Submitted by Toni Hoberecht, AHIP, Communications Chair, South Central Chapter;edited by Jennifer K. Lloyd, AHIP
The South Central Chapter of MLA held its 2016 meeting in the Gulf Coast city of Galveston, Texas, October 21–26. Members enjoyed fabulous weather and spectacular ocean views, as well as the vocal company of a parrot who lived in a cage in the hotel lobby from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day.
The annual conference included continuing education courses, poster sessions, paper sessions, and tech expos. General session speakers gave inspiring talks on growing new lungs for transplantation, marketing the medical library, nurturing brain health, and the dangers of emerging infection diseases.
The chapter bestows two important awards to members for extraordinary service to the chapter and to the profession. This year, Jennifer K. Lloyd, AHIP, Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center–New Orleans, received the Distinguished Service Award for her years of service to the chapter. Shari Clifton, AHIP, Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center–Oklahoma City, received the chapter’s Librarian of the Year award, which recognizes a mid-career librarian for outstanding contributions in health sciences librarianship. Clifton also received this year’s Michael E. DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award for her health information specialist certification project at Oklahoma public libraries.
The chapter offers the Elizabeth K. Eaton Research Award for winners of contributed research posters and papers; honorable mentions are also given for impressive non-research contributions. This year’s winners are:
Contributed papers
First Place
- Julia M. Esparza, AHIP, Grace Dodd, Derrick Murcia, Jessica Sims, Afaf Abdulbaki, Lois Anderson, Gunjan Kahlon, Meher Sindhoora Mavuram, Eric Thomas, LSU Health: “Community Knowledge Assessment of HPV Vaccination in Males”
Second Place (tied)
- Katie Prentice, AHIP, Erica K. Argyropoulos, University of Oklahoma–Tulsa: “Library Couch Surfing: Assessment and Planning through a Space Utilization Study”
- Alyssa Peterson, Katie Prentice, AHIP, University of Oklahoma, Tulsa: “Catching the Tidal Wave of Facebook Data”
Honorable Mention
- Robert Marlin IV, AHIP, University of Texas Medical Branch–Galveston: “Louis Pasteur, Witches, X-Rays, and Lunar Housing: Examining the History of Medicine Collections”
Contributed Posters
First Place
- Louise M. Kidder, University of Texas Medical Branch: “Basic Usability Testing for a Medical Library Website”
Second Place
- Toni Hoberecht, AHIP, Rhonda Holt, Salome Pinto, University of Oklahoma–Tulsa: “A Preliminary Investigation into the Use of Library Instruction Links on Resource Library Websites”
Third Place
- Susan C. Steelman, Sheila Thomas, University of Arkansas for the Medical Sciences: “Spheres of Influence: Subject Areas of Librarian Co-Authored Biomedical Systematic Reviews”
Honorable Mention
- Linda A. London, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences–Tulsa: “It’s A Doggy Dog World! Therapy Dogs for Student Stress Relief and Study Breaks”
