Before announcing this year's recipient, I would like to take a moment first to position the Midwest Chapter Distinguished Librarian of the Year Award by expressing:

• General recognition awards are plentiful and given freely as a means of saying thank you. The more prestigious an award is, the more likely there will be fewer of them. After all, Nobel Peace Prizes aren't handed out like candy at Halloween.


• An award should be conferred or bestowed with the intent of being deserved or merited. Let's put the stress on deserved or merited.


• An award should be related to the purpose of the organization giving it.


• An award should be appropriate to an accomplishment. In other words, the more distinctive or special the accomplishment, the more distinctive and special the award should be. A special award loses its distinctiveness if it is conferred too often.


• A special award also loses some of its distinctiveness if it is joined to other special awards. The more awards given, the less valued and cherished will be the award.


• Awards are desirable in that they are ways to recognize excellence and in their bestowal become a testimony to the tradition of recognizing excellence - a tradition that dates back to the first Olympic Games.


• Awards also give rise to a community of awardees. An award often becomes a way of bonding groups together. Anyone who has received a major award can generally name other recipients of the same award as can many who have not received the award.

An intent of the Librarian of the Year Award when established was to recognize outstanding members at a variety of career levels who have made exceptional contributions to the Chapter. It is presented to those who have deserved or merited it. It is distinctive and not presented frequently. It is also a testimony to the Chapter's tradition of recognizing excellence. As a previous recipient, I can name others who have received the award: Chris Shaffer and Carol Gilbert.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to welcome another deserving recipient into this growing community of awardees.

This year's Midwest Chapter Distinguished Librarian of the Year goes to (quotes from many nominations):

• "She stands out as someone who has been incredibly active in state and regional health sciences library associations. She has incredible enthusiasm for librarianship and her desire to provide, quality, up-to-date library services has garnered the GMR's support for her through funding activities."


• "Everywhere she has been in her career, she has been deeply involved in promoting local library groups."


• "She understands the value of local connections and relationships in developing a community of practice."


• "She has a real knack for finding the best way to bring people together to work on a project."


• "She has proved time and again that a positive attitude and willingness to work with others could take you far."


• Her list of publications and presentations describes a career spent exploring new ways to promote effective searching and use of health information resources to students and consumers."


• She has been a role model, a colleague, a mentor, a friend and an inspiration to me and many other librarians. She was one of the first network members I met in the GMR and has become a dependable colleague as well as a friend."


• She has demonstrated superb ability to initiate services that advance the information-seeking skills of the students, residents, and faculty in the medical school. This ability to sense what needs to be done, with just a minimum of guidance, is the attribute that drives all her accomplishments."


• On her own initiative, she has built up a wide range of informational and educational services. She gives workshops and classes to a variety of people, including healthcare professionals, college students, and the public."


• She is a researcher with several research papers and posters to her credit."

And finally, a note about her exceptional contributions to the Midwest Chapter itself. She chaired a recent annual chapter meeting of which a nomination letter from one of her state colleagues states, "It is hard to imagine anyone else keeping us on schedule and on target. Because of the high number of attendees, careful budgeting, the array of fascinating speakers, and meticulous planning, the evaluations were excellent and the conference turned a handsome profit. The healthy revenue enabled our state health science library organization to offer handsome scholarships for members to attend the Midwest Chapter meetings."

Please join me in congratulating the 2009 Midwest Chapter Distinguished Librarian of the Year, Southeast Clinical Campus Librarian for the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mary J. Markland.

The Ohio State University Prior Health Sciences Library and Center for Knowledge Information Management is the 2009 recipient of the Midwest Chapter's Jean Williams Sayre Innovation Award for its development work on a web-based portal for continuing education.

The award was announced and presented at the chapter's annual business meeting October 5 in Columbus, OH. It was accepted by Library Director Pamela Bradigan on behalf of her winning team. She said that project is a collaborative effort between the Library and the OSU continuing medical education department.

The site provides links to digital CME resources (live and archived) and to information about upcoming courses, grand rounds and other CME programs. In addition, it enables users to manage and track their CE activities, register and pay for conferences, complete program evaluations and generate CE certificates. It also allows CME administrators to track participants' activities and viewing patterns and compile statistics for accreditation purposes. The site has a current subscriber base of more than 29,000 users.

The chapter's Jean Williams Sayre Innovation Award comes with a cash prize of $500 and recognizes individuals, libraries or organizations for their creative approaches to the delivery and management of health information. It is named in honor of long-time chapter member Jean Williams Sayre (1951-2006).

Strong searching abilities are arguably the most important skill set for health sciences librarians. It takes a great deal of time and practice to become an expert searcher, and cultivating a standard level of search competence and comfort among staff is a challenge in a large organization. This poster details the process of "Search Camp," the method used at the University of Minnesota's Health Sciences Libraries to help all levels of staff continually develop and refine search skills.

