NAHSL Executive Board Meeting

Lowell General Hospital, Hanchett Auditorium

Lowell, MA

June 14, 2002

 

Present:  William Anger, Ed Donnald, Carole Foxman, Barbara Ingrassia, Patty Kahn, Len Levin, Jill Livingston, Evelyn Breck Morgen, Debbie Sibley, Mary Ann  Slocomb

 

Ed called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.

 

Announcements/Chair’s Report

 

Ed welcomed everyone to the meeting and extended a special welcome to Evelyn Breck Morgen.  Evelyn was attending her first board meeting as CAHSL Representative.

Donna Beales welcomed NAHSL Board members to Lowell General Hospital and offered use of the Hanchett Auditorium in the future.  Len Levin promoted Donna’s innovative LGH Web Library (http://www.lowellgeneral.org/library).  Donna uses MeSH headings to classify websites in the LGH Web Library. Len, et al, thanked Donna for hosting the NAHSL Board.

 

Ed reported that he attended the MLA Leader’s Session.  He gave a copy of the MLA Leader’s Manual to Len.

 

Minutes/Secretary’s Report 

                Discussion:          Evelyn should be added to the Board’s distribution list.  Her name currently appears on the

                                                distribution list but Evelyn is not receiving correspondence. Evelyn’s e-mail address is:

                                                emorgen@uchc.edu

                Action:                  Ed will talk to Lida about having Evelyn’s correct e-mail added to the distribution list.

                Action:                  Minutes of the March 1, 2002 Board meeting were accepted as submitted.

               

Treasurer’s Report

                Discussion:                          Marj not present.  Ed distributed the Treasurer’s Report, dated March 1, 2002. 

                                                                Conference 2001 produced approximately $16,800 profit (amount taken from December 7, 2001 Treasurer’s Report).

                Action:                                  The Board approved the Treasurer’s report as presented.

 

           Committee Reports

            Archives

            Discussion:        Carole added the President and Treasurer to the list of persons who can request materials from the Harvard Archives.  Carole, Ed, and Marj can now all request and sign for materials.  When Fran Becker assumes the Treasurer’s position in October, her name will be added and Marj’s name will be removed.  The delivery address for materials requested from the Harvard Archives was changed to Mass General Hospital. 

            Action:                  For informational purposes.                                                                       

 

Bylaws

            Discussion:        A vote will occur at the August meeting to ratify the decision to extend the positions of Chair

and Past Chair from 2001-2002 to 2002-2003.  Upon ratification, Ed will continue on as Chair

and Mary Ann will continue as Past Chair.

                                                A vote to change the bylaws will take place at the September conference.  This vote will determine

                                                whether Board members can cast votes electronically. 

                                Ed distributed proposed wording for Reimbursement Guidelines.  Evelyn suggested a change of wording under “Lodging” to indicate that one night lodging will be “limited to the evening of the meeting or the prior night.”  Others supported the change.  A vote to change the Policy and Procedures Manual to include the proposed wording will take place at the August meeting. 

                                Votes were postponed to the August meeting so that a quorum of Board Members could be present.

Action:                  Ed will talk to Peter Jones about drafting wording for the Policy and Procedures Manual on how and when membership lists should be moved to the electronic archives.

Action:                  Because of the amount of continued issues, Ed will move Old Business to the top of the August agenda. Ed will send out a copy of June 14th minutes with the August agenda.

               

 

Chapter Council

            Discussion:          Janie Kaplan resigned from Hartford Hospital and her position as Chapter Council Representative.  Janie is now Library Director at the New York Academy of Medicine.   Debbie Sibley, alternate, is now Chapter Council Representative.  Ed wrote a thank you letter to Janie, which he sent to Janie, Debbie Sibley, and Linda Markwell at MLA.  Ed read the letter to those present. 

