Concurrent Session Program Themes

This diversity of thought-provoking programs coordinated by MLA sections, special interest groups (SIGs), ICML, ICAHIS and ICLC offers exciting opportunities for professional development. To submit a paper or poster abstract, review the instructions in the poster or paper FAQs, then begin the online submission process. Submission deadline is May 1, 2012.

List is organized alphabetically by name of primary sponsor (bold type). Numbers are to facilitate referencing the online abstract submission site drop down list and are not in numeric order.

Last updated April 13, 2012

	Primary Sponsor (followed by cosponsor sections and SIGS)	Program Name	Program Format	Contact
1	2013 National Program Committee (NPC) and 11th International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML), Consumer and Patient Health Information Section, Corporate Information Services Section	2013 NPC/ICML 1: Trustworthy and Authoritative Publicly Available Information	Contributed papers	Heather Todd
Would you trust your health to Wikipedia? The availability of publicly available information (free on the Internet) has mushroomed. Patients and care providers make extensive use of Wikipedia for general disease and treatment information. On what basis and under what circumstances can this information be trusted in a health sciences context? This session will explore the intriguing issues and challenges of trustworthy and authoritative publicly available information.
2	2013 National Program Committee (NPC) and 11th International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML), Collection Development Section	2013 NPC/ICML 2: New Methods of Publishing	Contributed papers	Heather Todd
Will the journal article remain the currency of the realm for the advancement and structured memory of science and medicine? This session will explore various aspects of publishing, preservation, and archiving in a world where Google-like products abound. Will all future textbooks need to be mobile-enabled and Kindle or iPad ready? Is there a place for highly structured information such as MEDLINE and other specialized databases and finding tools? How will the mediated services of highly trained and experienced librarians be best utilized in the future?
3	2013 National Program Committee (NPC) and 11th International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML), Veterinary Medical Libraries Section	2013 NPC/ICML 3: Global Data Sharing to Advance Science and Environmental Aspects of Global Health	Contributed papers	Heather Todd
This session combines two areas that are of emerging importance to libraries: global data sharing to advance science and environmental aspects of global health. The data sharing guidelines of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health in the United States offer potential opportunities for libraries in managing and curating research data. What role are libraries playing in managing and curating research data? Are institutional repositories as they are currently structured sufficiently robust and flexible for data management and curation? The environmental aspects of global health include issues of biodiversity and disasters. What roles do libraries play in this global area of interdependent and data intensive information?
4	Cancer Librarians Section	The Cancer Spectrum: Living, Surviving, and End of Life Issues	Contributed papers and invited speakers	Margaret Vugrin, AHIP
This session will explore the many facets of the cancer lifespan from diagnosis, to treatment, to survival, and then to end-of-life issues. We will address not just the cancer patient but the family as well because cancer is a disease that touches all. Cancer is not just a disease, we will attempt to humanize this diagnosis in order to help others understand the process.
5	Chiropractic Libraries Section, Consumer and Patient Health Information Section, Veterinary Medical Libraries Section, Complementary and Alternative Medicine SIG	Promoting Healthy Nutrition and Natural Remedies for Environmental Health and Wellness in Humans and Animals	Contributed and invited papers	Marcia M. Thomas
Balanced healthy nutrition serves as an important factor in human and animal diets and affects their well-being. Research has found that including essential vitamins, minerals, proteins, probiotics, and other vital nutrients into food can have a positive impact on overall health of all living organisms. People are now striving for their diets and diets of their house pets and farm animals to become more natural and organic. On the negative side, chemical additives in foods and industrial pollution, as well as regular use of pesticides and insecticides, affect the global environment to the degree that no longer can be ignored. What is the correlation of well-balanced nutrition and healthy environment, and human and animal wellness? What is the role of healthy foods and natural remedies, including herbals, in preventing and treating human and animal diseases, as well as reducing environmental toxins? How can the negative effects of environmental factors be controlled and minimized on national and international levels? This session aims to focus on discussion of these issues and to provide some good examples of librarians’ roles in finding the best available resources for promoting healthy nutrition, food and water safety, and consumer health and wellness in humans and animals.
