Health Sciences Librarianship
Health sciences librarianship offers a fast-paced, challenging and diverse career for MLS graduates. Health sciences librarians work in academia, hospitals, corporations, and other health-related environments: medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, allied health careers, and more.
Health sciences librarians are:
- Flexible and open to change
- Fast-learners, independent learners
- Able to work well under pressure in fast-paced environments
- Familiar and comfortable with computing and communications technologies
- Excellent communicators, writers, listeners, teachers
Health Sciences Librarianship may be for YOU, if you are interested in:
- Digital Libraries
- Electronic Publishing
- Technology and Informatics
- Evidence Based Medicine
- An active mobile career which enables you to forge partnerships with clinicians and researchers across all disciplines in the healthcare industry.
Highly qualified health sciences librarians are in-demand nationwide. Health sciences librarians work in:
- Academic medical centers
- Hospitals
- Corporations, pharmaceutical industry, health insurance industry
- Federal agencies; state, regional, local health agencies
Regional employers include Eli Lilly & Co., Clarian Health Partners, Community Health Network, Riley Children's, St. Vincent's, Wishard, St. Francis, VA Hospital, Specialty Hand Rehabilitation Center of Indiana.
Coursework for specialization in Health Sciences Librarianship:
- S653: Health Sciences Librarianship
- S573: Education of Information Users
- L597: Consumer Health Informatics
- S533: Online Searching
- Practical, on-site experiences are highly recommended
Because health sciences librarianship is a high-tech career, we recommend that students take advantage of the broad spectrum of SLIS and IU courses in information usage, storage, evaluation, management; and human-computer interaction, networking, information architecture, strategic intelligence, systems analysis, systems and database design, informatics, or programming.
Opportunities to gain experience in this field:
- Internships
- Independent studies, directed readings or research
- Volunteerism, civic engagement
- Library of Medicine Associate Fellowship -a one- to two-year program for post-MLS candidates
- Certification through the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP)
Affiliated Associations:
Medical Library Association (MLA)
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM)
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)
Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL)
American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST)
An MLS / MS in Health Informatics dual degree option is available through SLIS Indianapolis and the School of Informatics at Indianapolis
Interested in knowing more? Contact:
Katherine Schilling, MLS, Ed.D., AHIP
Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science
IU School of Library and Information Science at Indianapolis
katschill@iupui.edu
