ILA Conference 2013 (Thursday – October 17) – Gail
 

Because the last day of the conference was a shortened day I was only able to attend two sessions.

The first workshop – Health Information for the Public: Resources, Services, and Sparking Relationships reminded me what a wonderful resource the MedlinePlus website is - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/. This site offers reliable, up-to-date health information in easy to understand layman’s language in both English and Spanish. Besides discussing diseases and treatments, the site also contains drug information, medical dictionaries and encyclopedias, surgery and anatomy information. Also included are links to the latest medical research on specific illnesses, information on clinical trials, and videos and illustrations on health and wellness topics. An excellent resource.

The second – When the Heat Is On: Tools for Intellectual Freedom Issues did not actually supply “tools” for dealing with intellectual freedom issues, but rather provided examples of censorship concerns and facilitated discussion between panel and audience in what was billed as an “interactive program”. Many of the make-believe scenarios involved academic or special libraries rather than public libraries so while it was interesting I felt it had little relevance to my position.

In addition to attending the workshops, I also had a little time to visit the Exhibit Hall. Because booths had begun dismantling I was offered lots of candy and pens!