This month's feature is David Bickford, MLGSCA's incoming President:

Title: Director

Institution:  Arizona Health Sciences Library Phoenix, University of Arizona, Phoenix AZ

Brief description of what you do at your institution:

I lead a team providing library resources and services to health sciences students at two institutions sharing a campus, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.

Why is MLGSCA important to you?

MLGSCA provides a middle level of optimal size. It's large enough to have the critical mass to be a viable organization with ample opportunity for involvement but small enough that a newcomer can quickly become involved and make a meaningful contribution.

Why did you become a librarian?

I worked in a library during college and found the environment, as well as the emerging technologies that were changing it, interesting.

What was your first library job or professional position?

Page/clerk in public library of the small town where I grew up.

What is your advice to someone new to medical librarianship?

Try to learn medical terminology as quickly as possible but don't be intimidated by it. It's okay to ask questions of colleagues and even clients.

What is something you have on your bucket list?

Travel to Australia to see the total solar eclipse in July 2028

What do you do in your spare time for fun, or to relax?

hiking, bicycling, reading, cooking, movies, going to see live music and theater

What is the best thing you have read/watched/listened to recently?

"The Stranger," the new film adaptation of Albert Camus' classic novel

The following report was submitted to MLA.

Who we are:

• A chapter of the Medical Library Association serving all of Arizona and southern California (all Southern and 5 Central counties)
• ~ 115 health science librarians and information professionals

What we do:

• Facilitate collaboration among health sciences librarians and their communities
• Encourage library resource discovery and service innovation
• Promote professional development opportunities for members
• Foster a sense of community, belonging, and inclusion in our members

Executive summary

• 2026 MLGSCA/NCNMLG Joint Meeting in Las Vegas offered members the opportunity to connect in-person, collaborate, teach and learn from each other
• 2025 General membership meeting & Virtual Summer Symposium also gave members the opportunity to present and learn from each other
• Membership committee scheduled in-person meet-ups, parties and tours which also attracted student members; Professional issues committee facilitated our Buddy and Mentor programs
• Research and coffee chats connected members to discuss timely topics
• Finance committee assessed chapter financial health, compared to four other surveyed chapters, developed recommendations
• 2024-2025 fiscal end-of-year Q1 Location of Assets reports show an increase of 12K

Fostering Community Building or Belonging -  Share fairness, representation, and belonging related initiatives or activities in the last 12 months.

• Our Membership committee scheduled in-person meet-ups, parties and tours which also attracted student members
• Our Community & Belonging Task Force (renamed from DEI-A TF, established 2023) was incorporated into the Professional Issues Committee
• Most regular meetings were virtual to allow equitable access
• Our CE committee scheduled, “Leveraging AI Tools to Summarize Research Articles,” and “Cultural Humility in Libraries”  for free to all members
• Our Professional Issues Committee facilitated our buddy and mentorship programs
• MLGSCA blog posts introduced our members and highlighted their work to the wider community

Strategic Plan – List the latest goals, strategies, and status of specific objectives. If possible, include dates, metrics, and schedules. 

• Review Chapter finances and fiscal management for any needed improvements
• The Finance Committee met several times to review income and expenditures , and make recommendations
• Determined that the chapter is in a strong financial position with increased revenue from money market and underspending budget
• Evaluating opportunities for increasing support of members’ professional development
• Increase membership participation and encourage more members to volunteer for committees and run for elected offices.
• In-person meet-ups encouraged community building
• Continued to schedule, open-to-all, monthly committee meetings.
• Buddy and mentorship programs, veteran chapter members were paired with newer members to orient and encourage participation in the chapter
• Promote professional development opportunities for members.
• 2026 Joint Meeting with NCNMLG in Las Vegas, NV, see below
• 2025 General membership meeting/Virtual Summer Symposium was held Jun 5
• Continued the Buddy and Mentorship programs into 2026
• Scheduled or sponsored two, free, virtual CE opportunities for ~75 registrants

MLA Strategic Plan (Leadership at All Levels, Artificial Intelligence Imperative)

• 2025 President-elect (appointed due to vacated position) library staff member Dot Winslow exceeded expectations with engaging coffee chats, is now a Membership committee Co-chair, and was accepted to begin an MLS program starting Autumn 2026.
• Fall CE November 11, 2025 “Leveraging AI Tools to Summarize Research Articles,” free to members, 49 attendees. MLA CE: 1.0

Facts and Data - List key events held, items published, resources created, or other data.

