Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Health Science Librarians Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Health Science Librarians 
| Co-Editors: | |
| Jon Crossno UT Southwestern Medical Center Library |
David Midyette Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. |
Each year, the SIG manages to come forward with significant programming ideas for the annual meeting. Lack of a treasury and the status of a section do not seem to keep us down. And May 2004 will be no exception. The Public Health/Health Administration Section is leading a program entitled “The Power of National and International Health Initiatives.” This session will discuss various health initiatives and the opportunities they provide for libraries to act as partners in health promotion and disease prevention efforts. Bryan Vogh and Ammon Ripple are planning the SIG program for 2004, and they have lined up Dr. Tony Silvestre to talk about "Healthy People 2010" and the effort to promote the inclusion of LGBT health issues in this document.
In addition, thanks to the efforts of Chris Shaffer, we are teaming up with the Cancer Librarians section for an important contributed paper session “Making Critical Decisions: End-of-Life Health Care.” Two sections – Research and Relevant Issues – are co-sponsors of this program.
We are excited about both of these programs because they will attract participation and audiences from all segments of the MLA membership. These programs will continue our mission of raising awareness about LGBT health issues and will get important information out to our colleagues.
We are also cooking up some ideas for generating some new energy in the SIG this year (uh oh - that power metaphor just snuck in there). Perhaps a social event along the lines of an “open house” that will attract colleagues who want to stop by and check out what the SIG is all about, rather than committing to a dinner outing or sitting through a business meeting. Stay tuned for some emails on the listserv asking for input.
Our emeritus member, Richard Klein, has come through once again with an excellent alternative for housing near the conference site. The Jury's Normandy Inn sounds as though it will be conducive to informal gatherings and will, hopefully, ease some of the financial burden of attending the meeting.
If you haven’t noticed yet, the call for proposals is already up on MLANET at http://www.mlanet.org/am/am2004/index.html, so take the plunge and submit an abstract for these and other programs.
We hope to see you in D.C. this spring.
-- Gail Persily & Tom Flemming, 2004 Co-Chairs
Hmmm, well, yes. I suppose that does make sense. And your remorseful and repentant newsletter editors would like to apologize for the delay in publishing this most important issue of the year. But here it is!
Seriously – and continuing with next year’s MLA theme, which our co-chairs have already used a little – we have each had our brush with power this summer. One of us visited several national and state parks in the Four Corners states (i.e., witnessed the power of nature) and then returned to work to feel very “powerless” trying to track down the other, who had experienced an unexpected [and interesting?] job change (i.e. one of us is VERY remorseful about ever agreeing to take a job at a public library with insane people running around screaming “You’re Fired! You’re Fired!” and generally stinking up the place which all of the kids helped trash because all of the super rich moms were all too busy to watch their spawn raising you know what while the freakish library staff took every opportunity to sabotage and undermine the hard work of our dedicated, hard-working hero who persisted despite the insane work schedule, and was oh so happy to be let go from that position only to be shocked three weeks later when a temp agency contacted him about working for a pharmaceutical company which is now, at this typing, a seven week adventure away from the Dante-inspired experience of public service that still gives him nightmares along with the cold sweats about putting an offer on a home in an overly bloated California housing market.) But we digress.
We’ve weathered the storms to get this issue together for you, and it’s just chock-full with interesting news. And hopefully our lives will settle out a bit, allowing us to fill our dreams of a regular publication, delivered in a timely fashion.
You’ve already read the welcome from co-chairs where they tantalize you with the SIG’s upcoming activities at the MLA annual meeting in Washington, D.C. But we’ve also got the minutes from the San Diego business meeting and more of those wonderful “11 Questions,” including entries from new SIG officers Tom Flemming and Ammon Ripple. The issue concludes with a recent report from the grand Richard Klein on the Washington hotel arrangements.
Now, while we have you trap … er, hook … um, captivated, your editors would like to encourage you to send us any little tidbits of information that you think would be useful to include in future issues. We’ve done well, I think, at maintaining the level of professionalism exhibited by our predecessors in this venture, but we’re not willing to take all the glory.
So if there’s something you’d like to share, contribute, or suggest, drop your editors a nice little email. We’re here for you, after all.
See you between the pages!
Jon and David
Co-Chairs: Gail Persily (2002-2004) & Tom Flemming (2003-2005)
Program Co-Chairs (Washington, D.C.): Bryan Vogh & Ammon Ripple
Newsletter Co-Editors: Jon Crossno & David Midyette
San Diego, California
Tuesday May 6, 2003
3:00 p.m.
