• Bylaws
• Chapter Council
• SC/MLA Website
• Southern Expressions
• Credentialing Liaison
• Governmental Relations
• SC/MLA Archives
• Honors & Awards
• Hospital Libraries
• Membership
• Nominating
• Professional Development
• Program
• Public Relations
• Research
• Strategic Planning

Bylaws Committee - 2001 Annual Report
October 16, 2001

The strategic plan calls for this committee to ensure that the Southern Chapter bylaws are in compliance with MLA model bylaws. This fall the chair compared the chapter's bylaws with the model bylaws, prepared a list of corrections and changes to the chapter's bylaws, and forwarded these to the members of the committee for comment. When the executive committee approves the changes, the bylaws will be rewritten and sent to MLA for approval. Once MLA approves the bylaws, the changes will be included in next year's annual meeting registration mailing for approval at next year's annual meeting.

Please find attached the proposed changes to the chapter's bylaws Changes.rtf and MLA's revised model bylaws for chapters and sections Model.rtf , Revisions.rtf , and Usage.rtf . These attachment are in rtf (rich text format) and can be opened with any word processor. The current version of the bylaws can be found at http://www.scmla.org/bylaw.htm .

Respectfully submitted by
Lois M. Bellamy
Chair, Bylaws Committee

Chapter Council- 2001 Annual Report
October 27, 2001

The 2001 annual meeting of the Medical Library Association in Orlando, Florida was a wonderful meeting in a location that offered about as many distractions as you could possibly wish for. Chapter Council met on Saturday, May 26th and both your Representative and Alternate were in attendance. Linda Garr Markwell was also present in her role as incoming Chair of the Council.

As you know many Southern Chapter members worked very hard prior to and during this meeting to make it a success. In addition Southern Chapter members were much in evidence as they actively participated in the meeting as presenters of papers and posters and played leadership roles in sections, councils, committees, and the MLA Board of Directors. Nowhere were they more evident than at the Honors and Awards Luncheon where Scott Plutchak was the recipient of the Estelle Brodman award, where Shelley Paden won the MLA Research Development and Demonstration Project Grant, where Carol Burns was named an MLA Fellow, where Everly Brown received an EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant and where Lynn Fortney accepted the MLA/Majors Chapter Project of the Year Award on behalf of all Southern Chapter members.

There are several things that you can do to make sure the Southern Chapter maintains a strong presence in the national organization. First, if you are not a member, join. Secondly, fill out the MLA Committee Appointment Application form, which is available on MLANet, and volunteer to serve on a committee or jury. You still have time to do this before the October 31st deadline. You can do this electronically from the web page and the form was included in several issues of MLA News. And please remember to complete and return the MLA ballot. Be sure to vote and continue to support Southern Chapter members who are vying for elective offices Nancy Clemmons is a candidate for the Board of Directors and Sandra Franklin, Frances Lynch, Cheryl Dee, Rosalind Lett, and Mary Fran Prottsman are candidates for the Nominating Committee.

The Chapter Sharing Roundtables seem to grow each year both in terms of participants and in the number of topics for discussion. This was initially conceived as a way for the committee chairs and officers from each Chapter to gather and exchange ideas about how to best fulfill their role within the Chapter. Over time more and more topics that are not related to a particular committee or post within the Chapters were added. Therefore there has been some discussion about changing the name, but thus far nothing definite has been done in that regard. A new feature for the Roundtables this year will be a “Meeting the Experts” table where one or more MLA Fellows will share details of their careers and successes with participants. This is seen as one more opportunity to strengthen mentoring within the organization.

Speaking of mentoring, the Mentoring Program Task Force completed its work, submitted a report to the Board in Orlando and the Task Force was dissolved. It is now the responsibility of the Executive Committee to assign each of the Task Force recommendations to the appropriate MLA unit for action recommendations. MLA is also interested in supporting the individual Chapter mentoring programs and either Janet or I will be polling you soon for ideas about how MLA can assist Southern Chapter in this endeavor. Please be thinking about this and submit any ideas or suggestions that you have when you are contacted.

