President's Message


Jim Bothmer
President, AAHSL 2013-2014
University Librarian
Director of the Health Sciences Library
Creighton University 

October 20, 2014

Colleagues,

I am just back from the Quint Chapter meeting in Denver. This meeting was a gathering of five chapters whose member states are all west of the Mississippi. Nearly 400 attendees were educated and entertained by a variety of excellent CEs, speakers, programs, papers, posters, and exhibits. The setting was lovely, at least the views of the front range were! The weather was perfect. And the program was excellent. And, now it’s time to gear up for the AAHSL meeting in less than three weeks. It too promises to be a great meeting.

This is also my last President’s Report. Twelve reports promised and twelve delivered, not always with eloquence but always with heart and soul. I will be relinquishing the virtual gavel to Paul Schoening at our annual business meeting. It’s been a privilege and honor to serve you and it’s been (mostly!) fun as well.

Annual Business Meeting

The final agenda will be sent out later this week. Our time is tight and we have only one hour for the business meeting. Committee reports are posted on the AAHSL web. Please review them prior to the meeting. There will be no verbal reports. If there are questions from the membership I invite the chairs or designated committee member to be ready to respond.

Annual Meeting

The AAHSL program promises to be jam-packed with good content and time for networking. Attached is the final itinerary for your information. The reception begins at 5:30p.m. on Friday, November 6 and the awards will be presented at 6p.m. the attached information is the latest we have to date. Thank you Louise and crew for preparing this. Good work!

A word from the Program and Education committee regarding this year’s educational program:

“Technological change, institutional reorganizations, budget challenges… these are the new reality for directors in today’s Academic Health Sciences libraries. We are all looking for ways to lead and address change more effectively as the complexity of our profession grows. Bill Joiner, international leadership expert and organizational change consultant will delve into the concept of “Leadership Agility”—why it’s essential in today’s increasingly fast-paced and changing business environments, and how to apply it in leading teams and change within your own organization. Joiner’s keynote address will be followed by a hands-on workshop for participants.”

It promises to be a great educational session. Thank you Program Committee for your excellent work.

Nominees for Board Vacancies

Thanks to an outstanding Nominating Committee (Paul Schoening, Jerry Perry, and Heidi Heilemann) the following candidates are offered for approval at the annual meeting:

For Chair-Elect: Ruth Riley, University of South Carolina
For Member-At-Large: Pamela Bradigan, The Ohio State University

Thank you Ruth and Pam for agreeing to put your names forward.

Rotating off the Board are MJ Tooey and Neil Rambo. I believe MJ served two consecutive terms. A huge thank you goes out to both MJ and Neil for their dedicated service for the organization. The last three years flew by but your accomplishments and support are recognized here. You will be missed. Thank you for serving!


Leadership Fellows Program

The Capstone Event for this year’s cohort of fellows and mentors was a very nice affair. As reported in my September report this year’s cohort was outstanding. I had the opportunity to be with the group on Wednesday, October 1 and was most impressed by the enthusiasm and comradery that was shown.

The Future Leadership Committee is pleased to announce the members of the 2014-2015 NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program class, the thirteenth year of the program. Once again the cohort will include six fellows and their mentors. The 2014-2015 class will meet for the first time November 6th in Chicago. We invite you to meet the fellows during the AAHSL/AAMC meetings and to congratulate them on their selection. A huge thank you to the Committee and to Carol Jenkins for organizing such a successful program.

The NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program to prepare emerging leaders for director positions in academic health sciences libraries is jointly funded by NLM and AAHSL. Since the program began in 2002, twenty-six fellow graduates have assumed director positions. More information about the program is available at

https://aahsl.memberclicks.net/leadership-fellows-program


2014-2015 NLM/AAHSL LEADERSHIP FELLOWS PROGRAM

Elizabeth (Beth) Hill, PhD, MLS, AHIP
Dean, Academic Support Services
South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia, WA.

Mentor: Joanne M. Muellenbach, MA, D-AHIP
Director, Medical Library
The Commonwealth Medical College, Scranton, PA

Rikke Ogawa, MLIS, AHIP
Research, Instruction & Collection Services, Health & Life Sciences Librarian
UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, Los Angeles, CA
Mentor: Jane Blumenthal, MSLS, AHIP
Associate University Librarian and Director, Taubman Medical Library
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Kelly Thormodson, MLIS
Assistant Director, Harley E. French Library of the Health Sciences
The University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Grand Forks, ND

Mentor: Kerry A. O’Rourke, MLS, AHIP
Library Director, Robert Wood Johnson Library of the Health Sciences
Rutgers-RWJ Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ

Megan von Isenburg, MSLS, AHIP
Associate Director for Research and Education, Liaison to Global Health and Graduate Medical Education, Duke University Medical Center Library, Durham, NC

Mentor: Marianne D. Burke, MA, AHIP
Director, Dana Medical Library
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

Hongjie Wang, MLS, MA
Interim Library Director
UConn Health Center, Farmington, CT

Mentor: Jett McCann
Director, Dahlgren Memorial Library, Senior Assoc. Dean for Knowledge Management
Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC

Matthew Wilcox, MA, MS
Associate Director, Edward and Barbara Netter Library
Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

Mentor: Leslie C. Schick, MSLS
Assoc. Dean, Library Services and Director, Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

On a related note Carol Jenkins has informed me that DeEtta Jones is stepping down from her role with the Leadership Fellows Program. It is with gratitude and sadness that we bid her farewell. DeEtta was truly instrumental in the ongoing success of this program. We wish DeEtta a fond farewell and good luck in her future endeavors.

New Directors

Attached is the latest list of new directors. Congratulations to the group! We hope to see you in Chicago next month.

AMIA

From an AMIA posting:
Douglas B. Fridsma, MD, PhD, FACP, FACMI, was unanimously approved by the AMIA Board to become the President and CEO. He will start November 1, ready to meet and greet the membership during the AMIA 2014 Annual Symposium< http://echo4.bluehornet.com/ct/46967000..., November 15-19, Washington, D.C. He and I look forward to presenting together at the State of the Association session. The AAHSL Executive Board will visit AMIA next Spring in D.C.

Farewell

I’m looking forward to renewing friendships and meeting new people. See you in two and a half weeks.

Jim


Jim Bothmer, MALS, AHIP
University Librarian, Director of the Health Sciences Library 

September 18, 2014

Greetings all. Fall is but a few days away (September 22 at 9:29p.m. CDT)! I am ready for the cooler temperatures and the changing colors that will blanket the landscape. Fall also brings the World Series and again, this year’s Fall Classic will be an unofficial one because the Yankees won’t be in it! [Jerry Perry may disagree].

But, on to more important things.

The final agenda for the various AAHSL activities in Chicago is soon to be released. This year’s program and events promise to be outstanding. Thanks to the Program Committee for all their hard work on this.

The Board is working to finalize its agenda for the annual meeting. There are weighty issues to deal with and those will be reported at the business meeting.

From Louise Miller regarding the Annual Meeting: One of AASHL’s most important benefits to you is promoting success through relevant programming and services. This year’s annual meeting in conjunction with AAMC includes a host of engaging events. Be sure to register for the Leadership Agility program which will be held Friday morning.

