Submitted by Pam Rees and Karen Hanus
Midwest Chapter Representatives to the MLA Chapter Council
We both attended the MLA Chapter Council Meeting on May 19, 2007 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Chapter Council is one of two MLA councils serving in an advisory capacity to the MLA Board of Directors. There are fourteen chapters, each of which elects two representatives to serve on Chapter Council for a period of three years. Chapter Council represents the interests of the Chapters at the Board level. It serves as the communicating body between MLA and the chapters as well as expediting communication between chapters through the chapter representatives. The Council provides a means of sharing experiences and programs among chapters and serves as a forum for identifying and discussing problems and concerns of chapters.
Communication between the chapters and MLA is accomplished in a number of ways. There is a chapter page at http://www.mlanet.org/chapters/chapters.html that directs users to the different chapter pages where you can find out who the officers are, information about belonging to the chapters, and chapter activities. This page also has information about the Chapter Council as well as policies and procedures that apply to all chapters. The web site also directs users to other links on the MLANET site where you can find out more about MLA. This summer, the MLANET site was revised with a new interface, making it easier to locate specific areas of interest.
MLA offers a variety of awards and prizes to individuals and chapters. The deadlines for applications for many of these awards are due November 1st each year. Reminders of these deadlines are communicated to the chapter representatives who pass them along via chapter listservs. MLA members receive the MLA Bulletin which has articles in the Chapter News Column about Chapter Council and/or individual Chapter activities. Chapter newsletters are also sources of information about MLA and Chapter Council when chapter representatives submit information.
Another communication channel from Chapter Council to the chapters is through MLA committee liaisons. Chapter Council has liaisons to the chapters for continuing education, membership, and credentialing. These liaisons serve as the communicators between these committees, Chapter Council, and the 14 MLA chapters.
In addition, Mark E. Funk, the 2007/2008 President of MLA, welcomes comments and suggestions. You can e-mail him at president@mlahq.org. Mark’s theme is “Only Connect”. He has an “Only Connect” blog at: http://president.mlanet.org/mfunk/.
A major activity of Chapter Council at MLA annual conferences is to sponsor an event called Chapter Council Presents Sharing Roundtables. Participants gather for lunch at tables of 8-10 people to discuss a topic that is of interest to them. There was a choice of thirty topics this year from which to choose. This is a very popular event which attracts over 300 participants. Attendance is optional and the cost is usually around $25.00. The Midwest Chapter and MLA sponsor scholarships to this event. More details about this will be available next spring. Summary reports of the discussions are available online on the MLANET Chapter Council page.
Chapter Council and Section Council jointly sponsored a plenary session at the 2007 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The focus of the session entitled “Health Information Literacy: Evolution in Roles” featured the partnering with the health care team and the role of librarians.
MLA's 2007 benchmarking data collection website is now open! Available October 12, 2007 to December 31, 2007, data entry is open to all health libraries, including nonmembers. For more information, go to: http://www.mlanet.org/resources/benchmark07/.
MLA has a new Social Networking Software Task Force (SNSTF) blog.The SNSTF is working on recommended Web 2.0 software, suggested guidelines for using Web 2.0 technologies, and tips and tricks for MLA units wanting to use blogs or wikis to collaborate. For more information, go to: http://sns.mlanet.org/blog/.
MLA Membership renewals for 2008 will be processed online. Membership renewals will no longer be sent through the mail except to those who do not have online access.
Six new Medspeak brochures have been published on the following topics: breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, eye diseases, stroke, and HIV/AIDS.
Watch for a membership survey that will be sent out soon.
The theme of MLA ’08 is “Connections: Bridging the Gaps "in Chicago, May 16-21, 2008. An MLA ’08 blog is on MLANET at http://npc.mlanet.org/mla08/.
MLA offers a variety of scholarships and grants to assist qualified students in graduate library science programs and to enable practicing health sciences librarians to take advantage of opportunities for continuing professional development. The application deadline for most of the MLA grants and scholarships is December 1, 2007. For a listing and application forms go to: http://www.mlanet.org/awards/grants/.