• 2026 MLGSCA/NCNMLG Joint Meeting (Jan 16-18) Las Vegas, NV
• 70+ attendees, 14 vendors, nominal profit shared by two chapters
• 2025 Annual Meeting of the General Membership / Virtual Symposium (2025, Jun 5):
• General membership meeting was held in the morning, Virtual Summer Symposium followed in the afternoon

AHIP Credentialing Liaison:

• 47 MLGSCA members have AHIP certification, 8 are Provisional
• First-time AHIP application fee awarded to one member

Archives Committee:

• Ongoing, multi-year MLGSCA archives project to digitize chapter meeting documents
• A finding aid was created for materials held at UCLA, space is needed for an additional five linear feet of print archives currently stored  at St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA

Awards Committee:

• Chair role passed from David Bickford to Antonia Osuna-Garcia.
• No applications for awards received in 2025-2026.

Professional Issues Committee’s Buddy / Mentorship Program:

• Meetings were held between March and June via Zoom.
• Six new member buddies were paired in 2025, four in 2024
• Ten mentor/mentees matched in 2026 (12 in 2023, four in 2024, five in 2025)
• Coffee Chats (convened by our President-elect):
• Monthly coffee chats, average attendance of 11 persons per event
• Informal, unrecorded conversations among members

CEs and Webinars:

• Book club October 3, 2025, “Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari
• Fall CE November 11, 2025 “Leveraging AI Tools to Summarize Research Articles,” 49 attendees. MLA CE: 1.0
• April 23, 2026 Xan Goodman presenting, “Cultural Humility in Libraries.” MLA CE: 1.5

Finance Committee:

• Conducted a financial review to better determine organization’s financial health and developed recommendations to ensure financial stability
• Surveyed other chapters to learn about their perceived financial health
• Presented findings of survey and financial review at the MLGSCA/NCNMLG Joint Meeting

Membership Committee Activities:

• Monthly, I am MLGSCA blog posts featured five members, other blog posts were also contributed by members
• Seven social events were scheduled: Phoenix-3, Tucson-1, SoCal-2, Las Vegas-1 at Joint Conference
• Identified health sciences libraries within the chapter area for future outreach and promotion
• Collaborated with Professional Issues committee to promote mentorship and encourage membership, especially student members

Research Chats:

• 9/26/2025: “Grant applications”, 8 attendees
• 2/27/2026: “RTI Experience”, 11 attendees
• Three research grant applications were awarded in 2025

Leadership Roster 

• President: Andrea Harrow
• President Elect: David Bickford
• Immediate Past-President: Angela Murrell
• Secretary: Victoria Caine
• Treasurer: Carrie Cullen
• Chapter Council Representative: Elisa Cortez
• Chapter Council Representative Alternate: Andrea Lynch
• Nominating Committee: Rebecca Birr, Victoria Flores, Karina Kletscher, Ivan Portillo

Committee Chairs:

• Archives: Danielle Linden
• Awards: Antonia Osuna-Garcia
• Continuing Education/Program: Angela Murrell & Deb Farber
• Finance: Kevin Pardon
• Governmental Relations/Bylaws: Amy Chatfield
• Internal Auditor: Jennifer Silverman
• Membership: CJ Garcia and Dot Winslow
• MLA Credentialing Liaison (AHIP): Beth Autin
• MLGSCA Mailbox: Rikke Owaga
• MLGSCA/NCNMLG 2026 Joint Meeting: Angela Murrell
• Professional Issues: Judy Kraemer, Victoria Flores, Adele Dobry, Emily (Zimmerman) Raus
• Research Committee Chair: Amy Nadell
• Web/Blog: Adorée Makusztak

People Update

Chapter Election results for 2025-2026 Term:

• President-Elect: Victoria Caine
• Secretary: Melissa Wagner
• Nominating Committee: Danielle Linden, CJ Garcia
• Nominee to MLA Nominating Committee: Hal Bright

Continuing Officers:

• President: David Bickford
• Past President: Andrea Harrow
• Treasurer: Carrie Cullen
• Nominating Committee: Rebecca Birr, Victoria Flores
• Nominee to MLA Nominating Committee: Hal Bright
• MLA Chapter Council Representative: Elisa Cortez
• MLA Chapter Council Alternative: Andrea Lynch

Respectfully Submitted,

Andrea Harrow, MLGSCA President, 2025-2026

We want to extend our congratulations to the following MLGSCA members! 

