- Paper: A scoping review of automated indexing in Medline -- how did we get here?

Alissa Epworth is a Lead Customer Success Manager at DistillerSR. She leads a team of CSMs who assist customers with DistillerSR implementation, adoption and creating customized workflows that maximize automation and AI features. Prior to joining DistillerSR, she provided library support to the Unity Health Toronto Knowledge Synthesis team that focused on conducting and defining methodology for various types of reviews.
- Poster: A fork in the road: Machine learning classifier or methodological search filter to identify systematic reviews?
Alla Iansavitchene, MLIS, is a Clinical Librarian on the Corporate Academics team at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). She specializes in systematic reviews and advancing evidence-based practice.
As a 2024 MLA Research Training Institute fellow, she has focused on donor relationship management and sustainable library funding. Her current continued collaboration with a librarian from Queen’s University draws on their personal experience and aims to equip health librarian researchers with practical strategies for navigating grant writing and securing funding for research initiatives in health sciences librarianship.
- Poster: Obtaining Grants in Health Sciences Librarianship: Advice, approach, and strategies for librarian researchers.

Alyssa Foote is a health data and informatics professional with expertise in leveraging data for improved health outcomes. With a Master of Data Science from UBC and a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Science and Computer Science from UVic, she has experience working with Canadian and English health data. As a Health Data Research Associate at the World Data System, she contributes to improving health data accessibility and interoperability. Alyssa is passionate about facilitating the sustainability and equitability of healthcare research.
- Paper: Assessing the Canadian Digital Health Landscape: Opportunities for Improved Data Sharing and Research
- Lightning Talk: Towards a More Connected Health Research Ecosystem: A Framework for Interoperable Health Data Commons
- Panel: Advancing Health Research in Canada Through Open Science

- Workshop: Designing Resilient Library Services: A Workshop on Resilience Engineering for Librarians
- Poster: Obtaining Grants in Health Sciences Librarianship: Advice, approach, and strategies for librarian researchers.

I am the Public and Allied Health Librarian at Alaska's only Medical Library, where I work as one of two medical librarians, serving the entire state of Alaska. We serve the health programs at the University of Alaska, as well as our clients who work at clinics and health organizations throughout the state.
- Poster: Building a Healthier Alaska: Connecting Alaskans to Essential Resources through the Alaska Medical Library

Ashley Farrell (MLIS) is a graduate from the Masters of Library and Information Science program at Western University. She has worked in primarily in hospital libraries throughout her career and is currently an Information Specialist for the University Health Network (UHN). In her role at UHN Libraries, she provides training sessions, research consultations, literature search and knowledge synthesis support to hospital staff, researchers and learners. Ashley is the Senior Editor for the Journal of Canadian Health Libraries Association/Journal de l’Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada (JCHLA/JABSC).
- Paper: The Book Nook: creating a leisure reading space for staff and learners at three hospital library sites
- Poster: Distributed Librarianship: Supporting UBC’s Rehabilitation Students Across BC

- Paper: The Book Nook: creating a leisure reading space for staff and learners at three hospital library sites

Caitlin Carter is the Pharmacy Liaison Librarian at the University of Waterloo, and holds an MLIS degree from Western University (2010). Caitlin’s main duties include providing research services and instruction to School of Pharmacy students, staff and faculty. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo Library, Caitlin worked as a clinical librarian, and attended rounds on the ICU twice weekly, as well as assisted hospital staff with research and instruction requests.
- Poster: Dispensing Research Skills: Enhancing PharmD Students' Evidence-Based Practice
I am an early career librarian working part time at UCW in Vancouver, BC.
- Lightning Talk: How student librarians can support Indigenous health knowledge translation: A Program Proposal
Carla Epp is a liaison librarian with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Virtual Library at the University of Manitoba.
- Poster: Still a filtering failure? Automated indexing using MTIX versus MTIA and its impact on human study filtering for knowledge synthesis

