Health Information and Communication

Medical Librarian
Medical librarians are information professionals who specialize in health resources and provide medical information for physicians, allied health professionals, patients, consumers, students, and corporations. Using materials ranging from traditional print sources to electronic databases, medical librarians devise and use innovative strategies to assess and deliver information to their clients. Physicians often call upon medical librarians to provide life-saving information for patient care. pharmaceutical companies, publishers, and federal state and local government agencies.

Salary
Salaries vary according to the type and location of the institution, level of responsibility and technical skill, and length of employment. According to the Medical Library Association (MLA), the average starting salary for entry-level medical librarians was $40,832 in 2005. The overall average salary for experienced medical librarians was $57,982. Library directors can earn up to $158,600. For more information, refer to www.ama-assn.org/go/hpsalary.

Career Description
Medical librarians help improve the quality of patient care by helping health care professionals stay abreast of new developments and treatments. Additionally, they find relevant health information for patients and consumers, serve as educators for students pursuing health care degrees, and provide training in the location and use of medical resources. Increasingly medical librarians use technology to design Web sites and distance education programs and to construct digital libraries. Others work for Internet companies and electronic publishers that index and organize information for the Web. Medical librarians also participate as members of research teams on university campuses and serve health care corporations, such as insurance and pharmaceutical companies, by providing information necessary for developing new products and services. In administrative roles, medical librarians serve as directors, chief information officers, and deans or associate deans of information technology departments. Librarians ensure their informational mission is accomplished by providing leadership and strategic planning for their institutions, managing multimillion dollar budgets, pursuing grant funding, and developing marketing and public relations plans for their libraries. Medical librarians work closely with support staff in the library to accomplish day-to-day tasks. Known as medical library assistants, these support staff provide critical operations support in all areas of the library, including circulation, serials management, acquisitions, interlibrary loan, cataloging, billing, and reference services. Some states have associations and special interest groups that support the educational needs of library support staff. Such organizations include the New York State Library Assistants Association (NYSLAA) and the Metropolitan New York Library Councils Library Assistants, Support Staff and Associates special interest group. NYSLAA sponsors a Certificate of Achievement Program that recognizes library assistants for their contributions to libraries and the library profession.

Educational Programs
Length. Programs are 1 to 2 years and result in a masters degree. Prerequisites. Medical librarians must have a master of library and information science degree from an American Library Associationaccredited school. An undergraduate degree in any field is necessary for admission to a masters program. Undergraduate courses in biology, medical sciences, medical terminology, computer science, education, and management are helpful. Medical librarians may also apply for membership in the Academy of Health Information Professionals, a credentialing program for medical librarians sponsored by the Medical Library Association. Curriculum. Programs leading to a master of library and information science degree include a wide variety of courses. All students take core courses in research, information resources, cataloging, and management and choose between tracks for public, school, academic, or special libraries. Upon choosing a track, the student and academic advisor select courses that reflect the students career goals. Those wishing to focus on systems and technology will take a variety of technology courses in addition to the core and specialty track courses. Medical librarianship falls within the special library curriculum in many schools of library and information science. Medical library curriculum courses include resources for consumer health information, resources and services for health sciences information, medical informatics, and resources and services for special populations.

Inquiries
Careers/Credentialing Medical Library Association 65 East Wacker Place, Suite 1900 Chicago, IL 60601-7246 312 419-9094 312 419-8950 Fax E-mail: mlapd2@mlahq.org www.mlanet.org/career

Employment Characteristics
Medical librarians and medical library assistants are employed anywhere health information is needed, including hospitals, academic medical centers, clinics, colleges, universities, professional schools, consumer health libraries, research centers, foundations, biotechnology centers, insurance companies, medical equipment manufacturers,

Health Care Careers Directory 2009-2010

Health Information and Communication

PROGRA MS

Library Assistants New York State Library Assistants Association www.nyslaa.org Metropolitan New York Library Council Library Assistants, Support Staff and Associates Vergie Savage-Branch Cornell University Medical College Library 1300 York Avenue New York, NY 10021 212 746-6091 www.metro.org/SIGs/lassa.html

Program Accreditation American Library Association, Committee on Accreditation/Office for Accreditation Karen OBrien, Director 50 East Huron Chicago, IL 60611 312 280-2434 E-mail: kobrien@ala.org

Health Care Careers Directory 2009-2010