Eileen Severson
MLIS Supervisor
Library and Health Information Services
Health Sciences Library
Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center
La Crosse, WI

At the WHSLA 2009 Annual Meeting in La Crosse, WI, the board was honored to award the Librarian of the Year award to Barbara Benisch Sisolak, Senior Special Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Department of Surgery Library.

Barb has demonstrated many times her qualifications for this award.  Since becoming the Senior Special Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Department of Surgery, she has been an active participant in our many library professional organizations.  She has participated in WHSLA as member of the Communications Committee, President-Elect, and subsequently President and Past-President.  Barb is a participant in surgery society conferences as well.  In all of her roles in library and health-related organizations, Barb is the consummate professional and serves as a mentor to others new to the organization, the profession, or outside the profession.

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Christopher Childs
Education & Outreach Librarian
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
University of Iowa

Partnering for Patient Empowerment Through Community Awareness (PPECA) Article

Rhonda Reimer, the Special Project Coordinator of the Pella Regional Health Center in Pella, IA, and I recently collaborated on an article for the Focus On Patient Safety, the official newsletter of the National Patient Safety Foundation.  The article, entitled Hospital Uses PPECA “Train the Trainer” Program to Help Community Groups Empower Patients, discusses the PPECA  presentation made at the hospital and how the staff took the knowledge gained and created their own community outreach program on patient safety.

You can read this article by going to http://npsf.org/paf/npsfp/fo/pdf/Focus_Volume_12_%20Issue_1.pdf

Christopher Childs
Education & Outreach Librarian
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
University of Iowa

New Influenza A (H1N1) also known as the Swine Flu Resource Guide Available from the Hardin Library

A new resource guide containing information on Influenza A (H1N1) has been created and is available from the Hardin Library.  All of the information contained in this guide is free and available to the public.  The guide includes: national & international resources, maps, blogs, an RSS and Twitter feed, Iowa resources, articles, and consumer health resources available in English, Spanish and multiple Languages.

The URL for this guide is http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/content.php?hs=a&pid=43862 Please feel free to link this guide to your institution’s website.

By Barbarie Hill, Manager Edward L. Pratt Library Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Cincinnati, OH

Plans for the 2009 Midwest Chapter Annual Conference are firming up, and a lot of information has been added to the web site at http://midwestmla.org/conference2009/.  Check it out and start making your plans to come to Columbus to Seek, Explore, Discover with us October 3-6, 2009

Location: Hyatt on Capitol Square, Columbus, OH
Sponsors: Midwest Chapter/MLA and Ohio Health Sciences Libraries Association (OHSLA).

If you are unable to attend the MLA annual meeting this year, the Midwest Chapter meeting may be your only chance to meet with colleagues from across the region and recharge your professional batteries by engaging with stimulating speakers and attending top-quality CE courses.  And you’ll get all of that at a bargain rate!  Even if your institution pays only a part or none of the cost for you to attend professional meetings, you’ll get the most for your money at a regional meeting. Registration for the conference has not yet opened, but you can still begin now to prepare by:

• Checking out the conference web site http://midwestmla.org/conference2009/
• Submitting your travel request to your administrators
• Submitting a paper or poster abstract (May 31 is the deadline)
• Choosing CE courses of interest to you
• Making a reservation at the Hyatt on Capitol Square in Columbus for Oct. 3-6
• Talking to your colleagues about attending

See you in Columbus in October!

Last week, Go Local North Dakota reported utilizing the Featured Site option on the North Dakota Go Local homepage. For those of you in Minnesota, the Featured Site on My Health  Minnesota→Go Local links to flood Information as well. Take a look at the useful and interesting information on both the North Dakota and Minnesota Go Local sites.

For all you Web 2.0 participants, of particular interest is the the social network site created by The Forum, the newspaper for the Fargo-Moorhead area:  http://flood.inforum.com/. To access MedlinePlus Go Local, see http://medlineplus.gov and follow the link to Go Local.

Several Network members are in or near the Red River flood zone. The GMR will post information regarding any closings or other pertinent information related to rising river levels. For local river reports, please see The Fargo Flood Homepage: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/fargoflood/, provided by North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND, and NOAA’s National Weather Service: http://www.weather.gov/.

For GMR Emergency Preparedness information, please see: NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response: http://nnlm.gov/gmr/member/emprep/index.html. Regional coordinator for ND is Ann Pederson and for MN, Paul Dahl.

Network members are encouraged to utilize the Comments section on the GMR blog to report relevant information.

_____

Note:

GMR Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for North Dakota, Ann Pederson, suggests the City of Fargo’s webpage as another source of information: http://www.cityoffargo.com/Flood09/.

–The Editor

Congratulations to the Library Journal Movers & Shakers for 2009! We are fortunate to have a few GMR members (and perhaps future GMR members?) among the bunch this year.
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Call for Papers and Posters: 2009 Midwest Chapter/MLA Annual Meeting

By Linda DeMuro
Director, Library Services
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH

The Program Committee of the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association invites proposals for contributed papers and posters for the 2009 Midwest Chapter/MLA  Annual Meeting in Columbus, Ohio from October 3-6 at the Hyatt on Capitol Square. The conference theme of  Seek, Discover, Explore lends itself to a variety of topics, and provides opportunities for presenters to show how they endeavor to seek out new and improved ways to provide cutting-edge library services, to discover innovative techniques for using technology and the Internet, or to explore how libraries connect people to information in creative ways. Papers and posters may highlight practical problem-solving approaches, report on research in librarianship, document collaborative efforts or outreach activities, or describe innovative programs, resources or services. Contributed paper and poster topics are as unlimited as your imagination, talents and creativity can devise. (more…)

Brenda Fay
Lead Librarian
Aurora Libraries-Aurora Sinai Medical Center
Milwaukee, WI

60^th Annual Wisconsin Student Nurses’ Association Conference, Wisconsin Dells

The Wisconsin Health Sciences Library Association (WHSLA) once again exhibited at the annual Wisconsin Student Nurses’ Association (WSNA) Annual Convention on February 14, 2009, at Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, WI. Over 200 nursing students, faculty, and nursing leaders from across Wisconsin attended the meeting. (more…)

Anna Ercoli Schnitzer
InfoPoint Librarian
Health Sciences Libraries
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

The Give Kids a Smile free annual dental care event, held at the University of Michigan (U of M) School of Dentistry on February 7, 2009, was extremely well attended. Members of the Health Sciences Libraries contacted schools, PTO, and an online paper to help publicize the event.

A lengthy line of parents and children aged 5 through 12 were already waiting at the door of the building by 8:30 am. The many pre-dental and dental students, volunteering dentists, and all their assistants were very welcoming,  kind and friendly. Several dental students walked around to demonstrate how to brush one’s teeth using a huge toothbrush and employing a stuffed animal’s mouth. (more…)