If you’ve attended AAHSL at AAMC in the past, you may notice some changes this year:

  • Meetings are spread over three separate locations – Programs on Thursday and Saturday take place at the Hard Rock Hotel; Friday events are being held in multiple locations. Be sure to check location before attending an event. 
  • The AAHSL Annual Membership Meeting takes place on Friday morning (before the educational program), rather than at the end of the day – All are welcome to attend and no registration is required for the Annual Meeting, but be sure to register for “Leadership Agility” with Bill Joiner. 
  • The Cornerstone Award will be presented on Friday evening at a reception hosted by Galter Health Sciences Library of Northwestern University. Don’t miss it! 
  • The 2014 Matheson Lecturer is Dr. Richard Platt from Harvard. He will be speaking at 10:30 AM on Saturday, November 7 and on the topic of PCORnet and the use of electronic health data for research and public health. 
  • Carol Jenkins has done an outstanding job of organizing and coordinating our Mentors/Fellows cohort. This year’s Capstone Event promises to be a wonderful experience for all participants. As President I get the honor and privilege of talking to the fellows about AAHSL.

This intense three-day event culminates with “graduation” Wednesday evening, October 1 at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. If you are in the area you are more than welcome to attend this event.

As a reminder, the outstanding mentors and fellows for 2013/14 are as follows:

Fellow: Debra Berlanstein, Associate Director of the Hirsh Health Sciences Library at Tufts University in Boston.
Mentor: Tom Basler

Fellow: Renee Bougard, Outreach Librarian in the NN/NL, National Network Office at NLM
Mentor: Pamela Bradigan

Fellow: Tara Douglas-Williams, Division Head for Information Services at Morehouse School of medicine Library
Mentor: Barbara Cavanaugh

Fellow: Deborah L. Lauseng, Assistant Director, Academic and Cliical engagement at the Taugman Health Sciences Library at theU of MI
Mentor: Anne Linton

Fellow: Alexa Mayo, Associate Director for Services at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland
Mentor: Chris Frank

Fellow: Dongming Zhang, Vice President for Information Technology and Informatics at the American board of Pediatrics
Mentor: Jerry Perry

The 2014/15 cohort will be announced soon. AAHSL Directors, please consider volunteering to be a mentor. It is a rewarding experience.

From Cynthia Henderson:

Please join me in congratulating Sandra Martin as she becomes a new National Library of Medicine Board of Regents Member. She will be on the board until 2018. Sandra joins Gail Yokote who is on the board until 2016.

“The NLM Board of Regents was established in 1956 by the same Act that created the National Library of Medicine. It serves as the advisory body to the Secretary, HHS; Assistant Secretary for Health; Director, NIH; and the Director, NLM, on all important aspects of policy regarding the Library and is the final review body for NLM's extramural grant program.”

Congratulations Sandra!

NEW DIRECTORS

FULL MEMBERS

MARY SHULTZ – Director, Savitt Medical Library; Univ. of Nevada School of Medicine
[email protected]
Replaced Terry Henner

GENEVA (GENNY) STAGGS – Interim Director; Biomedical Library, Univ. of Southern Alabama
[email protected]
Replaced Judy Burnham

JOANN VAN SCHAIK – Interim Executive Director; Calder Library, Univ. of Miami
[email protected]
Replaced Mary Moore

ANN WHITNEY GLEASON – Director, Health Science Library in the Stony Brook University Libraries system

RICK A. BREWER – Director, University of Kentucky Medical Center Library
Had been Interim

LUDA DOLINSKY – Interim Director; Medical Library, Florida International Univ.
[email protected]
Replacing David Boilard (effective 10/3/14).

JOHN MEADOR has become Dean of Libraries at Univ. of Alabama Birmingham
Mervyn Sterne AND Lister Hill Libraries have combined as of last month; our AAHSL contact is still to be determined.


ASSOCIATE MEMBER

TIFFANY MOXHAM - Coordinator of Medical Library Programs; Orbach Science Library, University of California, Riverside
[email protected]
Replaced Steven Mandeville-Gamble

Congratulations! I hope to see you at the New Directors’ dinner in Chicago.

I look forward to seeing many of you in Chicago in November. Until my October report, enjoy the crisp, cool fall weather.

 

Jim

 

August 22, 2014

Colleagues,

It’s August 22 and the dog days of summer have descended on Omaha.  Heat and humidity belie the fact that fall is right around the corner. Signs of that include the return of the health sciences students here at Creighton. Medical students arrived last week followed by dental students.  Nest week the pharmacy, OT, PT, EMS, and nursing. Students join the fray.  I find that I love the changing seasons in academia.  It is always bittersweet to see the students leave in the spring and it is uplifting to have them come back. While the traffic in the library slows down in the summer the “busyness” only seems to increase. But, despite the heat, our academic summer really is over.  And, with fall comes reminders that our annual meeting is about two months away.

Much of what follows is a repeat of announcements made over the past month or so but I think the information bears repeating.


AAHSL Program Schedule (courtesy of Louise Miller)

One of AASHL’s most important benefits to members is promoting success through relevant programming and services. Whether you are new to AAHSL, already serving on a committee, or a member of the Board, this year’s annual meeting in conjunction with AAMC includes a host of engaging AAHSL events.

If you’ve attended AAHSL at AAMC in the past, you may notice some changes this year:

  • Meetings are spread over three separate locations – Programs on Thursday and Saturday take place at the Hard Rock Hotel; Friday events are being held in multiple locations. Be sure to check location before attending an event.
  • The AAHSL Annual Membership Meeting takes place on Friday morning (before the educational program), rather than at the end of the day – All are welcome to attend and no registration is required for the Annual Meeting, but be sure to register for “Leadership Agility” with Bill Joiner.
  • The Cornerstone Award will be presented on Friday evening at a reception hosted by Galter Health Sciences Library of Northwestern University. Don’t miss it!   
  • The 2014 Matheson Lecturer is Dr. Richard Platt from Harvard.  He will be speaking at 10:30 AM on Saturday, November 7 and on the topic of PCORnet and the use of electronic health data for research and public health.

More information about the program will be sent out over the next couple months. We are still negotiating access to the Matheson lecture for members who might not be registering for AAMC.  And, I do not mean to sound hypocritical (I am not registering for AAMC) but I encourage you to register. AAMC is a great experience, especially if you’ve never attended one before.

If you have questions about the annual meeting please let me know.  I look forward to seeing you there.

AAHSL Personnel Update

With so many announced retirements it is good to know we are still growing and expanding.  Following is an update on personnel changes among AAHSL members. 

FULL MEMBERS

  • RICK BREWER – Director; Medical Center Library, Univ. of Kentucky  ([email protected])
    Promoted from Interim to full Director.
  • GREGORY HASSLER – Interim Director; William E. Laupus Health Sciences Library, East Carolina University ([email protected]). 
    Replaced Beth Ketterman
  • AMY LYONS – Associate Director; Health Sciences Libraries, Univ. of Buffalo ([email protected]). 
    Replaced Gary Byrd, retiring.
  • HONGJIE WANG – Acting Director; Lyman Maynard Stowe Library, Univ. of Connecticut ([email protected]). 
    Replaced Evelyn Morgen, retiring.


NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBER

  • JANET HOBBS-MOORE – Manager; Cedars-Sinai Medical Library, Cedars Sinai (Hospital) ([email protected]). 
    This institution is new to AAHSL.

NEW/DEVELOPING MEMBER

  • KATE CANEPI – Director of Library Services; Roseman University of Health Sciences  ([email protected]).
    This institution is new to AAHSL.


Welcome and congratulations!  We look forward to seeing you in Chicago.

