IAMSLIC 41st Annual Conference Day 4

Friday – 11 September 2015
Submitted by Kris Anderson

There was a great party last night, a trio played light jazz as we arrived and there were adult beverages and lovely pupus (that’s Hawaiian for appetizer) – OMG the breaded stuffed olives were awesome!  When we sat down there were 3 kinds of pasta, an entree course, salad, and dessert.  All lubricated with endless bottles of white wine, red wine, and water.  Glad there was a bus to my neighborhood!

Teresa Barriga Ramirez opened the session introducing Alyson Gamble.  Alyson received a grant from the Medical Library Association to investigate marine medical research.  Marine natural products got a big start in the 1960’s and 70’s when there was funding.  There were over 17,000 articles about natural products published since 1984 but very few articles about the influence of information science in marine medical research.

Kristen Metzger then described a bit of her history and how IAMSLIC has enabled her to be an amazing resource to industry. Her company needed to lay underwater cable along coast of Africa and needed a variety of information from EIS for each country, where the cable could touch land in each country and who the country contacts were.  Librarians need to be able to think beyond their area of specialty!  Kristen provided some interesting insights to how things are in the corporate world.  An example is that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) may be accepted even if it indicates major environmental impact.  Regarding the underwater cable, did you know sharks like to gnaw on them?  Scientists aren’t exactly sure why that is so, but the result is some cables are being wrapped in additional shielding to deter the sharks.  Kristen also commented on how there are regional influences no matter where you live.  As always, she had the best illustrations for her talk – she left us smiling.

Last presentation of the conference was given by David Baca.  He talked about high impact practices and student employees.  “High impact activities are those that allow students to apply learning to real life, to make connections, reflect and integrate learning.” Learning communities and capstone projects are examples.  How can we create those opportunities for the student employees in the library?  An example is Iowa GROW program
https://vp.studentlife.uiowa.edu/initiatives/grow/

Oh my!  Last Break!  Last chance for those yummy little delicacies…sigh…

Business Meeting!  Opened by Guillermina Cosulich, IAMSLIC President.  The minutes will be on the website. Highlights from the meeting are a conference hosting proposal will be forthcoming from Uganda, also one from Crete.  The election results from an election with the largest turnout and the closest finish – as Steve stated is an indication of the respect for all candidates.  David Baca was elected Jr. Vice President and Brian Voss elected Secretary.  Big thanks to all board members!  Great honor on Guillermina!  And thanks again to Maria and Armand for an excellent conference!

All are invited to the 2016 conference in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico – 16-20 October 2016
Beautiful, historical, tropical, and food looks delish!

Conference is Closed!

September 11, 2015 · Filed under Announcements

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