Domain Hub/Practice Area Projects, Visions and Teams
Domain hubs reflect seven practice areas that are crucial to the success of the health information profession. Each hub is a coalition of diverse stakeholders from MLA’s caucuses, which enables a collaborative strategic vision to advance the profession.
- MLA caucuses may elect or appoint a representative to any domain hub.
- Hub caucus representatives identify collaborative projects, activities, or programs of interest to the broad practice area audience, and solicit working group members from their caucuses to volunteer for joint projects.
- Joint working groups plan and create the projects or activities outside of any individual caucus; this enables a diversity of stakeholders to participate, plus a more inclusive audience for finished projects.
Liaisons from MLA-wide programs (e.g., MLAConnect, National Program Committees) participate in domain hub discussions to ensure alignment across MLA and to share progress and content across organization communication channels.
Domain Hub Information
Select each tab below to find out more about individual domain hub teams, projects, blog posts, & more!
Clinical Support
Professional practice area covers: evidence-based practice curriculum and habits in health professions, role of librarianship in clinical settings, provision of high-quality health information to consumers.
Clinical Support Practice Area Blog Posts
Domain Hub Vision Statement
The Clinical Support Domain Hub supports health information professionals in clinical settings by fostering cooperation, collaboration, education, and mentoring in an inclusive, collaborative, supportive, and empowering environment by:
- advocating for the role of health information professionals in clinical settings;
- ensuring the development of education and resources for health information professionals in clinical settings;
- providing resources on how to collect, curate, and deliver diverse evidence-based clinical information resources in all formats to health care providers;
- providing resources on how to collect, curate, and deliver the most reliable consumer health information to community members;
- providing education and resources for health information professionals on instructing diverse audiences on how to find and evaluate information to determine authority and credibility; and
- encouraging and fostering partnerships that will assess and address health care inequities and disparities of the underserved or marginalized, including health literacy.
Projects
- Provide and publicize targeted consumer health information for patients and consumers, integrating resources from multiple caucuses into a single location. UPDATE: Resources have been updated, but integration has yet to be designed.
- Hub members are facilitating information gathering and feedback from our member caucuses on approaches/practices to Community Benefit reports. This was done at the request of MLA 2021/22 President Kris Alpi as a preliminary step towards gathering membership-wide metrics on community impact across institutions. The plan is to continue this conversation and possibly assist with development of questions for an MLA wide survey of CBR practices and metric types.
More Information
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- Provide and publicize targeted consumer health information for patients and consumers, integrating resources from multiple caucuses into a single location. UPDATE: Resources have been updated, but integration has yet to be designed.
- Develop a comprehensive advocacy plan to identify/update, communicate, and promote the value of librarians in clinical settings.
- Develop specific resources (best practices, checklists, white papers, case studies, etc.) on how librarians in clinical support roles can assist health care providers to address health disparities, inequities, and bias at the point of care.
- Work with MLA’s education committees to develop a training series on how to begin, conduct, and promote a clinical/embedded librarianship program. Series could include journal club, discussion group, webinars, role-play training, or self-directed online learning courses.
Education
Professional practice area covers: pedagogy/andragogy, instruction to health professionals, educational technology, librarian as instructor, instructional design, information literacy.
Domain Hub Vision Statement
The Education Domain Hub advances member skills and competencies by offering professional learning opportunities, developing teaching techniques, sharing educational resources, and promoting health and information literacy.
Projects
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In collaboration with the Innovation & Research Practice Hub, the Education Hub is creating a proposal for an Open Repository. Collectively the Hubs are researching options, gathering functional and user requirements, building user stories/use cases, writing a proposal for the repository platform, and investigating the outside options available. There are many possible uses for the repository including: teaching resources (such as lesson plans, case studies, technique descriptions, educational technology modules/products reviews, white papers, etc.), assessment questions/surveys, a directory of efforts by members to map the information literacy framework to different professional requirements, search hedges, and more.
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- Create a Professional Development series focused on education topics
- Develop program to educate allied professions and library school students about health information professionals
Health Equity & Global Health
Professional practice area covers: development of health information professionals globally, equity in access to health information, international collaborations for MLA and medical librarianship.
