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August 2010

MLA Awards Grants and Scholarships at MLA '10

MLA Awards Grants and Scholarships at MLA 10

Each year, the Medical Library Association (MLA) awards grants and scholarships to deserving students and practicing health sciences information professionals. The association is pleased to announce that the following recipients were recognized at the Awards Ceremony and Luncheon on May 24, 2010, during MLA '10 in Washington, DC:

Catherine Mary Boss, AHIP (Research, Development, and Demonstration Project Grant)
Keith W. Cogdill, AHIP (David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship)
Kathryn Elliott (MLA Scholarship)
Shelagh Genuis (Thomson Reuters/MLA Doctoral Fellowship)
Rienne Johnson, AHIP (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants)
Elizabeth J. Kiscaden (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants)
Joanne Gard Marshall, AHIP, FMLA (Donald A. B. Lindberg Research Fellowship)
Michele Mason-Coles (MLA Scholarship for Minority Students, Annual Meeting)
Petros Demilew Miskir (Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship for 2010)
Marie-Therese Mitri (Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship for 2010)
Marie K. Saimbert (Continuing Education Award)
Maria Tan (MLA Scholarship for Minority Students)
Susan A. Warthman, AHIP (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants)
Andrea Wright (EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants)
Lin Wu, AHIP (Continuing Education Award)

Catherine Mary Boss, AHIP, Medical Library, Jersey Shore Medical Center, Neptune, NJ, received her certificate at MLA '10 as the 2010 Research, Development, and Demonstration Project Grant winner. This grant provides support for research, development, or demonstration projects that help to promote excellence in the field of health sciences librarianship and information sciences. Boss will distribute a questionnaire to discharged patients and library patrons to analyze library services. The results will be used to improve library services at Jersey Shore Medical Center and garner future ideas for the medical library.

Keith W. Cogdill, AHIP, Health Sciences Center at San Antonio Libraries, University of Texas-San Antonio, received the 2010 David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship. The Kronick Fellowship, established in 2002, awards one $2,000 fellowship annually to cover the expenses involved in traveling to 3 or more medical libraries in the United States or Canada, for the purpose of studying a specific aspect of health information management. Cogdill will travel to 3 Florida medical libraries connected to medical schools to assist him in research to plan a new medical school library.

Kathryn Elliott received the 2010 MLA Scholarship, which grants up to $5,000 to a student who is entering an American Library Association (ALA)-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. Elliott, a student at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, looks forward to a career as a health sciences information professional and will use the scholarship to further her studies and foster her prior experience in the field of medical genetics.

The Thomson Reuters/MLA Doctoral Fellowship, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, awards $2,000 to foster and encourage superior students to conduct doctoral work in an area of health sciences librarianship or information sciences and to provide support to individuals who have been admitted to candidacy. The award supports research or travel applicable to the candidate's study within a 12 month period. The award is given every other year and may not be used for
tuition. Shelagh Genuis, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta-Edmonton, Canada, received this year's award to conduct research on the subject of women's health. Her study is titled, "Making Sense of Changing and Evolving Health Information: Navigating Health Information in Everyday Life."

Rienne Johnson, AHIP, Elizabeth J. Kiscaden, Susan A. Warthman, AHIP, and Andrea Wright received the 2010 EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants. The grants are sponsored by EBSCO Information Services and enable MLA members to attend the association's annual meeting. Each year, grants 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. With the grant, Johnson, Health Sciences Library, Trinity College of Nursing, Rock Island, IL, a solo hospital librarian had the opportunity to network and learn from other medical librarians in the field. Kiscaden, Mercy Medical Library, Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa, Mason City, IA, was able to benefit by the scholarship and garnered new ideas for improving hospital library services and updating and marketing the solo library she works for. Warthman, Peters Health Sciences Library, Rhode Island Hospital-Providence, used the opportunity to connect with fellow medical librarians and attend and participate in chapter meetings as she is assuming a new position for the North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries this year. Wright, Baugh Medical Library, University of South Alabama-Mobile, benefited by the scholarship and participated in a variety of learning activities. One goal was to be able to attend the 2011 National Program Committee meeting held during MLA '10.

Joanne Gard Marshall, AHIP, FMLA, School of Library and Information Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was awarded the honor of receiving this year's Donald A. B. Lindberg Research Fellowship. With the fellowship, Marshall proposes to research a project titled, "The Value of Library and Information Services for Patient Care," and seek to document the value and impact of hospital librarians in clinical decision making. The Lindberg Fellowship, established in 2003, provides a grant annually to fund research aimed at expanding the research knowledgebase, linking the information services provided by librarians to improved health care and advances in biomedical research.

The MLA Scholarship for Minority Students, Annual Meeting is a one-time award. This year's winner, Michele Mason-Coles, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, St. John's University, Queens, NY, used the award to attend MLA '10 and participate in numerous learning opportunities at the meeting to further her goal of working as a health sciences librarian.

Petros Demilew Miskir and Marie-Therese Mitri received the 2010 Cunningham Memorial International Fellowships. Miskir, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was able to study at host library sites in Washington, DC, and Connecticut and attend a variety of learning seminars and a continuing education class at MLA '10. Mitri, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon, studied at two library sites in Houston, TX, and Baltimore, MD, and participated in two continuing education courses at MLA '10. The Cunningham Fellowship is a fellowship for health sciences librarians from countries outside the United States and Canada and provides for attendance at the MLA annual meeting and observation and supervised work in one or more medical libraries in the United States and Canada.

MLA Continuing Education Awards of $100 to $500 are granted to MLA members to develop their knowledge of the theoretical, administrative, or technical aspects of librarianship. Marie K. Saimbert and Lin Wu, AHIP, received the 2010 awards. Saimbert, George F. Smith Library, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Newark, used her grant to participate in a continuing education course on systematic reviews. Wu, librarian at the Health Sciences Center Library, University of Tennessee-Memphis, was able to update her knowledge of evidence-based medicine through an online course offered through the School of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Maria Tan, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta-Edmonton, Canada, received the 2010 MLA Scholarship for Minority Students. This scholarship provides up to $5,000 to a minority student entering an American Library Association (ALA)-accredited library school or with at least one-half of the requirements of the program to finish in the year following the granting of the scholarship. Tan plans to become a medical librarian.

MLA is a nonprofit, educational organization with more than 4,000 health sciences information professional and institutional 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 Lisa C. Fried, mlapd2@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x14.