Search Camp is part of a regularly scheduled "reference training" meeting that brings together all staff who have contact with users seeking information-whether they are reference desk staff or liaison librarians. The participants are a mix of professional and paraprofessional staff. During Search Camp, the leader ("counselor") distributes one or two real search questions in the form they were received from patrons. Questions are selected that demonstrate widely applicable search elements. The meeting participants ("campers") are asked to think about how they would respond to the question in different scenarios: for example, if they could only respond by email or if they were actually working face-to-face with the requestor.

Campers pair up with laptops and work on the questions. After sufficient time (usually 30-40 minutes) the counselor reconvenes the campers and leads a group discussion of approaches to the search questions. This hands-on group format has worked very well, and it gives all levels of staff a chance to use real questions to continually practice and refine search skills, in a collegial, low-pressure environment.

Here's a sample question received from a patron:
"My topic is education versus isolation of incarcerated inmates and staff with tuberculosis and the role of occupational health nurses to prevent the spread of disease. I am most interested in the occupational health aspects of managing TB."

As the second part of a continuing analysis evaluating the digital content needs of the Loyola University medical community, this project explores the results of an electronic book (e-book) survey created during the summer of 2008 that was emailed to the students, faculty and staff of the Loyola University Medical Center, Stritch School of Medicine and Neihoff School of Nursing.

The goal of that survey was to identify patron satisfaction with electronic resources (specifically e-books), and the results indicated that many patrons either were not aware of an e-book collection or could not distinguish between the electronic book and journal collections. Thus, the promotion of e-books seemed to be essential to ensure awareness of e-book availability, which ultimately would increase patron use of the e-book collection.

This project started with an examination of literature published between 2000-2009 concerning the promotion, development and use of electronic books within an academic and health sciences environment. I had recently redesigned the library website, which provided an opportunity for me to apply several methods for e-book promotion. I strategically placed information, tutorials and database accessibility throughout the website to encourage the patrons to use, learn and perhaps recognize the advantages of e-books. In addition to website promotion, I sent several emails to new and returning graduate, medical and nursing students. These emails highlighted the e-book collection and linked to e-book tutorials I created.

Something I found interesting from my research was that some academic library communities still believe that there is little or no demand for e-books. I feel this lack of demand is probably a consequence of unawareness about the capabilities and availability of e-books. Also problematic is that there is a variety of terms and concepts that illustrates the difficulty in defining the term e-book. So, it seems that for electronic books to be widely accepted, they must be designed with a goal of transforming the way students interact with the e-book to significantly enhance student learning. I had hoped that by promoting the resources, students would start using e-books.

Of my three chosen methods of promotion, the most successful was email. Sending the email resulted with immediate increase in e-book activity. The least successful were the online tutorials; however, five of the seven people who had looked through the tutorials felt that they were very helpful.

After digesting the survey results, one of my concerns is that electronic textbooks seem to focus more on replicating the physical book experience instead of highlighting the advantages of e-books. This dependence on a book analogy may become increasingly untenable as the nature of print books and e-books diverge.

In the comments section from the survey, the most common complaint was the usability of the interface. Most interfaces do not have the option to do anything more than read text on the screen and occasionally follow a link. However, until e-book interfaces become less like a physical book and offer advantages that only an electronic resource can offer, there is only so much promotion that I can do. I have made the Loyola community aware of our e-book resources, so at this point I know the best path is to continue to highlight what we have available and not focus on the inadequacies of the interface.

Consumer health information is provided at The Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) by the Library for Health Information in the Atrium (LHI), which is located on the main medical campus. Because the medical center is a far-flung operation encompassing off-site family practice locations, ambulatory care units and affiliated hospitals, there was a need for innovative ways to provide consumers at these sites with personalized library service.

In mid-2005 the librarian and the program manager for patient education at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (the James) selected an ambulatory breast cancer treatment site at which to establish a pilot library satellite (JamesCare Dublin).

The site manager was approached with the proposal and clinicians were invited to participate on an advisory committee. Collection development guidelines, layout and budgetary responsibilities were established. Space for the satellite was allocated in a large waiting room. The advisory committee designed the satellite layout, and furnishings and display units were installed. A computer, printer, signage and a telephone (which automatically connected users to the main LHI) were installed.

Because the satellite budget did not include staff, the committee decided to not include a traditional collection of books and audiovisual materials. Instead, a collection of 73 self-serve handouts were provided. Flyers, booklets and pamphlet titles were selected from The Ohio State University Medical Center's patient education inventory, the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society and commercial vendors.

Clinical staff were enlisted to monitor materials and to notify the librarian of user reference needs. (The librarian and program manager each visited the site bimonthly). A locked box was provided where library users could leave health information request cards, which were forwarded by an admitting clerk to the librarian at the main LHI. There the question was researched by specially trained volunteers who mailed a packet of written information to the requestor's home address.

The librarian developed a spreadsheet to track how many self-serve handouts were taken on a yearly basis. Materials usage increased on average 65% each year. At present, clinicians continue to refer patients to the LHI for additional written information. The satellite advisory committee meets quarterly and is actively involved in collection development. Some collection development suggestions have morphed into new patient education documents that are overseen by the program manager.

This partnership between patient education, library, and clinicians has been so successful that the satellite model is now being adapted in other OSUMC departments, including a rehabilitation facility and an ambulatory surgery family waiting area.

