Recipients Lydia Witman, MLIS, of Pennsylvania Hospital and Ellen Abramowitz, MLS, of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital at the Baltimore meeting.
Big data, semantic web, Summon, Zotera, QR codes, gaming. I came away from the Connections meeting in Baltimore with my head spinning, with lots of new ideas to consider. Because I’m a solo librarian, it’s critical to keep up with developments in our field. I don’t have the added luxury of handy colleagues to discuss library news.
Staying current is also difficult given the economy, especially for healthcare institutions. Hospital libraries feel the downturns. Thanks to the MLA’s Professional Development grant, I was able to attend the conference for a day and take a continuing education (CE) class. I had cut my 2012 professional development budget, but my boss was very supportive and encouraged me to apply spare funds from other portions of my operating budget. This enabled me to attend the conference for an additional day and take a second CE class. I was very pleased.
Prior to the MLA meeting I had done some research to keep up with trends in technology and higher education. I learned that website mobilization is not a future trend, it’s what’s happening now. I decided to investigate the possibility of mobilizing library access at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, where I work. I also learned that Fitz resident physicians were given iPhones by the hospitaI. I discussed the possibility of mobilizing the hospital’s library webpage with the Information Technology Departments of the hospital and also Catholic Health East (the parent corporation). I also needed to learn about the technology and available content from a library perspective to get a better understanding of what benefits it provided and how it could be implemented.
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