Liz Suelzer Named MWCMLA’s Distinguished Librarian of the Year!

 Posted on behalf of Karen Hanus

We are thrilled to announce that Liz Suelzer, Applications Support Analyst Sr for the Advocate Health - Midwest Library, has been honored as the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association’s Distinguished Librarian of the Year!

The Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MWCMLA) unites health sciences librarians across nine Midwestern states. The annual Distinguished Librarian of the Year Award recognizes an MWCMLA member at any career level who has provided outstanding service to the organization and advanced MWCMLA’s achievement and effectiveness.

Liz has held multiple MWCMLA leadership roles, including President-Elect, President, and Past President from 2019 to 2022, and currently serves as Chair of the Professional Practice Committee. In every role, she has brought vision, organization, and energy, transforming committee work and inspiring colleagues to achieve their best. Among her many outstanding contributions to the chapter, Liz launched the chapter’s Member Mixer Series, which created an engaging virtual event that fosters professional connection among our members. She also introduced the “Fan Favorite” award, which has expanded award recognition at the organization’s annual conference to include contributions beyond the traditional research categories. These initiatives reflect her commitment to inclusivity. Liz’s leadership and creativity extend beyond programming. She also guided the development of a strategic plan that set meaningful, achievable goals while positioning the Chapter for future growth.

The most important contribution for which Liz deserves this award is her leadership of the Professional Practice Committee. This committee has a challenging charge with a lot of members; it has been a tough committee to lead due to its size and sprawling purpose. Once Liz took over as chair of the committee, she was able to give its members a clear direction and successfully led the members and reinvigorated the group with a renewed sense of purpose. A member of the committee shared that “Liz made an immediate impression by effectively and efficiently leading her first meeting [of the Professional Practice Committee]. Her leadership, team building, and organizational skills are extraordinary. It only took one meeting for her to engage her committee members, clearly communicate the important work of this committee and convince us to actively participate. In my opinion, her efforts have resulted in the first highly successful execution of the committee’s original intent and purpose.” 

Congratulations, Liz, on this well-deserved recognition! Thank you for all you do to support and advance health sciences librarianship in the Midwest!

Save the Date: WHSLA Wisdom Chat October 24, 2025 at 2pm: Karen Hanus and Liz Suelzer will focus on The Library's Role in Successful Implementation of System-wide Online Tools

Friday, October 24, 2025 from 2-3 pm CST

In this WHSLA Wisdom Chat, Liz Suelzer and Karen Hanus of Advocate Health, will deliver a presentation focused on the role the Library plays in the successful implementation of hospital system-wide tools, with a look into our experience with implementing Lippincott Nursing Procedures. The session will illustrate how librarians collaborate with clinical and IT teams to ensure seamless implementation. Attendees will gain insights into problems the hospital system or library may encounter when librarians are not at the table during implementation as well as what special knowledge and skills librarians can contribute to the implementation.

This presentation will be followed by our usual round of sharing.

WHSLA Wisdom Chats are open to all WHSLA members in good standing.  Meeting invitations will go out soon.  If you are a current member and did not receive an invitation, please contact Michele Matucheski, WHSLA Wisdom Chat coordinator filling in for Barb Ruggieri this year.   There's still time to join/renew your membership, if you want to attend this session.

This session will be recorded and made available for later viewing on the members only section of the WHSLA Website.  Special thank you to Paije Wilson and Ebling Library for hosting and recording the session.  

Library Legislative Day 2025

Interior of the Wisconsin state capital in Madison.

Posted on behalf of Liz Suelzer.

On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, I had the privilege of participating in Library Legislative Day,
organized by the Wisconsin Library Association. This was my first time attending such an event, and I wanted to share my experience to inform others who might have the opportunity to participate in similar events. I participated in this event because I’m a trustee on the West Allis Public Library Board and the Milwaukee County Federated Library System (MCFLS) Board.

I rode a bus to the capital with over 35 librarians, library directors and library friends from the
MCFLS and Bridges library systems. At the capital, there were over 200 attendees from all over the state, including a group of library students from UW Madison.

Governor Evers making the rounds at the opening meeting.

The day began with speeches from Governor Tony Evers, State Superintendent Jill Underly, and other state leaders. The speakers all shared how libraries have impacted their lives. Governor Evers reaffirmed 2025 as the “Year of the Kid” and spoke about how libraries are essential spaces for children and families to access information, computers, and programs. He also vowed to veto any law banning content from libraries, which received applause.