Assessment and Statistics

Beth Layton, Associate Director of the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, has been appointed interim chair of the AAHSL Assessment and Statistics Committee. Beth will lead the committee through the current cycle of data gathering, editing, input, and publication of the annual statistics, which extends from August 2014 to March 2015.  
The AAHSL Board appreciates the efforts of Beth to lead the committee and Steve Squire's continuing leadership as editor of the annual statistics and an active member of the committee.
Thank you Beth and Steve!

 AACP/Sewell Fund Learning Partnership Fellow

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the professional association representing the interests of academic pharmacy, has been awarded a grant to host a  Librarian/Information Scientist as a Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund Learning Partnership Fellow for up to one year to begin January 2015. The Fellow will have the opportunity to work as a Librarian in a nontraditional environment focusing not on a collection or place, but instead focusing on building partnerships with AACP staff, leaders, member institutions, and affiliate partners. The purpose of this Fellow's work with AACP will be to improve access to information for and about AACP members and key stakeholders to further our vision of transforming the future of health care to create a world of health people. AACP is especially interested in the construct and practice of “knowledge management” (KM) and the fellow will play a leading role in advancing KM as an integral element of AACP’s work. This is a limited contract stipend only position for the term of the grant only. Lodging accommodations will be provided by AACP.

More information is included on the attached document.alt

The Nexus Project

The Nexus Planning Project (2013-2014) has engaged major stakeholders in library leadership training in an initiative designed to accomplish some key goals: 1) to establish a concrete understanding of library leadership training efforts that have been undertaken over the last 15 years, 2) to document cross-sector and intra-sector needs for four library stakeholder audiences: public, academic, archival, and special, 3) to establish a coalition of library leadership training stakeholders ready and willing to work together across institutional and sector boundaries to improve both the efficiency and efficacy of future initiatives, and 4) to lay a strong foundation for a project to improve the overall state of leadership training throughout the library arena. The planning project, which was funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has increased attention to and understandings of the current state of library leadership training and has galvanized a community of stakeholders to work together to build stronger leadership training opportunities and approaches, field-wide.

Termed Nexus II, the implementation project focuses on boundary-spanning approaches like those of interest to our institutional leaders. Carol Jenkins believes the project could benefit AAHSL in several ways, including the development of a curriculum based on agreed-upon core leadership competencies; increased cross-fertilization across different library/archive sectors providing leadership training; and shared evaluation approaches. Carol have been invited to join the effort.

On behalf of AAHSL I signed a letter to the IMLS to support this project. If funded, the Nexus II project will run from December 1, 2014 to November 30, 2016.

The End

    And that, my friends, is the end of a too long missive. I hope you enjoy what is left of the summer. Happy Labor Day!  See you in Chicago.

July 22, 2014


Colleagues,

It feels like we’re in the dog days of summer. We have a 101 degree heat index as I write this. Lovely, just lovely. Regardless, summer is fleeting. Below are some updates.

AAMC/AAHSL annual meeting
Thursday, Nov. 6
Board Meeting 8 a.m.- 5p.m. (Hard Rock Hotel)
Fellows Orientation 8a.m.-5p.m. (Hard Rock Hotel)
New Directors' dinner 6p.m.-8p.m. (Hard Rock Hotel)

Friday, Nov. 7
Committee meetings (7:30a.m. – 9a.m) At the Hyatt; so people will have to hurry over to the Business meeting, a couple of blocks away. Locations to follow.

  • Assessment & Statistics
  • Future Leadership Committee
  • Teaching & Learning Committee
  • New Libraries Committee
  • Research Task Force

Business Meeting – Mid-America Club (9:30a.m. – 10:30a.m.)
Educational Program – Mid-America Club (11:00a.m. – 4:00p.m.)

  • Keynote 11-12:20 Bill Joiner of ChangeWise will provide the Keynote on Leadership Agility
  • Lunch 12:20-1:30
  • Mini-Workshop led by Bill Joiner 1:30-4:00

Reception at Northwestern (6:00p.m. – 8p.m.) (Cornerstone Award presented to Mary Langman)

Saturday, November 8
CC Update Session (NOTE: time and place to be determined)
Matheson Lecture 10:30a.m.-11:30a.m. (Hyatt)
More details will be forthcoming as we get them.
Fellows Applications Being Accepted

Carol Jenkins is making the following plea for help in identifying the next cohort of fellows. Please read on and act on Carol’s request. The deadline is August 1, 2014.

Dear fellows and mentors,

I am writing to ask for your help recruiting the next class of the NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program. You are the best ambassadors for the program, as well as the reason it has been successful. Many fellow candidates apply because they know someone who has been through the program and talked with them about it. Even though this may seem like a routine request, your help is really important. Please help by considering who you know who might be a successful candidate.

What can you do? Please consider colleagues who would be excellent potential fellows and tell them personally how you (or your fellow) benefited from the program. The continued success of the program depends on attracting candidates with leadership talent and upward mobility. You may also nominate potential candidates by sending me their names and email addresses, and I will send them the announcement.

It has never been more important than now to plan for the succeeding generation of library directors. Even though our classes are small, our success rate is excellent. Nearly fifty percent of our graduates have moved on to become library directors!

AAHSL directors, if you are interested in being a mentor, please send me an email asking me to put your name in a preliminary mentor pool. Once we determine what is needed in a match, we contact mentors to confirm their participation and ask for more information. Please share the rewards you experienced as a mentor and encourage colleagues to consider volunteering.

I am attaching the announcement so that you can share it. It contains a link to the program brochure and application (as below). The deadline is August 1.
http://www.aahsl.org/assets/documents/2014/aahsl_2014_fellows_brochure_final.pdf

Thanks for your help! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for the recruitment process.

I enjoyed seeing so many of you at the Reunion in Chicago. We had a great turnout in an interesting hotel, and it was nice to see you all again.

Best wishes,
Carol

Carol G. Jenkins, Program Director
NLM/AAHSL Future Leadership Program
www.aahsl.org
Director Emerita, UNC Health Sciences Library
Email: [email protected]
Voice: 919-929-0764; 919-270-6821 (cell)

New Directors

Hongjie Wang, MLIS, MA, AHIP, will be the interim library director at the Lyman Maynard Stowe Library at the University of Connecticut Health campus in Farmington, CT. Hongjie is currently Head of Information and Education Services Department and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Health Care at UConn Health.


Joint Legislative Task Force

I had the privilege of participating in the Joint Legislative Task Force this past June. It is an annual event jointly sponsored by MLA and AAHSL and ably coordinated by Mary Langman. The afternoon of Day 1 is focused on presentations by a variety of experts to discuss any legislation that needs our attention and to strategize a bit on how we approach the senators and representatives. The group is broken into teams of 3 or 4 and turned loose on Congress on the second day. Individual senators and representatives are chosen based on the home state of the team. My team consisted of Linda Hasman from the U of Rochester and Cynthia Henderson form Howard in D.C. It was a great team. Linda and Cynthia clearly knew what they were doing. Cynthia is a veteran lobbyist so I, as the rookie, was in good hands. In truth the whole affair was great fun and I recommend those of you wanting to become involved with AAHSL to consider the Legislative Task Force. This year we did not have a lot of legislation to lobby for or against but we did lobby for more funding for NIH/NLM.


Elsevier’s TDM policy

TDM is text and data mining and is a useful strategy for researchers to mine research data. Elsevier has a somewhat restrictive policy. Eighteen European research and library organizations have called on Elsevier to withdraw its current policy. Paul Schoening and the Scholarly Communication Committee members are investigating a response from AAHSL. They are working with MLA.


Miscellaneous

Along with AALL we signed off on a statement valuing net neutrality.

