Diane M. O'Keefe, Editor Table of Contents
Changing Titles and Roles of Librarians"The times they are a-changin." We used to all be called librarians. Our jobs revolved around pretty traditional library functions. Technology might have changed how we performed some tasks, but the basic activities were within what might be considered normal library services. No more. This year’s MDMLG Salary Survey found 36 titles among respondents, and we find libraries and librarians branching out into new roles within their institutions. We wondered about the impact of the various job titles and what new roles have been added. A message was posted to the MDMLG listserv asking for comments on these subjects in preparation for this article. "Library" and "librarian" still appear in many titles, often with the word "director" or "manager." "Resource," "media," and "information" are also frequently used. Some of the more unusual titles include "Senior Information Resource Specialist," "Office Automation Specialist," "Research Assistant," "WWW/Internet Developer" "Librarian/Community Health Specialist" and "Information Systems Analyst." Debbie Adams, Botsford Hospital, said that they changed their department name and job titles a few years ago to reflect the fact that they manage all the corporate web sites. She researched job responsibilities and titles among IT companies before making the changes. Debbie stresses looking for the industry-preferred title for those responsibilities to make it less confusing for HR compensation managers. She became the Director of Library and Internet Services and the Systems Librarian became the WWW/Internet Developer. Oakwood Hospital library also has revamped their job titles within the last two years. Marilyn Kostrzewski is the Librarian/Director in charge of both the medical library and conference services. She notes that the departments were called Medical Informatics and Health Sciences Resource Division for a short time. No one knew what that was, so they reverted to the old names. The medical librarian was given the title Librarian/Community Health Specialist since they support a consumer health section and are open to the public. The technicians have been given titles to reflect their specialization, e.g. circulation technician, to give each person more pride in their work responsibilities. Two institutions have adopted the title chief. Karen Tubolino is Chief, Information and Media Section at the VA Medical Center and Carol Gilbert recently acquired the title Chief Medical Librarian at Providence Hospital. These are institution-wide titles crossing all departments, and both noted that the titles would probably change again. Roles, too, have changed. Many libraries reported involvement with media – satellite, video conferencing, medical photography, closed circuit TV, and video production. Consumer health information is another common service. Education of medical staff and employees – beyond the old end user Medline training – is also more apparent as some librarians develop training materials and even go to departments or satellite facilities to train physicians and employees. Lastly, the impact of the Internet is clearly reflected in some newer roles and expanded responsibilities. This was most dramatically reflected in the responses from Henry Ford Hospital. Dina Nameth, Director of Sladen Library & Center for Health Information Resources, notes that she chairs the Internet Advisory Committee for Henry Ford Health System and is also a member of the Henry Ford Hospital Communications Team. Sylvia Graham, Senior Information Resource Specialist, devotes most of her time to training people to use web resources. Last, but certainly not least, Valerie Reid devotes all her time to web development and maintenance of the Sladen web page. She is also the esteemed web master of our MDMLG web site. Sue Skoglund MDMLG Web Site OverviewThe MDMLG web site has been up and running for the past three years, and you might be surprised at what you can find: --MDMLG Newsletter - Available in both HTML and text-only formats. There are newsletter issues from September 1999 to the present. Beginning in September 1999, the MDMLG Newsletter is available only on the web. http://www.mdmlg.org/members/news.htm --MDMLG Directory - Do you need to know the most up-to-date email address or phone number of a fellow MDMLG member? The MDMLG Directory is the place to go. And as of this year, the Directory will be available ONLY on the web site. It will be available in both HTML and PDF formats. It might be helpful if you bookmarked this site. http://www.mdmlg.org/members/directory.htm --Meeting Announcements - The MDMLG General Business Meetings, along with maps and directions to the meeting locations. --Dates of the MDMLG General Business Meetings – Includes current fiscal year, along with dates and web sites of other meetings (SLA, MHSLA, Midwest Chapter, and Michigan Library Association) http://www.mdmlg.org/meeting.htm --MDMLG Job Bank, lists jobs in the metropolitan Detroit area. http://www.mdmlg.org/jobs.htm --Information on subscribing / unsubscribing to the MDMLG listservs - Includes other relevant listservs. http://www.mdmlg.org/listserv.htm --Background information on MDMLG - http://www.mdmlg.org/about.htm and http://www.mdmlg.org/FAQs.htm --Web links - Other Internet sites (libraries, government, consumer health, reference sites, vendors, and others). http://www.mdmlg.org/links.htm --Treasurer's Reports - June 1999 to the present. http://www.mdmlg.org/members/treasurer.htm --Meeting Minutes - Executive Board and General Membership Meetings from August 1999 to the present. http://www.mdmlg.org/members/minutes.htm --Executive Board Roster, - List of Committee Chairs and the Committee Roster. http://www.mdmlg.org/executive-board.htm --Annual Reports - All Committees for 1999-2000. http://www.mdmlg.org/annual-reports/annual-reports.htm --MDMLG Constitution and Bylaws - http://www.mdmlg.org/members/constitution.htm --MDMLG Procedural Document - Includes information for each Executive Board Member and Committee. http://mdmlgboardprodedures.wikispaces.com/ --MDMLG Forms - Change of Address, Membership Renewal, MDMLG Stationery, and Reimbursement Forms. http://www.mdmlg.org/members/forms.htm Remember that a portion of the MDMLG web site has been designated as "Members Only", and can be accessed via a password. The password is available to all MDMLG members, and can be obtained by contacting the MDMLG webmaster (Valerie Reid, vreid1@sladen.hfhs.org or 313 / 916-2550). Please let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, or questions about the MDMLG web site. Valerie Reid,