An interesting postscript: As with most ambulatory care units, JamesCare Dublin is stretched to find space for all of its services. With no forewarning, on October 5, 2009, the library satellite was dismantled in order to create triage space. Site management renewed its commitment to the satellite and enlisted a physical facility designer to work with the librarian and program manager to recreate the library satellite in a hallway next to the main reception lobby. These plans are under way.

An electronic version of the poster is available here.

A survey sent out to National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR) members during the GMR's mid-contract review for the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in 2008 noted that the GMR and the Network could benefit from improved branding to make clear the role of the GMR and how it works with but is different from other professional and government organizations.

The information was shared during the GMR's Regional Advisory Council (RAC) meeting in 2008. As a result, RAC Communications Working Group Chair Elizabeth Hubbard Fine and GMR Outreach & Evaluation Coordinator Jacqueline Leskovec convened to create this poster titled "What is the GMR?"

During virtual meetings and other electronic communications, Liz and Jacqueline discussed the various roles of the GMR and designed this poster to clearly communicate what the GMR is, what it does and what it is not.

The poster was divided into sections with information about the roles of the GMR as:

• Geographic Region


• Service Provider


• People


• The Regional Medical Library


• Part of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine

You can view the entire poster here.

My poster was billed in advance under the title "Two Methods for Limiting PubMed Searches to Nurse-Authored Research Articles" but appeared at the conference with the title "Can I Beat PubMed's Limits at their Own Game?"

It reported on a kind of case-control study I did where I compared the effectiveness of two methods - one using PubMed's "Limits" tab, the other a Boolean clause of my design - at filtering subject searches down to articles that were both nurse-authored and research-based. My desire to improve on existing methods for doing this was based on repeated requests for such articles from nursing students at the institution where I am a reference and user services librarian.

Three subject search "stems" were linked via a Boolean "AND" to each of the two filters described above, and PubMed was queried based on these six search sentences. I pulled all of the resulting articles and kept them in their six sets.

Having decided on predetermined definitions of both "nurse-authored" and "research-based," I determined what proportion of each of the six sets of articles qualified on both scores. A comparison of each "case" (my Boolean filter) to the "control" (PubMed's Limits) for each subject search showed that my "case" method produced a higher proportion of qualifying articles all three times. The differences were unlikely to be due to chance alone based on a simple, well-known statistical test.

Details on the search queries used can be found in my article, McGraw M. Narrowing PubMed searches to nursing-related articles. Comput Inform Nurs 2009;27(5):272-5. [PMID: 19726919]. The statistical results were in the poster but are not in the CIN article. If you'd like more information, please email me at michael.mcgraw at case(dot)edu.

This poster describes how librarians at the Ohio State University (OSU) Prior Health Sciences Library became instructors of a required course in a special College of Medicine curriculum for honors-eligible undergraduates.

The biomedical science (BMS) undergraduate major, which offers a bachelor of science degree, is designed to attract honors students interested in making a commitment to biomedical research and/or careers as health sciences professionals. One of the curriculum's unique aspects is that students are expected to acquire at least one year of experience in a biomedical research laboratory.

Teamwork, problem-solving and oral/written communication skills are emphasized. Students also participate in clinical shadowing and volunteer work in the OSU Medical Center and in other research and health care organizations. A few have even done biomedical research and clinical shadowing in South America, Africa and Europe.

Another unique aspect of the BMS curriculum is the information literacy requirement. In the freshman year, the students must take two courses in which a health sciences librarian is a co-instructor. Topics in these courses include searching for, retrieving, reading and organizing information from high-quality texts, research journals and professional websites.

Seminar sessions on critical analysis of research articles, copyright law, scientific communications and presentations skills are also offered as content in the two courses. Students apply this knowledge in two required team presentations with accompanying bibliographies of research articles.

Pre- and post-tests demonstrate that the students improve their understanding of concepts, skills and information-seeking behavior. The information literacy education they acquire is one factor in the students' accomplishments after the freshman year but before graduation - publication in professional journals, research awards and recognition.

The growing awareness of disparities in health literacy and multicultural competency led us to focus on helping physicians and health professionals better serve patients with diverse needs. Creating a website seemed to be a good way to educate busy health professionals. We started collecting information for the website in these topic areas:

• Examples of low health literacy and culturally diverse patients


• Strategies to use to help patients understand and manage their health conditions


• Continuing education opportunities for physicians and other health professionals


• Patient handouts


• Health literacy and cultural competency organizations


• University resources including books and journals


• Research, including links to PubMed that run current searches on health literacy or cultural competency


• Statistics that show why it is important to help patients with low health literacy and patients from diverse cultural backgrounds

Designing the website proved to be more challenging than finding useful content. Our goal was to make it attractive and easy for busy health professionals to use. The Health Center Publicity Department had several useful design suggestions including:

• Keep pages short and to the point.


• On the home page include statistics, how to identify low literacy patients and tips on how to communicate with those patients.


