Supporting Change: A Social Work Librarian’s Perspective

Posted by Carolyn Martin on October 6th, 2025 Posted in: Guest Post, Medical Librarians, News from Network Members, News from NNLM Region 5
Tags: librarian roles, medical librarian, Medical Librarians Month

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October is National Medical Librarians Month and to celebrate, NNLM Region 5 has invited guest blog posts from the medical librarians in our region. We thank Leah DeSantis, Social Work and Research Impact Librarian at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, for sharing her journey in the medical library profession.

I’m Leah DeSantis (she/her) and I’m the Social Work and Research Impact Librarian at the University of Washington.

My interest in being a librarian has a lot to do with where I grew up and how I was raised. I grew up in a small town with fundamentalist ideology playing a central role in my childhood education. Because I had restricted access to information, this experience instilled a desire to help others find and access reliable and evidence-based information.

As an undergraduate student majoring in Sociology, I conducted research on social protest at the US Social Forum in Detroit in 2010 and have since been committed and passionate about social justice issues. After graduating from the MLIS program in 2021, I started as a temporary librarian at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library where I have had a few roles including planning the grand opening of the Li Lu Library and supporting the school of Public Health.

When the Social Work librarian position opened last year, I knew that supporting the important research of Social Workers would be a great fit with my experience and passion. During these challenging times, I admire the strength and resilience of Social Work students, researchers, and faculty who are doing challenging work when our society needs them the most. I’m so excited to work with them this year and support student learning and research.

Another key part of my new role involves research impact. This includes using tools like Web of Science, Google Scholar, Publish or Perish, and OpenAlex to analyze and understand citation metrics and other ways of measuring and showing a researcher’s contributions for tenure and promotion.

I’m excited to grow in this position, learning more every day and making connections that will carry on throughout my career. Thank you NNLM Region 5 for the vital work you do to support me and other Health Sciences librarians.