Day Seven!

Today I did a series of interviews with Mr. Hongbin Liu, who works as the webmaster for the Medical library, Daniel and his staff that work together as the Collection Development and Management team. Hongbin manages the website for the Medical library and helps make it convenient for those who don't physically come to the library. He always liked computers and enjoys managing the website. He recommended if you want to be a webmaster like he is, you should be funny, enjoy learning, and you shouldn't take yourselves too seriously. I then met with Daniel, Chris, Bill and Caitlin. They all work together to purchase, subscribe, and lease online books and journals. These materials are available for the Medical students and faculty to use to their advantage. Chris catalogs books for the library's use. Caitlin, Bill and Daniel find and purchase online journals and books they think will be beneficial for the library to have. Caitlin and Bill said the most difficult part of their job is trying to budget the fund given to them by the University just right; not over spending, and not under spending. Daniel says the most difficult part of his job was being a good manager. The e-collection's staff main focus is to manage the shift from a print based library to an online based library....not entirely online though :)

Today I made lots of progress! I finished my Healthflicks video! Enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/healthflicks#p/a/u/0/Sut0Uz-cfZM

Day Five & Six

Day Five: HealthFlicks

Today was dedicated to the development of my Healthflicks video. I can't wait til it's finished and shared on the web!

Day Six: Interview with Mrs. Diane Turner

Today I took the shuttle bus across the Yale campus to the main library. There, I met Mrs. Diane Turner. She's had a very colorful personality and I enjoyed talking with her. She told me about her job at Library Human Resources and how she hires librarians and decides the salaries of the many people the library employs. She has the responsibility of helping build a team of almost 600 employees and listening to them, so she knows how she could improve the team. Before coming to Yale, she worked in admissions at a University in New York and helped determine students financial aid. She says her job here is important because she recruits, develops, and retains the very best staff possible. She also likes being part of a senior admissions team and being able to attract great talent.
For the second half of the day, I put my ideas for my HealthFlicks video into reality. I learned how to use iMovie and created from scratch what will be my video on Sickle Cell anemia.

Day Four: Part Two

Interview with Mrs. Melissa Grafe

I interviewed Mrs. Melissa Grafe today, and she seemed to be one of the more personable people I've met here during my internship this week. Mrs. Grafe works here as the Medical Historical Librarian. She has the daily difficult task of managing the entire historical collection of books, medical instruments, and other library staff. She's a lifelong fan of history and has worked in museums in the past. She was attracted to Yale Medical Library because of its rich history and immense collection of books that support the history of medicine; new and old. While she has been employed by Yale for only a brief period of time, she seemed to have already made a large impact with other members of the staff. A typical day for her consists of many meetings, lots of questions, and today, she's holding a class for the public, showing some library treasures. As I spoke to Mrs. Grafe, she seemed very knowledgable, willing to help, and friendly. She's working on a project in partnership with other medical libraries called the Medical Heritage Library, a collaboration of medical libraries at prestigous universities such as Columbia, Yale, and Harvard, putting their collection of medical books online to give more people access to them.
After the interview, she showed me the collection of old books stored in the basement of the library, preserved books that date back to 1500s and earlier.

Day Four: Part One

Interview with Mrs. Lynn Sette

This morning I interviewed Mrs. Lynn Sette. She's the marketing face of the library. Due to the dropping numbers of students that actually visit the library, they had to find a way to make the library more appealing to students. She was inspired from her mentor who worked here for many years in what is now called the Collection Development department. She held her first job in education as a Special Education teacher and soon discovered her passion for librarianship. She says the most difficult thing about her job is the continuously changing technology, and one of the most important things about her job are that she provides practicing pediatricians and dermatologists with the proper research techniques and databases to find anything they are looking for quickly and efficiently. A few personality traits she recommends if you want to peruse the same career are that you have to be a "go-getter", have patience, and good listening skills. A few things that keep her at peace, here at the Medical library, are her co-workers and a good boss.

