Don't Have the Money to Go to MLA's Annual Meeting?
This morning I was speaking on the phone with a fellow librarian who mentioned that she wasn't able to get her hospital to pay for the annual Meeting despite the fact that they will pay for her MLA and AHIP dues. I mentioned to her that she should look at and apply for some of the MLA scholarships that are available to attend meetings and continuing education. I realize it is too late to look for scholarships for this year's annual meeting, but there is time for the future meetings. MLA is going to a lot of neat cities.
There is the "Continuing Education Awards"MLA members may submit applications for these awards of $100 to $500 to develop their knowledge of the theoretical, administrative, or technical aspects of librarianship. More than one continuing education (CE) award may be offered in a year and may be used either for MLA courses or for other CE activities.
Note in 1999 it wasn't awarded. I guess that year everybody had money to attend a CE course.
There is the "EBSCO/MLA Annual Meeting Grant"This scholarship is sponsored by EBSCO Information Services and enables MLA members to attend the association's annual meeting. Each year awards of up to $1,000 for travel and conference-related expenses will be given to four librarians who would otherwise be unable to attend the meeting. Applicants must be currently employed as health sciences librarians and have between two and five years' experience in a health sciences library.
There are the "Hospital Libraries Section/MLA Professional Development Grants"This award, sponsored by the Hospital Libraries Section, provides librarians working in hospital and similar clinical settings with the support needed for educational or research activities. This award was established in 1996, and is given twice each year. Application deadlines are August 1 and February 1.
Note in 2002 it wasn't awarded. I guess hospital librarians must have had an abundance of professional development money that year.
Just doing a brief cursory search through the Chapter websites I found at least 8 chapters that have professional development, continuing education, or meeting attendance awards.
There are a lot of outside funding opportunities available to new medical librarians or first time conference attendees. Not as much for mid career librarians who have been to a conference before. This might be one area to develop. I know that I was very lucky at my previous job because my hospital paid for my attendance at the annual meetings. If they didn't, I would have been out of luck for any award where the criteria stated that I would have had to be a first time meeting attendee. Perhaps I am wrong, but I think there are some 15-20 year career hospital librarians out there who would like to go to an annual meeting more than once in their entire career.
posted by The Krafty Librarian @ 11:48 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I definitely encourage folks to apply for the grants offered by different sections of MLA. In 2006 I decided I wanted to attend an intensive 1-week EBM course at Duke in 2007..so I started to look at some of the awards and applied for three (thinking maybe I'd have a shot at one). I ended up getting two of them and it paid for the entire course! (I received CE and Informatics...) As you can see the informatics one was not awarded in 2007...probably meaning they did not get any applicants. So definitely plan ahead...start looking at courses, conferences etc. you'd like to attend in 2009 and check out the grants requirements and deadlines....It was not very difficult to write the three apps...they were bascially the same...and the givers really do want to have someone benefit from their generous offers.
Good Luck!
Many, many academic librarians pay the bulk of memberships and travel expenses every single year. I think people come up with the money to travel if they really want to go, plain and simple.
Anonymous,
If people are able to pay for it personally that is fine. But the simple fact is that not everybody can.
My hospital doesn't pay for me to go. I have many other expenses in my life that prevent me from going including but not limited to over $14,000 in daycare expenses for 2 kids, add that to my mortgage, car payments, student loans, etc. All of that makes the $2,000 (hotel, registration, airfare) for this conference out of league for my personal family budget.
In the past I applied for a couple of conference grants and I was excited that I got them and got to go. But that was a while ago. Why can't somebody have a grant for people who would like to go every so often (3-5 yrs), not just first timers?
I certainly agree with the anonymous comment about offering grants to others who are not first timers. All of us have times when finances are in a pinch, but we want to be involved professionally. There just don't seem to be many options.
On top of that, for those of use who are parents of younger children in school, the end of May is a terrible time for a conference! End of year programs, graduations, etc. Definitely a problem, and pretty much rules out a meaningful trip to Hawaii next year.
Anonymous #3,
So far I have been very lucky. The kids balance is definitely challenging. My husband is a saint and takes care of the kids while I am away. This year it will be a little harder because his work needs him to work some overtime while I am away. That is when Grandma (who lives nearby) will be watching them a couple evenings.
Next year I will be going to Hawaii. It will also be my 10th wedding anniversary, so my husband will be going. My mother and my mother in-law will be watching the kids while we are away.
Everything is a juggling act, kids, money, time, work. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't.
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