Carol Cooke (she/her) currently serves as the Acting Head of the Health Science and Science Division at the University of Manitoba Libraries. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Western Ontario. With thirty years of experience, primarily as a liaison librarian for Medicine and in web services, she now supervises librarians at both the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library and the Jim Peebles Science and Technology Library.
- Lightning Talk: Supporting physician assistant students: a search template for success
Caroline Monnin (she/her) is a Health Sciences liaison Librarian at the University of Manitoba. As a liaison, she supports the faculty, staff, and students develop information literacy and research skills. Caroline’s research interests include citation justice instruction and issues of authorship in academic publishing.
- Lightning Talk: Supporting physician assistant students: a search template for success
- Paper: AI Research Assistants and Cochrane Reviews: A Comparative Analysis of Scientific Summaries
- Paper: Stronger Together: Adventures in Instruction and Resource Sharing to Cultivate Aspiring Nursing Students
- Paper: A scoping review case study of citation searching indexes and tools
- Paper: Rooted in competence: using the MLA professional competencies to redesign a health information course

Eden A. Kinzel (BSc, MLIS) is a Liaison & Education Librarian at the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto. Her role includes supporting the Department of Family and Community Medicine as well as the Clinical Public Health, Biostatistics, and Epidemiology divisions of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health via instruction, research consultations, and collaborating on knowledge syntheses. Prior to Gerstein, she was a liaison to Pharmacy and various medical disciplines at Memorial University of Newfoundland and an Associate Fellow at the National Library of Medicine.
- Lightning Talk: Data Sharing Practices Amongst Original Research Articles Published in Hybrid vs Open Access Medical Librarianship Journals
Eleni Philippopoulos (she/her/elle) is an Assistant Librarian at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Her liaison areas include undergraduate medical education, LGBTQ+ health, and consumer health information. She has previously worked as a hospital librarian at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and at Sinai Health in Toronto.
- Paper: Invisible in the Index: How Medline Indexing Excludes Intersex People
- Panel: Developing, Validating, and Using Search Filters to Retrieve Evidence Related to Specific Populations

Elizabeth Sanders (she/her/hers) is the Interim Department Head of Research, Engagement, and Learning and Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Coordinator at Mary & John Gray Library, Lamar University. Her research interests include government information, evidence synthesis, promoting access to and awareness of information for underrepresented populations (e.g., LGBTQIA+ community, indigenous peoples), information literacy instruction, and experiential learning.
- Paper: Critiquing systematic review search methods in the Cass Review: developing a comprehensive checklist

Elizabeth Yates (she/her) is a Research Librarian at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, where she leads the Library's evidence synthesis team. She is active with the leadership team of the Niagara chapter of Pflag Canada, a charitable organization which provides peer support, education and advocacy for members of the 2S&LGBTQ+ community, their families and loved ones. Elizabeth is the Pflag representative on the Niagara Transgender Action Coalition and participates in Brock University's 2S&LGBTQ+ Working Group.
- Paper: Critiquing systematic review search methods in the Cass Review: developing a comprehensive checklist

Emily Jones, MLIS, AHIP, (epjones3@email.unc.edu) is the Dentistry Librarian and Systematic Review Coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Health Sciences Library. She is passionate about leveraging artificial intelligence to improve systematic review processes, developing technologies that enhance workplace productivity and streamline workflows, and advancing educational research by exploring innovative teaching and learning approaches.
- Poster: Effect of citation numbers and team members on the likelihood of and time needed to complete screening for systematic and scoping reviews
- Paper: Anything you can do, AI can do better... Or can it? Comparing ChatGPT's Search Strategy Outputs with Cochrane Review Searches
- Paper: Optimizing Communication and Data Collection for a Systematic Review Team Using Microsoft Power Automate®
- Paper: Investigating the Impact of the NLM Automatic Indexer on Information Retrieval using citation metadata
- Lightning Talk: Pirates vs Paywalls: Preliminary Investigation into the Utility of Sci-Hub Download Logs for Identifying Trends in User Behaviour.
Erica Nekolaichuk, MA, MLIS, is an instructional librarian with the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto. Prior to arriving at Gerstein, Erica worked in continuing medical education and as a solo hospital librarian at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Alberta. Through her experience in hospital and academic health science libraries, she has been involved in a number of systematic and scoping reviews and has provided expert searching and systematic review training for clinicians, students, and researchers. Erica also teaches a course at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information called "Evidence-Based Healthcare for Librarians."
- Lightning Talk: Documenting the Shift: How Researchers Report Generative AI in Search Methodologies for Evidence Synthesis
- Workshop: Designing Instructional Strategies for Teaching Effective Use of AI Search Engines