• Under each category on the website, start with links to top picks. If the user wants to go into more depth, they can click on another level and get more in-depth information.

• Linking to the health literacy website from the library website
  
• Announcing it by email and as a news item on the library website


• Offering classes on health literacy that introduced the website in the library or as a "road show" presentation available to Academic Health Center students, residents and faculty


• Partnering with the Center for Competency Development and Assessment (CCDA) in their work with medical students in developing the essential skills of the medical interview, physical examination and diagnosis


• Introducing it as part of other classes we teach in the library like PubMed, CINAHL and other databases

Some attendees recommended we start by educating nursing and/or allied health students and professionals. We are now prepared to update the website and find partners at the University of Cincinnati for a rollout.

Submitted by Andy Hickner, graduate student
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

The generous scholarship from Midwest Chapter/MLA helped make my first medical library conference a longer, stronger and fuller experience.

I was able to stay longer than I would have otherwise, which made it easier to accommodate my competing priorities of both spending time at the conference and enjoying the underrated delights of Columbus. The conference's location in Columbus, a city that I've loved since the first time I visited at age seventeen, was both a blessing and a curse. It's a friendly, safe and vibrant place to get around, with affordable nightlife and endless shopping, historic architecture, bars, galleries and restaurants. Consequently, it was all too tempting to spend the weekend taking it all in rather than taking full advantage of the opportunities at the conference. Being able to stay a full 48 hours helped me do both.

The most important part of the conference, to me, was the face-to-face contact with colleagues in health sciences libraries across the Midwest. As a full-time student specializing in a relatively small and geographically dispersed field, it is easy to feel a little isolated from my fellow practitioners. Attending the conference helped me put names with faces, and to feel part of a community of smart, innovative people all facing the same challenges.

The chapter's student-mentor pairing facilitated that sense of community. I was matched with Becca Caton from Midwestern University, who provided a friendly face and helpful one-on-one coaching to help me identify which conference experiences I should make a priority. Becca was a rich source of advice about what to see and do at the conference and always ready to answer any questions I had. I owe a tremendous thanks to Becca, and encourage the Chapter to continue to offer the mentorship option as a way to help student and first-time attendees feel welcome.

I also grew professionally by being able to present with my colleagues at University of Michigan's (UM) Health Sciences Libraries at one of the paper sessions. I found our audience supportive and ready to ask questions and provide feedback. The morning after we presented, I was glad I took an hour to walk around and browse the offerings at the poster session. Some posters, like University of Minnesota's Search Camp program, gave me interesting ideas for projects to pursue at UM, while others, like Case Western University's home-made alternative to a PubMed filter, impressed me with their ambition and audacity.

I drove out of Columbus Monday afternoon looking forward to Midwest Chapter/MLA 2010, when I hope to be able to stay even longer, unhampered by my class schedule. The chapter's scholarship was effective in luring me to the conference. Once there, I was eager to return next year.

Submitted by Margaret (Peggy) Gross, graduate student
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

I appreciate the 2009 Midwest Chapter/MLA Awards and Scholarship Committee's presentation of a student scholarship at this past meeting in Columbus, OH. I am honored by the recognition, and as a result of the support I was able to enjoy the entire conference, to present a poster and to take a CE class.

Just as I had anticipated, my first moments of the conference were off to a great academic start as I sat in my first MLA class, an evidence-based medicine class taught by Ann McKibbon. The class was helpful because I am working on evidence-based medicine as part of my MLIS thesis and also because I am a research assistant for a professor with whom I am working on an EBM project.

Prior to the meeting I was looking forward to hearing good papers, seeing other poster presentations and listening to keynote speakers. The presentations were professionally delivered, the posters were aesthetically pleasing and informative, and the keynote speakers called us to introspection about what it means to be a librarian in these technologically and economically charged times. As I presented my first poster, "Exploring a Career as an NIH Informationist: Interviews with the National Institutes of Health Librarians," I discovered that presenting a poster is a great way to meet others.

In retrospect, the absolute highlight of the chapter meeting, for me, was simply socializing with others. The Conference Committee was thoughtful in setting up a meeting mentorship program that allowed new members and students to be paired with seasoned librarians. I signed up for a mentor since I am new to the profession, always have questions and wanted the opportunity to meet other librarians. Charlotte Sievert paired me with Ruth Holst. I only knew Ruth through her journal articles, so I looked forward to meeting the woman behind the work.

As a mentor, Ruth took the time to introduce me to many other people such as Jane Blumenthal who, in turn, introduced me to Chrysta Meadowbrooke, a fellow student at the University of Michigan. My mentor offered a personal touch, and I am grateful for this and comforted just knowing she was available if I had a question or a concern.

I walked into the meeting knowing only a few people and walked away the last day feeling part of a warm, family of medical librarians. I felt like I'd just come away from three days of "milk and cookies"-that warm, cozy, full feeling created by a group of caring people.

Yes, the job market is tough these days, and many of us who are still students have worries about landing that first real library job. But I left the conference with the distinct feeling that I have indeed chosen the right path--not so much because medical librarianship is intellectually stimulating but because of the like-minded people with whom I will eventually work when the time is right. Thank you Midwest MLA for the student scholarship. I truly appreciate it and I am honored to be a part of such a great community of librarians.

