Volunteer at the 2016 MLA-CHLA/ABSC-ICLC Conference!

Come join the 2016 MLA-CHLA/ABSC-ICLC Conference: Mosaic/Mosaique - Bepart of the big picture/Faites partie du portrait global! 

This is the largest gathering of medical librarians and health information professionals in the world including the Medical Library Association (MLA), the Canadian Health Libraries Association/Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada (CHLA/ABSC), and the International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC) at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTTC) in Toronto May 13–18, 2016. 

There are also some great volunteering positions available too, including:

Assembly of Meeting Bags 

This event will take place before the conference's official start on Thursday, May 12th at 12:30 pm at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building. It will last about 3-4 hours. You will be assembling conference totes with meeting programs, guides, and other give away items.
Register: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084aaca82eabfb6-assembling

Placement Center/Members' Resource Room 

These are two-hour minimum shifts available at various times, see registration page for details.
Register: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084aaca82eabfb6-members

Hospitality Information Booth 

You will answer questions such as program details and changes, dining, tours, entertainment, and other information as may be necessary.  Knowledge of Toronto is an asset.  See registration page for details.

Register: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084aaca82eabfb6-information

Thinking of going to the MLA/CHLA/ ABSC/ICLC Meeting in Toronto this May….

Want a Hotel Discount and WiFi for the meeting?

Reserve your hotel room at the Fairmont Royal York or InterContinental and get discounted rates and free in-room WiFi. Plus you get the best location for networking opportunities. Hotel status as of Tuesday,26^th Jan.

-- Fairmont, rooms available for all nights.
-- InterContinental, rooms available for all nights, except Tuesday.

For up-to-date information on availability, check online http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=428

Factors pushing up demand include:

-- More attendees are staying Tuesday for the gala Presidents' Awards Dinner and Wednesday programs.
-- US visitors can afford to stay in Canada longer because the purchasing power of the US dollar has jumped. 
-- May in Toronto is popular with visitors.
-- Toronto Blue Jays baseball team is hosting the Tampa Bay Rays, May 16-18. The ballpark is within shouting distance of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, site of Mosaic '16. 

Our best advice is don't wait - Make your reservation <http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=428  >now.
Hotel discounts end April 15th and are subject to limited availability.

Roommates

Save money, share room costs. Some members have used email lists such as MEDLIB-L to locate a roommate.  Always exercise caution when selecting roommates.

Useful Links
--  Make Your Case to Attend http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=540
--  Meeting Schedule at Glance http://nahsl.libguides.com/content.php?pid=435321&sid=3589460
-- Mosaic '16 Online Registration http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=427 is Open
-- Travel tips and airfare discounts http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=443

Article on literature searches in operating room management

This article from 'Anesthesia and Analgesia' has a lot of useful information about the value of librarians, including references to studies about clinical ones. It also includes an interesting discussion on people’s search behaviour and use of resources.


Difficulties and challenges associated with literature searches in operating room management, complete with recommendations
Wachtel RE1, Dexter F.
Anesth Analg. 2013 Dec;117(6):1460-79. doi: 10.1213/ANE.0b013e3182a6d33b.

The 2016 MLA/CHLA/ABSC/ICLC Committee invites submissions for Late Breaking Lightning Talks

The 2016 MLA/CHLA/ABSC/ICLC Joint Planning Committee invites submissions for Late Breaking Lightning Talks that support the theme, “Mosaic: Be Part of the Big Picture.” Submit using MLA’s online abstract submission site starting on Monday February 15, 2016 and ending at 6:00 p.m., central time, on Monday February 29, 2016. 

Keep in mind that Lightning Talks are brief, focus on one main point, and are verbally oriented.  They will be strictly limited to no more than 5 minutes of presentation time.  All Late Breaking Lightning Talks will be presented during the 9-10:25 am session on Wednesday, May 18, 2016. 

