Section Council of the Medical Library Association

UPDATED 5/16/12 with final draft

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Medical Library Association

Section Council Meeting Minutes

May 14, 2011

 

Call to Order: 8:35

 

Introductions:

Council members introduced themselves and spoke about their Sections’ successful achievements from the past year.

 

Announcements:

• Judy Burnham reported that the Recruitment and Retention Wiki was not being utilized frequently, and that we may want to discontinue it.
• Section Council bookmarks will be at the Section Council Table and will be distributed at the New Members Breakfast.
• Rikke Ogawa reported that the Books Panel is currently recruiting book and DocKIT authors. They are always seeking suggestions for topics. Ms. Ogawa noted that the Book Panel watches meeting programming for topic ideas. The Book Panel also is interested in partnering with Sections to author works that may appeal to the broader membership of MLA.
• Rikke Ogawa reported that there are three general topic sessions at this meeting: Education, Next Steps, and Technology. All have papers, and these broad topics allowed for the acceptance of papers that were not going to be picked up by the other section programming. The Rising Star Program partnered with the Section Council to sponsor these sessions. Judy Burnham reminded everyone to not to be too specific when program planning.

 

Section Anniversaries were announced.

 

Update Web pages:

Judy Burnham reminded everyone to make sure to link their Section Web page to the new president’s priority list and to make sure their list of Section officers is current.

 

Listserv guidelines:

Judy Burnham asked the group for feedback; specifically asking if the amount of traffic was too high. People indicated that tagging the emails with Chair-elect, Chair, Past Chair, etc in the subject line was very helpful. One suggestion was to send people an introduction and welcome message when they are subscribed.

 

Section Project of the Year Award:

There were no nominations for Section Project of the Year, and Judy Burnham encouraged people to consider applying. Sections need to contribute to the Award funding only if the Section Project is awarded. Section Council Chair and MLA Headquarters will continue to try for sponsorship for the award. Judy Burnham will also check to make sure there is a link to the Section Project of the Year from the Section Council Web page.

 

Section Shuffle 2012:

The 2012 meeting’s Section Shuffle will be held on May 20 at 6 p.m. SIGs also want to be involved. Please email Ysabel Bertolucci if you are interested in helping with Section Shuffle in 2012.

 

MLA Reports and Planning Grid:

Watch for the announcement of deadlines for reports due to MLA. There is a calendar in Google Docs with tentative deadlines linked from the Section Council Web site.

 

New Leaders Tea is scheduled for 3-5 pm this afternoon.

 

Approval of the 2010 Section Council Meeting Minutes:

Julie Esparza made a motion to accept the Minutes of the 2010 Council meeting. The motion was seconded by Sylvia McAphee, and the Minutes were approved unanimously.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

Elections Committee – Penny Coppernoll-Blach

The elections were completed using SurveyMonkey. Not all Sections submitted candidates for Nominating Committee Nominee. Penny Coppernoll-Blach reported there was some internal confusion. Some Sections never reported, and some voted twice. One suggestion was to send the link to the ballot only to the people who are actually supposed to cast a vote. Some candidates never submitted biographical information. There was a suggestion that perhaps having candidates submit biographical information via a Wiki might be helpful.

The Council formally verified the online vote for the MLA Nominating Committee and the vote for Section Council. Twenty of the twenty-three sections voted. There were fourteen candidates and six were selected:

1. Keith Cogdill
2. Amy L Frey
3. Patricia E Gallagher
4. Joy Kennedy
5. Mindy Robinson-Paquette
6. Lisa K Traditi

The Section Council vice chair is Jo Dorsch.

 

Section / SIG Review Committee – Holly Hubenschmidt

Two new SIGs were formed during the year: the Informationist SIG and the Translational Science SIG.

 

Rethink Your Section – Holly Hubenschmidt

• Holly Hubenschmidt asked for feedback on the survey that was distributed. The survey has generated discussion in some Sections already. Others are waiting to discuss at their business meetings. The results will be published in some form. Preliminary finding show that Sections do feel they have unique identities. Most Sections show declining membership, although that could be due to the timing of the survey.
• Ms. Hubenschmidt also reported that some Sections define a quorum as the number of members who attend the meeting, and that many Sections use surveys to gather information.
• Questions the committee members wished they had asked included alternatives to physically attending the conference and innovative retention techniques.
• Recommendations include re-running the survey every three years and doing a similar survey for  SIGs. Surveying past chairs as they are leaving may also provide helpful information.

 

History of the Sections – David Nolfi

• This is a worthwhile goal but was not finished this year.

 

Communities of Practice – Julie Esparza

• The group discussed the definition of Community of Practice and how to develop processes for Sections to collaborate beyond programming. The process is simplified into about six steps. Collaboration can be formal or informal.

 

2013 Joint Program – Terry Ann Jankowski

• The meeting will be inBostonand will involve international organizations. Please let Terry Ann Jankowski know if you have ideas for topics for the joint Section Council/Chapter Council program.

