Managing and Revitalizing Your Career as a Medical Librarian: A Symposium Report

Abstract

Every year, the Medical Library Association (MLA) brings together members before or after its annual meeting, to discuss timely, relevant topics during a symposium. The 2012 Symposium featured a program about career management. This topic was selected, following a MLA Hospital Libraries Section survey. Results showed that building successful and fulfilling careers is imperative in today's hospital and academic health sciences libraries. Librarians learned to create personal strategies to avoid career pitfalls, identify factors that lead to career stagnation, and determine what skills are needed to fulfill new roles in our respective institutions. A planning and assessment award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), Pacific Northwest Region funded the postsymposium survey to measure the impact of the program on career planning.

Keywords:

• career development
• career revitalization—medical librarianship
• evaluation and assessment
• new roles
• symposium

Notes

©Tania P. Bardyn, Elizabeth Atcheson, Colleen Cuddy, and Gerald J. Perry