MLA-Phil » 27(2) summer 2009

the Chronicle, Volume 27, No. 2, Summer 2009, In this issue…

Gary — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:59:05 +0000

the Chronicle
Volume 27, No. 2, Summer 2009
In this issue…

entire issue ( HTML | PDF )

From the Outgoing Chair

Etheldra Templeton — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:37:25 +0000

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

From the Editor

Rachel R. Resnick — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:35:35 +0000

Rachel Resnick

“It was the best of times [several mla-phil members were promoted, published, graduated, and honored; others contributed their first articles to the Chronicle],
It was the worst of times [several members are still looking for work],
It was the age of wisdom [record numbers of the unemployed used their public libraries to discover and apply for jobs],
It was the age of foolishness [legislation was introduced in Pennsylvania to severely cut public library services], …
It was the season of Light [record numbers of articles were submitted to PubMedCentral], It was the season of Darkness [Elsevier published a fake journal for Merck], ….”*

In this issue of the Chronicle, we take a look back our Chapter’s Annual Business Meeting and Reception and at MLA’s Annual Conference. Marie FitzSimmons brings us news from MLA ’09 on the NIH Public Access initiative; she is joined by Karen Albert, Barbara Cavanaugh, Christine Chastain-Warheit, Gary Kaplan, Rebecca Landau, and Gary Childs, who provided their reflections on the conference.

We congratulate our Chapter’s AHIP members as well as those members who were honored in other ways: read the details in this issue’s Member & Library News column.

Looking ahead, we have 3 by the Sea, the tri-chapter meeting, in October; read the promotional message in this issue, and check the Calendar as well for additional events and educational opportunities. New Chapter officers take the reins on July 14, and we welcome Lydia Witman, our new Membership Chair. Lydia is featured in this issue, while information regarding other changes of the guard is contained in the Annual Meeting recap.

For you techies, we have a few offerings: a new TechnoHumanist column, an update from member Dot Berenbrok regarding SirsiDynix, and information about how you can hack into your library’s OPAC and … well, you’ll just have to read about it below. We haven’t forgotten you folks in reference: new member Crystal Knapp contributed an article on a very successful CE program about the HCUP database. Those of you who need to look up from a book or a computer every once in awhile will be interested to read Lenore Hardy’s recap of an SLA program on international librarianship. And I pitched in as well with an article about another SLA event on the job market.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue: writing, editing, proofreading. It’s really a testament to the pride you take in your Chapter. If you are interested in helping out on the Chronicle, we could use someone to format the issue for the web and in PDF. If you’re interested, please contact me: rachel.r.resnick@gmail.com. Gary and I can train you.

*Adapted from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

The deadline for the fall issue of the Chronicle (Vol. 27, No. 3) is November 1.

Details of the 58th Annual Business Meeting and Reception

Rachel R. Resnick — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:34:19 +0000

by Rachel Resnick

More than fifty attendees enjoyed reconnecting with friends, networking, listening and learning from an entertaining speaker, and sampling wonderful cuisine at the 2009 Annual Business Meeting and Reception of the Medical Library Association, Philadelphia Regional Chapter. The meeting was held on April 15 at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in the foyer and meeting room next to the Mütter Museum. The meeting was attended by members, non-members, students, and vendor representatives. Photos of the event, taken by Archives Committee Chair Joan McKenzie, are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8055980@N04/tags/annualmeeting2009/.

Etheldra Templeton, our outgoing (in both senses of the word) Chair, welcomed the attendees. First, the minutes of the 2008 Annual Meeting were approved. A copy is posted at
http://www.mlaphil.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/20081.pdf. Etheldra also presented highlights from the Chapter’s 2009 Annual Report to National, highlighting our accomplishments over the past year. This report is also posted to the website, at http://tinyurl.com/mlaphilannrpt09.

Linda Katz, our able treasurer, assured us that our finances are in order and that we have a healthy balance, or at least it was before she started paying the bills for the Annual Meeting.

Development Chair Ellen Justice relayed the chapter’s gratitude to our vendor supporters this year. Three vendors—Exam Master, Elsevier, and Stat!Ref—were represented at the meeting. Majors and ECRI Institute contributed books for a raffle later in the evening.

Betty Warner, Nominating Committee Chair/Parliamentarian, provided a detailed account of the nomination and election procedure as well as the results of the elections: We welcome incoming Chair Elect Andrea Kenyon and Secretary Sheryl Panka-Bryman.

