NAHSL Executive Board Meeting
March 5, 2004
Regional Medical Library
Shrewsbury MA
Present: Kathy Brunjes, Happy Copley, Janet Cowen, Janet Crager, Ed Donnald, Lida Douglas, Carole Foxman, Penny Glassman, Shirley Gronholm, Barbara Ingrassia, Patty Kahn, Len Levin, Jill Livingston, Joan Yanicke
Len called the meeting to order at 10:33 am.
Len announced that we were starting a half hour late so that Janet Cowen could get here after an important meeting at Maine Medical Center.
Len reported that the Scholarship Task Force is working to broaden the appeal of the scholarship offerings. This year we are offering special MLA Awards covering a full early-bird registration to help those who might be attending the MLA Conference in Washington DC. The Scholarship fund has been renamed the “Professional Development Fund.” The Task Force will continue to work to achieve consistency and efficacy in awarding scholarships.
Action: Minutes of the December 5, 2003, Board Meeting were accepted as presented.
Discussion: Fran presented the annual report for 2003. Figures show that NAHSL is currently spending $6,000--$7,000 more than we are taking in.
Action: The Board agreed that this overspending was in line with our mission of supporting the education of our members, but that the Board should keep an eye on this trend. The report was accepted as presented.
Archives
Discussion: Carole asked if she should print off items on the NAHSL website that have no print counterpart anywhere else, for storage in the Archives. The Board agreed that this would be a good practice to institute.
Action: Carole will write up a procedure to add to the Archives section of the policy & procedure manual.
Discussion: Kathy mentioned that she had found several conference packets in her office.
Action: Kathy
will pass various packets on to Carole for the Archives.
Discussion: Carole recently bought 25 archival boxes and wondered if anyone would like some?
Action: Janet
Crager said that ARIHSL would be interested in a few.
Discussion: Patty reported she has changed the Appendix to the policy & procedure manual, to reflect who has the authority to sign checks for NAHSL. She will add the new procedures for the renamed Professional Development Fund to the policy and procedure manual.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: Shirley sent an Annual Report to Chapter Council, detailing the events of the year; she also gave a copy to our Archives.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: Shirley presented a lengthy report on Chapter Council’s debate about what to give away at the Chapter Council table at the MLA Conference. In the past they have had small US maps to place on a badge. The Chapter Council list was debating between ribbons and stickers; sought a chapter vote.
Action: Patty made a motion that NAHSL vote for colored stickers with the chapter name on them. Board voted in favor, and approved $100 to be donated to help with purchase of stickers.
Discussion: Kathy announced that program is all set and meals are planned. Budget has been turned in to Fran. In April we will work on the pre-registration form. Hotel rates will be very reasonable and Kathy urged everyone to check out our website for information about our conference.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: Janet Crager reported that Rhode Island committee has a signed contract with the Westin Providence. They are having a meeting of the conference planning committee next week and will be truly revving up to get the work going. Dates are September 24-27, 2005.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: Janet Crager told us she had been approached by NY/NJ and UNYOC chapters about planning a joint conference in Lake Placid or some other central location. Since contract had already been signed with the Westin Providence, this was not feasible for 2005. Len asked the Board if we could pursue this idea for 2007, when conference will be responsibility of Vermont.
Action : The Board told Len this was an excellent idea and to follow up with contacts in the other two chapters.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: Andy could not attend and did not send a report. This week the Education committee is planning the MLA teleconference in several sites around the region: Worcester, Boston, Vermont, Hartford, and Augusta. Fall CE courses for the conferences are coming together: Concepts in Neurology, Target your Customers, Project Management, possibly EBM or electronic journals, and a Tuesday afternoon course at Maine Medical Center’s computer lab in Portland, taught by Donna Berryman.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: Lida had nothing major to report. She has been mounting materials as they are sent to her. She would like to have more news from the state representatives to put in the news area of the website.
Action: The Board decided that the State Reps should send news items to Lida once a month for this segment of the website (or email her that there is nothing new). Lida will touch base with state reps to remind them of this duty.
Discussion: Fran reminded everyone that NAHSL follows the Federal mileage reimbursement rate. It has gone up to $.375 per mile as of January.
