Winter Highlights

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Winter 2026 edition of HLSP News. After a cold and snowy December, January is only slightly warmer as I write this message with predictions that temps will be back in the mid 20s next week. This Winter is more like the Winters from when I grew up with and less like our Winter's over the past decade. Though I know many don't like the colder and snowier weather, I'm enjoying it. I'll probably feel differently if it's still cold and snowy in late February. 😁

In the Fall 2025 edition of HLSP News, I shared how glimmers can work to keep a positive outlook on life during challenging times. As we start 2026, I encourage everyone to continue looking for glimmers. It's challenging because we're regularly hearing about people losing health insurance and health care spending cuts. Glimmers serve to remind us that good things continue to happen.

One glimmer I'll share is the positive energy I experience during field visits. Our HLSP members continue to provide excellent services to their hospitals. Another glimmer is PubMed, MedlinePlus and DOCLINE continue to be reliable resources. And SCRLC is here and will continue to provide all HLSP members with numerous resources.

In this edition of HLSP News, we share highlights of recent field visits; updates on the electronic resources we provide to members; an update on the HLSP grants for this year; information about NNLM Region 7's new Community of Practice (CoP) on the topic of AI in hospitals; and information on some upcoming educational opportunities including two that SCRLC is providing as part of the lunch and learn series.

Please reach out with any questions and glimmers you might have about this edition or any services SCRLC provides to you as well as for health information to our entire membership.

All the Best,

Christine Brown

Outreach Services Librarian/HLSP Coordinator

Field Visits

So far, I have completed three field visits, and I have two more scheduled this month (January 2026). In November, I met with Matt at Bassett and Danny at Lourdes and in December, I met with Danielle at UHS Wilson. Highlights of those visits are shared below.

Matt shared that Bassett now has Magnet designation and they are going to use it to attract more nursing personnel to meet their needs. Danny has now been at Lourdes a little over a year, and he has updated the space and is developing strong working relationships with providers and administrators at Lourdes. Danielle is working on remodeling the library space at Wilson with the first step (weeding existing material) just completed.

I've learned that the Magnet designation is something that many hospitals are pursuing and I'm planning to look into ways that we can support our members in these efforts. Please share with me your thoughts, comments and questions about this designation.

This month, I have visits scheduled with Jen at Jones Memorial in Wellsville and Sheree at Auburn Memorial in Auburn. I'm working to schedule visits with Mata and Emily at Cayuga Med and Schuyler, Cheryl at Chenango Memorial and Alyce at Soldiers & Sailors. I'm looking forward to meeting with everyone and hearing how things are going. I'll also share demonstrations of our resources as needed by each member.

Electronic Resources

We renewed the NEJM, NEJM Evidence, and 5 Ovid journal titles in December and all HLSP Members will continue to receive NEJM and NEJM Evidence. The 5 Ovid journals we subscribe to are on a cost share basis and the 4 members who participated last year continued participating this year.

The 5 titles we subscribe are Obstetrics & Gynecology; American Journal of Nursing, Journal of Nursing Administration, Clinical Care medicine, and Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

Our Stat!Ref subscription is good through June 30 and our new Doody's subscription is good through June 30.

Our subscription to Doody's Core titles is good through ?. Doody's provides information about books that can be used in collection development. I will be sharing information about this at the field visits.

If you have any questions about any of our electronic resources (NEJM, Ovid cost share journals, Stat!Ref titles, and Doody's Core Titles), please let me know.

HLSP Grant Program

The applications for the 2025/2026 grants have been distributed, and many have been returned. If you didn't receive yours, please let me know and I will work with you to make sure you receive it. Please keep in mind that the grant funds must be expended during the 2025/2026 fiscal year (7/1/25 to 6/30/26).

I know it can sometimes be a challenge to select resources and so this year, we've subscribed to Doody's Core Titles which can assist in collection development for medical and healthcare libraries. Doody's selects and scores many books and software and provides a review of the material including a list of core titles for 126 medical and health care specialties. Over 200 health information professionals (including librarians) participated in the 2025 edition and it's an excellent resource for deciding what to add to a hospital library collection.

