Welcome to the Liberty Chapter Newsletter, a quarterly blog post that will highlight chapter initiatives, committee activities and the achievements of our members.

Chapter Event Highlights 

By Jaclyn Morales, Liberty Chapter Chair

• January 21, 2025 Vision Board Workshop 

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee hosted the 2025 Vision Board Workshop, led by Allison Piazza. The Vision Board Workshop provided participants with a structured approach to identifying areas for personal growth and balance. Utilizing the Wheel of Life framework, attendees assessed their current satisfaction across various life domains, such as family and spiritual well-being.

Based on their self-assessments, participants selected a digital tool, such as Canva or PowerPoint, to create a visual representation of their focus areas for 2025. Through the incorporation of stock imagery, personal photographs, and inspirational quotes, participants articulated their goals, which included increased engagement in personal hobbies, career growth, and dedicated time for family and friends.

• February 13, 2025 Chair Yoga

In February, over 30 Liberty chapter members were uplifted by Chair Yoga, guided by Helen-Ann Brown Epstein! Using only a chair, we explored the transformative power of seated and balancing poses. Chair Yoga was sponsored by the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

• March 7th, 2025 Liberty Chapter Committee Open House

In February, the board approved the creation of three new chapter committees. These committees were discussed during the merger and were built to encourage education and professional development within the chapter, advocacy and revenue diversification. Members learned about these new committees, along with the Chapter’s existing committees during a Committees Open House held on March 7th. A description of the new committees is listed below, with a dedicated section on the Liberty Chapter Website.

Governmental Relations Committee

The Government Relations Committee monitors relevant legislative activity at local, state, and national levels; reports legislative activities to the Board; recommends action in response to relevant issues (may include correspondence with legislators); encourages membership to act where relevant; publishes articles of interest in the chapter newsletter; submits annual objectives and an annual report.  Sign-up Here

Professional Development Committee 

The Professional Development Committee develops educational events to keep chapter members informed about new developments in their field and related areas; plans and coordinates continuing education programs and workshops; solicits input from chapter members regarding preferred course/workshop topics; identifies relevant programs offered by MLA or other groups based on member needs; proposes courses/workshops to the Board; provides credentialing information to chapter members; submits annual objectives and an annual report.  Sign-up Here

Budget and Finance Committee
Chair- Treasurer 
Co-Chair - Treasurer elect/past treasurer

The Budget and Finance Committee meets at least once a year to examine all current revenue sources and expenditures; research revenue-producing activities; studies investment policies and current sources of revenue for the chapter; submits annual objectives and annual report.  Sign-up Here

• March 11th, 2025 Workshop - Design & Deliver: Crafting Dynamic Posters and Engaging Lightning Talks

This interactive course, led by Stacy Posillico, focused on practical writing strategies for creating effective posters and lightning talks. Participants explored the Problem-Gap-Hook Writing Technique, which emphasizes identifying the gap in existing research, clearly defining the problem being addressed, and establishing a relevant hook that personally connects with the audience. This framework provides a strong foundation for conveying key messages in both poster and presentation formats.

Through an interactive exercise, attendees applied this technique to their own projects, concisely summarizing their work into these three core elements. The session also covered various poster templates, effective data visualization methods for highlighting key takeaways, and an introduction to relevant AI tools. The session wrapped up with an open Q&A where participants could discuss their projects and challenges directly with the speaker.

 Upcoming Chapter Events

When: April 8, 2025, 12:00pm – 1:30pm EST
Where: Zoom
Register Today: Registration Link

This panel discussion will give members the opportunity to discover ways to get started with AI implementation at their institutions. It will also support librarians who are already actively implementing AI with idea development, help in navigating conversations around AI use in education and research, and showcase how the librarian is well suited to support constituents in its ethical uses.

Speakers:

JEDI-B Initiatives for Spring 2025

For our Spring 2025 programming, we invite you to share any initiatives your libraries have undertaken or plan to undertake to support justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (JEDI-B). If you’ve implemented JEDI-B programming or training, conducted research, or performed a diversity audit of your collection, we’d love to hear about your experiences.

