It was lots of fun and a treat for me to get to leave Syracuse in January and gape at palm trees for a couple of days.

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The slides for my talk (which look awful in Slideshare) are embedded below.

To clarify for Krista Clement:

I think anything that removes obstacles between users and the information they want is good. If more fully automating some functions of the library makes those functions less visible, I think that’s great. I don’t think that doing a better job for users will result in decreased funding, but I do think that better automation will cut costs.

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Internet Cool Tools for Physicians is in Google Book Search

Stephen Francoeur made this little video:

The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the MLA mentioned it on their blog.

The MLA’s Taskforce on Social Networking Software posted about it, calling it “…an accessible, illustrated and contemporary guide to online tools in medicine.”

Laika, whose blog has quickly become one of my favorite MedLib blogs, mentioned it, as did Creaky.

I’m watching WorldCat.org with interest to see which libraries are getting it (though Duke’s copy doesn’t show up yet).

Dr. Shock (MD, PhD) gave it a very nice review.

I’m lucky to count as friends people like Meredith Farkas and Michael Stephens, both of whom thought the book worthy of mention on their very popular blogs.

Gosh- Brandi blogged about it way back in August- well before it as released!

I’m pleased to see mention of it in languages other than English.

The President and CEO of Community General Hospital blogged about it.

It has gotten some buzz on Twitter.

We’re anxious to hear any feedback you have about the book- please let us know what you think….and what you think needs to be added or changed for the second edition!

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Yay!

You can buy a copy from:
Springer Publishing

or here:

I’m looking forward to eventually seeing it in WorldCat.

Congratulations to Melissa Rethlefsen (who wrote a heck of a lot more than I did)! You should really go email Melissa now and tell her how much she rocks.

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Jill Hurst-Wahl’s slides are available here.

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Also: I’ll be on a panel at NYLA tomorrow (Friday, 11/6/2008) afternoon at 4:00 PM- please say hello if you’re going to be there! As usual at these sorts of things, I’ll know almost nobody. But hey- I might get to meet Polly Farrington!

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“We feel like this every year,” I tell Lynn. “In the last couple of days before the MLA meeting we’re completely stressed out and we don’t think there’s any way that we can get everything done that needs doing. But we always end up having a great time…”

Thanks, Scott- I needed that.

Here are the three times I’ll be speaking:

• Web 2.0 for Professional and Clinical Productivity (Co-presenting with Patricia F. Anderson)
  Session Title: Evidence Base: Web 2.0 for Professional and Clinical Productivity
  Session Type: Section Program
  Session Start: 5/20/2008 4:30:00 PM
  Session End: 5/20/2008 6:00:00 PM
  Location: Regency Ballroom A
  Description: The Lecture on the Evidence Base focuses on the evidence base underlying clinical practice including its content, organization and its use. This year’s proposal is to bring in one or two experts on the emerging Web 2.0 technology and how it is being applied in healthcare related educational and clinical settings to improve the productivity of professional and clinical staff. Librarians need to see how these emerging technologies can affect health care settings in the future to know how to train and supports students and staff who will be working in these settings in the future.
• Session Title: Plenary Session IV: Web 2.0 Tools for Librarians: Description, Demonstration, Discussion and Debate
  I’m one of four presenters (others are Melissa Rethlefsen, Amanda Etches-Johnson, and Bart Ragon- all of whom kick butt)
  Session Start: 5/21/2008 9:00:00 AM
  Session End: 5/21/2008 12:00:00 PM
  Location: Grand Ballroom
  It’ll be Webcast(ed?) live.
• Session Title: Not-So Dangerous Liaisons: Best Practices for Library Liaison Work (CE801)
  (Presenting with Michelle Kraft and Molly Knapp from 3:00 to 4:00)
  Session Type: Meeting Symposia
  Session Start: 5/21/2008 12:30:00 PM
  Session End: 5/21/2008 5:00:00 PM
  Location: Columbus ABCD
  Description: Many health sciences libraries have initiated or are planning liaison programs to help direct public services efforts more efficiently and with greater authority. As these liaison programs take form, valuable lessons are being learned about interacting effectively with academic departments. Communication, collaboration, and instruction all play a role in being an effective liaison. This symposium will address the various facets of liaison work among librarians, both academic and hospital-based, including methods for initiating or improving liaison programs, effective communication and instruction techniques, improved understanding of web 2.0 technologies as they apply to liaison work, and methods for evaluating the success of library liaison programs. Participants will have an opportunity to interact with panels composed of participants in successful liaison programs and to discuss how they might build a program at their own institution, utilizing some of the lessons from these panelists.

I’ve been working on a tentative schedule using Google Calendar, but I suspect that that some plans may suddenly change. That’s okay- change is good.

I won’t know a whole lot of people at MLA 2008, so please say hello if you go to any of these sessions! I’ll look pretty much like this, but with a more confused expression on my face.

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To my surprise, I was approved as an “official conference blogger” for MLA 2008.

All MLA 2008 conference bloggers:

Stewart Brower – Professional Notes

A’Lyn Ettien – The Creature from the Health Informatics Class

Marie Kennedy – Organization Monkey

Maureen ‘Molly’ Knapp – LSUHC New Orleans Health Sciences Center

Michelle Kraft – The Krafty Librarian

Leigh Mihlrad – Leigh’s Little Corner of the Web

Emily Molanphy (Emily has 2 blogs!) – Emily’s Journal – and – Eponymous Blog about Libraries

Bryan Nugent – The Universe of Medical Librarianship

David Rothman – davidrothman.net

Eric Schnell – The Medium is the Message

For reasons I haven’t yet been able to determine, they decided to aggregate all posts about MLA 2008 from each of these blogs on a page at a WetPaint wiki …but don’t provide an aggregated feed. So here’s a feed I slapped together in Yahoo! Pipes.

Here’s that same feed, previewed with FeedSweep:

I’ll put together a feed that pulls from more than official sources (sort of like the one I set up for CIL2008) next week and will elaborate on the MLA2008 GroupTweet I set up that’ll allow MLA attendees who use Twitter to conveniently send a tweet to all other MLA 2008 Twitter users from a laptop, cell phone, or other mobile device.

I’m bringing with me to Chicago these newfangled devices for the digital recording of sound and images (both still and moving)- so expect at least a little of that sort of stuff to appear here between 5/17 and 5/21.

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Reason 1:
I must try to finish a writing project (about which I’ll write more soon).

Reason 2:
I must make sure I’m well-prepared for my visit to Wisconsin at the end of the week.

Reason 3:
I need to keep refining my materials for MLA 2008. I’m not happy with them yet.

I’m not pleased to put off the blogging, but with the commitments I’ve made to others it is the only thing I can (in good conscience) put on the back burner.

Next week, I plan to put up a few posts about the AMA conference last week and some of the interesting things I learned there.

Also keeping me busy lately: Liz and I are expecting a baby in early July.

More about that next week, too.

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So Library Journal named me one of their 2008 Movers & Shakers.

(I’m curious: Are those named in this annual list all people who either move OR shake or people who both move AND shake? If the former, am I a mover or a shaker?)

Library Journal’s navigation makes it impossible to browse the profiles by name, so Jessamyn West sensibly made a version of the list with names.

Thank you to Melissa Rethlefsen for nominating me!

UPDATE:
Bobbi Newman has borrowed Jessmyn’s list and added links to the blogs of 2008 Movers & Shakers. Interesting how many of them have blogs, isn’t it?

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