Library Notes

Helen Harvey, the medical library’s long-time secretary, passed away on February 24th, 2005. Helen began working at the medical library in 1963 back when it was still the Archibald Church Medical Library. She dutifully served three library directors: Bill Beatty, Cele Kramer, and James Shedlock during her many years of service to Northwestern University. Helen remained a faithful friend of the library after she retired in 1992.

Linda Walton, Associate Director, has accepted a teaching position this spring for a second term at the School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Linda brings many years of library experience to her students in her medical librarianship course.

In addition to teaching, Linda has been working closely with colleagues on important community-related patient safety issues. On February 15th, 2005, she and Mark Berendsen, Education Librarian, organized a press conference at the Galter Library announcing the launch of Partnering for Patient Empowerment Through Community Awareness. PPECA is a hospital-library collaborative program focusing on increasing patient safety awareness. On March 11th, 2005, Linda introduced the PPECA program to the Chicago Patient Safety forum in a presentation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and in May will be again presenting this important program at the National Patient Safety Congress in Orlando, Florida.

Also, Linda has recently been elected to the Medical Library Association nominating committee, and she is serving on the newly appointed Task Force on MLA’s Educational Policy Statement.

Ramune Kubilius, Collection Development / Special Projects Librarian, and James Shedlock, Director, have received notification from the Medical Library Association that they have successfully been approved for renewal at the distinguished member level in the Academy of Health Information Professionals. AHIP is MLA's peer-reviewed professional development and career recognition program which recognizes and encourages professional activities and development. Congratulations Ramune and Jim!

Ramune has also had her article, Books in the Health Sciences: trends and challenges accepted for publication in the February, 2005 issue, vol. 17, no. 36, pp. 36-40, of Against the Grain. Ramune’s is one of several articles on electronic books featured in this special issue. The newsletter’s aim is to provide the latest news and information for libraries, publishers, and subscription agents. For more information, see http://www.against-the-grain.com/

Michelle Frisque, Head of Information Systems, guest lectured at Dominican University on February 19th, 2005 on the topic of “Technology in Health Sciences Libraries.” Other Galter Library guest lecturers in the Saturday morning semester-long course have included Director, James Shedlock, in a April 2 session that featured a health sciences libraries symposium, and Collection Development /Special Projects Librarian, Ramune Kubilius, in a February 26 workshop she and Linda Walton conducted on collection development.

Michelle also wrote a book review of The Medical Library Association Encyclopedic Guide to Searching and Finding Health Information on the Web which appeared in the January 2005 issue of Journal of the Medical Library Association, vol. 93, no. 1, 135.

On February 17th, 2005, Galter Library staff hosted a meeting of the Chicago Area Medical Archivists (CAMA), an informal group of archivists and librarians who have archival responsibilities. The group meets quarterly at member sites and the fall meeting is usually a medical history symposium-based meeting that takes place during National Archives Week. During the most recent meeting, Special Collections / Catalog Librarian, Ron Sims gave CAMA members a tour of the Galter Library’s special collections department and took the opportunity to highlight some of the library’s rare books and other materials.

In February, Ron had another opportunity to proudly show some of special collections’ materials to Chicago area art students. Each year students from the Art Institute of Chicago come to study our classic anatomy texts during a visit graciously hosted by Ron and the Galter Library.