In the fall of 1991, Michele Spatz moved with her family to The Dalles, Oregon, to develop and manage the Planetree Health Resource Center, a community-based consumer health library, for Mid-Columbia Medical Center. She is past President of the Oregon Health Science Libraries Association and served as Chair of the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) of the Medical Library Association. In addition to teaching two Medical Library Association Continuing Education courses on consumer health information Michele also edits Charting Consumer Health, a regular column of the Journal of Hospital Librarianship, writes a monthly column called To Your Health for The Dalles Chronicle, and tries to follow her own advice about stress reduction.

Planning and Managing the Consumer Health Library

Date: Saturday, 10/22

Time: 9am - 4pm

Instructor: Michele Spatz, Director; Planetree Health Resource Center

6 contact hours - Cost $130

Course Description: If you are just beginning a consumer health service or you have been providing service and feel something is missing, this course is for you. Focus on planning and managing issues related to providing consumer health services or operating a consumer health library. Learn about needs assessment, costs and funding, business plans, volunteer and paid staffing, collection development, policy development, and public relations.

Face to Face: Strategies for Effective Consumer Health Communication

Date: Sunday, 10/23

Time: 8am - Noon

Instructor: Michele Spatz, Director; Planetree Health Resource Center

4 contact hours - Cost $80

Course Description: Focus on the communication dynamics of providing health information to consumers. Interactive exercises and discussion will teach you to handle problem patrons and respond to ethical dilemmas in the health information setting. Self-care is accented as an important component for the consumer health information provider.

Debi Warner first started teaching classes using chocolate-chip cookies in 2001. A graduate class on Testing and Assessment got her interested in participatory methods of assessment, including the use of portfolios and rubrics. As Head of Reference Services at East Carolina University, she developed and taught this class to librarians, dieticians, and medical educators. This method has been used for assessing patient interviewing done by Residents and evaluating the professionalism of students working in internships in the Dietitian program.

Since leaving North Carolina, Debi was RAHC Library Director for the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), where she was project director for two NLM sponsored outreach projects in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. She continues to work in Harlingen, Texas as the Director of Community Outreach for the Center for South Texas Programs, UTHSCSA.

In her spare time, she writes grants for nature organizations and goes birding every chance she gets.

Benchmarking Performance

Date: Saturday, 10/22

Time: 1- 5pm

Instructor: Debra Warner, University of Texas HSC at San Antonio

4 contact hours - Cost $80

Course Description: Students will discover modern assessment ideas and then apply the techniques to the assessment of reference services. Students will learn to establish clear and appropriate targets based on a participatory method. Specifically, they will explore performance rubrics and develop one as a class to assess a class-selected reference function.

Linda Culp Dowling is a management coach, communication skills trainer, and an organizational development consultant. She founded Communication Concepts, a training and development firm, in 1979, after fifteen years in broadcast management and education. She serves clients in business, education, government, manufacturing, and healthcare. A native Oklahoman, she holds a B.A. in Mass Communication from Wayne State University in Detroit and taught management and communication courses at the University of Oklahoma. She is a member of the American Society for Training and Development and teaches in the OU Training and Development Certification Program. Linda is featured in a training video, Coaching and Performance Feedback Training Scenes, produced by Quality Media Resources of Seattle. She and her husband, Pete, live at Falconhead Resort and Country Club in southern Oklahoma and enjoy traveling with friends and spending time with their children and grandchildren.

The Mentoring Model: A Step-by-Step Approach

Date: Saturday, 10/22

Time: 8am - 5pm

Instructor: Linda Culp Dowling, President; Communication Concepts Consulting, Inc.

Sponsor: South Central Chapter, Medical Library Association

6 contact hours - Cost $130

Course Description: In this highly interactive and practical session on mentoring Dowling will guide course participants through The Mentoring Model, a step-by-step approach to mentoring. She will introduce key strategies participants can take back to their workplace and utilize, transforming themselves from managers to “mentor managers”.

Sponsorship Information: This program is funded by the South Central Chapter's receipt of the second MLA Leadership and Management Section (LMS) Chapter-Level Leadership Education Challenge Grant and the South Central Academic Medical LIbraries (SCAMeL) Consortium.

Michelle Malizia, M.A. is the Outreach Coordinator for the National Networks of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region (NN/LM SCR). Ms. Malizia is responsible for identifying underserved and minority healthcare professionals as well as coordinating outreach efforts in the region. She has taught health information and technology classes to a wide array of health professionals and consumers. She has exhibited at consumer and health professional conferences throughout the country. Currently, she provides instruction on PubMed, MedlinePlus, proposal writing, public health information resources and Website usability.

Caring for the Mind: Providing Reference Services for Mental Health Information

Date: Wednesday, 10/26

Time 9 am - Noon

Instructor: Michelle Malizia OR Karen Vargas, NN/LM SCR

3 contact hours – Hands-on class - Cost $80

Course Description: Responding to mental health reference questions is challenging for even the most experienced librarian. In “Caring for the Mind,” participants will learn how to effectively provide reference services for mental health information for the public. Participants will learn the best websites, databases and collection development materials to respond to mental health related questions. Handling the reference interview with care and sensitivity will be explored. The class will include both hands-on and discussion.

Margaret Vugrin is a librarian by profession and a photographer by passion. She currently works as a reference librarian at the Preston Smith Library of the Health Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC), Lubbock, TX.

Having spent 20 years in the information field, Margaret has been surrounded by libraries, books and journal covers. The addition of graphic design to her “bag of tricks” is a natural progression as information and photographic fields converge for her. Unifying her photographic skills with her graphic design interests allows her to enhance her own library’s public relations image. How to Photograph Your Library workshop is an outgrowth of various projects and presentations that she has mastered for various libraries.

Along the way, she has placed in numerous juried photographic exhibits as well as won a National Grand Prize from the Association of American Medical College’s 2002 photography competition, “A Day in the Life of a Medical Student.” Her poster with Richard C. Wood won an honorable mention at SCC’s meeting in Shreveport; it was noted that “it was too good not to be noted” even though it wasn’t a research poster. Majors Scientific Books recently selected a number of her images for its 2004 and 2005 Majors and Elsevier Calendars.

How to Photograph Your Library: Using Digital Photography to Enhance Your Library’s Image

Date: Wednesday, 10/26

Time: 8am - Noon

Instructor: Margaret Vugrin, Reference Librarian; Texas Tech Health Sciences Center Library

4 contact hours - Cost $80

Course Description: Have you purchased a digital camera? Are you now trying to figure out what do with it? This workshop will focus on using digital photography as a public relations tool for your library.