6	Collection Development Section, Technical Services Section, Vision Science SIG	Open Access in Action: Trends, Policies, and Institutional Activities in Support of Open Information	Contributed and invited papers	Susan K. Kendall
This session will feature invited speakers who will provide a brief overview on the current landscape, trends, and policies in the United States and internationally that affect sharing and submission of government-supported research results, particularly in medicine and the health sciences. Contributed papers are invited that describe how librarians have embraced new roles, offered new services, or provided other expertise to help their institutions meet the requirements of government policies. Roles might include concerted efforts during the global “Open Access Week,” public access policy education or development at the institutional level, publication management services, establishment of open access electronic print archives, management of author funds, management of open access journal memberships, or other areas.
7	Consumer and Patient Health Information Section and Public Health/Health Administration Section, Hospital Libraries Section, Pharmacy and Drug Information Section, Relevant Issues Section	Health Literacy: Linguistic and Cultural Diversity	Contributed and invited papers	Christine Marton
Health literacy, as defined by Healthy People 2010, is “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” Such a skill set is vital to ensuring a healthy society and creating health equity. Conventional health information resources are predominantly written in English for print media such as pamphlets or digital media such as websites or applications (apps). However, society is increasingly diverse across language, culture, religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Therefore, not only does health information need to be easy to read for all levels of literacy skills, but must also be adapted to reflect our multicultural and multilingual society with simple and meaningful text, graphics, and layout. What are librarians and other information professionals in health organizations doing to address and overcome these barriers in their practice? How are we reaching out to diverse communities to meet their unique needs? How are we ensuring that this information is easy to access and understand? How do these decisions affect services like collection development? How do new technologies such as smart phone apps fit into the picture? Finally, how are these decisions being researched and evaluated?
8	Consumer and Patient Health Information Section, Library Marketing SIG, Outreach SIG	The Provision of Health Information and Health Care Services to an Aging Population with Chronic Health Conditions	Contributed and invited papers	Christine Marton
The provision of health information about chronic conditions for an aging population is timely. The US Joint Commission has placed an emphasis on improving patient–provider communication. Also, health literacy is now a component of several federal and state health plans. As we become an aging society, we need to consider providing health information to the elderly in a variety of health care settings: hospitals, chronic care facilities, seniors’ residences, the community, and home. Chronic health conditions are more prevalent in the elderly, but are also becoming prevalent in society at arge. We also must consider the information-seeking behavior and needs of the diverse, elderly population that is emerging, in terms of their ethno/cultural/racial identity and sexual orientation.
9	Dental Section, Medical Library Education Section, Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG, International Cooperation Section	Information Support for Our Researchers and Their Partners in Global Settings	Contributed papers	Ellie Bushhousen, AHIP
Biomedical care and research are becoming ever more global. Many US medical, dental, and veterinary schools have initiated global health programs providing clinical care and student training opportunities in health care settings worldwide. Programs in tropical medicine and global epidemiology are also on the rise. Researchers and clinicians are no longer restricted to working in their US-based offices, and research itself is becoming more global, with collaborative research projects crossing international boundaries. Providing information support to such a dispersed research community is a challenge. Libraries must improve their access to digital collections and educational resources at the point of need. This session highlights library projects that have developed innovative and practical methods to deliver information support to a global research community.
10	Dental Section	Stat!Ref Lecture: Exploring the Research on the Correlation of Oral Health and Other Diseases	Invited speaker	Ellie Bushhousen, AHIP
STAT!Ref annual lecture.
11	Educational Media and Technologies Section, Collection Development Section, African American Medical Librarians Alliance SIG	Education and Media: Creative Advice from the Media Experts	Contributed papers and invited speakers	Sheila Snow-Croft
Though films, models, interactive technologies, and other media types are an accepted part of most library collections and services, libraries today face the additional challenge of providing access to collections and resources that support diverse patron needs and take advantage of technological and educational developments. Faculty, students, and staff frequently seekg new ways to incorporate multiple types of media into presentations, projects, and other learning experiences. This session will offer a unique opportunity to gain creative insights into selecting and using media including audio, video, and imagery in new and innovative ways. Individuals from diverse backgrounds including public media, academia, and libraries will share their experiences with the selection and development of new media-related ideas and projects.
12	Educational Media and Technologies Section, Medical Library Education Section, Libraries in Curriculum SIG	One World: Online Education	Contributed papers	Sheila Snow-Croft
Opportunities for online education are abundant and quickly becoming a staple for higher education, but how are libraries and librarians responding to the high demand for online learning? Distance education programming connects students and teachers on an international level. Through online learning opportunities students also engage in online researching techniques, but where does the library fit in this model? Standard library orientation sessions, often offered to in-person students must be customized for online classes. This session seeks to answer questions such as how are librarians serving diverse online populations? How are libraries being integrated into online curricula? And what instructional strategies work well? This contributed papers session invites speakers with experience in integrating libraries into online education.
