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Annual Report 2003/04

International Cooperation Section (ICS)

Goal 1: Recruitment, Membership, and Leadership in the Profession: The ICS Membership Committee and ICS members continue to be advocates for the section, nationally and internationally, and liaisons were identified for better communication with IFLA and EAHIL.
The Cunningham Fellowship Itinerary Committee planned and scheduled visits to a variety of institutions for the 2004 Cunningham Fellow.
The ICS Bylaws were revised to include descriptions of duties for elected officers and to allow MLA Fellows, who have been ICS members, an exemption from payment of ICS dues upon retirement.

Goal 2: Lifelong Learning: The ICS Program Committee planned an excellent program for MLA '04. The program "International Cooperation: The Power of Sister Libraries" will feature two invited speakers and two contributed papers. The session will focus on international sister library partnerships. Velta Poznaka, director of the Medical Research Library of Latvia, will discuss how the International Cooperation Section's Sister Library Initiative helped her Eastern European National Medical Library in Latvia. Glendine Smith, director of the Holberton Hospital Medical Library in Antigua in the West Indies, will discuss her Sister Library relationships with the Biomedical Library at the University of South Alabama. Lenny Rhine will provide an overview of health-related partnerships between libraries in the industrialized countries with those in developing countries. Michael Dowling, director of the American Library Association International Relations Office, will provide an overview of ALA's promotion of Sister Library Arrangements.

Goal 3: Creating and Communicating Our Knowledge: The ICS Website was completely revised in preparation for hosting by MLANET. The ICS Web editor initiated contact with the MLA Web editor to plan for the migration of the Website to MLANET. This new Website will communicate current information by providing links to membership list, revised Bylaws, Sister Libraries' Initiative report, and the newsletter. The ICS email list is being used extensively to communicate member news, discuss important international issues, and ICS board actions and decisions. The email list is kept current with new section members added by email list manager.

Goal 4: Building a Network of Partners: ICS' objective for this goal was: To advocate international medical librarian relations and to explore relationships with health science library associations outside the United States. To encourage and assist MLA to actively partner with other library associations, nationally and internationally, to be actively involved in plans for providing assistance to international libraries in need of emergency aid, whether intellectual or material. To work towards accomplishing this objective, ICS members have official liaison duties with IFLA and EAHIL and routinely communicate international news and events via the ICS email list. To specifically improve international relations, ICS forwarded a motion to the MLA Board proposing a bilateral agreement between the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) and MLA. This motion will be discussed at the May 2004 MLA Board meeting.

MOTION

This report is informational and requires no action by the Board of Directors

Section Officers:

Amy Butros (Chair)
Donna Flake (Chair-Elect & Program Chair)
Carole Gall (Section Council Representative)
Jie Li (Nominating Committee Chair)
Jill Mayer (Bylaws Chair)
Rick Ralston (Email List Manager)
Justin Robertson (Web Editor)
Ellen Sayed (Newsletter Editor)
Helen Seaton (Cunningham Fellowship Itinerary Chair)
Vislava Tylman (Secretary/Treasurer)
Jan Willis (Membership Chair)

Respectfully Submitted by Amy Butros (ICS Chair 2003-2004)