Insights from the GHSLA / AHSLC Joint Meeting

By Carolann Curry, MLIS, Mercer University School of Medicine 

The Georgia Health Science Library Association (GHSLA) and the Atlanta Health Sciences Library Consortium (AHSLC) held a joint annual meeting in Decatur, Georgia on April 7-8, 2016. The theme of the meeting was “Health Science Librarians: Keys to Healthy Communities.”

Roundtables were given to represent topics of interest to both groups, including:

• institutional research assistantships and partnerships
• consumer health education
• forging partnerships with other organizations and institutions
• 
embedded medical librarians and librarians working in the community


A presentation entitled “Remembering Miriam Libbey” was delivered to showcase Miriam Libbey’s contributions to health science librarianship and to discuss her importance to Georgia librarians as well as to GHSLA. The presentation was followed by the Miriam Libbey Panel, which was titled “The importance of increasing the health knowledge of your community.”


Presenters included:

• Dr. Glenda Knight, executive director of Cutting Edge Health Options & co-chair of the Diabetes Community Action Coalition;
• Laura Hauser, DeKalb County Public Library Literacy Services Director
• 
Preston Burt, Health Communications Specialist, Environmental Health Tracking Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The meeting concluded with a continuing education workshop titled “Planning Outcomes-Based Outreach Projects,” which was presented by Karen Vargas from the NN/LM Outreach Evaluation Office.

Denise Farley, a student at Valdosta State University’s master’s degree program in library science, was awarded a stipend to attend the joint meeting. A resident of Decatur, Denise’s interest in health sciences librarianship has led her to build her course assignments around health sciences topics, such as analyzing the CDC website and designing LibGuides for consumer and academic health information research.  Her award included meeting registration, hotel accommodations, CE course registration, and two years membership to GHSLA.