I was fortunate to be able to attend ALA Annual 2024 in San Diego, CA June 28-July 2, 2024 with the assistance of the NCNMLG Professional Development Award. I am a fairly new academic librarian at California State University, Sacramento. Since I am still exploring what my research focus will be, a large conference like ALA was appealing to get a sampling of research across many different topics. I had not attended this conference since 2015, and it was heartening to see the turnout and participation gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels. 

A major focus of this year’s conference programming was unsurprisingly artificial intelligence (AI). I attended several sessions on this topic, ranging from how to design AI prompts to incorporating AI into information literacy instruction. I was able to share several resources I learned about with my colleagues in the research and instruction department, and it spurred me and two other colleagues to create an AI literacy research guide of our own for our faculty and students. We have been promoting this guide this semester and have received positive feedback so far.

As our institution prepares for its reclassification to an R2 university, we are expecting an uptick in research service needs, one of which may be research data management services. I made sure to attend two panel sessions on data literacy (“Developing Data Literacy Champions: Building a Culture of Critical Engagement with Data”) and Open Science (“Open Science Conversations: Academic Library Engagement, Outreach & Services in the Year of Open Science”) which were great resources to prepare for these services. The topic of AI bled into these sessions, and I was surprised to discover a new challenge to Open Access: researchers are hesitant to deposit their works into open repositories for fear that proprietary AI will harvest their work and use it as training content. I also learned about features and benefits of Open Science to create buy-in with researchers, such as streamlining their research process, eliminating loss of data, versioning control, and justifying that higher education is valuable in society to policymakers and the general public.

One particularly special aspect about my attendance this year was that I was able to attend the ALA Spectrum Scholarship graduation lunch. I am a Spectrum Scholar alum (2012) and the current co-chair of the scholarship jury, so getting to meet and celebrate this year’s awardees was particularly rewarding. I also was able to meet my co-chair and ODLOS staff for the first time in person after more than two years of Zoom meetings, and this would not have been possible without the NCNMLG award. I encourage anyone considering applying for this award to apply, as it greatly helped with my professional development.

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– Submitted by Alicia Zuniga

I am grateful for the financial support from NCNMLG in the form of the professional development grant for 2023-2024. The monies helped cover the expense of my Provisional AHIP application and my participation of several virtual education sessions of my choosing that have helped augment and expand my Health Sciences Librarianship knowledge and skills throughout the past year. The content touched upon several topic areas with the greatest emphasis on support/services for systematic and other reviews, the Health Humanities and some web-design principles for LibGuides and beyond.  

The areas around which I have the greatest persistent engagement these days are diversity/equity/inclusion values and principles, the discipline of Health Humanities and community engaged teaching or service learning. These three areas consistently intertwine to inform my priorities and pedagogical and lived positions.

A standout event I found particularly enlightening and of high relevance to my research interests was the annual Graphic Medicine Conference – Toronto 2023. I participated online and found the session program consistently compelling and engaging. While I do wish there were some hybrid or virtual workshops, I found the online sessions useful and beneficial. The session called “Weaving our Worldview Using Graphic Medicine: Panel Discussion on the Generational Experiences of First Nation Health Research” from Justice Seidel, Greg Spence, Rachel Corston, Jane Zhao, Sahr Wali was particularly illuminating. Their team used the structure of a sharing circle in Moosonee, Ontario during May of 2022 to engage with the local community to identify opportunities to better access heart health care in ways that are culturally safe. They used story and graphic medicine to carry out this work. The panel provided both description and emphasis on the unique values and potentials possible when leveraging graphic medicine to support a broad range of age and ethnicity positions to highlight care solutions that are accessible, safe, inclusive, creative and useful.

This event is organized by the Graphic Medicine International Collective and their next conference will be in Ireland. I intend to join virtually again for this subsequent program, but hope to attend an in-person iteration in the near future. I recommend anyone interested in the use of comics in health take a look at their website where you can find useful resources like a syllabus repository, read their blog, see past and future conference information, and find opportunities to get involved.  

Next time you see this grant opportunity announced, consider taking a little time to apply!

I am delighted I made the effort to pursue this award and feel quite lucky to have received the support and opportunity to participate in these sessions. Thanks again, NCNMLG!

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— Submitted by Lara Katrina Schott

These NCNMLG members will be presenting at MLA 2024 in Portland, OR from May 18-21. Whether you are attending virtually or in person, please try to support our members and attend their presentations.

Sunday, May 19

The 100 Top-Cited Articles in Osteopathic Medical Education: a Bibliometric Analysis
Lori Fitterling, Kansas City University, Sloane Kelley, Arkansas State,  Kyle Robinson, California Health Sciences University, Mary Ying-Fang Wang, Laura Lipke, Binghamton University,  Adrienne Brodie, A.T. Still University

Marketing with AI: Creating a Marketing Team Prompt Library
Amanda Woodward, Web Services Librarian, Lane Medical Library, Stanford Medicine; Sonam Soni, Resource Management Librarian, Stanford Medicine; Katie Stinson, Reference Librarian for Outreach and Engagement, Bellack Library, MGH Institute of Health Professions; Nicole Chiodo Soares, Privileges Specialist, Lane Medical Library, Stanford Medicine