Submitted by Kacy Allgood, Reference Informationist
Indiana University School of Medicine Library, Indianapolis, IN

Attending the 2009 Midwest Chapter/MLA conference was an excellent opportunity to engage colleagues and mentors from the Midwest, learn from entertaining presenters and obtain additional CE. While in attendance, I was able to "Seek, Explore and Discover" new ideas to introduce at Indiana University School of Medicine. Noble goals and practical advice were discussed throughout the conference.

Dr. Clifford Stoll's informal and enthusiastic keynote address emphasized the demand for library services that are better, faster and cheaper. Library guests seek quick answers, often sacrificing quality for speed. Dr. Stoll challenged us to help our library guests discover wisdom and understanding.

We are in the process of creating new spreadsheets to collect reference statistics. After participating in the panel discussion "What Administrators Want from Libraries," I'm adding questions that will organize reference questions by strategic goals: research, education and clinical care. This seems to be an effective and memorable way to communicate the value of our library services to library and university administrators.

The 2009 chapter conference in Columbus seemed to be well organized, well attended and offered a wide variety of speakers, topics, activities and food. From my perspective, all conference-related events ran smoothly from beginning to end. My observations were excellent preparation to help plan for the 2011 meeting to be held in Indianapolis. There were many details at the Columbus meeting that I am looking to imitate.

Thanks again to the Awards and Scholarship Committee for the opportunity to attend the 2009 meeting. Without the financial assistance of the Professional Development Award, I would not have been able to attend.

Submitted by Dee Disardina, AHIP
Harley French Library of the Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND

Educational, inspiring, delicious and fun. The Midwest Chapter/MLA 2009 conference was all that and more! Held at the Hyatt in downtown Columbus, the meeting was an absolute success-from the variety and number of library vendor representatives, who lent their presence and support, to the meeting site itself.

Professional Growth

With excellent CE opportunities, a dozen contributed papers ranging from "Copyright for the Rest of Us" to "Library Leaders as Culture Shapers" and over thirty poster presentations, I wished I had a clone or two so as not to miss anything.

The meeting featured talented speakers: Cliff Stoll who, in his unique way, challenged us to look at the world in a new way, with an open mind, unleashing our innovation and creativity; and OCLC strategist Lorcan Dempsey, who reviewed and encouraged us to embrace the changes now transforming libraries.

The general sessions were outstanding in their timely and useful content. "What Administrators Want From Libraries," "Scholarly Communications 101" and the GMR Technology Forum gave us a current and in-depth view of the issues and how they are being addressed. It was a treasure of pertinent and valuable information.

Collegial Atmosphere

If the professional growth opportunities offered by this meeting were excellent, the cordial, collegial mood of group members was just as impressive. This was my first Midwest Chapter conference. I met old friends and made new ones, who welcomed me like an old friend.

Venue and Evening Activities

Nothing makes or breaks the success of a meeting more than the facilities and services. The Hyatt was the perfect venue. The conference rooms were easy to find, appropriate and comfortable. The hotel is quite elegant and central to all evening activities. These included a visit to the historical Ohio Statehouse, the arts district and the beautifully restored German Village. Last but not least, the food at all events was superb, and the Hyatt staff was extremely gracious.

Thank You

The meeting was very well attended. It had nothing to envy the larger national MLA meetings. The Planning Committee deserves a huge round of applause and commendation. This flawless event took great work and coordination. I thank the Professional Development Award Committee for giving me the opportunity to attend, the Planning Committee for a terrific meeting and the Midwest MLA members present for their warm and wonderful welcome. I look forward to actively participating in and attending many more.

While the exhibit was on display, ten locally produced exhibits offered more information on J.K. Rowling, Renaissance notables mentioned in the traveling exhibit and the Harry Potter books. The library also held five lectures, a reading discussion group, children's programming, a film screening and a game night. Local media wrote nine stories about the exhibit and programming over six weeks.

The exhibit attracted university students, faculty and staff, and community residents of all ages. For more information, see the Booth Library Harry Potter's World website and the National Library of Medicine's traveling exhibits website.

Our health sciences library is part of a community teaching hospital in Des Moines, IA, which has 663 beds housed on 2 campuses. We support 5 residency programs with 87 residents. All residents attend a four-week evidence-based medicine (EBM) class during the fall of their first year of residency. One of these sessions is devoted to literature searching, and residents are introduced to various EBM resources and to searching strategies.

In the summer of 2006 the librarians were invited to work with the residents in the pediatric program to improve their literature searching skills. Their faculty had noted that residents tend to forget the searching skills they have learned and struggle to perform good searches. They often fall back to using Google for their searches when they aren't comfortable with the medical databases. The goal of this project is to help them gain confidence with the various databases, particularly PubMed, and to learn which database would be the best for answering certain types of questions.

