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Press Releases

January 2008

MLA Awarded Second Elsevier E-Library Training Grant
Results of 2008/09 MLA Election Are In! Connie Schardt, AHIP, to Serve as MLA President-elect

MLA Awarded Second Elsevier E-Library Training Grant

The Medical Library Association (MLA) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $35,000 grant by the Elsevier Foundation, to continue the association's successful e-library training initiative, that is part of MLA's Librarians without Borders,SM (LWB) program. The funding will also provide for the further development and deployment of an e-mail training course, providing a less expensive channel for participants, who live in countries where distance and resource constraints prevent workshop attendance, to receive training.

In January 2007, MLA received an $80,000 Elsevier Foundation grant to fund the LWB e-library training program. The grant supported one distance education course, development of new training modules, and eight 4-day workshops on the use of HINARI/AGORA/OARE (HOA) - related training materials in Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nigeria and Tanzania, which resulted in significant increases in usage of HINARI. The HINARI program, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and major publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to one of the world's largest collections of biomedical and health literature. It is one of the principal projects designed to bridge the health information gap between developing and industrialized countries. To view summaries and photos of 2007 e-library training workshops or to learn more about MLA's Librarians without BordersSM initiative, visit MLANET at www.mlanet.org/resources/global/.

About MLA
MLA, a nonprofit, educational organization, comprises health sciences information professionals with more than 4,500 members worldwide. Through its programs and services, MLA provides lifelong educational opportunities, supports a knowledgebase of health information research, and works with a global network of partners to promote the importance of quality information for improved health to the health care community and the public.

About HINARI
HINARI (Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative), is a UN-based initiative providing online access to the major journals of the biomedical and related social science fields, without charge, to public institutions in developing countries.

About AGORA
AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture), established by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization provides researchers, policy makers, educators, technical workers and extension specialists with access to high quality information in agriculture and related fields.

About OARE
OARE (Online Access to Research in the Environment), is managed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Yale University in association with the International Association of Science, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), 35 leading science and technology publishers and 100 of the world's most prestigious scientific societies, associations, and foundations.

About Elsevier Foundation
"The Elsevier Foundation strives to enrich and improve the quality of life for people worldwide by supporting the advancement of, and access to, scientific, technical and medical knowledge. The Foundation makes grants to institutions around the world, with a focus on support for the world's libraries and for scholars in the early stages of their careers. Through gift-matching, the Foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities.

The Elsevier Foundation is funded by the Elsevier, the leading global publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services.

For more information, please contact Carla J. Funk, CAE, funk@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x14.

Results of 2008/09 MLA Election are In! Connie Schardt, AHIP, to Serve as MLA President-elect

The Medical Library Association (MLA) is pleased to announce the results of its 2008/09 election held in December 2007. Connie Schardt, AHIP, Medical Center Library, Duke University, Durham, NC, was elected to serve as MLA president-elect. In addition, three new members of the MLA Board of Directors and nine new members of the MLA Nominating Committee have been selected. The elected officials will assume their new roles at the conclusion of MLA '08 in Chicago, IL, May 16-21, 2008.

For over twenty years, Schardt has been one of the association's most dynamic leaders. Her selection as president-elect is the third time Schardt has been elected by her peers to serve the association on a national level. Just before assuming the role of president-elect, Schardt will finish her three-year term as a member of the MLA Board of Directors.

In 1997, she was elected by MLA members to serve on the 1998/99 Nominating Committee. In addition, she has lent her talents to the association by serving as chair of numerous committees both nationally and regionally including MLA's Center of Research and Education (CORE) Task Force. She served her region as chair of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association from 1995-1996.

In 2006, Schardt, a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals, received the prestigious 2006 MLA Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award, which honors outstanding practicing librarians in the field of health sciences librarianship and informatics who demonstrate skills in areas such as teaching, curriculum development, mentoring, and research. She was also chosen as the Mid-Atlantic Chapter's 1997 Librarian of the Year.

On being chosen as president-elect, Schardt stated, "I am honored and pleased to be elected to the leadership team of the Medical Library Association. It's an exciting time for MLA and I hope to build on the initiatives of President Mark G. Funk, AHIP, and President-elect Mary Ryan, AHIP. The challenge will be to take these ideas and opportunities and turn them into knowledge and tools that will help us all do our jobs better and strengthen our community of health sciences librarians. I expect to work hard and have some fun along the way."

Also elected to fill three openings on the MLA Board of Directors are: Jane Blumenthal, AHIP, Health Sciences Libraries, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Julia Kochi, Digital Library and Collections, University of California-San Francisco; and Beverly Murphy, AHIP, Medical Center Library, Duke University, Durham, NC. Judy Burnham, Biomedical Library, University of South Alabama-Mobile, will also be joining the board, having been elected in May 2007 as Section Council liaison.

Each year, MLA members elect nine candidates to serve on the association's Nominating Committee. The MLA Nominating Committee's important role is to annually prepare a slate of at least two nominees for president-elect and for each expiring board of director term. Each year, MLA's immediate past-president serves as chair of the incoming Nominating Committee. MLA's 2006/07 President Jean P. Shipman, AHIP will guide the following newly elected members of the committee:

Ysabel R. Bertolucci, AHIP
Ellen Gay Detlefsen
Sandra G. Franklin, AHIP
Charles J. Greenberg
Elaine Russo Martin
Gerald (Jerry) Perry, AHIP
Chris Shaffer, AHIP
Julia Sollenberger, AHIP, FMLA
Michelle Spatz

MLA is a nonprofit, educational organization with more than 4,500 health sciences information professional members worldwide. Founded in 1898, MLA provides lifelong educational opportunities, supports a knowledgebase of health information research, and works with a global network of partners to promote the importance of quality information for improved health to the health care community and the public.

For more information, please contact Evelyn Shaevel , mlaedo1@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x15.