October is American Archives Month as well as National Medical Librarians Month. To celebrate, we’re sharing conversations with just three of the staff members that make McGoogan a shining example of a medical library and an embodiment of the archivist’s job. Today, get to know Education and Research Services Librarian Danielle Westmark.
What drew Westmark to librarianship and McGoogan
Westmark’s path revolves around a common yet always distinct story about how one class changed everything.
Unsure about her future but interested in education and public service—maybe elementary education or social work?—she took her first library science course as an undergraduate at University of Nebraska-Omaha.
The class, Introduction to Library Services, offered an overview of librarianship from nearly every aspect and angle and explained how librarians support entire communities. Westmark felt the pull, changing her academic emphasis.
From there, her way to McGoogan is lined with right-place, right-time moments.
“My career has just been happy accidents—or happy incidents,” Westmark said.
A temporary role at McGoogan after graduation became part-time, then full-time. Her support of other librarians, work at the AskUs desk and increasing excitement about supporting literature searches, answering reference questions, and supporting student and faculty research cemented Westmark’s place at the library, where she’s now been for 12 years.
The greatness Westmark sees in medical librarianship
Working at McGoogan, Westmark recognizes the uniqueness of medical librarianship, in which librarians take on numerous diverse projects and touch topics affecting the entire community.
There’s a great scope to medical librarianship—and an intimate one, Westmark noted. Working closely with students, medical librarians help them “learn the tips and tricks to using the literature databases” as well as analyze the information they discover, she said.
Medical librarians like Westmark also encourage students to ask key follow-up questions, such as: Is this good information? What makes it important? And what makes this relevant to your patient?
“Each day is a bit different,” Westmark said, noting she might spend her time with library user consultations or speak in a class, might help users with questions about citation and research tools or work alongside a faculty member seeking journal articles to aid their manuscript.
Recent rewards
Westmark has worked alongside students in the course Evidence-Based Practice 3: Systematic Reviews for Occupational Therapy for the last four years. Going beyond the already rigorous standards of a literature review, a systematic review represents “an exhaustive search on a focused question” and an attempt to find all available literature, she said.
“It’s like a puzzle to me … taking pieces of something and trying to make the picture work,” Westmark said of her joy in the process.
Watching these students take her puzzle, then apply and present the findings is exciting, she said.
Occasionally, when searching on a student’s behalf, Westmark can convey this message: “Congratulations, you found a gap in the literature.” That is, the student’s query might have been talked about but not written or studied in a significant way.
“It’s a great way to continue the conversation on their research topic and build that relationship to help support them on their research journey,” Westmark said.
More often though, she watches students take the question further—such as in their systematic review class—or to their floor, as resident nurses improve care or processes in their department. Witnessing the knowing changes they make delights Westmark.
Read our profile of Archives Specialist Kelly Gonzalez here.
