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Sue Skoglund, Editor
Valerie Reid, Webmaster
Table of Contents
Message from President Diane O'Keefe
Profile on Members: MDMLG Board Members
International Library Sites
Librarian
in Paradise: An Interview with Jerry Stuenkel
Strategies
for Creating an Effective Docline Routing Table
Focus on "Health Care Literacy" at September
MDMLG Meeting
Mastering the Information Maize: MHSLA
Conference
Enjoying Autumn in Michigan
Announcements / Upcoming Dates
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As I begin my presidential year in the warmth of summer, I
have been thinking about the many summer days that I have spent at Space
Camp and the lessons I learned there that apply to the profession of
librarianship and the Metropolitan Detroit Medical Library Group.
First, communication is vital for success. Keeping clear
communication with all of your colleagues and team members will help
avert problems and solve those that do occur. Good communication also
helps everyone to learn together and to work better together. |
Teamwork is essential for the success of the mission. No one person alone can
do all of the jobs required to accomplish the mission’s objectives, so a team
is necessary and the ability of the team to work well together can mean the
difference between success and failure. (Or life and death in space. This was
proved on one simulated shuttle mission where a payload specialist was not
working well with the team and opened an airlock that was already open at the
other end "killing" everyone who was not in a pressure suit, herself
included!) MDMLG has many committees that work as teams to accomplish the
objectives of the organization. Good teamwork skills have always aided their
efforts. No casualties yet!
Leadership is also necessary to achieve a successful outcome. A good leader
will inspire, help and educate her team to achieve the teamwork that will lead
to success.
A good support team is also vital to reach success. At Space Camp, each
shuttle crew has to rely on the teammates in Mission Control to help solve
problems and keep them on track. MDMLG has an Executive Board that performs a
similar function for the organization. Their efforts through the years have made
this organization the useful tool that it continues to be for the membership.
Problem-solving skills are also essential because no mission or project is
problem-free. Anomalies will arise when least expected and the team will have to
quickly communicate the problem to Mission Control and together come up with a
solution as quickly as possible. Quick problem-solving can save a mission or a
project.
"No Buck Rogers, No bucks." That quotation from the movie The
Right Stuff points out the importance of having our contributions recognized
and appreciated, not just by our fellow professionals, but by those in our
institutions who control the "bucks". If we are not seen to be
providing an essential service that is applauded by all of our customers and
that is necessary to the success, financial and otherwise, of our parent
institutions, then our budgets will suffer.
And finally, when all is said and done, it is the camaraderie that we develop
with our teammates that we will cherish the most. This is very true of MDMLG as
well. The most important and useful portion of our meetings is usually the
informal conversations between business; the exchange of ideas with our
colleagues.
I hope to continue fostering this camaraderie as president of MDMLG and to
use the lessons that I learned at Space Camp to make this a successful year.
Diane M. O’Keefe
MDMLG President
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We thought we would start our focus on members series this year with the
individuals currently serving on the MDMLG Board. These people are elected to
both lead and serve us. Individually and as a group they devote a lot of time on
behalf of MDMLG.
President Diane O’Keefe was kind enough to write an article for this issue,
so we’ll concentrate on the other board members.
 |
Audrey Bondar holds the office of past president. In this
role she acts as parliamentarian and serves in an advisory capacity from
her experiences as last year’s president. She has been on the board
since 2000. Audrey would like to see MDMLG continue to provide CE
courses and other continuing education opportunities. In her regular
job, Audrey is a Senior Information Resource Specialist at Henry Ford
Hospital Sladen Library. |
| Diane LeBar is our secretary. She takes minutes for both
membership and board meetings and distributes these with the meeting
announcements. Diane has been on the board since 2001 and sees
increasing membership and promoting our programs to students, support
staff, and healthcare professionals outside MDMLG as current issues. She
has been a librarian at Oakwood Health Care for 3 ½ years. |
 |
 |
Ellen O’Donnell is our newly elected board member,
although she has served on the board twice before. Ellen is responsible
for membership services, which means that she processes membership
renewals and keeps the directory updated. When asked what issues she
sees on the horizon, she mentioned two: interlibrary loan and local
educational opportunities as time and travel money get increasingly
short. Ellen has been the Director of the Medical Library at St. John
Hospital and Medical Center for 25 years. You might remember that she
was one of the people featured in our "long timers" article. |
| Chris Miller is the other person new to the board this
year, having been appointed to complete Karin Werner’s term of office.