Call to Order
The business meeting was called to order at 3:05 p.m. by co-chair Bill Fleming.
Introductions
Persons attending the meeting introduced themselves.
Report on 2003 Program
Program chair Bryan Vogh reported that despite some miscommunications and minor
setbacks, the program was a success. He wished that Garth Meckler, the SIG’s
invited speaker, would have had more time. When the combined program was first
talked about, Vogh was under the impression there would be more time. However,
what he thought was 4 sections turned into 5, and cut greatly into our time.
This was after an honorarium of $400 was agreed upon. The group in attendance
agreed that the program was a huge success. There were as many as 60 people
in the room at one time, and during Meckler (who was the last speaker), there
were 20-30 people in attendance.
Great thanks were made to the people at Haworth Press, who for the second year have helped finance our speakers. It was reported that the promotional materials they provided were all taken by the end of the program.
2004 Program
Ammon Ripple, with assistance from Bryan Vogh, agreed to chair the 2004 program
initiative. He will be contacting a former colleague, Dr. Anthony Silvestre,
who worked to get LGBT information into Healthy People 2010.
There were also a couple of other ideas offered. Chris Shaffer is working on an initiative with the Cancer Librarians Section to produce a program dealing with end-of-life issues. It is possible that both could be possible, as the end-of-life issues program would not require any monetary commitment on the SIG’s part.
Elect/Appoint one co-chair
Tom Flemming has agreed to serve a two-year term as co-chair, replacing Bill
Fleming. Tom will work with Gail Persily throughout the year. At the Washington
DC meeting, a replacement for Gail will be elected/appointed. Jon Crossno and
David Midyette will continue as newsletter editors for another year.
Housing
Two options for housing were offered by Richard Klein for the Washington DC
meeting in 2004. Richard was not in attendance at San Diego, but relayed his
findings to co-chair Gail Persily. The two options were the Courtyard Marriott
and the Carlisle Suites, both with a rate of $155/night and both within walking
distance of the Hyatt, the conference hotel. After much discussion, it was decided
that the group would ask Richard if there were other hotel options that were
not within close walking distance of the conference hotel, but were rather on
the train line. A couple of people mentioned the Kalorama guest inn, where SIG
members stayed many years ago. A couple of people reported that the Kalorama
was under new ownership and “not as great” as it once was. Tom Flemming
was skeptical about going back, as the time spent there in the past was romanticized
in people’s minds, this time would ruin that memory if it wasn’t
just as nice. Bill Fleming said he would be in touch with Richard to investigate
other options.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
top
In San Diego, the SIG teamed up with about a zillion sections and SIGs to co-sponsor "Caught in the Whirlpool: Information Needs of and Outreach Services for At-Risk and Underserved Consumer Populations." Fortunately, we were able to sponsor Garth Meckler, MD, a wonderful speaker who presented "Health Information Needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Youth, Their Families, and Their Health Care Providers." Over thirty people attended the session, which was well received. Unfortunately, the program schedule only allowed twelve minutes per presenter. Dr. Meckler graciously allowed us to inquire further about his research by joining us for dinner at the SIG social.
-- Chris Shaffer, 2003 Program Co-Chair
When is your birthday?
** In the summer; I’m a Cancer, astrologically speaking!
Where are you located geographically?
** McMaster University Health Sciences Library, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3Z5
Where did you get your MLS?
** Dalhousie University, In Halifax, Nova Scotia (and by the way, my MLS is a “Masters in Library Service”; they don’t make ‘em like that any longer …)
What was the worst part of library school?
** All of it! Well, all of it that I can remember, anyhow …
How do you really feel about cataloging?
** Can I use four-letter words to describe these feelings ?
What would your mother say was your most embarrassing moment?
** My mother is very discreet; she wouldn’t say anything, I’m sure.
What would you say was your mother’s most embarrassing moment?
** My mother taught me to be as discreet as she is; my lips are zipped.
How did you come to medical librarianship?
** I needed a job and one in a health sciences library was offered. I started out as Archivist and Special Collections Librarian in the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library at Dalhousie University and when that position disappeared, I got on-the-job training to move into Reference and ILL and became a much more “mainstream” health sciences librarian. Onward and upward, ever since …
An informationist is …
** Someone who wants to make more money than s/he did as a librarian.
Fondest SIG/MLA memory?
** All of the subsequent retellings of the story of the sherry decanter and the slip on the stairs at the Kalorama Guest House in Washington, DC. Each of them is better than the original event in the same way that legends are generally more enjoyable, more thrilling, and more satisfying than the truth was. Everyone who retells the story cherishes it and embellishes it differently and it always brings us together for a laugh whenever it is told.