Two AAHSL members have volunteered to help MLA draft a statement to address the new ACPE standards. The AAHSL representatives are Kimberly Yang (University of Maryland Health Sciences Library) and Terri Wilson (Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Libraries). Thanks to both for volunteering their time and effort on this important issue.

MLA will have a booth at the AAMC Exhibit hall.

And that, my friends, is all I have to say. Until next month.

Jim

June 24, 2014


Greetings to all. Heavy rains greeted me Friday night. We received 7 inches of rain! My newly spread mulch is in the neighbors’ yards. But, I cannot complain. The tornadoes that have devastated parts of Nebraska were north of the city. And, as we are in the midst of the College World Series (CWS) here in Omaha (the 65th year in a row we’ve hosted!) we are now expecting flooding from the Missouri River. It’s been a strange year for weather. But the big decision is who to root for in the CWS: Virginia or Vanderbilt? I have a soft spot for Virginia. Their Coach O’Connor is a Creighton grad and played on the 1991 Blue Jays team that made it to the CWS. Go Cavs!

Annual Meeting

By now most of you have received the AAMC flyer for the2014 meeting. Learn, Serve, Lead is the theme. Chicago is the place and the dates of the conference are November 7-11. Ours is a tightly packed agenda. More information about the Business meeting will be distributed as we get closer to the actual meeting.

The AAHSL annual meeting agenda follows. Location and more details will be forthcoming.

Thursday, Nov. 6
8a.m..-5p.m. Board Meeting
8a.m. – 5p.m. Fellows Orientation
6p.m. – 8p.m. New Directors' dinner


Friday, November 7
7:30a.m. – 9a.m. Committee meetings
9:30a.m. – 10:30a.m. Business Meeting
11:00a.m. – 4:00p.m. Educational Program
· Keynote 11-12:20 Bill Joiner of ChangeWise will provide the Keynote on Leadership Agility
· Lunch 12:20-1:30
· Mini-Workshop led by Bill Joiner 1:30-4:00
6:00p.m. – 8p.m. Reception at Northwestern (Cornerstone Award presented to Mary Langman)

A huge thank you to the Program Committee* for their hard work on identifying a topic and speaker.
[*Mary Blanchard, Chair. Members: MJ Tooey, Barbara Kern, Leslie Schick, Tania Bardyn, Nancy Bulgerelli, Kerry O’Rourke, Christina Pope, Tom Singarella—Great work team!]


Saturday, November 8
8:00a.m. – 9:00a.m. Chicago Collaborative Session led by Paul Schoening and Brenda Seago
10:30a.m. – 11:30a.m. Matheson Lecture*: Clinical Research Data Networks – building the national infrastructure for patient centered outcomes research (Details to follow)
[*Thanks to the Matheson Lecture Committee for their great work: MJ Tooey, Kerry O’Rourke, Boyd Knosp, and Todd Leach]

Nominating Committee Recommedations

The Nominating Committee chaired by Paul Schoening and ably assisted by Jerry Perry and Heidi Heilemann has announced the slate of candidates for AAHSL 2014.

For Chair-Elect: Ruth Riley, University of South Carolina
For Member-At-Large: Pamela Bradigan, The Ohio State University

The slate will be offered to the membership at the annual meeting for approval.

Thank you to the Nominating Committee for their hard work and thank you to the candidates for their willingness to serve.

New Director Announcements

Terrie Wheeler (formerly of NIH) is the new Library Director at Weill Cornell Med College. Congratulations Terrie!

AAHSL Leadership Scholarship winners announced (from Carol Jenkins)

The Future Leadership Committee is pleased to announce that AAHSL Leadership Scholarships have been awarded to the following individuals. These individuals show leadership promise and commitment to the profession, and will use their awards to pursue development opportunities over the coming year. Their institutions share in the costs of supporting participation in the programs. The scholarships are part of the continuum of AAHSL leadership programs. We congratulate all of them.

Marie Ascher, Associate Director, Health Sciences Library, NY Medical College, will use her award to attend the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Michael Garner, Medical Informatics Librarian, Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, Univ. of Central Florida, will use his award to attend an AMIA 10x10 health information technology online course.

Stephen Kiyoi, Library Director, Barnett Briggs Medical Library, San Francisco General Hospital, UCSF, will use his award toward tuition for MS-HAIL, an online master’s program in health administration and interprofessional leadership.

Donna O’Malley, Systems and Technology Librarian, Dana Medical Library, Univ. of Vermont, will use her award to attend the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Fran Yarger, Associate Director for Digital Libraries, Univ. of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System, will use her award to attend the Educause Leading Change Institute.

This announcement also appears at www.aahsl.org

Legislative Action

The joint Legislative Task Force will make its annual visit to Congress this week on June 26.

And that’s all I know for now. Here’s wishing all of you a safe and happy 4th of July. Enjoy the
three-day break!

Jim

May 23, 2014

Greetings to all. I trust those of you who attended MLA in Chicago found it to be stimulating and fun. I missed it this year. We had company and celebrated the birth of my 4th grandchild, a healthy 7lb 2oz 20.5” baby boy, Micah Dean Sherwood.

At any rate, welcome home to those of you who attended the MLA Conference!

Annual Meeting

The AAHSL annual meeting agenda follows. Location and more details will be forthcoming.

Thursday, Nov. 6
Board Meeting (8-5)
Fellows Orientation (8-5)
Committee meetings (morning or evening)
New Directors’ dinner (evening)

Friday, November 7
Committee meetings (morning)
Strategic Town Hall meeting (more on this later) 9:30-10:30
Educational Program (promises to be a highly dynamic and relevant topic) 11:00-4:00 (lunch included)
Business meeting (4:30-5:30)
Reception at Northwestern (details to follow) 6:00-8:00

Saturday, November 8
Matheson Lecture: The latest from GIR is that the Matheson Lecture is entitled Clinical Research Data Networks – building the national infrastructure for patient centered outcomes research. At this point the lecture has been Accepted. Time, date and speaker will be announced in early June. This session should also appeal to researchers, research deans, etc.

Cornerstone Award

I am pleased to announce that this year’s Cornerstone Award will be presented to Mary Langman of the Medical Library Association. Mary will be present to accept the award at the reception on Friday, November 7. Details to follow but congratulations are in order. Congratulations Mary!

Executive Committee D.C. visits

Following are brief reports from the April D.C. visits by the Executive Committee of the Board. Paul Schoening (President-elect), Jim Bothmer (President), and MJ Tooey (Immediate Past President) spent several days in D.C. visiting 6 associations/organizations. Additionally, the Board was treated to a wonderful meal at Chez Huffman/Tooey. The conversation was scintillating. The food and wine were exquisite. The ambience superb. And, most importantly the host and hostess were gracious and welcoming. We’d come again!

The reports follow.

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) - Paul

The AAHSL executive team had a very nice conversation with Lucinda L. Maine, CEO and Executive Vice President, and Ruth Nemire, Associate Executive Vice President, during which we learned about the AACP’s strategic planning efforts that includes a significant focus on knowledge management in recognition of the importance of life-long learning to their profession. Jim expressed concern on behalf of AAHSL that upcoming changes to pharmacy school accreditation standards (ACPE) should strengthen, not weaken, the language supporting libraries. Lucinda and Ruth agreed. AACP is also a strong supporter of inter professional education (IPE) and is making significant investments in a number of areas to position the AACP as a leader in this area. One innovative initiative that was particularly interesting was their partnership with George Mason University to develop an educational game for IPE to be called Mimycx. They readily agreed that libraries are a natural fit and critical players in IPE. It was evident from our conversation that AACP will be an important partner of AAHSL going forward.

