Medical Library Association

MLA ’11: Join Us!

Bart Ragon and Gabriel R. Rios, Cochairs,
2011 National Program Committee

The 2011 National Program Committee (NPC) is excited to invite you to attend MLA ’11, “Rethink,” in Minneapolis, MN, May 13–18, 2011. For MLA ’11, the 2011 NPC has been working hard with the Local Assistance Committee (LAC) to ensure that you will have the best possible venue to rethink. With so many information channels requiring our attention today, we need to allow time to rethink what we need to do in order to remain relevant to our institutional contexts and those we serve.

Rethink service, rethink technology, rethink space, rethink leadership, rethink engagement, rethink research, and rethink outcomes. The MLA ’11 theme is designed to be flexible and adaptive so that MLA members can rethink what to bring to and receive from the 2011 MLA annual meeting in Minneapolis, MN.

MLA ’11 will feature internationally known speakers, including Clay Shirky, T. Scott Plutchak, AHIP, and Geoffrey Bilder. Shirky—writer, consultant, and teacher on new technology and social media—will kick off our first plenary session and help us set the stage for the meeting. During the Janet Doe Lecture, Plutchak, director, Lister Hill Library at the University of Alabama–Birmingham, will astound us with his perspectives on the history and philosophy of medical librarianship. And finally, Bilder, director of strategic initiatives at CrossRef, will help us rethink scholarly communication.

The 2011 NPC will also build on the experience of the 2010 NPC by taking presentations to the next level with an Ignite-style (ignite.oreilly.com) session during the meeting. Details on submitting presentations for the Ignite session will be available in the spring of 2011 to catch the latest trends and topics from MLA members. Additionally, the 2011 NPC Conference Community is excited to announce “Rethink Conversations.” After each plenary session, attendees will be asked to discuss a related question via Twitter. Display monitors will be strategically placed around the convention center so that members can watch and respond to the live conversations. Tweets can be made using a mobile device, laptop, or computers in the Internet Café. Please don’t fear that we have jumped off the technological deep end; we have also scheduled a “Tweet-up”: a time to meet (in person) those with whom you have been Tweeting.

Nevertheless, above all else, MLA meetings are about people. At MLA ’11, you have the opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones. You will find members who share research and service interests, and you will have the opportunity to establish long-lasting partnerships with fellow members. We can all learn from the experience of others, and there is no better place to do this than at MLA ’11! So join us for MLA ’11 in Minneapolis, MN, and be ready to rethink!

We look forward to meeting you in Minneapolis, MN!