Message From the President

Linda Watson, MLS, AHIP, FMLA
President, Assoc of Academic Health Science Libraries
Director, Health Sciences Libraries
University of Minnesota Twin Cities

President’s Message #10 – August 2008

Advocacy

Five years ago, I was privileged to be a part of the April 2003 meeting hosted at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that resulted in the development of the “Bethesda Principles” on Open Access.  HHMI is hosting a follow up to that conference on October 10th to “take stock of what has been achieved and to identify obstacles that remain to achieving full open access to the results of scientific research. This meeting will focus on identifying – based on the experiences and experiments of the last five years – the lessons that have been learned and the specific, practical steps that are needed to continue, if not accelerate, the move toward full open access.”  AAHSL will be represented by Gretchen Arnold, Mary Ryan and me.  Mary will be a bridge between these conversations and the dialog that has begun within the AAHSL/Publisher Liaison Task Force, and of course our Scholarly Communications Committee. 

AAHSL and MLA signed on this month to a letter generated by the Coalition for Health Funding urging Congress to provide additional funding for federal public health programs in any potential continuing resolution-type legislation. 

E-Science

At our 2007 business meeting, I noted my interest in exploring how to keep members informed about e-Science and CTSA programming.  Over the summer, the Program and Education Committee explored with Neil Rambo the possibility of organizing a webcast for us on the topic and a rough plan was outlined.  For reasons of timing and budget, we’ve decided to hold off on that for now and reconsider for late winter.  In the meantime, as you may have seen in a message to the list by Jim Shedlock earlier this week, Neil and I will be presenting with Betsy Humphreys at an ARL/CNI forum on Reinventing Science Librarianship on October 16-17th on a panel entitled “Lessons & New Roles: the Experience of Health Sciences Libraries.”  You may be hearing from us in the next few weeks as we solicit and test some ideas for our discussion.  The forum is open to non-ARL folks, so those of you within easy driving distance might want to consider attending.  Here is the agenda and registration information. http://www.arl.org/events/fallforum/forum08/index.shtml

  Annual Meeting Plans

  An intrepid group has volunteered to help me develop and staff an AAHSL poster and exhibit in the IME Exhibits at the AAMC Meeting:  Marianne Burke, Marianne Comegys, Jacque Doyle, Jean Shipman, Pat Thibodeau and Gail Yokote.  Mary Piorun has volunteered to lend her artistic talents to actually producing the poster.  Stay tuned for a masterpiece!
 
Member Transitions

Departing: Joanne Sparks (Memorial Sloan-Kettering)

Acting Director: Donna Gibson (Memorial Sloan-Kettering)

Retired:  Spencer Marsh (SUNY Stony Brook)

New Director:  Heidi Heilemann (Stanford)


Happy Labor Day Weekend!