She is currently our treasurer, which means she collects dues, writes
checks for MDMLG expenses, and balances the checkbook. Chris has been
impressed by what she has seen at the two board meetings she has
attended so far. She said that it is fascinating to see how the
organization is run, and she admires the time, effort and involvement of
the various board members. Chris is the medical librarian at St. Mary
Mercy Hospital in Livonia, where her personal goal is to develop a
cancer resource center. |
|
 |
Misa Mi has been on the board since 2001. Her assignment
is public relations. She and her committee have been very busy
developing materials to promote MDMLG to library students, area
librarians and health care organizations. She would like to see MDMLG
increase our marketing efforts and become more visible. She pictures
MDMLG as a strong group which can represent southeastern Michigan
medical librarians. Misa asked me to thank everyone for their support.
She stresses that this support is important for us to exist in the
current healthcare environment. Misa has been a librarian at Children’s
Hospital of Michigan for 3 ½ years. |
| Toni Janik is our president-elect and a very busy lady.
Her specific responsibility on the board is chairing the Program
Committee and chairing meetings in the President’s absence. Toni feels
that MDMLG must meet the needs of the membership – both new and
long-term members – and expand to other types of librarians. The
upcoming programs will reflect this diversity, starting with September’s
program on literacy. Toni faces a daunting schedule this year. In
addition to her MDMLG activities, Toni is Director of the Health
Sciences Library at Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor and a full time student
at Wayne State University. |
 |
These board members devote many hours to assure the smooth operation of MDMLG
and to provide the CE courses and other benefits offered throughout the year. I
wondered what benefits the board members felt they personally derived from
serving the organization. Audrey felt that she had a new appreciation for how
much goes on behind the scenes and all that’s involved in putting on a meeting
or CE class. Ellen mentioned the opportunity to interact with other librarians
and the feeling of involvement. It’s easy to feel isolated in our institutions
where we are the only librarian. Misa likes the opportunity to do things that
make a difference, to voice thoughts and ideas, and to learn new skills that are
transferable to the work environment. Support and feeling part of the group are
appreciated. Toni added that she liked getting to know people’s strengths and
abilities in a way you wouldn’t get to see. Diane LeBar echoed some of these
same sentiments and added a sentence that I simply must quote: "I've found
that the greatest benefit of serving on the executive board is getting to know
and interacting with the other board members, who are creative, motivated, and
open to sharing."
We obviously have a board that works well together and that is eager to work
on behalf of all MDMLG members. With them in the lead, we should have a very
good year.
Sue Skoglund
Henry Ford Wyandotte Riverside Hospitals
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TOP
During this year the MDMLG Newsletter will have several
articles about hospital library websites--construction, features, limitations,
and security issues among other topics. Many of us are probably most familiar
with Michigan library websites, the large academic libraries, the local public
libraries, etc.
It seems logical to me to set a framework for this series
by suggesting some of the noteworthy library websites in the United States and
around the world. Some of these sites are fun to explore as well as serving as
sources of information for us to use as we answer some of the unusual reference
questions we may receive.
Bodleian Library at Oxford
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/
The Bodleian is celebrating its 400th birthday this year with an
international conference in celebration of libraries on September 18-20, 2002.
Check out the programme! Significant speakers! A link to Blackwell's Online
Bookshop!
Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/
Obviously the LC site has lots of interesting exhibits putting together a
number of topics. The link for kids and the American Memory link have impressed
me. Please note the "Ask a Librarian" feature on the home page. One of
my librarian friends in Louisiana has even named her cat "LC"!
National Library of Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/index-e.html
You can read this site in English or French! Use the AMICUS catalog of
holdings in 1300 Canadian libraries. I especially like their title
"Knowledge Within Reach." This
site also has a good children's section.