Day Three: Part Two

Interview with Mrs. Janene Batten

For the second half of the day I interviewed Mrs. Janene Batten. She works closely with the nursing students and practicing nurses as their librarian; their contact person when they need to research on a topic related to their practice. Librarianship is her second career. She previously worked as a teacher and then a librarian in a children school. During the interview she expressed the benefits of autonomy and flexibility keep her work enjoyable.

Day Three: Part One

Interview with Mr. Lei Wang

Mr. Lei Wang designs online educational modules for easier access for users. His personality and his need for organization were his main attractions to his field of work. Being a librarian was not always his first choice; he taught, wanted to be an I.T. Professional, and enjoyed research. He says the most difficult part about his job is the continuously changing technology and inability to keep up with the newest things. Has recently received a national award this past May and considers that his most memorable professional experience. Special projects that he is currently working on includes a partnership with Medical School professors in making educational videos for teaching purposes.

Day Two

Meeting with Mr. Paul Huard and interview with Mr. Mark Gentry

My day began with observing a meeting with Mr. Paul Huard, a Australian Librarian, and the faculty here at the Medical Library. Mr. Huard gave a brief synopsis of his career. His first career was a high school teacher and years after, he became a librarian because he felt like he could do more for the students. After he introduced himself, the faculty here at Yale introduced themselves round-robin style and gave a synopsis of the responsibilities of their job. The highlights of this meeting was to discuss how can each library provide better customer service. They discussed the differences between the two libraries, and discussed how can they change and improve. Mr. Huard emphasized what methods can be used to help students find reliable information, and what can both libraries do to improve the student/librarian relationship.
Later, I began my interview with Mr. Mark Gentry. Mr. Gentry works in Technology and clinical support. He works with doctors who work in a clinical setting, and visits hospitals and other countries for outreach, support, and training. He's earned a bachelors and masters degree in Anthropology and earned a 2nd Masters degree in Library science. He began his career believing he wanted to be an Anthropology professor because of his attraction to research and the college atmosphere. Mr Gentry counts helping doctors, supporting clinicians, and making the library accessible to the users, amongst the most important aspects of his job. He is has worked on a special project in Uganda, working with clinicians there and worked here in the U.S. with Uganda people assisting them with their clinical experiences here. He is currently working on an iPad project as well. All 150 Yale Medical students will be supplied with an iPad so they can conveniently study and research on the go. He's a main component on making the Yale campus more mobile.

Day One

Tour of the Yale Medical Library and Interview with Mr. Charles Greenberg

My first day as a C.H.I.L.I intern went well. Mr. Charles Greenberg lead me on a rather detailed tour of the Yale Medical Library. The history of the library dates back to 1941 and has been at the service of countless medical students throughout the years. There was one thing that interest me most: The archives of the library.
During the tour, Mr. Greenberg pointed out a few surgical tools on display that dated back to ancient Roman times of the 2nd century and some that were used during the Revolutionary War. Immediately, this caught my attention. It was interesting for me to be able to see the progression of surgical tools throughout the many years. Some tools were heated and applied to open wounds, and doctors used this method to stop bleeding and reduce bacteria to prepare a body for recovery. It amazes me how over time so much in medicine can change.
During my interview with Mr. Greenberg, I learned a lot about the importance of a medical library, and librarianship in general. Mr. Greenberg originally wanted to work in education but towards the end of his undergraduate studies he descided he wanted to work as a libarian. When applying to graduate school, he was offered a full ride, and took the first job offering he was given at a public library. He enjoys his job here at Yale Medical Library very much and stated the management and flexibility of his job makes him perfer Yale over other University Libraries. He has created two special projects with students (C.H.I.L.I. and Healthflicks) and this will contiune his legacy. Mr. Greenberg is very passionate in his work.

Also, I had a brief interview with Mrs. Velma Williams of the Document Department. In the document deartment she aids other libraries with books and articles they may need via web. She has sent books and articles from the Yale Medical Library to all 50 states, and several other countries including Hong Kong, South Africa and a wide variety of other places.