Medical Librarians Month Contest Award Winners

Posted by Patricia Devine on December 18th, 2012 Posted in: News From NNLM PNR

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Thanks to all who participated in our contest to recognize MLA’s National Medical Librarians Month by telling us about your new or emerging roles. We have four winners, who will receive an annual membership to PNC/MLA. Here are their stories:

Emily Glenn, Librarian and Information Specialist, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, Seattle, WA

Emily is engaged in a project at Seattle Biomed to identify potential research partnerships: Social Network and Relationship Mining to Identify Research Opportunities in Infectious Diseases. With a principal investigator, she identifed leaders in a particular field, the  preerythrocytic malaria vaccine development community, via social and publication networks. She then developed data sets for authors, affiliation, academic or industry partners, trial sites, and substances in use or under study. Next, Seattle Biomedical will create a queryable, proof-of-concept data analysis tool which provides a visual representation of details of research collaborations worldwide.   It is an anticipated that this resource will help researchers and decision makers to identify resource experts and opportunities for global partnerships for malaria and other infectious diseases.

Vicki Croft, Head, Animal Health Library, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

Vicki’s library sponsors an “Art in the Library” program. The program features artwork with animal themes and artists with a connection to the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine, and brings interest to the library. The idea came from a student focus group, which was convened when the library was faced with possible closure in 2008. In October, the program featured a wine and cheese reception (funded by private donation) to meet the latest artist, Katrina Hartman, DVM student,  Class of 2013. Her photos tell a story, whether an escape from a hard test week, a drive home, a quick break from driving the combine on the family farm in rural Montana.

Melanie Jones, Library Coordinator, Kittitas Valley Community Hospital, Ellensburg, WA

To learn more about electronic health records (EHR)  and Meaningful Use (MU), Melanie took the MLA CE course, “Making Connections: Electronic Health Records and Librarians”, taught by the PNR’s Nikki Dettmar. She wanted to get a jump on understanding MU to help her organization. Once she had completed the class, her hospital’s chief medical officer asked her to join their newly formed MU committee, and from that starting point she was appointed a half-time position as Order Set Administrator for the Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) component of the EHR. Although she has returned to her regular schedule in the library now, the experience of working directly with the staff and healthcare providers made her expertise known and Melanie hopes to assist with future  MU goals such as the patient portal and promoting MedlinePlus Connect.

Ann Glusker, Medical Librarian, Medical Library, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA

For a week in November, Ann took part in a medical mission team, sponsored by “Healing the Children” and the Group Health Global Health Program. She traveled to the Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Can Tho, Vietnam, on the Mekong Delta. Through a translator, she taught a group of medical librarians for three days about basic statistics, epidemiology, evaluating the quality of web sites, doing research, and PubMed. This is the first time a librarian was included on the team, which also consists of providers from Group Health and community professionals. In addition to teaching the medical librarians in Vietnam, Ann also provided literature searching expertise to other members of the team and to local healthcare providers. During her preparations for the trip, she made many contacts in the international medical librarian community.

Congratulations to the award winners, and keep up the good work!