Membership in the Mid Atlantic Chapter (MAC) of the Medical Library Association (MLA) includes medical and health science librarians from North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and western Pennsylvania. This chapter has met in person every year since 1981! I’m glad to have had the opportunity to attend this year’s MAC-MLA conference in Baltimore, Maryland from October 19 – 21. Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is beautiful, friendly, walkable, and the perfect spot for a small conference.

Session Themes

Evidence Synthesis was heavily represented in this year’s program with librarians sharing their work on their own review projects, search hedge development practices, and administrative tool development for service management. Outreach programming strategies and outcomes were also prevalent among many presenters and exemplified how medical and health science libraries are supporting health information access and equity in their communities. Lastly, a handful of sessions fostered the support of early career health science librarian development and library workforce diversity.

Colleen’s Contribution (and Award)!

MAC-MLA presented the first opportunity for me to share the results of my High School Health Literacy Project in a paper session format. No sooner did I land back in North Carolina after the conference did I learn that my session “The High School Health Literacy Project: A research study and partnership with public high school pre-health career programs” won the Best Research Paper award out of the eight papers presented. Although this was unexpected, it is great to be recognized for this work!

I’m so thankful to have been able to attend this year’s MAC meeting. With a robust program and accessible location, this conference will likely remain on my goals shortlist.