As many of us know, it\u2019s medical librarian month, and a colleague said to me, \u201cYou\u2019ve had a pretty winding career path\u2014 you should write a post about it!\u201d \u00a0So, here goes…<\/p>\n
My first medical librarian connection wasn\u2019t officially as a librarian at all, but as the data request epidemiologist for Public Health – Seattle & King County. \u00a0People from all walks of life and for all sorts of purposes would contact me to get help with finding data… and those consultations included teaching, consulting, exploring, and sometimes a lot of laughter. \u00a0From the gentleman who wanted to know his own life expectancy (luckily he had 10 more years) to other health departments who wanted analytic software trainings, the work was never dull! But it also didn\u2019t generate revenue for the health department, so as that job contracted, I looked for ways to keep connecting with people around their information needs.<\/p>\n
Reader, I went to library school! And loved it! \u00a0What took me so long? \u00a0But also, how could it take so long to find a job? \u00a0Because I needed to stay in Seattle, I was ready to take any librarian job, but was really glad when a medically-focused one opened up at Group Health (now Kaiser Permanente- Washington). \u00a0 The three years I spent there were invaluable and exciting\u2014 I got good at clinical searching, I came to understand the information clinicians needed and the constraints they operate under, and I also managed a small library as a solo librarian, with two amazing staff members who were its lifeblood. \u00a0I didn\u2019t think a first job as a solo was a great idea, but if you work with the right people and if they are open to teaching you (and you are open to learning) it actually can be a great way to start.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, they started laying off workers, and a library reorganization did occur, which led me to my next job, at The Seattle Public Library. \u00a0All consumers, all the time! \u00a0I dove into consumer health with glee, and really enjoyed it. \u00a0 I was able to create a staff intranet page with information to help staff who got questions from patrons about what the ACA was, how to enroll, etc. (the first year had been chaotic for everyone, so it was a time to integrate lessons learned). \u00a0I also preached the gospel of MedlinePlus.gov to anyone who would listen, hosted programs, and absorbed the public library world\u2019s quirky and intense vibe. \u00a0I imagined myself there for the long term, but then I saw the announcement for my current job, and said a long OHHHHHH out loud\u2014it looked as though it was written for me, connecting my data geek past and my librarian present.<\/p>\n
Now I am an outreach librarian for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (I also call myself a meta-librarian, since I am a librarian for librarians!). \u00a0I work to promote the resources of the NLM across a five-state region, which means I travel, teach, craft blog posts and Facebook posts and tweets, edit Wikipedia, and more. \u00a0The best part is that learning is built into this job, and as a life-long learner I revel in being able to take classes in everything from graphic medicine to genetics. \u00a0So, in the end, although my path seems winding and a little bit unfocused, it was the natural result of following my (librarianship) nose. \u00a0I have also found that Allen Smith was right when he said: \u201cIn order to be really good as a librarian, everything counts towards your work, every play you go see, every concert you hear, every trip you take, everything you read, everything you know. I don\u2019t know of another occupation like that. The more you know, the better you\u2019re going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
P.S.\u00a0 This picture<\/a> is not of me!\u00a0 But I like her intensity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As many of us know, it\u2019s medical librarian month, and a colleague said to me, \u201cYou\u2019ve had a pretty winding career path\u2014 you should write a post about it!\u201d \u00a0So, here goes… My first medical librarian connection wasn\u2019t officially as a librarian at all, but as the data request epidemiologist for Public Health – Seattle… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":16608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[118,119,117,60,93],"class_list":["post-16607","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-career","tag-consumer-health","tag-medical-librarian","tag-medical-librarians-month","tag-outreach"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/10\/MedicalLibrarianPhoto.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16607"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16629,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16607\/revisions\/16629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![This picture<\/a> is not of me!\u00a0 But I like her intensity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As many of us know, it\u2019s medical librarian month, and a colleague said to me, \u201cYou\u2019ve had a pretty winding career path\u2014 you should write a post about it!\u201d \u00a0So, here goes… My first medical librarian connection wasn\u2019t officially as a librarian at all, but as the data request epidemiologist for Public Health – Seattle… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":16608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[118,119,117,60,93],"class_list":["post-16607","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-career","tag-consumer-health","tag-medical-librarian","tag-medical-librarians-month","tag-outreach"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/10\/MedicalLibrarianPhoto.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16607"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16629,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16607\/revisions\/16629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Librarian_accessing_pdq.jpg\"){kind=link}