American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) - Paul

The AAHSL executive team was warmly greeted by several members of the APTA, including their CEO and president … as well as three of their information services staff. This was AAHSL’s first meeting with APTA and our goals were to tell them about AAHSL, learn more about their association, and consider areas where AAHSL and APTA might partner in the future. The APTA is an individual membership organization and, as such, purchases and provides access to information resources on behalf of its members. Furthermore, it offers assistance to its members in using these resources. Forty-five percent (45%) of its members are in private practice. They described the challenges for programs in physical therapy at liberal arts institutions — often existing as islands of health sciences and lacking supporting services and information resources. The APTA is also interested in IPE, albeit a more recent entrant to the discussions. Jim encouraged APTA to support strong language in their accreditation standards recognizing the importance of the expertise, resources and place that libraries provide to physical therapy programs.

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) - MJ

As always Morgan Passiment put together a cordial and lively group for us to meet with at the AAMC. They are about four-six weeks away from the move to their new building in downtown DC near the convention center so there were lots of boxes, bins, and trash barrels around the building. We met with Morgan, Joanne Conroy (Healthcare Affairs), Ann Steineke (Academic Affairs Programs and Engagement), Heather Pierce (Science Policy and Regulatory Counsel), and Joshua Jacobs (Pivio Project). From the conversations, it seems that many of the AAMC "Groups" have been co-meeting to work on items of mutual interest. For example, the Deans have been meeting with practice plan leaders, and the CEOs of teaching hospitals to look at the future of healthcare. Similar to discussions we have in AAHSL, segments of the AAMC are looking at ways to determine value and impact – particularly of the research enterprise beyond the usual funding metrics; and how to determine and train the right workforce. Joshua Jacobs shared with us that Pivio, the professional "womb to tomb" system will be launched on July 1. This system will provide an organizing function of education and activities from pre-med to retirement, and will also serve as a competency management system to chart lifelong learning.

Association of Research Libraries (ARL) – Jim

We met with several of the ARL staff during our visit to the ARL HQ on Friday. As usual it was a lively exchange and we learned a lot. ARL continues to stress collaborative partnerships and staff are currently working on a 20 year strategic plan. Elliot Shore, Executive Director has been on a listening tour of the ARL member libraries and will release his findings and observations within the next few weeks. The focus is on libraries and not the Association. Much discussion centered around SHARE and CHORUS and the need for a compromise open source open data strategy. ARL is looking for alignment with the publishers. It was a very interesting and enlightening visit. There are 125 ARL member libraries whereas we have more member institutions some of which report to an ARL librarian.

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) – Jim

We visited with Robert Horton, Associate Deputy Director. Our discussion centered around the need for proposals to implement health literacy and for data curation, especially the creation of data management plans for continuation of projects. The key is to create domain based repositories rather than institutional repositories. Mr. Horton encouraged applications for smaller grants.

National Library of Medicine (NLM) - MJ

The National Library of Medicine was the first stop on the AAHSL Leadership Spring Visits. There we met with Dr. Lindberg, Betsy Humphreys, Joyce Backus, and Dianne Babski. They were very generous with their time and spent about two hours with us. During our wide-ranging discussion we discussed a number of topics ranging from the replanting of the tree of Hippocrates at NLM to the challenges of data management. We thanked them for their ongoing support of the NLM/AAHSL Fellows program even during challenging budget times. Dr. Lindberg feels it is an extremely valuable and successful model program. The NLM budget will probably be flat for the upcoming year. Of particular note was our conversation regarding the OSTP mandate and the release of publication/data management plans from federal agencies. It was felt the plans will be released very shortly and they will be a mixed bag. On the topic of data management plans, information was shared that at least for NIH grants, data management will become a reviewable component of any grant application. There was significant discussion regarding different models for data management. Betsy has been in conversation about these issues with Dr. Philip Bourne, the new NIH Associate Director for Data Sciences.

New Director Announcements

Some of these have been announced before but a new director appointment always bears repeating. Congratulations to the individuals and good luck!

Barbara Shearer (former Director at Florida State University) is the new Director at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine
Kristi Holmes, PhD, Director, Northwestern University.
Anne Seymour – Director, Johns Hopkins University
Emma Stuff – Acting Chief, Public Health Library and Information Center, Centers for Disease Control
Martin Wood – Interim Director, Florida State University
John Gallagher – Interim Director, Yale University
Beth Layton (former Director at NE Ohio medical University) is now Associate Director of the NNLM-Greater Midwest Region.

Legislative Action

We signed letters of support for the following actions.

Orphan Works and Digitization (79. F.R. 7706, Docket No. 2012–12)
National Library of Medicine's FY 2015 appropriation

We thanked Davita E. Vance-Cooks, Public Printer of the U.S. Government Printing Office for hosting the 2014 Depository Library Council Meeting and Federal Depository Library Conference April 30-May 2, 2014 at the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

We thanked The Honorable Charles E. Schumer, Chairman of the Committee on Rules & Administration,
United States Senate and The Honorable Pat Roberts, Ranking Member of the Committee on Rules & Administration, United States Senate for their support of the Government Printing Office.

Committee Appointments

Paul Schoening, President-Elect successfully filled the vacancies in our committees. Thank you for all who volunteered to serve the association and thanks to Paul for his hard work in getting the positions filled!

The Nominating Committee (Paul Schoening, Heidi Heilemann and Jerry Perry) is working to create a slate of candidates for the vacancies that will occur on the AAHSL Board after the 2014 annual meeting. Rotating off the Board will be Neil Rambo and MJ Tooey.

NLM’s Long Range Planning (courtesy of Carol Jenkins)

You may be aware of the new long range planning process that NLM is launching with a symposium next week. On their planning blog, nlmvoyagingtothefuture.org/past/, they are collecting reminiscences and testimonials from all of us about NLM’s successes and impact over the past decades. I submitted a brief note acknowledging their role in supporting our NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program from its inception in 2002. I encourage you to take a look and to add your own personal note about your experiences with the program, either as a reply to my entry or as a new one.

Scholarly Communication Efforts

We pledged another year of financial support for the scholarly communication efforts the Joint Legislative Task Force undertakes. This is a collaborative effort with MLA.

AAHSL Statistics

The 2013 statistics files were printed and distributed to the membership. Thanks to Steve Squires and Beth Layton for their good work.

Training the 21st Century Library Leader (courtesy of Carol Jenkins)

The Educopia Institute is pleased to announce the release of a report, "Training the 21st Century Library Leader: A Review of Library Leadership Training, 1998-2013," available here. The NLM-AAHSL Leadership Program is included in the report.

This report provides an analysis of library leadership training in the U.S. context. It documents the models and features, geographic locations, sectors and audiences, funding and costs, founders and hosts, and evaluation methodologies deployed by more than seventy library leadership training programs during the last 15 years.

"Training the 21st Century Library Leader" is the first deliverable of The Nexus Project, a planning project funded by the IMLS to evaluate the current state of library leadership programs and recommend cross-sector synergies and opportunities.

And that’s all I know for now. Here’s wishing all of you a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy the three-day break!

Jim

April 14, 2014

Greetings from Omaha. It is a beautiful day here with lots of sunshine and temps in the mid-70s. Sunday promises temperatures in the mid-40s and possible snow. It is Nebraska after all! In any case, I wish for all of you a happy weekend. Following is my April President’s Report.