Plan to submit your structured abstract for your research project or program description using the structured abstract guidelines.  When submitting structured abstracts, authors will decide whether their abstract is a research abstract or program description abstract:

• Research abstracts report on designing, conducting, and analyzing a research project.
• Program Description abstracts describe the creation and improvement of products, programs, technologies, administrative practices, or services conducted by librarians and information professionals.

Authors should select carefully, as different criteria are used to assess research and program description abstracts. All criteria for both kinds of abstracts are available in the Papers and Posters FAQ.

Late Breaking Lightning Talks acceptance or decline letters will be sent by Wednesday, March 30, 2016.

For more information, contact:  Carrie Iwema,AHIP  (iwema@pitt.edu).

Download the full Call for Submissions (includes both English and French).

A day in the life of a clinical librarian

For those of you who are new to our blog, each month we share what a day in the life of a clinical librarian looks like. This month we're interviewing our new clinical librarian, Keith Nockels!

Who are you and where do you work?
I am Keith Nockels, and I am based at the Odames Library at the LRI.


How long have you been there?
Only since 9th December 2015!


What attracted you to Clinical Librarianship?
I fell into medical librarianship by accident years and years ago when looking for a graduate trainee position prior to library school.  Finding out about medicine and health, working with medical students and with medical books and journals, was fascinating and rewarding and I was hooked.  Realising that at the end of our work was a patient was also quite a thought and has kept me motivated. I did have a few years in other library work, and although it was very good, I moved back into health librarianship as soon as I could.

I have been at the University of Leicester Library since late 2003, supporting medical and operating department practice students, postgraduate students in the Department of Health Sciences, and social work and biological sciences.   I went part time in 2008 on the arrival of my younger son, so have returned to full time working by taking on this clinical librarian role at UHL.  I would make a very bad doctor or nurse, but being a librarian in a hospital setting is helping them care for patients, and I look forward to putting my literature searching and other library experience to use in patient care.

I am at the LRI for three days a week, jobsharing with Sarah Sutton, and am at the University the other 2 days.   I am already seeing places where my work in one institution will have a positive effect on my work in the other!


What does an average day at work involve?
It’s part of the attraction of health librarianship that there is no “average day”, but it might involve answering email requests for help, answering the phone, meeting people to help them use a database or other resource, or doing a literature search to help someone care for patients or do research.   As a new member of UHL staff, I have found out about how my clinical areas work and tried to find excuses to contact my areas to introduce myself or send them useful information.  I have also been reading books about cardiology, genetics and cancer (other areas are on the list!).  And I have been thinking about journal clubs and about the reference management system RefWorks.


If you weren’t a Librarian, what would you be?
I have no idea!  


Tell us a joke or a non-work fact about yourself
I should probably run any jokes past my younger son, so safer might be the non-work fact that I am a Morris dancer.  Not in the Library, though.   Not so far.

Health and social media

The debate around health and social media continues. But knowing how to use all the different platforms on a professional level results in healthy, popular accounts that are extremely useful to library services, your colleagues, contacts and organisations in the health world.

We think this article list by Cochrane on health and social media is an interesting set of tips and discussions on the topic.

What are your thoughts on health and social media? Do you have a Twitter account? If not, why?

Access to Literature Searching MOOC is closing!

In September the Library and Information Network North West launched their 'Introduction to Literature Searching MOOC'

Participants can access free on line training that breaks down the literature searching process into manageable pieces.  The MOOC is designed for healthcare librarians rather than students or clinicians who want to learn how to literature search.  It is also intended to be useful to librarians that would like to set up a literature searching service.

From PICO to LQAF this MOOC is a valuable easy-to-digest resource with lots of practical activities to consolidate learning.

There is a Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1630813657179557/ 

and a  blog https://lihnnmooc.wordpress.com/ 

The MOOC closes on 12th January 2016 but you can still register now and have a browse through all of the content.  Register here www.coursesites.com/s/_LIHNNMOOCLS

Thanks to Lisa Mclaren and Michelle Madden for providing us with this training resource