Health Equity & Global Health Blog Posts
Domain Hub Vision Statement
The Health Equity & Global Health Domain Hub fosters organizational and professional partnerships to improve the development, access, dissemination, and understanding of health information for and by diverse populations in the United States and globally to improve the health of populations.
Projects
- MLA '22 Immersion Session submission related to One Health.
- MLA '21 Lightning Talk
- MLA '21 Hub Gathering: Transforming Our Diversifying Communities: Introducing the Global Health & Health Equity Hub
- 2021 Experience MLA Global Health & Health Equity Domain Hub: Open House Access Code: @6NpKttA
Possible Future Initiatives
- Extend the reach of members’ expertise in global health and health equity arenas by idea sharing and the sharing of content.
- Define roles of Allied Reps and strengthen their ability to communicate.
- Collaborate to improve the experience of international library visitors.
- Continue to sponsor MLA meeting programming related to health equity and global health.
More Information
- Provide and publicize targeted consumer health information for patients and consumers, integrating resources from multiple caucuses into a single location. UPDATE: Resources have been updated, but integration has yet to be designed.
- Develop a comprehensive advocacy plan to identify/update, communicate, and promote the value of librarians in clinical settings.
- Develop specific resources (best practices, checklists, white papers, case studies, etc.) on how librarians in clinical support roles can assist health care providers to address health disparities, inequities, and bias at the point of care.
- Work with MLA’s education committees to develop a training series on how to begin, conduct, and promote a clinical/embedded librarianship program. Series could include journal club, discussion group, webinars, role-play training, or self-directed online learning courses.
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Information Management
Professional practice area covers: meta data, representation of information, collection of information, research data management.
Information Management Blog Posts
Domain Hub Vision Statement
The Information Management Domain Hub supports member education and best practices around acquisition, selection, description, access, and preservation of health sciences information used by researchers, health professionals, faculty, students, and patients. We foster cooperation, education, programming, new initiatives, mentoring, and project management through an inclusive, collaborative environment that advances the knowledge base of this domain.
Topic areas include, but are not limited to, access, collection development, content licensing, resource description, research data management, resource sharing, preservation, and scholarly communication.
Current Projects
2023-24 Accessibility Series
Improving Accessibility for Library Patrons - November 14, 2023 (recording; slide presentations linked shortly)
Coming in 2024: A group discussion surrounding accessibility and technology, and in late spring, a follow up discussing user experience and accessibility.
Projects
- Create a mentoring program focused on the areas covered by the Information Management competency.
- Develop best practices for evaluating and selecting information/resource management tools.
- Develop guidelines for collection development in different environments (i.e. hospital, federal, etc.).
- Create guides for evolving information management tools (i.e. RA 21 Counter 5, etc.).
- Create a library of standards and best practices for information management.
- Host sharing sessions on workflow optimization in resource sharing, metadata and discovery, and other systems.
- Develop best practices for providing clinical data management services.
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Information Services
Professional practice area covers: research assistance, outreach to specific communities, subject knowledge development, expert searching.
Information Services Practice Area Blog Posts
Domain Hub Vision Statement
The Information Services Domain Hub connects MLA members to high-quality and authoritative information resources and colleagues working in areas including, but not limited to, research assistance, outreach to specific communities, subject knowledge development, all facets of library and technical services, and expert searching. The hub engages a community of practice for health sciences librarians and information specialists to share curated best practices and detailed disciplinary resources from subject matter experts to a broader audience in order to increase MLA members’ expertise, value, and skills.
Projects
- In the Aftermath: How a Global Pandemic Changed Information Services An Experience MLA 2022 roundtable discussion on the issues and challenges of the pandemic that has affected the way medical librarians provide information services, and the lasting implications for the profession.
- Search Hedges Project-view the MLAConnect article for more information including the call for participation.
- Public access Information Services Domain Hub Information Portal
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Innovation & Research Practice
Professional practice area covers: evidence-based librarianship, informatics, research training, diversity in scientific research, assessment, and evaluation.
