a success!

Collegiate Showcase
As part of Homecoming weekend the Health Sciences Center is presenting a “collegiate showcase” on the AHSC plaza today from 1-3:30 PM. The exhibit will feature posters from many organizations on the AHSC including the library. With short notice Yamila and Mary R. put together a beautiful poster representing the library. Stop by the plaza after our staff appreciation luncheon to see it. Thanks to everyone involved in getting this done!

Dr. John Palmer
Thanks to Nga for putting together a wonderful poster celebrating the life and career of Dr. John Palmer. Dr. Palmer will be receiving the UA Honorary Alumnus Award over Homecoming Weekend. You can see the poster in the glass cases, just outside the library entrance, near the doors at the top of the exterior stairway.

24/7 study area?
The request we get most from students is for longer hours. Many newer library buildings include a room with a separate entrance that is available 24/7 with no supervision. We are starting to explore the possibility of creating a 24/7 study area in room 2101, the Java City area. By closing off the room with a movable partition across the library side in the evenings and giving access from the hallway with a card swipe we may be able to meet the student’s needs. We are considering installing security cameras and perhaps employing a staff person if additional security is needed. We are working with Facilities, Risk Management, UAPD, UMC Security and ITS on this proposal. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please pass them along to any ATeam member.

Exhibit reception
Dr. Witte will be hosting another reception to publicize the exhibit, Creating a Community of Questioners for the Future. The reception will be held on Wednesday, October 27 from 4-6 PM. I’m sure that library staff will be welcome to attend.

WeSearch, Four Corners

WeSearch
This year AHSL again coordinated and presented the WeSearch Institute in collaboration with the UA School of Information Resources and Library Sciences (SIRLS). Annabelle and Yamila worked with Sandy Littletree from SIRLS to provide a week of training for local high school students. Here is an update from Annabelle.

“I just wanted to give you a brief update on last week's activities. As you know we wrapped up the WE Search Institute week last Friday (7/30) with a wonderful celebration event held here at AHSL. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge and thank Javad, Tessie, Katie, Valerie, and Mary R for helping us get us through the week. Principally with patron and visitor traffic flow with respect to the fourth floor. We had approximately 20 family and friends of the students and program supporters attend the event to hear the presentations, meet the mentors, and learn about WE Search.

This year we will be partnering with Desert View High School, the other Sunnyside Unified School District high school. Our main contact at Desert View is Richard Montaño who recruited seven exceptional 11th and 12th graders. We have a few students who identify as American Indian, a key component of the program we lacked in the last two years. We have three great KR Mentors as well - Azul Gomez, Natalia Phillips-Portillo, and Andrea Goodrich.

. . . Here are a few highlights [of the weeks schedule]:

- We worked on public speaking and presentation skills for their health topic powerpoints.
- We focused on evaluating health information websites, as well as searching for health information resources related to Hispanic and American Indian health.
- We discussed health disparities in Hispanic and American Indian communities.
- We toured two Tucson neighborhoods with distinct SES characteristics. (To illustrate issues around health disparities.)
- We looked at community resources for health fair planning and community development. (They will take an active role in the Refugee Health Fair in October.)
- We toured the following information environments:
Mary Givins - Teen Librarian, Martha Cooper Branch Library
Aaron Valdivia - Branch Manager, El Pueblo Branch Library [Guest Lecturer]
Lynn Flance - Librarian, VA Hospital
Merlin Spiller- Arizona State Museum
Joe Labuda, Library Director - Pima County Community College West Campus
Alexandra "Alex" Rivera, Outreach Librarian - UA Main Library (UAL)
Roger Myers, Special Collections - University or Arizona Libraries (UAL)”

Thanks to everyone involved for a really great effort that lays the groundwork for these students to have a productive and educational year.

Four Corners
Last week Gary, Jacque, Jeanette and Yamila attended a meeting of the Tribal Connections Four Corners (TC4C) group in Gallup, NM. Before the meeting, Jeanette and Yamila visited the Hard Rock community on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. It was quite a drive from the Albuquerque airport to Hard Rock and back to Gallup. However it sounds as if some good relationships were formed. Yamila and Jeanette have been invited back. AHSL is helping the community with their walking club project with support from the TC4C and the Midcontinental Regional Medical Library (RML) in Salt Lake City.

The Gallup conference was supported by the RMLs at UCLA, Houston Academy of Medicine and the University of Utah. The purpose of the meeting was to review the accomplishments of the TC4C collaboration and to plan for the future. We heard from an excellent panel of a doctor, health educators and a librarian who work on the Navajo reservation, at the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the Laguna, NM public library. We also visited the HIS Hospital in Gallup that includes a hogan and sweat lodge used in traditional Navajo healing.

Kudos to Outreach, Harmony

Kudos for our Outreach Program
Last week I was asked to do a presentation about our Outreach projects at the Regional Medical Library (RML) in Los Angeles. The RML provides support for our efforts through a contract. I narrowed my presentation down to about five of our activities. The response was overwhelming. All of the library representatives attending the meeting were very impressed. The RML included a summary of the presentation when they described their program to representatives of the National Library of Medicine. I was just the messenger and the credit goes to Pat, Jeanette, Annabelle, Mikel, Mary R. and many others who have helped out.

Harmony
Congratulations to Tessie who has two photographs in the current issue of Harmony, the humanities magazine of the AHSC! One of her photos is misidentified as a drawing thanks to the incredible special effects she used. We have several copies in the office if you’d like to see one and a copy should soon be on the shelf in special collections.

Jeanette's article, Fred, Computer Consultants continued

Publication
Congratulations to Jeanette who has had an article published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association titled, “AZHealthInfo: a collaborative model for supporting the health information needs of public health workers, public librarians, consumers and communities in Arizona”, JMLA 95(3): 349-351, July 2007

Fred
At the recommendation of the Dean, President Shelton has awarded Librarian Emeritus status to Fred Heidenreich in recognition of his 36 years of service to the university.

Computer support changes
On Thursday I will attend the first of a series of meetings to plan for the implementation of the Computer Consultants’ report. Beginning in September there will be weekly meetings to decide what sort of organization will be created to support computing needs in the College of Medicine.