Anna Ercoli Schnitzer
InfoPoint Librarian
Health Sciences Libraries
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

The four-day Ann Arbor Art Fair in its 49th year, came to a close on Saturday evening, July 19, 2008, and this year for the first time the University of Michigan Library was part of the action. Although Booth #12 in the Non-Profit section of this huge fair was originally reserved and rented by the Health Sciences Libraries, we opened our tent flaps to affiliated library volunteers from the Science, Graduate, Undergraduate and Business libraries as well. It was an extra pleasure to have a cross-section of library collaboration, and we needed all the help we could get, since we had to provide staffing for a total of 45 hours. (more…)

There were two community service projects funded by the GMR held during the MLA ‘08 Conference in Chicago. I had the opportunity to participate in one of them - the Rush University Free Health Fair: Spring into Health and Fitness. I was between jobs at the time, so I was representing Ohio University Health Sciences Library and the GMR. After staffing numerous health fair booths in the past, this was still a new and exciting experience.

The event started quite early and it was nice to get coffee and dough nuts to start the day! There were a large number of volunteers from various organizations, and we all worked diligently helping the participants to make the best out of this health fair. It was impressive to see some of the MLA award winners staffing the tables. I had the opportunity to work with Vijay Pawal; Cunningham Fellow from India and Sarah McCord who was honored with Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award. The medical librarians at the Rush Medical Center did a great job making sure all the MLA volunteers were doing fine. (more…)

Patricia W Martin
Taubman Medical Library
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

The National Library of Medicine through the GMR awarded an 18 month health disparities subcontract to the University of Michigan Health Sciences Libraries for their proposal Michigan Health Literacy Awareness Training Program. HSL is partnering with Washtenaw Literacy, a county-based literacy training effort, to raise awareness among area health professionals of the issue of low literacy and poor health literacy among their patients, and to provide communication techniques and resources to improve patient care. (more…)

Christopher J. Shaffer has accepted an appointment as University Librarian at Oregon Health and Science University Library, Portland, which he will assume on August 1, 2008. Chris has most recently been the Assistant Director, Technology and Outreach, at Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, University of Iowa.

Many of you will remember that Chris was Technology Coordinator at the GMR from 1996 to 2002. Congratulations and best wishes, Chris!

Maureen Watson, Reference Librarian, Ferris State University, Michigan College of Optometry Reading Room, shares the following information from MLA-FOCUS: Michigan librarians and GMR network members Misa Mi, Sandra Swanson, and Marie Lise-Shams received the Hospital Librarian Research Award for their poster Health Sciences Librarians in Michigan: Connecting to Emerging 2.0 Technologies. Congratulations!

The Outreach Express Award entitled Only Connect….to the Community was funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR). This award allowed the Medical Library Association’s (MLA) National Planning Committee ‘08 to provide the first annual community service events. The two community service events held in Chicago, Illinois, allowed medical librarians to put words such as advocacy and visibility into action by creating partnerships with public librarians and volunteering in the neediest community, North Lawndale on the west side of Chicago. (more…)

by Barbara Platts, MLIS, AHIP
Munson Healthcare
Traverse City, MI

Registration is now open for the Midwest/MHSLA 2008 Conference!

You can register online via http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?459908. Payments for registration may be made by credit card or check.
In order to get the member rate for conference registration, you must be a member of either Midwest Chapter MLA or MHSLA.

• Click to join Midwest Chapter MLA
• Click to join MHSLA (Michigan Health Science Libraries Association)

To keep the planet “vibrant and healthy,” we will not be providing bags at this conference. Please recycle and “BYOB” (bring your own bag!).

Anna Ercoli Schnitzer
InfoPoint Librarian
Health Sciences Libraries
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

On the afternoon of June 26, 2008, a small party of University of Michigan Health Sciences Libraries’ staff members (Kate MacDougall, Chrysta Meadowbrooke, Anne Perorazio, and Anna Ercoli Schnitzer) set out by AATA #4 bus to present a workshop at the Washtenaw Country Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, located on the other side of Ann Arbor. Although at first it seemed as if the class would be limited to two select individuals, others continued to arrive until there were 10 class members with various physical disabilities-all eager to learn about MedlinePlus® and its contents. Anne recorded the entire presentation, and Chrysta did the driving with mouse and keyboard. A big screen permitted text large enough for almost all to see, but Anna promised to talk through the topics for the few who might have difficulty reading even text of this size. (more…)

I am very happy to report that Max Anderson joined the GMR staff as Technology Coordinator on May 12, 2008, and Samanthi Hewakapuge joined the staff as Consumer Health Coordinator on May 16, 2008. They literally hit the ground running, as they both attended the RML Directors’ meeting on May 16. Now that my 2007 start date is a few months away, I am no longer the newbie, and I think that is terrific news. I thought that I was nimble, since I started my appointment on November 1 and left for AAHSL and NLM Orientation on November 2, but Samanthi was an even quicker study since she started work and went to an NLM meeting on the very same day! Our new colleagues bring significant experience to their work, and they have already begun to make a difference in the GMR office.

Max earned his MLIS from Florida State University in 1999. He worked as Public Access Computer Trainer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and as Educational Services Instructor at SOLINET before coming to GMR. (more…)

The June 23, 2008, posting of new National Library of Medicine (NLM) web pages includes several timely MedlinePlus topics in English and many in Spanish. Check the links below for information on earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes and other natural disasters. In addition, the NLM Technical Bulletin for May-June announces the release of the new Enviro-Health Links page on Disaster Recovery and Environmental Health page. (more…)