• Rikka Ogawa - Proven Leaders MLA Fellowship
• Andrea Harrow - Continuing Education Grant
• Hannah Schilperoort - Annual Conference Travel Grant

Name: Danielle Linden

Title: Medical Librarian

Institution: Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange, CA

Brief description of what you do at your institution:

I work with a team of library professionals at Providence, providing service to health care professionals across 7 US states. My day to day work includes literature review, technical services, instruction, some article delivery.

Why is MLGSCA important to you?

Very shortly after becoming a professional librarian I joined MLGSCA. I became active in the group, built relationships w/ peers and took advantage of continuing education opportunities. I credit where I am professionally to the connections I made through MLGSCA.

Why did you become a librarian?

While an undergraduate I worked at a bookstore, after graduation I thought 'what next?' A couple friends were in library school at the time and I thought I could do that too. Also when I was 6 I said I wanted to be a singer or a librarian, I'm not much of a singer.

What was your first library job or professional position?

My first professional job was for a document delivery vendor. I worked there for one year then was hired as a medical librarian at a county hospital in the South Bay.

What is your advice to someone new to medical librarianship?

Join MLA and your local MLA chapter, get active in the community and network with your peers. Take as many free continuing education opportunities as you can. Keep an open mind about where your career might take you.

What is something you have on your bucket list?

I'd love to do some traveling to Portugal and Mexico City but I'm a homebody!

What do you do in your spare time for fun, or to relax?

I go dancing at the goth club as often as possible, my New Year's resolution the past 2 years was to dance more. I also see live bands every couple of months (more if lucky). I also love to shop at thrift stores, garden, and I enjoy the occasional margarita.

What is the best thing you have read/watched/listened to recently?

I saw Nine Inch Nails in concert this March, absolutely great sound and visuals. A beautiful performance.

Is there anything about you that others would be surprised to know?

I've run 8 marathons (slowly).

Meet the slate of candidates for the MLGSCA 2026 Election!

The election will run March 9-23 via electronic ballot. Ballots will be sent out from Qualtrics to the primary email listed in WIldapricot on Monday, March 9, 2026. Ballots will be open until Monday, March 23 at 5 pm PT/MT.

You can log into Wildapricot and update your primary email prior to March 9, 9 am; or contact the Nominating Committee chair (angelamurrell@arizona.edu) if you do not receive your ballot by the end of the day March 9th.

President-Elect (3-year term)

Victoria Caine

I have been working in the role of health sciences librarian since January 2024 at the University of Arizona-Phoenix Biomedical Campus library. I am passionate about evidence synthesis, evidence-based medicine, data management, and bioinformatics. In my free time, I enjoy playing roller derby and spending time with my 2 pugs. 

If elected president, I would help to continue the important work that MLGSCA is currently doing to support librarians in health sciences roles. The information landscape is rapidly changing with artificial intelligence (AI), as well as federal changes that affect evidence synthesis and research. MLGSCA is an accessible way to collaborate and streamline changing information to provide resources for all members, independent of where they are in their career. 

• MLGSCA Chapter Involvement: 

• • 2025-2026 Advisory Council Secretary

  • 2024-2025 Membership Committee: Assisted the Membership Committee with composing the "I am MLGSCA" blog posts, planning socials, and creating recruitment materials.

  • 2024-2025: Participation in the MLGSCA Buddy Program

• Medical Library Association (MLA) Involvement: 

• • 2025-2026 Research Training Institute (RTI)

  • 2024-2025 MLA Mentorship Program (Mentee)

  • 2025 Systematic Review Services Specialization Level 1

  • 2025 Data Services Specialization Level 1

• Education: 

• • 2021 Master of Arts in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona. 

  • 2015 Master of Arts in International Leadership and Community Development from Crown College

Secretary (1-year term):

Melissa Wagner

After earning my MLS from the University of Pittsburgh, I worked as an elementary school librarian and classroom teacher in Pittsburgh, PA for 11 years. While my children were young, I took a break from full-time employment and volunteered as a Girl Scout leader and for school and athletic organizations. I was also a part-time student teaching supervisor for Penn State.

In 2021, I returned to librarianship as a Library Associate at Mayo Clinic in the Patient Library, where I discovered my passion for Consumer Health services. As I grew into this role, I was promoted to Librarian in 2024.

