At the CHLA/ABSC conference in Kingston, Ontario this year, we have a great selection of continuing education (CE) sessions, including both unique and classic topics.

Come improve your skills in navigating copyright issues, teaching, using and finding patents, gov info & stats, searching pubmed, polishing your professional image, fundraising, searching and peer reviewing searches to support systematic reviewing, and patient safety.

Information specialists, administrators most affected by cost cutting ordered by Treasury Board

Upgraded the site to Drupal 6 on the weekend.  Wasn't a cakewalk...

Changes to keep track of...

There will be a one-month extension to the Cochrane national license pilot via Wiley until January 31, 2010. Access for all Canadians continues to be dependent on existing Cochrane subscribers renewing their subscriptions in 2010. The Task Force recognizes this is not a satisfactory model going forward for any current subscriber. We feel, however, the pilot has demonstrated the need for a national license for The Cochrane Library and the opportunity to continue the trial should be taken. More information about this will be communicated shortly.

CHLA/ABSC has launched a NEW Jobsite Forum!  This forum is to provide members with the opportunity to post healthcare related library job advertisements on the CHLA/ABSC website in order to capture a wider audience.

What part of your district would benefit most from a literacy program? What’s the average health literacy level in the neighbourhoods surrounding your hospital? This kind of granular data on literacy and health literacy levels is now available at a glance, thanks to interactive online literacy maps created by the Canadian Council on Learning.

It feels auspicious that my first day of blogging is happening on Blog Action Day, an annual event which unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Blog Action Day focuses attention on an issue of global importance, with the aim of sparking discussion and action. This year’s theme is climate change.

Now …..what does that have to do with health?

Hello and welcome. This new blog is our way of bringing JCHLA’s consumer health information column online, to a format that’s easier to discover and retrieve and to a space that’s more conducive to links and discussion. My plan is to pre-publish column content here on a regular basis and add some juicy extra content - event announcements, topical commentary, etc. - that won’t necessarily appear in JCHLA.

Update: Sunday afternoon

Looks like the domain name servers have been updated.  Now working on restoring email forwards, and distribution lists.  Like packing, when travelling, I'm always relieved to figure out what one thing I invariably forgot when I get to my destination.  Of course I forgot at least one thing in this whole operation too.  I forgot to get the email distribution lists off the old host before the domain change happened.  Oh well, I can reconstruct those...  Hope that was the worst of it!  (yes, I'm touching wood!)

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Trina Fyfe will soon be giving up public relations duties for motherhood duties. She is expecting her first child in December.  Trina was acclaimed to a second term as Public Relations Director in June 2009. Trina has done a stellar job in bringing new ideas and moving ahead on several new initiatives including new membership campaigns, outreach to library programs and new CHLA/ABSC merchandise. We wish her well.

A number of you who attended Betsy Kelly and Barb Jones excellent "Measuring Your Impact" course at CHLA/ABSC 2009 had requested that provinces be added to the Valuing Library Services Calculator - Betsy and Barb have made this change and are looking forward to the addition of lots of Canadian data!
http://nnlm.gov/mcr/evaluation/calculator.html

Dear BMC Author,

CHLA/ABSC is undertaking a project to digitize articles published in Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana between 1996-2003 (during which time copyright of articles was held by authors). That being the case, we need your permission in order to digitize the articles you published in the journal.

Things to do:

1. Export database

• Empty all cache* tables
• Empty Sessions Table (remember to log in again right after)
• Empty watchdog table
• Empty all search* tables

1. Export based on http://drupal.org/node/81992

Monday, just over a week since the start of the 2009 conference in Winnipeg; five days since its end. Those five days went quickly by.

I have been tweeting each day some of my reflections on the conference. During presentations I take down a blend of notes on what I am hearing, and notes on where my thoughts spin off to.

So for example, during David Rothman's talk on library futures as utopia or dystopia, he said something about providing access, making the resources transparently accessible to the users. But what I thought was:

So, for those members currently active on Twitter, and there may have been a few new converts since the Winnipeg conference, there's been an interesting conversation going on, post-conference, about the role of social media and the association.  You can get a sense of that conversation here.

Thing is, and I hope Dean, Karen, Dan, Jeff et al. will agree, Twitter sucks for carrying on a conversation.

From Boston Globe - View Guest Book 

DALY, James A. "Jay" Suddenly in Brookline May 28, 2009. Loving father of Eowyn Daly - Griffin and her husband Tom of Dedham and devoted grandfather of Thomas. Dear brother of Kevin E. Daly of Washington, DC, Brian F. Daly of Mansfield and the late Michael G. Daly. Longtime companion of Margo Coletti ofDedham. Funeral from the Bell-O'Dea Funeral Home 376 Washington St. BROOKLINE, Tuesday morning at 8:00 followed by a Funeral Mass in St. Susanna Church, Dedham at 9:00. Relatives and friends are kindly invited. Visiting hours Monday from 4 - 8. Interment Walnut Hills Cemetery. Late Veteran U.S. Navy. Graduate ofHoly Cross College Class of 1968. He was an author, librarian and creator of QUICKDOC. In lieu of flowers donations in memory of Jay may be made to the Autism Language Program, ATTN: Marie Duggan, Children's Hospital Boston, 9 Hope Ave., Waltham, MA. 02453.

In their press release, the AFMC Resource Group on Libraries and Standing Committee on Research and Graduate Studies urge the Canadian Government to reconsider funding cuts to the NRC’s and Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information.

Read Press Release

For more information, please contact: Irving Gold Vice President, Government Relations and External Affairs The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada 613-730-0687 Ext. 236 igold@afmc.ca

Jam packed agenda as we try to condense the spring board meeting into 1 day...

See what the twitterati are saying about the conference.  Please note - the "official" hash tag is #chlaabsc09 - you'd think a bunch of librarians would have this authority control thing down... :-b  

Have any observations that require more than 140 characters?  Don't forget, CHLA/ABSC members can blog your thoughts right here!

Tim

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/save-the-consumer-health-information-se... This petition is the response of the CHLA/ABSC Chapter, the Toronto Health Libraries Association. Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:33 AM Dear members, With the loss of operating funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, the Consumer Health Information Service (CHIS) located at the Toronto Public Library closed on May 8, 2009. A petition site has been created to save CHIS - addressed to Margarett Best, Minister of Health Promotion.