Recent discussions on many of our library related discussion lists have revolved around library closings and librarians losing their positions. I have spoken to more than one of our colleagues during this time. When asked, I have made some suggestions that they could use to seek future employment. I would like to share these tips with you and encourage you to use this opportunity to comment on this post adding suggestions of your own to assist our friends in their efforts to find new employment in these troubled economic times.

Obtain a free email account and subscribe to GMRLIST@uic.edu, chapter-members@midwestmla.org and MEDLIB-L@LIST.UVM.EDU to remain abreast of upcoming trends, educational opportunities and job announcements. The Midwest Chapter discussion list requires active membership. 

Consider making immediate use of alumni and professional association avenues.  If you attend a meeting, remember there are often job clinics of one kind or another offered during the conference. Here are some online options:

ALA - Joblist http://joblist.ala.org/

SLA – Career Center http://careercenter.sla.org/search/index.cfm?

MLA - Career Development http://www.mlanet.org/jobs/

Top 10 Social Sites for Finding a Job

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=57419276669&h=VW5NS&u=7Xacs

At the MLA meeting in Hawaii, Sheldon Kotzin announced that Estelle Brodman’s 1954 edition of The Development of Medical Bibliography is now available digitally at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collections/digital/brodman/brodman.html.

The digital collection in the NLM History of Medicine Division has many interesting works that might be on interest to librarians, historians, or anyone seeking to understand the past: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collections/digital/index.html. For example, you can go to Turning the Pages Online to view rare books such as Robert Hooke’s Micrographia.

Teachers of history of health sciences courses will find this collection essential.

The NN/LM Midcontinental Region has scheduled a Symposium for July 15, 16, & 17 in Laramie, Wyoming, at the Coe Library on the University of Wyoming campus. In keeping with the slogan Plowing Through Pandemonium: Proactive Librarians the NN/LM staff and others will be presenting topics on emergency preparedness. Joe Moore, Director of Wyoming Department of Homeland Security, will be the special speaker at this event. Librarians and representatives of community-based organizations will also be brainstorming how to partner for emergencies.

For more information and registration please visit the webpage: http://nnlm.gov/mcr/states/wyoming_symposiumJuly2009.html or contact Jim Honour jhonour at uwyo.edu.

There were many wonderful posters shown at the Medical Library Association conference held in Hawaii this year.  They are now available online for you to view.  Trapeze Media Solutions has partnered with MLA to digitize the posters and put them online. The posters are even searchable! If you’d like to see what posters librarians from our region and beyond have done, please take a look at the visual display below.  Move your mouse along the display to move the images.  You can use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out.  (If you are having trouble viewing this display, make sure you ahve the most recent version of the Flash Player installed on your machine, available at: http://www.adobe.com.  Otherwise you can go here to see them: http://posterexperience.com/index.php.)

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released the results from a survey this week on the way people are seeking out health information.  Before the advent of podcasts, widespread use of the Internet, the public used traditional means to locate health information.  Visits to the doctor, phone calls to health professionals or trusted friends were the norm.  While these methods are still being used today, the landscape has been altered quite a bit and people have many more options.  What do we do with the information we find online? Do we take that information to our health professionals to augment the discussion? Do we simply trust what we find online and become “armchair physicians?”  The survey results refer to the more technologically integrated health seekers as ‘e-patients.’

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Christine Frank
Director
Library of Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL

Library and McCormick Educational Technology (METC) staff volunteered their services at Rush’s Spring Into Health and Fitness Fair sponsored by held at the west side Chicago Christian Industrial League on May 16th. Linda Ronan and Chris Frank staffed a health information table, providing an array of consumer health pamphlets from the National Library of Medicine and the Medical Library Association. The pamphlets were funded with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine Department of Health and Human Services, Under Contract No. N01-LM-6-35-3 with the University of Illinois at Chicago. With their laptop computer and printer, Linda and Chris also answered specific health information questions through quality consumer health information Internet sites, including National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus (http://medlineplus.gov).
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Fran Kovach
Reference & Education Librarian
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Springfield, IL

On June 5-7, 2009 Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Library participated in the 4th Annual Taylorville Black Horse Pow Wow in Taylorville, Illinois at the Christian County Fairgrounds. People came from the Christian and Sangamon county areas, as well as other cities in Illinois. Others attending were from the states of Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. The Tribes/Nations represented Apache, Blackfeet, Cherokee, Catawba, Cree, Kiowa, Mohawk, Meskwaki, Navajo, Ogalala, Oneida, Ponka, and Sioux. (more…)

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

On Friday, May 15, 2009, several librarians from the University of Michigan Health Sciences Libraries took part in the first employee health fair organized by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA). Bus drivers, bus mechanics, office workers, and their family members were encouraged to attend this event for health assessment and disease prevention: blood sticks for cholesterol and glucose readings, an ultraviolet screening for melanoma, prostate specific antigen (PSA) analysis, and other types of health testing.

Vendors included the local Visiting Nurses Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and similar organizations. In addition, free back massages were offered by a local firm; Whole Foods Markets gave out coupons and freebies; and a running shoe store exhibited its wares. There was also the possibility of winning a windshield screen, t-shirt, or water bottle by spinning a wheel of chance, as well as a $100 gift certificate—all as inducements to take part in the health fair. Healthy snacks were available: veggies, fruit cups, yogurt, and turkey franks.

In the midst of all this activity, throughout the day, the librarians had their own table from which they were offering reliable health information through distributing flyers (and pens) about MedlinePlus.  It was a well planned and well organized event that elicited good feelings that time and, potentially, good health results in the future.

Eileen Severson
MLIS Supervisor
Library and Health Information Services
Health Sciences Library
Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center
La Crosse, WI

At the WHSLA 2009 Annual Meeting in La Crosse, WI, the board was honored to award the Librarian of the Year award to Barbara Benisch Sisolak, Senior Special Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Department of Surgery Library.

Barb has demonstrated many times her qualifications for this award.  Since becoming the Senior Special Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Department of Surgery, she has been an active participant in our many library professional organizations.  She has participated in WHSLA as member of the Communications Committee, President-Elect, and subsequently President and Past-President.  Barb is a participant in surgery society conferences as well.  In all of her roles in library and health-related organizations, Barb is the consummate professional and serves as a mentor to others new to the organization, the profession, or outside the profession.

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I would like to personally thank the recipients of the Technology Improvement Awards for Year 3 for their hard work, determination in offering services to their users.  It is always interesting to review applications for these awards.  You tend to get a really good idea of what our member libraries need and the projects they are working on - and this information not only helps the library applying for the award but others thinking about applying for an award.

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