Business Meeting History of the Health Sciences Section of MLA

History of the Health Sciences Section Medical Library Association
Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting
May 9, 2000
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

Present: Anne Maria Baxter, Dave Boilard, Barbara Van Brimmer, Patricia E. Gallagher, Stephen Greenberg, Heidi Heileman, Sandra Lynch, Diane McKenzie, Frederic C. Pachman, Colleen Weum

The meeting was called to order at 12:35PM by Barbara Van Brimmer, Chair. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved and the treasurer’s report was read and accepted.

OLD BUSINESS

Election Results

Per Nonnie Klein’s report, Stephen Greenberg was elected to Section Council with 32 votes. The term of office is 3 years. There is currently no alternate, since the section has already rotated to the new voting system mandated by Section Council. Van Brimmer volunteered to appoint an alternate, but Greenberg requested one not be appointed at this time. Since he will be representing Section Council on the 2002 National Program Committee, Greenberg will not be able to attend the first Section Council meeting, but will attend the second. Discussion followed regarding Section Council meeting attendance.

Action Items:

Diane McKenzie volunteered to attend the first Section Council meeting as proxy and will provide report of meeting. Greenberg will arrange this with Section Council.

Continuing Education

Gallagher and Greenberg taught a half-day course in October 1999 in Philadelphia entitled Resources for the History of Medicine. Greenberg taught a full day course entitled The History of the Health Sciences: A One-Day Overview at this year’s annual MLA meeting. There were 13 attendees and the course was well received. Per Kathy Gaydos of MLA, the written course evaluations were favorable. BibKit #5, compiled by Gallagher and Greenberg, was published in October 1999. Cost is $22.00 to MLA members. Publicity for the BibKit was done by MLA, a notice placed in INCIPIT, and also in the ALHHS (Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences) newsletter. Pachman raised the question of where and how to have the BibKit reviewed. The response was the editor of Watermark was thinking of reviewing the BibKit.

Gallagher, when asked if she would continue as the CE (Continuing Education) person, agreed. Pachman asked if Gallagher or Greenberg would agree to teach one of the History of Medicine courses in New Jersey and both were agreeable. Discussion followed regarding marketing and teaching of courses.

Action Items:

Pachman volunteered to ask Lilli Sentz to review the BibKit.

Incipit

Pachman reported two issues of Incipit were prepared and sent out to the 90 section members. He asked if more individuals would submit material for the content of the newsletter. Short contributions are acceptable. A few comments regarding membership problems were made. Pachman stated material for the newsletter would be a way to let individuals know what others in the section were doing and could be a way to encourage participation in the section. Deadline for submitting contributions is July 30, 2000. Pachman also asked for an assistant editor or co-editor so they could eventually take over as editor of Incipit. The next issue is scheduled for mailing in August 2000.

Website

Gallagher reported abstracts from papers presented at this year's HHSS sponsored programs would be available on the HHSS Website. Suzanne Porter had asked if the exhibit to be held at Duke University could be highlighted on the Website. Gallagher thought this would be a good idea since Duke University hosts the HHSS Website. Currently the site features 270 links. It was suggested the site could feature exhibits being held at other institutions provided the exhibit would be for several months' duration. A call for papers could also be posted on the Website. Gallagher volunteered to post the message and guidelines for papers on the HHSS list.

Discussion regarding publicizing the Website ensued. The site is advertised on MLANET, but it was not felt to be sufficient. It was stated there had been some discussion of making the MLANET site fully searchable for all chapters also. Other items discussed were to have history of health sciences Websites sent to Pachman for publication in Incipit and suggestions for linking from other sites to the HHSS site. It was also stated the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) meeting and the ALHHS meetings were featured on the NLM Website.

Listserv

Heileman reported MLA hosted HHSS listserv but the section has not yet been billed for the service – an item that could be added to the section treasurer’s report. At the time of the 2000 MLA annual meeting, 35 members had signed up for the listserv. Heileman also reported Carla Funk mentioned a high turnover at MLA Headquarters. Also reported was the discussion held at Section Council meeting proposing the cost for listservs and Websites hosted by MLA should be free to chapters and sections. SIGS would be excluded because they cannot have a treasury. Jerry Perry would most likely bring up the idea at the MLANET meeting that fees for listservs and Websites be abolished. Discussion then followed of space on the MLA site for pages and lists. A few sections and chapters currently use MLA to house their sites.

Membership

Van Brimmer reported Donna Trainor was retiring. Van Brimmer reported Trainor e-mailed information for use to create a pamphlet. A special thanks to Donna for her work.