Annual Meeting Update: We are still waiting to learn the final decision as to when the annual meeting will take place in Chicago. The possible dates for our meeting remain either November 5 and 6 or November 6 and 7. Which dates are chosen depend on when the Matheson Lecture is scheduled. Morgan P. is working on that date and we should know when it is by early May. We are hoping it will be Saturday morning, November 8. If that is the case the annual meeting will be November 6 and 7. If Matheson is held Friday the annual meeting would probably be November 5 and 6. We recognize the AAMC Med Ed pre-conference is November 6 and 7 so some of our members may be impacted. Given this year’s AAMC format we have few options. The Board will tackle next year’s annual meeting schedule at our annual meeting in Chicago (once again!). The tentative Matheson lecture speaker will be excellent. Stay tuned on that. Also, the Program Committee ably chaired by Mary Blanchard is busily working on a topic for the educational offering at this year’s annual meeting. After viewing a sneak preview of the committee’s idea I believe all will be very favorably impressed with that as well. A formal announcement of the topic will be forthcoming.

New Directors: Since my last message several new directors have joined us.

  • Terrie Wheeler from the NIH library has been named the new director of the Weill-Cornell Library.
  • JoAnn Van Schaik has been named Interim Director of the Louis Calder Memorial Library at the University of Miami School of Medicine. She replaces Mary Moore who retired on January 31.
  • Martin Wood is the new Interim Director at Florida State University. He replaces Barbara Shearer.

Congratulations and welcome to all!

Chicago Collaborative: the Board approved a recommendation from Paul Schoening, CC member and AAHSL Board Liaison to increase the number of AAHSL members to the Chicago Collaborative. Immediately following the 2014 annual meeting the two new appointees will join Brenda Seago. Paul Schoening’s term of office ends after the annual meeting. He will remain the board liaison. Paul will be sending out a call for volunteers for these two new positions soon. Please consider volunteering.

Cornerstone Award: I sent out a reminder just yesterday that nominations for the Cornerstone Award are due to Louise Miller by April 30th. Please consider nominating someone or a group for this prestigious award.

Website Update: Your AAHSL Board charged SBI to do a refresh of the current website. SBI has been busily making improvements to the site. Check it out. They have made subtle but significant changes to the Member Center as well as the directory. It is much cleaner and easier to navigate Take a look and send suggestions to Louise. Well done SBI!

Board Spring Visits in D.C. The Executive Committee of the Board (Paul, MJ, and myself) will be visiting organizations and associations in Washington, D.C. later this month (April 23-25). We will be visiting NLM, AAMC, AMIA, AACP APTA (first time), ARL, AAMC, and IOM (first time). If you have ideas of what we should emphasize please let me know. I’d welcome your thoughts. These are excellent opportunities to investigate areas of possible synergy between AAHSL and the respective organization. I will report on results in my May message.

NLM-AAHSL Leadership Program : Carol Jenkins brought to my attention the release of a report, "Training the 21st Century Library Leader: A Review of Library Leadership Training, 1998-2013," This report comes from The Educopia Institute and is available at http://www.educopia.org/publishing/t21cll. The NLM-AAHSL Leadership Program is included in the report. Carol will be providing more information in the near future. Good catch Carol!

JTLF: Cynthia Henderson, AAHSL Joint Legislative Task Force member and Mary Langman, MLA have been diligently working with the AALL to draft a copyright statement, which will be submitted to the Copyright Office on Orphan Works and Mass Digitization. The report will focus on the important reasons that medical, law and special libraries digitize. Once it is drafted I will sign the final proposal along with MLA and AALL. For more information contact Cynthia Henderson.

Annual Statistics: Louise Miller announced that the 2013 statistics files have been received and that print versions of the annual statistics will be mailed in about two weeks. Also, the pdf of the member directory is on its second round of edits and should be posted on-line next week.

And finally,

Correction: In my March message I summarized the Mid-Winter Board meeting in Atlanta. Among other things I indicated the Board was joined by Sandra Martin for dinner. It was Sandra Franklin who joined us and not Sandra Martin (although she would have been more than welcome!). Mea culpa.

And finally finally, any errors in the above report are my responsibility. Please let me know if you find something that is reported in error. Be gentle but let me know.

Thanks to all who contribute to the success of the organization. Have a great weekend.

Jim

March 24, 2014

Colleagues,

I’ve struggled with the March message, mainly I think because of four things:

1. Spring fever - In Omaha the first day of spring has dawned bright, sunny, and in the mid-60s. My attention is being drawn outside. But, we’re supposed to have snow on Monday! Alas….I guess it’s all relative.
2. March Madness is distracting me. The Creighton Blue Jays are a number # 3 seed in the NCCA Big Dance. The take on the Ragin’ Cajuns from Louisiana tomorrow in San Antonio. Go Jays!
3. And, I’m getting ready to visit my grandsons in Reno and my mind is elsewhere….!
4. Finally, the Board had been very active and busy. I don’t want to overload you but at the same time am trying to capture the essence of our deliberations and my attempts at being succinct are failing. Here goes anyway.

The Board held our mid-winter meeting in Atlanta. Our group dinner on Thursday night was enhanced by Sandra Franklin from Emery. She graced our table and added much to our dinner table conversation. A couple highlights are listed below. A more thorough report from the mid-winter meeting will be forthcoming.

Mid-winter Board highlights:

  • We discussed many things, chief among them was the annual meeting. More information will be coming shortly but suffice it to say we discussed our schedule given the AAMC’s changes they implemented last year. We will hold our events either Wednesday, November 5-Friday, November 7 or Thursday, November 6-Saturday, November 8. Much depends on what plans are formulated for the Matheson Lecture. We are working closely with Morgan and GIR to determine that. MJ Tooey and Kerry O’Rourke are the AAHSL representatives working with Morgan. We will try to nail down the dates as soon as we can.
  • The Program and Education Committee asked the Board for ideas for the fall educational program. We were happy to accommodate them and more information will be forthcoming.
  • Discussion about the AAHSL role in the Chicago Collaborative (CC) occupied much of our attention and time. Paul Schoening, the AAHSL rep to the CC gave an update on the status of that group. Essentially AAHSL will continue to administer the CC as a dues-paying organization. More information will be forthcoming on this.
  • Regarding our efforts on creating an informatics experience for our members, the Board does recognize our members’ interest to become more informed about informatics. However, we felt that the subject is too broad in scope to refine into generic programming and that other venues, such as AMIA, offer a wide assortment of educational resources that may meet our members’ needs. We had four eager volunteers step forward to participate in this but before they even had a chance to meet the Informatics Task Force was disbanded. I want to thank our volunteers for their willingness to serve on an AAHSL Informatics Task Force. There will undoubtedly be other opportunities to participate. So, thank you to Anne Linton, Mary Blackwelder, Leslie Schick, and Nadine Dexter. Your willingness to help is what makes this such a great organization.
  • Also, among the topics was a fairly animated discussion of our website. We realize that to make changes to the physical nature of the website requires a lot of time and expertise. As we discussed these issues it dawned on us that our very own management firm, SBI should able to handle the changes and updates we require. Best of all, they can do this under our existing contract. With that in mind the Board made the decision to disband the Web Editorial Board with heartfelt thanks to Linda Walton, Donna Gibson, Liz Lorbeer, and Peggy Mullaly-Quijas for agreeing to serve on this Board. Again, the AAHSL Board appreciated the willingness to assist AAHSL in this way. It is just another indication of what a great membership we have.
  • The Executive Committee of the Board will review the AAHSL strategic plan and make recommendations as to next steps.

