I used the NCNMLG Professional Development Grant to cover a portion of the expenses that were incurred by attending the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA).\u00a0 This meeting was held May 3-May 8, 2013, but I attended from May 4-May 8.\u00a0 This was my second time attending the MLA conference, but my first time was in 2008, which was about two months after I had just begun my career as a medical librarian, so I am sure you can imagine I was somewhat overwhelmed and the experience was a whirl!\u00a0 While that first experience was certainly a valuable learning experience, this year\u2019s meeting gave me an opportunity to build upon the years of professional experience that I have acquired since that first meeting.\u00a0 When considering the meeting in retrospect, two themes particularly stand out: relationship building and professional inspiration.\u00a0 I\u2019ll devote the rest of this \u201cMLA Reflection\u201d to these two themes.<\/p>\n
Relationship Building<\/b>.\u00a0 To me, the word \u201cnetworking\u201d sounds so impersonal\u2026.after spending time with colleagues (friends!) that I already know, and meeting so many new folks, I left MLA convinced that \u201cnetworking\u201d should be replaced with the concept of building relationships.\u00a0 \u201cNetworking\u201d conjures images in my mind of business card swapping and navy blue buttoned-up suits.\u00a0 While I definitely did do some business card swapping, and of course there were navy blue buttoned-up suits present (nothing wrong with that!), I found that what was of most value to me was (in no particular order):<\/p>\n Professional Inspiration<\/b>.\u00a0 I could just say \u201cI learned a lot,\u201d but I feel like that doesn\u2019t capture everything- not only did I learn so much, I was truly, professionally inspired!\u00a0 We medical librarians are truly a bright and creative group- I was exposed to so many new ideas and find myself still pondering ways that some of these ideas, tools, and resources can be applied here at the UC Davis.\u00a0 In addition, I presented my first poster as an individual author, which was exciting and much more fun than I expected!\u00a0 It was a great feeling to finally present the results of a project that I have been working on for almost a year.<\/p>\n In the interest of brevity, here is a list of some of the highlights\/thought-provokers for me.\u00a0 If you are interested in any further details, feel free to send me an email: rjabad@ucdavis.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n Posters:<\/p>\n Programming:<\/p>\n To summarize: I had a wonderful time at this year\u2019s MLA Annual Meeting. \u00a0I am truly grateful to have received one of the NCNMLG Professional Development Grants and urge others to apply in the future for this great opportunity!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I used the NCNMLG Professional Development Grant to cover a portion of the expenses that were incurred by attending the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA).\u00a0 This meeting was held May 3-May 8, 2013, but I attended … Continue reading \n
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