[Skip to Content]
Visit us on Facebook Visit us on FacebookVisit us on Linked In Visit us on Linked InVisit us on Twitter Visit us on TwitterVisit us on Facebook Visit us on InstagramVisit our RSS Feed View our RSS Feed
Region 5 Blog March 28th, 2024
CategoriesCategoriesCategories Contact UsContact Us ArchivesArchives Region/OfficeRegion SearchSearch

Oct

19

Date prong graphic

Old Dog, New Tricks

Posted by on October 19th, 2012 Posted in: News From NNLM PNR


On October 1, 2012 I was thrilled to accept reassignment as Public Health Outreach Coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Region.  I had served as the Consumer Health Outreach Coordinator since January of 2003, and was ready to take the skill set and relationships I have built in that position in a new direction. I have always had a heart for Public Health.  While in library school I took a Health Services class as an elective from the School of Public health and found it fascinating.

I also did my Directed Fieldwork experience with Neil Rambo while he was on leave from the NN/LM PNR and working at the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice.  My project was to contribute web pages (a new-ish concept at the time!)  to a portal site that contained information about commonly-encoutered infectious diseases.  I was hooked!  Another experience I had was to take the Medical Informatics Short Course at Stanford University where several of the attendees were participants in the Public Health Informatics Fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  It was great to interact with them and hear about their experiences – their enthusiasm certainly rubbed off on me.

Upon graduating from library school, however, I decided to focus on general medical librarianship to start.  I had worked as a social worker in long-term care for 15 years and determined that it made sense to apply my background in the health care environment to my new career.  I worked in a temporary appointment here at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library and served as co-liaison with Janet Schnall to the School of Nursing and also was liaison to the OB/GYN and Nutrition departments.  But, the appointment was temporary, so I had to move on and landed next at Highline Community College Library where I was the Director of Circulation Services for a year and a half.  Medical librarianship was calling me back, though, and I saw the opportunity at NN/LM for the Consumer Health Coordinator position. It was a perfect fit for me!  I have developed wonderful relationships in the position and have learned so much about outreach to a variety of audiences who need access to quality health information and to improve health literacy in their communities.

Fast forward to the present (well, almost!).  Earlier this year, I had the privilege of attending the Biomedical Informatics Course at the Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole.  What a treat to hear from experts from across the country about current projects and trends in Informatics.  I was smitten by hearing about Public Health Informatics and about Semantic MEDLINE in particular.  My enthusiasm about Public Health and Informatics was re-fueled!

Thanks to the responsiveness of Cathy Burroughs and Tania Bardyn, we were able to craft a plan for me to step into this new role.  I will be reaching out to some new audiences (such as the Washington State Public Health Association where I was just exhibiting earlier this week), but also working with groups with which I have interacted in my Consumer Health role too.  The Northwest Parish Nurse Ministries is one example.  I will also carry forward my lead role in Emergency Preparedness and Response activities in the Pacific Northwest Region, which will entail reaching out the Public Health Responders.  And, of course, I would love to hear from you, our Network Members, about any ideas you have!

Image of the author ABOUT nwsoadmin
The NNLM Web Services Office (NWSO) is responsible for developing and maintaining reliable Web services for NNLM in compliance with the US Department of Health & Human Services information policies. NWSO is committed to providing network members with the information resources they need.

Email author Visit author's website View all posts by
Developed resources reported in this program are supported by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH) under cooperative agreement number UG4LM012343 with the University of Washington.

NNLM and NETWORK OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE are service marks of the US Department of Health and Human Services | Copyright | HHS Vulnerability Disclosure | Download PDF Reader