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 #8 – July 2008

Changes at Headquarters

AAHSL’s Account Manager, April Thanos, left AAHSL Headquarters on June 13th to join a Seattle non-profit in scholarship development. April did a great job for AAHSL and we are greatly appreciative of her service.  We are welcoming Louise Starr Miller on July 1st as our new Account Manager. Louise has 15 years of national association management experience, with a background in executive level organizations at the Association Management Center in Illinois.  She has served as Executive Director of the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses, and also has worked for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the American Osteopathic Association.  Louise has CAE Certification (Certified Association Executive) - an education held by only 5% of association professionals.  Ceri Farrow, in the AAHSL Office will continue with her many skills in supporting Louise as we make the transition.

Advocacy

The presentation that Mark Funk and I gave to Congressional staffers in April as part of the Joint Legislative Task Force can be found on MLANET at www.mlanet.org/government/ .  It is titled: "Health Information for All: From Research to Health Professional to Patient".

While at the MLA meeting, Naomi Broering asked me if I would pass a message on to the AAHSL membership about joining the Friends of NLM as an institutional member.  Many of us are individual members, but the website is now a bit more explicit about institutional membership for your consideration.  There is no list of current members that I could find, so it’s possible that some of your institutions may already be members.  Here’s the website:  www.fnlm.org/.

Teaching and Learning Initiatives

Back in February, I reported on a meeting of the AAHC affiliates that Julie Sollenberger and I attended in DC at which a proposal by AMIA was endorsed to develop a web-based informatics curriculum for all health professions students.   A Steering Committee has just been formed on behalf of AMIA and AAHC for the joint project to develop a Common Multidisciplinary Informatics Curriculum for Clinical Students.   A two phase project is envisioned:  Phase One
will involve development of learning objectives and curriculum and Phase Two will assemble and/or create assessment tools and learning materials.  Rick Forsman is our representative to this group, and will be keeping us informed, and will no doubt be soliciting all our input toward the task.

Leadership Committee

NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows, mentors and faculty participated in the Leadership Institute on May 21, 2008, in Chicago at the MLA Annual Meeting. Sheldon Kotzin from NLM joined the group for lunch. The program focused on practical career guidance drawing on mentor experience. Fellows were asked to prepare for a mock interview exercise pairing fellows with mentors other than their own; mentors acted as their medical school dean or other officer and provided feedback to the fellows on the interview and their CVs. Wallace McLendon, University of Florida, and former fellow Jerry Perry, University of Colorado, participated as a guest panel describing their recent experience in interviewing for directorships as external and internal candidates and their perspective as new directors. The cohort engaged in a guided discussion on organizational politics, life of the director, and work/life balance.

Annual Statistics

You received a message from Gary Byrd on June 16th about the 30th Edition statistics (printed version with an accompanying CD for many of the tables in the Descriptive Survey), which you should be receiving soon.  Thank you to Gary and his committee for all the work they have done this year.  Gary also reminds us of an earlier deadline for the 31st Edition (October 15th) so as soon as most of your fiscal years close out on June 30th, get counting!!!

Matheson Cooper Report Testimonial

Check out the latest from Dr. Lindberg at www.aahsl.org/Matheson/Donald_Lindberg_ltr.cfm

Speaking of which – we are very pleased that Nancy Lorenzi has accepted our invitation to be the Matheson speaker on November 3rd.  More details will be forthcoming from the Program and Education Committee soon, including information about our Saturday workshop on the topic of measuring ROI in academic health sciences libraries.
 
Member Transitions

Interim Director:  Susan Clark, University of Mississippi

Have a wonderful July 4th holiday, everyone!