Erin Brady-Randle is a settler and a librarian at Fraser Health, serving from the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer (ARHCC). She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in writing from the University of Central Arkansas and holds an MLS from Texas Woman's University. Erin applies her background in public librarianship to the health library, providing a patient-centered library services model with equity as a core value.
- Lightning Talk: Reparative Description and Classification in Medical Libraries

Glyneva Bradley-Ridout (She/her) is a Liaison and Education librarian at Gerstein Science Information Center at the University of Toronto where she liaises primarily with Pharmacy and Nutritional Sciences disciplines. Glyneva also works with the health sciences collection as a selector and supervises graduate student employees. Her current research interests are the impact of play in library spaces, student wellness, and AI applications in searching.
- Paper: Making the Case for Play In Your Library
- Workshop: Contextualizing Generative AI Tools and Academic Integrity in Health Research Literacy

Jeanna is Manager of the Clinical Library, Health Information Centre, and Patient Education Lead at Halton Healthcare in Ontario, Canada. A Past President of CHLA/ABSC, she contributed to the CHLA Standards Subcommittee/Library Value Planner and the HISC Library Value Toolkit. At her organization, Jeanna leads the corporate patient education process, serves on key committees/rounds, and promotes bedside resource integration. She has taught web design in Ethiopia, champions information literacy, and partners with public libraries on health literacy programs. Jeanna holds advanced degrees from Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of Guelph and a recipient of the Joan Leishman Award of Excellence.
- Lightning Talk: Chapter by Chapter: Book Club Conversations with the CEO
Jennifer McKay, MLIS, jamckay@alaska.edu, Professor, Nursing Librarian and Head, Alaska Medical Library, UAA/APU Consortium Library, University of Alaska, Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK, 99508.
- Poster: Building a Healthier Alaska: Connecting Alaskans to Essential Resources through the Alaska Medical Library
- Roundtable Session: Advocacy and Decision-Making in Health Libraries

Kaitlin Fuller, MLIS, is a Scholarly Communications and Health Sciences Librarian at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX). Before joining StFX, she worked as a liaison librarian to the MD Program at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include exploring librarian teaching practices for knowledge synthesis (KS), examining the impact of affordable laptops on students, investigating the role of play in academic libraries, and assessing the use of AI tools in search strategies. She is passionate about empowering students, faculty, and researchers through education and fostering relationships that lead to meaningful collaborations.
- Lightning Talk: Documenting the Shift: How Researchers Report Generative AI in Search Methodologies for Evidence Synthesis
- Workshop: Designing Instructional Strategies for Teaching Effective Use of AI Search Engines
- Poster: A Review of Library Services and Supports for the University of Prince Edward Island's (UPEI) Growing One Health Programs

- Poster: A Review of Library Services and Supports for the University of Prince Edward Island's (UPEI) Growing One Health Programs
- Lightning Talk: Using Scopus for collections analysis in Medicine
- Lightning Talk: Building a better future together by assessing our evidence synthesis service

Lindsey Sikora (PhD, MISt) is the Head of Research Support for Health Sciences, Medicine, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (HMSTEM) department at the University of Ottawa Library in Ottawa, Ontario. She earned her Master's of Information Studies from the University of Toronto, and completed her Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Behavioural Neuroscience at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. Lindsey obtained her PhD in Health Professions Education at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Education in November 2024. Her thesis, titled "Barriers and facilitators facing early career researchers and librarians in health professions when conducting systematic and scoping reviews: A mixed methods study," delves into the complexities faced by these professionals, aiming to identify strategies that enhance research quality and efficiency.
- Workshop: Getting comfortable with context: An introductory qualitative research methods workshop

