   
Newsletter of the IFLA Section of Biological and Medical Sciences Libraries (On-line)
October 1996,
Volume 17, No. 4
ISSN: 1025-5680
Beijing 1996: A True Success for the Biomedical Section
Beijing 1996 was a great success for our Section! The Open Session and the Workshop were of high professional quality and added to the success of the whole conference. Let me tell you more about it.
Session on East Meets West in Medical Librarianship
About 50 librarians attended this session, hearing eight speakers give an overview of medical libraries in China as well as examples of cooperation between East and West. Emphasis was given to library education and acknowledging that two library schools in China specialize in medical librarianship. Most of the medical librarians in China are also physicians.
Cooperative efforts were outlined in presentations about the partnership between Shenyang University and McGill University in Montreal and on the access to biomedical information from China through the NLM databases. Other papers included the topics of biotechnology and agriculture.
The day ended with a traditional Chinese dinner at the impressive People's House on Tienanmen Square for all 2,500 participants of the IFLA Conference. The dinner included seven courses with a dessert in the middle and a soup at the end--and a joyous event for all.
Full texts of all papers are available from the Chair. See his e-mail address at the end of his report.
Workshop on Traditional Chinese Medicine
This session was organized by Lois Ann Colaianni and the Institute for Chinese Traditional Medicine. It provided an opportunity for ten Western librarians to visit one specialized hospital on acupuncture and the renowned Institute of Information on Traditional Chinese Medicine, the national center. Literature retrieval, information studies and services to the public are the chief responsibilities of the Institute. It is also a training center in collaboration with WHO.
The Biomedical Section
General issues discussed during the business meeting included the IFLA Copyright Statement and the next Medium Term Program. Each Section was given the opportunity to correct the Evaluation Form sent during the past year, The final MTP will include both past and future projects from each Section and will be adopted next year. The Special Libraries Division has launched the journal, Inspel. The new editor would like to have all six Sections represented as well as giving opportunities to all librarians to submit articles and by proposing to publish issues devoted to a topic. It is expected that one topical number on medical librarianship in China will be published in 1997 with papers from the Beijing meeting.
The Information Coordinator
A new Information Coordinator was elected by each Section. Monique Cleland, Secretary/Treasurer of the Section of Biomedical and Medical Sciences Libraries, will serve as the Section IC. Tasks for the coming year include revising the Section's informational brochure, using the brochure to recruit new members, and sending it to National Associations and Institutions.
Next Year in Copenhagen
Plans are underway for the program to be sponsored by the Section at the 63rd annual IFLA Conference in Copenhagen. Next year will be an election year for the Section.
The Section Chair expresses his appreciation to members of the Standing Committee and Section members for their work and support. He promises that 1997 will be another productive year for the Section and hopes that all will encourage new members to join and participate.
Jean-Philippe Accart
Chair
Centre d’Information et de Documentation,
ANACT, quai Fulchiron, 69005 LYON - FRANCE
Tel: 33 04 72 56 13 34
Fax: 33 04 78 37 96 90
EMAIL: anact-69@imaginet.Fr
8th International Congress on Medical Librarianship
July 9th - 12th, 2000 Queen Elizabeth Il Conference Centre, London
The QE2 has a wonderful location: across the road from Westminster Abbey and with views of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. The river and St James's park are less then 5 minutes' walk away (and that's a proper walk, not a tourist-brochure sprint) and it has excellent bus and underground train connections.
Congress Dates
In settling on July 9th-12th we have moved the conference back a couple of weeks from our original proposal. In the last minute rush of June 2000, we will probably be grateful for the extra time, but this is not why we have made the change. By moving to July we also move into the university vacation, and give ourselves access to London's student residences. These are inexpensive, and increasingly offer private bathrooms, television and so on.
London's Millennium Celebrations
Britain's celebration of the millennium will be centered on a "world's fair” type of exposition and fair on a site just east of the City of London and on the banks of the Thames. This will be a great boost for the Congress because by river taxi this event only be 20 minutes or so from the conference. The social events team is already hard at work looking at how we can take advantage of all that will be going on around us as we confer.
