In the last issue of Midline, Summer, 2003, the Education Committee conducted a continuing education survey of the membership. The survey is posted on our chapter website at http://www.midwestmla.org/ce/cesurvey.htm. It was conducted from August through September 2003. The objective of the survey was to determine which courses had the most interest from members. Additionally, the survey allowed us to gather new ideas for future courses. We would like to thank the 172 respondents who filled out the survey. The results of the survey have been forwarded on to the planning committees for future annual meetings.

Current continuing education opportunities may be found on the Education Committee’s page on the MC/MLA website at http://midwestmla.org/ce/

Courses with Highest Interest
Preliminary results indicated that the following subjects were among the most desired topics for continuing education courses. Over 50% of the respondents were interested in the following courses:

• Electronic resources - managing electronic resources
• Electronic subscriptions - managing electronic subscriptions
• Evidence based medicine - interpreting evidence based medicine statistics
• Evidence based medicine: quality filtering & critical appraisal
• Knowledge management
• Library budgets: how to do more with less
• Marketing your library
• Online surveys and quizzes
• PubMed - keeping up with PubMed
• Research - conducting research
• Writing a research article

Updates and Vendor Presentations
The following updates and presentations were among the most desired:

• NLM/GMR update
• Vendor displays & presentations
• MLA update & poster sessions

Courses with High Interest
49% to 32% of respondents indicated an interest in the following areas as topics for continuing education courses:

• Change management
• Consumer health/patient education
• Cultural and ethnic health
• Difficult people - how to handle difficult people
• Digital slide library – creation and management
• Distance education technologies
• Electronic document delivery
• Grant writing
• Management for new managers
• Managing the boss
• Negotiating with vendors
• Nursing and allied health
• PDA hands-on workshop
• Presentations: planning to present; presentation skills
• PubMed LinkOut
• Reference management software
• Teaching adults
• Transitioning to new career opportunities
• Web page - advanced web page development
• Web page development - basics
• Wireless computing
• Workstation management & troubleshooting

Respondents’ Suggestions for Future Courses Not Mentioned in the Survey
Perhaps the most interesting part of the survey were the suggestions listed by members. Respondents listed the following topics that were not listed on the survey but that were desired as possible future topics for continuing education courses.

• Benchmarking your library
• Business plan – writing a plan; how to do strategic planning within an institution or corporation
• Cataloging and technical services topics – not often addressed
• Cataloging electronic materials
• Collection development for the small or medium hospital library
• Collections - Special collections – Archives
• Collections – development of web-based health & medical information; doing more with less money
• Complementary and alternative or integrative medicine research; web-based resources
• Computer technology (PC tablets); virus attacks
• Copyright in the digital environment, scholarly communication, & intellectual property- full day class
• COUNTER, the standardization of online use statistics
• Consortiums – strategies for creating and building collaborations; negotiating licenses
• Consumer health resources – web-based resources; support the CHIS program
• Digital curriculum materials – development and management
• Electronic licensing – what to watch for, buzz words, strategies for dealing with vendors
• Evidence based medicine – the basics
• Informal brainstorming on various topics; roundtable discussions on selected topics
• Interlibrary loan topics; problems and issues; Docline and/or QuickDoc - concerns and issues
• Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations - preparation
• Journal clubs - how to set up them up and keep them going
• License negotiations; take the copyright class to the next level; consortium building & licensing
• NCBI – genomic databases
• Nursing & PDA’s
• OpenURL – what is it and why should librarians care about it?
• Outreach – how to develop a program
• Performance improvement - ideas for goals and objectives for libraries
• Planning library staff positions for electronic duties and needs
• Portals – creating and using portals
• Presenting skills - how to hold the audience’s attention at a conference
• Professional activities of MC/MLA members – roundtables to highlight publishing & funding projects
  to encourage professional development among members
• Project management
• Servers - securing your library’s server; computer security practices in general
• SLA courses – offer SLA courses for MLA credit instead of reinventing the wheel and vice versa
• Serials management; facilitating communication with serial vendors/agents, software mgt. etc.
• Student assistants – working with them; developing meaningful training
• Technology and services - forum for ideas on new technology and future library services

I would like to thank the members of the Education Committee, Linda O’Dwyer (webmaster), Natalie Norcross, Frances Cockrum and Rhona Kelley for their suggestions and to Sandy DeGroote who developed the survey site and compiled the results.

Carol Jeuell, Chair of the Education Committee, cjeuell@childrensmemorial.org