Director’s Musings

Barbara Epstein, Director

It’s hard to believe that we are actively planning for our third contract year of serving as the home of the NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region.  Each of our staff members has grown in ways they couldn’t have imagined when they first joined us. They’ve mastered PR and marketing, bolstered online and face-to-face communication and teaching skills, mentored award applicants, and planned outreach programs for audiences as diverse as elementary students to senior clinicians.  All this while juggling calendars, airline schedules, hotel reservations, and office construction.

Member Spotlight

Claire B. Joseph, MS, MA, AHIP
Director, Medical Library, South Nassau Communities Hospital, Oceanside, NY

Furthering my education and broadening my horizons has always been a vital part of both my professional and personal philosophy.  So when the opportunity arose to take two courses for the new MLA Disaster Information Specialization Program after MLA 2012, I jumped at the chance.  Little did I know then that I would be inspired to pursue both “Level I” and “Level II” designations!

MAR Highlights

Renae Barger, Executive Director

Each year MAR offers a variety of funding opportunities for medical, public and school libraries, information centers, and organizations providing health information services.  Such funding supports projects designed to improve health information services; increase awareness and access to biomedical information for health professionals; and educate and empower health care consumers.  Funding is an excellent way to get support for a new service or project and get recognition within your institution or community.

Out and About

Kate Flewelling, Outreach Coordinator

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has created a number of environmental health information resources for health professionals and the public.  This article highlights a few.

Household Products Database:  http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/

Sharing & Caring

Michelle Burda, Network and Advocacy Coordinator

My idea of an “elevator message” is to be able to deliver an important message from you to someone in your organization in the brief time you spend on an elevator ride.

An elevator message needs to be:

• focused
• brief, no more than 90 seconds
• valuable to the listener
• memorable

Consumer Connections

Lydia Collins, Consumer Health Coordinator

Are you a librarian or health professional that provides consumer health services?  If so, you may be interested in the Medical Library Association (MLA) Consumer Health Information Specialization Program (CHIS):  http://www.mlanet.org/education/chc/.

The goals of CHIS are to:

• improve health information services for consumers
• create partners in the delivery of consumer health information
• increase access to consumer health information courses

CyberCast

Missy Harvey, Technology and Communication Coordinator

As the Technology Coordinator for the Middle Atlantic Region, one of my roles is to help all of you with technology-related challenges you face in your libraries, organizations, and jobs.  So I’m going to begin offering a new series of webinars called TechTime.

The webinars will be free and offered on a quarterly basis via Adobe Connect.  We will record the sessions and make the recordings available from our website.  So if you cannot attend in real time, you can watch the recordings as you have time.

• Visit our Training website for updates and more details for these events:

Event:  Are You Ready?  Keeping Your Loved Ones Safe (Boost Box Session)
Presenters:  Michelle Burda, Network & Advocacy Coordinator
Date:  February 12, 2013
Location:  Online

Event: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Library (Site Visit)
Presenters: Barbara Epstein, Director and Renae Barger, Executive Director
Date: February 13, 2013
Location: New York, NY