Fwd: Mentors needed at APHA

[Tammy Mays]

Hello,

I am a medical librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  
The Public Health/Health Administration section of the Medical Library
Association is seeking public health mentors for librarians attending the
2001 APHA meeting.

If you are interested please read the message below.

Dear Public Health Outreach Forum Attendees:

The Public Health/Health Administration section of the Medical Library
Association is again going to grant stipends to enable 10 librarians to
attend the 2001 APHA meeting.  (A full description of these stipends is
appended below this message.)  In prior years, stipend recipients staffed
a technology center and had opportunity to interact with public health
professionals in that way.  This year there is no tech center, it having
been replaced by a CyberCafe that does not need staffing.  Hence PH/HA is
looking for a creative way to help their sponsored librarians interact
personally with PH professionals.  

The librarians among you may be interested in applying for a stipend.  I
am hoping the PH professionals among you, or those you know, may be able
to "mentor" one of these first-time-at-APHA librarians.  As stated in the
notice that went out on the PH/HA listserv yesterday, what they have in
mind is for the recipient to "shadow a mentor public health worker in
attendance at several selected scientific sessions [of the mentor's
choice] as well as planned social events. The librarian should meet and
talk with other public health workers in the process." 

Please help by publicizing this to your PH workforce constitutents, and
please let me know if anyone is willing to give some mentoring time to
this worthwhile group.

Thanks for your help,
Marj

Marjorie A. Cahn, Head
National Information Center on Health  Services
Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)
National Libary of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike, MS 20
Bldg. 38A, Room 4S410
Bethesda, MD 20894
(301) 435-2242 (voice)
(301) 402-3193 (fax)
(410-216-0160) (beeper)
cahn at nlm.nih.gov
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr


>>> Winifred Sewell <winswll at earthlink.net> 6/9/01 10:08 A >>>


Ten $500.00 Stipends Available for Librarian Attendance at American
Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta, October 21-25, 2001

Would you like to acquaint yourself with the field of public health in a
structured manner?

Would you like to meet public health workers in their own arena?

Are you willing to commit your time and resources to add to the $500.00
stipend offered to attend the American Public Health Association Annual
Meeting in Atlanta, October 21-25, 2001?

If your answer is "Yes," here is the description of the program, the
requirements for applicants, and instructions for applying.

Description of Program. Again this year, stipends are being offered to
librarians in support of their attendance at the American Public
Association Annual Meeting. Plans have been developed in cooperation
with the Medical Library Association Public Health/Health Administration
Section. A report on librarian participation in last year's meeting can
be found at http://www.phha.mlanet.org/phhanews/apharecap.html. Reasons
for attending conferences of your clients' organizations are provided at
http://www.phha.mlanet.org/winter99.html#reasons. For information on
this years APHA meeting, see http://www.apha.org/meetings.

Goals for Stipend Recipients. Ideally librarians should attend both
conferences of library associations and those of their client
organizations, the former, to learn new techniques and network with
other librarians and the latter, to increase content knowledge and to
understand and identify with their clients and their information needs.
Thus the goal for librarian APHA meeting attendance is to have a focus
through which the librarians can: 

1)	acquaint themselves with a cross section of public health workers, 

2)	get in-depth insight into some content of the public health field
through scientific and other program sessions, 

3)	learn policy issues and concerns of public health professionals
especially through their business meetings, and  

4)	generally immerse themselves in public health policy and outlook
through observing the infrastructure of the meeting, especially the
exhibits. 

Activities for Stipend Recipients. To accomplish these goals, one or
more specific activities for the librarian attendance at this fall's
APHA conference could be to:

1)	shadow a mentor public health worker in attendance at several
selected scientific sessions as well as planned social events. The
librarian should meet and talk with other public health workers in the
process, 

2)	assist at an exhibit in which the librarians can learn from
exhibitors and interact with exhibit attendees,

3)	assist with a colleague's presentation or make a presentation if
it
has been accepted. It's too late this year for acceptance of a new
paper,

4)	assist with Section program, business, or social meetings if one
knows or can find the people involved,

5)	engage in the goals and objectives of APHA sections and activities
by
joining committees and work groups as APHA members,

6)	assist in other ways with program, business, or social sessions,
having planned in advance with the session coordinators.

If you need help in locating public health workers or projects with
which to become involved, please contact Win Sewell,
winswll at crosslink.net. Possibly you can have in mind specific questions
that you wish to answer through these interactions and/or activities.

Requirements for Stipend Recipients. Aside from endeavoring to
accomplish the goals set above, there are only three requirements:

1)	attendance at a meeting at 4:00 p.m. or later on Sunday, October
21,
to meet other stipend recipients and discuss goals and specific plans
with each other. This will also be an opportunity to talk about the
PH/HA core journal project and the possibility of a public health
informatics SIG within APHA.

2)	description in your application of the activities with which you
intend to accomplish the goals expressed above. A person or person who
will work with you should be specifically named or reasons given for not
needing such a person in your activities. Several members of the PH/HA
Section are willing to assist in your finding a project and a person
with whom to work. 

3)	a brief, one- or two-page report on your experience by email, fax,
or
regular mail by November 1, evaluating the experience.

If possible, it will also be desirable for the recipient to participate
in any discussion of a Public Health Informatics SIG within the APHA.

Application for Stipend. Send a simple request before August 1, 2001, to
Winifred Sewell, email: winswll at crosslink.net. Include in the request:

1)	a brief statement of your experience in library work and whether
you
work full time or part time in the public health area.

2)	a brief statement, as described in item 2 of Requirements above,
of
what you expect to do at the APHA meeting in order to accomplish the
goals of content learning and  of better understanding public health
workers. Be sure to name the person with whom you will work or why you
do not need such guidance. State any questions your have formulated, the
answers to which you will be seeking in the course of your experiences
at APHA.e

3)	statement of your intended arrival and departure times.

4)	submission of application through email to Winifred Sewell,
winswll at crosslink.net before August 1, 2001. If you have not had a
confirmation of receipt within one week, please call her at
301-229-5008, mornings (Eastern Standard Time) only. 

Review of Applications. Those applications that meet the requirements
will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis. Last year's
recipients of stipends will be considered only if too few applications
from others have been received by the deadline.