                Discussion:          Debbie reported that she and Janie attended the all-day Chapter Council meeting at MLA.  This meeting is attended by almost 30 Chapter Representatives and Alternatives, as well as the President, President-Elect, and President-Elect-Elect.  Within Chapter Council, there are six committees.  The President and those in line to be President use the meeting as an opportunity to ask for feedback on their initiatives.  Last year the main topic was on the shrinking size of the profession and on mentoring to attract new members to the profession.  This year the topic was eroding collections, eroding budgets, and how use of consortia can help but also muddy the situation.  The topic of attracting new members to the profession was also discussed. 

                                                The Chapter Council hosted the sharing roundtables.  About 300 people attended.  Next year the name will be changed to, “Chapter Council presents roundtables.”

                Discussion:          News Debbie and Janie reported at the meeting included how NAHSL was the chapter that started the benchmarking initiative and how NAHSL tied for participants.  Another topic they reported was on how NAHSL is using PayPal as a way for people to pay for membership and conference registrations.  The response to this announcement elicited a lot of excitement.  PayPal is a good candidate for the MLA Majors Award. 

            Action:                  Ed will contact Lida about submitting PayPal to be considered for the MLA Majors Award.

                Discussion:          MLA offers 1 FREE MLA Membership to each chapter each year.  This can be used for anything.  Those present at the meeting suggested offering it to VT/NH for use at their Scholarship raffle table. 

            Action:                  Ed will let the VT/NH conference committee know about the free membership.

 

Conference ‘02

            Discussion:        Karen Odato not present. Ed reported that the Conference 2002 Committee is hard at work and things are going smoothly.  Conference postcards were sent out in May. 

                Discussion:          The conference website includes the program and registration form.  Registration can be done using PayPal or mail in registration.  In order to receive the early bird discount rate for the conference and hotel, registrations must be receive by August 22, 2002.  However, the deadline for the Pre-Conference Fun is JULY 31, 2002. 

            Action:                  State Representatives should notify their groups about this information and remind them to register.

                Discussion:          The Program Committee was discussed.  The committee is comprised of 2 members of the state currently hosting the conference, 1 member from the state that hosted the previous conference, and one member of the state that will host the next conference.  Some conferences use the Program Committee’s input more than others.

                Action:                  Next year, Ed will remind Maine to select a member for the Program Committee, and he will remind Massachusetts to add a second member.

             Action:                  State Representatives should remind people and institutions that NAHSL is soliciting sponsorship, even small donations. 

 

Conference ‘03

            Discussion:          Len Levin reported that the committees are being assembled.  The first Conference ’03 meeting was held after the last Board meeting.  The next conference committee meeting will be held at the Sturbridge Host.

                                                Dr. John Halamka will be a keynote speaker.  Dr. Halamka is the CIO for CareGroup.  He is a brilliant person, accomplished in medical informatics. 

                Action:                  For informational purposes.

 

Education

                Discussion:          Jeannine not present.  No education report given.

 

 

Electronic Communication

                        Discussion:        Lida Douglas not present.  The Board voiced its appreciation of the good work Lida has been doing. 

 

Finance

            Discussion:          Marj not present.  Finances are strong and earning interest. 

                                                The Finance Committee has not met since October.

                Discussion:        An idea was presented by Debbie to create an endowment for scholarship.  Issues suggested for

                                                consideration include how much money would be used to create the endowment, what it will be used

                                                for, how it would be affected by the money raised for scholarship, and what it will be named.

            Action:                  Ed will talk to Marj about scheduling a Finance Committee meeting to discuss this. 

 

 

Government Relations

            Discussion:          Barb Ingrassia distributed handouts based on the Government Relations discussion at MLA.  Since 9/11, questions about privacy are more of a concern.  Legislation of importance to libraries includes the PATRIOT Act, TEACH Act, and UCITA.  A victory for libraries was that the filtering bill was defeated. 

            Action:                  For informational purposes.