The Benchmarking Task Force has also completed its work and is being replaced by the Benchmarking Implementation Task Force which is chaired by Debra Rand. The survey questions have been revised based on responses in the beta test. All Hospital Librarians are urged to enter their information when the data collection site opens this fall on MLANet . This comparative data could prove extremely useful to you in the future. If you have questions or need information, don't hesitate to touch base with our Benchmark Chapter Educator, Linda Garr Markwell.

MLANet continues to grow and improve. It always interests me what can be found on the site. While surfing around the other day I found a PowerPoint presentation that our own Lynn Fortney made to a group of librarians in Australia during a trip there in August. In September a change in Internet Service Providers took place to help speed the response time and enhance other aspects of the page. A new feature this year is the President's Page, which has the text of the President's inaugural address, outlines priorities for action while in office, and lists earlier accomplishments. Perhaps you have heard by now that the MLA Membership Directory is going to become an online publication without a print counterpart. To ease the transition, I understand that the October M LA News will contain a 24-page pullout section entitled 2001-2002 MLA Leaders Directory. This will have information that used to be available in the Directory such as committee rosters and charges, section and chapter officers and special interest group conveners. This is something you will probably want to keep to use as a reference during the coming year. Meanwhile, to access the Directory online you will need your MLANET username (your MLA ID#) and your MLANET member's only password (three uppercase letters followed by 5 numbers that appear on your membership card). If you are unsure of your username or password you can contact Beverly Bradley in the Membership Services Dept. of MLA by e-mail or by phone.

I would like to remind you that the deadline is drawing near to submit application for many of the honors and awards that MLA bestows. November 1st is the deadline for most of these including the MLA/Majors Award, which used to have a submission deadline of December 1st. You can print PDF versions of these application forms from MLANET and I hope you will consider nominating a colleague that you deem worthy. Self-nominations are also welcome.

In an effort to further diversity and increase the numbers of minorities in our organization and in our profession MLA and NLM joined forces to sponsor a scholar in the ALA Spectrum Initiative Program. I am pleased to tell you that the 2001 MLA/National Library of Medicine Spectrum Scholar is Felicia A. Smith, information specialist, at the Health Learning Center of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago Il. Felicia was also this year's recipient of the MLA Scholarship for Minority Students which is given to a minority student entering an ALA-accredited library school having at least one-half of the requirements of the program to finish in the year following the award.

Other news about grants and scholarships includes a new award, the David A. Kronick Traveling Fellowship which was established by Virginia M. Bowden. This involves one grant of $2,000 each year to cover the cost of traveling to 3 or more medical libraries to studey a specific aspect of health information management. Meanwhile the number of EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grants offered each year has been increased from 2 to 4. This will begin with the 2002 annual meeting and each award is for $1,000. Work continues on the Lindberg Fellowship as the assocation considers various methods for raising the principal required to fund it. The deadline for most of the grant and scholarship applications is December 1st, but you can find specific information for each one on MLANET.

Remember that in January 2002 the name of BMLA will be changed to Journal of the Medical Library Association. This will start with vol. 90, no. 1. MLA has announced that digital archives of the Bulletin have been added to PubMed Central dating back to January 2000, vol. 80, no. 1.

Both Chapter Council and Section Council will be appointing a liaison to the MLA Core Membership Committee. This new position will be a three-year term and will follow the model already established by Chapter Council with the MLA Continuing Education and Credentialing committees. In other Section Council news, the Medical Society Libraries Section's request to change their name to Health Association Libraries Section has been approved.

The MLA Continuing Education Committee is still working on the Technology Specialization Credential. It is expected that this will be a two-tiered credential. The first requiring 12 hours of Continuing Education credit and the second requiring a greater number of credits that has not yet been determined.

Carla Funk and Jeannine Gluck, the MLA Representative to JCAHO, have written a letter addressing the fact that there is not a representative from the knowledge-based information community on the JCAHO Standards Review Task Force. The letter asks that MLA and other health information organizations be involved in this process and that a representative from the field be appointed to the Task Force. This letter has been sent to Dr. Paul Schyve, JCAHO Senior Vice-President. Carla was also very involved with the 2001 IFLA meeting which was held in Boston this year. She served as the treasurer and was responsible for the budget for the meeting. Many other MLA members also participated and I understand the meeting was a great success.