Check out this page of links to libraries in Mexico, The
Caribbean, Central America, and South America:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/mex.html
The British Library
http://www.bl.uk/
The digitization project will continue to provide access to many who cannot
visit London in person.
National Library of Scotland
http://www.nls.uk/
Note the digital library section!
National Library of Wales
http://www.llgc.org.uk/
A bilingual site including information about its collections and significant
features, including Family History research, and a link to COPAC http://www.copac.ac.uk/,
a union catalog of academic research libraries and the British Library as well.
National Library of Ireland
http://www.nli.ie/
As with other national library sites, there are links to online exhibits,
and information about their services, collections, etc.
As we have opportunity, we will highlight some other
libraries in future issues.
Maureen W.
LeLacheur
Henry Ford Hospital
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Imagine that you have the opportunity to vacation during the summer months
here enjoying our glorious Michigan weather. Then, in the late fall, when the
winter winds begin to blow across Lake Michigan, you head to the Caribbean
Island of St. Martin to work for six months as the supervising librarian at a
private medical college. Six months later, you return to Michigan to relax.
Well, that is exactly what Jerry Stuenkel gets to do!
Jerry, a long time member of Metropolitan Detroit Medical Library Group, is
known to many in the organization. She began her career in the library at St.
Joseph/Mercy Hospital in 1979 as a clerk. She became a librarian there after
receiving her Master’s Degree in Library Science from Wayne State University
in 1990. She continued at St. Joe’s until 1996.
In 1995, Jerry and her husband Jim were planning a vacation to the Caribbean
island of Antigua. She was persuaded by a gentleman whom she met at St. Joe’s
to travel instead to Montserrat, where he had a condominium that they could use.
This proved to be a crucial event in the path that took Jerry to her present
situation. While on Montserrat, Jerry happened to meet a woman who was the
librarian for the medical school for the American University of the Caribbean.
She suggested to Jerry that she might retire in the near future and that
Jerry may want to consider taking her position. Sure enough, in 1996 Sheila did
indeed retire and her position was posted through the Medical Library
Association. After a favorable interview of both her and her husband with the
owner of the University, Jerry decided to give it a try.
The American University of the Caribbean is a private medical college located
on the island of St. Martin. The college, originally located on the island of
Montserrat, was re-located to St. Martin due to the eruption of the notorious
volcano, La Soufriere. The University teaches basic medical science to the
students, who come primarily from the United States. After 18 months of
classroom work, the students travel back to the United States or to the United
Kingdom for clinical training at hospitals there.
The island of St. Martin is a divided one, still governed on one side by the
French, and by Holland on the other. The University is located on the Dutch side
of the island, which is only about six square miles, but is home to 70,000
people. Not surprisingly, the primary industry of St. Martin is tourism.
Jerry began in 1996 as a full time librarian. She stayed until 1999. Then in
2000, the librarian who had replaced her had to resign unexpectedly due to a
family emergency and Jerry was asked to return. It was at this point that Jerry
was able to negotiate a situation whereby she worked for 6 weeks out of each
semester (17 weeks), and eventually her current schedule of 6 months there, 6
months back here in Michigan.
Before you become envious, consider the following: When Jerry began at
American University of the Caribbean, the library was located in a two story
grocery off campus and consisted of 200 books, many of them with publication
dates of the 1950’s, none of them cataloged; and there were no computers.
(Remember, this is already 1996. What was your technology situation like
in that year?) Fortunately, under Jerry’s guidance, progress has been made.
The library moved to a new facility on campus in 1998. When the library
moved, Jerry’s supervisor (the owner of this private university) was quite
insistent that the outdated books be moved to the new library. He did not want
the shelves to be empty while waiting for the new materials to arrive,
preferring outdated items to none at all. Jerry prevailed.
Jerry relied to some extent on the Brandon-Hill guide to select materials,
but she also drew heavily on requests from her faculty members and her own
experience and intuition. Materials take at least 8 weeks to arrive from Miami.
The collection has grown to about 5000 books and 120 journal titles. They now
have several Dell computers and will soon have a T1 line to speed up their
access.
