Debra Smith is the HSLI Member of the Quarter for December! She is Professor, Nursing & Health Sciences Liaison Librarian, at College of DuPage Library.
Having attended library school at a Michigan-based institution (Wayne State University) and worked at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, what, if anything, do you find unique or different about Illinois health sciences and medical libraries?
Every library has its own unique “flavor”, based on its history, collections, and spaces, along with the community it serves. The Library at College of DuPage is unique in that it has such an incredibly rich collection beyond the typical community college collections to which I’ve been previously exposed. I enjoy the challenge of curating a health and medical collection that serves the programs, faculty, and students of COD, in addition to the robust array of practicing health professionals and health consumers in our district.
My previous and current COD colleagues are some of the most innovative, creative, and hardworking individuals ever to cross my career path. They definitely inspire me to grow professionally and try new things. In fact, I can say that about many of the talented individuals whom I’ve met through HSLI. The collegiality, expertise, and sense of community that I’ve experienced in Illinois from the health sciences and medical libraries, where individuals readily step up to assist and support one another without hesitation, is truly unique. I admire and appreciate everyone’s willingness to share expertise and help elevate one another professionally and personally. The result not only helps our library community grow stronger, but also leads to quality patient care and a healthier medical workforce.
How did you and your College of DuPage colleagues come up with the idea for the winning entry in the Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges fall photo contest, the “Making a World of Difference” collage?
One of my COD colleagues reached out and suggested that I create a collage for the NILRC photo contest, using the fantastic images we’d captured throughout a recent exhibit and also displayed as part of our online “local” exhibition complementing the NLM traveling display (see more information here). The photo contest’s theme was “Involved”, and that made our entry easy to create, since the entire focus of our programming around the exhibition was highlighting the diverse ways that College of DuPage engages with our local, national, and international community to promote public health. I tried to select images that visually represented as many unique “stories about Global Health” as our companion website and programming reflected during the NLM exhibition. Honestly, the hardest part was picking which images to include because there were so many from which to choose!
Congratulations on receiving the National 2025-2026 League for Innovation in the Community College Excellence Award! How do you hope to build upon your current work with College of DuPage students and the broader community?
I was honored to receive this award. A COD colleague nominated me, based on the work that I did to promote our institution and students in relation to the NLM traveling exhibition. One of my goals in designing the local exhibit was to raise up COD nursing and health sciences programs and students by showcasing their research projects and engagement with furthering public health, both close to home and abroad. My goal to raise awareness has been successful in that our nursing students’ research posters were noticed by outside nursing organizations, and several students have been invited to present those posters at professional nursing conferences this coming spring! Other courses have begun posting student research projects in COD’s Digital Commons. The students’ work can now be freely viewed by family, potential employers, and health information seekers around the world!
Yet other programs and faculty are interested in exploring ways to involve their students in research-based, public health outreach educational opportunities for our community, such as having students “table” in our library, presenting health education and information or offering health-related topic “workshops” similar to the consumer health workshops that I often provide. I’m helping other health programs team up with our ESL/ELA courses to offer student-delivered, health-related education and training to ESL/ELA students, many of whom are learning how to navigate the US health system when English is not their first language. The volunteer work and donations stemming from COD employees continue to increase, as everyone pitches in to address the health needs and other basic requirements of our community.
The exhibition helped to raise awareness of these efforts, and that awareness has resulted in increased participation, in addition to fuller community awareness of available resources. It’s amazing to help make the right connections that allow people to benefit from one another, not just on our campus, but in our community (be it local or global). That’s really the goal of my work at COD—to make connections that benefit as many people as possible. I hope that the awareness raised by my efforts with the NLM exhibition and the subsequent awards will continue to create new partnerships and generate more “stories” of local and global health collaborations.
What is one misperception you think people have about health sciences and medical librarianship?
People seem to think that in order to be a medical or health sciences librarian, one must have extensive medical knowledge. In reality, health science and medical librarianship requires the desire to learn new things, make connections and foster collaborations, engage in highly-structured, thorough research endeavors, and build relationships that lead to innovation, awareness, and saved lives. It is a fast-paced and rewarding career that directly results in improved health and wellbeing. But one doesn’t need to be a medical expert to engage in this career.
Take me, for example, I was an English professor and educator in my “former life” (as I like to say). My mentors at Mayo Clinic showed me that anyone can become a medical librarian if they possess core information science and library skills and a passion for making a difference. Fun stuff and good times, I say!
If you could visit any fictional library, what would it be?
The Sunnydale High School Library, because this library ACTUALLY sits squarely on top of a Hellmouth (when many of us just think ours does! I’m kidding…mostly), has an amazingly diverse collection curated by Rupert Giles, AND has a cage full of weapons (three cheers for realia collections), in addition to its tomes. Yup, I’m a Buffy fan.