Business Meeting History of the Health Sciences Section of MLA

MLA History Section Business Meeting Minutes,
San Antonio, TX
May 17, 2005

Attendees: Ursula Ellis, Michael Flannery, Patricia Gallagher, Diane McKenzie, Eric Meyerhoff, Melissa Nasea, Richard Nollan, Joan Stoddard

The meeting called to order.

Minutes of the 2004 business meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report Mike Flannery presented a summary of beginning and ending balances for the period May 2004 through May 2005. There was little activity in the account. Beginning balance was $4,462.89; ending balance was $4,530.49. The Treasurer’s Report was unanimously approved.

Chair’s Report Patricia Gallagher reported. Anne Maria will be incoming chair. It was recommended that the out-going chair automatically serve on the nominating committee. Suzanne Porter was against this proposal in order to avoid undue influence on the next offices. She suggested someone who has been active in the past but has not held a major office in the past year. Although the MLA Board “strongly urged” such a by-laws change, the general consensus was to not make such a change and to keep the option open until such time as the Board mandated a change.

Section Programming Report Diane McKenzie reported orally for Anne Maria Frketich, the substance of which is given below in Ann Marie’s written summary below.

The History of the Health Sciences Section led the Overcoming Challenges: Magnificent Medical Contributions program at MLA 2005.  Co-leaders include the Chiropractic Libraries and Relevant Issues Sections and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans-gendered Health Sciences Librarians SIG.

The program was held May 16, 2:30-PM - 4:00 PM, in the Convention Center Room 203.

Three papers and three posters were presented. Those papers were: A Biographic Look at Early Women Pharmacists; Highly Qualified; Never Appointed, which deals with neuropathologist Myrtelle Moore Canavan; and Tales of a Reservation Nurse: The Heroic Life of Edith LeRoy Richardson.

Three posters were presented. Those poster were: Dr. Ruth Janetta Temple: A Community Health Hero for Los Angeles; Colorful Medicine: Breaking Barriers, Stereotypes, and Making Strides and From Self Doubt to Surgeon: Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D.

The Section also co-sponsored two programs – the first, Medical Diversity: Thinking Out of the Box with the Chiropractic Libraries Section taking the lead. Other co-sponsors are the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section and the Complementary and Alternative Medicine SIG. The program was held May 16, 2:30-PM - 4:00 PM, in the Convention Center River 006C

There were four speakers for the program and the papers were Choices, Challenges, and Leaps of Faith: African-Americans in Chiropractic; Bridging Borders: Latino Folk Medicine in the Hospital; The Emergence of Integrative Medicine on the Health Sciences Campus: Challenges and Opportunities for Librarians; and Is Energy Healing Effective? A Systematic Review

The second program the Section is co-sponsoring is the Digitization, Preservation, and Authentication of Resources program. The lead sponsor is the Federal Libraries Section with the Collection Development Section also co-sponsoring The program is scheduled for Wednesday May 18, 2:30 PM - 4 PM in the Convention Center, River 006A

Three speakers are scheduled for the program and the papers include GPO Strategic Vision and What it Will Mean for Public Access to Government Information; Because You Can't Trust a Publisher with Their Archive . . .; and Treasures from the Subbasement: Unlocking a Library's Diverse Collections.

Nominating Committee Chair’s Report: Diane reported for Anne Maria Frketich and Suzanne Porter. Anne Maria and Suzanne (chair) presented the membership with a single-slate ballot for three officers as well as four by-laws changes. 79 ballots were mailed out in February; 26 were returned by March 2005 with the following results: candidates for all officers were approved with one abstention, there were no write-ins. Diane McKenzie (chair-elect), Joan Stoddard (Section Council rep.-elect), nominee for the MLA Nominating Committee was Heidi Heilemann; all by-laws changes were approved.

Web Report: Pat reported the page was updated to reflect current officers.

CE Report: The Section CE meeting conflicted with our business meeting and neither co-Chair was able to attend the Section CE meeting as a result.

Listerve Report: none

Oral History Committee Report: Richard Nollan is the incoming director.

Newsletter Report: Richard suggested e-mailing an electronic version to the listserve instead of a print copy. Unanimously approved. Richard also proposed that back issues of Incipit be put on the web page. Unanimously approved. Richard would like to include book reviews in the newsletter. Asked for ideas and recommendations.

Membership Report: Richard and Ursula reported on new members breakfast. Question of allowing section brochures and promotions at the breakfast was a raised. This would be good for recruitment. It was recommended that this be brought to Section Council.

Section Council Report: Diane McKenzie reported the following:

Nominees for the nominating committee. Diane offered candidates based upon length of time in MLA and activity within more than one section. She came up with six names. Diane said if there were other suggestions to let her know.

Memo from the Research Council asked about the section’s “research committee." It was agreed that our response should be that we do engage in active research through we do not have a research committee. In addition, we have a research award (the Murray Gottleib Prize). It was mentioned that some section members asked for assistance from this committee and the response was less than satisfactory scholarship fo

Diane announced The Leslie Morton Memorial Bursary Fund. Diane recommended we do something in its support given the fund’s purpose in promoting scholarship and professional development. Our section was asked to help promote the fund. It was agreed to post a link from the section web page. Joan Stoddard motioned to give a $500 donation in its behalf; seconded and unanimously approved. Section can promote to various history groups: the AIHP, CHF, AAHM, SAHMS.

The Board is interest in section members activities of an international nature. Richard Nollan is member of an international society, Mike Flannery consults for a library in Ghana, Diane McKenzie consults with a library in Malawi, etc.

It was suggested that Section Council meet before the MLA meeting. This was generally opposed since there would be not opportunity for sections to give feedback from their respective meetings.

