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MDMLG NewsVolume 31, Number 3 |
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Christina Wallace, Editor Table of ContentsIncorporation of MDMLG Incorporation of MDMLGThe Articles of Incorporation to the State of Michigan were filed on February 24, 2005 so MDMLG will soon be recognized as a non-profit corporation. Attorney Gary Bender of Murphy Brenton & Spagnuolo in East Lansing acted on our behalf. He is also the attorney for MHSLA and MLC. There are no disadvantages to incorporating. The filing fee itself was only $20 and the attorney fees were only a few hundred. The benefits are that now any board member and their institutions are not personally or institutionally liable in the event of a law suit. In an association the members may be liable for payment on a contract for a speaker, for instance, if the association itself fails or is unable to pay off the debt of the group. Members of unincorporated associations may also be liable for any civil wrongs that they participate in, authorize or even simply assent to by vote or otherwise. Some members have been hesitant to run for office because of this issue. Once incorporated any liability is limited to the assets of the corporation. The Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act, MCL 450.2101 - 450.3192, allows nonprofit corporations to assume much of the liability of their directors and to indemnify their officers and directors for certain acts. This is accomplished through the proper drafting of the corporation's articles of incorporation and bylaws. Mr Bender is reviewing our Bylaws to be sure they were all in accordance with Michigan non-profit corporation status but any changes needed to the Bylaws will be minimal. Mr. Bender also advised us that it would be to our advantage to have an unaudited financial statement prepared by an accountant on a yearly basis. He did not think we had to have an official audit performed but that it would be best to have someone other than a member of the organization perform this annual review. MLC was willing to be the site of our official mailing address. We do not anticipate much, if any, mail but as a corporation we had to have a permanent address. The Board decided to delay any decision on applying for 501C3 status at this time. We are currently listed as 501C6 organization. The cost of filing for this is much higher: $250.00 for initial filing plus attorney fees would bring the total over $1000.00. As a 501C3 organization we would have the following privileges:
Additional responsibilities for the organization would be:
We think that over the next year or so members can consider whether this would be beneficial for us as an organization or not. Karen Tubolino Upcoming MDMLG Meeting and CEMEET. GREET. EAT. LEARN! The MDMLG General Business Meeting and CE opportunity will take place on Monday, April 4th, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn Michigan located at Michigan Avenue and the Southfield Freeway.
In addition to our meeting and lunch, this is your opportunity to complete a 4.0 hr CE presented by Duke University's Connie Schardt on "Evidence-based medicine study design and critical appraisal skills." The CE will run from 12:30pm to 5:00pm with one break. There is a nominal charge of $45.00 for the CE class. Please RSVP so we may know how many places to set for lunch! Registration forms are on the website. This will be our only business meeting in the Spring. Come and stay with us awhile. Lunch and learn!!! Diana Balint Click here for a map to the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn. Hyatt Regency Dearborn Memories of HildegardHildegard Joseph was killed in an automobile accident in Florida on Wednesday, February 2, 2005. Hildegard started her medical library career at Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital Library. She then worked at the HFH Sladen Library for ten years prior to her retirement in the late 1980's. The following piece, written by a long time friend and colleague, contains fond memories of Hildegard meant to honor and keep her memory alive. ************************************************************************ Yes, I knew Hilde very well. When I started work at Henry Ford School of Nursing Library, Dina was on maternity leave, so it was Hilde who met me on the first day and took me to the library. She encouraged me to do anything I could do to clean up the mess that was there since they had not had a "librarian" for nearly a year. What I found was a library cataloged in some scheme no one knew but the former "librarian" (who was not a librarian), so after weeding the collection, I re-cataloged the whole library collection. Once a week I would go over to the main library and catalog