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Press Releases

July 2009

MLA Releases Web-based Health Information Literacy Tutorial
MLA Honors Grant and Scholarship Recipients at MLA '09

MLA Releases Web-based Health Information Literacy Tutorial

The Medical Library Association (MLA) is happy to announce the availability of a new free, web-based health information literacy tutorial, Prescription for Information: Addressing Health Information Literacy. The Prescription for Information tutorial is for health care professionals and emphasizes the importance of health literacy and the challenges patients face with understanding medical terminology. The tutorial also helps participants recognize the impact that low health literacy has on patient care and learn about quality health information resources and strategies available to them and their patients. It also describes health literacy services provided by medical librarians.

The tutorial, developed by Gail Kouame, consumer health coordinator, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region, University of Washington-Seattle, is based on Putting Information into Health Literacy: The Health Information Literacy Curriculum, developed by Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi on behalf of MLA. Both the tutorial and health information literacy curriculum were produced as part of MLA's Health Information Literacy Research Project, funded under National Library of Medicine (NLM) contract HHSN276200663511/NO1-LM-6-3511, with co-principal investigators Jean P. Shipman, AHIP, FMLA, and Carla J. Funk, CAE. The curriculum was developed with input from more than 1,100 health professionals in the United States and Canada, who found the content of the session useful to their practices.

The free tutorial and two versions of the mediated curriculum are available on MLA's Health Information Literacy site.

The Medical Library Association, a professional nonprofit educational organization, comprises health sciences information professionals with more than 4,000 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.

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

MLA Honors Grant and Scholarship Recipients at MLA '09

Each year, the Medical Library Association (MLA) offers grants and scholarships to assist qualified students in graduate library science programs and enable practicing health sciences librarians to take advantage of opportunities for continuing professional development. The association is pleased to announce that the following individuals were recognized at the MLA '09 Awards Ceremony and Luncheon in Honolulu, HI:

Kristine Alpi, AHIP (MIS/MLA Career Development Grant)
Hasbullah Atan (Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship Award)
Naomi Broering, AHIP, FMLA (MLA Research, Development, and Demonstration Project Grant)
Lois Culler (Hospital Libraries Section/MLA Professional Development Grant)
Jamie Furrh (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant)
Andrea Harrow (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant)
Elaine Hicks (MLA Scholarship Award)
Sujin Kim (Donald Lindberg Research Fellowship)
Trey Lemley (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant)
Lauren A. Maggio, AHIP (Continuing Education Award)
Lisa Marks, AHIP (Hospital Libraries Section /MLA Professional Development Grant)
Stanslaus James Ngadaya (Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship Award)
Vivian Okyere (MLA Scholarship for Minority Students)
Mary Elizabeth Piorun, AHIP (David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship)
Heidi Schroeder, AHIP (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant)
Margarita Shawcross (MLA Scholarship for Minority Students, Annual Meeting)

Kristine Alpi, William Rand Kenan Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University-Raleigh, is this year's recipient of the Medical Informatics Section/MLA Career Development Grant which was established by MLA's Medical Informatics Section to support a career development activity that contributes to the advancement of the field of medical informatics. The grant will support Alpi's attendance at the Tenth International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML) and Sixth International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists, to be held August 31-September 4, 2009, in Brisbane, Australia.

The Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship Award provides funding for health sciences librarians from countries outside the United States and Canada to attend the MLA annual meeting and to observe and work in one or more medical libraries in the United States and Canada. This year's recipients were Hasbulla Atan, Library, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Stanslaus James Ngadaya, Library, Hubert Kairuki Memorial University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

MLA Past President Naomi Broering, AHIP, FMLA, is the 2009 recipient of the MLA Research, Development and Demonstration Project Grant. Broering, Library, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego, CA, will use the grant to evaluate the efficacy of converting an audiotape collection to CD format. The purpose of this grant is to provide support for research, development, or demonstration projects that help to promote excellence in the field of health sciences librarianship and information sciences.