The librarians attend pediatric rounds one day a week for fifteen minutes to help the residents search the answer to a question of their choosing from that week's practice. The group consists of first, second and third year pediatric residents; first year family practice residents; and third year medical students. Hospitalists, social workers, a pharmacist, case manager and dietician are also in the room. Usually, the group already has a question in mind to be searched. One person sits at the keyboard, and they work on their search together. The computer screen is projected onto a large screen so everyone can see the search in progress.

Librarians coach the group to frame their question using PICO, select the search terms and decide which database is best. The residents lack confidence in their searching skills at first. Because they work as a group, there are usually some people in the room who can coach the typist. The librarians step in as needed.

Over time, we have not been able to teach the variety of databases that we had hoped. The questions raised are often complex and very specific, and answers often are not in the literature or information is limited. Most questions lend themselves to PubMed rather than to Cochrane, the National Guideline Clearinghouse or other databases. Although we haven't been able to utilize other databases very often, the residents see the benefit of learning PubMed and gain confidence in its use. Occasionally, when the group does not have a question in mind, we use the time as an opportunity to review other databases.

In December of 2007 a second relationship was established with the family medicine residency program to do the same instruction. This is a smaller group of two residents, two third-year medical students, a faculty physician and faculty pharmacist. Again, the group comes up with complex patient scenarios and questions, and PubMed is used the most to find answers. Over time, residents' searching skills improve. In this group faculty members are very interested in learning the databases themselves and in finding the subsequent articles.

Both of these groups have accepted the library piece as part of their week's routine and have become more aware of the questions that come up in their practice. In addition to improving residents' literature searching skills, this project has developed a rapport between the librarians and physicians. The librarians have become more visible and more approachable to both faculty and residents, and we have more contact with them outside of rounds than we did before the project began.

Kacy received her MLS from the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science in her hometown of Indianapolis in 2007. She has a bachelor's degree in business from the same institution. Kacy enjoys traveling, reading, and quilting.

Abby Bedford is a student worker at the Health Sciences Libraries at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her responsibilities include reference and projects. This Grandville, MI, native received an bachelor's degree in music from Hope College. She expects to graduate from the University of Michigan's School of Information in 2010.

Onadell Bly is systems librarian at the Oliver Ocasek Regional Medical Information Center (OORMIC) of Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM) in Rootstown, OH. She graduated from Kent State's School of Library and Information Science in 1989. She received her bachelor's degree in English from Mount Union College. Onadell's personal interests include dogs, home decorating and gardening.

Lydia Craig is learning resource center manager at the National Institute of Technology in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. She manages "the everyday operations of a career college library while planning for the future." Her professional interests include information literacy, collaboration and history. Lydia received her MLS in 2007 from Kent State University. She also received her bachelor's degree in photo illustration from Kent State University. Lydia's hometown is Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Her hobbies include golfing, skiing, reading, ministry and being a part-time wedding photographer.

Amy Donahue is a National Library of Medicine associate fellow at the Biomedical Library of the University of Minnesota. Her responsibilities include "working with bioethics librarians on the University of Minnesota's EthicShare project, contributing to the Web Services Committee and working on the reference desk." Her professional interests include medical informatics, translational research, scholarly communication, evidence-based practice, social networking tools and rural health outreach. Amy received her MLIS from the University of Washington in 2007. She majored in Russian and in Math as an undergraduate at Grinnell College in Iowa. Amy's hobbies and personal interests include ultimate Frisbee, running and local foods.

Rose Guerrieri is the director of the Kent State University Trumball Campus Library. She is responsible for daily operations of the library, reference and instruction. Her professional interests include informatics, clinical librarianship and nursing. Rose, who is from Newton Falls, OH, majored in nursing and computer science as an undergraduate at Youngstown State University. She received her MLIS from Kent State University.

Andy Hickner is a student assistant at the Health Sciences Libraries at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His responsibilities include reference, instruction, special projects and liaison for course technology integration/H1N1 preparedness for School of Public Health.

His professional interests include human computer interaction and EBM. Andy is an MSI candidate at the University of Michigan's School of Information and anticipates graduating in 2010. He has an bachelor's degree in political theory and constitutional democracy from Michigan State University. Andy's hometown is Bay City, MI. He enjoys sleeping, ice cream, weight lifting and "reading about urban studies, especially about Rust Belt cities."

Pamela Kress-Dunn is librarian at the Pfohl Health Sciences Library of Mercy Medical Center in Dubuque, IA. She says her responsibilities include "Everything! I'm a one-person shop, although I do have a tireless volunteer who checks in journals and fills ILL requests two days a week. I also do lit searches for physicians, nurses and clinical staff; teach nurses how to use CINAHL and PubMed; orient new medical staff to the library; place ILL orders; and catalog books for my OPAC (using EOS)."

Her professional interests include teaching medical and nursing staff to conduct successful journal searches; ebooks and databases; and interlibrary loan. Pam received her MLS from the University of Iowa in 1976. She also has a bachelor's degree in English from Coe College, a master's in English from Loras College and an MFA in poetry from the University of Nebraska. Pam's hometown is Davenport, IA. Her hobbies include voracious reading, writing poetry and writing a biweekly column for a local arts and culture paper. "Someday I hope to have a poem published in JAMA," she says.