In response to the death of a research volunteer at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MLA President, Carol Jenkins drafted a statement concerning the role medical librarians could have played in searching and evaluating the biomedical literature relative to the case. MLA released this statement to major media outlets and as a result Carol was interviewed and quoted in an article in the August 25th issue of Lancet. Following this the MLA Board of Directors decided in their September meeting to appoint a Taskforce to Promote the Importance of Expert Searching. The charge will include establishment of guidelines on best practices for expert searching in biomedicine and research.

Both MLA President Elect Linda Watson and Carla Funk have been invited to attend the 2002 Southern Chapter meeting and acceptance letters were received from each, so we will look forward to having them join us in Nashville.

The bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11th has deeply affected all our lives. In response, the library community has issued a statement on freedom of speech and access to information that was endorsed by the MLA Board of Directors at their September meeting. MLA has also created a “Community of Caring” site on MLANET as a resource for the medical library community in addressing issues related to the attack.

I hope to see you all at MLA 2002 in Dallas, Texas, May 17th-23rd. Following Dallas, meeting locations for the next 5 years include:

• 2003-San Diego, CA
• 2004-Washington, DC
• 2005-San Antonio, TX
• 2006-Phoenix, AZ

I feel certain that you successfully promoted yourself and your library during National Medical Librarians Month. The theme for the month is “Medical Librarians: Your Link to Quality Information”. MLA hopes that the poster that was in the June/July 2001 MLA News and the ideas and tips on the web site were helpful to you in promoting yourself and your library. However, I'm sure you have used lots of your own creative ideas in this endeavor. Don't forget, when you return home you have until November 30th to enter them in the Creative Promotions Award contest. Two winners will receive $100 in MLA money.

Respectfully submitted by
Sarah Gable, Chapter Council Representative
Jan LaBeause, Chapter Council Alternate

SC/MLA Website- 2001 Annual Report
October 9, 2001

Since the last report in May 2001, the following pages have been added or updated on the site:

• Committee info, members list and meeting information were all kept up to date
• Photos of many past presidents were added with permission
• Information about SC/MLA and MLA awards to members was added
• Information and members volunteered as mentors was added
• Information about the SC/MLA Academic Librarian of the Year was added
• Information about the annual meeting was added as needed

• Bylaws
• Communications
• Governmental Relations
• Honors & Awards
• Hospital
• Membership
• Program
• Research
• Strategic Planning

Chapter officers, committee chairs and members are encouraged to use the web to promote chapter activities, disseminate information, or ask for input.

Respectfully submitted by
Patricia Higginbottom
Website Coordinator

Southern Expressions - 2001 Annual Report
October 22, 2001

Since our last report, Ingrid and I have published the summer issue of Southern Expressions. This issue completed our two-year term as co-editors of Southern Expressions. Ingrid and I thank you all for your timely submissions. Having ample text with which to work really made our job easy and fun. We enjoyed it.

The summer issue was Volume 17, Number 3, 2001. The expenses were as follows:

• Copying costs - $454.90
• Mailing costs - 254.02
• Envelopes - 23.62
• Total Cost - $732.54

Respectfully submitted by
Ingrid Hendrix and Sondra Pfeiffer
Co-Editors, Southern Expressions

Credentialing Liaison- 2001 Annual Report
October 25, 2001

SOUTHERN CHAPTER:
The Southern Chapter has 175 AHIP members (Academy of Health Information Professionals) at the following levels:

• 70 - no longer in health sciences librarianship (34%)
• 9 - cost factor (4%)
• 52 - paperwork (25%)
• 52 - value (25%)
• 23 - cost factor, paperwork, value (all three) (11%)

• Emeritus category for retirees; CC made recommendations to the MLA Board
• Electronic submission of documentation for those renewing at the same level
• AHIP points for independent readings
• Work w/CE committee on the Consumer Health and the Technology credentials

• Southern Chapter, Mobile, AL, October 22, 2000 - 15 attendees
• Georgia Health Sciences Library Assoc., Columbus, March 15, 2001 - 7 attendees

An AHIP sharing session is scheduled for this Tri-Chapter meeting and will be held on Friday, October 26, 5 p.m.-6 p.m., in the Warwick Room.