Lois Culler, Health Sciences Library, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA and Lisa Marks, AHIP, Health Sciences Library, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, Burbank, CA, both received the Hospital Libraries Section (HLS)/MLA Professional Development Grant. This award, sponsored by the MLA Hospital Libraries Section, provides librarians working in hospital and similar clinical settings with the support needed for educational or research activities. Culler will use the grant for a research project to determine her library's educational needs. Marks used the grant to attend continuing education sessions at MLA '09 in Honolulu, HI.

Jamie Furrh, Andrea Harrow, Trey Lemley, and Heidi Schroeder, AHIP, received EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants for 2009. This scholarship is sponsored by EBSCO Information Services and enables MLA members to attend the association's annual meeting. Each year, awards of up to $1,000 for travel and meeting-related expenses are given to 4 librarians who would otherwise be unable to attend the meeting. Applicants must be currently employed as health sciences librarians and have between 2 and 5 years' experience in a health sciences library. Furrh, Gibson D. Lewis Library, University of North Texas Health Science Center-Fort Worth, attended MLA '09, his first MLA meeting where he submitted a presentation and networked with other librarians. Harrow, Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Library, Los Angeles, CA, also attended her first MLA meeting this year. She used the grant to network with colleagues and share information about health information literacy. Lemley, Biomedical Library, University of South Alabama-Mobile, attended the meeting to become more aware of the major issues facing the profession and to attend a continuing education course. Schroeder, Michigan State University Libraries-East Lansing, also submitted a poster presentation for MLA '09 and enjoyed networking with colleagues.

The MLA Scholarship is granted to a student who is entering a master's program at an American Library Association-accredited library school or who has yet to finish at least one half of the program's requirements in the year following the granting of the scholarship. This year's recipient, Elaine Hicks, School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is pursing her master's of library science degree with the intention of becoming a medical librarian.

Sujin Kim, School of Library and Information Science, University of Kentucky received the 2009 Donald A.B. Lindberg Research Fellowship. The fellowship, named in honor of Donald A.B. Lindberg, director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), supports individuals whose research will extend the underlying knowledgebase of health sciences information management or enhance the practice of the information professions, particularly health sciences librarianship. Kim will use the Fellowship to research automating the indexing of microscopic images appearing in peer-reviewed journals.

Lauren A. Maggio, AHIP, received this year's Continuing Education Award to attend the Harvard Medical School Macy Institute's "Program for Educators in the Health Professions." Being the first librarian to attend the program, Maggio, Medical and Knowledge Management Center, Lane Library, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, will forge a new path for the role of information literacy and health sciences librarianship in medical education. The MLA Continuing Education Award provides MLA members with the opportunity to develop their knowledge of the theoretical, administrative, or technical aspects of librarianship.

Vivian Okyere, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Rhode Island-Kingston, received the MLA Scholarship for Minority Students, which recognizes candidates who show excellence in scholarship and potential for accomplishment in health sciences librarianship. Okyere received the award for the hard work and dedication she has shown in the various library positions she has held and for her commitment to completing her master of library science degree.

The 2009 David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship was awarded to Mary Elizabeth Piorun, AHIP. The fellowship provides funding to allow a medical librarian to cover expenses involved in traveling to three or more medical libraries in the United States or Canada for the purpose of studying a specific aspect of health information management. Piorun, Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, will use the fellowship to support one of her doctoral projects, which is to travel to various libraries to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of the libraries' strategic plans.

Margarita Shawcross received the one-time MLA Annual Meeting Scholarship for Minority Students, which allowed the MLA student member to attend MLA '09 in Honolulu, HI. Shawcross is a library science student at the School of Library and Information Science, University of Denver, Denver, CO.

MLA, a nonprofit, educational organization, is comprised of health sciences information professionals with more than 4,000 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.

For more information, please contact Lisa C. Fried, mlapd2@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x28.