Today I met with Mark who is a clinical support librarian. He helps clinicians to get information for patients, helps people use technology, create information on Cds, and restructures the PDA page on the Yale website. After getting a masters degree in anthropology, he went to China where he worked for 2 years. He came back and realized that anthropology was not for him, so he applied for a job at a library. He was really inspired by the staff who seemed to like what they did and decided to get his masters degree in library sciences at Southern University. He worked at Saint Francis Raphael Hospital for 13 years, and came in as clinical support librarian 9 years ag0.
A typical day for him varies from day. The most challenging thing about his job is dealing with competing demands, and not having enough time to do all of the basic work. He communicates with people through web pages, emails, periodic classes, etc. He says that for one to be curious, flexible, and willingness to be open are key traits in the job. Though what keeps him happy in his job is the satisfaction of helping people, feeling that he has accomplished something, and the recognition from the supervisors. Currently he is working on redoing the PDA pages on the Yale website, working with the Yale Hospital to get money to support the Library, and teaching a Uganda doctor about the use of technology.
One of his memorable experiences is hearing from people that he has helped in the past, and being asked by a woman how long can you hear after death? He has been to conferences around the country and the world like San Francisco, Texas, Florida, and Sweden, where he was a key speaker to represent the Library. The achievements that he is most proud of' are having access in the clinical areas, and improving mobile devices. He hopes that 5 years from now that he would still be doing some of the stuff that he doing now.
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