The first full day of MLA: President's address, McGovern lecture and educating the 21st century health professional
I ran with Majors this morning, in 79 degrees Fahrenheit, about 35 mnutes. Then a curious breakfast, and some coffee outside in the Washington sun. There are more than 2,500 delegates here, which is about ten times the number expected to attend the UK equivalent, the Health Libraries Group of CILIP conference in Septmber
First session: an impressive speech from MLA President Pat Thibodeau. Of interest to me were her comments on the crisis on scholarly journals (MLA was among a group of US library organisations who submitted evidence to the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee Inquiry) and on the considerable effort MLA spends in lobbying government and influencing the media.
The McGovern lecture was delivered by a witty geographer, Harm J. de Blij who pleaded for politicians to pay more attention to his profession. I could not agree with his proposed solution to Iraq (he was against withdrawal and for a three way partition of the country) nor with his assessment of Britain's current situation, but he was tremendously entertaining.
After an agreeable lunch with fellow British delegates where one of the famous cicadas fell down the collar of my shirt, I attended the afternoon session on educating the 21st century health professional, which seemed the most relevant for BSMS. Four papers, one from Washington University on their use of various media, inlcuding video online, to construct interdisciplinary tutorials, one from my collegagues at the BMJ Tamara Rader and Andrea Lane on their portal to support GP reaccreditation, BMJ Learning, one from Boston of particular interest as it was about supporting third year medical students while on primary care placements and finally one on a Michigan project to support public health. In the discussion someone mentioned a portal, the National Training Center and Clearinghouse who seem to offer a directory of training materials.
In the evening, I went to a reception for international visitors and then to hear an impromptu band known I know not why as the Bearded Pigs made up, among others, of Britain's own Bruce Madge on lead guitar and T Scott Plutchak, editor of the Journal of the Medical Library Association, on acoustic guitar and vocals. There was someone from the New England Journal of Medicine on another guitar as well.