Happy National Medical Librarians Month! I was wonderful to see so many of you at the Midwest Chapter/HSLI joint conference in East Peoria. Thanks to the 2013 conference planning committee for putting together a great event. Be sure to read Michael Wold’s article on the conference in the HSLI Newsletter and keep an eye out for more articles from our scholarship winners.
I extend my congratulations to Starfish Thrower Award winners Roy Jones and Deborah Rhue. They both have worked very hard for HSLI this year.
There are several new stories posted in the HSLI Newsletter this month. Don’t miss the article on the HSLI Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship. This generous and thoughtful gift has been given to HSLI to support education for Illinois health sciences librarians. If you are interested in helping with the establishment of the endowment fund, please contact me.
Sarah Houghton, the plenary speaker at the conference this year, had many important things to say about change, realistic expectations, and running a library. She also had some important observations on how public libraries and health sciences libraries interact. Mainly, be sure the public libraries in your area know that you and your library exist. There are many great opportunities for public and health sciences libraries to work together, but a dialog has to be opened first. So please reach out to your neighboring libraries, let them know what you have to offer and see what services they can offer you.