In this time of economic down turn you may have considered broadening your library services,  sharpening up  your professional skills or attending a motivating plenary. The problem is in this time of economic down turn you don’t have the funds to become cutting edge.  You can use the GMR funding opportunities to make some headway.

Amplify your ILL service -  Interlibrary Loan is a service that doesn’t have to change very much.  It still works if you don’t do anything.  This is an area that can easily be brought into the new millennium.  The first thing you can do is to STOP invoicing other libraries for the things that you borrow.  Apply for an EFTS Award. The staff at the Electronic Fund Transfer System are happy to assist you with the paper work. The GMR is supoorting funding for it.

Take a  class – You may be able to get to a meeting but, that’s it! You can’t take a class too.  Apply for the Professional Development Award to cover the cost of the class.  You might find that your local community college has a course that you can take.  Apply for the Professional Development Award to defer the cost of  registration.  Consider a meeting that you may not usually go to Internet Librarian, EDUCAUSE, ALA or maybe a health professional meeting. You need to have a project that you are working on that the class will support and the permission of your administration the award is issued through a cost reimbursement.  You can only apply for this award once.

Bring in a speaker -  Sometimes we could benefit from the opportunity to be reminded that we are a growing profession.  The skills that we have, need to be cultivated to remain viable.  Consider applying for the Professional Instruction Award to offer your group the opportunity to enjoy a speaker you may not otherwise have been able to invite.

by Denise Rumschlag MLS, AHIP
St. Vincent Hospital
Indianapolis, IN

Looking to raise awareness of the library by administration? Want you or your library to move up in the eyes of your institution? Try creating an elevator speech to boost the worth of your work!

This year for National Medical Librarians Month, the Advocacy Working Group of the Regional Advisory Council to the GMR discussed how to advocate our worth to our administrators.  In the past we have looked at ways to market the library to clinicians and consumers; this year we wanted to focus on reaching administration.  Time is in short supply for most of as we multi-task our way through our busy days. So how do we even reach administration when our paths cross only briefly through out the week?  One proven method is to be prepared with an elevator speech. (more…)

The second annual meeting of the 2006-2011 GMR Regional Advisory Council (RAC) was held in Chicago on September 10-11, 2007. During the first part of the meeting, members were given an update on the programs and services offered by the GMR and engaged in a lively discussion about current issues such as outreach to community-based organizations and access to multi-lingual health information. (more…)

The first annual meeting of the 2006-2011 Greater Midwest Region (GMR) Regional Advisory Council (RAC) was held in Chicago on December 5, 2006. Four breakout groups followed the orientation and introduction sessions. The following topics were discussed by the groups: elicensing, communications technologies, public health, and partnering with community based organizations. (more…)