Jerry has a staff of seven, including her very own systems technician whom
she claims is terrific, if accustomed to functioning on "island time".
Back issues of journals are kept to 1990, and they have no microfiche or access
to binding. Reference inquiries come predominately from Jerry’s faculty who
are earnestly engaged in research projects. Because students are doing their
basic medical studies, they rely mostly on their textbooks and are not in a
position to require extensive research assistance. Jerry uses NLM and Docline
and is considering OVID, which she likes, but it may be cost prohibitive for
her.
Jerry doesn’t have a budget. Sounds great, right? Think again. If you don’t
know how much you are permitted to spend, you may not have much warning when you
reach the limit. Jerry has been very fortunate. Her administration thus far has
trusted her judgment implicitly and has never denied her requests for money and
materials. She currently spends about $30,000 for books and approximately
$40,000 for serials annually.
Not everything is perfect in paradise. Jerry’s annual tenure (October to
April) overlaps the hurricane season a bit (June to November). She has
experienced two hurricanes during her years in St. Martin. She says that they
are similar to tornadoes – less intense, but of longer duration. Often,
utilities are lost during the storms. The University, however, is self-contained
and so becomes a refuge for students. And of course, there is always sunburn to
worry about…
My thanks to Jerry and her husband Jim for making time to spend with me.
Think of us next February, won’t you, Jerry?
Carla Caretto
Oxford Public Library
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Interlibrary loan has always been a balancing act between
borrowing and lending. That’s not
to say that it’s an even balance, however.
Larger institutions almost always lend more than they borrow while small
libraries generally borrow more than they lend. With decreasing budgets and pressures from Administration, it
is often hard for net lenders to continue providing items for free.
Net borrowers also have budget problems and do not want to pay for
interloans. How can small libraries
continue to get the items they need for free and take some of the pressure off
of larger libraries so that they can manage the volume of interlibrary loan
without charging?
First, and most obviously, don’t list the large
institutions in the first column of your routing table – probably not the
second or third column either. Put
the smallest institutions in the first two columns so that requests for more
commonly held titles will not be routed to the larger libraries. Most small libraries are happy to shoulder some of the load
for interlibrary loan. Let’s give
them the chance.
Build your table gradually.
After the small libraries, determine the intermediate sized libraries
that you borrow from. Put them in
the next column or two. Not every
column needs to be full. The key is
to separate by size so that the larger libraries are not in the same mix as the
smaller ones.
The large institutions that do not charge for interloans
(three cheers for them!) can now go in the next column.
They will only receive requests for items not held by the libraries in
the lower cells. Stepping your
table from smaller to intermediate to larger is a great way to spread the load.
The last columns are then left for libraries that charge.
Another strategy is to form cooperative arrangements with
specific libraries or groups of libraries.
Some libraries post messages on Medlib-l and other library listservs
seeking interlibrary loan partners. Consider
responding to them if their collections are of interest to you.
Even though they may not be local or even Michigan libraries, you may
want to add them to one of the columns before the one with the large libraries.
Freeshare is another incredible resource.
Freeshare is a cross-regional library group associated with Docline.
All participants agree to fill document delivery requests free of charge
on a reciprocal basis. You can either add some of their LIBIDs to your routing
table or you can search Serhold for specific journal titles you need and limit
the retrieval to Freeshare libraries. Note
that you might want to ask permission before adding anyone to your routing
table. More information on
Freeshare may be found at http://nnlm.gov/libinfo/docline/freeshare.html.
Send an e-mail to gmr@uic.edu to be
added to the Freeshare group.
One final caveat: some libraries expressly request being
placed in a certain cell. When in
doubt, contact them.
Remember the old seesaws we used to play on as kids?
The board could be adjusted so that one side was shorter than the other
when the two people were of vastly different weight.
Interlibrary loan is something like that.
With some adjustments, both net lenders and net borrowers can still enjoy
playing.
Sue Skoglund
Henry Ford Wyandotte Riverside Hospitals
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As a profession, medical librarians have long been concerned about providing
information that will help our patient and community populations to make
intelligent choices about health care for themselves and their families. We are
aware that public librarians do not usually share our special training and
experience in medical terminology and subjects. So, in increasingly tough
financial times, many in our profession have fought hard to acquire consumer
health resources and make them available to the public. Some have even succeeded
in establishing special consumer collections, outreach health information
programs, and cooperative ventures with public librarians.
