by Etheldra Templeton

The Nominating Committee seeks member recommendations for 2010 Chapter Awards. Award and grant descriptions and application forms are posted on the Chapter website http://www.mlaphil.org/wp/15/grants-and-awards/. Recommend an admired colleague or your deserving self.

Nominating Committee members are Etheldra Templeton (PCOM), Barbara Kuchan (Temple), and Gary Childs (Drexel).

Send recommendations to etheldrat@pcom.edu.

The deadline for award suggestions and completed applications is Monday, March 15th.

• Beatrice Davis Education Award provides an award of $600 to a student pursuing a career in health science librarianship.
• Grant Program for Professional Development provides a grant of up to $500 to support a librarian’s continuing education in health science librarianship.
• Randy Brenner Memorial Consumer Health Award is given to an individual or group in recognition of outstanding contributions to consumer health information services and patient education.
• Robert Preston Lee Memorial Award is given to an individual (or group of individuals) in recognition of outstanding contribution in the application of technology to the delivery of technical services.

Please contribute your ideas. The awards are a great opportunity to honor special individuals in our accomplished membership.

Etheldra Templeton
Nominating Committee Chair/Parliamentarian, 2009-2010
215-871-6486
EtheldraT@pcom.edu

Recommend an admired colleague or your deserving self.

Nominating Committee members are Etheldra Templeton, Barbara Kuchan, and Gary Childs.

Send recommendations to etheldrat@pcom.edu. The deadline for completed applications is Monday, March 15th.

+ The Chapter Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the Chapter and to the field.

+ Beatrice Davis Education Award provides an award of $600.00 to a qualified student pursuing a career in health science librarianship.

+ Randy Brenner Memorial Consumer Health Award is given to an individual or group in recognition of outstanding contributions to consumer health information services and patient education.

+ Robert Preston Lee Memorial Award is given to an individual (or group of individuals) in recognition of outstanding contribution in the application of technology to the delivery of technical services.

+ Grant Program for Professional Development provides one grant of up to $500.00 to a librarian/information scientist in order to pursue continuing education in the area of health science librarianship.

Etheldra Templeton

I enjoyed my year as Chair. I certainly came to appreciate all that your very productive board members do to keep the organization going, foster lively communication, and provide opportunities for members to gather at entertaining social and edifying educational events.

Our last event was the Annual Meeting on April 15th. It was pleasurable and instructive. Fifty members came to the College of Physicians to hear a presentation by Josh Goldstein, health and science reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, to honor our awardees and newly elected officers, and to party. For details on the meeting and information on other Chapter activities, please consult the 2009 Annual Report submitted to MLA National and posted on the Chapter website <http://tinyurl.com/mlaphilannrpt09>.

Thanks to everyone.

Etheldra

April 14, 2009

The Board of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Medical Library Association met five times. The Board transition meeting was held on July 10, 2008 and attended by outgoing and incoming board members. Subsequent meetings were held on September 19, November 10, December 19, and March 13.

The Annual Meeting will take place on April 15^th at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. As of April 14^th, 50 individuals have registered to attend.

As reported by Treasurer Linda Katz, as of April 13, 2009, the chapter had $16,156.78 in its checking account and $5,715.74 in its investment account, with total assets in the amount of $21,872.52.

The following represents the activities of the Chapter relative to the strategic plans and goals of MLA:

Goal 1: Recruitment, Membership, and Leadership in the Profession

In March, the Nominating Committee prepared a slate of officers for the 2009 election. Nominees were Andrea Kenyon as Chair Elect, Program Committee Chair, and Sheryl Panka-Bryman as Secretary. The election slate was distributed via the listserv. Voters were given the option of voting either electronically via e-mail or by paper ballot via post. The Nominating Committee will report to the membership at the Annual Meeting.

Early in the year, there was significant turnover in Board membership due to job changes and relocations. All open positions were filled. Sheryl Panka-Bryman joined the Board as Secretary, replacing Rebecca Raszewski. Stephanie Ferretti assumed the position of government relations chair last held by Maura Sostack. Jackie Knuckle resigned as Past Immediate Chair and Chair of the Nominating Committee. Betty Warner assumed the Nominating Committee chair.

Lenore Hardy, Chair of the Bylaws Committee, reviewed the revised MLA Model Bylaws for Chapters to assure that the Philadelphia Chapter is in full compliance with MLA standards.

AHIP membership among Chapter members increased from forty-two to forty-nine, while the total number of AHIP members has declined, due to retirements, etc.

Philadelphia Chapter members assumed leadership positions on the Finance and Program committees for the October 4 – 8, 2009 Tri-Chapter Meeting to be held in Atlantic City. Cynthia McClellan, Program Chair, represents the Chapter on the Steering Committee.

