From Mary Markland, 2008 Midwest Chapter President
Library of the Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Fargo, ND
Summer is flying by and MLA '08 seems a long time ago but I wanted to share a few of my notes and thoughts with you...
First of all, I want to say thank you to the planners for having a "greener" meeting. I really appreciated the chance to recycle the paper I accumulated! I also loved the mini conference program. As a poster presenter, I was so happy to not have to bring hundreds of handouts! Having all the posters online made it much more convenient to participate.
Mary Ryan is the current president of MLA and her theme for the year is "iFusions: Addressing Information Issues Locally, Nationally and Globally." For her, the "i" represents individuals, interrelationships, integration of information and efforts, interworking, etc. Her new initiatives include a focus on the recruitment and retention of health information professionals. This includes the work being done by the MLA Professional Recruitment and Retention Committee and the survey results from the Hay Group/MLA 2008 Salary Survey. Another focus will be advocacy for the profession and issues of importance to it. Scholarly communication topics have been addressed by the MLA Scholarly Publishing Task Force. This task force is being converted to the Ad Hoc Committee for Advocating Scholarly Communication. New issues the committee will address include the NIH Public Access Policy and the NIH data sharing policy, peer review, citation analysis/impact factors, etc. Emergency management/disaster preparedness is another area of current interest. MLA units will continue addressing these issues in conjunction with NLM and the NN/LM.
On the organizational housekeeping side, it is time for MLA's review and revision of the strategic plan. Also results for the MLA Member Survey and AHIP survey will be addressed. There is a new task for to review the Ethics Code and Disclosure Policy and MLA's business model.
Here in the Midwest Chapter, we are reviewing our bylaws (yes, again!) and you will see some changes coming that will require a vote by the membership. Sheryl Stevens is leading this process and doing a super job.
I know all of our conference planners are busy and I'm looking forward to the meeting in Troy. If you haven't registered, do so soon while early registration prices are in effect! One new feature at the meeting is a short workshop on Saturday afternoon for any members interested in learning more about our website and blogs. If you are a new board member, look for your invitation to a board orientation too.
Remember the board meeting on Friday, October 17 is open to the membership and the annual business meeting is at lunch on Monday, October 20. Make sure to attend to see who our award winners are! Please let me know if you have any issues or topics you would like to see discussed! See you in October...