Only Connect!

For some reason I had never been to Las Vegas before, so I jumped at the invitation to attend this joint meeting of the Northern California/Nevada Medical Library Group and the Medical Library Group of Southern California & Arizona. I arrived a few days early at the Flamingo, the meeting hotel, in order to partake of the experience that is Las Vegas. I’m not a gambling man, so the casinos themselves didn’t offer much more than gawking, but that was…interesting. We spent days just going from casino to casino, enjoying some great food, window shopping at very expensive stores, and more gawking. Carolyn and I have seen Cirque du Soleil several times in New York, so we got tickets to “O” at the Bellagio, which was very entertaining. While walking around, we had seen several signs about the “Big Elvis” show, so we had to see that, especially since it was free. Big Elvis is fortunately not as big as he used to be, since he’s lost over 500 pounds in the last three years, but he’s still quite large. Appearing with Big Elvis was Morgan White Jr., a trivia expert with lots of audience interaction. Carolyn and I won several prizes during his show, since librarians are usually pretty good at trivia. He would be a great entertainer at a library meeting, where he might meet his match.

The meeting started with a rocking welcome reception featuring yet another Elvis, this one younger and thinner. He was quite a hit, as everybody wanted to have their picture taken with Elvis. I tried to comply. Things got more serious Thursday morning, with keynote Dr. James Cimino speaking on “Infobuttons LITE: the Librarian Infobutton Tailoring Environment.” This was followed by some excellent contributed papers. I gave the MLA update during lunch (I sympathize with every lunchtime speaker). Friday morning started with Tom Basler, Ph.D., FMLA, speaking on how he has repurposed the library’s vision at the Medical University of South Carolina. Tom will give the Janet Doe lecture at the annual meeting in Chicago, and I’m really looking forward to it. More great contributed papers followed, and I’ll give a shoutout to fellow blogger Marcus Banks who spoke on the health sciences biblioblogosphere. The meeting ended with a panel discussion on why excellent hospitals need librarians and libraries and library services. It featured Dr. Robert Wise, VP of the Division of Standards and Survey Methods at The Joint Commission. Many of the presentations from the meeting are available.

This was the last of my Great Chapter Meeting Marathon as president of MLA. I very much appreciate the kindness and support that was given to me at every single one of these meetings. I come away from them in awe of how chapter members can consistently put together provocative and intelligent meetings, all while continuing to do their regular jobs. I hope Mary has as much fun this fall as I did.

Very nice place, Oxford, I should think, for people that like that sort of place.
George Bernard Shaw

I serve on several publishers’ library advisory boards, and I attended the fall meeting of a major publisher in Oxford, England this November. Other than spending several hours at Heathrow Airport, this was my first visit to England. While half of my time was spent in a windowless room discussing publishing trends, library budgets, and Open Access, Carolyn and I did get two days to explore the city.

After the meeting ended Friday afternoon, we had dinner with Dr. Sarah Thomas, previously the director of Cornell University Libraries in Ithaca, and now the Bodley’s Librarian at Oxford University. Dr. Thomas is the 24th Bodley’s Librarian, the first woman to hold the title, and the first non-British Bodley’s Librarian. Yes, she’s that impressive. The Bodley’s Librarian position goes back to 1600.

And while I live in New York City, which started as a Dutch fur trading settlement in 1625, Oxford makes New York seem, well, new. There is almost nothing still standing in New York City that pre-dates the Revolutionary War. Some of the buildings at Oxford University were built in the 13th century, and they’re still being used today.

The weather was cool, and it was mostly overcast with occasional showers, but I was able to take lots of photos. Over the days I was editing my photos and processing them in Photoshop, I was also reading P.D. James’ “The Children of Men.” I had recently caught the movie on cable, and wanted to read the original. The loose film adaption adds a lot of chase and war scenes that are not in the book, which is far more moody and melancholy. Also, most of the book takes place in Oxford. It was fascinating to read descriptions (and James writes excellent descriptions) of streets and places I had just seen.

James calls Oxford “…this grey city, where even the stones bear witness to the transience of youth, of learning, of love.” I tried to capture some of this feeling in some Photoshop manipulations. Hope you like them.

This meeting was another twofer: my first time at the Southern Chapter and my first time in Charleston, SC. I was delighted by both. Stepping off the plane was my first delight: a warm, pleasant climate (in November!) with palm trees. I’m a transplanted Midwesterner living in New York City, so palm trees have always seemed exotic to me, and they usually mean I’m somewhere very pleasant. Carolyn and I checked into the conference hotel, the Francis Marion, where we had a room with two bathrooms (we found out that many of the smaller rooms had been combined, and the bathrooms were left). We quickly unpacked and went out to lunch at Jestine’s Kitchen, then to explore the Charleston City Market.

