Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Succession Planning

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1WkXzrz 

Succession Planning #medlibs chat
Thursday, October 29. 2015
9:00pm Eastern/6:00pm Pacific
Led by Michelle Kraft (@Krafty) 


A few years ago the previous Executive Director, Carla Funk, explained the Medical Library Association's demographics as being shaped like a dumbbell.  There were a lot of librarians who were 60+ on one end, and a lot of librarians in their 20's on the other end.  There were few librarians in the middle.

If you look at Nielsen's Millennials: Breaking the Myths, a nice little graph (bottom of page) supports Carla's observations of MLA's members.  Gen Xers are the second smallest population with the Boomer, Millennials, and Gen Z clearly all tied for 1st place with 24% of the total population.  While Nielsen's information naturally focuses on marketing, a nifty little infographic the Generation Gap in Your Office, discusses the "rapid baby boomer retirement" where Millennials "will be given high levels of responsiblity earlier in their careers than previous generations." Now as a cynical Gen Xer I can tell you I heard that same song back when I was in library school 20 yrs ago and the library schools were clamoring about a large wave of job openings due to retirements.  

While I don't think the library job doors will be thrown wide open and their will be a massive increase in library jobs, there definitely appears to be more people retiring and a lot of open positions announced. In my institution alone there are 5 people who are within 5 years of retiring. One would hope that as a person retires, the library will be able to hire a new person for that position (or another library type position). However, there is also the chance that when the person retires the position retires as well.  

Succession planning isn't just for the job. As President of MLA and a former Board Member I have noticed the generational workplace shift happening within the association.  

Wikipedia says many or most companies that have well-established practices such as:
  • Identify those with the potential to assume greater responsibility in the organization
  • Provide critical development experiences to those that can move into key roles
  • Engage the leadership in supporting the development of high-potential leaders
  • Build a data base that can be used to make better staffing decisions for key jobs
Three of those four practices seem to be important to libraries as well the Medical Library Association.

So here are some things to think about for Thursday night's discussion:


  • How involved is your institution in succession planning? Some are very involved while others are not.
  • How can succession planning work within medical libraries?  Is it something just large academic institutions can do or do hospital librarians have a role?
  • Is it difficult to do succession planning when librarians seem to move around from job to job to gain experience?
  • How do you see MLA using a type of succession planning for the future of the association?


Join us on Twitter using the #medlibs hashtag Thursday evening to share your stories and engage with colleagues.  Never been to a Twitter chat before? Check out this overview and come on in - all are welcome including first timers, lurkers, students and others interested in the topic and the field. 


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Professional Organization Committees

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1LJsX8O 

Professional Organization Committees #medlibs chat
Thursday, October 22. 2015
9:00pm Eastern/6:00pm Pacific
Led by Nikki Dettmar (@eagledawg) 

The Medical Library Association (MLA) has a call out to members to sign up for a committee by the end of the month - but why would you want to do that when you can barely stay on top of your work committees?  

Join the #medlibs discussion on Twitter Thursday at 9pm Eastern to explore more about what professional organization committee membership is (hint: different than work committees!) and how service on one can be beneficial for your career, professional development, and networking with others in the field. We will primarily focus on MLA but welcome discussion about other professional organizations' committee service, library-related or not. 

The deadline to submit a request to join a 2016-17 MLA committee is October 31st (trick or treat?) and the application link is https://www.research.net/s/commapp2016 A list of the MLA Committees and their charges is available at http://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=440 




Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Show Me The Money!

Transcript: http://t.co/RlSe3GXGIP

Show Me The Money! Development #medlibs chat
Thursday, October 15. 2015
9:00pm Eastern/6:00pm Pacific
Led by Emily Hurst @hurstej

Let's face it: money makes the world go round, even in libraryland. Creating deep and sustained relationships with donors can help your library soar. From Friends of the Library programs to naming opportunities, development efforts in libraries can take many forms. Some libraries have well established development programs staffed with with fundraising experts while in others the library Director serves as the Chief Development Officer. No matter how development works in your library this chat will provide an insights into fundraising and basic information that every librarian should be aware of when it comes to development efforts.

Topics for discussion will include:

  • Defining development 
  • Understanding how librarians can support development efforts 
  • How ethics impacts development 
  • A brief overview of resources you can use to expand your fundraising knowledge 


Join us on Twitter using the #medlibs hashtag Thursday evening to share your development stories and engage with colleagues. Even if you aren't currently doing development, learning more about the profession and its importance may help you make valuable connections that will support your future library development efforts. Never been to a Twitter chat before? Check out this overview and come on in - all are welcome including first timers, lurkers, students and others interested in the topic and the field.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Writing and Medical Libraries

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1GzsROQ

Writing & Writing Centers #medlibs Chat
Thursday, October 8, 2015
9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific
Led by Carolyn Schubert (@carolynthelib) and a bit by Nikki Dettmar (@eagledawg)

While there is limited evidence of relationships between medical librarians and writing as a process, libraries and writing centers have collaborated and shared spaces to support their students. Carolyn will discuss her experience as an embedded librarian in a writing center last year and the liaison partnership that developed as a result, based off of presentation given at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association conference (MAWCA) in Spring 2015.

Join the discussion on Twitter using the #medlibs hashtag Thursday evening! Never been to a Twitter chat before? Check out this overview and come on in - all are welcome including first timers, lurkers, students and others interested in the topic and the field.

Some questions for consideration during the chat -
  • How do you interact with students during the writing process?
  • How do you/your library interact with other campus support services like writing centers?
  • What are some of the benefits of writing/writing center collaboration? What about challenges?
  • How can a writing center collaboration support the needs of distance students?


Related resources:

Cooke, R., & Bledsoe, C. (2008). Writing Centers and Libraries: One-Stop Shopping for Better Term Papers. The Reference Librarian, 49(2), 119–127. http://doi.org/10.1080/02763870802101310 
Discusses direct library and writing center discussion, but is not specific to health librarianship

Oermann, M. H., Leonardelli, A. K., Turner, K. M., Hawks, S. J., Derouin, A. L., & Hueckel, R. M. (2014). Systematic Review of Educational Programs and Strategies for Developing Students’ and Nurses’ Writing Skills. Journal Of Nursing Education, 54(1), 28-34. http://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20141224-01
Health student specific but does not address librarians.

Wu, L., Betts, V. T., Jacob, S., Nollan, R., & Norris, T. (2013). Making meaningful connections: evaluating an embedded librarian pilot project to improve nursing scholarly writing. Journal Of the Medical Library Association, 101(4), 323–326. http://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.101.4.016
Health librarian-specific and focused on writing, but not writing centers.