What a mild Illinois winter this year, and the spring season is here to greet us!

Next week, during National Library Week, April 8-14 we have opportunities to demonstrate the value of libraries in our institutions and communities. If you need ideas for your event please read “How to Plan a Special Event to Promote the Library” By Kennedy, Joy C. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 11 3 : 261—268. This article is listed in the HSLI member publications section, http://hsli.org/publications/index.shtml on our website. If you have any recent publications, paper or poster presentations to add to the bibliography, please contact Stacey Knight-Davis at cfslk@eiu.edu.

Illinois Library Day is an advocacy effort of the Illinois Library Association to meet with legislators to convey the value of having libraries in the community. This year, our legislative committee co-chairs, Michael Wold and Eric A. Edwards are participating in Illinois Library Day, April 18 in Springfield. For the last two years during Illinois Snapshot Day, data was collected to show the value of libraries making an impact in our communities and institutions. Informing lawmakers of our value helped with funding libraries.

In the ongoing theme of making a compelling argument for the value of your library, the Metropolitan Detroit Medical Library Group (MDMLG) published Reports and Statistics: Communicating the Value of Hospital Libraries and Let’s Get Visible: Marketing the Medical Library. Never before have librarians and information professionals been more important than now.

As of March 30th, Joy Kennedy will be retiring from NCH. Please forward all reference/research or administrative requests to the NCH library email address. Any personal messages can be sent to Joy’s personal email at joykenn@gmail.com  For job seekers, her job is posted on NCH.org.

Conference Hotel:  Springhill Suites, 8101 West Higgins Road, Chicago
Nancy’s Reception: November 1 at Springhill Suites
CE Classes: November 2 at Resurrection Medical Center, Chicago

Watch for more information at this HSLI Newsletter blog site and the conference site http://hsli.org/conference/

At the beginning of the year,  not only is it time to pay our professional dues and start thinking about taxes, we must plan for the year ahead or even perhaps the next coming years. We also may recollect the adventures over the past year.

Thanks  are given to our conference co-chairs, Virginia Gale and Linda Feinberg, and the committee for organizing a stellar conference at Starved Rock State Park.  “Opportunities to Reach, Balance, Achieve. Doing Better What We Have Always Done Well” was the keynote address by Michelynn McKnight, PhD, AHIP.  In her address, she challenged us to engage in critical thinking and risk taking. Please visit http:// hsli.org/conference for an outline of her keynote address. Updates followed by Jacqueline Leskovec, Outreach and Evaluation Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR) who relayed new developments from the NN/LM GMR. We were fortunate this year to have Anne B. Craig, Director of the Illinois State Library, join us at Starved Rock with the state library report. Three CEs were offered at the conference this year. Thanks to Michelynn McKnight, Max Anderson, NN/LM GMR, Linda O’Dwyer and Michelle Frisque, both of Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University for their expertise! To all of our sponsors and exhibitors, thank you for your participation and support of the conference.

The Extinction Timeline 1950-2050 created by What’s Next and Future Exploration Network predicts the end of things, such as, the end of landline phones in the yeare2011. Also, in fine print, are words that state not to be taken too seriously. Seriously enough, post offices and libraries are on the extinction list for 2019. Fifty-eight percent of the librarians are expected to retire in 2019. Postal retirements have brought closure to post offices in communities. Not to follow suit of this trend, health science and hospital libraries can take measures to remain off the extinction list. Information professionals can proactively align with the mission of parent institutes, advance the Open Access (OA) movement by educating decision makers, contribute to patient safety by revisiting our health literacy roles, and keep technologically savvy with the continuing landscape of mobility options. Taking part in our upcoming conference in 2012 will offer information professionals the opportunity to obtain the skills needed in the future.

My 2011 holiday video card to the members is below. Through it you may enjoy highlights of this year’s conference at Starved Rock State Park. Happy holidays!

Try our video maker at Animoto.

Stacey Knight-Davis, Bibliographer for Nursing and Health Studies at Eastern Illinois University’s Booth Library, has been elected HSLI President-Elect for a one-year term.  Following her one-year term, she will become HSLI President for two years.    

Miranda Shake, Library Director and IT Coordinator at Lakeview College of Nursing, has been re-elected to her second two-year term as HSLI Secretary.  

Our thanks to Stacey and Miranda for their leadership.

Submitted by Chair of the HSLI Nominating Committee,  Molly Horio, MSLIS, from Advocate BroMenn Medical Center

Roy Jones, M.S.L.S., A.H.I.P.
Manager, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center Library & Resource Center & Caterpillar Family Resource Center
royden.r.jones@osfhealthcare.org

This statewide conference always manages to be a bargain in terms of fees for registration, continuing education classes and the quality of the meeting content. The location at Starved Rock was perfect for a fall meeting. The facilities, keynote speaker and continuing education courses that were offered were much appreciated and will be helpful in my job.

Keynote Speaker – The keynote address by Michelynn McKnight and her continuing education class “The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution” were timely and inspiring. Michelynn reminded us of the many opportunities that we have on a daily basis to promote our services to support the work of our institutions. The many real life examples that she offered were helpful and gave us some action items that we can easily implement in our jobs. Her book is a resource to consult for both promoting our services and thriving in our institutions.

Continuing Education Class – “Information Anywhere: Mobile Technology, Libraries and Health. I took Max Anderson’s class which was very informative for information on mobile technologies. Max listed the range of mobile devices that are currently available and reviewed applications that are relevant to medicine. We practiced creating our own mobile website with Google Sites and we learned how to generate a QR code. Detailed hand-outs that were included with the class will be useful for future reference.

Our annual meeting is a great opportunity to keep up with the latest developments in print and online resources, software, equipment, web applications and library management. The chance to network is always appreciated and helpful in many ways. I thank the scholarship committee for the support to attend this meeting.