No Job’s too Big, No Job’s too Small for Hospital Librarian Basia Delawska-Elliott!

Posted by Carolyn Martin on October 30th, 2024 Posted in: Guest Post, News from Network Members
Tags: librarian roles, Medical Librarians Month

---

October is National Medical Librarians Month. Region 5 is celebrating by highlighting some of the wonderful medical librarians in our region. We end the month with this guest post from one of our Oregon colleagues.

When I was preparing for a presentation on library services and resources to the Integrative Medicine department, I realized that 20+ years ago I did all the literature searching to support a grant application that helped start the department. I still remember when a colleague from the Foundation came to the library to let me know the grant application was successful and a celebration that followed. The department started with one physician and one nurses in a single office in one of the Providence hospitals in the Portland area, now it’s a thriving service with two locations, and staffed with naturopathic physicians, acupuncturists, massage therapists, etc. And it happens to be right across the hallway from where I now work. I see patients coming and going all the time, and I see the service thrive. The realization that I had a small role in that success made me remember one of the things I love about hospital librarianship – that we get to work closely with many different hospital groups – administrators, clinicians, research teams, social workers, therapists, security and more, and that the work we do supports all aspects of the care provided at the hospital and hospital operations. I hadn’t always felt that way and I didn’t always appreciate hospital librarianship.

Like many people in the field, I am an accidental librarian. Academic library work just happened to be the first job I was able to get when I first arrived in the Unites States. I continued working in academic libraries as a library technician as I moved – working first in technical services managing approval plans, then in public services supervising serials and microforms services.

Coming from an academic library background and the very specific roles everyone held at large libraries, I found the hospital library environment downright quaint at first. I may have even been a bit indignant at having to perform mundane tasks, such as reshelving materials. But I quickly adapted and realized that working in a hospital library was like running a small business – you had to learn every aspect of the job. That meant shelving, but also learning key resources in each area, finding out about new technologies, and figuring out how the library can support clinical and business needs, literally everything it takes for a hospital library to function and succeed. I embraced becoming a generalist.

So, what have I been able to do as a hospital librarian? I have had a chance to be a clinical librarian, an education librarian, a research librarian, an outreach librarian, a scholarly communications librarian, an acquisitions librarian, a collection development librarian, a vendor liaison, a website designer, a webmaster, and an electronic resource administrator. I have done marketing and outreach, and have served on organizational committees and councils. I have also done document delivery and helped patrons with computer problems. And yes, I have dusted. I think this covers it, though I may be forgetting things.

While I started as a technician at one stationary library supporting 4 hospitals, I am now a librarian on an amazing team of 12, supporting 52 hospitals, 1100 clinics, long-term care facilities, and more.

As the environment around me changed I have had an opportunity to do many exciting things, like help create an external website for the library (Providence Library Services) advocate for an institutional repository or develop and teach system-wide continuing education classes. I have been fortunate to have a library director, who supports collaboration, creativity, and innovation.

But while being part of a dynamic, geographically diverse team is exciting, I enjoy the fact that I still get to work closely with my local patrons. I work on patient care, evidence-based practice, research, and educational projects. I am always in awe of how hard everyone at our hospitals works to improve patient care and the patient experience of care.

One of my favorite experiences was traveling to a Magnet conference with a team of our nurses, when Providence St. Vincent got their 5th Magnet designation (they now have 6 Magnets!). I was invited to participate because of the work I had done with nursing leadership to build a flourishing nursing evidence-based practice and research environment. As I walked with the team across the stage to accept the award, I shared in their joy and reflected on my role as a librarian. I am proud to support our clinical, research, and administration teams. I am proud to see that my work makes a difference.

Cheers to all of my fellow library people for the great work you are doing! Happy National Medical Librarians Month!