MM.09: This Is What Happens When You Talk to Strangers on the Internet

Carrie (she/her) and Tracy (she/her) are joined in this episode by Marissa Testerman (she/her), We asked her what she wanted to talk about, and Marissa shares her experience as an early career medical librarian and path to #medlibs-land. (Yay for “be a librarian” as a plan B!)

Marissa mentions how difficult it can be to find a library position (of any kind) when geographically limited and some reasons for staying in one area - family and community are vital - instead of moving for job opportunities. Uprooting your life for your career is sadly common in this field (look for more on this in an upcoming newsletter). Relocating for a #medlibs job can be especially harrowing for marginalized folks, such as those in BINPOC or LGBTQIA+ communities.

Exhausted female student sleeping at table in library [Pexels]

We also chat about professional development things as a new medical librarian, including training from colleagues, mentoring through MLA, and online places like MLA caucuses (so many!), listservs galore, #medlibs Twitter (Marissa is @berrybiblio because she loves strawberries), and the #medlibs Discord. Marissa name checks Zahra Premji as a fantastic colleague who has helped so many #medlibs with systematic review/evidence synthesis work - we agree! There are so many wonderful #medlibs who give of their time and expertise to answer questions, mentor, or help other #medlibs.

Marissa started out in access services, which means she has seen some unexpected things in returned library materials. A printed out selfie while grilling as a bookmark?! Weird, but there are worse things found left in library books, so maybe she got lucky. Speaking of library books, be careful with pets because some of them find paper products tasty, be it books or toilet paper.

This good boi is very proud of his accomplishment. 11/10 would destroy toilet paper roll again.

Want to explore bolero glam? Marissa recommends this Spotify playlist as a starting point. You can also get a taste with Natalia Lafourcade's Tiny Desk Concert. Finally, of course we had to ask Marissa about crabs. Tracy suggested she try a lowcountry crab boil (aka seafood boil) during her Charleston visit.

Thanks for joining us for this episode. Reach out to us if you have thoughts or suggestions on upcoming episodes. Don’t forget to like and subscribe!