from a bunch of title pages and versos and Hilde was always there to help. Since we lived near each other, we also car-pooled every day to work, which gave us lots of time to talk! I remember one especially hairy trip when we were in the midst of a terrible snowstorm. By the time we left HFH, there was probably already about eight inches of snow that had come down since noon. I was driving that day and we had picked up two other riders. We always took the city streets (Second, Third, Woodward) because that was closest for us. The snow was coming down so hard that at about every third light, Hilde would jump out of the car and clear the windshield and wipers, which were constantly clogged with snow. When we got north of Catalpa, near where she lived, she jumped out of the car and said she was walking the rest of the way! Which was great because then I didn't have to attempt to negotiate the neighborhood streets. Always thoughtful, always ready for adventure—even in a snowstorm! When I moved to Providence and found yet another total disaster, Hilde came out to the Library one evening after work and we weeded the collection. (It went from approximately 8000 monographs to about 2000—that's how out of date it was.) That was Hilde, too. Always ready to help. On the social side…she and Bill and my Bill and I shared some similar interests so we went cross-country skiing together, both in town and at the Homestead in Glen Arbor. The homestead trip was shared with a couple of other librarians—Beth Salzwedel and Mary Taylor who also worked at Ford. Then she tried to make a sailor out of me! Though I love the water and had been on my parents' powerboat often, I had never sailed. So she took Marion Isaacson (librarian at St.Joe's in Pontiac) and I out on Lake St. Clair to teach us to sail. She and Bill also conducted a Power Squadron Course for us and our husbands in their living room in preparation for a trip to the Caribbean, where we would sail our own boat. We did have a wonderful week sailing around from island to island in the British Virgin Islands and have several funny stories about that. Probably the most pertinent, is that I was assigned to open and close the windows and hatches on that trip. Gives you some idea of what they thought of my sailing abilities! These are just some of my memories… AHIP Attitudes: Research and OpinionJune of 2004 saw the publication of the most recent study on AHIP in years. The concept was simple, yet a beginning point for future research: to determine what the attitudes of health sciences librarians in the Midwest Region were toward AHIP credentialing. Lynda Baker, Marge Kars and Janet Petty co-authored the study that appeared in the July 2004 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association. Commentary on the article was made by Tom Flemming, Jo Dorsch and Carla J. Funk. The authors' response to this opinion piece was printed in the January 2005 issue of JMLA. I'd like to invite the MDMLG membership to review the study, the commentary, and the authors' response and submit their own responses regarding AHIP or the articles to me to be included in a longer piece on AHIP credentialing upcoming in the next issue of the MDMLG News. The study, the commentary and the response are all available full-text through PubMed. The links are included below in the citations. Please send any commentary or opinion to me at christina.wallace@jstor.org. Citations: Health sciences librarians' attitudes toward the Academy of Health
Information Professionals The Academy of Health Information Professionals: ripe for research More research needed on the Academy of Health Information
Professionals, the profession, and the Medical Library Association Christina Wallace Medical Librarian AssociationsProfessional associations offer great opportunities for networking with peers, continuing education, and awareness of professional issues. Associations related to specialized fields in medical librarianship are described here. The Association of Mental Health Librarians (AMHL) is open to
librarians, library assistants and associates, and anyone concerned with
mental health librarianship. AMHL supports research activities by offering
a small grants program. The Association of Vision Science Librarians (AVSL) is an
international organization for professional librarians and persons working
in academic, hospital, clinic or private companies libraries with eye or
vision collections. AVSL is a Special Interest Group of the Medical
Library Association and the Association of Schools and Colleges of
Optometry. Substance Abuse Librarians & Information Specialists (SALIS) is
an international association established to promote the exchange and
dissemination of information related to alcohol, tobacco and other drug.