But…have we really considered the additional impact of adult illiteracy on
this issue? Even when we provide good consumer health resources, are our
patients and community members able to use them to full advantage, or, indeed,
at all? In 1999, an article in JAMA ("Health
literacy: report of the Council on Scientific Affairs. Ad Hoc Committee on
Health Literacy for the Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical
Association", JAMA 1999 Feb 10;281(6):552-7) examined the
supposition that "Patients with the greatest health care needs may have the
least ability to read and comprehend information needed to function successfully
as patients." That is, they lack the ability to read, understand and act on
health care information. Also troubling, in this time of dwindling health care
dollars, was the concern identified in this study and others that followed it,
that inadequate health literacy increases the risk of hospitalization, further
escalating the cost of health care.
The September 19th MDMLG meeting, to be held at Children’s
Hospital of Michigan, will raise our awareness of this growing problem in
America and help us identify our role in developing solutions. A panel of
speakers will include Margaret Thorpe Williamson, Executive Director of Literacy
Volunteers of America, Detroit; Marsha DeVergilio, Executive Director of Macomb
Literacy Partners, and Cathryn Weiss, Executive Director of the Oakland Literacy
Council. The panel will describe existing literacy programs in the tricounty
area and will suggest ways for health science librarians to become involved.
Registration for the meeting will begin at 12:30, with the literacy panel
beginning at 1:00 p.m. For additional background on this subject, please see the article written for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine by
medical librarian Eileen Sullivan, entitled "Health Literacy."
In addition to the panel discussion, a Brown Bag Lunch, focusing on
"What’s New In Your Library?" will be held from 11:30 – 12:30 p.m.
in the first floor auditorium at Children’s. This will give MDMLG members a
chance to informally "catch up" with colleagues through discussion on
a variety of subjects from new services to budget cuts! Nancy Bulgarelli, of
William Beaumont Hospital, will facilitate the discussion.
For directions to Children’s Hospital, click on the hot link to a map on
the MDMLG Meetings web page.
Carol Attar
Attar Associates
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Don't forget to register for the 29th annual MHSLA Education
Conference, coming up October 16-18th at the Campus Inn in downtown Ann Arbor.
This year's conference provides plenty of opportunities for networking,
continuing education, checking out new products, and finding out what's new at
other Michigan health science libraries and at NLM, MLA, and AccessMichigan.
The conference opens on Wednesday, October 16th, with one
eight-hour course and two four-hour continuing education courses. Rosalind Lett,
from CEO-Knowledge Based Information Consultants, will share her business and
management savvy in a full-day course called, "The Business Case: Your Key
to Buy-In, Funding, Overcoming Resistance and Initiating Change."
Alternatively, you may attend "Palmtop Computers in the Library," a
half-day session with Mari Stoddard, a leader in using PDA applications in
health care settings and libraries. Afterward, Peg Allen will help you hone your
search techniques and introduce high-quality information resources in a half-day
session on "Finding the Best Evidence to Meet Nursing Information
Needs."
Thursday morning opens with a poster session and the keynote
address, "The Librarian in the Clinical Environment," by Dr. Robert E.
Schumacher, an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics and
Communicable Diseases at the University of Michigan. Dr. Schumacher will provide
a doctor's perspective on how librarians can help fill both the educational
needs of residents and the informational needs of clinicians at the point of
care.
Thursday afternoon includes demonstrations on finding
resources in Gale's Health and Wellness Resource Center and netLibrary's health
sciences e-book collection. Other offerings include tips on creating simple,
efficient webpages and online tutorials that help your patrons find what they
need and a session on creating a customized marketing plan for you target
audience.
Thursday evening is filled with food and fun. Relax at the
Michigan Union over a dinner of pork tenderloin, salmon, or spinach lasagna
accompanied by music and conversation with colleagues. Then get ready to absorb
a bit of culture and exercise your creativity as you tour the University of
Michigan Museum of Art and compete in a digital scavenger hunt.
