A Chapter of the Medical Library Association

Name: Sarah Tillery
Institution: THMEP/TMC Health, Tucson, Arizona
Title: Medical Librarian/CME Administrator

Brief description of what you do/your responsibilities at your institution.

I run our fully online library--I pull articles for healthcare professionals, run literature searches on topics they are researching, and maintain our library website and database. I also handle tracking CME credit and CME applications for our hospital system.

Why is MLGSCA important to you?

I am incredibly new! This is my very first library job out of grad school, and so I am so happy that there is an incredible organization like MLGSCA with many wonderful folks whose wisdom I hope to learn so much from.

Why did you become a librarian?

Miss Coughlan was the librarian at the Bahrain School where I went to first and second grade, and she had an after school library club where we would read, do arts and crafts, and write and perform plays--that club was everything to me, and I still have lots of the books and crafts we did. I had to move a lot as a kid, and one of the consistent things in my life was always the library--everywhere we went, there was a library, and everywhere we went, the library was a safe haven, some place where I could explore everything my heart desired. I pursued art first, but after a bit of growing, I realize that what I really wanted to do with my art and love of writing and stories was doing things like Miss Coughlan did. I want to share my passion, and libraries are the perfect place to do that.

What is your advice to someone new to medical librarianship?

Ask a lot of questions! Connect with people--there are so many cool aspects to medical librarianship I never knew about. I am interested in comic books, and there is a whole world of Graphic Medicine I am just now learning about and exploring. Whatever your passions are, there's a world for it in medical librarianship, I guarantee!

What do you consider to be the most pressing issues or trends in librarianship?

Information literacy. I am incredibly passionate about educating and making sure people understand the information that they are getting, and know how to get that information, and how to vet it. I think that connects many of the big issues in librarianship.

What has been the most interesting project you have worked on?

I have been working on incorporating Graphic Medicine and Medical Humanities into the work I do at my hospital--its still in early stages, but I'm very excited! Currently it just looks like a colorful binder on my desk, but I'm hoping to do very cool things with it.

What do you do in your spare time for fun, or to relax?

Draw, write, play dungeons and dragons and video games, cook, and overanalyze media.

What is the best thing you have read/watched/listened to recently?

Cyclopedia Exotica--a graphic novel about Cyclops living in the real world. Highly recommend!

What are you most proud of?

Even though they are on hiatus currently, I am most proud of my webcomics that I made with my husband, one of which received a positive review from a comic book website we both enjoy--it's silly and small, but it was a great day!