NAHSL: News

Amalia Dolan: Rethinking Outreach

Reflections on the NAHSL Annual Meeting by NAHSL Annual Meeting Scholarship Winner Amalia Dolan

Rethinking Outreach

I want to thank the Professional Development Committee for the scholarship that allowed me to attend the 2022 NAHSL Conference. As a new librarian, and someone new to the region as well, it was a wonderful introduction to a supportive and educational professional community. I want to thank everyone at the conference for the very warm welcome. It made me feel more at ease about growing into my health sciences librarianship position and reassured me that there is a responsive and thoughtful community of colleagues that exists for me to lean on. It also helped me reframed my thinking on some topics, such as Susan Warthman’s lightening talk on outreach, “Outreach Methods: Knowledge Bursts.” 

One theme of interest to me at the NAHSL 2022 Conference was outreach. At the Dana Medical Library, at the University of Vermont, we have been thinking about how we can work to connect our community to library resources and support their work. When beginning these types of conversations, I often find the possibilities overwhelming. It was grounding for me to learn about the successes and challenges that fellow librarians and health sciences libraries experience when rethinking and conducting outreach, with both their target patron groups and the wider communities.

Susan Warthman’s presentation, “Outreach Methods: Knowledge Bursts,” presented a clever way of promoting library information in short, easily digestible segments. In her lightening talk, she spoke about finding ways to meet library patrons where they are at, both in terms of their information needs, but also being mindful of people’s schedules and attention spans. The outreach program is a great way to incorporate and highlight library staff’s knowledge and expertise and give them the opportunity to shine and impart their knowledge in a concise and meaningful way. The topics of the knowledge burst presentations seemed incredibly relevant to patron needs and the efforts made by library staff to make the events accessible to all were heartening. Susan’s lightening talk provided me with great insights on how one can adapt instruction and outreach to be meaningful and useful to different patron populations.

Throughout my time at the conference, I was impressed by the variety of work that our colleagues conduct and support. As someone new to librarianship, it was exciting and liberating to witness firsthand the passion and knowledge of fellow librarians. It made me feel like our chosen field is full of opportunities and that there is a community to offer insight and support.

Thank you again to the NAHSL Professional Development Committee and to the membership as a whole. This was an incredible learning opportunity for me, and it helped build my enthusiasm for health sciences librarianship and future involvement in NAHSL.

Take care,

Amalia Dolan, MS/LIS

Dana Medical Library

University of Vermont