The Programme
Responsibility for the programme committee is in the capable hands of Arne Jakobsson, who is one of two Europeans sitting on the main organizing committee. The core structure of the Congress will be settled as quickly as possible in order to give plenty of time to set up satellite events and to allow subgroups and others to work their sessions around our plenary sessions and major social event.
The Library Association
One of our biggest reasons for confidence that London 2000 is going to be a success is the full-blooded participation of the Library Association. In particular the events department of LA Enterprises has taken on responsibility for all the administrative and technical aspects, and even more important the LA has agreed to guarantee the event financially.
Having this support over the next 4 years will make the work of us volunteers so much easier and more enjoyable—it leaves us free to concentrate on the things that volunteers do best, and takes care of the routine affairs (hotel bookings, advance registration) that sometimes leave awkward loose ends Lying around or cost a fortune if you have to use commercial agencies.
Janet Liebster and Rob Palmer have already added strength and practical experience to the organizing committee, keeping us from making elementary errors; and Janet's broad commercial experience and Rob's abilities as a negotiator of deals will be of growing value as time moves on.
Working Groups
Two of the many things we have learned from the Washington organizers have been that (a) there's no such thing as having too many volunteers, and (b) the best way to get people involved is to have a series of specialist working groups for every different aspect of the project.
Each of these groups is chaired by a member of the main committee, which will maintain communication between the two, and each is filling up with volunteers from the UK medical library community.
The groups already established and the coordinator of each one are as follows:
Honour Committee
International Committee
David Stewart, chair;
Tony McSean, secretary
Programme Committee
Arne Jakobsson, chair;
John van Loo, deputy chair
Continuing Education
Publicity
Social Programme
Library Visits
In addition to these project groups, we have also set up two small "emergency" groups to provide a rapid and easy link between volunteers and the Library Association:
Budget Committee
Janet Liebster;
Tony McSean;
David Stewart
Exhibition
Rob Palmer with
David Stewart
Programme
Our aim is to have simultaneous translation into French for at least the plenary sessions, and to set up sessions French, Spanish, German, and other languages provided there are sufficient good contributed papers offered. With the size of the QE2 Centre we will be able to have as many parallel sessions as we need and a large area for poster presentations.
Continuing Education
There will be an extensive programme of CE courses immediately before and after the main conference. They will take place in several venues around London. For a couple of days before the CE starts, we will make life easier for new visitors by setting up a central check-in point with travel and visitors information. We are seeking to have at least some of our courses accredited by the MLA.
Tony McSean
Secretary to the Organizing Committee
February 1996
From The Editor
One of the joys of librarianship is the availability of reading matter. The richness of medical literature never ceases to amaze me At one's fingertips are dozens of publications, offering every topic and/or point of view and presented at various levels of sophistication
In scanning a recent issue of the ACP Journal Club, I read the statement of purpose. The reason for this publication is clear --to select articles that warrant the attention of physicians and provide abstracts that summarize the contents. It is not just a summary, however The editors state that it is a “Value added" abstract because of the comments by an expert.
The remarks and criticisms of these experts do add value, for the physician can read but one page to determine whether or not to pursue the entire article. The qualifications of the expert give him that assurance. And so do we, as librarians, add value to the publications and databases in our libraries. The knowledge we have about sources, publishers, how databases are built, the worth of an author, etc., adds great value to understanding of A title. How does a journal get its standing? Why do we hesitate to recommend certain titles. Every librarian is exposed to an array of resources. The more we use them, the more we gain a critical understanding of the strengths and failings and the more useful we become as filters for our readers.
I find reviewing the ACP Journal Club A good way to look at what articles were selected and for what reasons. It helps bring an understanding of what our readers need, how they approach literature as a source for information. I agree with the editors that it does add value to the original article.
Librarians need to consider ways to increase their value in our working with the faculty, students, physicians, and scientists. Just as expert clinicians evaluated articles for the benefit of their colleagues, we as the experts in information and knowledge management and transfer can add value to the products and services we provide.
Lucretia W. McClure
Editor
For IFLA membership, contact:
IFLA Headquarters
Box 95312
2509 CH, The Hague
The Netherlands
E-mail: IFLA@ifla.org
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