President's Message

Nadine Dexter, MLIS, EdD
AAHSL President
Director
University of Central Florida College of Medicine

February 24, 2023

Hello AAHSL -

I hope you are having a good start to 2023.

The AAHSL Board recently met in Denver CO for our annual in-person retreat. We enjoyed seeing everyone in person and even the chilly but beautiful weather. There are several updates to share with the membership. 

Brief committee updates include:

  • Assessment & Statistics are finalizing the data for the 45th Annual Statistics of Medical School Libraries in the United States and Canada. The committee welcomed Steve Squires’ return to the statistics project as the Statistics Editor. 
  • DEI will continue to host monthly AAHSL Reads DEI Book Club- from April through September to discuss the books selected this year. Currently, they are looking for volunteers for book club moderators.
  • The Future Leadership Committee is working on several projects, the largest of which is the Leadership Fellows cohort for 2022/2023. The cohort is planning to meet for a Leadership Institute in person this April in Virginia.
  • President Elect Stephanie Fulton will be forming the Nominating Committee soon. The Nominating Committee will be creating a slate for three offices: President Elect, and 2 members at large. 
  • In my role as AAHSL President - I have appointed an Ad Hoc Board Member - Darrell Schmick - to the AAHSL Board to represent the interests of our DO members. His term will run from 2022-2025. This appointment was done to be in compliance with the AAHSL bylaws which indicate only Full members can hold an AAHSL Board position.
  • The New and Interim Directors Committee has been created and members selected to serve. The committee is developing a New/Interim Director’s Symposium, moderating the New/Interim virtual Directors Discussion Group, and relaunching the Buddy Program to welcome new Directors to AAHSL.
  • The Board changed the membership benefits for New and Developing Medical Schools so that they can now participate in the AAHSL-Directors and AAHSL-All listservs. 
  • The Program and Education Committee charge has been updated. The PEC chair has distributed a survey requesting members input for topics/speakers for the 2023 Annual Meeting.

Megan Von Isenburg, Secretary/Treasurer, shared that AAHSL is doing well fiscally. In late 2021 the Board moved some funds to a managed investment that is focused on growth. The account has been doing well, given market performance last year. AAHSL has completed our 990-tax form for the IRS. 

AAHSL's Annual Meeting will take place in Seattle WA, on November 3, 2023 at the Renaissance Hotel. The Board decided it will be a one-day meeting consisting of the Matheson Lecture, and Education Program. The AAHSL annual business meeting will take place virtually one week before the annual meeting. The Matheson lecture will be recorded for later playback.  Please note there will not be any in-person committee meetings scheduled to take place as all AAHSL Committees and TFs are currently meeting regularly online. 

Recently AAHSL’s CFAS reps forwarded a recommendation from the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research advocating for NIH’s FY2024 budget. AAHSL has signed the letter to support this recommendation along with many other CFAS groups.

If you have questions about AAHSL feel free to reach out to me, any of the Board members, or directly to the AAHSL Office.

Take care,

Nadine