National Library of Medicine Assoc. Fellow

May 2007 SOIS Graduate - Kate Flewelling named as one of seven associate fellows at the National Library of Medicine.

When Kate Flewelling, a May 2007 graduate from the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program at UWM’s School of Information Studies (SOIS), learned that she was chosen to be interviewed for a fellowship with the National Library of Medicine (NLM), she was thrilled. “When I found out I had the opportunity to do the interview, I felt like I had already won,” said Kate. “I learned so much just from the interview!” When she learned she earned one of seven prestigious, competitive associate fellowships with NLM, she was ecstatic. “This is the best thing that has ever happened to me! I couldn’t believe it when they awarded me the fellowship.”

A former middle school teacher and children’s librarian, Kate successfully completed SOIS’s MLIS program as an online student living in her home state of Maine. Currently finishing the first, curriculum-based phase of her fellowship at NLM, Kate found a few minutes between meetings and discussions to talk with SOIS about the work she is doing now and about what it takes to win a competitive national fellowship.

SOIS:   What made you pursue the MLIS degree at UWM?
Kate:    It had been five years since I had completed my undergraduate studies and I knew I wanted to go back to school in the library and information studies area. In looking at the graduate programs available, I was trying to figure out how to be as flexible as possible with my work as a teacher and with my studies. There weren’t any library and information studies programs in Maine, so I knew I would have to either move or find a program I could complete online. I really like the Midwest and considered moving to Milwaukee when I found out that UWM offered a distance education MLIS program. This worked really well for me.

S:         Why did you apply for this fellowship?
K:        I heard about it through a job email list through SOIS. At the time, I was doing fieldwork for my MLIS degree at the Gerrish-True Health Sciences Library, Central Maine Medical Center. I still wasn’t sure about health sciences and libraries but the fellowship seemed like a great opportunity. I felt like it would benefit me as a distance education student by bridging my online experience and education with more hands-on fieldwork and peer interaction. For a distance education program, SOIS's MLIS degree is really hands-on. SOIS showed me the value of hands-on fieldwork and inspired me to continue this experience in this fellowship. What the fieldwork experiences, from both SOIS and the NLM fellowship, provide me that I value most is serendipity—the opportunities for spontaneous learning that come from problem-solving and interaction with professionals.

S:         Describe what you are doing now as a fellow at NLM.
K:        The fellowship program is both a broad introduction to medical librarianship and an in-depth introduction to NLM as a library and research institution. I’m currently in the first curriculum-based phase of the fellowship. I spend my days sitting in a conference room listening to people who work in departments all over the library talk about what they do. My fellowship coordinator said that for these first five months, my job is to soak up as much as possible.

For the second part of the fellowship, I will be working with my coordinator to develop two to three different projects to carry out with library staff. We are supposed to develop projects that address specific library needs, but we have the freedom to tailor these projects to suit our own interests as well. The projects are really a combination of our interests and library needs. For my projects, I’m interested in two areas, consumer health information and the evaluation of products.

S:         What opportunities has your fellowship provided you?
K:        I have had the opportunity to work with both peers and mentors in shared learning experiences and have learned how the average librarian can use NLM and its vast resources in their own work at different libraries and organizations outside of the government.

            I have been amazed at the variety of what NLM does, especially in research. I didn’t expect to have the resources of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) available to us as well as the resources of NLM. For instance, just recently I got to hear a speech by the Nobel Prize winner in physics. The event was hosted through NIH. That was pretty amazing! Also, I didn’t expect to learn as much about genetics and technology at such a high level. The experiences from this fellowship have been amazing.

S:         How did your education from UWM help prepare you for the work you are doing now as a fellow?
K:        SOIS provided me with the opportunity to do fieldwork through a health sciences placement. That really prepared me well for this fellowship opportunity. Also, I think the courses I took at UWM have prepared me to be a leader in librarianship. I took classes that had a management training component to them as well as classes with a special libraries focus. The best class I took was Information Marketing with Dean Britz. This class opened my eyes to careers in library and information studies beyond just being a librarian at the local library. The class also prepared us to market ourselves, which is really important in this field.

S:         What are your plans post-fellowship?
K:        My plans seem to change every day! I see myself probably in a place where I can work with the public and clinicians who are helping patients, like at a hospital library.