Dear Readers, Getting to Know You features interviews with FHSLA members on their roles and thoughts on the field of library science. This month we talk to Stephanie Harris at Advent Health in Orlando, FL. We would love to feature you in our next spot. Please email us at fhslanews@gmail.com for more information. -Tim & Janet ![]() What is your current role in the library field? I recently transitioned to a research scientist role in the Center for Whole-Person and Nursing Research at AdventHealth. Prior to that, I was an embedded research librarian within those departments. I find that I use my librarian skills and knowledge to inform my job on a daily basis, so although I’m not in a traditional library setting, I still FEEL like a librarian. Do you have a specialization or interest area within the library field? I particularly love working with nurses and understanding their information needs. What is your favorite library resource or program? I can’t imagine a day without PubMed! What is something happening in libraries now that you find exciting? I think that hearing the voices of BIPOC librarians, especially in academia, is a long overdue and exciting trend. A former co-worker of mine who now works at UNLV is deeply engaged in this work and I follow her social media very closely to try to keep my eyes and ears open. (@wonderbrarian). I also think that the ways that libraries have adapted to COVID-19 and changed the models of service just goes to show how adaptable and resilient libraries are. I’m really interested in library service in the COVID world. What is a change or innovation you would like to see come to libraries in the near future? I think it will be interesting to see how we can maintain the value of “library as place” in the wake of offering so many distance services with COVID. I am excited to see the innovations that come to bring people back to the library physically. Do you have any hobbies? I run a very small animal assistance organization in Central Florida. We raise money to help people with sick or injured pets. The goal is to keep the animal at home with a loving family rather than having it surrendered to overcrowded shelters or rescues. It’s my true passion to help animals and the people who love them. (Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: Family Forever Animal Foundation facebook.com/ffafanimals; @ffafanimals) I am currently reading or would like to read: I am currently reading The Alice Network and Children of Blood and Bone. You can contact Stephanie at Stephanie.Harris@adventhealth.com OR stephielibrarian@gmail.com Dear readers, welcome to our first member submitted post. Mary approached us as a new author of a peer reviewed article and we felt that readers who have never published before would benefit from hearing about her experiences. We welcome submissions of topic proposals, guest essays, and other content you feel should be highlighted and is of high relevance to FHSLA members. Send us your ideas to fhslanews@gmail.com. We hope that you find Mary's experiences as interesting and enlightening as we did and like Mary we also encourage future first time authors to seek publication if inspiration strikes. - Janet & Tim ![]() Hello FHSLA members -- This past January a professor and I published an article titled: “Assessing Information Literacy Skills and Library Anxiety of First-Year Occupational Therapy Graduate Students” in the Journal of Occupational Therapy Education. I am new to publishing and I would like to share my journey from an idea to journal publication. Here is a short background that led to the article -- I had a “research idea” and connected with one of the professors in our Occupational Therapy Department. I currently work at a small university where we serve mostly allied health students. I presented the idea and thankfully the professor was excited and jumped on board. I wanted to know if graduate students who attended a research consultation (one-to-one) with a librarian would feel more comfortable with library research. We discussed the idea and tweaked it to include measuring library anxiety. We began our research with one of her classes in Fall 2018. After gathering data, we presented our findings in a poster at the 2019 American Occupational Therapy Assn Conference. That was very exciting and a great experience to speak with other Occupational Therapists. I promoted working with librarians to help students learn information literacy skills and help reduce the students’ library anxiety. I had some great conversations. Our provost encouraged us to consider publishing in The Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, she happens to be an OT. We decided to gather additional data with a second class in Fall 2019 before writing an article. In Spring 2020, I applied to present a poster with our additional data at the 2020 Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students Conference to be held in Tennessee and was accepted. Unfortunately, COVID-19 occurred, and the conference was cancelled. The professor and I worked on the article diligently during 2019 and 2020. We had set meetings on our calendar during this period for article writing and editing time. The article went through the peer-review process. This was not a fast process and I had always heard this. We started with an editor prior to submission. We submitted the article and many months (about 3 or 4) passed before we heard anything. Then each editor (there were several) had their suggested changes and helped improve the article. Several weeks passed between each edit so again be aware this takes time. If we had a question we could ask, but overall, we accepted the editor’s suggestions. I admire those who edit. I really see that publishing takes mental energy and perseverance. Finally, the article was ready for publication. I am grateful for Dr. Moghimi saying “yes” to my research idea and guiding me through the article research process. I would like to encourage anyone interested in publishing to connect with someone and write an article together. I know many in academic libraries have publishing requirements for rank promotion. What I learned is taking one small step and connecting with another person can sure blossom into many wonderful experiences. My advice --- “Go for it.” Suggestions and tips:
Check out Mary's article in the Journal of Occupational Therapy Education.
Moghimi, C., & Rickelman, M. C. (2021). Assessing Information Literacy Skills and Library Anxiety of First-Year Occupational Therapy Graduate Students. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 5 (1). Retrieved from https://encompass.eku.edu/jote/vol5/iss1/4 Greetings FHSLA members! Planning for the 2021 Annual Meeting is well underway. We are excited to announce that this year's meeting will feature a virtual poster session. Participants will present their posters on Thursday April 22nd. We are looking for posters on any research or work projects you have completely recently. Do you have a poster that you will be presenting at MLA, ACRL or another conference? This will be a great opportunity to get a little practice presenting before the big meeting!
Submissions are due no later than April 9th. Please send submissions and any questions to Angie Novak, anovak@tgh.org and/or Tara Brigham, brigham.tara@mayo.edu Thank you and we look forward to seeing your submissions! ![]() Welcome to the new FHSLA blog To improve our communication to you, our members, we are moving away from the newsletter format to this blog where our aim will be to make information easily accessed and to have that information reach you quickly. We will be publishing relevant news for health sciences library professionals, showcasing notable work from our members, and keeping you up to date with organization news. We are also interested in hearing from you about the sorts of topics you want to see more of or want to share with your fellow members. Send your submission proposals to FHSLAnews@gmail.com. Meet your editors: Janet Chan I am currently a student at the University of South Florida in my last semester of the MLIS program. I have also completed a graduate certificate in Health Information. My undergraduate degree is in Nursing and I have 10 years experience working as an RN in perioperative services. I found my love of librarianship while volunteering in a library and am excited to embark on a new career supporting the information needs of healthcare providers and consumers. ![]() Tim Kircher As of this writing, I am a new graduate of the University of South Florida MLIS program and a new librarian at State College of Florida. I have previously worked in a local emergency room in a non-credentialed role providing support for patients under a safety hold. This experience gave me a deep appreciation for the work that healthcare providers do and that was under “normal” aka pre-2020 circumstances. Working in the library, I see the dedication of healthcare students and look forward to supporting them. |
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