Librarian Contributions to a Manuscript Writing Intensive for Health Researchers: Liz Suelzer's Lightning Talk at the virtual Midwest-MCMLA Conference 2021

WHSLA's own Liz Suelzer presented a lightning talk at The 2021 Virtual Midwest /MCMLA Conference on October 15, 2021.  [Posted here with her permission.]

Librarian Contributions to a Manuscript Writing Intensive for Health Researchers.            By Elizabeth Suelzer, Medical College of Wisconsin. [Midwest] [Program Description] 

BACKGROUND: In early 2020, an experienced academic writing coach developed a 10-week Manuscript Writing Intensive to support the dissemination efforts of the health researchers in our consortium of eight local institutions. Participants in the writing intensive included anyone who was affiliated with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and was currently working on an article manuscript. The objective of this hands-on small group course was for participants to use the weekly two-hour sessions and 4 hours of homework to support each other in completing a publishable manuscript within the span of the course. The instructor contacted me, a medical librarian, for assistance and to explore opportunities for collaboration. 

DESCRIPTION: The instructor met with me for an orientation to the resources and staff expertise available for participants. We then met again to brainstorm segments of the course that I could lead. I developed one hour virtual presentations for the first two sessions that covered ORCID, citation managers, finding the right journal, and literature searching. Each presentation was followed by a discussion period where participants shared their publishing experiences and asked questions. I repeated this for all four cohorts. Overall course feedback highlighted the value of these librarian-led sessions. 

CONCLUSIONS: With the first iteration of the course deemed a success, plans were made to offer the series quarterly and expand the number of cohorts. To accommodate the increased number of sessions, I produced video tutorials of my presentations as foundational information for assigned homework. These videos are posted on YouTube and on our LibGuides and are included in the course materials. Library collaboration on this dissemination initiative accelerated the development of the course, promoted participant learning, and showcased the expertise of librarians.

Where to Publish Your Research LibGuide at MCW Libraries

Resources for Scholarly Writers, MCW Libraries YouTube Playlist   

Librarian Contribution to Manuscript Writing Intensive (ppt slides)

Link to Conference Papers and Posters

Contact Liz Suelzer for more information.

Trio of Library Initiatives to Integrate the Arts & Humanities into our Health Community: Ebling's

This lightning talk was presented at the virtual 2021 Midwest/MCMLA Joint Annual Meeting on October 15 by fellow Wisconsinites:   [Posted here with their permission.]

A Trio of Library Initiatives to Integrate the Arts & Humanities into our Health Community. 

Christopher Hooper-Lane, MA, AHIP, and Lia Vellardita, MA, Ebling Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison. [Midwest] [First-time Chapter Presenter] [Program Description]

BACKGROUND: There is a growing recognition of the benefits of expanding the arts/humanities in the health sciences. Recognizing this, school leadership tasked our library to develop initiatives to connect the arts and humanities to our patrons. As a result, our library launched three new programs to integrate the arts into our community. 

DESCRIPTION: Our library developed three arts initiatives for our health sciences community:

 (1) a book/film discussion club providing participants at all levels a venue to discuss relevant books and films; 

(2) an onsite recreational reading collection (and corresponding website) offering a browsable collection of popular non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and graphic medicine books with health themes and sub-collections on emergent topics; 

(3) an arts/humanities journal that for our health community to showcase a variety of arts including the written word, visual arts (2D and photos of 3D art), and multimedia audio/video.

CONCLUSION: All three initiatives have been successfully launched. The book/film club has administered 15 online book/film discussions with a total of 220 participants. Sessions are led by a variety of facilitators from our health community. The recreational reading collection now includes 1200 items and is expected to be fully on display and available for circulation summer 2021. A corresponding website is live using book cover images that can be sorted by sub-collections such as well-being, antiracism, etc. Three issues of our arts journal have successfully published 84 works of art from our health sciences community with 2,950 site hits recorded.

Art at Ebling:  Book Club  |  Corpus Callosum  |   Recreational Reading Collection

Link to Conference Papers and Posters

Contact Chris Hooper-Lane or Lia Vellardita for more information.