Presentations can be done with or without slides, and you’ll have 5-8 minutes to share. The event will take place on Wednesday, May 14th at 12pm EST via Zoom.

Please complete the MLA Liberty EDI Spring Lightning Talks survey to submit your proposal by Wednesday, April 16th.  Feel free to reach out to Diana Delgado [did2005@med.cornell.edu] and Marlowe Bogino [marlowe.bogino@christianacare.org] with any questions. 

We believe this will be a valuable experience for all involved.

Membership Renewal Update

By Trina Keith, Membership Committee Chair

The call for Membership Renewal went out in January. Membership dues were due on February 1.

Please click HERE for more information on renewing your membership or becoming a new member.

Members whose renewal is overdue should have received an email reminder. The deadline to renew your membership without being removed from the Chapter listserv is Monday June 2, 2025.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Trina Keith, the Chair of the Membership Committee, or e-mail us at support@libertymla.org.

Thank you for your continued support of the Liberty Chapter!

        Advocacy Section   

           By Jordan D. Correia

The current presidential administration has come with a quickly changing research landscape. One of the issues that researchers and librarians have faced because of this is difficulty in accessing pre-existing datasets, particularly as the CDC changes or removes pages from their website in accordance with executive orders. In an effort to uphold continuing research, evidence-backed science and data, and diverse initiatives, several websites and organizations have worked hard to capture data prior to the current administration as well as present data. Below is a list of websites containing pertinent information that researchers may find benefit from and for librarians to refer their patrons to.

• CDC Datasets uploaded before January 28^th, 2025
• End of Term Web Archive
• The Data Liberation Project
• Harvard Law Library data.gov Archive
• Data Rescue Project
• ICPSR Government Preservation Project
• UC San Diego’s LibGuide on current Government Information
• Journalist’s Resource
• Data Lumos

Medical Librarians are encouraged to share any resources they find with us or MLA headquarters.

As we continue to try and support medical librarians, we want to hear from you! Please fill out THIS FORM or use the QR code below with issues you have faced, would like to hear resources about, or anything else you feel the advocacy section should address.

***** Urgent Updates Regarding NNLM Region 5 ******

Heartbreaking news broke that grant funding for the NNLM Region 5 has been terminated, resulting in a stop work order and the loss of the jobs of seven staff members based at the University of Washington. 

NNLM Region 5 included Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska, and Territories and Freely Associated States in the Pacific.  The team provided invaluable resources, support, funding, and professional development.  Colleagues in the NCNMLG have created a spreadsheet of job listings within Region 5. Please add to it, particularly if you know of opportunities in the Seattle area where our impacted colleagues are based. 

This is a critical moment when we support each other. Even if we are not in the Region 5, if you have any job opportunities, please share the job information in the list. Thank you!

By Rie Goto, Communications Committee Chair 

The 125th Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association will take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from April 29th to May 2nd, 2025. This year’s theme is Bridging Tradition and Innovation, honoring the City of Bridges!

Registration is now open! Early Bird registration ends on Thursday, April 3rd ($114 savings for In-person attendance for MLA members!!). If you haven’t registered already, please register soon. MLA offers a $75 discount for presenters and Bulk Registration Rates for MLA Institutional Members! Rates and discount information are available online.

On the MLA’25 website, you will find Hotel and Travel information, Program information, Schedule at a Glance(PDF), CE Courses and descriptions, Presenter Tool Kit, and more!

One thing I wanted to remind everyone is that MLA has various Membership Activities planned for the meeting including Colleague Connection (paring first-time attendees with experienced MLA members), MLA Career Center with Resume Clinic (30 minutes with an experienced colleague to review your cover letter, and Resume or CV, or chat about your job search) and Job Placement Center (submit your resume or job opportunity ahead of time and meet with your potential candidate/employer at MLA!) Please contact Tomi Gunn at MLA Headquarters for details.

