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NEWSROOM MEDLIB-ED JMLA

Passing the Torch: Updates from Your Hospital Library Caucus Chairs

A Message from the Incoming and Outgoing Hospital Library Caucus Chairs: Chair Cece Railey and Past Chair Basia Delawska-Elliott

Submitted by: Cece Railey

What an enormous ball of emotion as Basia Delawska-Elliott (Medical Librarian, Providence System Library Services, Portland, Oregon) passed the beautiful wooden gavel into my hands. It is a tremendous honor to Chair the Hospital Library Caucus (HLC) and to come behind such a phenom like Basia, well, let’s just say that I have some huge shoes to fill! Looking forward, HLC will be putting out calls to members to volunteer on a number of committees. We have some work to do, y’all (my Kentucky contribution is coming through already), and it will require all hands on deck. As more and more hospital libraries are being lost to an unstable healthcare environment (Thanks, COVID!), we must engage and figure out a way to sustain, grow, and secure the existence of as many of our treasures as possible. And have a bit of fun along the way! Thank you for trusting me to lead this Caucus!

I am so excited to have passed the gavel to CeCe and to welcome our Chair-Elect Tracy Soto, Caucus Secretary Danielle Linden, and LibGuide Committee Chair Sunny McGowan to the HLC Board! I have been inspired by CeCe’s love for hospital librarianship and her passion for our Caucus. I look forward to supporting her and the new Board as Past Chair in the coming year.

And to all of the Caucus members, I’d like to say, “Thank you for a great year!”. As a Caucus we have excelled at staying connected virtually. Our holiday get-together was a nice reprieve from the bustle of the season, and the second Why I Love Being a Hospital Librarian Valentine’s Day program was the best-attended Caucus event of the year with 110-plus members participating. We have received so much great feedback that the HLC Board decided to make the event annual. So, as CeCe mentioned, look for a call to present on the panel next year or volunteer yourself if you want to share the love of your profession.

We had enjoyable informal sessions, but that is not all! We also collaborated with the Collection Development caucus on a hospital collection development session moderated by Kathryn Vela. The success of that session led to the inclusion of hospital library topics in an MLA Symposium, Getting Started with Collection Development: An Interactive Workshop on Selecting Resources for Your Library Community, which generated even more interest. Stay tuned for follow-up sessions and an update in the Collection Development Caucus handbook Health Sciences Collection Development: An Overview of Fundamental Knowledge and Practices (2nd Edition).

And last, but definitely not least, the HLC Immersion Session co-sponsored by the Research Caucus, “Novel Librarian Collaborations: Stronger Together” brought a lively discussion on topics ranging from Clinical Librarianship to Magnet Support. Resources shared by the table moderators and quick vignettes on the topics will be shared on the HLC LibGuide under the Immersion Session tab: https://mlanet.libguides.com/advocacy. Keep checking in! I do want to thank the session creator and lead, Andrea Harrow, the session emcee – CeCe Railey, and the roundtable moderators, Ellen Aaronson, Sydni Abrahamsen, Michelle Bass, Lindsay Blake, Helen-Ann Epstein, Layla Heimlich, Susan Keller, Iris Kovar-Gough, Michelle Kraft, Dana Ladd, and Caroline Marshall. Outstanding work everyone!

HLC members help make the caucus and MLA great. Member contributions have been recognized by MLA and by the caucus! Twenty-five members have been added to the Scroll of Exemplary Service. The caucus recognized:

  • Carole Gilbert and Helen-Ann Brown Epstein for their Outstanding Service
  • Andrea Harrow and Emily Petersen for Leadership
  • Claire B. Joseph for Publishing
  • Frances Chu for Research
  • Carole Ann Durst is the HLC Rising Star

Caucus members who received recognition from MLA:

  • Liz Kellermeyer (who was also cochair of the MLA ’24 National Program Committee!) was elected to the MLA Board.
  • John Mokonyama, Michele Mason-Coles, and Shannon Shaunette Glover were elected to the MLA Nominating Committee.
  • Sydni L. Abrahamsen and Heather Stevens, received the MLA President’s Award for work in the Censorship and Library Practices Workgroup.
  • Shannon Jones was recognized with the MLA President’s Award for MLA Reads & MLA Be Well Planning Group.

For a full list of HLC Awardees please visit the Public Files of the HLC (login required).

Phew, I shared a lot! But a lot happened. And more will be happening in the coming year! We are going to be asking for more participation from you, so please don’t be shy. Join a committee or a task force. Wishing us all an incredible year!