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 Message From the President
Linda Watson, MLS, AHIP, FMLA
President, Assoc of Academic Health Science Libraries
Director, Health Sciences Libraries
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
President’s Message #4 – February 2008
Teaching Learning Oversight Committee (TLOC)
Julie Sollenberger and I had two productive meetings in Washington on February 11-12 to further the work of our Teaching Learning Oversight Committee. We met with Brownie Anderson, the deputy director of AAMC’s Division of Medical Education, and Marian Taliaferro, AAMC Librarian, to follow up on potential collaborations. [Marian will be at the MLA meeting in Chicago to exhibit AAMC’s MedEd Portal]. We talked about the Northeast Region GEA meeting in April at which Lauren Maggio (LiME) will co-teach the literature searching course in the Medical Education Research Certificate program. We also discussed the possibility of a joint GEA/RIME/AAHSL session at the November AAMC meeting around collaborative research ideas. The TLOC will be exploring these opportunities in the coming months.
The second meeting was with AAHC and its affiliate members. Executive directors and leadership of associations of colleges of medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, osteopathic medicine, psychology and the CEO of the University HealthSystem Consortium met to discuss the possible formation of an “Alliance for Interprofessional Health Professions Education and Practice.” The group also explored a proposal from AMIA concerning the development of web-based informatics curriculum for all health professions students, and one from the AAMC on developing cross-disciplinary approaches to collecting workforce data including development of common definitions. It is likely that working groups will be created around these two proposals. Julie and I expressed AAHSL’s interest in participating in the informatics project.
With all the work to be done by our TLOC, we are so fortunate that we were able to coax Rick Forsman back to work part-time on our behalf as our Project Coordinator. Rick will start working with us in March.
Advocacy
On January 30th, I attended a meeting hosted by ARL to discuss NIH Public Access Policy Implementation. Neil Thakur represented NIH, and Betsy Humphreys was there from NLM. Pat Thibodeau and Alexa McCray were other AAHSL colleagues attending along with several ARL library directors, the senior leadership of the National Association of State and University Landgrant Colleges and the Association of American Universities, several vice presidents for research, ARL and SPARC staff, and a copyright lawyer. As follow up, ARL has develop a website of resources http://www.arl.org/sc/implement/nih/guide/index.shtml and is sponsoring a free webcast on March 7th on institutional compliance (register by March 3rd). http://www.arl.org/sc/implement/nih/webcast/.
AAHSL signed on to several advocacy letters this month – one to thank leaders of Congress (Harkin and Obey) for their support of the NIH Public Access Policy, and asking them to stand firm in the face of publisher protests, a similar one to Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and finally a letter to Congress as part of a Coalition for Health Funding to request significant funding increases for NIH and other health and human services agencies for FY09 budgets.
Conflict of Interest Policy
AAHSL has a Conflicts of Interest Policy and Disclosure of Certain Interests Policy http://www.aahsl.org/Publications/Appendix_C_Conflict.pdf which requires all Board officers and Committee Chairs (defined as volunteer leaders in our policy) to disclose any potential conflicts of interest with their participation in AAHSL activities. With the heightened awareness of this issue nationwide, the Board voted to extend this requirement to any committee or task force member, not just the chairs. We will also be working with the Program and Education Committee to require disclosure statements from any speakers we engage. You all might be interested in a recent report from AAMC entitled The Scientific Basis of Influence and Reciprocity: A Symposium which you can access at www.aamc.org/publications .
Meetings at MLA
The AAHSL Office has been able to reserve a meeting room for AAHSL Committee meetings during the MLA meeting in May. Committee chairs are beginning to schedule those meetings now.
***Award Nominations Reminder***
April 30th is the deadline for nominations for AAHSL’s two awards: the Cornerstone Award (for and individual) and the Innovation Award (for an AAHSL institution). Please review the criteria for the awards on the AAHSL website, and follow the instructions there for nomination.
Member Transitions
New or interim directors (Welcome!):
*Liz Bayly (acting), McMaster University Health Sciences Library
*Onadell Bly (interim), Northeastern Ohio University
*Melanie Shuran, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
*Patty Fink (acting), Northern Ontario School of Medicine
*Julie Voelck, Oakland University.
Retirees (Farewell and best wishes!):
*Dorothy Fitzgerald, McMaster University Health Sciences Library
*William Postell, Tulane University Medical Center Library
*Dave Hulkonen, University of South Dakota School of Medicine
Departures:
*Tom Williams, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar
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