A post on posters

Congratulations Yamila and Mary
Mary Riordan and Yamila have had a poster accepted for the annual meeting of the Arizona Library Association in November. The meeting will be held here in Tucson and the poster will focus on finding reliable health information for diverse populations. Yamila has also had a poster accepted to the national REFORMA conference in Denver in the fall. The poster will focus on consumer health information for Latino populations and also look at resources that provide information on prescription drugs.

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.

Thanks Tessie, Welcome Yamila, the smell of carpet in the morning

Thank you Tessie!
Thanks to Tessie for organizing the staff picture, rounding up those of us who couldn’t be here for it and for putting together the nice collage. The photo will be useful for various promotional publications.

Welcome back Yamila!
Yamila El-Khayat a former Knowledge River Institute intern at AHSL and now a SIRLS graduate, has joined the outreach staff for a few months to participate with Annabelle and Brooke on the 3 border projects we are a part of:
-- Frontera Collaboration (with Texas and New Mexico academic libraries, and Pan American Health Organization)
--Promotoras project (aka Komen project)
--US-Mexico Border Centers of Excellence Consortium.
Yamila’s work is supported with grant funds.

New carpet smells
The new carpet tiles do not use any glue to hold them to the floor. There are small adhesive patches that hold them together. However there is still an odor generated from the carpet itself. The smell in my office has been less noticeable every day and, after two weeks, is not too bad. Expect to smell the new carpeting as it is put down in your area. Let the office know if you think you might need some accommodation.