HSLS bids farewell to Dr. Mary Lou Klem, who has retired after a long and accomplished career as an HSLS faculty librarian. Mary Lou originally came to the University of Pittsburgh as a postdoctoral fellow in cardiovascular epidemiology and then became a faculty member in the School of Medicine (Psychiatry). After several years, she decided to make a career change and did so by earning a master’s in library and information science here at Pitt. After completing an internship at Pitt’s Center for Biomedical Informatics, she accepted a faculty librarian position at HSLS. Mary Lou was liaison to the School of Nursing (SON) from 2007 through 2020, with a secondary appointment in SON for most of that time. She was promoted to Assistant Director of Advanced Information Services in 2021, as which she served until her retirement.
We asked Mary Lou to reflect on her time at HSLS:
What are some professional achievements you’re proud of?
Being one of the founding instructors for the continuing education course “Systematic Review Workshop: The Nuts and Bolts for Librarians.” Over the 10 years we offered that course, we provided intensive training on systematic review methods and project management to several hundred librarians (from all over the US and Canada). We were among the first libraries to ever offer such intense training, and it really put us on the map in libraryland! To this day, I hear from librarians who took that course and are still using the skills and information we provided.
Working with a group of other librarians (funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/National Library of Medicine) to plan and carry out a study examining the impact of hospital libraries on patient care. Our study showed that access to library information sources can be instrumental in the diagnostic or treatment decisions made by healthcare professionals and may also help to avoid adverse effects.
What’s your favorite part of working at HSLS?
The people, of course. Over my entire career at HSLS, I’ve been surrounded by smart, friendly, and helpful colleagues. I also especially appreciate the time I spent as a liaison to the School of Nursing – the faculty were always so eager to have me provide classroom instruction or individual consults on library resources – they were great to work with!
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We thank Mary Lou for her amazing contributions to Pitt Health Sciences throughout her career at HSLS, and we wish her a happy and healthy retirement!