 

Web Page – Melissa Rethlefsen

• Sections should be careful to make sure they are following the archive guidelines on the Section Council Web site. For instance, if you have moved your Section newsletter to a blog format, you still need to print entries to archive them.
• Be sure to note that MLA does not backup your Web site.
• Let Kate Corcoran know the name of your Section Webmaster, so that he or she can be added to the Webmaster list.

 

Incoming President- Elect – Jane Blumenthal

• Jane Blumenthal shared her preliminary thoughts with the group. She stated the greatest asset of MLA is the people and that we need to work hard to value and nurture that asset.

 

• She noted that Ruth Holst had focused on the changing environment, and Jerry Perry is looking at the implementation.  She is thinking of positive themes such as excitement, identifying strengths, and balancing all the things we do. Should we do more? Should we do better? She wants the program theme to apply to MLA and to our everyday work. What could MLA be doing better? What are we doing that we could stop doing?
• She also asked about the roles, interests, and concerns of the Sections.  She asked Council members to consider the differences between mainstream MLA and the Sections.
• She asked Council members to think about what we do as Sections as it relates to MLA in a broader sense and to consider how can the Sections and MLA help each other.

 

 

 

LIAISON REPORTS:

 

MLA Social Networking Committee / Technology Advisory Committee – Jeanne Burke/Melissa Rethlefsen

• The Social Networking Committee is looking into access to software and is intending to do an RFP.
• A Twitter tutorial has been developed, and they developed a survey on members’ Twitter use.
• The committee is looking into CORE as a way to publish the posters online.
• The group suggested that the deadline for getting posters online was too far out from MLA.
• The group wanted to be sure everyone knew about the Connection Blog and MegaMeeting.
• The committee is also working on developing guidelines on how to archive pictures and newsletters.

 

NPC ’11 – Rikke Ogawa

• This year’s meeting has thirty program sessions: three general sessions, one Ignite session, and twenty-six Section-sponsored programs.
• Things went rather smoothly this year. The main difference this year was having three general topic sessions.
• A manual on program planning has been updated based on feedback. Most indicated they felt the manual was helpful.
• The acceptance rate of papers this year was up 1 percentage point from last year, and up 13 percentage points from theHawaiiconference. The overall acceptance rate was 47.5%.

 

NPC ’12 – Linne Girouard

•  At this point the only planned change for the 2012 meeting will be to take the Tech Trends session out of the Section programming time, so to avoid having it compete with other programs.

 

NPC ’13 – Ramune Kubilius

• The 2013 conference will be inBostonand will be combined with meetings of several international medical library organizations. Seventy-five percent of the programming will be MLA programming, while the rest will be focused on the other groups.  The theme is “One Health: Information in an Interdependent World.”

 

MLA Benchmarking Liaison – Christine Chastain-Warheit – No report

 

MLA Membership Committee Liaison – David Nolfi

• David Nolfi encouraged everyone to consider being a New Member Mentor as well as helping with the lapsed member phone-a-thon.
• Only about 1/3 of the MLA members belong to Sections. The group discussed the benefits and pitfalls of offering new members a free year of membership to a particular Section.
• The group also discussed the importance of personal contact with new members and welcoming them to the Section. David reminded Council that they can get a list of new members easily and quickly from MLA HQ.
• A committee has been created to expand membership beyond libraries, especially with organizations where there are natural affiliations.

 

MLA PRRC – Mellanye Lackey – No report

 

MLA Credentialing Committee Liaison – Priscilla Stephenson

• This year 179 portfolios were reviewed, which represents a decrease of 41 from last year. Thirty-two percent of MLA members are AHIP members.
• Official bloggers that blog more than 500 words are awarded an AHIP point.
• An AHIP Q&A will be held Monday at this meeting.
• The Credentialing Committee is also working on a survey to gauge what specializations people are
• interested in having added.
• MLA hopes to have the online portfolio submission system online by the end of 2011.
• MLA is planning on conducting a survey investigating why people pursue AHIP status.

 

MLA CE Committee Liaison – Ana Cleveland

• There needs to be more awareness that the CE position exists, as well a codified expectation of the duties of this person.
• The group is working with MLA and NLM on creating a specialization in disaster information and outreach. They received an overwhelming response to their March workshop which included presenters from government agencies as well as librarians.
• A working group has been formed to look into the competencies needed for this new specialization.

 

MLA HQ Report – Carla Funk

Carla Funk summarized some of the more significant events and changes at MLA in the past year.

