Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen...

After attending the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association meeting in 2008, Kristen Morda returned, inspired to find a vehicle for scholarly communication among Librarians.

Serendipity delivered to the Reference Desk a frantic resident scurrying to find an article, or study, to present to his journal club.  Kristen and I worked with the resident (calm, cool, and collected).  Upon completion of the reference interview a  light bulb went on?  Why, don't we start a Journal Club? 

We discussed the possibility of “brown bag” lunches, and/or faculty meetings. However, we were looking for the cross pollination of ideas from other institutions, as in-house culture tends to foster in-breeding and group think.

We made the case to our Director, Beverly Shattuck, who provided us with institutional support and gave us the green light to move forward.  

Benefits to your institution:

Scholarly, voluntary, held during lunch, social, opportunity to network.