January 26 & 27, (Day 1 & 2)

Hello Everyone! Im the new C.H.I.L.I intern. I was given a tour of this breath taking library by Mr. Charles Greenberg and let me just say it is a honor to be here. This week I recieved orientation and joined in a library council meeting at the steiner room. It was about a trip to Beijin, China. I was very fortunate to be able to listen in on all that went on, China is very beautiful and maybe someday I can also go to China. After the meeting I interviewed John Gallagher and Mary Angelotti.

John is the Deputy Director of Public Services for the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. I Asked him a few questions and as you know John was born in Ireland, he came to the U.S at the age of 19. Before becoming the Deputy Director he worked in construction foe 6 years and the U.P.S. John didn't plan to become a librarian but when he got offered the job in the year 2000, but he perused it. And now he wishes that there were more hours in a day because he feels that information is extremely valuable and can be needed at any time. John inspired me to look for a job that can be fulfilling just like it is to him, he is a very interesting guy even though he dislikes my favorite soccer team. 

Mary Angelotti is the document Delivery Manager. She has been working in the Medical library for 31 years! that's amazing, and I feel that she has a very important job delivering all the peoples' order on time. Just having that responsibility alone can be quite overwhelming. But not for Mary Angelotti, she loves her job and is happy to be of assistance to anyone who needs it. In high school she wanted to become a teacher and even received a bachelors degree in history. And one day hopes to become a reading teacher for young children; but for now she is very happy with her staff and her helpful job databases. I was a pleasure to have meet someone so hardworking such as Mary Angelotti.

My Forth Day

Today, Thursday August 7th started off with me meeting two new people. Mary and Kelly which both work in document delivery. Mary does the computer work while Kelly scans the copies of the necessary material. I found them both to be pleasant people who enjoy their jobs. Also Kelly showed me the scanner and it was really interesting. After that I shadowed Janene's EBP class. In the picture here it shows a not so well but hopefully effective demonstrations of EBP format. Janene herself had a better depiction. After the class I as well as Mr. Greenberg walked over to the Library downtown to meet with Diane Turner who is a fascinating Women. I was truly honored to meet her. After Meeting with Mrs. Turner i returned to the medical library to attend a Liaison Meeting/Lunch in which they discussed library matters such as budget and orders for journals. It was all new to me to see the inner workings of the library i found it to be a positive experience. My last meeting of the day and/or week was with Bob, he is the business manager and he is a very easy to get a long with type of guy. He seems really in tact like he knows his business and i felt as if he is one of the kind of people that will help anyone in need.

My Third Day

Today is Wednesday August 6th and it is my third day at the Chili Internship here at Yale's Medical Library. This morning I started off with Mr. Greenberg as he introduced me to the world of RSS. I found this to be very interesting because now I have a way to connect myself to the news feeds I find most interesting. After the RSS lesson I met with Jason the Libraries IT man. We had a discussion about information and how his job even though it effects the library greatly isn't connect like the others. After meeting with Jason i was introduced to Mark in clinical support. He gave me another view of the library as a whole. Daniel and Lynn helped me finish the day. Daniel introduced me to the digital part of the library as Lynn gave me incite on Consumer Health.

My Second Day

Today is Tuesday August 5th and my second day at the internship. This morning

I sat in on a meeting taken place with the people of the department I am interning for. I heard scheduling as well as creative

ideas to keep students interested with the medical library. After the meeting I held

an interview with Toby in the historical part of the library. Toby is in charge of basically all of the medical history the library holds. I found it so interesting how far back the books go.

After meeting with Toby I met with Jan in the educational services. Jan is a very interesting person because she always wanted to be a librarian and I found that amazing. Not to say to be a librarian isn't a great career just after meeting with other people i hadn't met with someone that dreamed of this as a child. After Jan i too a visit to Document delivery and had another more detailed tour of the medical library. So far I am enjoying my time here and look forward to my meetings to come.

My First Day

Today was my first day of the Chili Internship at Yale. This morning I started off with a brief orientation given by Mr. Greenberg. He walked me around the medical library and introduced me to some of the staff. I also held two interviews today as well as made adjustments to this blog. Today I learned a little history about the library itself and increased my interest of medical history.