Doing It Together: Integrating a Clinical Education Librarian into a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Team
Michelle Lieggi, Dignity Health, Lindsey Gillespie, Dignity Health

Strength in Numbers: Using Data on Library Literature Searches to Measure Impact on Evidence-Based Patient Care and Hospital Policy/Procedure Changes 
Michelle Lieggi, Dignity Health, Lindsey Gillespie, Dignity Health

Lightning Talk
Artificial Intelligence: Your Library Event Planning Assistant
Boglarka Huddleston, Lane Medical Library, Stanford Medicine, Colleen Cuddy, Lane Medical Library, Stanford Medicine, and Samantha Wilairat, Lane Medical Library, Stanford Medicine

Lightning Talk
Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) Assessment in US Allopathic and Osteopathic Undergraduate Medical Education: Initial Results from a Scoping Review
Katie Hoskins, Touro University Nevada

Monday, May 20

Strengthening Our Understanding of Librarian Roles in Supporting Medical Image Consent Standards
Sarah McClung, University of California, San Francisco, Rachel K. Stark, California State University, Sacramento,  Megan DeArmond,  Touro University Nevada

Poster Presentation
Reaching Pediatricians at the Point-of-Care via ClinicalQ, an EHR-Embedded Clinical Question Support Service
Christopher Stave, Lane Medical Library, Stanford Medicine

Tuesday, May 21

Textbook and Board Exam Prep Resources: Trends in Academic Health Sciences Libraries Serving Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
Lori Fitterling, Kansas City University , Molly Montgomery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Hal Bright, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences Joanne Muellenbach, California Health Sciences University and Kyle Robinson, California Health Sciences University

Creating Research Culture in a Physician Assistant Program
Megan DeArmond, Touro University Nevada,  Katie Hoskins, Touro University Nevada, Julie Horwath, Touro University Nevada, Sherli Koshy-Chenthittayil, Touro University Nevada , Oksana Matvienko, Touro University Nevada

Project management level up: How the right tools and training can improve collaboration in your library
Tiffany Garrett, Roseman University of Health Sciences

Poster Presentation
The Ongoing Struggle to Get It Right: Teaching Information Fluency to the First-Year Medical Students with a Case-Based Approach
Connie Wong, Lane Medical Library, Stanford Medicine

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— Submitted by Sara Pimental

Thank you to NCNMLG for awarding me the professional development funds to attend the Internet Librarian Conference in 2023. This year, the conference was held online from October 16 – 19, and included access to the session archives through the end of December.

One of my favorite sessions was titled ‘Decision-Making Dartboard: Watch your Aim’ and delivered by M.J. D’Elia, Associate Chief Librarian, University of British Columbia, Okanagan and Scott Hargrove, CEO, Fraser Valley Regional Library. During the session, they shared a graphic dartboard that can be used to identify what type of decision you are making and what type of method should be used (for instance: an emergency in the library may require immediate executive decision-making by the Library Director whereas other types of decisions may be more appropriate for seeking a consensus). I found this presentation extremely useful and am planning to share these concepts in my library in 2024.

Due to my professional role (which includes supporting library technology), a few sessions that I especially found relevant were ‘Fostering Tech-Savvy Staff,’ which was delivered by Nick Tanzi, Assistant Director & Library Technology Consultant, South Huntington Public Library as well as ‘Readying Staff for Innovation,’ by Eric Kokke, Marketing Manager, Go School for Information. An element of Tanzi’s session included best practices for delivering tech instruction to library staff plus specific tips for how to format training materials and evaluate tech-related proficiencies. The presentation also included a discussion of soft skills and ideas for developing a work culture that encourages interest in technology. Kokke’s session shared some different types of innovation, reasons to innovate, as well as insight into why we and our teams may be resistant to innovation and change. Kokke also discussed drivers of successful innovation and provided specific tips for encouraging innovation in the library setting.

Many of the sessions for this year’s Internet Librarian Conference were focused on exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications in libraries. One of the workshops I attended that discussed AI (including a chat conversation around how librarians and library staff are experiencing AI along with their patrons) plus many other technologies was ‘Tech Trends for 2024’ hosted by David Lee King. King discussed how different technologies are being used in libraries as well as how they are impacting our larger world.

In previous years, I have attended the Internet Librarian Conference in-person, but this was my first time attending virtually. I learned a lot and was so grateful to NCNMLG for providing me with the funds to participate! For any librarians or library staff who are in technology-related roles or just have an interest in technology, you can check out the 2023 program and see if it looks like a conference you may be interested in attending in the future: https://site.pheedloop.com/event/ILC23/conference/schedule

And for any NCNMLG Members, I highly recommend applying for one of NCNMLG’s Professional Development Grants to support your own professional growth!

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– Submitted by Marina Aiello

The Louise Darling Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Collection Development in the Health Sciences is seeking nominations or applications! *Applications are due October 15th, 2023.*

The Louise Darling Medal is presented annually to recognize distinguished achievement in collection development in the health sciences. The medal honors Louise Darling’s significant accomplishment in this professional specialty. The jury reviews nominations and awards points based on achievements, leadership, cooperative efforts, and service.

Please consider applying or nominating a colleague. Full information on the award, criteria, and the nomination form can be found through the Louise Darling award page: https://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=242

Link to: Louise Darling Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Collection Development in the Health Sciences

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— Submitted by Sara Pimental