13	Federal Libraries Section, Clinical Librarians and Evidence-Based Health Care SIG, Complementary and Alternative Medicine SIG, Department of the Army Command Libraries SIG, Informationist SIG, Libraries in Curriculum SIG, Osteopathic Libraries SIG, Translational Sciences Collaboration SIG	The Role of Librarians in Evidence-Based Medicine	Contributed papers	Jane B. Pellegrino, AHIP
The program showcases mature and emerging roles of librarians in facilitating the transfer of medical evidence into practice. Roles can be collaborative, instructional, or analytical or include new technologies. Evidence-based medicine combines the best available evidence, values, or preferences of the patient and clinical best practices to make the best patient-centric medical decisions. Please describe how you do that in a manner that shows the value of the profession, has impact, or is unique in some way. We look forward to hearing from you!
14	Federal Libraries Section, Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section, Translational Sciences Collaboration SIG	Evidence-Based Health Policy	Contributed papers and invited speakers	Jane B. Pellegrino, AHIP
Many national governments are examining the use of systematic reviews and other research syntheses to form health policy. Forming these policies can be a complicated question due to political or financial realities, as well as media reporting and public perception. This program seeks to explore how librarians contribute to policy formation and decision making, either directly or indirectly.
15	Health Association Libraries Section, Medical Library Education Section, Library Marketing SIG	Partnering with the Public: Collaborating with Public Libraries	Contributed Papers	Mary A. Hyde, AHIP
Collaboration with public librarians and facility-based health educators can expand the outreach, utilization, and depth of health information, thus supporting local and global communities. Using our expertise, we can establish ourselves as a desirable business or community partner. Share your successes, tips, and lessons learned. What would you do differently? How do you determine objectives, funding, milestones, and measures of success? Would you do it again?
16	History of the Health Sciences Section, Chiropractic Libraries Section, Corporate Information Services Section, Complementary and Alternative Medicine SIG, Osteopathic Libraries SIG	The Role of Alternative and Indigenous Medicine in Global Health: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives	Contributed and invited papers	Susan Sanders, AHIP
Integrative therapies and traditional medicine based on theories, beliefs, and experiences that are indigenous to different cultures are practiced worldwide. Traditional medicines and therapies have been adopted by other populations outside of indigenous cultures as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This program intends to present a historical and contemporary overview of international practices to adopt traditional medicine and CAM modalities. We will look at best practices drawn from various settings such as hospitals, clinics, and other inpatient and outpatient facilities; consider historical elements such as trends and timeframes; and examine contemporary approaches to apply CAM knowledge to improve patients’ health. Papers and presentations for this session can be devoted, but are not limited, to different types of integrative therapies, such as indigenous medicine, herbal medicine, manual therapies (osteopathic medicine, chiropractic, etc.); the librarian’s role in searching for relevant evidence-based information on CAM; librarian involvement in clinical research on CAM; librarian collaboration with medical professionals and public health providers as a member of a health care team; and reference sources in general and electronic databases in particular that were or are being currently developed to provide professionals and patients with the best information on CAM and its effectiveness.
17	Hospital Libraries Section, Health Association Libraries Section, Clinical Librarians and Evidence-Based Health Care SIG, New Members SIG	Structuring Our Services for the Future in Health Care	Invited speakers and panel	Helen-Ann Brown Epstein, AHIP
What will the future of health care look like? How can we structure our services so that we remain relevant to the systems that employ us? Can the United States learn anything from countries that have socialized medicine? What will the role of the medical library be post–health care reform? This program aims to find some answers to these questions and more as we face our brave new world together.
18	International Clinical Librarian Conference, Corporate Information Services Section, Public Services Section	International Clinical Librarian Conference 1: Quality Assurance for Clinical Librarians, Informationists and Embedded Librarians	Contributed papers	Sarah Sutton
You do not have to be a member of MLA or a clinical librarian to submit a paper to this session. (The International Clinical Librarian Conference is not a membership organization, it is a conference on a theme.) How do you demonstrate your usefulness to your users and organizations? Can your team show an impact on critical incidents, patient safety, length of stay, reduction of costs, or any other key indicator? Papers by international attendees or on international themes will be welcomed.
