Attendees: Catherine Arnott Smith, Jim Andrews, Cynthia Vaughn, Ellen Detlefsen, helen-ann brown, Prudence Dalrymple, Ruth Fenske, Elizabeth LaRue, Mary Ellen Sievert, Cindy Sheffield, Steven MacCall, Julie Kwan, Cheryl Dee, Barbara Rapp
Meeting called to order at 7:35 a.m. by chair Catherine Arnott Smith.
Introductions by all attendees
Announcements
Biomedical Digital Libraries—a new open access library science journal to support.
Ellen Detlefsen will be the section representative to the MLA membership committee again.
Minutes from last year’s business meeting were approved.
Program Committee Meeting Update
Jim Andrews gave the update: there will be three days of section programming. We can collaborate without restriction. MLA is discussing the requirement of structured abstracts. helen-ann brown noted that the 2005 meeting will be May 14-19; everything is one day forward than the traditional schedule. It was noted that the student papers are presented on the day of the Library School Reunion, even though it always conflicts with the Friends of NLM function. Next year’s theme is diversity: roles, training, etc.
Section Council
Update from Elizabeth LaRue: Online quarterly reports—MLAnet updated once a year (Jan. 31-Jan. 30). MLA is planning to raise the AHIP fee and points. In 2003, there were 1128 people with AHIP and 1155 in 2004. MJ Tooey has asked for comments about any issues—working on bylaws to vote on by e-mail. MLA’s mid-year report will be sent to everyone. Promotion of the section: need some sort of brochure to hand out at the sections table. The Corporate Libraries Section put a description of what some of their members do on their website.
Chapter Council
Update from Ellen Detlefsen: she is working with the chapters to obtain a list of all LIS schools in their region in an attempt to connect with all schools and identify adjuncts teaching health sciences librarianship. Prudence Dalrymple mentioned several issues with trying to identify adjunct professors.
Data Sharing
Catherine Arnott Smith is working on an article about teaching. A survey about teaching was a project of chapter council awhile ago. Ellen Detlefsen will keep us informed as she identifies more adjunct professors. Looking toward finding out classifications of ALISE members (meeting in Boston next year).
Collaboration
Jim Andrews suggested continuing to partner with the Medical Informatics Section. A discussion followed about how our section name is a bit misleading—it is mostly librarians interested in academics (used to be CE and academics), but we also need students. For recruitment, the two new electronic lists were mentioned: MLA Ph.D. and the second masters list. We can try to promote our section on this list before the meeting and before membership renewal. Ellen Detlefsen mentioned that we could potentially double our membership with adjunct professors. helen-ann brown volunteered to post to listservs, and mentioned that she is trying to collaborate with schools on clinical librarianship.
We need forms for joining the user group, and for joining the section. As it is now, the only way to join the section is by filling out the membership form on MLA’s site. Cynthia Vaughn will investigate options.
More attendee introductions were made
There was more discussion of adjuncts. Prudence Dalrymple suggested that a student could easily make calls to find out who works where, and can find out who the students are that are taking the health sciences librarianship course. This is value-added material for working with the chapters.
Catherine Arnott Smith is planning a survey of all MLA members—how did they educate themselves? This would be for a program next year (could partner with Medical Informatics Section and Research Section). Prudence Dalrymple raised the question of how specialized do students want to be? More discussion about the survey: MLA surveys typically get a 3-6% response rate; this survey could be used to confirm and identify pathways of education. Catherine Arnott Smith collected names of people interested in helping with the survey.
Distance Education Collaboration
Ellen Detlefsen explained that distance education is becoming the norm within single institutions. To go across institutions, tuition is the issue—we need an “education common market.” For that to happen, we need a funder. Cheryl Dee suggested NLM as a possible funder. Going across institutions will allow for more courses to be taught in the health sciences. Catherine Arnott Smith noted that Syracuse, Washington, and Illinois are already working together—there is a residency requirement (a weekend), and that the calendar is more of a problem than tuition. Prudence Dalrymple suggested that students could register at their own institution as Independent Study. Does having an adjunct teach the course make a difference? Catherine Arnott Smith said that most faculty already teach medical and core courses. Ellen Detlefsen said that this will only work with outside sources of funds for the tuition differential. Cheryl Dee suggested that the outcome of these collaborations would be a sharable module. Ellen Detlefsen noted that anatomy courses in medical schools are moving towards modules. Mary Ellen Sievert hopes that we will be able to convince deans that this is a good idea. Catherine Arnott Smith suggested IMLS as another potential funding source. Jim Andrews added that IMLS has funded a collaborative archives program. Ellen Detlefsen said that Pittsburgh has collaborated with Vanderbilt with IMLS funding. Who else is collaborating? Ellen Detlefsen mentioned a collaboration—Pittsburgh and Oregon. Julie Kwan mentioned that team teaching these courses will present logistic challenges. Ellen Detlefsen said a solution is team teaching with Blackboard. Next steps: determining who is interested in pursuing, and looking into funding options. Prudence Dalrymple suggested pitching the collaborations as an overall model to IMLS, and focusing on medical courses to NLM for funding. Jim Andrews will check to see what kind of model/funding the University of Kentucky was using.
Treasurer’s Report
Cynthia Vaughn gave the Treasurer’s Report. We have a balance of $3383.40, the primary expense is stipend for the presenters. We will keep the same amount for next year.
Membership is down by 10 members from last year. Currently there are 89 members. Ellen Detlefsen said that she sees membership going up after contacting adjuncts.
Wrap-up
Ellen Detlefsen said that the Library School Reunion was again a success. Gale Dutcher has organized it for a long time—perhaps someone else would like to relieve her of that duty.
Cynthia Vaughn will send e-mails to gather feedback about the MLES website.
Barbara Rapp said she will be on the membership committee with Ellen Detlefsen, but we need a formal member for the committee. We need to try to get the MLA student listserv active. Cynthia Vaughn will update the website with student listserv information.
Meeting adjourned at 9:10 a.m.
Go to the Archives for previous years' minutes