Through MLGSCA’s mentoring program, I was encouraged by Andrea Harrow to join the Membership Committee in 2024. In 2025, I became a member of MLA, joined CAPHIS, and co-presented Lightning Talks at the national conference.

I continue to learn about medical librarianship from colleagues, MLA and NNLM courses. Taking on the role of Secretary for MLGSCA would allow me to serve an organization I am proud to be part of.

MLGSCA Nominating Committee (2 openings, 2-year term):

Danielle Linden

Danielle Linden, MLIS, AHIP is a medical librarian with Providence Health System. She works with a team of library professionals serving physicians and healthcare providers as well as students in the School of Health Professions at University of Providence. Danielle received her MLIS from San Jose State University, has been a hospital librarian and MLA member since 2005 and an AHIP member since 2006. She is active in her local MLA chapter, MLGSCA, and has held various roles including President, Chapter Council Chair, Secretary, Annual Joint Conference Tri-Chair, and is currently the Archives Committee Chair. Danielle has served on several MLA awards and annual conference juries as member and chair and was the Hospital Library Caucus secretary in 2024-25. She currently serves as MLA Awards Committee member. She is a member of the Hospital Library, Clinical Librarians & EBP, Leadership & Management, Nursing & Allied Health Resources & Services, Pediatric Librarians and Pharmacy & Drug Information caucuses.  

CJ Garcia

CJ Garcia is a Health Sciences Librarian at Creighton University in Phoenix, AZ. He got his MLIS at the University of Arizona, alongside a Certificate in Instruction and Teaching for Librarians. He also holds a Level II SRSS and Level II DSS through the MLA. He has served as the co-chair of the MLGSCA membership committee for the past two years, and has been an active member since being an MLIS student. Outside of MLGSCA, he serves on various committees across RDAP, NASIG, and NISO.

By Carrie Fry, Nursing and Health Science Librarian, University of San Diego

As a new member of MLGSCA, joining just last year, I was delighted to attend the MLGSCA/NCNMLG Joint Meeting.  I appreciated the opportunity to meet other members in person and was energized by being in community with you all. I had the pleasure of leading one of three immersion sessions, and I walked away with a renewed sense of pride in the creativity (and healthy AI skepticism) of our members.

Centering Human Values and Experience When Using AI

In my session, we moved beyond the “black box” nature of LLMs by focusing on priming the tools (using the personalization settings) to be more responsive to our values and professional context. Then by being more strategic in how we prompt and question AI tools we can move beyond generic outputs to responses that actually reflect our specific needs as health science librarians.

The Balancing Act: Upskilling vs. Deskilling

One of the highlights for me was hearing from Katie Hoskins and Katie Houk. As someone who keeps a wary eye on AI’s hallucination tendencies and its impact on information literacy, I was struck by their nuanced take on the student experience. We know that even though AI is prone to inaccuracies, students turn to it regularly. The Katies challenged us to look at upskilling and deskilling.  For instance, if students use AI to find articles, are they losing the ability to identify keywords and perform searches for themselves? But what if we, as librarians, use AI to help compensate for that by creating an assignment where the student uses AI to build a PubMed search out of a PICO clinical question and evaluate that search string? In this way, use of the AI tool is integrated, but the assignment still maximizes critical thinking and research skills as work done by the student. 

Playing Detective

Finally, Morgan Choate and Katie Jefferson turned us all into investigators.  They led us on a hunt for the elusive hacker, “The Librarian” using a mix of real and GenAI- generated images and reports.  I must admit, even as a skeptic, I was floored by how sophisticated AI imagery has become. Recognizing the real from the fake was no easy task. This only reinforces why our roles in information literacy are more vital than ever – and must include an understanding of GenAI.

If you want to learn more about any of these sessions, I recommend reaching out to the leaders of the immersion sessions.  Also, I encourage each of you to consider leading a session in the future! We are all learning, and the immersion sessions are a place where we can play, fail, and learn together in a supportive space.

On February 19th, AZ MLGSCA members had fun discovering Stardust Pinbar’s covert entry door found within “Ziggy’s Magic Pizza Shop in Phoenix.  The pizza received rave reviews and the pinball machine selection included themes from “Foo Fighters” to “Star Wars”. The group highly recommends this hidden gem!

Special thanks to Melissa Wagner for documenting this social.

