Maria C. Tan was awarded a $600 scholarship from the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association (PNC/MLA) to participate in the PNC/MLA Annual Meeting, Mining for Health Information and Finding Gems, hosted in Boise, Idaho, on October 15-18, 2011.
The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association members include health science librarians and students from Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
The PNC/MLA Annual Meeting offers a range of learning and networking opportunities, including presentations addressing best practices and innovations in the field of health librarianship, workshops, and social events. For Maria, highlights of this event included:
- Presenting preliminary findings from her pilot study on clinical librarianship in North America;
- Attending the opening keynote presentation about librarians' roles in supporting aging baby boomers to transform health care;
- Taking part in a continuing education session titled, Clinical Application of Evidence Based Practice, led by Dr. Michele Berlin, who provided a physician's perspective on the role of the librarian in evidence-based medicine;
- Receiving updates from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and MLA about current initiatives and future directions;
- Meeting librarians from diverse health organizations, including a participant in the NLM Fellowship Program.
Learning that Boise is home to one of the largest concentrations of Basque peoples in North America!