The Board sent a personal, hand-written thank you to Tony Mazzaschi for all he has done.

We signed off on a number of initiatives (e.g. Coalition for Health Funding, which supports the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee; we endorsed the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research especially their FY 2015 recommendation that NIH receive at least 32 billion as the next step in a multiyear increase. And, we co-signed with the MLA President a letter concerning H.R. 4186 "Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology Act of 2014" (FIRST)). Regarding the FIRST bill, we support the striking of Section 303 of the bill. From the letter, “ Section 303 threatens to slow the pace of scientific discovery by restricting public access to articles reporting on federally funded research for up to three years after initial publication. Section 303 also fails to support provisions that allow for shorter embargo periods to publicly funded research results and would only permit extensions to embargoes. These provisions seem unnecessarily restrictive and ignore the potential harm to stakeholders that can accrue through unnecessarily long delays.” Thanks to Mary Langman for her drafting of this letter and her leadership in getting this accomplished.

The AAMC Group on Resident Affairs (GRA) has a resource clearinghouse work group developing the concept for a GME portal to serve mainly their accreditation and faculty development needs. They requested of AAHLS the name of a librarian to be part of the work group. I am happy to announce that Peggy Mullaly-Quijas of the University of Missouri-Kansas City has enthusiastically volunteered to serve on the GRA resource clearinghouse work group. Peggy is a member of the AAHSL Teaching/Learning Committee. We are pleased that AAHSL, through Peggy¹s service, can foster this connection with GRA.

New Directors appointed since my February report are listed below. If I’ve forgotten anyone let me know:

  • New Member: University of Missouri Columbia, Director Deborah Ward (And, not really a new member but a returning member). Welcome back Deb!
  • New director: Centers for Disease Control, Active Chief Emma Stupp
  • New Director: Case Western Reserve University, Interim Director Kathleen Blazar
  • New Director: Northwestern University, Director Kristi Holmes (to start around the first of June)

I could go on but will end as I see your attention is lagging. As always, if you have questions or comments please let me know.

Happy first day of spring.

Jim

February 21, 2014

Colleagues,

Happy (belated) President’s Day! We didn’t get the day off at Creighton, but it is still an important holiday. I’m reading the Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin. As with all of her works, this is a great read and I highly recommend it. It is, as you undoubtedly know, a book about Teddy Roosevelt and Will Taft. Roosevelt is known, among other things, for his battles against trusts (corporations). As we work to reach agreements with our publishers (certainly qualified as modern day corporations) it is good to reflect on what Teddy may have thought. I love one of his quotes he made in his State of the Union address in 1902, which may be indicative of how he would think in today’s world. He said,

“Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.”

I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions, but I love this quote and it resonates today as much as it did in 1902. And, it fits in with our ongoing conversations about the Chicago Collaborative.

As I write this, the mid-Winter Board meeting rapidly approaches. The Board will be meeting February 26-28 in Atlanta (let us hope the ice storms are history by next week!). We have much to discuss and the agenda is being finalized. But, among our topics are the AAMC scheduling and the impact on our annual meeting, the Chicago Collaborative, the Matheson Lecture (GIR is interested in partnering again), discussion of committee recommendations, the budget, the current committee structure, and numerous other topics. The Mid-Winter Board meeting is always an excellent, relaxed opportunity to take the pulse of the organization. I’ll report the outcomes of that meeting in my March report.

Our esteemed President-Elect, Paul Schoening has been busy soliciting volunteers to fill the many vacancies on our committees. I encourage you to consider volunteering. It is an excellent way to get involved with the organization.

As part of Paul’s duties, he also is responsible for chairing the 2014 Nominating Committee. This year’s committee is top notch with Heidi Heilemann and Jerry Perry as members. If approached by the committee to put your “hat in the ring” (More Bully Pulpit influence) please say “yes”!

It is early but I think it is still timely to ask that you be thinking about this year’s Cornerstone Award. “The Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) Cornerstone Award is given to an individual, group, or institution selected by the association's Board of Directors. The award is given for a notable or important contribution made during the most recent four years that has assisted AAHSL in achieving its mission or had significant impact on the profession of academic health sciences librarianship.” Nominations are due April 30, 2014. I will send out future reminders.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Paul Evan Peters Award. Part of the press release follows:

NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg to Receive Paul Evan Peters Award

Washington, DC - February 3, 2014 - The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and EDUCAUSE are pleased to announce that Donald A.B. Lindberg, director, National Library of Medicine, has been named the 2014 recipient of the Paul Evan Peters Award. The award recognizes notable, lasting achievements in the creation and innovative use of network-based information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity.

“In terms of genuinely sustained, visionary, and high-impact leadership in using networked information to transform everything from consumer health care to fundamental research in molecular biology and related disciplines, I can’t think of any organization that can match the record of the National Library of Medicine under Don Lindberg’s leadership,” noted CNI executive director Clifford Lynch. “He has been responsible for an incredible string of strategic and often prescient commitments that have changed our world. Don is a wonderful choice for the Paul Evan Peters Award.”

Donald Lindberg has worked as a scientist for over 50 years, becoming widely recognized as an innovator in applying computer technology to health care, medical diagnosis, artificial intelligence, and educational programs. In 1984 he was appointed director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest biomedical library, a post that he still holds. As NLM’s director, he has spearheaded countless transformative programs in medical informatics, including the Unified Medical Language System, making it possible to link health information, medical terms, drug names and billing codes across different computer systems; the Visible Human Project, a digital image library of complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of the normal male and female human bodies; the production and implementation of ClinicalTrials.gov, a registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants conducted around the world; and, the establishment of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a national resource for molecular biology information and genetic processes that control health and disease. Today, NLM has a budget of $327 million, more than 800 employees, and digital information services that are used billions of times a year by millions of scientists, health professionals, and members of the public.

Named for CNI’s founding director, the award will be presented during the CNI membership meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, to be held March 31–April 1, 2014, where Lindberg will deliver the Paul Evan Peters Memorial Lecture. The talk will be recorded and made available on CNI’s YouTube and Vimeo channels after the meeting concludes. Previous award recipients include Christine L. Borgman (2011), Daniel Atkins (2008), Paul Ginsparg (2006), Brewster Kahle (2004), Vinton Cerf (2002), and Tim Berners-Lee (2000).

The full press release can be found at
http://www.cni.org/about-cni/awards/pep-award/2014-donald-lindberg/

Congratulations Don on a well deserved recognition and honor.

Since my January report three new directors have been appointed:
Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University has selected Ms. Anne Seymour as its new Director, effective February 10, 2014. (Full Member)
David Bickford, Director, Phoenix Biomedical Campus Library, University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix (Associate Member)
Pam Morgan, Acting Associate University Librarian HS, Health Sciences Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canadian Member)

Congratulations to the new directors! We hope to see you in Chicago this fall.


Finally, a reminder from Beth Layton, Director of the Northeast Ohio Medical University Library. AAHSL has a subscription to Survey Monkey and you can use it for your surveys. The results of surveys done by colleagues can be posted on the AAHSL survey page. To post results, contact the AAHSL Headquarters Office [email protected]. The AAHSL survey page is at http://www.aahsl.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=146
Another new director was announced since my January report. Thanks to Carol Jenkins for pointing this out. If I have forgotten any others please let me know. Louise generally reports these new appointments but I believe it is also appropriate to repeat them in the President’s report. The announcement:

Rose Bland, MA, MPA, AHIP was appointed Director of the Shimberg Health Sciences Library at the University of South Florida effective January 29, 2014. Rose had been interim director since March 2012. She was also a graduate of the Fellows program. Congratulations Rose! Welcome!