 

•  There were several staff changes due to the reduction in positions. Lisa Fried is no longer with MLA, and Kathleen Combs has assumed the credentialing duties.
•   MLA is working on enhancing the management system.
•   MLA is developing an electronic portfolio system for the AHIP program which will be demonstrated at the MLA booth this year. This system is expected to provide a way to upload documents such as CE certificates.
•   MLS is also working on the availability of a portal system for Section documents.
•   There will soon be a link between MLA’s membership and mentor databases which will allow members to self-select areas of expertise to add to the mentor database.
•   The grant and scholarship programs have been moved to the Executive Director’s office. There is an endowment of $1 million dollars that gives MLA the ability to give away $50,000 a year.
•   Ms. Funk also mentioned the new Disaster Informationist specialization being developed.
•   The National Training Center Clearinghouse database is now under the auspices of MLA.
•   MLA cut the position of the paid lobbyist inWashington,DC.
•   MLA is maintaining their strong relationship with Librarians without Borders.

 

MLA President – Ruth Holst

• Ruth Holst visited the meeting to say hello. She remarked that she was pleased with the number of papers and posters that were able to incorporate the “Rethink” theme. She thanked the Sections for their contributions to MLA.

 

Section Council Chair Report – Judy Burnham

• Sections are encouraged to consider/continue giving a travel award.
• A ‘job description’ for Section Council Chair was created.
• Based on Section Annual Reports, there was common activity in several Sections:
  • Closer examination of Section budgets.
  • Moving newsletters to a blog format.
  • Web site revisions.
  • Revisions of Section brochures.
• Ms. Burnham recognized the contributions of all the outgoing members and noted that a contribution will be made to the MLA Scholarship Fund in honor of outgoing members.

 

• Ysabel Bertolucci presented Ms. Burnham with a resolution recognizing her outstanding contributions in her service to the Section Council over the last three years.

 

Incoming MLA President – Jerry Perry

Jerry Perry visited the Council to discuss his goals for the next year. He expressed a commitment to keeping continuity and momentum from the last MLA presidents’ goals while incorporating his own goals which include:

• The virtualization of the annual meeting by involving the most people possible while maintaining the integrity of the physical meeting,
• Determining how best to establish metrics to measure what we do; rethinking how benchmarking works and partnering with AASHL to establish a core set of metrics,
• Developing best practices for working with translational sciences,
• Examining how to interface with a changing health environment based on public health and populations,
• Recognizing the impact of the recession on retirements and the changing workforce, and
• Developing anMLAAcademyof Teaching Excellence.

The theme for the Seattle 2012 meeting is “Growing Opportunities: Changing out Game.”

 

2011-2012 Section Council Goals

Ysabel Bertolucci led a discussion of possible Section Council goals for next year. The group suggested the following:

• A task force for developing a procedure for Section Council elections.
• Developing a list of liaisons each Section should consider having.
• Continuing the goals of documenting the history of each Section.
• Formalizing the role of Section archivist.
• Redoing the “Rethink Your Section” survey for SIGs and look for more potential collaboration opportunities between Sections and SIGs.
• Creating a program task force for NPC 2013.
• Creating an exit survey for outgoing past chairs.
• Work on the schedule so there are fewer conflicts between Section meetings.
• Work on knowing and documenting where your institutional memory is.

 

The group had a general discussion of the program planning process, including the use of technology for people who cannot attend the meeting in person, proxies, and perhaps rethinking the process as a whole.

 

Julie Esparza asked that people send her any forms or guidelines that they think would be useful for others, so that she can add them to the Section Council Web site.

 

Adjournment: 2:37

 

Minutes recorded by:  Lisa Ennis

 

Present:

Julia M. Esparza	Cancer Librarians
Ysabel Bertolucci	CAPHIS
Rhonda Allard	CAPHIS
Becky Sullivan	Chiropractic Libraries
Montie Dobbins	CISS
Ramune Kubilius	Collection Development
Sylvia McAphee	Collection Development
Penny Coppernoll-Blach	Corporate Information Services
Linda Hasman	Dental Library
Jeanne M. Burke	EMTS
Amy Blevins	EMTS
Terrie Wheeler	Federal Libraries
Marian Taliaferro	Health Association Libraries
David Sweet	Health Association Libraries
Patricia E. Gallagher	History of the Health Sciences
Pat Hammond	Hospital Libraries
Margo Coletti	Hospital Libraries
Jo Dorsch	Leadership and Management
Gabriel Rios	Leadership and Management
Colleen Cuddy	Medical Informatics
Beth Whipple	Medical Informatics
Ana D.Cleveland	Medical Library Education
Holly Hubenschmidt	NAHRS
Lisa Ennis	NAHRS
Christina Seeger	Pharmacy & Drug Information
Terry Ann Jankowski	Public Services
Mary Markland	Public Services
Kim Pullen	Public Services
Ryan Harris	Relevant Issues
Diane Cooper	Research
Carole Gilbert	Research
Shamya Kiney	Technical Services
Michael Wood	Technical Services
Heather K. Moberly	Veterinary Medical Libraries
Melissa Rethlefsen	Webmaster
Linne’ Girouard	Hospital Libraries
Rick Ralston	International Cooperation Section