Southern Chapter needs mentors for Provisional level memberships (less than 5 years of health sciences library experience). Mentors receive academy points. An article in the last edition of Southern Expressions asked for volunteers; none received to date.

Respectfully submitted by
Sandra Franklin
MLA Credentialing Liaison

Governmental Relations Committee - 2001 Annual Report
October 18, 2001

This committee has not been active during calendar year 2001. There was difficulty in recruiting members to serve their states early in the year, and then this fell by the wayside. I have not published articles in Southern Expressions for the year. However, I plan to improve this situation and this committee over the next calendar year.

We need assistance in recruiting members who are available via email, and have paid their SC/MLA dues to help reactivate this committee.

There has not been a need to issue action alerts since May 2000. Because of the national elections in November, and the establishment of a new administration on Capitol Hill in January, Congress has not passed legislation of importance to the medical library community with the exception of the Fiscal Year 2001 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriation.

In light of the recent terrorist attacks the Senate passed its anti-terrorism legislation, S. 1510, very late on Thursday night, October 11th, which contains privacy and civil liberties issues of concern to libraries and others. This, and other similar legislation, will require our attention over the coming months and years.

We will need to recruit a new Southern Chapter representative to the MLA Governmental Relations Committee, as Kay Hogan Smith can no longer serve in this capacity. I am open to suggestions and ideas that will assist in this becoming a more active and working committee.

Respectfully submitted by
Connie K. Machado
Chair, Governmental Relations Committee

SC/MLA Archivist- 2001 Annual Report
October 19, 2001

During the past year, the Archivist completed the following activities:

1. Forwarded a 2000 annual meeting program to the MLA Archives as required.
2. Received and filed current committee reports, minutes of Executive Board meetings, minutes of the 2000 SC Business meeting, and other current documents.
3. Responded to four queries from Chapter members.
4. Loaned available photographs of past Chapter presidents to the Web site manager for scanning and adding to the SC/MLA web site.

In the coming year, the Archivist hopes to make more progress towards the goal of storing the photographs in a more "preservation-friendly" manner.

Procedures for producing an updated inventory should be revised and simplified so that the most current document can be available at the chapter web site. This will need to be discussed with members of the History Committee.

Respectfully submitted by
Mary Lynch
Chapter Archivist

Honors and Awards Committee - 2001 Annual Report
October 20, 2001

A new Chair will need to be appointed, since the Chair of this committee only serves one year.

Several retirees have been identified this year and will be honored at the Annual Meeting. The retirees include:

• Florida
  • Barbara C. Hartman retired from Sarasota Memorial hospital May 2001. Barbara worked in a number of medical libraries over the years.
  • Barbara W. Francis began a (3-year) retirement from the University of Florida Health Sciences Center Library in January 2001.
  • Dr Julia Awkward retired from Florida A & M University.
• Georgia
  • Fay Evatt will retire from Atlanta Medical Center effective April 2002.
• South Carolina
  • Marcia Reinhardt, will be retiring in December 2001 from Medical University of South Carolina Library in Charleston, SC.
• Tennessee
  • Alice Faye Kulp, retired from VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville Campus, effective August 25, 2001.
  The Honors and Awards committee is pleased to announce the first annual award of the First Time Attendee Scholarship. This scholarship was the brainchild of the President, Lynn Fortney. In order to be eligible for this award, applicants must be planning to attend SC/MLA for the first time. In addition he/she must be a member of SC/MLA or must join SC/MLA prior to acceptance of the award. The 2001 First time Attendee award was made to Christopher Colthorpe.
  
  One of the primary responsibilities of the Honors & Awards Committee is the processing of nominations for Honorary Membership. Individuals wishing to nominate someone for Honorary Membership should send a nominating letter and a resume of that individual to the Chairman of the Committee. The Committee presents the names of the nominee(s) to the Executive Committee. No additional paperwork or forms are required. A second route to Honorary Membership exists - Honorary Membership is awarded to anyone residing in the geographical boundaries of the SC/MLA who becomes a Medical Library Association Fellow. This award is made regardless of the Chapter affiliation.
  
