MEDICAL INFORMATICS SECTION

MLA ANNUAL REPORT 2005-2006

This Section has been significantly challenged this year by Hurricane Katrina. Our Chair-Elect, Kathryn Kerdolff, was at the LSUHSC Library in New Orleans, a campus which was forced to relocate to Baton Rouge! We are all grateful that Kathy and family are all safe, although they lost their home. The effect of this on the Medical Informatics Section was that Kathy had to withdraw from her duties as Chair-Elect temporarily during the throes of 2006 program planning, and Janis Brown, of Norris Medical Library at the U. of Southern Cal., was kind enough to step into the breach. Kathy will be taking the Chair's seat as of Phoenix 2006, as planned, and has continued to keep current on the planning for the annual conference. The Section expresses its appreciation to both Kathy and Janis for their contributions this year and especially for just plain hanging in there!

In addition, the current Chair expresses her gratitude to Colleen Cuddy, our Secretary/Treasurer who facilitated closing of the previous section bank account due to administrative issues within the Section. A new account was opened under the auspices of MLA, in Chicago.

Goal 1: Recruitment, Membership and Leadership in the Profession

An election was successfully held. Our new officers are:

" Chair-elect 2006-07/Chair 2007-08: Janis Brown

Our Membership Secretary, Michael Kronenfeld, discovered in early April that there is no consistent means by which Sections are informed of new members. While a list of new members can be ordered from MLA, MLA does not have sufficient staff to handle these requests very often. When Kronenfeld compared the most recent membership list with the current listing of MIS members, there was a big difference. After consulting with the Chair, Kronenfeld overhauled the MIS listserv by deleting all subscribed members and re-populating with new members as per MLA's current information. From now on, a list of new members will be ordered quarterly.

Since we will be advertising for a new Membership Secretary, Michael Kronenfeld wishing to step down after some years of service, this is a good time to revisit the process by which members are added (and subtracted) from the section.

Goal 2: Life Long Learning
Our efforts this year have revolved around the MLA annual meeting programs.

Goal 3: Advocacy
The section continues to provide funding for the Medical Informatics Section/MLA Career Development Grant. Two awards of $1500 each can be given and the section fully funds these career development grants. One award was made to Ellen Justice, Christiana Hospital Library, Christiana Care Health System, Newark, DE.

Goal 4: Creating and Communicating our Knowledge

Objectives achieved:

Objective 2 : Sponsor and co-sponsor events at MLA annual meeting:

* Biomedical ontologies and taxonomies: Invited speakers; Co-sponsored with Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG (MIS primary). Tue., May 23, 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Stuart Nelson, Section Head, Medical Subject Headings, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MA, and Joyce Mitchell, Department of Medical Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Utah-Salt Lake City, will provide an introduction to ontologies and taxonomies and their application in the information storage and retrieval systems that are important to biomedical libraries.

* Stuck on E: Patron Expectation of E-Everything Changes What We Do. Submitted papers; Co-sponsored with Dental Libraries and Public Health/Health Administration Sections (MIS secondary). Mon., May 22, 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

* How We Educate Ourselves: A Refresher on Education Options. Co-sponsored with Medical Library Education Section (MIS secondary). Invited Panel. Mon., May 22, 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Finally, there will be a reception co-sponsored with the M.B. & G SIG. This reception will take place on May 22, 2006, between 6 and 7 PM.

Committee personnel:

Allee, Nancy (6/04-5/06) Nominating Committee Chair
Brown, Janis Acting "Program Chair"
Cecchino, Nic (12/03-5/06) Webmaster
Cuddy, Colleen (6/05-5/07) Secretary/Treasurer
Gregory, Joan (6/05-5/06) Section Council Representative
Kerdolff, Kathy (6/05-5/06) Chair-elect; Professional Development Program Chair
Kronenfeld, Mike (6/04-5/06) Membership Committee Chair
Layton, Beth AHIP (6/05-5/06) Immediate Past Chair
Lessick, Susan (6/05-5/06) Section Council Representative-Elect
Seago, Brenda L. (6/04-5/06) Government Relations Liaison
Smith, Catherine Arnott (6/05-5/06) Chair

Respectfully submitted, Catherine Arnott Smith, Medical Informatics Section Chair.

This report is informational and requires no action by the Board of Directors.

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