McKenzie had attended the membership committee meeting as the HHSS representative and provided the HHSS business meeting attendees with a report. The goal of the Membership Committee was to increase the overall MLA membership. The idea was proposed schools with relevant departments and groups in various fields could be targeted as sources of new members. If new individuals could be identified, it would be good to call and speak to them personally rather than sending an e-mail or letter. The MLA membership committee held a potential new member's breakfast. At the breakfast, the administrators sat together rather than mix with the attendees which was not the intention of the individuals organizing the event. McKenzie stated the HHSS would benefit from having a tie-in. At the Membership meeting, a "Colleague Connection" was suggested where there would be a volunteer buddy system of linking up new or fairly new members with an established member. McKenzie suggested HHSS needed to have a couple of individuals available for new members who express an interest. The question was raised re: was the buddy system different than mentoring? Response: yes, this is a way to "hold the hand of new attendees." Van Brimmer stated she wanted to find a way to get people in the section to be more active and involved. Greenberg stated he would serve as a volunteer buddy for new people. McKenzie commented on the types of membership reports available from MLA. HHSS is encouraged to contact non-renewing members. Weum reported on her experience in attending section meetings. No one in the section actually welcomed individuals.

Action Items:

Van Brimmer stated she would send out a request on the list for somebody to take over Membership.

Van Brimmer stated she would put out a call for an individual to work with Membership.

Van Brimmer and McKenzie stated they would work on Membership together.

It was suggested Pachman put information in Incipit regarding membership.

Gallagher stated she would send out a mailing to HHSS members asking for a volunteer to become the Membership person.

Program Committee

Heileman reported on the programs sponsored by the HHSS at the 2000 MLA meeting. Approximately 30 individuals attended the first program, co-sponsored by the Oral History Committee, entitled Recording for the Future: Demystifying the Oral History Process. Informally, good comments were received. The Section also co-sponsored a second program with the Relevant Issues, Consumer and Patient Health information, International Cooperation, and the Medical Libraries section entitled East/West: Merging Trends in Medical Therapeutics.

Section Council

Greenberg reported on the Section Council meeting from Susan Marshall’s notes. The Medical School Libraries Section changed its name to Leadership and Management. Two new SIGS were formed, Voyager and African American Medical Librarians Alliance. Much time was spent discussing MLANET, funding, and usability. From the discussion came the idea that the Web should be a benefit of membership. There were 2 or 3 slots for business meetings, this was still under discussion. A question was raised regarding which individual had convened the African American SIG, but it was not known who had done so. Also reported was if a SIG wanted to do a program, they would need a co-sponsor.

OTHER

Gottlieb Award

A general discussion regarding the publication of Maggie Yax's paper in the BMLA (Bulletin of the Medical Library Association) was held. Yax was given the Murray Gottlieb Prize for the paper. Greenberg stated the publication of the paper in the BMLA would need to be pursued as it was not automatic. Greenberg stated last year's Gottlieb Prize paper has yet to be published in the BMLA.

Action Items:

Van Brimmer volunteered to contact the BMLA editor regarding publication of the Yax paper.

Contribution

Van Brimmer reported a thank-you letter was sent for the HHSS contribution to the McClure Excellence in Education Endowment. The person who won the award was from Texas.

New Business

Programming for 2001

Heileman reported on the meeting held to discuss possible ideas for programs for the 2001 MLA meeting. Suggested themes for programs were historical web sites in the history of medicine and history of medical librarianship: an American oddesy. The history of medical librarianship program could have a biographical or geographical focus. Also, papers in this program might focus on librarians significant in the development of libraries in their area. It was suggested the NAHRS (Nursing and Allied Health Resources) and Medical Informatics sections might be interested in co-sponsoring the historical web site program. Suggested Web sites included the NLM’s Profiles in Science, PHDIL (Philadelphia Historical Digital Image Library), Duke University’s site, and the American Association for the History of Nursing site.

McKenzie commented oral history and medical societies might want to co-sponsor one of the programs.

Mentoring list on HHSS Website?

This issue was not discussed at the business meeting.

Promotion of the Murray Gottlieb Prize

The question was raised regarding HHSS’s promotion of the Gottlieb Award. Response was a Section could promote awards.

Action Items:

Van Brimmer stated she would look for a volunteer to promote the award. Pachman stated he could prepare a handout to be sent out with Incipit regarding the Gottlieb Award.

Goals for 2001

Look for small projects so people can get involved in the Section. It was stated Judith Overmeier did a poster on Gottlieb. People could be working on papers for the award. The question was raised if the section wanted to send out announcement on listservs promoting the award.

Barbara Van Brimmer adjourned the meeting at 1:55 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Anne Maria Baxter
Secretary