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!

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…)

The GMR is offering sponsorship of webcast sites for the upcoming MLA Webcast:  Finding Work-Life Balance: Strategies for You and Your Institution to be held on March 25, 2009. Visit http://nnlm.gov/gmr/funding/mlawebcast.html for detailed information on how to become a sponsored site.

The GMR will cover the registration costs for up to two (2) sites per state in the region for this webcast. Because of the limited number of sites we can sponsor, we encourage you to work with your state and local health science librarian groups to identify centralized locations. Sites will be selected based on geographical location, accessibility, and potential number of attendees. To find out about this exciting webcast by visit: http://www.mlanet.org/education/distance_ed/work_life/.

The deadline to get your registration and information to the GMR is Friday, March 6, 2008.

Site coordinators will receive one (1) activity point applicable to their Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP) membership.

Contact Holly Burt, Outreach and Exhibits Coordinator if you have any questions.

Submissions and Proposals Requested:

Small-Scale, High-Impact Renovations: Redesigning Library Spaces on a Budget

Many Greater Midwest Region members remember Kathleen A. Zar who joined the staff of the University of Chicago (U of C) Library in 1967. She rose to a leadership position as head of the Rosenwald Library, which housed the geology and geophysics collections.

In the early 1980s, the John Crerar Library, a private independent research library, merged with the University of Chicago Library. The University built a new facility to combine the Library’s existing science resources with the Crerar collections. When the new Crerar Library opened, Kathleen was appointed Head of Reference and Subject Services for the Science Libraries. (more…)

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

A couple of month ago, I submitted a poster proposal to the American Library Association’s (ALA) new Virtual Poster Session for the Midwinter meeting held in Denver, CO, from January 23-28, 2009. I wanted to showcase what we’ve done with Iowa Go Local and encourage the states that don’t have a Go Local program to start one up in their area. A virtual poster through ALA, seemed like a great way to do this, as their conferences always attract large numbers of people. (more…)

Please visit these GMR sponsored events and activities! Hope to see you all there, come by the booth and say hello and meet the staff of the GMR.

Exhibits – Salon F-H
Monday, October 20, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Welcome & Grand Opening of Exhibits
4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Dessert Break with Exhibitors & Drawing for Prizes

MLA CE Classes
Saturday, October 18, 2008
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. #6 Patient Safety – Teacher: Holly Ann Burt

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon #7 PubMed: Keeping Your Search Vital
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon #9 Community Assessment – Taught by NLM’s OERC

Additional Events
Sunday, October 19, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. GMR and NLM Updates

Monday, October 20, 2008
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Poster: Expecting the Unexpected: National Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan for Libraries

1:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Paper Presentation: Using Patient-Oriented Evidence to Reduce Health Disparities – Moderator: Holly Ann Burt

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon Technology Forum: Wikis, Widgets & Whatchamacallits