How to know when you've really made it in your profession: when a student interviews you

Seems like only yesterday I was talking to people 'in the field' myself. Wow. That's the biggest shocker I've had since the high school students called me "Miss". Just in case this could possibly help any other students out there...
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1. What is your educational background?

I received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kentucky in 1989. My majors were: History, Sociology, and Honours Programme (that's basically Humanities). Then I worked on a history grad degree for awhile. Went through a divorce and switched to library science, pushed through in a year, earning a Masters of Science in Library Science (MSLS) from UK in 1993 (planning to be an academic cataloguer). Unfortunately I graduated during a bad budget year with lots of hiring freezes, and could not leave the area. So after a semester of selling bagels I went back to school, finished another undergraduate major (Classical Civilisation), a minor (Judaic Studies), and worked more on the History grad degree. I basically need to take qualifying exams and finish a dissertation for a phD in History (emphasis on ancient/mediaeval), although frankly I'm not sure I'll finish--I'm (finally) a bit tired of school. I'm also one annoying class short of an undergraduate Linguistics major, but it's only taught during the day.

2. How long have you been a medical librarian?

Six years.

3. How many staff members does the library have?

Just me. Manager. Grunt. Solo. :) Occasionally I may have a student from the local high school's experiential learning group do some shelving or even some database work for me.

4. Do you or anyone else there ever make hospital rounds with the doctors?

No. But then I'm not sure if we really have 'normal' rounds. We're a small hospital (50 beds). We have 6 attending physicians and 5 residents.

5. Who are your most frequent user groups?

Residents, nurse mangers, nursing students, family members, attendings, research, motion lab, physical therapy, dietician , administration

6. To what extent does the hospital staff make use of the library services?

Well, most of the people I see are actually using the photocopier, but...we have a broad customer range. I've taken the library from a sort of 'doctor-only' business to one where anyone is comfortable coming in. I had people working on their GEDs or people from non-clinical areas ask about a diagnosis. The bulk is still the resident/student use, though. The place is usually hopping from the time I come in to, say three, and then it starts to slow down. The most crucial services involve acquiring articles through interlibrary loan (we use the National Network of Libraries of Medicine's DOCLINE--www.docline.gov) and literature searches.

7. What are some of the current challenges the the library faces?

For the first time in the history of organisation, we're facing a budget crunch. We are not only non-profit, we provide free care to the kids who come here for treatment. Everything is paid for by the Shriners fraternity. That makes us pretty unique in the world of health care. But much of that is based on investments, and with the market the way it is it's forced everyone to be careful with money. With the way subscriptions go up every year, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep all the journals we subscribe to at the moment (about 60).

8....and some of the current trends?

I've seen the attendings take a more active role in the library, especially through the library committee. Now that they have a library that is more than just a collection with an occasional secretary, they are buying into a sort of library ownership. Also, we recently opened a family resource centre so I'm seeing more patients and their families searching for information. That opens up the whole idea of library promotion. I've slowly marketed my abilities to the staff over the years I've been here (mainly by working librarian magic, participating in teams, open houses, etc.) But to market to the public is something entirely different. Most of the staff know where the library is (even if they've never been here). The public have to be educated from the ground up.

9. What changes would you like to see in your library and/or its services?

Well, I'm pretty happy with the scope of service. I did suspend table of contents service for awhile and after checking up on some of the copyright issues, etc., I think I may start it up again. I'd like to get our catalogue onto proposed intranet, along with a promoting page with links, info, etc. I'm just now getting around to some of the essential behind-the-scenes stuff like solidifying policy and coming up with a preservation/disaster plan addressing the collection.

10. We've been talking about Evidence-Based Medicine and the role of an Informationist in class. Any thoughts on how these concepts apply to your environment?

There is certainly an expectation for the residents to research the conditions they're treating. Most of the attendings subscribe to various core journals as part of their professional memberships, so I don't have as clear idea of how they incorporate their research into their practice. Nurses, however, are very big into researching standards of care based on reliable evidence. Certainly most of my interlibrary loan requests stem from a desire to practice evidence-based medicine, even if no one particularly calls it that here (I've only heard the term in school and library literature. I know it exists outside that, but I've never heard it here).

11. How has the Internet changed the way your library "does business"?

When I first came here we searched MEDLINE using a dialup connexion straight to MEDLARS and the National Library of Medicine. Interlibrary loans were tedious, through Grateful Med. Now we not only have PubMed, we have the DOCLINE interface for which uses PubMed to find an article and then allows you to order directly from within the search. It has made my life a thousand times easier. No more looking up our local consortium holdings in a paper directory and faxing off ALA request forms. Also, with DOCLINE we also participate in a reciprocal lending group called FreeShare which means I can borrow from all over the place and am much less likely to get charged for an article. It's like having the world opened.

Originally if someone came in looking for info on cancer or things outside our purview (we're a paediatric orthopaedic facility), I could only send them to a more general hospital or the public library. Now I can find loads of decent information online (and teach them how to tell the difference between good and poor information).

It's also helped me expand my role. I'm the acknowledged Internet expert in the hospital--they'll call me no matter what they're searching, and I've given classes and individual instruction in how to deal with the Web.

12. Any other thoughts and comments you'd like to share are most welcome!

Medical librarianship is one of the most challenging and rewarding careers I think anyone could choose. I sort of fell into it--a lot of us do. I probably spent the first year just trying to stay afloat. Most of us didn't take classes on it in school (I did after I got the job). Library programmes often emphasise the academic and ignore what else is out there. But where else can you make such a difference? When you know the information you're giving is being incorporated into patient care, there's a lot of responsibility, but a good feeling, too. When people come to me with their own diagnoses, or the diagnosis of a loved one, information can help with the anxiety involved. You have to be careful to make it clear you're not giving medical advice, of course. But sometimes just having someone who will listen to a concern and then help find a support group, some basic reliable information, or just someone who's willing to tell them that they need to take an active role in their healthcare and ask the doctor these questions, can help. The terminology, the acronyms, etc.--they all come with practice. But it's amazing how much you can change people's minds about what a library can do for them when you're their first link to information.

One thing that I would definitely recommend to anyone going from library school into a hospital environment, especially given that so many of us are solos, is to become involved in local consortia or other library groups. It really matters when you're managing things on your own and you don't have anyone else at the next desk to ask a question. A lot of adjustment for the librarian is learning about healthcare culture--the accreditation surveys, the fact that most people won't even know what you do, etc. Your supervisors aren't normally librarians--they're nurses and administrators. It makes a difference. You find you have to justify decisions that would seem obvious to a librarian--but you also have to think out why you do things the way you do as a consequence.

I really had to work to not be seen as a secretary/bulletin board lady. Yeah. Really. But as a result I deal not just with medical librarianship, but consumer health, patient education, and an early literacy programme where we give books to children 6 mos. to 5 years old. So flexibility is a must.

Okay. It's lunch time. Who needs food? I'm on chapter 23 of Harry Potter. :)