19	International Clinical Librarian Conference, Corporate Information Services Section, Pharmacy and Drug Information Section, Research Section, Institutional Animal Care and Use SIG, Library Marketing SIG	International Clinical Librarian Conference 2: Emerging Roles for Health Librarians and Finding New Information in Novel Places	Contributed papers	Sarah Sutton
You do not have to be a member of MLA or a clinical librarian to submit a paper to this session. (The International Clinical Librarian Conference is not a membership organization, it is a conference on a theme.) This session could include working with different groups of practitioners, such as corporate staff and allied health professionals, or using and evaluating nontraditional resources including open access, open content, and apps. Papers by international attendees or on international themes will be welcomed.
20	International Clinical Librarian Conference, Pharmacy and Drug Information Section, Institutional Animal Care and Use SIG	International Clinical Librarian Conference 3: Practicalities of Searching for Clinical Librarians, Informationists, and Embedded Librarians	Invited panel	Sarah Sutton
Panel with invited speakers, discussing methods of constructing search strategies or filters for difficult topics and tricks of the trade from expert searchers. The panel will also take questions from the floor on solving searching problems.
21	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists, Veterinary Medical Libraries Section	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists 1: Exploring the History and Development of the One Health Concept	Invited speakers	Trenton Boyd, AHIP, FMLA
Invited speakers will discuss the origin of One Health from the veterinary perspective.
22	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists, Veterinary Medical Libraries Section	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists 2: Surveying Current One Health Initiatives	Contributed papers and invited speakers	Trenton Boyd, AHIP, FMLA
An invited panel of international veterinary librarians or contributed paper presenters will speak on the One Health events, programs and initiatives in their country or world region.
23	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists, Veterinary Medical Libraries Section	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists 3: Animal Health Librarians Collaborating Globally	Contributed papers	Trenton Boyd, AHIP, FMLA
This will be a very broad contributed papers session that explores librarian roles in breaking down discipline barriers and encouraging interprofessional interactions and respect through educational programs and library services. Examples of relevant topics include librarians working across species, specialty, and discipline differences to further One Health/One Medicine; librarians in different countries, regions, and cultures working to promote research; education and teaching supporting One Health/One Medicine; and librarians following a One Health perspective to provide information and resources in environmental (natural and man-made) disasters or zoonotic disease.
24	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists, Veterinary Medical Libraries Section	International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists 4: Using Modern Technologies to Share Animal Health Information Globally	Contributed papers	Trenton Boyd, AHIP, FMLA
This is a contributed papers session in which presenters discuss ways in which they are using technology to improve sharing of animal health information following a One Health perspective. Examples of relevant topics include using smart phones, telecommunications, telemedicine, distance learning, microwave transmitters, and so on in situations such as environmental (natural and man-made) disasters or zoonotic outbreaks; using new technologies to overcome geographic and spatial barriers for improved delivery of One Health/One Medicine information; and using technology to digitize and make available information for teaching, learning, and research in a global setting.
25	International Cooperation Section, Corporate Information Services Section, Federal Libraries Section, Public Health/Health Administration Section	Healthcare Information For All (HIFA 2015)	Contributed and invited papers	Alicia Livinski
The Healthcare Information For All (HIFA) 2015 campaign was launched in 2006 at the 10th Congress of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa. The goal states that, by 2015, every person worldwide will have access to an informed health care provider. A key activity of medical and health sciences librarians is providing reliable, trustworthy, and timely information to all—regardless of location, language, or ethnicity. This session will highlight examples of how libraries and information professionals are working to improve access to health and medical information, overcome varied challenges and barriers, and share innovative and unique partnerships and programs from both the developing and developed world that are supporting health care professionals, public health workers, and researchers. These populations in the developing world—and in domestic rural, poor, and underserved areas—are in particular need of access to current and reliable health and medical information to provide quality health care and public health services. This session will interest those working in the United States with Native American, minority, urban, or rural populations and other underserved groups, but also for those working to close the information access gap in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
26	Leadership and Management Section, History of Health Sciences Section, Medical Library Education Section, Technical Services Section, Libraries in Curriculum SIG, Outreach SIG, Osteopathic Libraries SIG, Veterinary Medical Libraries Section, International Cooperation Section	Collaborations for Health	Contributed papers	Erinn Aspinall, AHIP
This session will highlight innovative and unique partnerships that have enhanced and/or expanded traditional roles of medical libraries, such as those related to clinical and translational research, e-science, and electronic health records. Partnerships that are international or interdisciplinary in nature or that support collaboration between libraries and other institutions or associations are of particular interest. In keeping with the One Health theme, speakers should emphasize how the collaborations have supported librarians as equal participants to advance the desired outcome of the partnership, be it clinical care, health sciences and medical education, outreach, information seeking, publishing, advocacy, leadership, or other strengths of medical librarians.
