Brought to you by the PNC/MLA Professional Development Committee. Thanks to all who replied. If you have comments or questions direct them to Kelly Thormondsen (kthormod@fhcrc.org), Chair, PNC/MLA Professional Development Committee.

Fast results and some interesting statistics:

• Top five vote-getters among the suggested courses were:
  • PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) in Healthcare - 24 votes
  • Current copyright issues, including what role the library should play in their institution - 21 votes
  • Internet document delivery - 21 votes
  • E-journal licensing, access and group purchasing issues - 21 votes
  • Standards of self-measurement and developing goals for health sciences librarian - 17 votes
    
    
• A total of 54 people responded to the survey this year. This is an increase of 14 responses, or a 26% increase, over last year.
  
  
• 43% of those who answered the survey have been in health librarianship more than 15 years.
  
  
• Of the 23 respondents who have been in the profession more than 15 years, 9 are in academic health sciences libraries, 3 are in academic libraries, 4 are in large hospital libraries, 6 in medium hospital libraries and 1 is in an Other.
  
  
• 54% of respondents did not feel MLA CE credit for courses was necessary, 43% did want it. Remember the numbers don't add up since two people did not respond to this question. It's close to a tie.
  
  
• 78% of the respondents were willing to pay $100 or more for a course. The data did not show that any particular library type or number of years in the profession made a difference as to whether people wanted or did not want MLA CE credit.

1. Type of library in which responding members work:

• 14 - Academic health sciences library
• 4 - Academic library
• 11 - Large hospital (200+ beds) library
• 16 - Medium hospital (75 to 199 beds) library
• 2 - Small hospital (1 to 74 beds) library
• 7 - Other

2. Course Topics. Put checks next to the five course topics you would find most useful.

• 9 - Advanced Web site management and establishing an Internet node
• 12 - Benchmarking Resources and Databases
• 6 - Communicating/partnering with systems administrators
• 8 - Complementary medicine resources
• 8 - Critically evaluating medical literature
• 21 - Current copyright issues, including what role the library should play in their institution
• 14 - Developing your library's Web site, including HTML and Web site design
• 21 - E-journal licensing, access and group purchasing issues
• 12 - Graphic design basics (for web pages, flyers, handouts, bookmarks, etc.)
• 7 - Information needs of health care administrators
• 7 - Information literacy
• 21 - Internet document delivery
• 1 - Managing stress
• 9 - Marketing your library and customer service
• 24 - PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) in Healthcare
• 2 - Planning and evaluating health information outreach programs
• 11 - Project management skills
• 8 - Providing health information to consumers and patients, including the role of the librarian in providing in-patient information
• 5 - Public health surveys and epidemiology resources
• 8 - PubMed and Other NLM Web Resources
• 13 - Searching for evidence-based practice information
• 17 - Standards of self-measurement and developing goals for health sciences librarians
• 12 - Teaching PubMed for CME credits
  
  

• 4 - less than 2 years 10 - 3-5 years
• 7 - 6-10 years 10 - 10-15 years
• 23 - over 15 years

4. Fees. For a course on a subject of high interest, what is the maximum fee you would pay?

• 2 - $25
• 9 - $50
• 32 - $100
• 10 - $200
  * One person did not respond to this question