  An Honorary Membership was awarded to Carol Burns. This award was made last year but since Carol was out of the country, the award will be made at the meeting this year. Ironically, as MLA Fellow Carol is also entitled to Honorary Membership, in compliance with the Honors and Awards guidelines.
  
  The Academic Librarian of the year Award will be made to Judith F. Burnham. Judy was nominated by Tom Williams, and seconded by Jie Li.

  Respectfully submitted by
  Lynette Lawrence Ralph
  Chair, Honors and Awards Committee

  Hospital Libraries Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  October 25, 2001
  
  Hospital Librarian of the Year 2000
  Call for nominations was published in Southern Expressions and on the SOCHAP listserv
  Descriptive criteria reside on the SC web site
  

  Sue Felber was selected.

  
  Martha Watkins Scholarship
  A flyer and call for applications was published in Southern Expressions
  Descriptive criteria reside on the SC web site
  Selection of awardees was transferred to the Awards Committee by the Executive Committee at the October 24, 2000, meeting in Mobile.
  
  Hospital Librarian's Luncheon
  Michelynn McKnight, the current chair of MLA's Hospital Libraries Section, will speak on proving your worth at the Hospital Librarians' Luncheon. As of October 11, 2001, 100 tickets had been sold.
  Thomas Hill is the incoming chair of this committee.
  
  Respectfully submitted by
  Mary Fran Prottsman
  Chair, Hospital Libraries Committee

  Membership Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  October 2001
  
  Membership Data as of October 9, 2001 : 317 members (280 paid renewals, 13 honorary members, 24 paid new members)
  
  Recruitment and Retention
  Each committee member followed up with the nonrenewals from her state at least once.
  Reasons given for non-renewal:

  • Moving out of SC/MLA area
  • Retiring
  • Had multiple chapter membership and now narrowing down to home chapter only
  • No longer in medical library job situation
  • Additional prospective members will be contacted in December/January for membership in 2002
  Membership Database Manager Activities
  • Mailed invoices in January
  • Provided non-renewals lists to Membership Committee for follow-up
  • Kept discussion list owner up-to-date on e-mail addresses
  • Ensured that list of members on website stayed up-to-date
  • Prepared directory update to be mailed with newsletter
  • Provided mailing labels for Tri-Chapter meeting and election ballots
  • Provided lists of committee volunteers to committee chairs as needed
  • Prepared directory and mailed to 2000 and 2001 members (Approximate cost per directory : $3.63 plus $1.03 postage)
  • Dues collected : $6,020.00
  • Expenses : $2014.80
  Submitted by Linda Flavin, Membership Database Manager
  
  Mentor/Mentee Program 2001
  Mentees - 4
  Mentors - 8
  Working on establishing guidelines for matching mentors and mentees. Anticipate beginning program in January.
  
  Committee Manual
  Draft of committee manual prepared and sent to SC/MLA Webmaster; expect to have manual on website in late October or early November.
  
  Respectfully submitted by
  Marian Morris
  Chair, Membership Committee

  Nominating Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  October 11, 2001
  
  The nominating committee is proud to present the slate of officers for SC/MLA 2001-2002. After much deliberation and consideration, the following candidates received votes qualifying them as the candidates of choice. Each candidate agreed to accept the nomination. Therefore, the 2001-2002 proposed slate of officers is:

  • Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
    Jocelyn Rankin, Ph.D., Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
  • Secretary/Treasurer
    Jack Smith, Lister Hill Library, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • MLA Nominating Committee Candidate
    Thomas Basler, Ph.D., Director of Libraries and Learning Resource Centers Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
  Biographical information was obtained from each candidate and sent to Brenda F. Green, SC/MLA Secretary/Treasurer, along with a ballot for distribution to the membership. Ballots were distributed to the membership, and 126 ballots were returned to the Secretary/Treasurer.
  • Jocelyn Rankin, Ph.D. received 126 votes for Vice Chair/Chair Elect
  • Jack Smith received 125 votes for Secretary/Treasurer
  • Thomas Basler, Ph.D. received 124 votes for MLA Nominating Committee Candidate
  • One write-in candidate: Rosalind K. Lett, but no position was listed beside her name.
  The slate will be presented at the association business meeting, at which time nominations will be accepted from the floor. If no nominations are brought forth, the proposed slate shall be presented for adoption. Many thanks to the Nominating Committee for their diligent work in selecting the 2001-2002 slate of officers and to the Secretary/Treasurer for handling the ballots.
  
  Respectfully submitted (on behalf of the nominating committee) by
  Tom Singarella
  Chair, Nominating Committee
  

  Professional Development Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  October 2001
  
  Courses offered at the 2001 Annual Meeting
  
  The professional development committee thanks our webmaster for posting comments for last year's CE courses, the Professional Development Committee Manual, and links to national, regional, and state professional development oppourtunities.
  
  Seven participants received credit for completing the MLA Journal Club topic "The Myth and Reality of Electronic Publishing." Congratulations to Everly Brown, Judy Burnham, Sarah D. Murray, Justin Robertson, Ellen N. Sayed, Jana Jasper Slay and Geneva Bush Staggs.
  
  Twelve people successfully completed the journal clud on Consumer Health information offered by the NN/LM SEA:
  Barbara Alderman
  Linda Farmer
  Tanya Feddern
  Rebecca Fehrenbach
  Patricia Higginbottom
  Cindy Kleback
  Pamela Sherwill-Navarro
  Roxanne Nelson
  Ann Phillips
  Marilyn Teolis
  Rebecca Richburg
  Midge Wallace
  
  Sandra Martin, Information and Education Services Instructional Librarian, Eskind Biomedical Library, is the committee's in-coming committee chair.
  
  Respectfully submitted by
  Rebecca Fehrenbach
  Chair, Professional Development Committee
  
  
  Program Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  September-October 2001
  
  This report covers the period from October, 2000 to September 7, 2001.
  
  Goal One: Plan and implement a triple chapter meeting that provides extensive opportunities for professional development, networking, and conducting association business. (MLA Strategic Plan, Goal 1 - Professional Development; a) provide for continuing education opportunities for members' professional growth; Goal 3 - Organization; c) develop the leadership capabilities of its members and provide opportunities for association work at all levels; and e) foster effective communication within the association and with external constituencies)
  
  

  1. Work with representatives from Midcontinental and Southern Chapters to select speakers, contributed papers, posters, and continuing education courses that stimulate, challenge, and entertain.
     The speakers for the general sessions are James J. O'Donnell Ph.D., author of Avatars of the Word: from Papyrus to Cyberspace, and Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing, University of Pennsylvania who will speak at General Session I on “After the Internet…”; Joanne G. Marshall, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Information and Library Science, UNC Chapel Hill who will speak at General Session 2 on “Valuing Ourselves and Our Work in the Information Age”; and John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide and The Transformed Cell who will speak at General Session 4 on “Influenza 1918: the First Collision of Epidemic Disease and Scientific Medicine”. Fifty-six posters and forty-seven contributed papers will be presented, and twenty Contining Education courses will be offered.
     
  2. Provide time for the three chapters to hold their respective business meetings and committee meetings.
     On the schedule.
     
  3. Provide time for the exchange of ideas with colleagues in informal settings
     Social events have been planned by the Local Arrangements Committee.
     
  4. Provide time for representatives from MLA and NLM to give updates on their activities
     Betsy Humphreys, Associate Director for Library Operations, NLM and Carol Jenkins, President-Elect, MLA will be the speakers for General Session 3.
     
  5. Provide time for vendor exhibits and demonstrations of new products and services
     The Exhibit Hall will be open two days with vendors staffing 58 booths. A dozen vendor demos are also on the program.
     
  
  MOTION
  This report is informational and requires no action by the Executive Board.
  