Lorri Zipperer is a Digital Projects and Systematic Review Librarian at the Blaisdell Medical Library with the University of California Davis. Ms. Zipperer was a founding staff member of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). She has been monitoring the published output of the patient safety movement since 1997 and has been with AHRQ Patient Safety Network since the site launched in 2005. Her editorial work has produced books and articles on topics including knowledge management, patient safety, resilience engineering, and systems thinking. Ms. Zipperer is an American Hospital Association/NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship alumnus and an Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Cheers award winner. She develops content to engage multidisciplinary teams in creative thinking and innovation around knowledge sharing to support high quality, safe patient care. Ms. Zipperer earned her MA in Library and Information Studies from Northern Illinois University.
- Workshop: Designing Resilient Library Services: A Workshop on Resilience Engineering for Librarians

Margaret Banka (she/her) is a early career health sciences librarian at the University of Manitoba's Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library. As a learner teaching other learners, recognizing the familiar flash of discovery on a student's face seasons her teaching practice with humility. Her first year serving as a liaison librarian was filled with excitement, lessons, and opportunity, and she looks forward to exploring the interests that emerged during this formative period of time.
- Lightning Talk: Integrating Indigenous Ways of Knowing with citation guidelines in Canadian health sciences libraries: an environmental scan
- Lightning Talk: Supporting physician assistant students: a search template for success
Marilia is a health sciences librarian.
- Paper: Stronger Together: Adventures in Instruction and Resource Sharing to Cultivate Aspiring Nursing Students

Mark Mueller is a librarian with the Saskatchewan Health Authority Clinical Library and the co-chair of the Library of Search Strategies Resources interest group. He is also the co-chair of the CHLA/ABSC Standing Standards Committee and the Education Coordinator for the Saskatchewan health Libraries Association. He earned his MLIS from Western University and his Honour's BA from the University of Toronto.
- Poster: Library of Search Strategy Resources (LSSR): bringing together search resources for literature searching

Melissa Caines is a settler and the Library Services, Manager at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM). She has a BA Hons in Germanic and Gender Studies from Rutgers University, a research MLitt in Germanic Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and a Library Technician Diploma from Snəw̓eyəɬ leləm (Langara College). Currently, she is an MLIS candidate at University of Alberta and the Vice President/President Elect of the Health Library Association of British Columbia (HLABC). At CCNM Melissa works collaboratively and interdepartmentally to support curriculum and research, ensuring students and faculty have access to current evidence-based resources.
- Lightning Talk: Reparative Description and Classification in Medical Libraries
- Paper: Developing a Scaffolded Learning Framework for Librarians new to Health Sciences

Melissa Severn is a Customer Success Manager at DistillerSR. She has 20 years of experience as an Information Specialist conducting literature searches for systematic reviews and health technology assessments. Her interests include grey literature searching and the use of artificial intelligence for evidence synthesis. She holds a MISt degree from the University of Toronto.
- Poster: A fork in the road: Machine learning classifier or methodological search filter to identify systematic reviews?
- Paper: Evaluating the performance of broad and narrow search strategies when using machine learning-based software for title/abstract screening
- Workshop: Data for Decision Making: What Data do Information Professionals need for Effective Service Delivery, Advocacy, Planning and Professional Development?