27	Medical Informatics Section, Educational Media and Technologies Section, Hospital Libraries Section	Top Technology Trends VI	Contributed papers and invited speakers	Douglas Varner, AHIP
Technology trend spotters will speak about the latest issues in technology and provide their opinions and thoughts on their impact on health sciences libraries. This session will be a quick-paced and interesting discussion among the panelists and contributed paper authors, along with the aid of a Google jockey searching and highlighting the topics. Bring your mobile devices and participate in the program online as a Twitter jockey will summarize each panelist’s thoughts, fostering the online discussion. Make sure to stay to the end of the session to take advantage of the Technology Petting Zoo, where you will be able to touch and play with the latest technology tools.
28	Medical Informatics Section, Medical Library Education Section, Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG	Linked Data: Lessons Learned from International Bioinformatics Hubs	Contributed papers	Douglas Varner, AHIP
Bioinformatics hubs such as the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and Ensembl have demonstrated how possible it is to link data across multiple sites by creating unique as well as shared identifiers for genomic and protein sequences, literature, and annotations. Linking other types of information across platforms and websites is facilitated by numerous data ontologies that define and describe data and facilitate linking through semantic web frameworks. Librarians are experts at developing ontologies and educating users in finding data. This program is a showcase for projects involving semantic web concepts that have facilitated linking information across the web, regardless of geographic boundaries. Examples: VIVO and other researcher networking projects that use linked open data for resource and collaboration discovery, linking of literature data to the electronic health record, linking of datasets to literature in institutional repositories.
29	Medical Library Education Section, Leadership and Management Section, New Members SIG	Educating for the New Jobs Now: From Library Education to Professional Development and Beyond	Contributed papers	Jodi Philbrick
What knowledge, skills, and abilities do we need for the new and nontraditional roles we will face in the future? How can we prepare individuals in a world of part-time employment, distance employment, consulting, and other nontraditional environments? There is a need to educate our communities of practice on new and creative ways to support and enrich a well-rounded workforce, and this session will feature contributed papers that focus on educating information professionals at the master’s level and beyond, including mentoring, professional development, certifications, and doctoral work.
30	Medical Library Education Section, Research Section, New Members SIG	New Voices in an Interdependent World	Contributed papers (students only)	Jodi Philbrick
Current master’s degree and doctoral students and recent graduates (within one year) will contribute papers on their emerging research. Presentations will illustrate how new and future librarians are linking what they learned in the classroom with current practice in the field of medical librarianship.
31	Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section, African American Medical Librarians Alliance SIG, Libraries in Curriculum SIG, International Cooperation Section	One Need: Supporting Nursing and Allied Health Education and Practice in a Diverse World	Contributed papers	Stephanie Schulte
International migration of nurses and allied health practitioners is a significant challenge facing health care in many countries. Health care professionals’ education and skills can vary widely across national boundaries, and access to information resources can vary widely as well. Many nursing and allied health students are studying or working abroad, which presents challenges for how librarians can prepare them for practice. This program will showcase how librarians support nursing and allied health education and practice in an increasingly diverse, interconnected world, including unique challenges presented by health care professionals moving between developed and developing countries.
32	Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section, Veterinary Medical Libraries Section	Around the World in Sixty Minutes: A Fast-Paced Primer on One Health	Invited speakers	Stephanie Schulte
According to the One Health Initiative, “the One Health concept is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment.” Its vision is to “improve the lives of all species...through the integration of human medicine, veterinary medicine, and environmental science.” Although these ideas can be simply stated, putting them into practice is quite complicated and has significant implications for education, policy, and practice. This fast-paced session is aimed at all who are interested in learning more about One Health and its implications for health information and medical libraries. It will include quick demonstrations of numerous websites that illustrate the One Health concept and how it is being implemented in practice and education as well as how libraries are supporting it. The format is loosely based on the Special Library Association’s recurring program called “60 Sites in 60 Minutes.”