  September. 7, 2001
  Program Committee Members:

  SCC Members	MC Members	SC Members
  Cindy Goldstein, Co-Chair	Jim Bothmer	Rebecca Fehrenbach
  Craig Elam, Co-Chair	Saundra Brenner	Janet Fisher
  Alice Burnett	Susan Craft	Lynn Fortney
  Jon Eldredge	Rebecca Graves
  Diane Faulkner, HLIS	Teri Hartman
  Patricia McKeown, CE	Jeanne LeBer
  Michelynn McKnight	Lisa Traditi
  Evelyn Olivier
  W.D. Postell, Jr. , LAC

  
  The MLA/ Trichapter meeting (Southern, South Central, Midcontinental) will be held October 24-28, 2001, in New Orleans, LA at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside and Towers.
  
  The major portion of the Program Committee Annual Report has been written by the chair, Cindy Goldstein at Tulane University School of Medicine Library, and is attached. Program Committee members from all three chapters participated in the selection of the keynote speakers. Each chapter managed their own contributed paper and poster review. A central Continuing Education Committee did a wonderful job of selecting and recruiting course instructors. Most of the overall work and coordination was very efficiently handled by the Tulane and LSU Medical Center Library and other committee members in New Orleans.
  
  Statistics for the meeting as of October 16 are:
  
  Registration - 400
  Vendor Representatives - 150
  Exhibit booths - 58
  Contributed papers - 46
  Posters - 55
  Welcome party - 421
  Steamboat cruise - 56
  Hospital Librarian luncheon - 102
  Closing party - 405
  HSOCLCUG - 34
  Continuing Education courses - 246
  
  Financial figures are not yet available. We had fewer individual registrations than expected, however, we also had more vendor registrations than anticipated. The hotel block has been met. Audiovisual rentals and catering costs are higher than anticipated.
  
  The portfolio bags are provided by EBSCO. Festive masks will be on sale for the closing Halloween costume party at Michaul's Live Cajun Music Restaurant. The Martha Watkins Scholarship booth will be located near the conference registration desk with handmade Christmas decorations.
  
  Respectfully submitted,
  Lynn Fortney - Program
  Rebecca Fehrenbach - Program, Continuing Education
  Janet S. Fisher - Program, Finance
  
  
  Public Relations Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  October 2001
  
  The Public Relations Committee was recently formed on an Ad Hoc basis.
  
  The committee is charged to:
  
  1. Publicize the Southern Chapter and its activities, both internally and externally, by promoting knowledge and information about libraries, librarians, and health libraries in particular.
  2. Increase the visibility of health sciences librarians and public awareness about the field of health sciences librarianship
  3. Encourage health sciences librarianship as a career
  
  Suggested Activities are to:
  
  1. Publicize the Chapter Awards by announcing the recipients in the local newspapers or business journals/newspapers
  2. Publish Chapter officer information in the local business newspapers
  3. Provide information about the Chapter and/or its members and activities to local media and local publications
  4. Participate in career fairs at high school and college/university levels
  5. Solicit press coverage and submit feature articles to local newspapers
  6. Prepare model press releases for award that can be sent to CEO's and bosses
  7. Write notice/article when members are elected to a national office. Establish liaison with MLA/SLA for annual information
  8. Distribute MLA AHIP brochures
  
  We would like to recognize Nancy Clemmons, Linda Garr Markwell and Tom Singarella for their work in initiating and organizing this committee. Linda Garr did a survey of what other chapters were doing with public relations committees, collected info, and developed a draft of charge. Nancy volunteered to be chair of an ad hoc PR committee for Tom until a permanent committee could be created, and she put together the draft committee manual based on Linda Garr's suggestions, info from other chapter Websites, and the list of suggested committee manual sections that she had worked up when she was chapter chair.
  
  At the time of this report, we were waiting for responses from representatives from SC, Puerto Rico, MS, and GA. If you'd like to participate as your state rep, please contact the chair.
  
  Respectfully submitted by
  Jane Bridges
  Chair, Public Relations Committee
  
  
  Research Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  October 19, 2001
  
  The SC Executive approved five new members to the Research Committee as presented by the Chair, Research Committee.
  