Don't forget to join the Liberty Chapter Colleagues at the Communities Lunch on Wednesday, April 30th, 12 noon to 1pm! We would love to see you in person!

Enjoy MLA'25 in person or virtually!

Membership Spotlight

Member Spotlight: Introducing Emmett Booth (he/him/his)

By Rie Goto, Communications Committee Chair 

Emmett is a Clinical Librarian at Thomas Jefferson University. He provides core reference services to students, residents, and staff at Einstein and Abington Hospitals. His role includes Initiating and supporting library outreach efforts at Einstein and Abington Hospitals, contributing to content development and maintenance of appropriate LibGuides and learning objects in Canvas, assisting library users with the evaluation of information resources, providing in-depth consulting services on the effective use of information resources and bibliographic management software,  teaching sessions on library resources and information literacy in the context of evidence-based medicine, and conducting orientation sessions.

Why are you interested in becoming a librarian?

“I love helping people solve information problems, and I believe in the cause of preserving and disseminating knowledge, especially when that knowledge can help people with medical issues.”

What project are you working on now?

“A scoping review about the effect of climate change on vector-borne diseases in pregnancy.”

What’s your hobby outside of work/school?

"I host a podcast, the NotACast podcast, going through A Song of Ice and Fire (the books adapted into Game of Thrones)”

What/who is your favorite Librarian character in popular culture (movies, TV shows, songs, etc..) and why?

“Mike Hanlon in Stephen King's IT; he has the courage to dig deep into his hometown's violent history, and to stay there to confront it while the rest of his friends leave town and forget all about it.”

Game of Thrones fans or anyone curious about his podcast, take a listen to Emmett’s podcast here!

If you want to be featured or know someone you want to introduce, please fill out this form!

Kudos for Members 

By Trina Keith, Memberhsip Committee Chair

Congratulations to fellow Chapter Members!

Maria Deptula, MLIS, George F. Smith Library of the Health Sciences, Rutgers University

Maria has written an article that was published in January 2025.

• Deptula, M. (2025). To Weed or to Keep: A Renovation-Driven Weeding Project of the Health Sciences Library Reference Collection with a Focus on the Last Institutional Copies - A Case Study. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2025.2453718
  

John Carey, MA, MLS, AHIP & Ajatshatru (A.J.) Pathak, MA, MLS, MPH, Health Professions Library, Hunter College - Brookdale Campus

John and A.J. co-authored an article that will be available online mid-March. The article is based on a lightning talk that they did back at the Liberty annual meeting in October 2024.

• Carey, J., & Pathak, A.J. (2025). Library research skills for pre-health students: Partnering with the Pre-Health Advising Office. Hypothesis: Research Journal for Health Information Professionals, 37(1). Doi:10.18060/28649
  

Sunny Chung, MLIS, AHIP, Stony Brook University

Sunny has 2 paper sessions that were accepted for the 2025 MLA Annual Meeting:

• Unleashing Leadership Potential: Leading from Anywhere  [Conference Session - Leadership Symposium]. Brackett, A. Jasmin, H., Lane Walden, R., Chung, S.
• Bridging the Gap Between Student Needs and Library Services for a Health Sciences Writing Course [Conference Session - Lightning Talk]. Chung, S., Scheinfeld, L. Koos, J, Huang, M. B.

Jeannine Creazzo, MLIS, MBA, AHIP, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset

Jeannine and Brittany Haliani will be presenting a poster at the 2025 MLA Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh

• Power in Numbers-Cost Savings Through a Multi-Campus License. Jeannine Creazzo and Brittany Haliani.

Jeannine and Ryan Norman presented a poster at the University Health & Medical Librarians Group 2025 Spring Forum, March 27, 2025.

• Coffee Across the Pond – Implementing a Transatlantic Randomised Coffee Trial for Hospital Nurses. Barlow, P. Creazzo, J., Levitt, L., Norman, R.