Action: Fran will ensure that the check request form has been changed to reflect the new rate.
Discussion: Fran presented proposed budget for 2004. (See attached report). Shirley asked that $500 be added to Chapter Council budget since our Policy & Procedure Manual stipulates that Chapter Council rep and Chapter Council alternate each receive a $250 stipend to help with their MLA expenses. (This is so they can attend meeting scheduled prior to conference). Another $100 was also added to help with Chapter Council sticker production for this year’s MLA conference.
Action: The Board approved the proposed budget with additional funds for Chapter Council.
Discussion: Len charged the Finance Committee to be vigilant about watching our spending as recent trend has shown we are spending more than we take in.
Action: This will be discussed at the next Finance Committee meeting.
Discussion: Barb reported that we continue to monitor the Patriot Act. A Federal judge recently declared a portion of the Act unconstitutional. A new website that might prove useful for seeking government grants is http://www.grants.gov.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: Jill reported that Lida has posted the Marketing Newsletter on the website. Marketing Committee met on February 20. They decided to offer a CE class at the NAHSL 2004 conference entitled, “Create your own customized marketing plan to target your info center’s customers,” with Kathy Dempsey.
Action: For informational purposes only.
Discussion: The Committee decided not to produce a newsletter in 2004, but rather to increase information on the NAHSL website related to marketing.
Action: For informational purposes.
Discussion: Jill presented an idea from Carolyn Paul, a member of the Marketing Committee, that NAHSL do a bulk purchase of generic marketing material, so that small libraries might be able to afford such products and add their library’s name, etc.
Action: The Board told Jill that the Marketing Committee could look into this possibility further.
Discussion: The committee will be offering a swap meet again at NAHSL 2004, which may include an electronic poster showing high quality library websites. Possibility was raised of offering a prize for “best in show” among those contributing to the swap meet.
Action: Kathy will make sure that Marketing has a table for the swap meet at NAHSL 2004.
Discussion: Penny reported that to date we have 102 paid members for 2004. She will send a reminder to the listserv next week.
Action: Informational purposes only.
Discussion: Ed reported that he is looking into finding a Conference Chair for 2006.
Action: Informational purposes only.
Action: Happy will send out a notice reminding members to apply for the MLA award next week.
Discussion: Janet
Cowen told us that plans are well underway for an
exciting program for NAHSL 2004. In keeping with our theme of “Sea Change:
Riding the Tides,” there will be thought provoking, motivating, and practical
sessions on a variety of interesting and informative topics. Keynote speakers will be: T. Scott Plutchak, Director,
Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences University of Alabama at Birmingham
and Editor, Journal of the Medical Library Association. Mr. Plutchak will open
the conference with a talk entitled “Our Revolution Is Just Getting Started.”
He’ll share his ideas on the shape of the future for the librarians of the 21st
century. Sue Stableford,
Director of the Maine AHEC Health Literacy Center at the University of New
England in Biddeford, Maine, is a health educator, trainer and consultant with
a rich and varied background specializing in vibrant plain language for clear
health communication. We’ll hear from her on librarians and health
literacy. There will be a range of
selections for Monday afternoon concurrent sessions. These will include a
continuation of the discussion of the model library of the future
with Scott Plutchak, a fascinating program on telemedicine aboard the
Seaboard V to Maine’s remote islands with Sharon Daley, R.N., an MLA
Open Forum, tentatively
titled “Issues in Managing Electronic Resources – Why is this
Important to Healthcare?” with Joanne Marshall, and a current and relevant
presentation by Lynn Fortney on collection development in an electronic
era. Tuesday offers a panel of
novelists discussing how they use health sciences libraries for their writing: Tess
Gerritson, author of medical thrillers Harvest, Life Support,
Bloodstream, Gravity, The Surgeon, The Apprentice, and The Sinner;
Kate Flora, with six mysteries in the Thea Kozak series, as
well as a stand-alone suspense novel, Steal Away; and JS
Borthwick, who pens mysteries featuring professor and amateur sleuth
Sarah Deane and love interest Dr. Alex McKenzie. We are hoping to have signed copies of
their books for the scholarship raffle.
