---------------------------------------------------------------- PH/HA News Public Health/Health Administration Libraries Section Newsletter Spring 1999 ---------------------------------------------------------------- From the Chair Welcome to another year in the Public Health / Health Administration Libraries Section! An update of some the section's activities follows: Section Activities *The section is updating its by-laws with the extended efforts of Nancy Allee, Immediate Past Chair. *Events have been set in motion to change the section name to the Public Health /Health Administration Section so as to encourage increased membership by persons who may not belong to a public health or health administration library but are generally interested in public health and health administration issues. *An archivist position for the section was approved at the last Annual Meeting. *Therefore, look for a new position to be filled for this year's section elections. *Membership Chair, Olivia Pickett, designed and distributed a profile survey to explore the dynamics of the section's constituency. *The section is also co-sponsoring two programs at the Annual Meeting this year: Youth violence: the present is tense. Issues to address for a better future, and Cross-connecting issues in global health. Towards international collaboration. Chair's Activities *The section's Annual Goals were submitted to MLA Headquarters last year with helpful input from section members. *The section's Procedure Manual has been updated. *The Mid-year Report was sent to MLA Headquarters in December. Future Activities *Look forward to having section nominations and elections in the near future. *The section name change may be approved this year. *An article regarding PH/HA's activities will be published in an upcoming issue of 'MLA News'. *The Annual Meeting, in Chicago this year, will be a great opportunity to re-forge ties with other section members. *We are having a productive year, and I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and support. I hope that you have found the email list for the group a useful venue for information exchange. Please feel free to contact me or any of the other section officers if you have any questions or concerns regarding the section. We want to makeo 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 Public Health Information Services & Access 109 Observatory St., M2030 SPH II University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029 email: lcwhang@umich.edu phone: (734) 936-1392 fax: (734) 763-9851 ---------------------- 1999 MLA PH/HA Program ---------------------- PH/HA to cosponsor two Program Sessions at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, May 14-20, 1999, Chicago Illinois *With the Relevant Issues Sections: Youth Violence: The Present Is Tense. Issues to Address for a Better Future. Tuesday, May 18 -- 10:30 a.m.-noon Through presentations by an invited speaker and contributed papers, it is anticipated that the audience will become more aware of current research in this area and of outreach services and interventional information efforts to youth, families, and affected communities. *With the Federal Libraries, International Cooperation, Medical Informatics, and Veterinary Medicine sections: Cross-Connecting Issues in Global Health: Towards International Collaboration. Tuesday, May 18 -- 2:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m. With the increasing trend towards globalization, global health concerns such as infectious disease control, disaster preparedness, food-borne illness containment, environmental toxins control, and stockpiling of vaccines are rapidly emerging. The Institute of Medicine released its 1997 report called "America's vital interest in global health", which indicated the need to develop a global health strategy to benefit the entire international community. Papers will address projects involving information retrieval or dissemination in these areas. ============ MEMBER NEWS ============ -------------------- PH/HA Member Honored -------------------- --Submitted by Olivia Pickett The Biomedical and Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association has announced a new award: The Winifred Sewell Prize for Innovation in Information Technologies in Biomedical and Life Sciences Librarianship. The prize is named in honor of PH/HA member Winifred Sewell, who, among other accomplishments, will serve as Honorary President of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in its 100th anniversary year in 1999-2000. Win is the first woman and the first librarian to be so honored. Our congratulations to her! (Source: e-mail from Paula Raimondo, Center for Indoor Air Research at ciar@class.org to the Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association.) ----------------------------------------------------------- PH/HA Members Active on Public Health Training Subcommittee ----------------------------------------------------------- --Submitted by Nancy Allee Several members of the PH/HA Section of MLA are working with representatives from the Partners in Information Access for Public Health Professionals Steering Committee to identify and assess training efforts by health sciences libraries and related organizations targeted toward both librarians and public health professionals as part of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) efforts to build on existing programs and expand training in the area of public health resources. In addition to CDC and NLM, the Partners initiative is comprised of other government agencies including HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration), ASTHO (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials), NACCHO (National Association of County and City Health Officials), and NN/LM (National Network of Libraries of Medicine). Members of the Public Health Training Subcommittee are Nancy Allee, Chair; Sandra Bonzo; Kris Markovich; Ron Merrill; Karyn Pomerantz; Catherine Selden; and Virginia (Ginny) Tanji. The subcommittee's charge includes the following agenda: 1) Identify existing training courses/programs within the NN/LM which are either specifically designed to focus on training health sciences librarians in public health resources, or can be adapted to focus on training health sciences librarians. Specifically, the subcommittee is expected to determine the following for existing courses/programs: a) course b) scope of the training c) contents of the training d) specific public health resources covered e) prerequisites f) evaluation component g) target audience h) mechanisms/approaches used for delivering the training i) materials used j) continuing education credits k) length of training l) frequency of updating. 2) Identify individuals with the expertise to provide training in public health resources for health sciences librarians and determine their availability to provide instruction. 3) Make recommendations as to: a) implementation strategies (how the steering committee should proceed). b) methods to make training available to NN/LM network members. c) timeline to initiate training. d) collaborations. The subcommittee has contacted RML (Regional Medical Libraries), MEDLIB, and PH/HA email groups to inquire about existing training efforts. Information has been received from over 25 libraries and organizations. More information about the Partners initiative and the Public Health Training Subcommittee is available at http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/partners/. --------------------------------- Public Health Syllabus on the Web --------------------------------- Epidemiology 411: Research Resources in Epidemiology is a ten week graduate course with lecture and discussion in the UCLA School of Public Health. The course covers instruction and practical experience in the use of online article and book databases, navigating the Internet, building reference files, and presentation of research findings for publication. The course is taught by three instructors: Anne Coulson, faculty in the UCLA School of Public Health, Kay Deeney and Alan Carr, reference librarians at the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library. The syllabus is available at: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/epi411/ For more information, contact: Kay Deeney Reference Division UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Box 951798 LOS ANGELES CA 90095-1798 Phone: 310/206-8016 kdeeney@library.ucla.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------- The PH/HA Newsletter is published by and for members of the Public Health/Health Administration Section of the Medical Library Association. For information about PH/HA, please view our Website at http://henry.ugl.lib.umich.edu/libhome/hw/health.admin/phha/ --------------------------------------------------------------------