Meet Your Fellow Chapter Member: Priscilla Stephenson

Edited by JoAnn Babish

Priscilla Stephenson

Please talk about your current professional position. Describe what you do and for which organization.
I am the Chief, Library Service for the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and manage a hospital library that serves roughly 2200 employees, including a medical staff of about 300. The position had been vacant for about eighteen months when I arrived, following the retirement of Bob Lyle in June 2008. Mark Marchino and Michael Toner had been holding the fort quite ably in the interim. I’ve been working on marketing the library and updating links for our electronic resources. My plans are to get the library more involved with patient education, library instruction, and the Medical Center’s research program.
What is your past professional experience?

I’ve managed hospital libraries in Illinois, Tennessee, Nevada, and Mississippi. From 1998-2006 I was Reference Services Coordinator at the University of Tennessee Memphis Health Sciences Library. That gave me wonderful exposure to new technology and experience as a library instructor – which I came to enjoy as much as I do database searching. I took advantage of the academic setting to research and write for library publications. I discovered that I enjoy doing both, and I now keep active assisting with editing assignments for Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet and Evidence Based Library and Information Practice. I’m also a reviewer for JMLA.

When I moved to the Jackson, Mississippi VA Medical Center in 2006, it was my first acquaintance with the VA – and I only wish I had made the move earlier in my career! Even after four years, I’m still learning “the VA way” in many areas, but the VALNET librarians’ network provides an official mentoring program as well as great support via email and monthly conference calls. The move to Philadelphia last November allowed me the opportunity to work in a more research-oriented hospital in a terrific city.

What do you find most interesting about your work?
I like hospital librarianship because I get to do it all – reference, cataloging, marketing, serials, instruction, etc. In small hospital settings with only 1-2 people, this can sometimes become overwhelming once the customers realize you can deliver promptly and efficiently. They ask for more and more, while the staffing level remains static or decreases! But the up-side is that the work is never boring, and you get terrific instant feedback from the people you serve. In an academic health science library, you usually have more freedom to develop technological skills – with web page and instructional design, for example – but in the hospital you have opportunities to gain skills in management, budgeting, and interdisciplinary teams. I like it all, so I’m torn between the two. For me a clinical environment with active research programs and strong residency affiliations is just right.

What qualities or traits do you find most helpful in your work?
Health science librarians have to be inquisitive and intelligent, and able to communicate effectively with our diverse multi-cultural and often international customers. Because we are often dealing with subjects personally devastating to our clients, we have to be tactful and respectful of their need for privacy, while we ask for enough details about their health issues to help answer their questions! It’s a delicate balance that always requires tact and courtesy – and often humor. We provide customer service, and keeping that as the focus of our work – whether our task is searching a database or designing one – is the only way we can be successful.

If you weren’t a librarian, what else can you imagine yourself doing?
I’d keep my ties to science somehow – as a medical or scientific writer, maybe a grants administrator. But it wouldn’t have to be human health sciences.  I’m just as interested in agriculture and veterinary medicine. I enjoy teaching and would probably be an educator in whatever field I found myself.

What do you do for fun?
My Midwestern roots have made me a gardener – when I can get to the dirt. For the first time in several years I now have a yard and space to plant – in the ground, no less! I’m watching newly planted hostas and tomatoes take root. I’m hoping for the best, and I’m already planning how to keep the native critters away from the fruit.

I have four small grandchildren in Illinois, and have begun sewing again for the little girls. (My own children were boys; not so many sewing thrills there!) I use my daily commuting time for reading mysteries and doing the daily crosswords.

Is there anything about you that others might be surprised to know?
I did the training and certification for the Master Gardener program when I lived in Las Vegas. I learned a lot about setting up drip irrigation systems and xeric gardening – not as useful in Philadelphia!

I’ve been in various adult education classes from time to time – learning a variety of skills no one really needs! I’ve made a dulcimer, refinished a table, made eggrolls, caned chairs, and failed miserably at conversational Japanese!

I love the arts and wish I could paint or act; but I can’t, so I enjoy trips to museums and the theater. In other cities I’ve sung in community choral groups with both barbershop and classical music groups.

Why would you encourage members to become actively involved in the Philadelphia Regional Chapter?
I believe that being a professional requires you to support the work of its organizational structures and to be an active member of its professional organizations. For some that might mean helping to organize social events; for others it may be helping with plans for a CE program. MLA chapters provide more than enough varied tasks to allow a role for every member to play at some time during the year! I have been a dues-only member of a few organizations, but I dropped out of them at renewal time, because I had no personal investment in them. Becoming an active member in the Philadelphia Chapter will allow me to meet people and learn about area events. I can guarantee that at some point in the future this networking will also benefit the Philadelphia VAMC library. Our library organizations provide networking, educational, and often financial benefits for members and their institutions.  There is always a benefit to networking; it’s just the way these activities work to engage us all.