Innovation and Research Practice Area Blog Posts
Domain Hub Vision Statement
The Innovation & Research Domain Hub fosters collaboration and creativity in the development of initiatives that will advance innovation and research in the information profession.
Projects
- Develop a repository for health research surveys and instruments that are publicly available for reuse. The group has developed specifications and goals and is currently discussing a wider reach for the repository across multiple domain hubs (e.g., the Education Hub is looking into developing a repository as well, and the two hubs are now collaborating on this project.)
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Professionalism & Leadership
Professional practice area covers: ethics; equity, diversity, and inclusion; development of leaders; management (human resources, fiscal, project, etc.); influence in health care organizations; education of and advocacy for health information professionals.
Professionalism and Leadership Area Blog Posts
Domain Hub Vision Statement
The Professionalism & Leadership Domain Hub inspires and empowers information professionals at all levels and in all domains to become outstanding leaders for MLA, their institutions, and work environments, and in their spheres of influence. We provide a safe, welcoming, and inclusive forum where present and future leaders from diverse backgrounds can learn from each other, share best practices, brainstorm solutions, provide or receive mentorship, identify and create leadership opportunities, cultivate professionalism skills, and discuss leadership topics of interest. The hub aims to support confident and capable library leaders to manage projects, services, and teams, and to advocate for change in all settings including the vital role librarians serve in enhancing health care, education, and research.
Current Projects
- Year-long series on the topic of "professionalism" in health sciences information starting with a panel discussion on the definition of professionalism during Experience MLA in February 2022.
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Domain Hub FAQ
What are MLA domain hubs?
The MLA Board established practice area groups of the health information profession. MLA activities are aligned to practice areas--for example annual meeting programming, continuing education, MLAConnect and MLANET.
Domain Hubs are also aligned to these practice areas and are comprised of affiliated caucuses and liaisons (MLA Connect, National Programming Committee, Community Council, Curriculum Committees) that come together to collaborate on activities to further these practice areas. The goal is to de-silo the work of MLA units where possible and better the practice area. Domain hub activities interest a broad audience (e.g., MLA members, the public, health care providers) and connect to MLA-wide activities and programs
Domain hubs are the go-to place for members to access integrated content, and they provide the public a window into the profession and access to open resources.
Domain hubs should:
● develop an ongoing vision and strategy to make a difference in advancing the professional practice area related to the domain hub
● define clear goals and challenges (e.g., problems to solve) for caucuses and their members to collaborate on
● collaborate with liaisons from committees and staff to ensure overall cohesiveness and alignment across MLA
● manage activities and relationships specific to their domain hubs
● solicit funding from the association for domain hub initiatives that require it, by submitting a budget request and justification to the MLA finance Committee, using the process and timeline defined by MLA headquarters (online form)
Project ideas may be driven by or originate with caucuses, or within the hub. It has worked well both ways. Hub collaborations can provide much- needed help for smaller caucuses having trouble getting a project off the ground due to lack of available volunteers.
The hub delegates' role is to pass information back and forth between the hub and the group they're representing. Delegates can also serve as workgroup leaders or volunteer coordinators on collaborative hub projects. Caucus representatives are not meant to do all the work! Project ideas my originate with caucuses, (e.g. a smaller caucus comes to the hub looking to collaborate or solicit help) or they may be driven by and originate with the hub--it has worked both ways.
Domain hub representatives can be appointed by their caucus leadership or elected. Hub representatives serve two-year terms and earn 10 AHIP points/year.
Hub chairs lead the hub in its work. This involves bringing together caucus groups to work on a project, providing guidance and assistance to delegates in setting up project teams, and soliciting for volunteers for a project. Hub leaders also set schedules and agendas for meetings-which they lead, archive hub documents, and submit annual and midyear reports.
Domain hub chairs are elected among delegates currently serving on the hub. Hub chairs serve a two-year term.
Domain hub chair position garners 20 AHIP points/year.
An individual interested in a particular interest area or hub project may not join the hub, but can join a caucus affiliated with the hub. The member can then reach out to the caucus' representative or delegate to volunteer for a project. Members can join any caucus at any time for as long as they wish