In 1986 it incorporated the Canadian Librarians and Information
Specialists in Addictions (LISA) Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences (ALHHS) purpose is education and exchange of information as well as promotion of
standards of service. The Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) is
formed of libraries of accredited U.S. and Canadian medical schools and
other related health care libraries and organizations. The association
promotes leadership, management and utilization of intellectual resources,
and research. It also influences legislation and policies related to
academic health sciences libraries. The Special Libraries Association's Biomedical and Life Sciences
Division has a Medical Section for members with special interests in the
biomedical and health sciences fields. The Medical Library Association includes sections and SIGs related to specialized fields. Sections include: Cancer Librarians, Chiropractic Libraries, Collection Development, Consumer and Patient Health Information, Corporate Information Services, Dental Educational Media and Technologies, Federal Libraries, Health Association Libraries, History of the Health Sciences, Hospital Libraries, International Cooperation, Leadership and Management, Medical Informatics, Medical Library Education, Nursing and Allied Health Resources, Pharmacy and Drug Information, Public Health/Health Administration, Public Services, Relevant Issues, Research, Technical Services, Veterinary Medical Libraries. SIGs include: African American Medical Librarians Alliance, Assessment and Benchmarking, Clinical Librarians and Evidence-Based Health Care, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Department of the Army Medical Command Libraries Department of Veterans Affairs Librarians, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Health Sciences Librarians, Mental Health, Molecular Biology and Genomics, Osteopathic Libraries, Outreach, Pediatric Librarians, Primary Care, Problem-Based Learning, Rehabilitation Hospital, Vision Science, Voyager. MLA has chapters in all regions of the United States. Every State in the U.S. and regions within the States have health sciences or medical libraries association. They are listed on the MLA Web site at: http://www.mlanet.org/resources/allied_lnks.html The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) <http://www.amia.org/> and the Association for Veterinary Informatics<http://avinformatics.org/> focus on all aspects of health care informatics. The Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA/ABSC) has
chapters throughout Canada. It promotes excellence in access to
information by encouraging professional development of health sciences
librarians through grants, awards, various programs and publications. CHLA
has chapters throughout Canada. The Ontario Health Libraries Association (OHLA) and CHLA/ABSC
have an affiliation agreement. OHLA promotes quality of information
services through education, leadership and advocacy. The European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL)
comprises medical and health sciences librarians, information officers,
libraries and private companies from twenty-five European countries. The
purpose is to promote exchange of information, raise medical research
libraries standards, and improve cooperation among libraries across
Europe. Marie-Lise Shams How
Data Literate Are You?
I'll be the first to admit this, but sadly, I'm not literate. Not at all. In fact the sole reason that I offered to write on this topic is to force myself to confront my dearth of understanding and attempt in a small (well, alright, tiny) way to ameliorate the failure. I know that many of us took some sort of statistics class at some point in our library training, but I also know that most of us forgot a lot of it in the following years, much like high school French. The need to better understand EBM and Six Sigma and other qualitative processes have forced that old data and study evaluation right back into the spotlight. Hopefully some of these concepts will help make our evaluation of medical information easier and more straightforward. Some basic questions
to ask about any given study:
What type of study
was used? The appropriate type of study used to garner information on a given topic makes a huge difference in its ability to produce reliable data. Typical study types are experiments (action is performed in controlled settings), clinical trials (intervention or action is performed and then followed up over time to see the outcome), or surveys (something is measured in a give sample of individuals and is self-reported either verbally or in writing). They will develop into one of several study design modes: randomized controlled trials (an intervention is performed on one group of participants with a second control group used for comparison), cohort studies (participants are selected on the basis of their exposure to some agent), case-control studies (participants with a particular disease are matched with control participants in looking for etiology), cross-sectional surveys (questions asked of a representative sample), or case reports (medical history of a single patient). Each of these is appropriate to use to achieve valid results, but the studied hypothesis will drive the most appropriate methodology. There are also research papers published which concern themselves with secondary research such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses. As they are not original research, I'll attempt to address them in a later article. Some common design types used are parallel comparison (each group received different treatments), paired comparison (subjects are paired to balance variables such as age an sex in order to study effectiveness of different treatments in the same study), single blind (subjects do not know which treatment they are receiving), double-blind (neither researchers nor study subjects know which treatment is being received), or factorial design (study investigating of more than one variable in comparison, both together and individually).1 There is much room for bias in terms of study design. Is the question being researched actually answerable by the study design? Are the placebos used exactly the same in appearance and taste? Have the participants been randomized into groups? (There are innumerable issues in doing this; they make my head spin. If you want more information read pages 46-47 of Greenhalgh's book.2) These are paralled in the sorts of questions which need to be asked in terms of looking at the conclusions of the study. So, how big is your
sample? Obviously there are inherent problems in some medical studies that cannot be avoided. If a researcher is studying the effect of a particular treatment intervention for a rare disease, there will be a significantly smaller available population from which to create groups, but ideally there should be a large enough group to represent an entire given particular population (ex: women who have taken birth control pills) in order for the results (providing that study A (100 participants) vs. study B (5000 participants) have methodologically perfect results) to be extrapolated to an entire given population. The larger the study group, theoretically, the more meaningful the results may be. There are all sorts of issues involved in the study design here, so other factors must be weighed and considered. Is the study multi-site? (Regional influences may influence one group over another.) Was the group handled in a consistent manner? A smaller, more controlled study may prove more valid than a larger study just in terms of human error. So, size is important, but it isn't the only issue. Taking Measurement There's not enough room in
this newsletter for me to go into all the measurement techniques involved here.
