(via Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic, Colorado Mesa University & Western Colorado Community College)
Link to Participate: here
The Purpose of this Survey (Protocol: 22-49): In preparing the manuscript for an edited volume about academic librarians and the health humanities, the survey author felt a chapter regarding the feasibility of medical and health humanities engagement for librarians, libraries, and their institutions would be a useful contribution to the overall work. The author has created this survey to get a sense of the campus positioning, challenges, concerns, questions, and strengths to be considered when looking to get medical and health humanities initiatives off the ground at one’s institution as an academic librarian. These may include ideas like professional development needed and how it was pursued; critical things to know before…; budgetary needs; acquisitions efforts; staffing concerns (e.g., re: instruction, outreach, credit-bearing courses, time needed/allotted within one’s library staffing model); instruction & outreach efforts; when/how one got started with MH/HH; barriers to success with one’s efforts; how one networks with/pitches to faculty, etc. Plenty of ground that could be covered here all to the benefit of helping bring the medical and health humanities into more libraries and institutions!
The Intended Audience for this Survey: Academic librarians involved in medical/health humanities efforts at their library (incl. traditional college/university library, health sciences library, hospital library, special collections/archives, etc.). We are looking for feedback from those who have made strides in their library and/or within their institution. The medical/health humanities do not need to be a direct or explicit part of your job expectations, but should be something that’s a dedicated, consistent engagement effort on your part. You may be involved in collection development, instruction, outreach/programming, committee work, curriculum development, liaison efforts and/or other functions within which you connect your work with the medical/health humanities and, through this, have advanced the conversation, etc., for your institution.
Note: This survey asks a few things about your education, institution, job role, etc. It does not ask for, or require, any identifying information. All participant responses will have a unique ID established by Qualtrics. Participation is estimated to take 10-30 minutes depending on how deeply you choose to answer the qualitative questions and/or on how many aspects of librarianship intersect with your involvement with the medical/health humanities.
About the Survey Author: Laureen P. Cantwell (lcantwell@coloradomesa.edu), MSLIS, is the Head of Access Services & Outreach at Colorado Mesa University’s Tomlinson Library. Laureen is currently pursuing a PhD in Information Science from University at Buffalo, SUNY. She co-edited Memphis Noir (Akashic Books, 2015) and Finding Your Seat at the Table (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), and has published on topics ranging from librarians on IRBs to curbside pickup services, from chat reference to digital badging, and more. She is currently editing a book on the health humanities and academic librarianship — this survey is part of that work.