Mt. Holyoke College hosted our winter quarterly meeting on Friday, December 4th. Megan Brooks, Director of Research & Instructional Support at Mt. Holyoke College, and Rebecca Darling, Assistant Director of Instructional Technology at Wellesley College, presented about developing an instructional and research technology program.

Here are the full meeting minutes.

Upcoming Winter Meeting

Our winter meeting will take place this Friday, December 4th. Megan Brooks, Director of Research & Instructional Support at Mt. Holyoke College, will present with Rebecca Darling, Assistant Director of Instructional Technology at Wellesley College, about instructional and research technology.

Their presentation will begin around 10:30 am, with refreshments and a business meeting to precede it, beginning around 9 am. The meeting will be held in the Mt. Holyoke Library.

Berkshire Medical Center hosts fall meeting

On Friday, September 18th, Berkshire Medical Center hosted our quarterly meeting. After updates from institutions, we shared various productivity tools we use and enjoy. See the full minutes from our meeting here.

Our next meeting will be Friday, December 4th, at Mt. Holyoke.

Upcoming Fall Meeting

Our next meeting will take place at Berkshire Medical Center on Friday, September 18th. After our regular business meeting and updates on our libraries, we will move to a discussion of tools used for productivity and project management (Evernote, email management, Trello, etc.). Bring your favorite tool to discuss or just come to listen!

WNEU hosts spring meeting on disaster librarianship

On Friday, April 3rd, the D’Amour Library at Western New England University hosted our quarterly spring meeting. In addition to our regular business meeting and institutional updates, we had a presentation from Meredith Solomon, Education and Outreach Coordinator for NNLM New England, on the role libraries and librarians can play in disaster response. For our full meeting minutes, visit here. For the slides from Meredith's presentation, visit here.

Bay Path University hosts session on trans* health information

On Friday, December 5th, Bay Path's Hatch Library hosted our quarterly winter meeting. In addition to our regular business meeting and institutional updates, we had a presentation from recent Simmons MLS graduate Lani Blechman, about the health information needs of trans* individuals. For our full meeting minutes, visit here and for a list of the resources highlighted by Lani, visit here.

WHMIC teams up with MAHSLIN to offer continuing education event

MAHSLIN partnered up with the Western Massachusetts Health Information Consortium Collaborative (WMHIC) to host a CE event, Ninja Strategies and Labyrinthine Travels in Librarianship.

Details on the program follow:

Location: Baystate Health Conference Center
Date: Friday, September 26

Time: 9:00am-12:45pm

Session 1:
Ninja Teaching: Stealth Strategies to Conquer Any Teaching Scenario In this interactive session, participants will identify effective teaching strategies and practice implementing them. The session will focus on three common teaching scenarios for librarians, including:
1. One-to-One (e.g., Medical resident walks into the library and asks for a tutorial)
2. Small Group Instruction (e.g., A group of five nurses ask for assistance in researching a quality improvement project)
3. Classroom (e.g., Faculty asks for an introduction to library services for incoming allied health students)
Presented by:  Rebecca Blanchard, PhD, MEd, from Baystate Health, Academic Affairs Division. Dr. Blanchard is the director of medical education and research, and focuses her efforts on developing innovative educational curricula, conducting education research, and developing the academic prowess of faculty and staff. She also conducts "ninja teaching" (teaching faculty and staff when they don't realize it) on education and education research.

View the powerpoint from this session here. 

Session 2:
The Use of Labyrinths in Stress Reduction Presented by:  Donna Zucker, RN, PhD, FAAN, from University of Massachusetts, School of Nursing.

Dr. Zucker researches the prevention of communicable diseases and the efficacy of behavioral modifications for those at high risk of addiction, contracting hepatitis C or HIV.  With the Sheriff's Office of Hampshire County she has initiated two programs with incarcerated offenders:  a peer education program to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and the development of a labyrinth walking curriculum.  In this latter project, Dr. Zucker worked with a landscape architecture student to develop an outdoor labyrinth at the county jail.  Currently she is completing a labyrinth walking study in high stress library environments.  Data indicates that labyrinth walking is highly satisfying and reduces stress.  Participants will have an opportunity to walk a portable labyrinth.

View the powerpoint from this session here. Find a labyrinth near you here.