33	Pharmacy and Drug Information Section, International Cooperation Section	AccessPharmacy Lecture: International Collaboration Between Health Schools	Invited speaker	Courtney Mlinar
This session will discuss international collaboration between health education schools and its impact on global health literacy, information resources, librarians, students, and faculty.
34	Pharmacy Drug Information Section and Leadership and Management Section, Library Marketing SIG	Enabling and Enriching Transnational and Interprofessional Collaboration	Contributed papers	Courtney Mlinar
The health sciences are becoming an increasingly interdisciplinary and interdependent field. Health sciences librarians are well poised to support clinicians, students, researchers, and practitioners as they work toward common goals. This program seeks to highlight librarians who have successfully navigated the complexities of bringing together professionals in disparate fields of study to work toward common goals. Librarian-led projects that connect like-minded researchers across organizations are also of interest. Contributed papers that detail formal programs that support interprofessional or transnational collaboration are encouraged. Speakers should be prepared to share (1) how were the common goals identified, (2) how the library became involved, (3) what the specifics of the partnership are, (4) what specific outcomes are, and (5) what lessons were learned or what their recommendations are for others.
35	Public Health/Health Administration Section, Informationist SIG	The Role of Librarians/Informationists in the Systematic Review	Contributed papers	Elaine R. Hicks
Calling all librarians/informationists who write systematic reviews! Come to this session to share your practices for managing the process of systematic reviews. Based on your experiences, what do others need to know? What is the role of librarians/informationists in systematic reviews of public health programs and practices? How are systematic reviews advancing the library and information science discipline? Are librarians/informationists informing the direction of medical and public health education competencies with their information practices? If you have systematic review experiences that can inform participants about this information practice in an interdependent world, please consider submitting an abstract.
36	Public Services Section, Federal Libraries Section, Medical Library Education Section, Medical Informatics Section, Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG	Integrating Our Expertise: Engaging Our Partners in Resources at the Bench or at the Point of Care	Contributed papers	Kelly Thormodson
This program will investigate how librarians have integrated themselves into clinical, point-of-care, and research settings, particularly focusing on the technological aspects of this integration. This includes novel ways that librarians have embedded resources into the electronic health record, communication links from clinician to librarian in clinical systems, contributions to order set development, and integration of resources or expertise into laboratory systems, including electronic laboratory notebook systems.
37	Relevant Issues Section, Technical Services Section, African American Medical Librarians Alliance SIG, Library Marketing SIG, Outreach SIG	Librarians as Partners in Addressing Health Disparities	Contributed papers	Patricia Devine
The movement to identify and eliminate racial and other health disparities is increasingly interprofessional and international in scope. Medical librarians are particularly well positioned to play a key role in this effort. While a growing body of evidence indicates that racial and other health disparities persist, data also suggest that increasing clinician awareness can decrease these disparities. Resources and literature related to many aspects of health disparities are still frequently underutilized and poorly identified. Medical librarians can play a primary role in identifying, organizing, and disseminating these resources to clinicians and other professionals engaged in regional, national, and global initiatives to eliminate health disparities. Contributed papers for this session will include ways to work with other professions, identification of resources, and roles for librarians in addressing health disparities.
38	Relevant Issues Section; Research Section; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Health Science Librarians SIG	Just the Facts Ma'am, Just the Facts: How Data Collection and Ethics Intersect in Eliminating Health Disparities	Invited speaker and contributed papers	Patricia Devine
The 2011 US Department of Health and Human Services standards for collection and reporting of data—which included lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) populations for the first time—are intended to help federal agencies refine their population health surveys in ways that will help researchers better understand health disparities and zero in on effective strategies for eliminating them. An invited speaker will address this issue. Librarians' emerging roles in data collection, management, and sharing make them valuable partners in this effort. Additionally, librarians’ own research about health information-seeking behavior can benefit from these added data. Data is a key feature in ethical concerns for librarians that come into play when they face misleading public discussion or ideas or when they are asked to research something medically dubious, such as reparative therapy. Ideas based on prejudice or superstition can very easily become accepted as fact or basic assumption. What happens when the data or research that a librarian can provide counter that or provoke hostility? Proposals for presentations are invited about things that could range from the effects of bigoted public ideas about LGBT people in health provision, to pressures some librarians have felt about providing accurate consumer health information for politically loaded topics, to difficulties in serving a marginalized people in the face of public prejudice such as the Roma in Europe or undocumented persons in the United States.
