Professional Development Committee Annual Report - 2004-2005

Objectives:

To plan and implement one or more continuing education opportunities to the membership and interested nonmembers
To prepare a projected budget and submit an expense report for the 2004-2005 fiscal year
To work with the program committee chairperson and coordinate efforts to provide programs
Prepare an annual report
Submit relevant materials to the archives
Notify membership of appropriate timely information applicable to medical libraries

Committee Members :

Audrey Bondar, Chair
Chris Hunt (2005)
Donna Marshall (2005)
Aimee Haley (2006)
Juliet Mullenmeister (2006)

Accomplishments:

Two four-hour MLA approved continuing education opportunities were planned and offered this year. We shifted away from the mechanics of how to search to evaluating the results of a search. Our theme was “Focus on the Retrieval”. Both courses were marketed to MDMLG and MHSLA via the listserves .

“EBM Study Design and Critical Appraisal Skills”

A four hour course was held on Monday April 4, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency Dearborn. Again, Swets Information Services worked with us to provide an excellent continuing education course with the very timely topic of evidence based medicine. Through the generosity of Jane Potee , the Swets representative for this region, we were able to bring in Connie Schardt as the instructor for the course. Connie has an MLS and is the educational coordinator for the Duke University Medical Center .

A total of 40 people registered and 37 attended. The evaluations showed very positive responses regarding the content as well as the speaker. The course was very well received.

“Evaluating Research Articles in Scholarly Journals”

The second four hour MLA course was held on July 26, 2005 at The Fairlane Club in Dearborn . The course was developed and taught by Dr. Lynda Baker, an associate professor at Wayne State University in the Library and Information Science Program.

A total of 16 people attended. Again, the evaluations were quite favorable. Lynda was an excellent instructor. It was also a benefit to MDMLG to have a course taught by a local instructor since we didn't have to pay for travel, hotel, meals, etc.

Notes:

I'm pleased with the courses we offered this year and the positive evaluations we received for both of them. The “Focus on the Retrieval” theme that we used proved to be worthwhile and a departure from the usual courses that are offered for searching. I do, however, recommend that a course on searching be offered in the near future.

It has also been suggested that a course be offered in the fall. Since MHSLA usually offers courses in either September or October and the first MDMLG meeting of the year is in September, scheduling might pose a problem. Along with the fact that the committee is just getting started, the timeline needed to decide on a topic, line up a speaker, book a location, market the course, allow four to five weeks for registration, etc. can take weeks to confirm. It might be possible if a local speaker was available or the committee was able to schedule a course for the following year.

Another positive for this year was that we were able to offer four hour CE courses at a cost of $45.00 per person. Considering the cost of a four hour course offered at the annual conference is $185.00 this is quite affordable.

We no longer offered registration via email. It posed a problem last year and we found that U.S. mail was more efficient.

The committee members Aimee Haley, Chris Hunt, Donna Marshall and Juliet Mullenmeister were efficient, helpful and wonderful to work with. I'm pleased that Aimee and Donna have agreed to co-chair the committee next year and that Chris and Juliet have agreed to remain on the committee. I'm confident that I'm turning things over to competent members.

Respectfully submitted,

Audrey Bondar
Professional Development Committee, chair
August 2005