Banner and UAHN

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Although not final, the stage seems set for Banner Health to purchase the University of Arizona Health Network that includes both UAHN Tucson hospitals and the physician practice plan along with various clinics around the city.  The proposal would also make Banner Good Samaritan hospital in Phoenix the primary teaching hospital for the College of Medicine – Phoenix.  This merger will have an affect on our ability to license information resources for the two Tucson hospitals.  However there are many details to work out and we will be working closely with the Phoenix campus library, the UA main library and the university administration to address the complexities.  I will do my best to keep you informed as we learn more but feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

Sandy

Congratulations Sandy!

Sandy has won the Lois Olsrud Library Faculty Excellence Award!  Announced today at the University Libraries’ Library Faculty Assembly meeting, this award recognizes a library faculty member who has demonstrated sustained excellence in service to and/or collaboration with the primary customers of the Libraries resulting in significant benefit to the faculty, students research and/or other primary customers.  The award comes with a significant honorarium that can be used for professional enrichment such as workshops or other training opportunities, visits to other institutions, or travel to conferences.  As no award was given last year, two awards were given this year.  The other winner is Leslie Sult of the main library.

Diana, Research Support Report, Passing

Congratulations Diana

On Tuesday Diana and Jeanette were in Bethesda, MD at the National Library of Medicine for the capstone event of Diana’s Associate Fellowship, the 2nd Year Colloquium.  Diana presented a talk on her Fellowship project, “Outreach to the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona:  Bringing Health Information to a Behavioral health Community.”  This event brought the four Fellows and their preceptors together with staff from the NLM to review their projects and discuss the Associate Fellowship Program.

Research support planning

The research support planning group (Gary, Jeanette, Joan and Ahlam) continues to meet with researchers to gain a deeper understanding of their needs.  This week we met with the director of a Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP) and a basic science researcher in Pharmacy.

Dr. Krutzsch

We were sorry to learn of the passing of Dorothy Krutzsch, wife of Dr. Philip Krutzsch, one of the founding faculty members of the UA College of Medicine.  Dr. Krutzsch has remained a friend to the library in retirement.  We sent a condolence card on behalf of the entire staff.

Award, Conference and Thanks

Eleanor Johnson Award

Yesterday I was honored to present the Eleanor Johnson Award for Academic Excellence at the College of Medicine Awards Brunch at the University Marriott.  This year the award was given posthumously to Zachary Orman.  Zach died following a paragliding accident last year.  He has been described as one of the college’s finest students who hoped to become an emergency room physician.  His grandparents accepted the award and the stipend was deposited in the Orman Scholarship Fund.

Eleanor Johnson was a librarian here in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.  She had a long-standing interest in encouraging students and this award was established in her memory.

MLA

Gary, Jeanette, Mary R., Annabelle, Brooke, Diana, and Margot Natividad (KRI student) will be attending the annual meeting of the Medical Library Association now through Wednesday in Chicago.

Thanks Javad

Thanks to Javad for coming in at 6 AM on Tuesday to take delivery on new chairs.  The chairs were purchased with EPIC rent money and have been placed on the second through fourth floors.

Congratulations Jennifer!

Please join me in congratulating Jennifer Martin who has been promoted to Associate Librarian with Continuing status effective July 1.

Grand Opening Gala

Thanks to everyone who chipped in to make the VETS Center Grand Opening a success.  I think that we had between 75-100 people attending.  Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly took the time to stop and chat with a number of people including library staff.  All of the remarks were short and the ribbon cutting went without a hitch. Special thanks to Javad for working on the room setup, Linda for last minute sign design and printing and Tessie for photography. (my photos below)

Massive project completed!

In January, Dr. Garcia’s office asked us to compile a list of all of the journal publications coming out of the AHSC during 2013.  This was a massive and complex project.  Many thanks go to Ahlam for coordinating.  Nga, Mary Riordan, Hannah, Annabelle, Jennifer, Mari, Jeanette, Brooke, and Christy Wiles (a SIRLS student who works at the desk) all took certain colleges and/or departments and worked on significant portions of the overall project.  The results, 1545 article citations, were sent out on Tuesday.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to this project!