MDMLG Webmaster MDMLG Salary and Benefits CommitteeThe MDMLG Board has changed the Salary and Benefits Committee from an A-Hoc to a Standing Committee. Diana Balint and Gayle Williams will Co-Chair the committee and Mary Jo Durivage will assist. The information that the survey provides is very helpful because it is limited to the Metropolitan Detroit area and Windsor. In other words the hospitals we compete with for qualified employees. It also provides information on technical and clerical positions, which the MLA survey does not. There have been successes in using the survey. At least two hospitals were able to increase the salary of support staff. Two other hospitals increased the salary of professional staff based on the survey. Others have used it to add a position and to describe the qualifications and salary of a new position. The survey will now be done every 2 years. The survey instrument is being modified and revised in 2001. Hopefully, there will be a 100 percent return when the next survey is sent out. The information is important to all of us. A special thank you to Sandra Studebaker, Chair and Diana Balint, member of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Salaries and Benefits for of all their hard work in doing the 1999 and 2000 survey. Donna Marshall Highlights from the 27th Annual MHSLA Educational ConferenceThe M.H.S.L.A. held its 27the Annual Educational Conference October 18 – 20 in Traverse City, which was sunny and warm with peak autumn colors for the duration of the conference. This year’s conference was well attended with many interesting offerings. The C.E. courses included a full-day course on Digital Libraries and half- day courses on Consumer and Alternative Medicine and Ergonomics. The half-day courses were very good. At least one person skipped the second half of the disappointing Digital Libraries course to attend the half-day course on Ergonomics. During the MACHIS breakfast on October 19, Marge Kars and Linda Baker led a discussion on reference interviewing techniques for the consumer health library. A video was shown of bad and good techniques and the attendees compared and gave hints from their own experience about how to avoid getting too emotionally involved, how to provide confidentiality, and how to deal with anger and high emotions in the patron. The keynote speakers, Richard Wiggins and Charles Severance spoke about the future of computers in libraries. Some predictions were that all data would be stored without portable media, such as CD-ROMS and floppies and would be accessible at any data terminal using some form of personal identification; journal publishing will almost all be online and much of it will be free from the different professional organizations. They also presented a lecture later, which was in the form of a mock television show where they displayed many of the latest computer gadgets, such as digital cameras, camcorders, books and showed portions of the actual television program that they make called "Nothing but Net" At the business meeting it was announced that Mike Simmons was elected to the position of President-Elect. Doris Blauet took the gavel as the incoming President. The invitation was given by the Mid-Michigan group to next year’s conference at the Soaring Eagle resort in Mt. Pleasant. The day ended with a very pleasant ride on the Grand Traverse Express dinner train: a 3 hour tour through the beautiful countryside around Traverse City and a 5 course gourmet meal. On Friday, round table discussions were held in the morning. Some groups were quite large for these discussions and much information was exchanged. The afternoon offered courses on Firstsearch and P.C. troubleshooting. The day was again beautiful and the conference came to an end on a high note. My personal opinion was that the educational offerings at this conference were some of the best in years. There was nothing worth skipping to go shopping! My congratulations to both the Education Committee and the Local Arrangements Committee of M.H.S.L.A. for an interesting, informative and fun conference! Diane M. O'Keefe AnnouncementsCurrent job openings are posted on the MDMLG Job Bank web page - http://www.mdmlg.org/jobs.htm. The next MDMLG General Business Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 16th at 1:00. The topic is Clinical Practice Guidelines and the speaker will be Ada Jacox, RN, PhD, FAAN. Dr. Jacox is Chair of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee for the American Pain Society headquartered in Glenview, Illinois and Associate Dean and Professor in the College of Nursing, Wayne State University. The meeting will be held at St. John Oakland Hospital / Education Center in Madison Heights. Laura Lewis is now working at the Henry Ford Hospital Sladen Library. Her email address is llewis1@sladen.hfhs.org . The Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library was initially closed due to a flood. and its closure has been prolonged because of a controversial inventory of the collection.
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