Online membership renewal for 2009 was activated on Acteva on December 3, 2008.  As of this writing, 101 members have renewed for 2009.  Active members are noted in the Membership Directory.  New, first-time members have been welcomed periodically throughout the renewal cycle via the Chapter Web site.

Membership Committee Chair, Laura Koepfler, revised the e-mail welcome to new members to include invitations to post to the Chapter web site and contribute to The Chronicle.

Goal 2: Life-Long Learning

This year’s focus has been on organizing and presenting events that 1) are free, 2) are presented live by trainers, and 3) make use of the rich resources that are available through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine and the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research. The success of these events is due to the cooperation of, not only the government agencies, but of individual members, particularly Jeanette de Richemond, Education & Credentialing Committee Chair, and member institutions, particularly Drexel for providing the space for the fall event, and ECRI Institute for providing the space for spring event.

The fall ’08 event was “Geeks Bearing Gifts,” hosted by Gary Kaplan and held at Hahnemann Library, Drexel University on November 15th. About fifteen people attended the free workshop for 4 MLA CE hours on new technology trends that will impact or can be integrated into traditional library services. During the section on blogs, the workshop instructor asked Gary to show mlaphil.org, and share few tips for readers.

The Chapter actively promoted the April 2nd, 2009, RML-funded symposium on the issue of space in libraries held at Penn State Hershey. Many Chapter members attended.

The Chapter also promoted RML training via the blog and listserv. RML provided training at Thomas Jefferson University on April 13-15 on the NLM Gateway, ClinicalTrials.gov, and PubMed.

The spring ’09 event will be an “An Introduction to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)” presented by two trainers from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) for 4 MLA  CE hours on April 23rd. This event is being funded by AHRQ, will be hosted by Jeanette de Richemond, and will be held at ECRI Institute. To date, nearly 50 people have signed up for this free event. As the ECRI Institute auditorium seats 225, the event was announced on the MLA-PHL blog, MLA-PHL, MEDLIB, HSLANJ, and SLA listservs, and The MARquee (the NNLM Middle Atlantic Region newsletter.)

A pathfinder of Continuing Education Resources has been added to the MLA-PHL blog. It lists low-cost or free training and CE opportunities for librarians and library staff with hyperlinks and brief annotations.

The Annual Meeting of the Chapter to be held on April 15^th at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia will feature a speaker, Josh Goldstein, Philadelphia Inquirer health and science reporter, and a reception in addition to the business meeting and presentation of awards.

Sharon K. Fischer, a student at Texas Women’s University and an intern at the University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Library, was selected to receive the Bea Davis Education Award. Carlos Rodriguez, the author of the popular and long-lived Chronicle feature, the TechnoHumanist Corner, was selected to receive the Robert Preston Lee Memorial Award. Anne Seymour, our current Chapter Council Representative and long-time Chapter contributor, was selected to receive the Chapter Achievement Award.

The Chapter recognizes outgoing board members Laura Koepfler and Betty Warner, and the outstanding contributions of chapter members, Stephanie Ferretti, Barbara Henry, Jackie Knuckle, Gina Kaiser, and Rachel Resnick.

Work is progressing on the “3 by the Sea” Conference, to be held October 5-8, 2009, at Resorts in Atlantic City.   Committees comprised of members of the three MLA chapters collaborating on the event (New York/New Jersey, Middle-Atlantic, and Philadelphia) have been working hard to make this a great event.

Some meeting highlights include:

• Pre-Conference CE courses (10/5)
• Patient Care Day/Technology Day (10/6) – Keynote Speaker for the day will be Lee Rainie, of the Pew Internet and American Life Project
• Skills for the Future Day (10/7) – (Keynote Speaker for this theme day not yet finalized)
• Banquet will feature a presentation by the highly recommended local history expert and author Margaret Buchholz (10/7)
• M.J. Tooey (MLA President, 2005-06) will be the final day’s Keynote, with her talk leading into a panel discussion on the theme presented.

Significant details have already been addressed, and others remain pending/in progress.  An overall meeting timeline reflecting significant dates, deadlines and responsibilities has been distributed.  Committee Chairs have kept the Steering Committee well updated on their activities.  The Steering Committee plans to meet again this upcoming June.  At this time, plans will be finalized and remaining details addressed.

Goal 3: Advocacy

Government Relations chair, Stephanie Ferretti, regularly shares information related to government and library advocacy issues on both the chapter website and listserv.

Goal 4: Creating and Communicating our Knowledge

There are 110 current subscribers to the Chapter email list.