5. Credit. Is MLA credit for a CE course an important factor for you?

• 23 - Yes
• 29 - No

6. What has been the single most valuable professional educational activity for you over the past three years and why?

• PubMed class, because I really needed it as a public librarian - turned - biomedical librarian
• PubMed updates - because info is directly applicable to my day-to-day work
• PubMed update classes - because that's what I use the most
• Training in PubMed - I use it all the time
• Probably the NLM's training classes on PubMed, since I do a lot of research for physicians
• Taking PubMed classes ("Keeping up with….") - this is the librarian skill that I use most (searching) and need to be best at.
• Keeping up with PubMed
• A "Making the transition to PubMed" workshop - because I hadn't been using Pubmed's full capabilities very well, or hadn't been aware of recent changes. The workshop was immediately useful and relevant, and I was able to immediately reinforce what I had learned.
• The most helpful resource has been the Regional Library, especially the course on e-journals at IHIA this fall in Sun Valley. The information presented was timely, useful, applicable, and a good forum for enabling area librarians to share their successes and failures.
• How to use Docline - I could use some updates
• Can't think of just one. Both the OCLC and Docline web version training have been helpful
• Networking with like-sized hospital librarians at PNC/MLA to see how they are handling (or not) e-journal issues, copyright issues, etc.
• Personal interaction at conferences
• Panels that contain my peers' experience on a topic
• Participating in PNC, attending meetings and networking. Learn lots of useful things for my library
• Attending annual meetings - such a variety of information is shared. I learn a lot from listening to people talk with their colleagues. Watching them interact.
• PDA session at last WMLA meeting because I'm planning on getting a PDA soon
• Technology updates - PubMed, Internet search engines, End-Note, OVID, etc.
  This makes it easier for me to keep up with what is available and provides time for product evaluation which I don't always have time for during working hours.
• Learning JavaScript. This has been extremely important in developing the website. There is so much you can do with it.
• Grant-writing class. Wrote a grant and obtained some funding.
• A course in SQL - commercial and expensive but lots of content packed in a short time period - this makes the money seem worthwhile
• One day workshop on different ILL packages (was working in academic library), how to coach/manage staff -- (R)
• I have volunteered 2 hours a week on the Oncology Dept. of our hospital for 5+ months. I understand first-hand the time constraints nurses have. I want to explore ways to come to the nurses rather than expect them to come to us.
• Unable to attend
• Seminar in Knowledge Management, explained new "buzz" words
• Attended the NLM Informatics institute at Woods Hole last fall. Inspiring, time to learn.
• Medical Informatics fellowship course at Woods Hole - because it was so directly applicable to the type of work I do now and because it gave such a terrific overview of the field
• Medical Informatics course at Woods Hole…intensive course, massive content, amazing networking
• The Medical Informatics fellowship in Woods Hole. Gave me a broad based general understanding of the field, and made me realize that Medical Librarianship and Medical Librarianship overlap in many ways. --??-
• Libraries workshop on teaching , especially covering learning styles and teaching to them. It had been a long time since I revisited this area and it helped me revitalize my thinking and approaches.
• Truly excellent course in Evidence-Based Medicine taught by a librarian from Canada (Anne???) To be hones, it is usually the networking with other librarians (I am doing this, how do I manage to do X) that gets me going and into trying new things. Baby steps, one at a time!
• Probably conferences related to the subject field of substance abuse, not strictly library-oriented classes.
• Round table attendance and tumor board.
• Detailed knowledge concerning change in medicine
• Attending and participating in meetings of health professionals (Indian nurses association, migrant clinic workers, etc.)
  
• Attending the CE courses at the MLA Annual Conventions. It's the only way I can keep up in the field while working in an OPL. It's hard for me to limit my choice to the one most valuable course, but some worth mentioning were having to do with preparing for JCAHO, and Evidence-based medicine searching as well as specialized area searching (i.e. Nursing). I would also like to see a course geared specifically for searching oncology-related literature. I missed that offering at MLA a few years ago and have not seen it offered since. Also, I'd like to see Mary Devlin here again…I missed the two "performances" of hers, but really want to hear her.
  

• I'm very grateful for PNC/MLA. The annual meetings are well worth the education and networking. I find these meetings to be of very high caliber.
• PNC is my only opportunity to get continuing education. I like to take as many classes as I can at the Annual Meeting; however, if each (half-day) class were to cost $100 or more, I wouldn't be able to take as many as I'd like. I do not take classes that do not relate directly to my work, or broaden my understanding of the profession or direction in which Medical Librarianship is heading.
• I would be interested in how to design web pages for PDAs. Are there new things that I should be adding to my web site that would be of use to folks with PDAs?
• For MLA credit, and all-day course, and a really excellent speaker on a hot topic, I would probably pay more, but I doubt that very many of us would be able to. I would add Virtual Reference to your list of topics ideas. I am currently working with the local public library system to see about adding this to our county PL cooperative and being their medical reference expert, and attending multiple public library-sponsored sessions on this. Perhaps a panel discussion of some of the different ways this is being done, the LC project, the King County PL version, OHSU does kind of an email version I think, maybe some of the commercial vendors. I'll probably be PDA'd out by the time the Sync or Swim conference is over and I would like to move into Internet Document delivery if I get a 6th vote!
• Am extremely interested in Ariel, Prospero, and even simpler ways of delivering ILL articles electronically. Also, am interested in a class on Intermediate PowerPoint - for those of us who have been using it without any training. Would like to get juicy and helpful tips from someone who uses it a lot. Would like ideas on how to get the most out of the program-importing images, handouts, etc.
• ***Am MOST interested in Web page design, especially in exploring how others have integrated the electronic resources they purchase into their web pages. For example, Overlake has links from their journal list into MD Consult, which they purchase - how do they do that? How does one configure the Link out function in PubMed? Is it worth the effort for a library with a small collection? (Sure would be nice for our patrons).
• If you teach marketing, perhaps consider covering how we show folks what we can do, i.e. the niches we can fill that they might not have time for, e.g. doing expert searching.
• I went to this last PNC/MLA conference in Salishan and it was a great experience. Good networking in a beautiful location.
• I need more training on ordering, and the new changes
• There is no budget for travel or education
• I am a new medical librarian without a degree. I need basic tips in using PubMed, e.g. when to use [Ms] and [mjr], topic indexes and "ladders"
• So much attention now is on technology and Internet. I appreciate having the opportunity to get better, get more training on the basics: reference and searching
• Copyright class also valuable. Am now the "copyright officer" for my hospital as a result.
• I know not every library is so focused on clinical medicine as we are. I do enjoy that category of content
• Thank you
• Thank you for continuing to do this.