The ILLINOIS RURAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE, “Building a Sustainable Future”, was held April 24-26, 2012, at the Keller Convention Center in Effingham, Illinois. In rural Illinois, many different mobile devices including iPhones, Androids, BlackBerries, and iPads are the new stethoscopes. Exhibitor immersion in the conference sessions led to discussions of the use of the National Library of Medicine mobile apps and mobile sites in rural communities.  TOXNET, Medline Plus Farm Health and Safety, and Wiser NIH all received high praises from the HazMat teams.

Through a NN/LM GMR exhibit award, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Library displayed the new NLM exhibit banner, provided NLM pamphlets, gave out the afghan of “The Curious Herbal” as a booth prize, and offered demonstrations on the iPad of the various NLM mobile sites and apps, including Wiser. After seeing the Wiser demo, a family physician immediately downloaded it onto his iPad. Exhibiting and participating in the annual Illinois Rural Health Association meeting continues to be a worthwhile and rewarding experience.

Please join the Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association on October 17-19, 2012, at the Baronette Renaissance Hotel, Novi MI, for the following exciting activities:

• 3 days of CE opportunities
• Fine dining and conversation at the Tin Fish (Special Event)
• Poster presentations
• Interaction with vendors
• Opening Night Reception at the Baronette Renaissance Hotel
• Networking
• FUN! FUN! FUN!

Printable invitation can be found at the conference website:
http://www.mdmlg.org/MHSLA2012

Video invitation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CDU_lDUcks

For information on the webcast and a list of additional sites, visit: http://www.mlanet.org/education/distance_ed/techtrends/

ILLINOIS

• Chicago, IL: NN/LM GMR (Registration: View Training Opportunities); Site: Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago Library of Health Sciences
• Decatur, IL: Illinois Heartland Library System, Decatur (Contact: Beverly Obert)
• New Lenox, IL: Silver Cross Hospital (Contact: Estelle Hu)
• Peoria, IL: UIC Library of the Health Sciences – Peoria (Contact: Peg Burnette or Jo Dorch)

INDIANA

• Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University School of Medicine, Ruth Lilly Medical Library (contact: Elizabeth Whipple)

IOWA

• Des Moines, IA: Des Moines University Library (contact: Joyce Lindstrom)
• Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences (Contact: Amy Blevins)

KENTUCKY

• Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky, Medical Center Library (contact: Susan Foster-Harper or Rick Brewer)
• Louisville, KY: University of Louisville, Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, History Room 301, (contact: Nancy Utterback)

MICHIGAN

• Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Taubman Health Sciences Library (contact: Kate Saylor or Irina Zeylikovich)
• Detroit, MI: Wayne State University School of Medicine, Shiffman Medical Library (contact: Wendy Wu or Toni Janik); site: WSU P/K Auditorium
• East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, MSU Libraries (contact: Heidi Schroeder)

MINNESOTA

• Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Bio-Medical Library (contact: Anne Beschnett)

NORTH DAKOTA

• Fargo, ND: University of North Dakota Harley E. French Library of the Health Sciences (contact: Mary Markland) Site: UND Medical Education Center
• Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, Library of the Health Sciences (contact: Theresa Norton)

OHIO

• Cleveland, OH: Medical Library Association of Northeastern Ohio (MLANO) (contact: Holly Kimborowicz or Suzanne Earle); site: Hospice of the Western Reserve, End-of-Life Library (HWR)
• Rootstown, OH: Northeast Ohio Medical University (contact: Elaine Forsch)

SOUTH DAKOTA
No Requests

WISCONSIN

• Fond du Lac, WI: Fox River Valley Area Library Consortium (contact: Mary Horan, Hans Baierl or Michele Matucheski ); Site: Moraine Park Technical College, Date: May 18, 2012
• Milwaukee, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ebling Library for the Health Sciences, Health Sciences Learning Center (contact: Stephen Johnson or Rhonda Sager)

The Midwest Veterinary Conference, hosted by the Ohio Veterinary Medical Association, draws over 5000 veterinarians, technicians and others from Ohio and neighboring states. I often field calls from practicing veterinarians and alumni of OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine regarding how they can access the veterinary literature. Exhibiting at the 2012 MVC seemed like a good opportunity to reach these veterinarians on their own turf to let them know about some of the resources available to them.

