Business Meeting History of the Health Sciences Section of MLA

MLA History Section Business Meeting Minutes,
Phoenix, AZ
Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Attendees: Michael Flannery, Patricia Gallagher, Ruthann Gildea, Stephen Greenberg, Heidi Heileman, Ed Holtum, Dee Jones, Susan Marshall, Lucretia McClure, Diane McKenzie, Lisa Mix, Richard Nollan, Joan Stoddart.

Chair, Diane McKenzie called the meeting to order.

Old Business

Treasurer's Report: Treasurer, Michael Flannery, presented the financial report, which in summary was that the section had a beginning balance of $4,530.49 as of 4/30/05 and an ending balance as of 4/30/06 of $4,666.59. At the conclusion of this meeting Mike will close out the current AmSouth checking account for the section and send a cashier's check to Ed Holtum in-coming Secretary/Treasurer.

CE Report: Stephen Greenberg delivered a CE report. The section sponsored a full-day archives course taught by Tim Pennycuff and Paul Theerman. It was very well attended. Pat Gallagher and Steve have been approached to have their history of medicine course submitted for next year's meeting.
Patricia Gallagher attended the MLA CE meeting and reported that there was some discussion over hosting symposia, an issue raised by MLA. It was generally felt that hosting a symposium might be too labor-intensive and expensive for our section, though different possibilities with sponsors and other partners were broadly mentioned.

Section Council Report: Section Council indicated they were interested in publications. It was mentioned that several publication ideas have been submitted to the Publications Committee only to be ignored or rejected.

Section Programming Report: (general [see "Philadelphia Program" for '07 discussion]) 50% of papers submitted were accepted; 95% of posters submitted were accepted. Next year's meeting will substantially limit poster submissions. There was some discussion over whether or not there will be four papers per programming session. They indicated that 65% of the planners prefer four papers, which allows more time. There may be three or four poster session in Philadelphia.
Elections results need to be in by Feb. 15 to forward to MLA Nomination Committee.
Web Committee wanted to know if we wanted to emphasize a global initiative. History of health sciences in other countries? Third World? Etc.
Diane McKenzie asked, do we have a by-laws change that allows us to do online voting? They want the sections to run their elections online. Issues of cost were raised. If they get ten sections to agree to do this, it will "only be" $700 each; eleven to twenty sections will cost less. After some discussion, it was decided it would be wise to change the by-laws to allow for online voting. A motion was made to create a by-laws committee to amend said by-laws to allow for the possibility of online voting. The motion passed unanimously. Diane and Joan Stoddard agreed to work on this.

Membership Report : Richard Nollan gave the Membership Report. There was some discussion over recovering lapsed members. Literature distribution at the new member's breakfast was discussed. MLA has 1,200 individual members, many of whom belong to no section. It was agreed that cost (being modest) was not an issue.

Oral History Report: Richard reported that the biggest challenge has been getting a handle on the scope and size of the project and the backlog. Many have yet to be edited and transcribed. There was some discussion over processing. There were a couple of issues that needed to be resolved. One of them was finding out where all the material was (that's been resolved). Richard created a database to get a better handle on it. The second issue is moving into digital media and how this might be accomplished. This might not be too difficult or expensive in the long run. Steve offered some suggestions on how this might be done.

INCIPIT Report: Everyone agreed the e-mail format seems to be working well, edited by Cynthia Kahn. Discussion dovetailed into a brief conversion over the web site. There were no major issues.

Funding of invited speaker: Diane pointed out that support for Jeremy Norman came from Southwest Airlines and other sources. There are additional funds ($200 received). A motion was made that after all speaker expenses are paid any remaining amount with go to the Morton Fund. The motion passed unanimously.

Listerve Report: none

Promoting the Murray Gottlieb Prize : Apparently there's been some confusion over whether or not we give the prize. In fact, Steve pointed out that it comes directly from MLA. Steve also indicated that while the prize is about the history of medicine, the section has nothing to do with it. There are pending questions. Must the recipient be an MLA member? Must the paper be on an American topic? Is the paper automatically printed in the JMLA? Must it be given annually? Steve did some archival checking and the answer to the first question appears to be no. JMLA has right of first refusal. MLA membership is preferred but not required. The original paperwork suggests the prize be on an American topic, but Steve pointed out that this have never be enforced for followed. The issue of membership should be worked out for broader promotion through other organizations. The issue of librarianship is iffy as well. Just librarians? Archivist? Retirees? Steve is going to go back through the archives for clarification and may need to go to MLA leadership for final clarification. Steve indicated that these issues are well worth pursuing.
Mike suggested that at least one member on the Gottlieb Prize jury should come from the history section. Lucretia McClure made a motion to that effect. Motion seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Diane will approach the board with this section recommendation.

Philadelphia Program: Steve gave a summary of the 2007 meeting. He indicated there will be four time slots, eight sessions for each time slot or 32 in all. The space for poster sessions will be extremely limited.
"Information Revolution: Change is in the Air" is the theme.
Diane indicated interest among the African American sig in doing a joint program on African American librarian history. Mike thought this was a good idea too. Other ideas were suggested: the "scientification" of medicine, changing role of the patient and practitioner, nursing, medical missionaries (globalization theme), reinventing professions and their changing roles, and one on collection development like "its going to be a rare book someday."
Steve indicated that the MLA program committee was meeting the following day and asked for any additional suggestions from the group.

Meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael A. Flannery

Secretary/Treasurer