It is October which means it is also National Medical Librarians Month. MLA created National Medical Librarians Month to "raise awareness of the important role of the health information professional." They are suggesting that you "use October to promote your skills and boost your library's visibility so that those in your community and institution know where to turn for quality health information."

Great idea and I am all for it, but let's try and take it a step further and boost your visibility 12 months out of the year. How about celebrating and recognizing other hospital department's months. (I can't take credit for this on my own, I read this from an email on Medlib a few years ago and it stuck with me.) Go to the National Health Information Center's 2006 National Health Observances Calendar and print it off. Select a specific observance that corresponds to departments in your hospital, then recognize that department that month by sending out a flyer to the department highlighting the services you can provide them. Perhaps take a laptop up to the department and show them what cool things you have for them...don't forget cookies to draw them into your clutches.

For example:

• January: Cervical Health Awareness Month and National Birth Defects Prevention Month. -Go to the OB/GYN department.
• Februrary: Heart Month -Go to Cardiology
• March: National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, National Nutrition Month, National Kidney Month, National Workplace Eye Health and Safety Month -Go to Oncology dept, Nutritional Services/Dietary dept, Urology dept, and HR.
• April: Counseling Awareness Month, National Occupational Therapy Month -Go to Psychiatry department and Pastoral Care, Occupation Therapy

You get the drift. Start out small and see how it goes. There are multiple national observances each month, so there are a lot of opportunities to spread the word. Obviously you can't take your laptop and do a dog and pony show to a bunch of departments all in one month. But you can easily send out flyers. Perhaps you rotate. One April you go to Psychiatry and next April you go to Occupational Therapy, but each year they get a flyer.

Think out of the box and who knows maybe you can get a little more attention and visibility the whole year.