Dear CAHSLA Members, 

A hearty hello from your new President! First, I want to thank Mr. Matthew Cooper for his steady and inspirational leadership, Emily Kean for her stewardship of our finances and continued support of CAHSLA and all the members, and Devhra BennettJones for her keen eye and ear for keeping our meeting minutes. 

I also want to welcome our leadership team: Vice President/President Elect: Devhra BennettJones, Treasurer: Brian McConnell and Secretary: Lauren Darpel.

These last couple of months have been a whirlwind. Between attending the Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA) and the Librarians, Archivists, and Museum Professionals in the History of the Health Sciences (LAMPHHS) annual meetings and taking a trip to England, I feel that I am now out from under the work that awaited me when I got back to the office. 

Just last week, while accepting a new artifact (Adams Laboratory Counter) into our collection, we commented that it was June, and we are halfway through the year! I don’t know about you, but I am always shocked at how time flies. Is it because we get so busy with work and life that we don’t take the time to smell the proverbial roses or is it something else, like entropy? 

I am excited about what is to come for CAHSLA during our term and to be honest I am bit nervous as I am the first non-medical librarian to be elected President. We have come a long way since 1973 when the challenge of federal funding cuts to the Inter Library Program became a reality that libraries had to find solutions to and a group of local librarians in health sciences and technical libraries worked together to resolve it. 

I encourage you to read about the History of CAHSLA here. I also encourage you to share your projects, reflections and ideas with us through email and the Chronicle.

Today, our new challenge is the integration of AI into our daily work and personal lives and just like CAHSLA rose to the challenge of addressing funding cuts to ILL, we will rise to the challenge of learning about and sharing knowledge about how we are using AI in our daily work.

I look forward to all that lies ahead for CAHSLA this year!

Wishing you all a less humid summer than we usually get in the Cincinnati area.

Cheers to all that you do!

Jim DaMico

CAHSLA President