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Informationist Conference

Informationist Conference Logo

To top of page About the Conference

The April 2002 invitational conference was organized to facilitate a national discussion, derive a consensus definition, and develop recommendations for an action agenda for the "informationist" professional in clinical and research domains.

Informationist Conference Task Force (MLA)
Chair
Jean P. Shipman, AHIP
Staff Liaison
Carla J. Funk, CAE
Members
Diana J. Cunningham, AHIP
Jacqueline Donaldson Doyle, AHIP
Valerie Florance, Ph.D.
Ruth Holst, AHIP
Carol G. Jenkins, AHIP
Joanne G. Marshall, Ph.D.
Julie J. McGowan, Ph.D., AHIP
Michelynn McKnight, AHIP
T. Scott Plutchak, AHIP
Sponsor and Host

The conference was hosted by the Medical Library Association, and was supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The MLA Informationist Conference Task Force planned and implemented this conference.

Represented Organizations, Attendee List

The following constituent organization types were represented by invited attendees in this conference:

  • accreditation bodies
  • health and medical associations
  • hospitals and health systems
  • library and information associations
  • library and information science programs
  • medical informatics programs
  • NLM and National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) representatives

A full list of invited attendees is also available.

To top of page Conference Objectives

Objectives included:

  • examining the need for an informationist type of health information professional in health care and biomedical research settings;
  • discussing how informationists compare with existing professions in terms of their unique roles;
  • identifying requisite knowledge, skills, and attributes for informationists in different settings;
  • determining desirable education and training models and sources for informationists;
  • drafting desirable financing models (including salary, third-party reimbursements, indirect costs, grants, fellowships, institutional cost savings, etc.);
  • formulating implementation models that may include grants, fellowships, pilots, etc.; and
  • determining promotional vehicles for the informationist concept.

To top of page Conference Agenda

An agenda for the invitational conference.

To top of page Pre-conference Reading

The conference organizers encouraged all attendees to read these electronically available materials prior to the conference.

To top of page Speakers and Speaker Presentations

A variety of speakers and facilitators were available at the invitational conference, and 17 speaker presentations are available on the site.

For further information about the content of the invited Informationist Conference, please contact Jean Shipman, jpshipma@vcu.edu, or Carla Funk, funk@mlahq.org.
Thanks to Rittenhouse for their sponsorship of MLA's website.

Thanks to Elsevier's Procedures Consult for their sponsorship of the MLA website.

Thanks to American Psychiatric Publishing for their sponsorship of the MLA website!