What is the most trivial fact you have rattling around your head?
** The story of the sherry decanter and the slip
on the stairs at the Kalorama Guest House, of course!
When is your birthday?
10/3/71
Where are you located geographically?
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Where did you get your MLS?
What was then the School of Library & Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh (in 1995)
What was the worst part of library school?
Cataloging class
How do you really feel about cataloging?
It’s really important for searching and helps me as a reference librarian on a daily basis, but I’m REALLY glad someone else does it!!
What would you say was your most embarrassing moment?
There are so many…let’s see…how about the time I almost got killed by a dead nun? I spent a year after college working odd jobs, one of which was as a gardener and handyman to a convent of cloistered Carmelite nuns. A very sweet elderly nun named Sister Caroline died that winter and I was asked to be a pallbearer. When we were taking the casket out to the burial ground, I slipped on a patch of ice and fell on my back RIGHT UNDER THE CASKET. That threw the other pallbearers off balance and they had to fight to keep the casket from falling on top of me – which thankfully they did. I was almost a candidate for the Darwin Awards!
How did you come to medical librarianship?
I worked for 4 years as a reference librarian in the Information Sciences Library at Pitt and was ready for a change when a job came open at the Falk Library of the Health Sciences that was half-time reference and half-time document delivery librarian. I love it! Now I also work as liaison to the Graduate School of Public Health.
Being in the health sciences library field was somewhat predestined though - when I was in library school, my good friend Karen Zundel (who works at the UPMC McKeesport hospital library) inspired me to take a medical informatics course and took me to MLA in DC to meet LGBT SIG members which helped make me interested in that career path.
An informationist is …
I’m too busy being one to think of a definition!!
Fondest SIG/MLA memory?
When Karen took me to DC in ‘95 (at the Kalorama guest house) and I met all those cool people at the LBGT SIG social and we walked all over town together - and I do mean all over! DC is one of my favorite cities (I grew up an hour from there in rural Maryland) – I’m excited about going back next year!
What is the most trivial fact you have rattling around your head?
There’s too many trivial facts and my brain’s
information overload strategy is to lock them all away until I need them. I
can’t think of them until someone asks me the question… One not
so trivial thing in my brain that I can always access is the words to Robert
Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled” which is a personal mantra
for me (along with most songs by Erasure!). I also know lots of stuff about
Francis of Assisi who is a personal hero.
When is your birthday?
August 2, 1961. Yikes.
Where are you located geographically?
Phoenix, AZ
Where did you get your MLS?
Tucson, AZ
What was the worst part of library school?
The overwhelming feeling that I was being made to bleed for the sole reason that “they” had been made to bleed before me. Luckily, I befriended this woman whose mantra was, “Anything above a B is wasted energy.” That helped.
How do you really feel about cataloging?
I am afraid of catalogers. You aren’t one, are you?
What would your mother say was your most embarrassing moment?
You know, I’ve been many people in my 42 years, and there are parts of my life that are better not revisited.
What would you say was your mother’s most embarrassing moment?
Ditto.
How did you come to medical librarianship?
Purely by accident and via Wisconsin
An informationist is …
A dangerous, radical, leftist-type who is ruining civil society, destroying marriage, and all the foundations upon which our country was based? Just a guess.
Fondest SIG/MLA memory?
I think it would have to be arriving in D.C. at the Kalorama to this lovely wine party – I felt like ya’ll had gathered this celebration together in honor of my arrival!
What is the most trivial fact you have rattling around your head?
Gosh I don’t know. I was never good at trivia.
This is too hard!!!
When is your birthday?
October 1
Where are you located geographically?
San Francisco Bay Area, California. I live in Oakland, work in Emeryville, and hang out a lot in Berkeley.
Where did you get your MLS?
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
What was the worst part of library school?
When my dog was lost for 3 days. I was so upset that I couldn’t study or think about anything else.
How do you really feel about cataloging?
It’s arcane and systematic. I like arcane and systematic when I have all the time in the world to indulge in them, but, since I never do, I find cataloging mostly frustrating.
What would your mother say was your most embarrassing moment?
When I was kicked out of the National Honor Society in high school for cutting study hall.
What would you say was your mother’s most embarrassing moment?
When our “male” family cat had kittens.
How did you come to medical librarianship?
My favorite job in college was working in the Biology Library. After a few years of trying to make it in the world with just a BS in psychology, I decided to go to graduate school. I chose Library School because I loved working in a Library, the MSLS was a one year program, and you didn’t have to write a thesis. I specialized in medical librarianship because of that Biology Library experience and because most everyone in my family is/was in the health sciences.