- Paper: The involvement of librarians and library technicians in knowledge syntheses published by researchers from Quebec universities: an overview

Nan Bai is a knowledge management specialist at the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), where she provides database management and research services to facilitate evidence-based decision making and optimal utilization of organizational knowledge in support of the CMA’s strategic plan. She is a seasoned health librarian with over 18 years of experience.
- Lightning Talk: Development of a full-text search strategy for CMAJ’s scoping review on content about First Nations, Inuit and Métis people and anti-Indigenous racism
- Lightning Talk: The Check Tag Cliff: a rapid evaluation of check tags over time in Medline
- Poster: Still a filtering failure? Automated indexing using MTIX versus MTIA and its impact on human study filtering for knowledge synthesis
Nicole Capdarest-Arest, MA(LIS), AHIP is Deputy University Librarian and Associate University Librarian for Research & Learning at UC Davis. She advances library initiatives supporting research, education, clinical care, and public engagement. Her research focuses on leadership, and innovative services enhancing student success and research impact. With prior roles at Stanford University, the University of Arizona, and as a consultant, she brings an adaptive approach to library leadership.
- Workshop: Designing Resilient Library Services: A Workshop on Resilience Engineering for Librarians
Rachael Bradshaw, MLIS, MAS, is a Reference Librarian at the University of British Columbia and the coordinator for library support for UBC’s distributed rehabilitation programs. Her special interests include pedagogy and advocating for the expertise of librarians to improve knowledge synthesis work. She is currently serving as the secretary of the Health Libraries Association of British Columbia.
- Lightning Talk: Repair Cafe: A Space for Community and Climate Action at UBC’s Woodward Library
- Poster: Distributed Librarianship: Supporting UBC’s Rehabilitation Students Across BC

- Poster: Effect of citation numbers and team members on the likelihood of and time needed to complete screening for systematic and scoping reviews
- Paper: Anything you can do, AI can do better... Or can it? Comparing ChatGPT's Search Strategy Outputs with Cochrane Review Searches
- Paper: Optimizing Communication and Data Collection for a Systematic Review Team Using Microsoft Power Automate®
Renée de Gannes-Marshall is leading the development and implementation of a new knowledge management and strategic research program at the Canadian Medical Association. She has worked in health libraries for more than 15 years and is the President of the Ottawa Valley Health Library Association.
- Lightning Talk: Development of a full-text search strategy for CMAJ’s scoping review on content about First Nations, Inuit and Métis people and anti-Indigenous racism
Rina Garcia Chua (she/her/siya) is a creative and critical scholar from the Philippines. She was a 2022-2023 Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, a 2023 Affective Currents Institute Fellow at Dartmouth College, and she received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia Okanagan, where she currently manages the Academic Integrity Matters (AIM) Program.
- Workshop: Contextualizing Generative AI Tools and Academic Integrity in Health Research Literacy

Robin Parker, PhD MLIS, is the Evidence Synthesis Librarian for Dalhousie Libraries in Nova Scotia, Canada where she also supports research and learning for Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine. Robin recently completed an Interdisciplinary PhD at Dalhousie, using sociomateriality and qualitative research approaches to study how librarians teach evidence synthesis methods in online settings. Robin has supported hundreds of review projects and has collaborated on a meta-ethnography regarding the experiences of students who are underrepresented in undergraduate medical education. Robin has been involved with comprehensive searching and evidence syntheses for 15 years.
- Workshop: Getting comfortable with context: An introductory qualitative research methods workshop
- Panel: Developing, Validating, and Using Search Filters to Retrieve Evidence Related to Specific Populations
- Panel: Developing, Validating, and Using Search Filters to Retrieve Evidence Related to Specific Populations

Romney Adams is a Learning Specialist at DistillerSR, responsible for planning and delivering Instructor-Led training to customers on all aspects of the platform - including our AI Classifier capabilities. She also designs and develops Self-Paced courses housed in DistillerSR Learn, the company's customer-facing LMS. Prior to joining DistillerSR, Romney worked for many years as a Liaison Librarian at Monash University, one of Australia's largest research institutions - so is no stranger to Systematic Reviews!
- Poster: A fork in the road: Machine learning classifier or methodological search filter to identify systematic reviews?