And that, my friends, is my report for February. It was 64 degrees in Omaha yesterday. Snow and a temperature of 32 is the prediction for tomorrow. Until I send out the March report stay warm and stay safe.

Jim

January 10, 2014

Colleagues,

January is winding down. It’s been a brutal weather month for many of us, caught up as we are in the polar vortex. It was 53 in Omaha on Sunday and a minus 6 as I write this today. It all makes for interesting stories. I trust all of you had a good holiday although by now it almost seems to be ancient history.

What follows is a snapshot of the recent happenings that affect AAHSL

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Paul Schoening, President-elect will soon be soliciting volunteers to fill the vacancies we will have on our committees. Terms of office are three years and would commence after the 2014 AAMC meeting in Chicago. Please consider serving on a committee and how you can serve AAHSL.

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The board is gearing up for our mid-winter meeting in Atlanta at the end of February. We are in the process of identifying agenda items. If you have any issues you want the board to address please let me know.

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During Copyright Week AAHSL supported the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) efforts to oppose fast track authority which would bypass Congress and allow the White House to sign off on copyright legislation. You can learn more at https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek

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The following message was sent out by AAMC annual planning organizers. The Board will be considering the impact of this latest AAMC missive at our mid-Winter meeting in Atlanta. Here is the message:

Dear Friends of the AAMC,

As you know, we are making some significant changes to Learn Serve Lead: The AAMC Annual Meeting in November 2014. For an overview of the changes to the meeting, please watch this brief video.

We recognize that the changes we are making to improve our annual meeting impact many of your groups, and we appreciate your willingness to work within the new parameters. Although we will still offer the opportunity for affiliate groups to hold programming during our meeting, we will limit programming as follows:

* Unless programming is co-sponsored by AAMC, affiliate sessions can only be held on Friday, November 7. This is the day that has been set aside for AAMC group business meetings and committee meetings during the conference. There will be no program blocks on Friday, so you will be free to submit session requests for start and end times that work for your group.
* Opportunities for co-sponsored programs may be more limited, based on the new approach we are taking to program development.
* Receptions are an exception and may be held during open evening time slots on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Please note that the AAMC Awards Dinner will be held on Sunday, which is a change from previous years.

We will open up the process for submission of session requests no later than March. As always, affiliate group programming requests will be confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis, depending on space availability. We will also carefully review affiliate group requests to ensure they do not conflict with AAMC group programming for the same audience.

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Margaret Reich, the coordinator for the Chicago Collaborative (CC), has accepted a newly created position within the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) which would enable her to serve as their Program Director. In that capacity, she did not feel that she could remain the CC coordinator. We are deeply grateful for all that Margaret has done on behalf of AAHSL and the Chicago Collaborative. While she will be missed, we wish her the best in her new SSP role and hope to work with her in the future.

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I have it on good authority that our very own Louise Miller will be attending the Super Bowl. Fun times!

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And, that my friends and colleagues is all there is until my February message. Take care. And, Go Broncos! ☺

Jim

December 18, 2013

In less than one hour from now my daughter and two grandsons will arrive at Omaha’s airport from Reno for a ten day stay. (My son-in-law will follow in a few days.) My other two daughters are in town and a granddaughter will join the mix. Wonderful chaos will reign supreme for the next several days. I am ready for it! What fun!

AAHSL activities have slowed a bit, but since my last message we were still active on some fronts. We signed the Non-Defense Discretionary (NDD) programs letter along with other organizations protesting sequestration. The letter called for Congress to use the Budget Conference as an opportunity to replace sequestration with a bipartisan, balanced approach. In the end, 470 national organizations, including AAHSL, signed the letter representing the breadth of non defense discretionary programs. The letter was sent to the Hill and is available here.

The AAHSL NIH listserv was launched (thank you Pat Thibodeau!). We signed a letter to NCI regarding clinical trials.

We renewed the Annual Statistics contract to continue the web-based data collection and analysis portal.

The Board is beginning to discuss agenda items for our mid-winter meeting in Atlanta. We’ll be discussing the Informatics Task Force, which was mentioned at the annual meeting. We’ll be continuing the dialogue about our role with Chicago Collaborative. If you have items you want discussed please let me know.

However, as I write this December message my thoughts are toward family and the coming break. All our various work-related issues will still be with us as we return, but my fervent hope for all of you is that you have a relaxing and restful break from the day-to-day stressors in your life. Whatever your faith, happy joyful holidays to you and yours.

I’ll talk with you again in 2014.

Jim

November 25, 2013

Greetings to all. As I write this first President’s Message Omaha is covered with a light dusting of snow. We had our first snowfall of the season last Thursday and the cold weather has “allowed” the snow to stay on the ground. Despite some slippery road conditions it is quite pretty. In any case it makes for a festive look. I am certain my southern colleagues are very envious!

It’s been three weeks since the AAMC meeting in Philadelphia. It seems a lifetime ago. But, we survived a significant change in the way AAMC meetings are conducted and the outcome was pretty good. The AAHSL educational session was well attended and more importantly was full of excellent content. We had an outstanding reception at Thomas Jefferson University and I believe all of us were sufficiently impressed by the simulation facilities. The ambiance and networking were superb. Thanks to Tony!

The AAMC meeting focused more on thought leaders and there were excellent speakers. CAS became CFAS and two new AAHSL members (Jane Blumenthal and Sandra Martin) are the new liaisons to that Council. We heard Dr. Valerie Williams give the Chair’s Address and were impressed that she intentionally mentioned libraries as one key to the success of academic medical centers. We were entertained by Mika and Joe and learned much about the future of the health care marketplace from Dr. Ian Morrison. Dr. Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera gave us an excellent review of MOOCs and we were moved by Anna Quindlen’s talk on health care in an information age. In spite of the organizational changes to the AAMC meeting, AAHSL attendees made the best of the situation. The AAHSL Board and Program Committee will work hard to create a good learning experience for 2014 in Chicago. Your input on how that should be structured, especially in light of Dr. Kirch’s recent memo (attached) will be welcomed.

We welcomed Carol Jenkins as the new Program Director of the AAHSL Future Leadership Committee and bade farewell to Carolyn, but we honored her with the Cornerstone Award.

We bade farewell to departing board members Gary Freiburger, Karen Butter, and Jett McCann and we welcomed incoming Board members Paul Schoening (President-Elect), Kate Carpenter (Treasurer), and Neville Prendergast (Member-At-Large).

We acknowledged the departure of 13 directors who retired in 2013 as well as acknowledging 27 new permanent or interim directors! The face of AAHSL is changing.

An Informatics Task Force will be formed and charged with defining AAHSL’s role in that growing discipline.

We reiterated our support for increased NIH funding and continue to monitor areas for advocacy.

Finally, I said in my short remarks that we would be forward thinking but would always be cognizant of where we have been. I used the example of the Roman god Janus who always looks to both the future and back to the past. In order to keep a firm grounding I believe that is necessary. I also said I would build on the excellent work of the previous Board and of MJ’s presidency. She laid a solid foundation for us. So, stay tuned as we move forward into this year. It promises to be an exciting one full of changes and full of promise as well.

To all I wish for you a peaceful and Happy Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday, one that is full of good memories, good food, good football (Go Packers!) and, for me anyway, mostly stress free. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Jim

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