There was a welcome reception in the exhibits that evening, where we re-acquainted ourselves with many old friends. The meeting started on Wednesday with a terrific keynote by George M. Needham, Vice President of Member Services at OCLC. His presentation was titled “Perceptions and Realities: Some Thoughts on Library Futures.” He highlighted findings from an OCLC report called “Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World.” This report explores social participation and cooperation on the Internet, and how they can impact the library’s role. Two members of MLA’s Task Force on Social Networking Software, Michelle Kraft and Gabriel Rios, gave reactions. I attended several excellent contributed papers, and I hope that some of these may be published. After a poster session, Carolyn and I went on the homes and garden tour. A combination walk and bus took us to three incredible homes that have been lovingly restored over the years. It was hard to believe that they had been several feet under water after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Thursday started with a general session called “Medical Librarians ‘In Context’: In the Hospital, In the Classroom, & Virtually Everywhere.” Moderated by Laura Cousineau from the Medical University of South Carolina, the panelists (two physicians and a nurse) urged us to “market, market, market.” Some of the notes I took: Personal connections are vital – start with one, and build on your success. Think outside the silo – be a silo buster. Librarians must enter the “field,” where the animals are. (I think that’s a metaphor…) More contributed papers that afternoon, then a lovely banquet featuring Betty Chavis Jones, a Gullah storyteller and the Adande Drum and Dance Company.

The meeting ended Friday with Betsey Humphreys talking about NLM’s Long Range Plan, 2006-2016, followed by a distinguished reaction panel; the MLA update; and the NLM/RML update. This was yet another excellent chapter meeting, and I am very glad I was invited. This group meets next year in Birmingham, where my parents live, and I hope to be able to attend that meeting as well.

You know I have pictures.

My travels, and that darn pesky regular job have kept me from reporting for a while. My next scheduled trip isn’t until February, so I hope to catch up on both sides.

After I was elected president, the first chapter to invite me to attend their meeting was the South Central Chapter. I eagerly accepted, since I know many people in this chapter, and it gave me the opportunity to visit Albuquerque, where I’d never been before. As a bonus, the meeting was to be held in the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town.

The theme was “Re-Imagining Our Libraries & Our Lives,” and the meeting was packed with activities. The opening speaker was Philip Kroth, MD, MS. He is the assistant director of the Health Sciences Informatics Program at the University of New Mexico, and he gave an enlightening perspective on medicine and research from the librarian’s side, contrasted with a perspective of librarianship from the researcher’s side.The Hospital Libraries Interest Section had a luncheon with featured speaker K. Ann Caudell, PhD, RN. Dr. Caudell is the project consultant for the Magnet Recognition Award that the University of New Mexico Hospitals is attempting to receive. She gave a wonderful overview of the time consuming process involved in getting this recognition.

In between the general sessions, the chapter had 24(!) contributed papers and 16 round tables. This group likes to communicate. I gave the MLA update, as part of a session featuring representatives from several other health library associations in the chapter’s states. A special treat for me was being invited to speak with about a dozen library school students who were able to attend the meeting. They were eager to hear about job opportunities, salary ranges, and participating in MLA.I’ve spent almost no time in the southwest before, so I was particularly pleased with the emphasis that the meeting planners put on cultural aspects. General sessions began with blessings from Native Americans, and one session featured a Native American flutist. The opening social event was held at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, and the closing event was at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. I even had a few hours to visit Old Town. You can check out my photos from the SCC Chapter meeting on Flickr.

An extra special bonus to this trip was a three day visit afterwards to Santa Fe, via the Turquoise Trail. Highlights there were the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the many, many art galleries, and the most amazing blue sky I’ve ever seen. Yep, I got photos.

Next chapter: Southern.

Just two days after my laryngitis in Omaha, and it’s already time for the New York/New Jersey chapter meeting. Fortunately for me this is one of my chapter’s single day meetings, so I won’t have to talk much–I can mostly nod, smile, and point. While this chapter includes all of New Jersey, the New York part consists of counties south of Albany, with membership concentrated in metropolitan New York city. If you’ve ever been to New York city, you know that hotels are exceedingly expensive. To compensate, my chapter usually alternates single day meetings in or close to the city with multiple day meetings outside the city. Past outside-the-city meetings (sometimes jointly held with other chapters) have been in New Haven, Saratoga Springs, Philadelphia, Lake Placid, and Hartford.

This year the meeting is at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ. It’s about 14 miles from New York city, and McGraw-Hill graciously sponsored a bus to get us urbanites into the suburbs. It’s going to be a rush hour commute, so that means a very early departure. 7:30 AM finds about 50 medical librarians standing on 42nd Street eager to get on the bus and out of the cold. About an hour later (this is rush hour), we’re on the gorgeous MSU campus.

The theme was “Librarians Lead the Way to Long Life & Good Health.” Our keynote speaker was Dr. Rosanne Leipzig from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She spoke eloquently of the physiological and psychological aspects of aging, and how few adequately trained geriatricians are currently available. She highlighted a very useful tool, the Portal of Geriatric Online Education, a “one-stop shop for geriatric educational products.” If you work with a geriatric program, you need to bookmark this site.

After a break, Kathel Dunn gave the update from the NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region, and I was able, with the help of a lavalier mike, to give the MLA update. Even though the meeting was just a single day, it included vendors, a poster session, a business meeting, and a panel discussion on how some librarians are reaching out to their baby boomer patrons. A quick and efficient meeting, designed for busy city people.

