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2021 ANNUAL MEETING - PANEL DISCUSSION

Moderator

Sarah Katz
is the Associate Librarian and Health Science Librarian at the University of Delaware. In her role, she provides research and course-related support to the students, staff, and faculty of the various departments within the College of Health Sciences including nursing, kinesiology, physical therapy, behavioral health, nutrition, medical and molecular sciences, epidemiology, and communication science and disorders. In addition, she serves as the Library’s systematic review functional specialist. Sarah is also a liaison to the US Patent and Trademark Resource Center. She received her MSLIS in 2009 from Drexel University.

Panelists

Gary M. Childs, MS is the Engineering (STEM-H) Librarian at West Chester University. Alongside his subject area responsibilities, he is a member of faculty senate and the University Libraries’ electronic resources committee. He has been a member of the Philadelphia Regional Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MLA) since 2000, where he served in a variety of roles and most recently he became Program Chair/Chair Elect 2020-2021. Gary is currently Co-Chairing the 2021 Annual Planning Committee for the inaugural Annual Meeting of the MLA Liberty Chapter and is a member of the transition team helping to shape the emerging chapter. Gary obtained his master’s degree in library science from Drexel University in 2000 and he is currently enrolled in the non-profit track of the public administration master’s program at West Chester University.

Library Spaces: Creating a Self-Care Space

This talk will explore the creation of self-care space in a general academic library that can be used for a wide array of functions. Special attention will be paid to the process of including input from campus partners in planning discussions.

Karen Parry is the Manager of Information Services at the East Brunswick Public Library. She created the library's "Just for the Health Literacy" program in 2010 to promote health equity among all people, especially the elderly, new immigrants, people with low reading and computer literacy, and those from lower incomes who are most at-risk for poor health outcomes. The program's pink heart logo symbolizes the warmth of the public library, a place where everyone can find health information delivered with respect. “Just for the Health of It” has been picked up in multiple grants and awards, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New Jersey Hospital Association. Karen was named a 2018 "Mover & Shaker" by Library Journal for her dedication to health literacy.

Consumer Health: Just for the Health of It Initiative

The role of public libraries and consumer health and how the competencies of public librarians are changing to address health will be discussed. This talk will focus on the “Just for the Health of It” initiative to bring health literacy to at-risk individuals; the HILOW grant (Health Information Library on Wheels) through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and ways that public libraries can partner with their communities to influence the health of their communities upstream where good health begins.

Amanpreet Kaur, CFCS, MLIS is the Community Health & Engineering Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania. Aman has 8 years of experience working in public, academic, and medical libraries meeting the information needs of health sciences and engineering students and researchers; healthcare workers; K-12 STEM pipeline program coordinators and participants; STEM student organizations, and the general public. She holds a BS in Family & Consumer Sciences Education with a minor in Engineering Studies from Iowa State and an MLIS from Rutgers, where she currently serves as a lecturer. In 2019, the Center for Public Health Initiatives (CPHI) appointed Aman to the role of Associate Fellow. Shortly afterwards, Aman co-founded Penn Walks 2 Wellness with CPHI. Aman serves as an advisor for EduCare Health, a student-led health literacy-focused non-profit organization. For more info, visit https://bit.ly/amankaur.

Penn Walks 2 Wellness

This talk will describe a university-wide wellness initiative that transforms on-campus wellness walks into informal information sharing, learning, and networking experiences for students, staff, faculty, and other affiliates of the University of Pennsylvania: https://www.cphi.upenn.edu/Weekly-Themed-Wellness-Walks.html. The Penn Libraries and the Center for Public Health Initiatives jointly coordinate this initiative via funding from the Office of the Provost and the Wellness Division and an intern from the SNF Paideia Program.

Helen-Ann Brown Epstein, MLS, MS, AHIP, FMLA is the Informationist for Virtua Health, a 5-hospital community health system in southern New Jersey. She has a digital library with an ambitious rounding schedule. Over her career, Helen-Ann has always stepped out of the Library to make rounds, except for the years she was training for the NNLM or a commercial vendor. Helen-Ann has been active in the NY-NJ Chapter proudly being its Chair twice, sitting on the Board and serving on Committees. For a short time she belonged to the Philadelphia Chapter. Also, Helen-Ann has been active in MLA, chairing and serving on various committees. She is excited to be a member of the MLA Futures Task Force and mentor in the Colleague Connection. Until recently, she proudly served at the Associate Editor of the Journal of Hospital Librarianship. Currently she covers the Health Literacy Column for Journal of Consumer Health Information on the Internet and will soon join the Hospital Library Team of MSRQ.

Information Is OUR Rescue

This talk will anchor the panel and bring home the thoughts that Librarians are unique in the services we provide; offer valuable services when customers are in our libraries or when we step out of the library. Finally there will be suggestions on how information rescues us to be the best we can possibly be personally and professionally. 

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