In addition, there will be updates from MLA, NLM, RML, QuickDoc,
Docline, EFTS, and HSLIC’s Maine Ariel Grant.
Action: For informational purposes only.
ARIHSL Janet Crager says that Lifespan and Brown received grants from the RML for consumer health; they will be holding classes in consumer health information for all types of librarians. Friday, May 7 is the Library Futures Conference in Warwick, Rhode Island. All librarians across New England are invited. ARIHSL continues the project of adding their holdings to the HELIN database; training sessions are planned for spring.
CAHSL In Evelyn’s absence, Jill reported that their last meeting involved a discussion with EBSCO about consortial buying. At their next meeting they will be examining electronic journals.
NH/VT Claire could not attend but sent a brief report. Thursday, April 15 they will hold their Spring Meeting at the Quechee Club in Quechee VT. Paulette Fraser from Catholic Medical Center in Manchester will discuss Nursing Informatics; Walter Brown from the National Library Alliance will discuss his electronic products; Bill Garrity from Dartmouth will examine copyright issues.
HSLIC Janet Cowen reported that HSLIC has created a promotional brochure for the
consortium. Copies of the brochure will
be distributed to prospective members, and will be made available at various
conferences and meetings. Some HSLIC
members have been participating in a trial of Journals@OVID. While the full database is available for the
trial, the intention is to select one or two widely used titles for consortial
purchase. The MLA teleconference on
Expert Searching will be hosted by the Togus VA Library on March 10.
On the Ariel grant, installations have been completed in six of the ten
Year One libraries. Having an IT
consultant has helped tremendously. The
marketing consultant has developed a flyer, a brochure, press releases, and
e-mail messages that can be used for promotional activities. When completed, these will be posted on the
HSLIC website.
Recruitment/Mentoring – Shirley had passed around copies of the MLA survey on Recruitment to all Board members. Joan will examine it to see if there is any material in it that would be appropriate for the new Professional Development segment of the NAHSL website.
ILL Meeting – Board discussed providing support to the RML for their annual Interlibrary Loan conference. The Board voted to provide $750 in support for the meeting costs. NAHSL will be listed as a sponsor.
State Representatives & NAHSL news – state reps should be sending monthly news items to Lida for posting on the “news” segment of the NAHSL Website. Len will remind those reps who could not attend this meeting to do this on a regular basis, on the first of each month.
Benchmarking - The Benchmarking Network Editorial Board has
been appointed by Pat Thibodeau, MLA president. Chair is Michelle Volesko;
members are Jeannine Cyr Gluck, Rosalind F. Dudden, Debra C. Rand, Melissa L.
Just (Chapter Council Liaison), Jim Shedlock (AAHSL Liaison), Michelynn
McKnight (Board Liaison), and Kate Corcoran as staff liaison. The editorial board is currently in FINAL
TESTING of the data entry site for 2004. In mid-March, the site will be open
(with much fanfare). MLA will issue a FOCUS announcement when the site is live
and will send a snail-mail postcard to institutional members encouraging them
to enter data. They will post the period for data entry, which is expected to
allow at least 2 months for data entry.
The 2004 benchmarking data entry is significantly different in that it
will allow ALL NON-AAHSL LIBRARIES (not just hospitals) to enter data. Special
profiles have been developed for hospitals, systems, libraries serving research
institutions, and health association libraries. A generic "all other
libraries" profile will help MLA further develop the profiles and other
questionnaires in the future. With a few minor (mainly system) exceptions,
anyone who added data last year will see their "old" data when they
enter the site to fill in the various questionnaires. As soon as the site is ready, Kate will email
the BCE’s so we can notify our various chapter lists. Printable worksheets for data gathering are available on the MLA
(members-only) Benchmarking site, found at http://www.mlahq.org
Lindbergh Research Fellowship
Endowment – The Board discussed how to support this endowment as per the
request from MLA. Topic was tabled until
the June meeting. Another issue was
raised: use of funds raised at the Scholarship
raffle at the conference; if we do a joint conference in 2007, we must be clear about financial issues such
as scholarship fundraising before the conference starts.
Next Meeting: June 4, 2004 at 10 am, in Shrewsbury, MA.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Happy Copley
NAHSL Secretary