My first interview was with a woman by the name of Judy Spak. I asked her questions surrounding her life and the career she has chosen and also how it relates to Information technology. She told me how she liked her job because it allowed her to influence so many people, she likes working with others especially students because she feels as if she really teaches them. She finds her job to be more then some "9 to 5" regular job because often she must bring her work home with her. She did not dream of working in a medical library but she has grown to enjoy it very much. Judy is a Curriculum Support Librarian so she makes sure teaches and students are learning what is new and important based on a preset curriculum. She believes her strengths such as good communication and good representation help her perform her job as best as possible. She feels no better then any other librarian in any other department but she does feel her role is more visible. She feels that technology is critical in her career also that it has improved the world of Health information greatly.

My second interviewee was a woman by the name of Robin Featherstone. She is a student in a program which allows her to work in every department the library offers as well as in many different libraries around the country . She feels as if her job is always changing which provides an exciting environment which doesn't lead to boredom. Robin does not see her position as either a career or a job, she finds that at times it can be both. She feels that the information technology is much more exciting in the health field because it is always changing and updating. Her interest in this field was rather new, she basically stated that she just needed a job and that the interest rose after she started. That brutal honesty she titled as one of her weaknesses. She says that technology is everything in her day to day job. She prefers working with nurses for the simple fact that they are friendly and that they are used to working with people all day so there is a sort of comforting feeling.

Both of my interviewees felt that there is a stereotype surrounding the public's view on librarians and one felt it should be changed while the other felt it should be kept the same. Now I am wondering if it could be changed as well as how it will be.

Yesterday I went over to the Main Library, The Sterling Memorial Library and met with Diane Turner. She is the Associate University Librarian and deals with staff training and development and also community relations. A work day for her may include catching up on emails, reviewing salaries, meeting with supervisors, staff training or dealing with personnel issues. She said that no day is the same but it is always fun booked. She was inspired to choose this career because she loves working with people, solving problems and making a difference. Her job has sent her to many states in the U.S. as well as to South Africa. What she enjoys most about her job is seeing projects start out as ideas and go onto something bigger. Her advice to anyone who is thinking about a job like hers is to be prepared academically, be able to see both sides of a situation and be fair. She also said to make sure that you laugh a lot and don't take life so serioulsy.

Today I met with Jason who is the Desktop Support Technician. He fixes the computers here and over in the classrooms across the street. His job includes taking care of issues with staff PCs, PCs in the information room and repairing and updating classroom PCs. He also deals with MAC computers so he knows how both operating systems work. He has always been working on computers since he was a child and was inspired by his uncle who was responsible for some of the framework that built the internet. He has worked at many companies; AT&T and Ann Taylor's corporate office, to name a few. The Cushing/Whitney Medical Libary is his first educational job and he said it is much different from the other job settings that he has had, organizational wise. His favorite thing about his job is the flexibility because he is not tied down to his desk all the time. He can get up and move around and help others around the building and also across the street. He can also plan his day and choose what he will work on first. His advice to someone who is thinking about choosing his career would be to always keep updated with the new technology and what is coming along, to explore software and take computers apart and fix them so that you know how they are put together and how to solve a problem that someone might have with their PC.

Last Week as a CHILI Intern

This is my last week as a CHILI Intern, thus far I have enjoyed this experience. Yesterday I interviewed Bob Hughes and Hongbin. Bob is the business manager for the library. He deals with the budget of the library and makes sure that the money is used wisely. He is also responsible for library security and the building itself . Each month he gets a report showing how much money was spent and charts how the library is doing. He has been in this position for around a year now and had been working in the insurance industry for about 19 years. The reason why he switched careers was that it bothered him that his company was making so much money but there were still many people who were uninsured. He said that he felt reenergized after the career change. His favorite part of his job is the analytical work, doing a projection and laying out how much money to spend each month then checking to see if the library is on track.

Hongbin is the Web Services Librarian or Webmaster. He is very funny and his job seems to be very interesting since he designs the library website. A day for him may include checking emails, making a to-do list, working on a project, updating the website , and getting imput from people about the website. He recently made a link on the library's website so that people with Iphones can access it on their phone. He is working on a big project now to redesign the whole website. Before this career, he was a journalist and in college he was inspired by his roommate to choose this career and go to library school. He was facsinated how his roommate graduated from libary school and built a website. He used to work in New Orleans until the hurricane came and he moved up here. His newest addition to the website is the picture box and the PubMed updates. He also told me that from July 2007- June 2008 there were over 8 million views of the website. It was very interesting to learn about what he does as the webmaster.