Etheldra Templeton recognized member Mark Allen Taylor, who is retiring from the Temple University Health System Libraries. Then Board members who were stepping down from their positions were recognized: Laura Koepfler, who served as Membership Chair, was thanked for her service to

Carlos, Betty, Anne, Etheldra

the Chapter and given a Certificate of Appreciation. Betty Warner also received a Certificate of Appreciation; she had been asked to step in as Nominating Committee Chair/Parliamentarian after outgoing Chair Jackie Knuckle was unable to fulfill the obligation. Etheldra, as outgoing chair, will take over those duties in 2009-2010. Jackie was also recognized with a Certificate of Appreciation for her service as Chair in 2007-2008. Several other members were also presented with Certificates of Appreciation for their past or present service to the Chapter: Stephanie Ferretti, previously Treasurer, and now Government Relations Chair; Barbara Henry, who formatted the Chronicle; Gina Kaiser, previously Development Chair and currently Treasurer for the 3 By the Sea tri-chapter meeting; and Rachel Resnick, Communications Chair and Editor of the Chronicle.

Anne Seymour started off the presentation of Chapter awards with the Beatrice Davis Education Award. Information about the award is available on the chapter website at http://www.mlaphil.org/wp/15/grants-and-awards/bea-davis/. Ms. Davis was an active Chapter member and

Sharon K. Fischer, Anne Seymour

served as President from 1980-81. A graduate of Drexel’s library school, she also served on its faculty. Many paraprofessionals and library students employed at the College of Physicians were enriched by Ms. Davis’ mentoring. She was the Fellows’ Librarian at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia for the last 13 years of her career, which ended in the early 1980s. The Beatrice Davis Education Award was presented to Sharon K. Fischer, a student at Texas Women’s University and an intern at the University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Library. Sharon is the library’s first intern from Texas Woman’s University’s online program, and sought out Penn specifically because of her pursuit of a career in health sciences librarianship. Anne added that “Sharon has many relevant skills; she’s dedicated, thorough, goes above and beyond what she’s asked, and is eager to learn and expand her knowledge.”

Rachel Resnick presented the Robert Preston Lee Memorial Award for excellence in technology. The criteria for the award are available on the

Carlos Rodriguez

website at http://www.mlaphil.org/wp/15/grants-and-awards/rpl/. Mr. Lee was Associate Librarian for Technical Services and Systems at Thomas Jefferson University, Scott Memorial Library. He was known for his innovative spirit, technical expertise, and generous collegiality. An active member of the Chapter, he served as Treasurer from 1984-1986. He was also Chair of the Archives Committee, and served on the Membership Committees at both the local and national level. Mr. Lee died in 1988. Carlos Rodriguez was presented with the Robert Preston Lee Award for his 20 years of service to the Chronicle writing the “TechnoHumanist Corner”. Carlos is the Medical School Liaison at the University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Library.

Betty Warner had the distinct privilege of presenting the Chapter’s highest award, the Chapter Achievement Award. This award is given to an

Anne Seymour

individual who has made significant contributions to the Chapter and to the field. The award was given to Anne Seymour, Associate Director of Information Services at the University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Library. Anne has been working in health sciences libraries for over twenty years. At Penn since 1997, Anne recently served as acting director of the three health sciences libraries as well as managing the public services functions (reference, instruction, access, and document delivery services) of the Biomedical Library. Since July of 2006, Anne has led, on an interim basis, the programs and staff of the Biomedical, Dental, and Veterinary Libraries at Penn. As Associate Director of the Biomedical Library since 1997, outreach to all communities served by the Biomedical Library has been Anne’s responsibility as she oversees liaison programs to the Schools of Medicine and Nursing, the clinical enterprise, and the Biology Department. Prior to Penn, Anne spent seven years at Georgetown University Medical Library as Assistant Director of the Biomedical Academic Computing Center. While pursuing her degree in information science, Anne worked as a graduate assistant at Drexel University and computer laboratory assistant at Hahnemann University Medical Library.