Nadia Lalla is coordinator of collections and information services at the Health Sciences Libraries of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She manages the print and electronic collections of the Public Health and Taubman Medical Libraries and is responsible for acquisitions, licensing and withdrawals. As co-coordinator of information services, her focus is in the areas of instructional technology initiatives, virtual reference operations and the evaluation and assessment of reference services. Nadia's professional interests include evolution of collections in academic health science libraries and health information needs of intimate partner violence survivors. She received her bachelor's degree in English literature with a minor in French from the University of New Brunswick and her MLIS from McGill University. Her hometown is Canton, MI. She is an avid choral singer, obsessed with lighthouses and enjoys reading mysteries.

Beth Layton is director of the Ocasek Medical Library, which is part of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM) in Rootstown, OH. Her responsibilities include planning and general administration. Her professional interests include management and leadership, health literacy and education of health professionals. Beth has an MLS from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Shenandoah University and a bachelor's in Education from Millersville University. Beth has served as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity's Women's Build and for animal rescue groups.

Catherine Lencioni is the reference and instruction manager for the Midwestern University Library. She answers reference questions, conducts library literacy classes for patrons and acts as an information resource for librarians at two campuses. Her professional interests include medical informatics. Catherine graduated from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences in 2008. She has a bachelor's degree from Loyola University and is licensed in dental hygiene.

Dawn Littleton is head of public services for the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine Libraries in Rochester, MN. She oversees the College of Medicine school libraries in addition to the public services aspects of the Plummer Library, the main clinical/research library. Her professional interests include knowledge management, grey literature, diversity, electronic document delivery, h-index determination, reducing health disparities and usability issues. Dawn has an MLS from the School of Information and Library Sciences and a master's degree in psychology from SUNY Buffalo. She has an undergraduate degree in biopsychology from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. Her personal interests include native prairie development and international film festivals.

Lisa Martincik is the electronic resources librarian at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Her main responsibilities include handling electronic resources (orders, tracking, troubleshooting), working at the reference desk and website maintenance. Her professional interests include electronic resources in the health sciences and mobile computing. This Omaha native has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and her MLS from the University of Iowa. Her hobbies include comic books and aikido.

Jessica Page is a librarian at the Veterinary Medicine and the Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences libraries, which are part of the Ohio State University Libraries, in her hometown, Columbus, OH. She manages the print and online collections, provides instruction, produces research guides, conducts orientations and provides research assistance to students and faculty. Her professional interests include veterinary medicine, public health, food production and safety, environmental science and environmental health, and science information literacy. Jessica has a bachelor's degree in environmental and plant biology from Ohio University, an MS in biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and received her MLIS from Kent State University in 2008. Her hobbies include running, knitting, backpacking, home brewing, biking, baking and scuba diving.

Amy Stoneburner is manager of the learning resource center at Bohecker College in Ohio. She says, "This is a one person library position so I do it all (instruction, cataloging, acquisitions, etc.). The bulk of our students at this school are nursing students, so that is where my focus is now. I am also very interested in technology. I don't feel that I am as tech savvy as I would like to be, so I am interested in learning more so that I can better assist the students." Amy's hometown is Florence, KY. She has bachelor's degrees in biology and psychology from Northern Kentucky University. She is currently an MLS student at the University of Kentucky and anticipates graduating at the end of 2010 or in early 2011. Amy enjoys playing board games, hiking and reading.

Judith TenEyck is a library assistant at the Galen College of Nursing Library in her hometown of Cincinnati, OH. Her responsibilities include cataloging, reference and clerical work. She is currently a student at the University of Kentucky's School of Library and Information Science and hopes to graduate in May 2011. She has undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology from Fairfield University and Xavier University, respectively.

Judith Weinstein is associate director of Heartland Alliance Refugee Health Programs at Heartland Health Outreach (a subsidiary of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights) in Chicago, IL. Her responsibilities include overseeing the Refugee Health Education and Promotion Program, which provides health education training to health promoters who serve refugee populations; creating multilingual health education materials; and collaborating with the University of Illinois at Chicago, Library of Health Sciences in expanding access to multilingual health education. Her professional interests include refugee and immigrant health; cross-cultural, multilingual health information; and women's health. Judith has a bachelor's degree in French from Bryn Mawr College, a master's degree in French from New York University and an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She enjoys reading, music, yoga, tennis, the New York Times crossword puzzle and travel.

Katherine Westby is a first year graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies. This Erhard, MN, native is a graduate of Luther College in Decorah, IA, where she studied English and communication studies. Currently, she works at the Information Desk at UW's Memorial Library. She will begin working as a reference assistant at Ebling Library in the UW Health Sciences Learning Center in mid-December.

Judith Wiener is assistant professor and interim assistant director for affiliates and special collections at the Ohio State University (OSU) Prior Health Sciences Library. She is the head of the OSU Prior Health Sciences Medical Heritage Center and is the administrative liaison with the Prior's affiliated libraries at Nationwide Children's Hospital, OSU Hospital East and the OSU Library for Health Information in the Atrium. She also serves on the library's executive committee on an interim basis.

