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Posted by fsteele on May 28th, 2025
Posted in: Uncategorized
When I began my MLIS program, I never realized how excited I would be by the world of health science librarianship– my internship in an academic health library sparked my curiosity, and my recent experience at the 2025 MLA conference ignited enthusiasm. Through my internship with Duquesne University, I was able to volunteer on Thursday and Friday in exchange for a Wednesday day-pass and engage in immersion sessions and paper talks, as well as walk around the hall of exhibits talking to journal vendors and reading research posters. As I’d spent the last several months building my foundations in health science librarianship, it was thrilling to see the subjects I’d been working on come to life at such a large scale and to start to imagine my place among the work and research of health science libraries.
Coming from an English undergraduate education, I’ve only recently begun practicing research in the library and information science discipline. Having the opportunity to hear researchers discuss their work and ask them questions expanded my understanding of the breadth of what can be made the business of passionate librarians. From addressing health disparity to data management to leadership development, I was able to see a little bit of everything. At grad school within my MLIS courses, we’d discussed the many research methods available to us, and emphasized the importance of fit between method and research question. Therefore, besides enjoying the breadth of research questions, I benefited from seeing the different questions matched to different methods, like seeing my new vocabulary words strung together into different sentences. Spending the day engaging in such a variety of health science librarianship research helped contextualize what I’m learning in grad school and build my preparedness for my own future research.
Most encouraging was seeing research which related to my classroom research interests– and discovering that it was happening at my own university. Rebekah Miller, Sera Thornton, and Theresa Koleck from University of Pittsburgh were presenting on asynchronous modules they were developing to help nurses address misinformation with patients and colleagues, a topic almost identical to what I had studied in my research methods class. I was able to approach them after their presentation and compare their process to my own– alternately discovering areas where I could improve and discovering areas where I’d been on the right track. Now that I’ve been able to connect with them, I hope to meet with them again in the future to learn more about their work.
Later, when it came time to walk around the exhibit hall, I was nervous and unsure what questions to ask at first, but I quickly realized this was an opportunity to learn about databases and other information technology that I didn’t normally have access to in the universities I interned and studied at. When I graduate and find full-time work, who knows what databases or technology my future job will subscribe to? Gaining familiarity with a wide variety of health science library resources will, I hope, allow me to confidently jump into whatever my next health science library job brings.
The next two days volunteering at the hospitality desk, though less eventful, were an opportunity to talk with those sitting at the volunteer table with me, reflect on my experiences at the conference, and imagine the places I could go next in my career. I’d sparked a greater curiosity about research, learned about a variety of library resources, and met many people I plan to reach out to, including former interns who’d worked where I currently intern. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to attend MLA and engage with the health science world, and look forward to future conference experiences.
This post was written by Jamie Kojiro, current MLIS student at the University of Pittsburgh and a Health Science Library intern at Duquesne University.
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