MLA News Selected Articles

September 2001

MLA Board Approves Research and Initiatives Adolescent Health Gateways Spotlight Your Link in the Health Care Chain by Celebrating NMLM!

The MLA Board of Directors held its spring meeting at the Walt Disney World® Dolphin Hotel, Orlando, FL, on May 24–25, 2001, and its organizational meeting on May 30, 2001. Following are summaries of significant actions taken by the Board of Directors and a list of issues currently being studied. The next board meeting will be held September 20–22, 2001, in Chicago. All meetings of the MLA Board of Directors are open to members, with the exception of executive sessions, in which matters discussed could affect personal or institutional privacy. For further information, please contact Executive Director Carla J. Funk, CAE, 312.419.9094 x14; funk@mlahq.org.

Significant Actions and Discussions

Organizational Issues

• Adopted Quality Information for Improved Health as the MLA vision statement.
• Approved that, upon retirement, active members of the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP), who have at least ten years of continuous academy membership, may request emeritus status in the academy.
• Approved using three dues categories, reduced from five, as the basis for institutional dues. The categories are determined using library operating budgets instead of the number of journal subscriptions.
• Dissolved the Benchmarking Task Force with thanks for all of the task force members’ hard work and established a Benchmarking Network Implementation Task Force, chaired by Debra Rand, AHIP, Health Sciences Library, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY, to define and develop output measures and evaluate the success of networking efforts.
• Accepted the report of the Mentoring Program Task Force and charged the Executive Committee to assign recommendations from the report to appropriate organizational units, with particular emphasis on promoting through MLANET and recognizing additional mentoring activities through other MLA communications vehicles. The task force was dissolved with thanks for a job well done.

Research

• Approved a charge to the MLA/Pew Credible Information Task Force to:
  • serve as consultants to the Pew Internet in American Life Project Team
  • review design and analysis of the Pew project survey
  • develop an MLA “best practices” document and a list of best Websites
  • explore surveying MLA members about consumers’ use of the Web for health information
• Adopted a charge for the MLA Informationist Task Force to plan and implement a special two-day invitational conference to be held in spring 2002 in Washington, DC. It was noted with thanks that NLM has provided a $50,000 grant to support planning for this conference.
• Established the Lindberg Research Fellowship, named in honor of Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D., with the first award scheduled for 2002 or 2003.
• Agreed that a strategic business plan would be developed for the Center of Excellence in Health Information Education.

Relationships with Other Organizations

• Heard a report from Carla J. Funk, CAE, about the August 2001 International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) conference in Boston, including plans for a reception at Harvard’s Countway Library for MLA members attending the conference.
• Declined ALA’s request for support to fight the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). MLA members will be given information about donating individually to the CIPA fund. MLA already supports cooperative legislative activities through the Shared Legal Capabilities Collaboration.

Reports Presented

• Recruitment to the profession and the Diversity Recruitment Project
• Compensation study (formerly the MLA Salary Survey)
• Sister Library Initiative
• National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences (NCLIS) from NCLIS Executive Director Robert Willard

Information about the health of adolescents can be difficult to find, because it is often classified under preventive care or public health. The medical conditions most commonly associated with adolescents are usually preventable and include accidents, violence, pregnancy, substance abuse, and other risky activities. Prevention more often occurs in communities than in medical settings.

The “link” poster was distributed at MLA 2001 and in the June/July MLA News.

Answering consumers’ questions and calming their fears, providing physicians and nurses with information that directly impacts a patient’s treatment—these are just a few of the vital services that you as health sciences information professionals provide, demonstrating on a daily basis your critical link in the chain of delivering quality health care.

This October marks the fifth anniversary of National Medical Librarians Month (NMLM), created by the MLA Board of Directors. Take advantage of this nationwide spotlight on your profession to generate and increase awareness of your services and to show the positive impact that medical librarians have on society.

If you have begun planning your celebration, keep up the good work and encourage your colleagues to do the same. The success of your NMLM observance begins and ends with you. If you have not planned to celebrate NMLM, consider taking the time to organize a breakfast or luncheon event at your library or create a flyer or bookmark for distribution in your area. Using this celebration to highlight your value can positively affect not only you and your library, but your colleagues and the profession as well. Below are a few ideas for reaching out to the many different patrons you serve.

For Consumers

• Host a consumer health information day and publicize the event in local newspapers. Distribute flyers throughout the community in places such as public libraries, health clubs, and community colleges. Provide a tour of your library and, if possible, serve refreshments. You can also create a day for the administrators and fellow health care workers in your institution.
• Offer to host meetings or events of local computer-related or health-related special interest groups and organizations in your community.
• Create a brochure providing Internet search tips or distribute MLA’s consumer brochure, Deciphering Medspeak, throughout your community (print copies can be ordered by calling 312.419.9094 x19). Be sure to include MLA’s list of the most useful health Websites for consumers, which can be found on MLANET and on the back cover of Deciphering Medspeak.

For Health Care Providers

• Create a question and answer sheet with questions that may be asked by fellow health care workers. Print them on a flyer, bookmark, or notepad. Be sure to include your library’s address, telephone number, and hours.
• Create an “Information Rx” pad for physicians to pass along to their patients, encouraging them to seek accurate health information from the information experts—you! Link to MLANET for a sample information prescription form.
• Invite new employees of your institution for a tour of the library and refreshments. Check with your institution’s human resources department to ensure the library is a part of new employee orientation throughout the year.

For Administrators

• Extend personal invitations to your institution’s VIPs to stop by for a tour of your library along with refreshments or a luncheon. Alert your institution’s public relations department to possible photo opportunities.
• Print a “Quotable Facts” flyer, brochure, or even mouse pad, containing information about your library, services, and the profession.

Remember the Basics

• Change individual and general library voicemail greetings to begin with “Happy National Medical Librarians Month” or another similar greeting.
• Place a banner or button on your library’s homepage announcing NMLM. Also contact your institution’s Web administrator to request that your banner be placed on the institution’s homepage.
• Create a suggestion box or bulletin board to solicit ideas from patients, giving them the opportunity to express their likes and dislikes about the library, while showing sincere interest in providing them the best possible service.

Feel free to contact Tomi Gunn at 312.419.9094 x11 or mlams@mlahq.org for up to two NMLM “link” posters. You can also connect to the NMLM page on MLANET for more tips, samples, photos of actual promotional materials created by your colleagues, and a downloadable poster you can personalize. Have a fun and productive NMLM!