WLA organized the schedule of meetings for the day, and attendees were scheduled to meet
with legislatures from their district. WLA provided us with information packets to give to our
legislatures that included infographics and talking points about libraries. There were between 2-5 attendees at each 20-minute meeting. We took turns sharing stories about how our libraries impact our communities directly and the value of libraries. Our major ask to the legislatures was that the next budget have sustained or increased funding for public library systems in the next biannual budget. We heard that the budget process will be contentious, but it was great to see bipartisan support for public libraries.

Liz Suelzer and Representative Angelito Tenorio.

As a resident of West Allis and a board member of the West Allis Public Library, I was assigned to meet with Senator Rob Hutton and Representative Angelito Tenorio. I met with staff from Sen. Hutton’s office, and I got to meet with Representative Angelito Tenorio and his chief of staff. Rep. Tenorio served on the West Allis Public Library Board with me a few years ago and has a good understanding of libraries. I’m glad he’s representing my district in Madison.

If you come across opportunities like this, I encourage you to consider signing up. WLA
provided me with everything I needed to have a successful meeting with my legislators, and it
was a positive experience for me.

Liz Suelzer on Wisconsin Public Radio discussing Retractions in the Professional Literature

by Karen Hanus, Director Advocate Health - Midwest Library in Milwaukee

Liz Suelzer, Application Support Analyst Sr for the Advocate Health – Midwest Library was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio’s The Morning Show on January 5, 2024. 

Listen here: 

Watchdogs: More Academic and Scientific Papers should be Retracted, and more quickly

Liz and Ivan Oransky of Retraction Watch talk about:

• retractions
• the process of going through a retraction
• and the impact that retracted articles have on science and research. 

Liz and a team of other WHSLA librarians published two articles in JAMA Network Open about article retractions in 2019 and 2021.

 

Published articles:

 

Suelzer EM, Deal J, Hanus KL, Ruggeri B, Sieracki R, Witkowski E. Assessment of Citations of the Retracted Article by Wakefield et al With Fraudulent Claims of an Association Between Vaccination and Autism. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(11):e1915552. Published 2019 Nov 1. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.15552

 

Suelzer EM, Deal J, Hanus K, Ruggeri BE, Witkowski E. Challenges in Identifying the Retracted Status of an Article [published correction appears in JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Feb 1;5(2):e223513]. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(6):e2115648. Published 2021 Jun 1. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.15648

 

Congratulations, Liz!  Thank you for making a unique contribution to our profession.

Liz Suelzer Joins Advocate Aurora Health

The Advocate Aurora Library is happy to announce that Liz Suelzer is our new Application Support Analyst Sr.  Liz began her position on June 22, 2022.

Liz has 15 years of experience as a librarian, including positions in both academic  and academic medical settings.  At Advocate Aurora Library, Liz has the primary role in the library's efforts to implement, maintain, and improve our technologies.  She also has a key role in assisting Advocate Aurora Health team members with technological problems when accessing library resources and with liaising with Health Information Technology for library-related technologies.

We are excited to have Liz on board!

Submitted by Karen Hanus.

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.

Liz Suelzer on MLA's New Podcast

 

WHSLA's own Liz Suelzer was the guest on the first episode of MLA's official podcast, Press, Play, Connect.  

MLA Podcast 001: Sally Gore Interviews Elizabeth Suelzer, AHIP, about scientific article retractions.

Sally Gore sat down with Liz Suelzer, MCW Libraries, Medical College of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, to learn about the fascinating 2019 JAMA Network Open article she coauthored, “Assessment of Citations of the Retracted Article by Wakefield et al with Fraudulent Claims of an Association Between Vaccination and Autism.”*

Press, Play, Connect is the official podcast of the Medical Library Association. Join Sally Gore and Emily Hurst as they interview librarians and discuss ideas from the medical library world. Sally is the Manager of Research and Scholarly Communication Services at the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Medical School. Emily Hurst is Director and Associate Dean of the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

All Episodes

  

* Assessment of Citations of the Retracted Article by Wakefield et al With Fraudulent Claims of an Association Between Vaccination and Autism.
Suelzer EM, Deal J, Hanus KL, Ruggeri B, Sieracki R, Witkowski E.JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Nov 1;2(11):e1915552. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.15552.PMID: 31730183 Free PMC article.