  To heighten awareness of ongoing research interests and projects, The Chair of the Research Committee continued to write the Research Spotlight column for Southern Expressions. This year interviews have featured the research interests of Stephen MacCall, Lynn Fortney, and Keith Cogdill.
  
  The Committee, working with Pat Higginbottom, SC Web Coordinator, revised information on the Research Committee for the SC web page. New information includes a list of research mentors and NLM funded projects within the region. Addajane Wallace contributed a new section entitled "Research Presented at the SC/MLA Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL 2000" consisting of structured abstracts of two research papers.
  
  To encourage and support research, the Research Committee awards an annual Research Grant of $1000. The award was advertised in the Spring issue of Southern Expressions, on SOCHAP, and on the SC web page.
  
  The Committee completed the evaluation of a research applicatin for the Research Grant held over from 2000 but did not recommend the award.
  
  The Comittee received two applications for the Research Award 2001. The Research Committee is completing evaluation of these proposals. Additional information is being sought and an award decision has not been finalized.
  
  To further promote research and to support MLA research initiatives, the Committee is studying the feasibility of a research project in 2002 in collaboration with Keith Cogdill, Phd., Assistant Professor at University of Maryland, College of Information Studies. Keith is currently completing a MLA sponsored research project entitled "Measuring and Communicating the Value of Library and Information Services". The Research Committee project will be an investigation to measure and characterize a sample of health science libraries within the Southern Chapter region utilizing the taxonomy of clinical services developed by Keith Cogdill and his collaborators. We hope this project will shed light on measuring the value of library services.
  
  Respectfully submitted by
  Helvi McCall
  Chair, Research Committee
  
  
  Strategic Planning Committee - 2001 Annual Report
  October 16, 2001
  
  This year's strategic planning efforts included reviewing the plan and recommending the changes that need to be made to create the final draft of the Southern Strategy. The following changes have been made based on last years recommendations and new recommendations for items that need to be corrected are included. Once the final changes are made the Southern Strategy will be separated from the Action Plan.
  
  Attached you will find the New Southern Strategy draft document containing all of the Goals and objectives changed as outlines in last years recommendations. I have highlighted place where dates have been changed or need changing. See specific actions below.
  
  Working Draft Southern Strategy 2001
  
  ACTION 1.A.4.a changed from 1998-2001 to 2001-2005
  ACTION 1.A.7.a changed which to that
  ACTION 2.A.1.b added statement as noted in last years instructions (Monitor benchmarking opportunities and provide information on participation to membership. (Note: this can be reworded)
  STRATEGY 2.A.2 - Maintain links/liaisons with other MLA chapters and/or sections supporting research in health information science. DELETE (this is marked for deletion but Action 2.A.2.c is sited for revision) If the strategy dissappears so will the Action.
  ACTION 2.A.2.c timetable changed to ongoing ACTION 3.C.4.a timetable is 2001 (I don't know if this has been done) Goal 3 is marked for Deletion. Once again you have strategies that have been added and reworded that will have no goal to coincide with if deleted. (see strategy 3C4) note date (I'm not sure if this has been done either)
  ACTION 4.A.1.a, ACTION 4.A.1.b, ACTION 4.B.1.a, ACTION 4.C.1.b
  ACTION A.02.b check timetable
  ACTION A.04.c - Educate committee chairs on who appoints committee members and the fact that the Database Manager has a database of committee volunteers.
  Personnel: Database Manager, Chapter Chair (Do we need to add webmaster also)
  Timetable: Ongoing
  ACTION A.12.a (Was survey conducted?) If not timeline amendment needed.
  ACTION B.06.a PR committee (has the committee accomplished these or do we need to adjust timeline)
  ACTION C.19.a timeline changed from 1999 to Ongoing
  ACTION C.19.b - Has a policy been identified?
  
  After all changes are made the Southern Strategy will be divided into the Strategic Plan and the Plan of Action. These actions items can then be included in the various procedures manuals. All committee chairs will need to incorporate these action items into their procedural plan. All committee chairs need to put their procedure manual on the website.
  
  Respectfully submitted by
  Rosalind Lett
  Chair, Strategic Planning Committee