As a reminder, the purpose of the HLSP grant program is to provide funds that allow each member hospital library to purchase resources that will improve patient care. The funds are not intended to supplement the resources of an individual.

If you have any questions about whether a specific item or service is allowable, you can check the guidelines or reach out to me for information and a discussion. You can also check the Niche Academy tutorial on the grant program.

NNLM Region 7 Update

NNLM Region 7 has commenced an AI Community of Practice (CoP) by holding an organizational meeting in December where interested individuals discussed the parameters for this new CoP. That meeting was recorded and can be viewed by anyone interested in learning more about the planning that is going into the CoP.

The AI CoP will be centered around librarians and others who work in hospitals and while I'm not a member of this CoP, Margot Malachowski will share information with me that I can bring to the committee regularly. If any of you are interested in joining the CoP, please let me know.

As stated in the Fall edition, each region of NNLM needs to demonstrate its value to members and the public. If you haven't already done so, please consider sending them an impact statement so they can use it in their renewal application when they get to that point.

Continuing Education

Upcoming Webinars

SCRLC's Health, Wellness, and Hospital Libraries Lunch and Learn series.

On January 29 at noon Mikki Smith, Medical Librarian at Guthrie Medical Center, and Managing Editor for The Guthrie Journal, will discuss the opportunities and challenges involved in launching a general medical journal in the current publishing landscape and in carrying out a large-scale digitization project that brought 70 years of 20th-century rural health education and provision in NY and PA to a 21st-century audience.

On February 25 at 11:00 am, Katherine Howell, Health Sciences Librarian at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, will share information about how their study shows that AI can help with one of the most time-consuming parts of writing a systematic review: searching for relevant studies. That study tested whether ChatGPT could create effective search strategies by comparing its outputs to those used in established Cochrane systematic reviews. In this presentation, Katherine will explore the implications of the study's findings and the potential role of AI in enhancing systematic review search strategy development.

The Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) is offering the following FREE CE classes this Winter:

Hospital Librarians Going Virtual - A panel discussion that explores the realities of virtual library services in a hospital setting - January 22, 2:00 to 3:00

Building High Quality Cancer Care in Rural Areas - March 3, 2026, at 2:00 PM

The Medical Library Association (MLA) is offering the following CE classes this Winter:

Enhancing Learning in One-Shot Library Sessions: Applying Cognitive Load Theory - Wednesday, January 14. This webinar will help you gain a basic understanding of cognitive load theory and how it can be applied to one-shot library instruction sessions to enhance learning through a combination of direct instruction, examples, and a collaborative activity.

A Seat at the Table: Working with the Disaster Workforce - Libraries have a critical role to play in disaster preparation and recovery, but they need to be at the table with the right people. This self-paced online class prepares librarians on how to work with first responders, public health departments, local health care facilities, and emergency planners.

For a complete listing of MLA CE classes, check out their website.

NOTE: There is a charge for most MLA CE classes with a discounted price for members. SCRLC may be able to pay for your registration for MLA programs so keep that option in mind for these or any other courses on the MLA website.

Recently Recorded Webinars:

SCRLC's Lunch & Learn Series:

• Lunch and Learn: Medical Librarians Supporting Pharmacists
• "It's an Art, Not a Science:" How to Build a Practice of Slow Librarianship
• Mosquito-borne Infections in New York State
• Fall Vaccine Update (Covid & Flu)
• Vaccine Hesitance and How to Address It
• All About Ticks

We still have seats available for an NLM webinar on Trauma-Informed Librarianship. Let me know if you would like to access to this webinar at no charge.

NNLM held a webinar on DOCLINE and FREESHARE in August 2024 and it was recorded.

MedlinePlus Tutorial for Librarians & Health Educators - self-paced. This interactive, narrated tutorial provides a tour of the MedlinePlus website and explains why MedlinePlus is a trusted reference when answering health information questions.

This tutorial takes about 1 hour to complete. (1 CE credit)

Recordings of past webinars can be found here.