39	Research Section, Informationist SIG	Cultural Differences in Scholarly Practice: Diversity in Creation, Dissemination, Use, and Abuse of Intellectual Output	Contributed and invited papers	Terrie R. Wheeler
Research, and the resulting creation and use of knowledge, occurs worldwide, and the culture and legality of ownership of information are very diverse. This session invites presentations from many countries and perspectives on understanding the diversity of attitudes toward reuse of information, exploring plagiarism and its sequelae, and advising or training students, researchers, and practitioners to prevent accidental misuse. Reviews of systems designed to identify abuses, emerging roles for those who detect and respond to abuses of intellectual property in academia and research, editorial work, technology transfer, and related topics are welcome.
40	Research Section, Medical Library Education Section, Public Health/Health Administration Section	Librarians as Researchers: Practicing What We Preach in Scholarly Publications	Contributed and invited papers	Terrie R. Wheeler
Do librarians follow their own advice about scholarly publication practices? Do they publish their findings in indexed journals or proceedings, provide access to their publications, and perform citation analysis of their own works? Topics for contributed papers in this session may include the behavior of librarians as authors in their own literature and as coauthors in systematic reviews, and clinical or research studies. Practices for consideration include, but are not limited to, presence of librarian-authored or coauthored works in institutional repositories, evidence of negotiation of author agreements, review of licenses and contracts for key library journal and book publishers, librarian publishing in open access journals, posting of preprints from librarian authors on their own sites or the staff publications section of their library websites, critical appraisal and summary of the literature that perpetuates the discussion of library research, and tracking of the impact of publications through citation alerts and assessment of citations or links to published work.
41	Technical Services Section, Leadership and Management Section, Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG, Research Section	Leading by Design, Not Default: Focused Direction in Support of the User	Contributed papers	Latrina Keith
Leading and managing by design is vital in molding the overall user experience. Measured and customized approaches to leadership and management can result in healthier workplaces, improved library operations, and, ultimately, enhanced services and resources to support library users. This session will focus on initiatives and research that have resulted in improved or enhanced user services as a result of conscientious direction and leadership, new and innovative workflows, focused staff development, and careful evaluation of processes, services, and products. Contributed papers may include, but are not limited to, discussions of initiatives such as patron-driven acquisitions, discovery layer experimentation for exposing library resources, workforce development and support of a nontraditional workforce, resource description and access (RDA), and usability testing. Papers may address management theories and practices that were used to guide initiatives, research, and evaluation methods; implementation processes and outcomes (both for the organization and the user); and recommendations for others embarking on similar projects.
42	Veterinary Medical Libraries Section, Institutional Animal Care and Use SIG	People, Animals, and the Environment: One Health Interactions and Perspectives that Enrich Our Lives and Our Work	Contributed papers	Esther Carrigan, AHIP
This is intended to be a very broad contributed papers session covering topics from animal welfare in the lab, in the home, or in disasters to zooeyia, the positive benefits to human health from interacting with animals. Other topics under this umbrella could include environmental enrichment for laboratory animals, humane animal treatment, information on the Animal Welfare Act, librarian involvement with animal welfare in biomedical research (history, current activities, future trends, translational medicine including therapies moving from one species to another, environmental discoveries impacting disease etiologies), and research on disease-resistant micro-organisms and its potential One Health implications.
43	Veterinary Medical Libraries Section, Public Services Section, African American Medical Librarians Alliance SIG, Institutional Animal Care and Use SIG, Library Marketing SIG, New Members SIG	Librarians at Work: Building a One Health Perspective	Contributed papers	Esther Carrigan, AHIP
This is intended to be a very broad contributed papers session that explores librarian roles in breaking down discipline barriers and encouraging interprofessional interactions and respect through educational programs and library services or that explores the integration of librarian expertise into different professional contexts. Examples of relevant topics include: interprofessional informatics education, systematic review services, library-sponsored social and educational events, librarian involvement in institutional research committees (institutional animal care and use committee, institutional review board); librarian involvement with animal welfare in biomedical research (history, current activities, future trends, roles for librarians in searching for alternatives or developing research protocols, and collaboration to make a difference in One Health); work across geographic, species, and disciplines differences; and librarians in different fields, cultures, and specialties to further One Health/One Medicine.

© 2011-13  Medical Library Association  |  Privacy  |  Copyright  |  Site Info