Her professional interests include library administration and the history of the health sciences. Judy received her MLIS from Kent State University in 2005 and an MA in Public History from Wright State University in 2001. She has a bachelor's degree in history from Wheeling Jesuit University. Judy, who is originally from Pittsburgh, PA, enjoys hiking, bike riding, traveling, going to the theater and spending time with her family and friends.

The Kentucky Medical Library Association hosted a CE program at the University of Kentucky's William T. Young Library in Lexington on June 12 presented by Lisa Traditi of the University of Colorado, Denver Health Sciences Library. Lisa's presentation, "The Librarian and the Evidence: Our Role in EBHC," was well received.

Minnesota

The Health Science Libraries of Minnesota (HSLM) sponsored a program on October 13, 2009, and reached out to library paraprofessionals and technicians in the state as well as HSLM members. The morning session was presented by Samanthi Hewakapuge of the GMR on consumer health information on the Web, and the afternoon session was "Cool Web 2.0 Tools" by Melissa Rethlefsen from Mayo Clinic.

North Dakota

The fall Health Science Information Section (HSIS) of the North Dakota Library Association (NDLA) meeting was held September 24 in Dickinson, ND, at the NDLA Annual Meeting.

Travis Schulz received the HSIS Professional Development Grant to attend this year's Midwest Chapter conference. Travis is also the new HSIS chair. Mary Markland is chair-elect, and Theresa Norton was elected as secretary.

GMR Consumer Health Coordinator Samanthi Hewakapuge gave a GMR update at our meeting. She also gave two "Healthy Aging at Your Library: Connecting Older Adults to Health Information" presentations at NDLA. Ann Pederson discussed emergency disaster plans for North Dakota.

Advocacy Toolbox: A Practical Guide to Communicating Your Value
Here you will find information on communicating with administrators and users, compensation issues, copyright issues, and showcasing your library's services.

The following deadlines are approaching:

2010 EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant Applications Due December 1, 2009

The EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants, sponsored by EBSCO Information Services, enable MLA members to attend the association's annual meeting. Each year, grants of up to $1,000 for travel and meeting-related expenses are awarded to four librarians. To qualify applicants must have two to five years' experience in the profession at the time of the MLA 2010 conference. Contact Jury Chair Patricia Gallagher, AHIP, for more information.

MLA Scholarship Applications Due December 1, 2009

MLA is accepting applications for its annual scholarship. The award provides up to $5,000 to a student who shows excellence in scholarship and potential for accomplishment in health sciences librarianship. Details and the application form can be found on MLANET. Contact Jury Chair Victoria Pifalo for more information.

Apply Today for the David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship

The Kronick Fellowship provides $2,000 to an experienced librarian to support travel and research promoting excellence in health sciences librarianship. The award covers expenses for travel to three or more medical libraries in the United States or Canada for the purpose of studying a specific aspect of health information management. Eligibility requirements and additional information are available on MLANET. www.mlanet.org/awards/grants/index.html?focus_20091015 The application deadline is December 1, 2009. Please contact Jury Chair Susan Steelman for more information.

The MLA Membership Committee has been highlighting some of the benefits of belonging to MLA. Think about travel! The MLA annual meeting and your MLA Chapter annual meeting are wonderful reasons to visit a new place. Vancouver, Canada, isn't on most vacation itineraries, but MLA held its annual meeting there in 2000. The cruise ships still bring memories. Chicago and Philadelphia are pretty regular meeting sites, but 2009 in Hawaii was exceptional! Phoenix in 2006 was another out-of-the-ordinary city, and San Diego in 2003 was beautiful but chillier than expected. As a member of MLA, you can look forward to Washington, D.C., in 2010, Minneapolis in 2011, Seattle (fresh salmon!) in 2012, and Baltimore in 2013. The latter will be a joint meeting with the International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML).

MLA is accepting ideas for exciting and innovative courses and symposia to offer at MLA 2011 in Minneapolis, MN. Suggestions must be submitted by Tuesday, December 15, 2009, for consideration by the MLA Continuing Education Committee (CEC) at its midwinter meeting in January 2010. More information and forms are available on MLANET.

It is with great sadness that we inform friends and colleagues of the sudden and unexpected death of Mary Klatt, Associate Director, Loyola University Health Sciences Library, early Saturday morning, November 14, 2009. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to the American Cancer Society (1801 S. Meyers, Ste. 100, Oakbrook, IL 60181).

Contributions may be edited for brevity, clarity or conformance to style. The Medical Library Association Style Manual, available at http://mlanet.org/publications/style, provides guidelines for MIDLINE contributors. All copy should be submitted in electronic format to the editor, Jason Young, at jjyoung78 at gmail dot com. Photos should be submitted as .jpeg files.

Mailing address changes should be reported to: Rebecca Caton, Membership Secretary, at rcaton at midwestern dot edu.

The Midwest Chapter/Medical Library Association website is located at http://midwestmla.org.

Cheers!
Jason Young, Editor