The Leading Edge workshops are a series of professional development opportunities organized by the Northern Alberta Health Libraries Association each year.
Upcoming Leading Edge Workshops
Date: TBD
Previous Leading Edge Workshops
Round Table Discussion: Systematic review searching Facilitator: Megan Kennedy Description: Attendees shared their experiences with systematic searching and how they work with researchers who have difficult research questions and tight timelines. Date: November, 2021
Presentation: Systematic and Scoping Review Methodology
Presenters: Lucy Kiester, Liaison librarian for undergraduate medical education, McGill University, and Andrea Quaiattini, Liaison librarian for postgraduate medical education, McGill University.
Description: Librarians Lucy Kiester and Andrea Quaiattini provided an abbreviated overview of their workshop: Systematic and Scoping Reviews for Health Sciences. They also shared a broader discussion of how content was developed and workshopped, specific choices made regarding curriculum design and scope, and how the workshop has been received.
Date: June 2021
Panel: Non-traditional Career Paths of Information Professionals
Panelists: Robin Featherstone, Cochrane; Margaret Shane, ATA; Brettany Johnson, AHS; Soleil Surette, Edmonton Public Schools.
Description: Panelists shared their experiences navigating non-traditional career paths in and out of information science professions, and shared insights as to the transferability of information science and management skills to a variety of different career contexts.
Date: November 2020
From Unconscious Bias to Conscious Inclusion
Presenter: Irfan Chaudhry, is a hate crimes researcher, and Director of the Office of Human Rights, Diversity and Equity at MacEwan University.
Description: In our daily lives, we all carry unconscious biases with us—prejudices or unsupported judgements that influence how we view and act in the world. It’s not our fault—our brains are wired this way—but by learning to identify how to adjust our automatic patterns of thinking, we can combat this narrative and ultimately eliminate discriminatory behaviours. Attendees will learn how to transform your unconscious biases into conscious inclusion.
Date: June 2020
Non-Insured Health Benefits Program for First Nations and Inuit Peoples in Canada: What do health and information professionals need to know?
Presenters: Jessie Loyer, Librarian at Mount Royal University, and Candace Bird, NIHB Navigator for the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations
Description: The federal Non-insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program provides First Nations and Inuit people with coverage for a limited range of medically necessary goods and services. These can include prescription drugs, dental care, vision care, medical supplies and equipment, short- term crisis counselling, and medical transportation. This session will provide historical background on the NIHB, perspectives on the legal and treaty requirements for service provision, the health literacy implications, and the role of NIHB Navigators in service delivery.
Date: March 2020
Looking Through the Lens of Social Style
Presenter: Fern Richardson
Description: This workshop explores social styles. Our ability to recognize and adapt our preferred workplace communication behaviors can create more successful interactions and result in productive working relationships.
Learning Outcomes
Participants did:
- Determine their preferred workplace behaviour styles by completing the Social Styles Inventory
- Reflect on their preferences and how these preferences impact workplace behaviour
- Describe at least two ways to communicate with each social style
Date: May 2019
Consumer Health Information
Presenters: Dr. Tami Oliphant, Lauren Seal, and Tabatha Plesuk
Description: Take a deep dive into consumer health information! This session will feature presentations and discussion on the topic of consumer health information from multiple perspectives. Dr. Tami Oliphant (School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta) will discuss her research in the area of human information interaction within a consumer health context. Lauren Seal (Librarian, Alberta Health Services) and Tabatha Plesuk (MLIS candidate and Registered Nurse) will present on Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) role in consumer health information provision, what is being done in AHS libraries, what frontline clinicians are doing, and future directions.
Date: February 2019
Putting the “Evidence” in “Evidence-Based Medicine”: The Role of LIS Professionals in Health Care
Presenters: Lana Atkinson, Amanda Holt, Nicole Loroff, Lauren Seal, Shelley White, Connie Winther
Description: Session included a presentation from Alberta Health Services (AHS) and Covenant Health Librarians and Library Technicians all about the work they do in serving clinicians and health care professionals across the province. There was also a panel discussion with the Librarians and Library Technicians where participants could ask questions about presenters’ unique experiences, as well as what skills they think are necessary to be employable within the industry.
Date: November 2018
Overcoming arithmophobia: A statistics primer
Presenters: Laura Hamonic, Maria Tan
Description: Are you living in fear of statistics and looking for help demystifying them or a statistics whiz looking for a quick refresher? Join us for this primer on basic statistics that health librarians can apply or consider when doing survey research and instructing students. We will cover variables, levels of measurement, descriptive statistics, introduce the concept of inferential statistics, and include hands-on activities to help you practically apply these concepts.
Date: February 2018
Session slides
Searching Tips, Tricks and Hacks with Expert Searchers
Presenters: Various
Description: Improve your searching skills by learning from the experts! Come to this round-table session, where expert searchers will share their favourite tricks, tips or hacks for searching electronic databases. There will be lots of time for discussion and questions, so bring your own tricks and your search questions.
Date: November 2017
Best practices in searching for Health Economics Literature: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Presenters: Dagmara Chojecki & Lisa Tjosvold
Description: Health economics is a specialized area within health services research that has an important role in health care decision and policy making. Finding health economics research often presents its own set of challenges because of the specialized terminology and literature sources that need to be used. This session will focus on exploring some basic health economics concepts and resources but will also present best practices that have been developed by information specialists to retrieve studies in this domain.
Date: February 2017
Cochrane Librarians Workshop
Presenter: Dr. Jessie McGowan
Description: This is a special Leading Edge event, co-sponsored by the CHLA/ABSC Chapter and Interest Group Initiatives Fund, the Edmonton Public Library, and NAHLA. This accredited full-day, hands-on workshop will provide an overview of the steps required in searching to support Cochrane systematic reviews. This course will provide an overview of Cochrane searching methods needed in systematic reviews, including how to work with research questions, plan a multi-database, multi-modal search strategy, apply search filters, document the search strategy and manage a database of references. It will also include an introduction to PRESS to peer review literature searches.
Date: October 2016