 

Marketing

            Discussion:          Jill reported that Rachel completed the NAHSL postcard.  This postcard will be used to attract new members to NAHSL.  The Marketing Committee will work with Peter to get contact information for potential members.    

            Action:                  Jill will e-mail it to the Executive Board for final approval. 

            Discussion:          The “Marketing Top Ten Tips”, which had been submitted as an MLA Majors Award project was considered for the Award but did not win.  Chapters submitted high quality submissions in 2001. 

            Discussion:        The Marketing Committee  sent a message to NAHSL-L seeking contributions to a Marketing Newspaper to be distributed at the conference. Len was the only person who volunteered.  Contributions need only be short and informal pieces on innovative and interesting use of marketing in libraries.  The Marketing Committee will be directly soliciting individuals for contribution. Submissions can be sent to Jill or Kim Lavoie (klavoie@rwmc.org)

            Action:                  State Representatives will ask their groups to consider submitting material for the newspaper. 

                                                Submissions can be sent to Jill or Kim Lavoie (klavoie@rwmc.org)

 

Membership

            Discussion:        Peter not present.  The Membership directory on the website is under development.  It will become

                                                more of a regional contact list.  A suggestion was made by Evelyn to add the names of the library

                                                and institution to the directory.  Peter is asking individual consortia for their directories to add to the

                                                master list.  The NAHSL website is hosted on the UMass server, not the NN/LM-NER’s server. 

                Action:                  Ed will talk to Mary at the NN/LM about generating a query to get an end of the year membership

                                                list.

 

Nominating Committee & Awards

            Discussion:          Mary Ann added an addendum to the report from the March 1, 2001 meeting.  This addendum is that Janie Kaplan resigned as Chapter Council Representative and that her Alternate, Debbie Sibley, assumed the position.  Following a vote by the Board, the new Alternate will be Shirley Gronholm from Hartford Hospital. This is a 6-year position. 

                Action:                 The Board will vote on Shirley’s position at the August meeting when a quorum of members is present.

                Discussion:       A review of the slate of positions for next year was given:  Conference Chair--Kathy Brunjes, Secretary--Happy Copley, Treasurer--Fran Becker, Nominating Committee--Mary Ann Burke.  Barbara’s 3 year commitment for Government Relations will be ending in October.

            Action:                  Mary Ann will add Ed and Mary Ann’s names to the Nominating Committee’s slate, but only for ratification, not for a full vote.

                Action:                  Mary Ann will e-mail NAHSL-L seeking contributions of candidates for the NAHSL Achievement Award.  Mary Ann will bring a list of nominations to the August 16, 2002 meeting.

 

Program

            Discussion:          Donna O’Malley not present; report covered under Education section of these minutes.

           

Scholarship

            Discussion:          Kathy not present.  The Scholarship website has been updated to include the new $150 per calendar

                                                year limit.

 

MLA Credentialing Report

            Discussion:          Joan not present.  Joan sent out a memo to NAHSL-L earlier in the week. 

 

MLA Membership Report

            Discussion:          Debbie reported that the Membership Committee at MLA had an interesting idea that could be used for NAHSL marketing.   It is based on brief bios of what librarians do outside the library.

 

RML

Discussion:          Debbie reported that she attended the all-day NN/LM meeting at MLA.  The NLM is going to focus on 2 new groups of users:  public health officials and public libraries.  A new round of network-sponsored subcontracts for multi-type library groups will be awarded this year.  Over $250,000 was awarded in subcontracts last year.  Awards for this year will use the same structure as awards for last year. 

Discussion:          Ed reported that he and Ralph also attended the day long NN/LM meeting in Dallas, where they reported on EFTS.  EFTS reports were also given at the DOCLINE meeting and an open meeting on Saturday night.  NLM is supporting EFTS. Both CISTI and CINAHL are watching developments in EFTS. 

EFTS has a new employee starting June 17, 2002.  Colleen Giblin has experience working with websites and teaching, and has a financial background as a controller. 