- Paper: Search Strategies as Research Data: New Perspectives on Documentation and Sharing Practices

- Roundtable Session: Birds of a Feather: Strategies, Challenges, and Lessons Learned in Proactive Outreach in Hospital Libraries

Sandra McKeown is a Health Sciences Librarian at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where her main liaison areas are postgraduate medicine and public health sciences. Prior to becoming an academic librarian in 2016, she spent eight years working as a hospital librarian at London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ontario. Sandra has over 15 years of experience supporting knowledge synthesis activities and led the development of a formalized knowledge synthesis library service at Queen’s. She advocates for high quality synthesis methods and reporting in her role at Queen’s and has presented and published on various systematic review topics at local and international conferences. Scholarly profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2728-6702 Email: sandra.mckeown@queensu.ca
- Paper: The development of a freely available module series introducing researchers to all stages of the systematic review process
- Paper: Artificial Intelligence-Supported Screening: Does it Impact Evidence Certainty and Time to Complete a Rapid Review?
- Paper: Promoting the use of Synthesized Evidence in Public Health Decision Making: A Rapid Evidence Service and Repository of Public Health Evidence Syntheses

- Lightning Talk: Who's hot, who's not: changes to literature search requestors over time

Suzanne Fricke is a medical librarian at the Washington State University Health Sciences Library in Spokane, WA. She provides teaching, reference and evidence synthesis services for the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.
- Lightning Talk: Librarian roles in environmental sustainability: update of a strategic plan

Talia Greene (she/her) is the Learning & Curriculum Support Librarian at the University of British Columbia - Okanagan.
- Workshop: Contextualizing Generative AI Tools and Academic Integrity in Health Research Literacy
- Paper: Where Did the Reviews Go?: The Good, the Bad, and the Unfinished
- Roundtable Session: Birds of a Feather: Strategies, Challenges, and Lessons Learned in Proactive Outreach in Hospital Libraries

Tyler Ostapyk is a liaison librarian with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Virtual Library at the University of Manitoba.
- Lightning Talk: Compounding Drugs Data: Introducing a Drug Terms Tool for Knowledge Synthesis Projects
- Poster: Still a filtering failure? Automated indexing using MTIX versus MTIA and its impact on human study filtering for knowledge synthesis
- Lightning Talk: Who's hot, who's not: changes to literature search requestors over time
I am currently an Adjunct Professor at Western University, a Research Associate at London Health Sciences Centre, and a Part-Time Assistant Professor at McMaster University. My expertise spans health research methodology, clinical epidemiology, and guideline methodology for various international organizations. Previously, I served as a Cochrane Information Specialist for ten years and a Managing Editor for four years for the Cochrane Gut group. Before immigrating to Canada, I worked as a Gastroenterologist in China for seven years.
- Lightning Talk: Lack of Involvement of Medical Librarians/Information Specialists in Systematic Reviews Submitted to a High-Ranking Medical Journal: Insights from an Editorial Board Member & Reviewer
- Lightning Talk: Who's hot, who's not: changes to literature search requestors over time

- Paper: Where Did the Reviews Go?: The Good, the Bad, and the Unfinished

Zahra B. Kamarei (Zary), MLA, AHIP is the Director of Library Services for Taylor Health Sciences Library at the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education since July 1, 2020. Prior to this position she worked as the Director of Science and Engineering Libraries at the University of Rochester, and Director of Science Libraries at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before assuming leadership role in science libraries, she was a science librarian at the University of Notre Dame, Isfahan University of Technology, and UNC- Chapel Hill.
- Paper: Developing a Scaffolded Learning Framework for Librarians new to Health Sciences
- Lightning Talk: Cleaning up duplicate clinical trial records like a pro
- Poster: Distributed Librarianship: Supporting UBC’s Rehabilitation Students Across BC
- Poster: Finding the S (studies) before the R (reports) in SRs of intervention effects
- Poster: How on EARTH do you assess Risk of Bias in information retrieval studies? We didn’t know either, so we drafted a tool
- Lightning Talk: Documenting the Shift: How Researchers Report Generative AI in Search Methodologies for Evidence Synthesis