• There is a new certification as a Digital Library Specialist
• AHIP renewal at the same level has been streamlined
• AHIP has 1155 members in 2004 – new members are nearly all at the provisional level

Section SIG Review: A request has been made for a Marketing SIG. Paperwork was lost by Section Council, but is being recreated

Section Programming

• This year sessions were limited to 4 presentations to give more time; this will also be true in 2005
• Laura Osegueda from Vet Sci will lead a task force to look at a 2-year ahead planning format
• Partnering with other SIGs and Sections is encouraged; next year sponsors may be listed alphabetically.
• Section Council has asked that there be more coordination of the daily calendar with the Section Calendar.
• 2004 statistics on section programming:
• 138 papers were submitted,
• 59 contributed papers given,
• 39 invited papers given,
• 1 student paper
• expanded to 3 poster session because of volume of submissions
• Upcoming meetings:
• 2006 – Phoenix
• 2007 - Philadelphia
• 2008 – Chicago
• 2009 – Hawaii (maybe; co-sponsored with CHLA and Asian Medical Libraries)
• 2010 – Washington, DC

Membership Lists
NAHRS presented a resolution to the Board requesting changes to improve how membership lists are handled.
In 2004: Quarterly membership lists were sent to each Section Chair and Section Membership Chair.
Possible to request a list at any time and in any configuration – e.g., a list of new members or a list of lapsed members.
Individuals responsible for updating their own records online – the changes take about a week to show up.
Membership Directory online only updated annually.
Several sections report that Kurt Paul is very responsive and good to work with.

Coming changes for membership lists:
Order for requesting a membership list will be online.
Online Directory will be updated more than once a year.
New section members will automatically added to Section listserv (probably).
Individual records online will list the sections a member belongs to.
MLA members will receive only one paper renewal notification plus 2 email notifications.
It was suggested that the paper renewal form have in large letters: ONLY PRINT RENEWAL NOTICE.
There was a discussion of the problem of how renewals are timed and the timing of both Section elections (in Feb-Mar) and of the Annual Meeting..
Section elections are in mid-Feb and a membership list is needed BUT who should be on the list – only those who are currently paid? Or should it include those covered by the grace period that lasts into March?
Many people renew just in time for registration for the Annual Meeting; early registration is usually in April.
Suggestion was to alter the MLA Fiscal Year to coincide with Annual Meeting Registration; this would also make the Section Election membership issue moot. Carla seemed willing to pursue this idea.

Executive Board Actions and Summary (Carla Funk):
There will be a vote on a dues increase at the Business meeting.
By-laws have been changed to allow email balloting; MLA is now incorporated in Maryland which seems to allow email voting; the email ballots will not be implemented until there has been a full legal study. (Note implication for Section By-laws)
Veterinary Library Standards were passed.
NAHRS submitted a resolution for MLA to work to integrate MLA actions with the Interagency Nursing Council.
There will be a discussion of the Brandon Hill list on Wednesday at 5:15.
Resolution submitted requesting better Communication between Headquarters and members of Section Council.

Spam Laws: MLA is taking a very conservative approach to Spam; all members will need to sign a form that allows MLA to send out mass faxing, e.g. teleconference reminders. Members are asked NOT to list their home phone numbers in the directory so that MLA will not call a home number and inadvertently violate the no call laws (even though this was questioned as not covered because of prior contact, MLA lawyers are taking a very conservative interpretation of the law).

Orientation for Capitol Hill visits will be Monday, May 17 from 8-9

Section Goals and Objectives: Use the priorities outlined by JoAnn Marshall: Diversity, Advocacy, Lifelong Learning Knowledge Base and Recruitment

Report the following to Section Council:
Is our Section Annual Report distributed to members? Yes
Who is the CE Chair? Patricia Gallagher and Stephen Greenberg.
Who is Membership Chair? Richard Nollan.
Who is Secretary and Treasurer? Michael Flannery
Who is the Section Representative? / Section Representative Alternative? Diane McKenzie / to be elected – Joan Stoddard.
Who is the nominee for Nominating Council? None this year.

Website Hosting: New MLANET Editor will be announced on Sunday - Melissa Just from USC, All Sections need to update their websites.

Board is considering making all MLA hosted websites secure – requiring passwords to use. This proposal was not popular with Section Council members
All MLA websites will probably have ads on them in future.
MLA is considering requiring that all MLA hosted websites to have similar look.

UPDATE: Election of Section Council Chair
Tovah Reis and Janna Lawrence have agreed to run for Chair. Tovah Reis was elected.
The following Nominees to Nominating Committee were elected: Laura Barnett (Education, Media Technology), Catherine Burroughs (Research), Jonquil Feldman (Leadership & Management), Susan Murray (CAPHIS), Ruth Riley (Informatics), Linda Walton (Collection Development)

Requested Board consider electronic membership renewal using credit card

Requested Board include that hotels and convention centers provide recycling in any MLA contract for annual meeting

New Business

Nominating Committee: Pat pointed out that pursuant to the by-laws change we will need a nominating committee and elections for the Secretary/Treasurer’s position presently held by Mike until the end of the next meeting. Ursula Ellis agreed to serve on the nominating committee. Ballots need to go out in early January to be back by February 15.

Discussion topics for 2006 program: is actually “anti-theme.” They don’t want cute titles. Idea is to discuss transformations within the profession. They want it to be interdisciplinary. A number of ideas were discussed including something on the management of historical collections – e.g., “History of Junk: The Evolution of Materials,” etc. Other ideas are welcomed.

Meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael A. Flannery

Secretary/Treasurer