Author Archive for Maura Sostack

Let’s Congratulate Robb Mackes on his latest achievement!

By Maura Sostack. Published on February 20, 2009 in Grants & Awards and Member News. 2 Comments

Robb Mackes, DelMIRA Project Coordinator for the Delaware Academy of Medicine, learned this week that he is the recipient of the Thomson Reuters/Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award!

Through Robb’s management,  DelMIRA  (Delaware Medical Information Resource Alliance) provides access to electronic databases, textbooks and journals to all acute care hospitals and four federally qualified health centers in Delaware.  DelMIRA was created to “… address the disparity in access to biomedical information and health data that exists statewide and affects all types of health care institutions.” 

Robb can add this award to his many accomplishments including the “Librarian of the Year” award he received in 2008 from HSLANJ: the Health Sciences Library Association of New Jersey.

Congratulations Robb!!

Cathy Mason Joins Virtua Health

By Maura Sostack. Published on April 10, 2008 in Member News. 0 Comments

Catherine Mason joins Virtua Health as the Medical Librarian in the West Jersey Hospital, Voorhees Division. Cathy has a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Rutgers University in 1992 and worked as a paralegal for 11 years prior to obtaining her Master’s Degree in Library Science from Drexel University in 2006. She was previously employed as a Library Specialist at the Cherry Hill Division of Kennedy Memorial Hospital. Cathy lives in Cherry Hill, NJ with her husband, 6 year old daughter, 1 1/2 year old twin sons and Casey the dog. Cathy’s contact information:

Cathy Mason, Medical Librarian

Virtua Health

West Jersey Hospital Voorhees

101 Carnie Boulevard

Voorhees, NJ 08043

voice: 856-325-3207

fax: 856-325-3222

email: cmason1@virtua.org

Please join me in welcoming Cathy to Virtua, to HSLANJ and the Greater Philadelphia medical/health science librarian community.

Senator Specter Rocks!

By Maura Sostack. Published on March 14, 2008 in Government Relations. 0 Comments

specter-floor-statement.doc

Thursday, March 13, 2008:  The U.S. Senate voted 95 to 4 in favor of adopting the “Specter/Harkin” amendment to the Senate’s fiscus year (FY) 2009 budget resolution.   This amendment authorizes an additional $2.1 billion for NIH in FY 2009.  This would bring the agency’s total potential funding level up to $32.2 billion.  This is an important first step to increasing NIH funding.  Click on the link above to read Senator Specter’s floor statement.

Urgent! Help Increase NIH Funding Today!

By Maura Sostack. Published on March 11, 2008 in Government Relations. 0 Comments

March 11, 2008:  Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) announced they will offer an amendment to the Senate FY09 Budget Resolution (Senate Resolution 70) which would provide significant new funding for NIH.  Their amendment would authorize an additional $2.1 billion for the NIH in FY09, bringing the agency’s total funding level up to $32.2 billion.  The House and Senate appropriations committees would still have to provide this additional funding, but including it in the budget resolution is a significant first step.  A vote on the Specter/Harken amendment could occur anytime within the next few days – PLEASE contact your two U.S. Senators and do the following:

1 – Identify yourself as a constituent and ask to speak with your Senator’s health legislative assistant;

2 – Make the case for addititonal funding – remind your Senators that NIH has been flat-funded in recent years;

3 – Ask your Senators to vote YES on the Specter/Harken amendment to increase funding for the NIH in the FY09 budget resolution.

4 – Give the aide your contact information and ask t be kept informed of your Senator’s actions.

If you do not know who your two U.S. Senators are, please visit:  http://www.senate.gov or call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Legislative Update – Victory! for EPA Libraries and Peer Review

By Maura Sostack. Published on January 13, 2008 in Government Relations. 0 Comments

President Bush signed the FY 2008 omnibus package at the end of December 2007.  The package provides funding for 11 appropriations bills, and retains the provision that makes the NIH publish access policy mandatory.  Section 218 of the bill states, in part: ’The Director of the NIH shall require all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to NLM’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication, provided that the NIH sshall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.’

Division F of the bill provides $3 million for funding for restoration of the EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration and directs the Agency to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding actions it will take to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region within 90 days of enactment of this Act.

Division G of the bill: $29.23 billion for the NIH, and increase of $328.85 million over FY 2007 and $607.3 million more than requested by President Bush.

$329 million for the National Library of Medicine, a decrease of $608 thousand below FY 2007 and $8.4 million more than requested by President Bush.  $263.5 million for the Institute of Museum & Library Services, an increase of $16.3 million over FY 2007 and 7.75 million below the President’s request.