MLA Distance Education

Finding Work-Life Balance: Strategies for You and Your Institution

MLA's Educational Webcast
Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m., central time

Presenters

Joyce Backus

Joyce E. B. Backus is deputy chief of the public services division at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The division is responsible for NLM's interlibrary loan, DOCLINE, preservation, collection management, main website, and MedlinePlus. Backus has been with the NLM since her 1985/86 Fellowship and served in many roles including reference librarian, systems librarian, web team leader, and head of the reference and web services section. Backus first telecommuted in 1996, using a Pentium 133 and 28.8b modem. Since then, both she and NLM have upgraded their technology and connectivity, and she continues to telework about one day a week. Since 2000, she has supervised dozens of teleworkers. She holds a master's of science in library science from the Catholic University in Washington, DC, and a bachelor's degree from Duke University.

Janet Crum

Janet Crum is head of collection management and systems at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)–Portland. She has been a department head for seven years, during which she has worked with work-life balance issues from both sides of the desk. As a manager, she helped develop the OHSU Library's telecommuting policy, which became a model for other departments on campus to use for their unionized employees. As head of systems, she worked with OHSU's information technology staff to ensure technological support for employees who telecommute. Finally, as an employee, Crum has held a demanding management position while raising a child, managing a variety of family demands, and still finding time for a few hobbies and some sleep.

Michelle Eberle

Michelle L. Eberle is the consumer health information coordinator (CHIC) for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region. With a position with a really neat acronym, she travels around New England educating librarians, health professionals, and consumers about National Library of Medicine resources and services. Currently, Michelle offers consumer health programs on consumer health librarianship, senior health, children's health, complementary and alternative medicine, Spanish resources, and workplace wellness. Eberle earned a master's in library and information science from Simmons College in Boston, MA, in 2000. Michelle graduated from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, with a bachelor's of arts in social work. After graduating from Simmons, Eberle worked as a hospital librarian at the Somerville Hospital, which is part of the Cambridge Health Alliance. At Somerville Hospital, she discovered her passion for consumer health librarianship by serving on the patient education committee. Eberle is the author of a Medical Library Association course, "The Healthy Librarian: Cultivating Wellness in the Workplace."

Jenifer Grady

Jenifer Grady is director of the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA), which fulfills two missions: supporting salary improvement initiatives and certifying library workers in specializations beyond their initial degree. ALA-APA supports librarians, support staff, and others who want to make a difference. Grady has a master's of science in library science and a master's in business administration. She facilitates certification programs, hosts salary-related programs, edits the ALA-APA monthly newsletter Library Worklife, and fundraises as ALA-APA has no membership.

Video-taped Presenters

Carol Ann Attwood, AHIP

Carol Ann Attwood, AHIP, is a medical librarian/registered nurse at the Patient and Health Education Library, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona. With a background in education, nursing and medical librarianship, she has been a strong advocate for health and wellness initiatives throughout her professional career. In her work in the consumer health library, she has served on many interdisciplinary committees in nursing and health promotion, which has helped her to collaborate on wellness initiatives in the Mayo Clinic Patient and Health Education Library for the organization's LiveWell program.

Lisa Marks, AHIP

Lisa Marks, AHIP, supervisor, Library Services, Health Science Library, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, Burbank, CA. Marks began working as a medical librarian in July 1991 after finishing her master of library science degree at San Jose State University, San Jose, CA. Her first job was as a reference librarian for Kaiser Permanente. She then moved on to work for the Audio-Digest Foundation in Glendale, CA. In February 1999, she began her current position at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, CA. Having settled with Providence, Marks has been involved with the Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona, a chapter of MLA, serving on committees and as treasurer, continuing education chair and president-elect. Marks is a member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.

Marks is married and lives with her husband and daughter in the San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles.

Gabriel Rios

Gabriel Rios is the deputy director at the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, University of Alabama–Birmingham. Since the late 1990s, Rios has worked with a variety of mobile technologies that enable office connectivity outside the office. Rios provides leadership and vision for budget and planning, public services, information technology, web presence, education programs, liaison programs, and outreach. He is also a member of MLA’s Taskforce on Social Networking Software and local technology-related groups such as Social Media Club of Birmingham and the Internet Professional Society of Alabama. Rios continues his support of emerging technologies by facilitating the use of technology to meet users where they are. He keeps his work-life balance through family activities and teaching kickboxing and group cycling classes.

Mary Ryan, AHIP, FMLA

Mary L. Ryan, AHIP, FMLA, has served as the director of the library, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)–Little Rock, since April of 1997. Previous positions she has held include executive director of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region, a program supported by the National Library of Medicine (NLM); chief, Technical Operations Branch, Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Library; assistant director for technical services, UAMS Library; and serials librarian, Tulane University Medical Center Library. She also worked for six weeks as a volunteer at the Midwives Information & Resource Service, London, UK.

Ryan has a master of library science degree from Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge (LSU) and a master of public health degree (with honors) from the UAMS College of Public Health. She is a recipient of the UAMS College of Public Health's Student Leadership Award, an NLM Medical Informatics Fellowship, and the South Central Chapter/Medical Library Association's (SCC/MLA) Distinguished Service Award, and she is the 2009 Distinguished Alumna from the LSU School of Library and Information Sciences. She is a Distinguished Member of MLA's Academy of Health Information Professionals, is an MLA Fellow, and is currently serving as president of MLA.

Smith College Libraries’ Wellness Group

Betsy Barone, Joe Bialek, Judy Biardi, Esther Boyer, Mia Brazill, Chris Hannon, Mimi Lempart, Trish Mailler, Barbara Polowy, and Marlene Znoy from Smith College will deliver a presentation.

Watch MLANET for more information! Or contact Debra Cavanaugh, mlapd3@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x32.