HSLS Participation at the Medical Library Association’s Annual Conference

HSLS librarians were active participants in the Medical Library Association’s Annual Meeting held in Austin, Texas, from May 15-20, 2015.

Annual Janet Doe Lecture

Barbara Epstein, HSLS director, presented the annual Janet Doe Lecture. This annual award supports a lecture by a distinguished member of the profession who will offer a unique perspective on either the history or philosophy of medical librarianship. The Janet Doe Lecture is one of the highest honors the Medical Library Association offers. Her lecture was titled, “In Their Own Words: Oral Histories of Past MLA Presidents.”

Contributed Papers

Linda Hartman, reference librarian, presented “Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Making Negative Research Results Useful.”

Carrie Iwema, information specialist, Molecular Biology Information Services, presented “Surveys & Statistics: Lessons for Avoiding Survey Design Mistakes.” Co-authors were Reference Librarians Andrea Ketchum and Melissa Ratajeski.

Melissa Ratajeski, reference librarian, presented “Data Management Reciprocity: Librarians and Researchers Teaching Each Other.” Co-authors were Carrie Iwema, information specialist, Molecular Biology Information Services, and Andrea Ketchum, reference librarian.

Poster Presentations

Carrie Iwema, information specialist, Molecular Biology Information Services, presented “Managing Bioinformatics Tools: Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why.” Co-author was Ansuman Chattopadhyay, head, Molecular Biology Information Services.

Andrea Ketchum, reference librarian, presented “Collaboration, Exchange, and Interoperability: Comparing PDF Annotation Applications for Use in Academia.” Co-authors were Reference Librarians Linda Hartman and Pat Weiss.

Mary Lou Klem, reference librarian, presented “Librarians and Health Literacy: A Scoping Review.” Co-authors were P.J. Devine, Y.M. El-Khayat, K.E. Gutzman, A. Knehans, T.N. Mills, G.A. Oren, C.L. Perryman, A.A. Saleh, Z.P. Unno, and E. Vardell.

Other Conference Activities

Kate Flewelling, outreach coordinator, NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region, served as program planner for the Section Program, “Librarian as Activist,” and organized a conference wide book drive to benefit the Inside Books Project, Austin, TX.

Carrie Iwema, information specialist, Molecular Biology Information Services, chaired the Grants & Scholarships Committee and taught the continuing education course “Personalized Genetic Medicine: What Does It Mean?”

Reference Librarians Andrea Ketchum and Michele Klein-Fedyshin co-chaired the MLA Ad Hoc Committee to Review Core Clinical Journals.

Michele Klein-Fedyshin, reference librarian, co-taught the continuing education course “How to Set Up a Clinical Librarian Program at Your Institution.”

~Jill Foust