Website

Gary Kaplan, the Chapter Webmaster, continues to develop the blog (http://www.mlaphil.org/wp/) which is a vital communications tool for the Chapter. A new plugin, Sabre (Simple Anti Bot Registration Engine), was installed to drastically reduce spam registrations. The site was upgraded with the latest version of WordPress to allow all members registered to post access to the calendar. Several chapters have contacted us about our experiences with WordPress as they plan redesigns.

New content available to all chapter members includes a “Thanks to Our Sponsors” page, Chapter Board Meeting Minutes, and updated 2009 registration information.

As of April 2009, thirty-eight chapter members are registered to post. Recent posts included:  HCUP trainer information; annual meeting registration notification; new CE resource guide notification; and NAHSL Blog launch.

Statistics are collected from several sources.

Webalizer Stats (ISP software running on our server)
Summary Period: Last 12 Months
Generated 08-Apr-2009 18:32 MDT

Blog Stats (WordPress plugin)
Views per month, September, 2007 – March 2009

Communications Committee

The Committee, chaired by Rachel Resnick, published Summer, Fall, and Winter issues of the Chronicle. The issues, respectively a robust eighteen, fifteen, and thirty-two pages, feature committee reports, member and library news, member profiles, grant opportunities, a calendar of local workshops and educational offerings, and articles of interest, including the regular and popular TechnoHumanist column.

The summer issue (PDF) was downloaded 136 times. The fall issue (PDF) was downloaded 134 times. For the winter issue, articles are available in both a web version (with each article as its own blog posting on the Chronicle page) and a PDF version.  The PDF version of the Winter issue was downloaded 71 times. There were 104 visits to the Chronicle home page for the winter issue.  From the Chronicle page, visitors went to individual articles of interest, the most popular being the From the Chair column, with 94 visits.

Goal 5: Building a Network of Partners

Development Chair Ellen Justice reports annual sponsorships of $2900 + $500.00 for Annual Meeting speaker honorarium.  Total: $3,400.00 as follows:

Gold Sponsors ($500-$749)

Elsevier: $600
HSLC: $500
Stat!Ref: $550  & $500.00 for speaker honorarium

Silver Sponsors ($300-$499)
The New England Journal of Medicine $300
Rittenhouse $300

Bronze Sponsors (Up to $299.00)

EBSCO Industries $200 (awaiting check)
Exam Master $100
Majors $100
Palinet $250

Additionally, Majors donated six books and ECRI Institute one book for giveaways at the Annual Meeting. A “Thanks to Our Sponsors” page has been added to the Chapter blog.

Respectfully submitted,

Etheldra Templeton, Chair

Esther Y. Dell, AHIP Liaison
Stephanie Ferretti, Government Relations Committee Chair
Lenore Hardy, By-Laws Committee Chair
Barbara Henry, Chapter Council Alternate
Ellen Justice, Development Committee Chair
Gary Kaplan, Webmaster
Linda M. G. Katz, Treasurer
Laura Koepfler, Membership Committee Chair
Cynthia S. McClellan, Chair Elect & Program Chair
Joan R. McKenzie, Archives Committee Chair
Sheryl Panka-Bryman, Secretary
Rachel R. Resnick, Communications Committee Chair
Jeanette de Richemond, Education & Credentialing Committee Chair
Anne Seymour, Chapter Council Representative
Elizabeth R. Warner, Nominating Committee Chair/Parliamentarian

Submitted to: Tomi Gunn, MLA, mlams@mlahq.org
Paula Raimondo, Chapter Council Chair, praim001@umaryland.edu

Mix the bitter with the sweet! Wednesday, April 15th is both Tax Day and the Chapter Annual Meeting. If your glass is half full and you’re getting a refund, come celebrate with us. If your glass seems half empty when you consider what you actually paid in taxes, come commiserate. Either way, you can raise a full glass when we gather at the College of Physicians.

The Annual Meeting is your opportunity to salute our new Chairperson-elect and recognize the award winners’ contributions to the Chapter, as well as our members’ achievements. It will be fun. It will be interesting too, as Communications Chair Rachel Resnick was successful in lining up Josh Goldstein, health and science reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, as our speaker. His topic: how broader access and use of the Internet has changed the use of health information. I’ll bet he has some interesting insights into how Internet use has changed the newspaper business too

We are a small chapter. Our size has its benefits and drawbacks. A few of the benefits include exceptional collegiality and convenient meeting sites. Drawbacks include having fewer members to participate and support programs. Should we maintain our boutique size? Should we consider merging with a like-minded organization? Your opinions matter, so come and express them. I hope to see you on April 15th

Etheldra Templeton
Chair, 2008-2009