Leadership Development

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1OaFPow

Leadership Development chat

Thursday, December 17, 2015

9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific

Facilitated by Teresa L. Knott (@tlknott)

When I was voluntold that I would be leading this chat, the suggestion was that we focus on formal leadership development programs. Some of the most visible programs are:

ALA Leadership Institute: Leading to the Future

ARL Leadership Fellows Program

Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians

NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows program

Various state or regional library associations have programs, too – New England, Maryland,Texas

 Questions that we might discuss include:

·         Are there key principles for successfully applying?

·         What are the benefits to participating?

·         If you attended more than one, which was better and why?

·         Many of these programs are focused on mid- to upper-level leadership. What topics do you believe earlier career librarians need to know more about?

About #medlibs
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.

Journal Club: Research Data Management

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1SRjvEG

Journal Club: Research Data Management

Thursday, December 10, 2015

9:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Pacific

Led by @TonyNguyen411 

Breaking News: Authors Alisa Surkis (@asurkis) and Kevin Read (@ReadKev) will join us during the discussion! 

We're having a Journal Club discussion Thursday! The article I selected is:

Surkis A, Read K. Research data management. J Med Libr Assoc. 2015 Jul;103(3):154-6. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.103.3.011. PubMed PMID: 26213510; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4511058. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26213510.

There’s a lot to consider and discuss in just a few pages!

Researchers are starting to care about data and data collection, especially since funding could be reliant on a data management plan. Should libraries care about data management? What can libraries do to get started? Have you started to support data management within your institution? Are there any challenges you’ve come across and advice you can share with others?

About #medlibs
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.

ACRL Framework redux

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1HJExoi

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy #medlibs chat 
December 3, 2015 
9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific
Led by Molly Knapp  (@dial_m)

In Febuary 2015 the ACRL introduced "The Framework" as a replacement for the ACRL Standards for information literacy which have been around for a over a decade. You can imagine the buns that have unraveled from this monumental change. But do #medlibs even care? Let's discuss.

Virtual Conferences

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1Oia5Re

Virtual Conferences #medlibs chat 
November 19, 2015 
9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific
Led by Heather Brown  (@hbrarian)

Five years after initial discussions, the Midcontinental Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MCMLA) successfully held its first virtual annual meeting in October 2015. Decreased attendance, rising costs, and availability of planning groups all contributed to the decision to “experiment” with this new meeting alternative.

In this #medlibs chat, learn about the planning process, how the meeting went, and what attendees had to say. Follow the #medlibs hashtag on Thursday, November 19 at 9 p.m. Eastern and join in on the conversation on whether or not this model is a sustainable option for MLA Chapter meetings. Check out this overview and come on in, we are a supportive community and especially welcome students and newcomers.

Open mic chat

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1NQqnTe

Open mic #medlibs chat
November 12, 2015
9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific

What is on your mind regarding our field? Were you there for or been following any of the news from #AAMC15 and/or #AAMCMedEd?

This will be a true open mic because your lead moderator has a very important appointment with a friend, paintbrushes, canvas (not with a captial c), and some wine during chat time. Never participated in a Twitter hashtag chat or #medlibs chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we are a supportive community and especially welcome students and newcomers.

Data Visualization

Transcript: http://bit.ly/1Q7F9qf

Data Visualization #medlibs chat 
Thursday, November 5. 2015 
9:00pm Eastern/6:00pm Pacific 
Led by Lisa Federer (@lisafederer)

 Many libraries have begun to provide support for data visualization, which can be a powerful way to convey the stories that data can tell and elucidate patterns that might not otherwise be evident. As information professionals, librarians have many skills that make them excellent partners for students, faculty, researchers, and others interested in learning how to create visualizations that demonstrate their data in coherent and visually appealing ways. In fact, a recent Medical Library Association (MLA) webinar focused on data visualization for librarians (check out the tweets from this session at #mladataviz).

Join the #medlibs chat on Twitter on Thursday, November 5 at 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific to share your ideas, thoughts, and questions on data visualization. We’ll talk about tools for creating various types of visualizations, share examples of cool visualizations, and discuss how libraries can get involved in data visualization. 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.

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.