The practicing veterinarians who visited our booth had varying degrees of familiarity with PubMed. Some were completely unaware that a free resource for searching the medical literature was available to them, and were eager to have a more targeted search tool than Google. Others who already used PubMed were happy to gain demonstrated and written tips on effectively searching the veterinary literature. Most veterinarians we spoke with were unaware, and pleased to learn, that they were eligible for library cards from the State Library of Ohio, which would give them convenient access to materials from the OSU Libraries and those of other OhioLINK member institutions.

We were surprised to be visited by a good number of veterinary technical students from throughout the state. Because of these students’ affiliation with their schools, they already have access through their libraries to the resources we were sharing with practitioners, but were not necessarily aware of them. They were grateful to learn about tools such as PubMed that would help them in their studies and in their future careers.

The MVC has a densely-scheduled program of events, which is something I appreciate when I’m a conference attendee, but it makes for many hours of very light traffic in the exhibit hall. The first day of the conference, in particular, had very sparse foot traffic through the exhibits. To top this off, our booth was in a less than ideal location, far from the front of the hall. We received relatively few visitors as a result.

In summary, I am happy to have talked with the conference attendees who visited our booth and to be able to share information that they found valuable. However, if the Veterinary Medicine Library returns to exhibit at the MVC in future years, we would likely benefit by partnering with the College of Veterinary Medicine. Sharing a booth with our OSU colleagues would save costs and would help draw additional visitors who could benefit from learning about the scholarly resources that are available to them.

The most stunning event of The Midwest Chapter, Medical Library Association this year is our annual meeting in Rochester, Minnesota from October 6 through 9, 2012: http://midwestmla.org/conference2012/. We call this event, Growing Opportunities, a program planned especially for medical librarians to view themselves and medical librarianship, as through a kaleidoscope, viewing change and growth as new opportunities.

Rochester is host to thousands of people each year. Home of the IBM Corporation and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester is positioned as a hub of innovative research both clinical and technological.

Our keynote speaker is the famous e-Patient Dave, a successful speaker, cancer survivor, and blogger noted for activism for healthcare transformation through participatory medicine. An engaging speaker and accomplished writer in his professional life, he is an advocate for Participatory Medicine as it evolves in which patients become strong agents in managing their own health care in partnership with physicians. You can find more information about e-Patient Dave (David deBronkhart) on his website http://epatientdave.com.

We welcome you to grow your opportunities, network with colleagues through papers and posters, and continuing education classes (to be announced shortly). Please join us in Rochester! More details to come.

The Taubman Health Sciences Library at the University of Michigan will host the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition, Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. The exhibition illustrates how Nazi leadership enlisted people in professions traditionally charged with healing and the public good, to legitimize persecution, murder and, ultimately, genocide. Deadly Medicine, which is cosponsored by the University of Michigan’s Center for the History of Medicine, will premiere on February 3, 2012 on the 4th floor of the Taubman Health Sciences Library and runs through April 13, 2012.

Accompanying the exhibition will be an opening reception and closing reflections panel discussion. Event details will be announced at a later date.

“Deadly Medicine explores the Holocaust’s roots in then-contemporary scientific and pseudo-scientific thought,” explains exhibition curator Susan Bachrach. “At the same time, it touches on complex ethical issues we face today, such as how societies acquire and use scientific knowledge and how they balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the larger community.”Deadly Medicine is based on the acclaimed exhibition of the same name that opened at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., in April 2004. An online version is viewable at http://www.ushmm.org/deadlymedicine.

The Nazi regime was founded upon the conviction that “inferior races” and individuals had to be eliminated from German society so that the fittest “Aryans” could thrive. By the end of World War II, six million Jews and millions of others—among them Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), people diagnosed as hereditarily ill, homosexuals, and others belonging to ethnic groups deemed inferior—had been persecuted and murdered. Join us as we explore this dark chapter in history and its legacy on the health profession today.

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race

Location: Taubman Health Sciences Library – 1135 E. Catherine St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (http://www.lib.umich.edu/thl)

Dates and Times: The exhibition will be viewable February 3 – April 13, 2012 during library hours.

This display is cosponsored by the U-M Taubman Health Sciences Library and the U-M Center for the History of Medicine.Exhibition and events are free and open to the public.

For more information contact Kate Saylor at 734.936.1394 or kmacdoug@umich.edu