Submitted by Jason Young
Genesis Medical Center, Davenport, IA
Chris Crutcher, a writer and family therapist whose young adult books have been frequently challenged, delivered an inspiring keynote talk before nearly 1,000 librarians during the opening day of the 2007 Iowa Library Association conference on October 11 in Coralville, Iowa. The Iowa Library Association Health Sciences Subdivision held its business meeting later that afternoon after sponsoring two presentations: "Your 'What' Hurts? Researching Consumer Health Resources on the Web" and "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians." In the first presentation Kathy Skhal, Clinical Education Librarian at Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa, demonstrated how to find reliable health information to a room of mostly public librarians. Later that day, Kristi Bontrager, Coordinator of Public Relations, University of Iowa Libraries, discussed the National Library of Medicine's exhibit and the planning involved to be selected to display the exhibit.
Iowa resource library Des Moines University (DMU) has received a $1.9 million federal grant in order to improve access to health care in rural Iowa. The project will allow DMU to develop four Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) in communities north of I-80 that will focus on training health care providers in the surrounding area.
The other resource library, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, has received three subcontracts from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region. They focus on outreach to the greater Iowa community, patient safety information training for healthcare professionals, and Go Local funding to link Iowa resources to the MedlinePlus database for consumers. Elizabeth Nummela, a graduate student in the department of Library and Information Science, has been hired as technical manager of the Iowa Go Local site.
At the subdivision's spring meeting in Des Moines, Holly Ann Burt taught "Patient Safety Resource Seminar: Librarians on the Front Lines." Larry Marquardt of DMU was elected as chair for 2008 and Paula Whannell of Iowa Methodist Medical Center was elected as chair for 2009.