2015 Medical Librarians Month Profile – Liisa Rogers

Posted by Patricia Devine on October 8th, 2015 Posted in: News from Network Members

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Our first NN/LM PNR Network member librarian profile is of Liisa Rogers, Sr. Research Library Manager at Healthwise in Boise, Idaho.

1. What is your library’s mission and who do you serve? The Healthwise Research Library is a strategically designed physical and virtual collection of tailored resources and services dedicated to meeting the research, bibliographic and knowledge organization needs of Healthwise staff, in support of the company mission to help people make better health decisions. We provide evidence-based medical research in support of our award-winning consumer health content, literature reviews for our researchers, and healthcare industry research in support of our internal intelligence and external advocacy. We consult throughout the company on bibliography best practices and how to use our Intranet for knowledge organization and presentation. We serve the writers, physicians and user experience staff who develop the content, along with researchers charged with documenting the impact of our products, executives writing white papers and presenting at conferences, as well as sales, product development and client services teams.

2. Is there a time when you made a difference or someone was grateful for your help you’d like to tell us about? There have been many times when the library’s research has helped our physicians and content developers make important decisions about additions, updates or improvements to our consumer health content, and that we have provided valuable data or literature to support a grant proposal, scope a new project or evaluate the market. Most recently, a project that has been challenging and fun for me is providing to the Board of Directors a quarterly report listing the publications authored by our board members and external medical editors. It’s amazing to see the number of publications authored by these Healthwise affiliates (up to 10 papers per quarter in some cases!), and it’s been rewarding to develop strategies for efficiently competing the searches and the final document.

3. What was your path to becoming a medical librarian? I was a clinical social worker for 14 years and loved many aspects of that work, including collecting books, handouts and other literature to help clients learn more about conditions. I’m a health and fitness “nut”, and was also brought up by a librarian and a college professor. So the lifelong learning bug was shared early and often. When it was time for “what’s next” after social work, medical librarianship was a natural fit. It’s been a great career for me – it allows me to use all my medical social work/healthcare experience along with new skills in searching, databases, web design, etc. I couldn’t be happier!

4. What would you like other NN/LM Network members to know about your job that they might not know? Healthwise is a non-profit company with 275 employees throughout the US, but the majority are on campus in Boise. We are supported in a number of healthy ways, including flexible work hours, a dog-friendly work environment, an extensive wellness program, and a beautiful building set in the foothills of Boise with a fitness room and trails outside the door. There are many smart, motivated people here who are passionate about our mission. Plus I couldn’t ask for better colleagues to work with on the Library Team. The three of us share a strong basic skillset but also possess unique experience areas such that we can triage the work easily and learn from each other. It’s fun!

We will continue to highlight our Network members through October and beyond. Please let us know if you would like to be profiled! No special accomplishments are required, we just want to share what you do. Contact Patricia Devine, devine@uw.edu or 206-543-8275.