Throughout her career, Anne has been involved in campus, local, and national activities. At Penn, she has served on the executive board of Librarians Assembly and multiple committees and task forces in the Penn Library. She is active in regional and national library associations, serving as chair of the Philadelphia Regional Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MLA), co-chair of the Quint chapter meeting held in Philadelphia in October 2003, and member of the National Program Committee for the annual MLA meeting in May 2007. While co-chairing the NPC for MLA07 in Philadelphia, she also facilitated a round-table discussion, hosted a dine-around dinner, and assured the social accommodations for a Special Interest Group. She has regularly presented at national meetings and published in library journals, most recently as co-editor of a symposium in a 2002 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association. Anne is our Chapter Council Representative through 2011.

Following the awards, Ellen Justice raffled off the donated books. Winners were Christine Chastain-Warheit, Lenore Hardy, Betty Warner, PJ Grier, Stephanie Ferretti, Sharon Easterby-Gannett, and Martha Kirby.

Rachel Resnick then introduced the evening’s speaker, Josh Goldstein, a Philadelphia Inquirer health and science reporter. Mr. Goldstein’s presentation is described elsewhere in this issue <http://www.mlaphil.org/wp/general-news/2009/07/10/josh-goldsteinjosh-goldstein/>. Following the evening’s presentation, the attendees enjoyed a menu of Mediterranean delectables.

Thanks to everyone who made the evening possible: Andrea Kenyon and Lenore Hardy handled the site arrangements; Linda Katz managed our registration fees; Gary Kaplan suggested the speaker, Rachel Resnick handled speaker arrangements, and Ellen Justice obtained the speaker’s honorarium from Stat!Ref; Betty Warner procured the awards; and Anne Seymour provided the programs. Thanks also to the rest of the Board members for their input, and especially to outgoing Chair Etheldra Templeton, who kept us focused (and sane). Last but not least, many thanks to the attendees, who made the evening a huge success.

Josh Goldstein, Philadelphia Inquirer Reporter

Rachel R. Resnick — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:33:48 +0000

by Rachel Resnick

The speaker at our 58th Annual Business Meeting and Reception was JoshGoldstein. Mr. Goldstein is a health and science reporter at

Josh Goldstein

The Philadelphia Inquirer, covering health care quality, clinical care, and hospitals. He has developed computer databases that have enabled him to do sophisticated analyses of health care trends and quality of delivery. He previously covered the business of health as a member of The Inquirer’s business department, writing extensively about Pennsylvania’s malpractice insurance crisis. He was part of an award-winning team that reported on the decline and bankruptcy of the Allegheny Health System, at the time the largest nonprofit health care bankruptcy in the country. The topic of his presentation was how broader access and use of the internet has impacted and changed the use of health information.

Mr. Goldstein likened the changes in information access due to the proliferation of blogs to the changes in health information access due to all of the healthcare sites that now populate the World Wide Web. But he lamented the lack of information literacy and health information literacy, stating that there was no “adult supervision,” no help for the average lay person at the point of information access to enable them to interpret the information that they find, and no added value such as is provided by information professionals like journalists and librarians. He provided examples from his own life and from a newspaper article he was currently writing to illustrate his point. He did stipulate that there are some sites that do provide such “supervision,” such as WebMD, HealthCentral.com, the Merck Manual online, and the Mayo Clinic. But many lay people are unaware of the existence of these sites, and automatically start with “unsupervised” sites or search engines, like Google.

Mr. Goldstein also talked about the many medical journals he and his colleagues read every day in order to pick out those stories that they think will be helpful to the average person. He mentioned the public accessibility of many journal articles after six months, but pointed out that accessibility did not necessarily indicate quality or meaningfulness or significance. He also lamented the problem of researchers and physicians who write about specific drug therapies or devices and who also have a financial interest in them; that these conflicts of interest are not always divulged, and that whistleblowers are sometimes punished for bringing these conflicts to light. Because of this, many lay people are not aware of these conflicts; additionally, many do not recognize the significance of such conflicts because there often is no one to explain it to them.

Mr. Goldstein concluded his presentation by describing the different types of data that are available in order to provide information about healthcare quality among medical providers. For example, data are available that indicate how many of various types of procedures are performed at area hospitals and whether the outcomes at those hospitals is above, at, or below the national average. Comparison sites also provide information about the results of satisfaction surveys or cost research. However, this “information transparency” doesn’t go far enough in helping the lay person interpret or infer quality; and often statistics don’t explain or account for the doctors who take the hardest cases, and who therefore might have worse overall mortality rates than other doctors. The need for interpretation of data, of research results, of journal articles is still there, and information professionals such as journalists and librarians bring to the table the added value of their expertise in helping inform the public.