MLA '07: You're Invited!
Come celebrate MLA ’07 Information Revolution: Change Is in the Air with us in Philadelphia! Philadelphia holds a special place in United States history. Home to Benjamin Franklin, the Continental Congress, and the first Medical Library Association annual meeting, Philadelphia has been present at the birth of more historic changes than most cities or states. It is thus a particularly fitting hostess for a meeting devoted to helping us better understand the changing environment surrounding libraries.
Revolution means turbulent times. Revolutions offer unparalleled opportunities to create new products and deliver new services, but they are also stressful and confounding for those who live through them. Whether you are experiencing changes in technologies, user populations, the workforce, vendors, medical practice, available space, or all of the above, MLA ’07 has speakers and posters to meet your needs. MLA ’07 will help you confront the challenges and, better yet, maximize the opportunities these revolutionary changes may create to offer new services, make information more widely available, and deliver content to new user groups.
Because some of the most revolutionary ideas we must contend with come from beyond the doors of our libraries, we have invited Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics and founding director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania–Philadelphia, to be our McGovern lecturer. Caplan will speak on “Peer Review in Science and Medicine: Does It or Can It Work?” Peer review, long the accepted method of assuring quality in scientific literature, is breaking down. News stories of discredited research in established medical journals are now increasingly common. A growing number of Internet-based journals publish studies with minimal peer review, leaving it to readers to judge the quality of the published work. Caplan, who has brought national attention to a number of ethical issues and is known to value controversy and constructive argument, is the perfect speaker to elucidate the complex issues underlying the current problems in the peer-review process.
Health literacy issues will be the focus of the Wednesday morning (May 23) closing program. The new, more open information environment of the 21st century promises to allow “healthy people” and a literate public to make quality health care decisions. However, fulfilling that promise requires that the public have access to easily available and readily understandable information. It requires that consumers be able to ask the right questions about what they read and to recognize quality information when they find it.
In Phoenix at MLA '06 we learned how the electronic medical record might improve access to information for physicians. In Philadelphia, we will look at improving access from the consumer's perspective with a panel of experts to give us the tools we need to bring quality health information to patients, students, health care consumers, and anyone else who needs to understand some of the technicalities of modern health care. This is a program you will not want to miss! Schedule your flights to permit you to attend.
If all this talk of revolution and change makes you tired, refresh yourself in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is renowned for its gardens, which will be at their peak in May. If gardens do not excite you, terrific museums, fascinating historical sites, and wonderful restaurants are only steps away from the downtown Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. Taste the specialties of Philadelphia at the Reading Terminal Market just across the street, visit the Liberty Bell, or take in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. You wi’ll find it all in Philly!
More details appear on this Website and on the MLA ’07 blog. If you are a first-time attendee, be sure to consult the new tips sections for tips on how to take advantage of everything that an annual meeting has to offer. 
See you in Philadelphia,
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Diana J. Cunningham, AHIP (left), |
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