Friday is filled with panel discussions on databases and
consumer health information and with updates on MLA's benchmarking survey and
the NLM gateway. Another session introduces cultural competency and addresses
how to implement cultural competency in the health care system through
education, tools, and standards.
Don't miss out on three days of networking, learning, culture,
and fun in the heart of Ann Arbor! You may even make it into the next MDMLG
newsletter.
For more information and a preliminary program, visit the
MHSLA web site.
Free parking is available for all conference attendees at the
guest lot adjacent to the hotel. MHSLA is also offering a total of three
scholarships to cover meals, lodging, mileage, and registration fees on October
17th and 18th. One scholarship will go to a student at each of the Michigan
library schools, and one to an MHSLA member who has not previously attended an
annual conference. Scholarship awardees are expected to assist at the guest
registration desk and write a brief summary of their conference experience for
the MHSLA newsletter.
DEADLINES AND CONTACT INFORMATION:
Early registration deadline: September 20th (Call Ellen
O'Donnell at 313-343-3734 with registration questions)
Room reservation deadline at the Campus Inn: September 10th.
(800) 666-8693
Scholarship application deadline: September 15th. To apply,
send your name, permanent address, telephone number, e-mail address, and
affiliation to:
Diane LeBar
Medical Library
Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center
18101 Oakwood Blvd
Dearborn, MI 48124
Voice (313) 593-8652
Fax (313) 593-8825
lebard@oakwood.org
Jill Werdell Spreitzer
University of Detroit Mercy
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Michiganders enjoy many autumn activities, from sipping cider
to pick your own apples to hunting to driving around enjoying the fall colors.
The following websites will give a number of different slants to consider.
A good site to tell you what's really going on with the fall
colors:
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/fallcolr/fallcolr.html
If you can make it to the Upper Peninsula this fall you may
enjoy some of these locations:
http://www.westernup.com/fall/
If you can't drive that far, perhaps you can enjoy the photographs as a
"virtual tour"!
One of the most unusual sites is the Southeastern Michigan
Raptor Research (SMRR) page. Keeping track of raptor migrations day by day means
that some parts of this site change frequently. Using maps and directions to the
best viewing area will give you an interesting weekend foray! http://www.smrr.net/index.shtml
Maureen W. LeLacheur
Henry Ford Hospital
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Volunteers are still needed to staff the Registration and Hospitality tables at
the MHSLA conference in October. Contact Diana Balint (balint@pilot.msu.edu)
for more information or to sign up.
Chris Miller was appointed to the Board to fill the remainder of Karin Werner's
term. Ellen O'Donnell will be taking over the Membership responsibilities from
Gina.
Bridget Faricy’s article "Is it legal?" – first published in our
MDMLG News – was accepted and immediately published in the July 2002 issue of
the National Network.
There are a few new faces in area hospital libraries. Amanda Dorherty is working
full time at St. John Detroit Riverview Hospital Library. Children’s Hospital
of Michigan recently hired Jennifer Bowen as a new part time librarian for the
family resource library.
Sue Skoglund is now manager of the library for the combined Henry Ford Wyandotte
Riverside Hospitals. The collections are being merged into one library at
Wyandotte. Because of space limitations, much of the Riverside collection is
still at Riverside. Docline requests are still being filled for both Riverside
and Wyandotte.
Reminder: The deadline for early registration for the MHSLA Annual Conference is
September 20th. Hotel room reservations must be made by September 10th.
Upcoming Dates:
| Date |
Event |
| September 19,2002 |
MDMLG
meeting at Children’s Hospital |
| October 16-18, 2002 |
MHSLA
Conference in Ann Arbor |
| November 21, 2002 |
MDMLG meeting |
| December 10, 2002 |
Toxnet class at
Wayne State University Shiffman Medical Library |
| February 20, 2003 |
MDMLG meeting |
| April 17, 2003 |
MDMLG meeting |
| June 19, 2003 |
Summer Luncheon |
| September 18, 2003 |
MDMLG meeting |
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Communications Committee 2002-2003
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