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Minutes
Public Health/Health Administration Libraries SectionI. Welcome and Call to Order
Nancy Allee, Section Chair, called the meeting to order at 3:45 pm.
II. Introductions
Members and visitors introduced themselves.
III. Approval of the Minutes, 1997 Annual Business Meeting
Minutes were approved.
IV. Reports from Section Officers
A. Outgoing Chair (Nancy Allee):
1. Co-sponsored a program for the 1998 Annual Meeting with the Medical Informatics Section which featured four speakers and had over 75 attendees.
2. Win Sewell and Stephanie Normann presented a poster session on the history of the PH/HA Section.
3. PH/HA web site was established by Darin Savage, Newsletter/Web Editor
4. June Gable revised the Section Bylaws. The Section needs to approve the new bylaws which then go to the MLA Bylaws Committee. A copy of the old and new bylaws will be mounted on the PH/HA web site so we can compare them. Send feedback to Nancy Allee.
5. An email group, phha.mla@umich.edu, has been established for the PH/HA Section. Nancy Allee will continue to maintain this.
B. Chair-Elect (Jean Chung):
Jean has met with Federal Libraries, Medical Informatics, Cancer, and Relevant Issues Sections to discuss co-sponsoring a program for next year's meeting. Possible topics include media influences on consumer public health. Need to decide on a program by June 10, 1998. Kathel Dunn suggested a joint program with Relevant Issues on youth and violence, and Stephanie Normann suggested collaborating with NLM and CDC on a Health Services Research topic.
C. Secretary/Treasurer (Linda Whang):
1. Linda transferred the PH/HA bank account to First Chicago Bank (MLA Headquarters' bank). We have a non-interest-bearing corporate checking account. The advantages to moving to First Chicago are that we do not have to move the Section finances each time there is a new Secretary/Treasurer (previously they were held at the Secretary/Treasurer's local bank), and we can write our own checks (for speaker fees, etc.) rather than buying money orders.
2. We received two remittance checks in the amounts of $261.15 and $441.75, and we contributed $100.00 to the MLA Centennial Fund. Our current balance is $2671.65. Luckily, our speakers for this year's program declined their fees, so we have no speaker fees.
D. Newsletter/Web Editor (Darin Savage):
Darin was not present at this meeting, but it was noted that he established the PH/HA web site (http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/hw/health.admin/phha/) and produced this year's newsletter (distributed to members at the meeting-a copy will be mailed to members who were unable to attend the business meeting).
E. Section Council Representative (Peg Hewitt):
1. Peg reported on visits to Section Council by Carla Funk, Executive Director of MLA, Virginia Lingle, Section Editor of MLA News, and Rachael Anderson, President of MLA.
2. Section Council Business Issues:
a. Restructuring Section Council to eliminate the Alternate Section Council Representative. Proposed a three year term: first year as Rep. Elect (Alternate), second year as Section Council Representative (alone), and third year as Section Council Representative with a new Rep. Elect who would serve as Alternate. In the second year there would be an option to have a proxy.
b. Section Awards. Some Sections give small cash awards to members of their Section and recognize them at the annual meeting. National level awards need an endowment of $25,000. Council wants to know what other kinds of recognition can MLA give to Section members? Any ideas about how this can be accomplished? Scrolling banners on section web pages was suggested as a way to recognize members. Should PH/HA have an award?
c. Section Compliance. MLA Headquarters will now keep track of whether Sections are still viable (does it have members, a newsletter, or a program?). Sections will not have to fill out paperwork.
d. Peg, Stephanie Normann, and Win Sewell attended a meeting for information professionals who provide health information in corporate settings. They don't feel that they fit in other Sections and don't know if they want to be a SIG, but they need programs on corporate life and CE on moving from non-profit to for-profit settings. Win suggested having one section for two associations, MLA and SLA. A task force will document the issues and purpose of forming a new Section and lobby for Section status.
e. Analysis of Section home pages. The MLA connection is not as obvious as it could be. Sections should incorporate the MLA logo on their pages. Several people commented that things are hard to find on MLANET.
f. The 1999 Annual Meeting will be in Chicago, May 14-20, 1999. MLA intends to put posters and abstracts on the web before and after the meeting. Discussed having an informal meeting/discussion for PH/HA members as well as formal programs and a business meeting at the next Annual Meeting. Jean Chung will investigate the possibility of setting up an informal meeting in Chicago.
F. Bylaws Committee Chair (June Gable):
June was not present at this meeting, but her work on revising the Section Bylaws was recognized. A draft of the Bylaws will be posted on the PH/HA web site.
G. Membership Committee Chair (Olivia Pickett):
1. Olivia will create a directory of PH/HA members.
2. PH/HA currently has 112 members, the highest ever.
3. Olivia needs help making a brochure. Beverlee volunteered to help.
4. Discussed whether one needs to be an MLA member or not to be a member of PH/HA. The PH/HA Bylaws, which have recently been revised, say that you do not have to be a member of MLA, but the PH/HA Section Membership Form states otherwise. Olivia Pickett will check with the MLA Bylaws Committee.
V. Old Business
Bylaws Revision. June Gable has revised the Bylaws. They will be available on the PH/HA web site.
VI. New Business
A. Archives
Win Sewell brought up the need to have a Section Archivist. We need to solicit past officers for their records and all members for old newsletters, etc. Erich Meyerhoff recommended hiring an archivist to set up a record system which we could then follow. A motion to create an appointed archivist position was approved.
B. PH/HA Name Change
PH/HA's name currently emphasizes it as a Library section rather than a Subject section. We would prefer to be a subject section so that we don't alienate people who do not work in a public health or health administration library but who nonetheless have an interest in public health issues. A motion to drop the word “Libraries” from the Section's name was approved. The next step is to check with MLA about how to officially change our name.
C. Election of New Officers
The slate of candidates (Chair: Kathel Dunn, Secretary/Treasurer: Betty Eckhaus Cohen, Newsletter/Web Editor: Sarah Safranek) was presented and approved by all present. A suggestion was made to publicize the list of candidates on the web prior to the meeting.
D. Location of the PH/HA Web Site
MLA can provide server space for Section web pages at the rate of $445/year (includes a listserv and 10MB storage space). Currently, the PH/HA web pages are located at the University of Michigan. Sarah Safranek (Newsletter/Web Editor) believes that her institution (University of Washington) can provide server space for free. Everyone agreed that we should move the pages to the UW web server if there is no charge, rather than pay MLA for server space. It was suggested that we make an alias for the old URL pointing to the new URL.
VII. Open Forum
A. NLM and Public Health professionals
Betsy Humphreys, Deputy Associate Director of NLM, has stated that NLM would like to be more involved with helping Public Health professionals be connected to the Internet. PH/HA could serve as a liaison between Schools and Departments of Public Health and Public Health electronic resources. NLM would like to know what would be the best way to go about training these people at local, regional, and state agencies, what kinds of training programs and facilities already exist, and how can Public Health practitioners be connected to Public Health information professionals and resources? Ginny Tanji, who does training at the University of Hawaii's School of Public Health, noted that people want onsite training and people want to know about relevant sites. It was noted that many health department employees are not connected to the Internet. A suggestion was made to train Public Health students to train health departments as a paid internship, and PH/HA could suggest a way to write a grant so that the students can be paid. Nancy Allee will survey the PH/HA membership about this issue and also pursue the possibility of establishing a Public Health Informatics Section within MLA and APHA. Stephanie Normann suggested asking NLM how the money will flow: directly to the Schools of Public Health, via CDC, etc.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 pm.
Linda Whang
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