I am temporarily back in my office for a few days, a respite from the big Fall MLA Chapter Tour. I’ve been to four Chapter meetings, with two more to go. I had really been looking forward to attending the joint Midcontinental/Midwest meeting in Omaha. Many of you know I worked at McGoogan Library at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the 80s, so this was going to be a homecoming of sorts. The opening reception at the newly renovated McGoogan Library was fantastic. Nancy Woelfl and her staff did a great hosting job. Originally opened in 1970, the Library suffered from the architectural deficits of that period, but the renovations are marvelous, and if you have a chance, be sure to visit.

Unfortunately, as the reception on Saturday evening progressed, I noticed my throat was getting extremely scratchy and tight. By Sunday afternoon, my voice was completely gone, and I was scheduled to give the MLA update early Monday morning. Rather than attempting a Marcel Marceau version of the update, I was able to convince fellow Board members T. Scott Plutchak, Linda Walton, and Margaret Bandy to each give a third of the update, while I silently changed the slides. Both presenters and audience had fun with a somewhat improvised update, turning it into a memorable occasion. Special thanks to my understudies.

I hesitate to report much on the meeting content, since it has been well covered elsewhere, but I will just point out how blown away the audience was by Fred Lee’s presentation. Check out his book “If Disney ran your hospital: 9 1/2 things you would do differently.” I highly recommend everyone look at Conference Call 2007, where the meeting is still being covered by Claire Leibfarth and her blog staff. This is an excellent example of how to build and maintain interest in a meeting. Lynne Fox has also posted an excellent report of the meeting, along with some very useful links. MCMLA’s website has most of the presentations, papers, and posters available, a terrific way to enhance the meeting for attendees and to let non-attendees share in the knowledge exchange. I have posted some of my photos, as have some other people. If you do a search on Flickr for “mcmla2007,” you will find 188 photos as of this morning. Overall, I would have to say this has been the best covered chapter meeting as far as Web 2.0 tools go. It is very heartening to see the membership take up these tools in order to better connect with each other. This was a meeting that other chapters, and even MLA, could take a lesson from.

My fall marathon of chapter meetings started off with the Pacific Northwest Chapter’s 47th meeting. Gathering in Billings, MT for the first time, the meeting had the theme of “Boot Up under the Big Sky.” Some photos I took at the meeting are available on Flickr.

The meeting planners put together a great program. Some highlights for me included keynote speaker Greg Notess, a reference librarian at Montana State University. He spoke on Web 2.0 and medical librarians. As Greg explained to a nodding (that’s agreeing, not sleepy) audience, librarianship is becoming more complicated as the electronic and physical worlds merge in our collections. As difficult as it is for us, it can be very confusing for our users. Greg gave several hints and a brief introduction to some Web 2.0 tools that can be useful for instruction. There were a few I hadn’t heard of before, such as Scribd, where documents can be shared online. I was glad to hear him mention Connotea, a free scientific social bookmarking tool that could be very useful for our researchers, clinicians, and scientists. Greg’s PowerPoint presentation is available online at authorSTREAM, one of many presentation-sharing tools. Check out these Web 2.0 tools, if your IT department lets you…

Another highlight was Dr. Michael Spence, an infectious disease specialist, who spoke on clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staph aureus, a superbug now widespread in hospitals. Both bugs have become more dangerous because of the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. I think all the members of the audience tripled their handwashing after his presentation.

The trip wasn’t all meeting, as Carolyn and I took a few hours to visit the Yellowstone Art Museum, just a few block from the hotel. They happened to have a great retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein’s prints, which knocked us out. We’re lucky enough to own a Lichtenstein print (Haystack #6), so this was a special treat.

I was particularly impressed by the number of attendees who made it to Billings. The Pacific Northwest covers a huge area, and seven people from Alaska made it there. Anne Girling from Anchorage made it after a six day drive, over 2000 miles. That’s dedication, and it’s why this association is so special. Many thanks to everyone who made me feel very welcome.

I’m back from IFLA, Thanda, Victoria Falls, and the MLA Board of Directors meeting. I’m pretty exhausted, and unfortunately the work in my main job at Weill Cornell still piles up while I am gone, so I am digging my way back into my office. I’m actually here at work for two weeks before I go back to Chicago for a site visit of the 2008 Annual Meeting, then I go off for several chapter meetings. Until I can gather my thoughts about my travels, please enjoy some photographs.

In just a few hours Carolyn and I will leave to attend the IFLA Annual Conference in Durban, South Africa. From JFK, we have an overnight flight to Zurch, landing in the morning. We get to spend all day in Zurich (there’s an easy train to catch downtown), then we have another overnight flight to Johannesburg. At the conference, I’m delivering a paper on Open Access. After the conference, we’re going to a private game reserve called Thanda for three days. Then a quick visit to Victoria Falls at a lodge called The River Club. Interesting pictures reveal that the lodges have only three walls, and is open to river views. Should be interesting. I hope to have some pictures to share when I return. Except for the days in Durban, I will be off the grid for the next two weeks, arriving back in New York on September 29.