Thanks to all who joined us for a night out at the Rockhouse Las Vegas on January 17^th.  After a full day at the Joint Conference, more than 25 members show up to unwind and connect.  And while seating was a little short and the volume a little loud, it was great to get to know our fellow attendees a little better!

Meanwhile at the Palace Station Brass Fork, 7 of us enjoyed a quiet dinner together, discussing our latest reads, family antics, and plans for our trips home. We also got to stand in line for a while to pay our bills, which helped us digest dinner. 

The membership committee is busy planning spring socials in our respective cities, so keep an eye out on the MLGSCA google group email for updates. We look forward to seeing you there! 

The recent NCN/MLGSCA Joint Meeting, All In: Betting on the Future of Medical Libraries held in the Palace Station Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV was a success! I think we all came away with new and stronger relationships with our colleagues in the medical library and publishing worlds. We truly appreciate all the support that came from our vendors, we couldn’t have had an in-person meeting without you! Your support makes it possible. Nothing beats an in-person meeting for making our work and aspirations more real. It’s true that the virtual platform can be more inclusive and accessible, but a real-world hug and laugh are golden. It’s a commitment I hope we all agree to continue. I am proud to know you all, and tickled to meet new faces who I hope will become new friends and colleagues. You all help us to carry the torch of our chapter and mission to collaborate with our communities, encourage resource discovery and service innovation, promote professional development and foster a sense of community, belonging, and inclusion.

Janet Crum and Elisa Cortez did a stellar job in making The Joy of Project Management, our scheduled CE, well, manageable as they simplified the process into stages. Asking us to work together in small groups on a hands-on exercise really brought the steps to life.

Heather Holmes, our current MLA President, gave the opening plenary reporting about the hiring of our new MLA Executive Director, Katrina Holland, to replace Kevin Baliozian who is retiring (in about a week!) and who she credited for turning our association around, along with Kate Corcoran, also retiring! Heather gave Katrina a glowing recommendation and is excited to start working with her. Heather is also working on fixing our MLA caucus communication system, the return of the listservs! John Bramble and Caroline Martin from NNLM Regions 4 and 5, respectively, updated us with information about the past, very challenging, year of navigating unknowns and barriers to funding. We appreciated having the time to ask our questions and emphasize our support for this agency, doing the work that we pay them to do.

Our closing plenary speaker Emma Bloomfield, from the communication studies department at UNLV (and a former, fellow Trojan, Fight On!), gave us a new approach to consider in using story to tell science. Dr Bloomfield advocated for making science relatable, centering persons to tell our science stories. We can tell ours (and others) personal stories about what we see and know in regards to “difficult” topics such as vaccine hesitancy and climate change.

I learned so much from our lightning talks, posters, papers and immersion sessions, and was blown away by all the great work presented. If I could have been in two places at once, I would have attended everything! I applaud our conference co-chairs, Angela Murrell and Rachel Keiko Stark, and all of the committee chairs for making a wonderful opportunity for learning and networking, a reality. Thanks y’all!

       

How does the Nominating Committee build the election slate? A peek behind the scenes!

Ever wonder how MLGSCA’s leadership slate comes together each year? We’re sharing the inside scoop! Read on to learn about the care and thought that goes into building a slate that represents our community.

What’s this committee anyway?

Each year’s Nominating Committee consists of one chair, two continuing members from the previous year, and two new members. This helps keep things fresh while maintaining continuity. Together, they help shape the future of Chapter leadership by preparing the annual slate of nominees for open officer positions and  managing the election process.

When does this process start?

Building the election slate kicks off in the fall. The committee begins spreading the word through the listserv, the MLGSCA blog, and Advisory Council meetings to gather nominations and gauge interest from members who want to get more involved.

What happens next?

Developing the election slate is no small task! It involves:

• Plenty of discussion among committee members

• Reaching out to potential nominees who have either been nominated by peers or the Nominating Committee through their chapter engagement

• Collecting self-nominations from interested members

• Ensuring a balance – when possible, balancing representation from hospital and academic libraries and different areas of Arizona and California

The Yes! Moment

Once someone agrees to run, they complete a “Willingness to Run for Office” form. This confirms they’re ready to take on the role and provides information about the candidate for election announcements and the final ballot.

Final Steps

Before ballots go out, the Advisory Council approves the slate. This ensures careful consideration of community representation as well as balance of roles and terms candidates have served for equitable member opportunities. Then, it’s time for voting!

Thinking about running? Keep an eye out for calls or nominations – you might be just the person we’re looking for!