This year, the Medical Library Association conference was held at the Happiest Place on Earth. Well, at least that's what it claims to be, and who could argue when you get to mingle with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale, Baloo the Bear, and Goofy!

After arriving at the Orlando airport, Roxanne, my friend Amy, and I drove to Walt Disney World to the front of a giant hotel with dolphin (although they looked a lot more like fish than dolphins!) statues looming above us and the EPCOT World Showcase within walking distance. The weather was beautiful and there was a magical air all around us as we headed into the hotel to check in. The interior of the Dolphin Hotel was just as spectacular as the outside. The decor was reminiscent of beach scenes with pastel oranges and blues and shell and fish designs. A large fountain with water spouting from the same fish-like statues as seen on the exterior of the hotel sat in the middle of the lobby.

Amy and I checked into our room and wandered around the hotel, wasting no time spliting a brownie Sundae at the 50's style soda fountain inside the hotel. We then went to nearby "Disney's Boardwalk" shopping area before meeting with Roxanne again later to register. This was definitely going to be a great educational and fun getaway, especially since it was warm and sunny unlike the Omaha weather, which hadn't quite moved into summer temperatures yet.

The MLA Conference was held in rooms with names like Asia and Australia, all adding to the atmosphere Disney World is famous for. Some of the highlights of the conference included the Janet Doe lecture, the Public Services Section Programming, the Hall of exhibits (especially that wonderful Matthews calendar, look for one at "Minnie MLA" on June 15th!)and of course our fabulous poster session, The Librarian is In: Facing Modern Consumer Health Issues in the Public Library.

The poster session was a huge success! It focused on two related projects, HealthHQ and the Consumer Health video, funded by the NLM Consumer Health grant given to the ICON consortium. We had many giveaways such as bookmarks, bandaids, computer screen cleaners, and brochures promoting HealthHQ, the web site providing links to Nebraska Support groups. For The Librarian is In video we had order forms available as well as the facilitator's guide, a video cover, and the actual film running on a laptop. The poster consisted of scenes from pre-production, stills from the actual movie, and "post-production" pictures of the video being used in a classroom setting. Many people stopped by the booth who were very interested in either purchasing the video or teaching a class using it and the facilitator's guide as a tool. There was also a lot of interest in the HealthHQ web site; overall people were very impressed with how we had put the grant to use. People even said our poster was the most professional looking at the conference!

This year's Janet Doe lecture was given by Betsy Humphreys, associate director, Library Operations and assistant director, Health Services Research Information at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD. She was a very humorous and educational speaker. Her presentation covered the history of the relationship between NLM and Health Sciences Librarians spanning from 1961-2000. One of the things that really set her lecture apart was how she supplemented it with various historical pictures of NLM Associates and even gave information about Janet Doe herself, which I thought a fitting tribute. These photos really added to the presentation not only in helping visualize her points but also in their humorous demonstration of past fashions(the bellbottoms and plaids received a lot of chuckles). She also included timelines for each decade highlighting not only what NLM was doing during that time but also what was significant in the news, presidency, etc. It made for a very well organized, insightful presentation about NLM's products and services, the RML program, and work with medical libraries. It focused a lot on the people that made things happen rather than just the services themselves.

In the Public Services Programming Section, I attended the Providing Reference Services Differently session, which consisted of 5 different lectures with topics ranging from shifting reference employees hours to Palm devices. In Work/Life models and the twenty-first century reference librarian, the speaker talked about the advantages and disadvantages of adopting flexible scheduling to better meet the needs of the employees. Reasons cited for doing this included employee burnout, caring for an aging parent, and increasing time for personal life. Ways suggested to do this included compressed work week, adjusted lunch, flex time, and telecommunting just to name a few. They found that adjusting to a different schedule (such as the employee works 3 days a week with longer hours rather than five 8 hour days) made for a happier staff since people were able to tailor things to what worked for them. It was found that people work best when there is a balance between personal activities and work. The main disadvantages included shortage of staff at all times when the reference desk needed to be covered and difficulty in setting up staff meetings when everyone was available. Overall this lecture was a very interesting look into how libraries can work with employees to increase morale based on work scheduling that is most fitting to them.

The second lecture Librarian-initiated contact: have you "licked" your clientele today?examined how to better market library services and make users aware of what the library has to offer. The way they went about this was through liaison activities, mass emails, surveys, exhibits, phone calls, and other promotional strategies to try to get information about ILL, mediated searching, reference assistance, chat, and other services to the user base.

The third lecture was entitled Digital reference services: current and future directions. This was a very interesting talk as it explained the "information reference structure" of that institution, which differs from what is usually found in libraries. Users would first consult an "Information Specialist" or "Information Assistant" at a desk as the initial point of service. Many times basic questions could be answered here. If the request was too complex, the patron would be referred to the Reference Desk, which is only open 20 hours per week. Personal consultations were also offered if a follow up was needed, and a "Virtual Reference Collection" with links to resources by subject, directories, etc. was listed as another point of access for remote users. Email reference with a 24 hour turn around was also available. The bad thing about these latter forms of reference were the lack of emotional cues from the user, risk of poorly stated questions, and based on the complexity of the question, considerable reference time with the possibility of a slower turnaround than more simple requests. Real time Web chat and its challenges were also discussed.

The fourth lecture, Enhancing reference servics through Web design and usability testing, looked at the redesign of one library's web site. Realizing that it was the first point of access for many users, the library wanted to have a new logo and user friendly navigation. In order to do this, the library staff figured out first what they thought would be important and designed a new site based on that. Then they went through usability testing with several student volunteers to discover what things they had difficulty finding and to listen to any comments or suggestions (such as colors used on the site, etc.) that they might have. The library wanted the site to be functional, readable and accessible, and after conducting the testing and applying what they learned from the students, they ended up with a main web page of general categories for beginners and another section for "Quick Links" geared toward more experienced users.

Finally the fifth lecture, Open the Palm-bay door, HAL, delved into the fairly new concept of using palm pilots in the library. The speaker explained that in their library they gave all the staff palm pilots to test how useful they'd be for personal and library use. The palms were more well received by some staff than others, and there were many questions and concerns, but many students had been using them and it seemed like it would be a beneficial thing for the library to offer. Soon the library began making some of their resources available through the palm. Although there are many things to consider: brand, price range, compatibility of equipment between brands, etc. the popularity of this emerging technology is on the increase and is something which other libraries may want to explore as well.

When not in MLA sessions, it was time to hit the Disney parks! Besides Amy, I also brought my friend Anu along for the ride and our own former McGooganite Brenda Epperson joined in the fun as well! We explored the great Spaceship Earth Dome and rode over 60mph on Test Track in EPCOT, we were spooked at the Haunted Mansion and visited the Pirates of the Caribbean in Magic Kingdom, met Baloo the Bear and got soaked at the Kali River Rapids in Animal Kingdom, and on our last evening in Orlando, got drenched by a downpour at MGM Studios and had to buy ponchos! Perhaps best of all was the Cheesecake we enjoyed at Disney Quest as well as designing our own cyber rollercoaster, creating our own hit song, and donning 3D goggles for our fight for pirate's gold!

Our visit was far too short and it was soon time to go home. I am now looking forward to my next visit to the land of magic and the mouse.

--Erin Bauer, Electronic Services Librarian
McGoogan Library of Medicine
University of Nebraska Medical Center