Instead, I'm going to point you to some resources that will better explain
measurement techniques. The
following links contain some charts comparing techniques:
I also again suggest Greenhalgh's book, Chapter 5:
Statistics for the Non-statistician. 3 When reading (for me, puzzling out meaning) statistics there is another concept that should be understood. What is the p value? The p value is the probability that any particular outcome would have arisen by chance. A p value of less than one in 20 (expressed as p <0.05) is considered statistically significant, and a p value of less than one in 100 (p < 0.01) as statistically highly significant. The lower the determined probability of error, the more significant the result. It means a smaller distribution of error, and though it could relate to the actual sample group studied, may also relate to the effectiveness of the intervention studied. The Inevitable
Conclusion: Lies, damn lies, and statistics - Mark Twain There are multiple ways in which the statistical conclusions can be used to (mis)advantage by drug companies, journalists and grant seekers. How many times have each of us received a call from a patron upon reading/hearing the news headlines, asking us what does it really mean? Because it is always possible to twist numbers to convey a certain point of view, every study needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Useful questions to consider in looking at the conclusions reached by the researchers will be who funded the study? Who stands to gain from the result? Are the results clinically applicable given the sample size? Is it repeatable? Were standards followed in obtaining and computing results? Are the results predictable in comparison with other similar studies? Did it appear in a peer-review journal? (Not that they are infallible) Are the reported numbers put in the correct context? Consider the following example from Eric
Meyer, a professional reporter now working at the My personal favorite was a habit
we used to have years ago, when I was working in Milwaukee. Whenever it snowed
heavily, we'd call the sheriff's office, which was responsible for patrolling
the freeways, and ask how many fender-benders had been reported that day.
Inevitably, we'd have a lead that said something like, "A fierce winter
storm dumped 8 inches of snow on Milwaukee, snarled rush-hour traffic and caused
28 fender-benders on county freeways" -- until one day I dared to ask the
sheriff's department how many fender-benders were reported on clear, sunny days.
The answer -- 48 -- made me wonder whether in the future we'd run stories
saying, "A fierce winter snowstorm prevented 20 fender-benders on county
freeways today." There may or may not have been more accidents per mile
traveled in the snow, but clearly there were fewer accidents when it snowed than
when it did not.4 Numbers are the current focus
of medical research. They drive
treatment plans, administrative policies, and research grants.
They also drive insurance coverage, public policy, and affect all aspects
of healthcare today. Clinical
studies, if done properly, using valid numbers, should help tell us how best to
care for patients and treat disease, but the number's meaning is always in
relation to its context. Bibliography: 1,2and 3. Greenhalgh, Trisha. How to read a paper: the basics of evidence based medicine. London: BMJ Publishing Group 2nd ed. 2001 4 Robert Niles' Journalism Help: Statistics Every Writer Should Know Juliet
Mullenmeister Most Memorable ReferenceMy funniest story really isn't reference, rather
cataloging the Pediatric Red Book. I went into OCLC and had a heck
of a time finding it, so in desperation I typed in the usual 3,2,2,1 code
using the proper name: Committee on Infectious Disease.... Then I
nearly collapsed laughing so hard that my staff came running to see if I
had totally lost it! What I got was "Come On In, Dearie :
the story of the prostitutes of Deadwood". (This isn't the exact
subtitle...I can't remember it exactly, but it was similar and had the
same meaning.) ***********************************************************************
My all time favorite reference question was, "How
do you *********************************************************************** The most challenging question I was ever asked was posed one evening, while on the reference desk at Wayne State's Science and Engineering Library. I received a call from a frazzled-sounding man. He told me that he needed to know the percentage of carbon atoms in the average mattress in a pull-out sleeper. He seemed serious. I asked him to give me twenty minutes, as I only had twenty minutes left on my shift and didn't want to pass this doozy off. Another reference assistant was nearby and laughed at the request I had only twenty minutes to find an answer to. He bet me a large amount of German chocolate that I could not find the answer in twenty minutes using only paper resources. The race was on! Using only the texts on the reference shelf behind the desk, I first determined which type of foam rubber the average mattress was made of (luckily they are usually made of the same foam rubber!). Then I found the chemical formula for that type of foam rubber. Unfortunately, the foam was a polymer, meaning that there was a variable length carbon chain in the center of the molecule. I worked out a rough equation to determine the length and