Day 2 of My Internship

Today was the second day of my internship at the Harvey Cushing Medical Library. Today, I was at the circulation desk learning about how to check in and check out books, which is done with a fascinating new system called Voyager. I also met Ms. Melonie Norton. She is the manager of  Access and delivery Services (circulation desk). After learning about what resources t hey provide for not only students here at Yale, but to the community, Finally, I got the chance to sit down and interview with Mr.Iljea Lee; the evening and weekend supervisor.

When asked " What would you recommend that students do on this internship and why?", he replied "Students who participate in this internship should do research, as well as get to know what resources would be available to them if they are looking to go into the medical field because it would be constructive. They should also do hands on activities so they can get the actual feel of what it is like doing these activities".

 I also got the chance to see new and exciting parts of the Medical Library that no public library has, such as volumes of journals and thesis books that are available to the public, as well as historic items that are on display for everyone to see. 

Afternoon with John Gallagher

I spent the afternoon with John.He is the deputy director for the Medical library. He said when he started working as an evening supervisor for the library, he only worked with books. Now he works with books and electronic library resources.

The Yale Medical library has about 9,000 journals and millions of articles on library user computers. To find these articles or journals, an electronic index like Pubmed and Scopus is being used. If the library does not have an article or journal, an Interlibrary loan staff would help find it.

Vermetha, one of the Interlibrary loan staff, would use a national catalog of library holdings like docline and OCLC to find it. This is very similar to any kind of library. If someone is looking for a book at a local library and does not find it, the librarian will look at other libraries to find the book that the person is looking for and borrow it. Vermetha stated that when she started working at Yale 14 years ago, she sent all the requested articles via mail; today she sends them through Email. This demonstrates that technology spreads information quicker and faster.

Today I learned that a library is supposed to be a quiet and inspiring place.I also learned that medical librarians have a role in patient care and research. The big problem regarding medical librarianship is lack of recognition for important tasks that are often invisible.