Faces of NNLM Region 4: Allison Cruise

Posted in: Blog

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NAME

Allison Cruise

Title

Second Year National Library of Medicine Associate Fellow

Institution

University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center

Can you give us the elevator-speech rundown of your medical librarian career?

I was inspired to get my MLIS thanks to an experience working in a public library. While in my program at UNC Greensboro, a job posting came across the listserv for an internship at a nonprofit called NCBiotech, which serves North Carolina life science businesses. It sounded in line with my skills (and it paid) so I went for it!

While working there, a coworker decided to take a chance on me and let me handle a literature search on my own. I had never done one or had any training through my MLIS program or otherwise, but my coworker thought I could do it, and I did. That led to a role as an embedded librarian with a medical device manufacturer, which led to a keen interest in medical librarianship. When the very same listserv that led me to NCBiotech posted the NLM Associate Fellowship, I saw a chance to explore medical libraries in a safe and supportive environment. Thanks to support from former professors at UNC Greensboro and my coworkers at NCBiotech, I was accepted. Now I have the honor of joining UNM’s HSLIC for a year to focus on community engagement and outreach.

All of my opportunities and successes as a medical librarian have come from other librarians having confidence in me, and letting me take chances without fear. I am here because others opened the door for me, and I am so grateful for that. I hope I can do the same for others.

What are your research interests or top work activities?

I am interested in intentional, respectful community engagement and outreach. My focus is on addressing health inequities through engagement and outreach activities which meet community-identified needs like health literacy, promotion of and access to reliable health information resources (including consumer health resources), and awareness of partnerships, opportunities and services available from libraries and other community organizations.

I am also passionate about sharing information on librarianship as a career choice through encouragement, support, mentorship, and outreach.

What prompted you to become a medical librarian?

I felt that medical librarianship was the right place for me thanks to my research skills, passion for health and interest in medical literature and the medical field. I strive to be the best librarian I can be, and wanted to find a place where I could contribute meaningfully to the field. I also enjoy the work and have felt welcomed by the medical libraries’ community.

What is your favorite librarian tool?

I enjoy using GIS tools, especially those built with community health in mind, like the maps and other assessment tools built by The Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems at the University of Missouri. While these tools can never give us the full picture of our community or our community’s health needs, they are important and often enlightening data sources.

What do you think are the most important challenges that medical librarians face?

The lack of diversity in the field of librarianship as a whole is a major challenge. Until I fell into my internship, I never knew medical librarianship existed as a field, or that I could be a valuable voice in medical libraries without experience working in healthcare. We need more voices from all backgrounds – for representation, for equity, and for innovating and improving the quality of our scholarship and service overall.

We are also facing challenges of distrust in science, misinformation, and disinformation which is disproportionately affecting some of our most vulnerable populations. Clearly defining our role as medical librarians in addressing this challenge and moving forward in solidarity, while remaining compassionate and oriented to service, is an ongoing challenge which has taken a toll on the medical community as a whole.

Please tell us about an interaction with a library user that gave you a lot of satisfaction.

As an assistant in a public library, I was inspired at last to pursue my MLIS mostly due to my experiences when teaching a computer skills course. One of my patrons was so grateful for our time spent together in the course, she brought me a holiday ornament. I felt that I had made an impact with my service, and I will always hold that interaction as something near and dear to my heart!