reduced it to a ratio, which he could then use to decide the percentage if he so desired. I don't know if the man was a "secret shopper" for librarians, but he was shocked when I called him back seventeen minutes later to report the answer. The next day he called the reference desk and told me I was right and the next time I came in for my shift there was an envelope of Starbucks coupons for free coffee to go along with my hard-earned German chocolate. Christina Wallace AnnouncementsThe libraries at Harper University Hospital/Hutzel Women's Hospital and Detroit Receiving Hospital and University Health Center closed on March 1, 2005 as a result of strategic planning initiatives between the Detroit Medical Center and the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Expanded library services to these three hospitals, as well as access to a print collection, will now be provided by the Wayne State University Shiffman Medical Library. To continue to support the needs of hospital clinicians and staffs, a "resource center" will be available in each hospital to provide quiet study areas as well as computers for research and document delivery. The specialized DMC libraries will continue to support the other DMC hospitals with their customary excellence. Cherrie Mudloff *********************************************************************** Christina Wallace has left Windsor Regional Hospital for a librarian position at JSTOR, the journal archiving not-for-profit. Christina has been at the JSTOR Ann Arbor office for a month now as Data Release Specialist. Christina will continue as Communication Committee Chair until the end of her term this summer and hopes to see everyone this summer at the Luncheon! *********************************************************************** The SLA Michigan Chapter is holding their March meeting on Tuesday
March 29, 2005. *********************************************************************** The MDMLG Scholarship has received applications! Thanks to the wonderful efforts of Pat Vinson and Lynda Baker in getting the word out about our scholarship. The recipient will be announced in the next issue of the MDMLG News and will be honored at the MDMLG Summer Luncheon. * * * Donations to the MDMLG scholarship fund have been made in memory of Hildegard Joseph. *********************************************************************** Nancy Rusin is pleased to report that she has received the Technology
Improvement *********************************************************************** The MDMLG Board is pleased to announce that
*********************************************************************** The ALA Public Programs Office,
in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine, Susan Brandehoff is the project manager for this exhibition
and her contact information is: sbrandeh@ala.org;
312.280.5054. Changing the
face of medicine
is also a website maintained by The National
Library of Medicine. It explores
how women have influenced and enhanced the practice of medicine. This online
exhibition celebrates some of
Technology Improvement Award: My ExperiencesNancy
Rusin was asked to write a brief piece about the Technology Improvement Award
she received for her library. The
following is her contribution. I've been asked to write about
my experiences with the Technology Improvement Award.
It's the first proposal I've ever written.
With support from a grants staff person, I managed to assemble an
eight-page document. It included an
introduction to the library and its role within the department, a statement of
need, and project goals and objectives. What impressed me about the
experience is the tremendous support that I received from the NNLM/GMR. I asked
for and received samples of previous proposals, which had been accepted. Ruth
Holst was very patient with me when I made questionable responses to her
concerns. I learned so much just
from the process alone. My library
is small, and most of the time the topics discussed on the listservs don't
relate to my experiences. Additionally,
I'm not the ‘tech-iest' librarian. I
knew, however, what I wanted to do. I wanted to improve ILL services to other
libraries. I also wanted to work
toward fulfilling the Healthy People 2010 objective, which challenges
public health agencies to increase the proportion of employees who have access
to the Internet to 75%. Not only did
I want to offer Internet services to employees, but I wanted it to be on the
best equipment we could obtain. Previously,
we had hand-me-downs from other units in the department. I am very pleased and humbled to have received the award.
I'm still working out the kinks. I learn best from my mistakes, and
I've made quite a few during this process. I'm trying to follow my timeline,
but situations beyond my control have prevented me obtaining a fax line. This
should come in April. If you are
thinking about applying, do it. If I
did it, anybody could do it. I'd
like to cheerfully conclude with the following statement: “This
project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National
Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No.
NO1-LM-1-3513.” Thank you. Nancy Rusin Communications Committee 2004-2005 MDMLG News is under the direction of the Communication Committee and is published four times a year. The members of the Committee are:
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