An informationist is …
A made-up word that I have to look up on the MLA website whenever I get this question.
Fondest SIG/MLA memory?
That Seattle boat trip when we sneaked bottles of wine from the MLA dinner party and drank them and acted rowdy on the way back to the city
What is the most trivial fact you have rattling around your head?
“Unique” may not be modified. I HATE
it when people say or write “really unique” or “rather unique.”
The Jury’s Normandy Inn will be our SIG hotel headquarters for May 2004. We are holding a block of 15 rooms from May 21 until May 26, 2004. Located is 2118 Wyoming Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C., the Jury’s Normandy is very close to Connecticut Avenue on a lovely street in the Embassy District. The Jury’s Normandy is also located within 3 blocks of the Washington Hilton, MLA’s headquarters hotel. Further information is available at http://www.jurys.com/usa/normandy.htm . Our special group rate is $125.00 per night, single and $135.00, double, plus 14.5 % tax, with no meals included. Double rooms consist of two twin beds, or a queen; and single rooms are available with a queen bed. The hotel is being flexible regarding earlier arrival and departure dates.
Reservations can be guaranteed for the first night with a major credit card. Reservations are taken at 800-424-3729, and please mention you are part of the Special Interest Group. When making reservations, make sure you get (and save) your confirmation number. It is advisable to get the name of the person you spoke, along with date and time. Direct hotel telephone number, which also accesses reservations, is 202-483-1350. Cancellation policy requires notification by 4:00 p.m., hotel time, 24 hours prior to arrival to avoid any charges. It is suggested making your reservations earlier rather than later. (Though understandably, a good number of people may not know if their plans for a good while).
Reservations will be closely and continually monitored. If we sense there is added interest, we will try to increase our room block; and if attendance is not up to expectation, we will reduce rooms accordingly. With a credit card guarantee, you can always cancel or adjust, and rebook subject to availability. After April 21, 2004, reservations will be taken on a “space and rate available basis” only. Please do not hesitate to contact me, should you be experiencing problems, "misunderstandings," or clarification needs etc. regarding reservations.
Features
Jury’s Normandy, a boutique hotel, offers 75 charming and comfortable rooms. The hotel has been favorably rated by Fodor’s and Frommer’s guidebooks. Rooms feature air-conditioning, voice-mail, cable TV, telephone with data port, 24-hour sports & news channels, work desk with lamp, rooms for disabled guests (on request); non-smoking rooms (on request), hairdryer, coffee-maker, mini-refrigerator, room safes, complimentary newspapers on the weekdays. There is a lounge that serves complimentary tea/coffee during the afternoon; and offers a wine/cheese reception on Tuesday nights. There is complimentary access to the workout facilities at the nearby Courtyard by Marriott (across from the Washington Hilton).
Continental breakfast is served daily for $5.50 per person, plus tax (at this writing). There is very limited parking at the rate of $13.00 per night (at this writing). The Jury’s Normandy is located with walking to distance to a myriad dining and nightlife opportunities in both the Dupont Circle and Morgan-Adams area. Also, the National Zoo is within walking distance. And the hotel is convenient to Washington, D.C.’s numerous monuments, museums, and attractions.
Transportation and Logistics
Transportation is available to the hotel from Reagan National, Dulles International, and Baltimore-Washington International Airports are available by taxi and Super Shuttle, as best bets. Taxi costs are approximately $10, $ 30, and $30 from each of these respective airports. (Reagan National is the closest). There is also transportation on Super Shuttle. No reservations are needed from airport to hotel; but reservations are needed at least 24 hours in advance from hotel to airport. Super Shuttle’s toll free number is 1-800-258-3826. It is approximately $10.00 by taxi from Washington’s Union Station. Also, the Metro’s Red Line goes directly from Union Station to Dupont Circle (about 5 to 6 blocks from the Jury’s Normandy). (Cheaper) Public transportation to and from is possible but is more complicated and time-consuming. The hotel should be able to advise/assist with return transportation options.
Our SIG, undoubtedly, will be offering another well-planned MLA program, our usual business meeting, and a highly anticipated social, and just plain getting together. Should you have any questions, et al., please advise. I will update, amend, and repeat as need be.
Richard S. Klein, 2400 N. Lakeview Ave. # 512, Chicago,
IL 60614-2732 Tel: 773-327-4618
also: Aqua Terra Travel, Chicago, IL 800-376-3784, 312-787-2400 (leave message
for me, and I’ll get back to you)
Email: rsklein_98@yahoo.com (please note there is an underscore, not a dash
between rsklein and 98).
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