The UCONN Health Center Library submitted an RFP to NLM to bring EFTS to a web-based platform and is waiting to hear back from the NLM. 

The NN/LM-NER will host an EFTS listserv.  Ed will solicit members though DOCLINE-L.

 

State Reports

            ARIHSL         Bill Anger reported that the NN/LM-NER rewarded a consumer health subcontract to Brown University.  Tovah Reis was promoted to Librarian level 5.  Her new title is "Medical School Librarian", instead of previous title of "Medical Library Coordinator."

The RI legislature passed its budget, allotting $200,000 to an ILL delivery system. This statewide delivery system will operate on a 5-day delivery schedule.  An additional $314,000 was added to OLIS budget for additional public library aid funding for FY2003.                                           

                                                ARIHSL will be meeting this week for their annual dinner.  New officers will include Pat Padula as President, Tovah Reis as Vice President, and Bill as Treasurer. 

               

            CAHSL              Evelyn reported that CAHSL is winding down the year.  Evelyn distributed a handout outlining the good programming that took place during the 2001-2002 year.  CAHSL’s last meeting will be the June banquet.   CAHSL is developing a new brochure to attract members.  The officers for next year will include Mary Ellen Bowen as President, Nancy Goodwin as Vice-President/President Elect, Carol Hunsinger as HSLC Chair Elect, and Katalin Gyorgyey as Secretary. Nancy Goodwin will also try to become a member of the Connecticut Digital Library Advisory Board (CDLAB) which partially administers the CT IConn initiative.  CAHSL would like the representation of a hospital librarian in IConn. 

 

            HSL NH/VT   Alice Reed not present.  Ed reported that Alice found out that the NH/VT listserv is alive, but unused.  NH/VT has no President or Vice President.

 

HSLIC                Patty reported that HSLIC meets two times per year.  The spring meeting will be in two weeks.  HSLIC also sponsors a program at the Maine Library Conference.  The new president will be Deb Clark, from Stephens Memorial Hospital.  Dan Philbrick received the Cairns Award, a distinguished librarian award that is given annually.  Dan was working in the library at the Lewiston-Auburn

College and was very active in helping HSLIC with IT.  Dan is moving into the IT department of the college.

                                                Daniel Dollar gave an e-journals talk at the last HSLIC meeting. 

                                                New HSLIC officers include, Treasurer--Maryann Lamont and HSLIC Representative to NAHSL--Janet Cowan. 

                                                Maine finished its Ariel project with the RML.  They want to move forward with Ariel for the entire state and are hiring a grant writer to help in this matter. 

                                                The NorthernLinks project is still underway.

 

                MAHSLIN       Debbie was the speaker.  His reported that MAHSLIN met at the TowerHill Botanical Garden for their all day meeting.  Mark Funk from Cornell topic was collection development in small to large libraries. 

                                                The new MAHSLIN Chair will be Roger Manahan from Mercy Medical Center.  The new President-Elect will be Cindy Hutchinson from New England Optometry.  

Old Business

                                                None.

 

New Business

Discussion:          NELA has a meeting every summer. The presidents of the different library associations attend.  This

year, they proposed a New England Library Leadership Academy. This would be a weeklong

intensive program on leadership.

Discussion:        Different initiatives have been devised in New England states to negotiate consortial contracts with vendors.  In CT, Robin Hassig and Janie Kaplan orchestrated a full-text suite of journals from OVID.  And, ME, NH, and VT are working on the NorthernLinks project.  It would be worth investigating a regional contract.  This could be a joint project of the RML and NAHSL.  The Arizona Health Sciences Library’s website could be used as a model (http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/).

Action:                 Debbie and the RML will convene a negotiating group with membership from each state to discuss

the issue further. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 1:45pm.  The next meeting to be held in Shrewsbury, MA on August 16, 2002 at the RML.

 

Submitted by:       Jill Livingston, Marketing Committee