|
|
GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences Center for Faculty Excellence
May 2024 Staff Spotlight
Excellence in teaching & learning, scholarly endeavors, and leadership are all around us at SMHS. The Center for Faculty Excellence would like to Spotlight our faculty and staff contributions to SMHS, George Washington University, and beyond. Each month we will spotlight faculty and staff from across SMHS, MFA, and Children's. We want to thank our highlighted members for sharing with us their advice and perspectives!
- SMHS Center for Faculty Excellence
| |
Join the CFE as we highlight Tom Harrod, MLS, MS, Associate Director for Reference, Instruction, and Access at the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library. Tom shares his journey to GWU as a librarian and his many roles at GWSMHS, including serving as a librarian instructor (LI) for the preclinical Practice of Medicine (POM) courses. He also shares his favorite resources for researchers including the Health Sciences Research Commons, an online scholarly repository.
| |
Biography
Tom began working at the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library in 2010, and in his current position, he supports the research endeavors of students and faculty in the departments served by the Himmelfarb Library. He earned a certificate from the GWU Graduate School of Education and Human Development’s Master Teacher Leadership Development Program in 2013. His interests include curriculum development, instructional technology, and systematic reviews.
Tom serves as a Liaison Librarian in the following areas:
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Health Policy & Management
- Health Services Management and Leadership
- Physician Assistant Studies
- Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine
- School of Nursing
| |
Interview Q/A
How long have you been at GWSMHS? What drew you to your current position?
Tom: I joined the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library in July 2010, so I'm coming up on 14 years being here. I was drawn to this position in particular because it allowed me the opportunity to work with students and faculty in various health-related fields. It was a very different type of work environment than in previous positions, so I was very interested in joining.
| |
Why did you decide to pursue a career as a librarian? How did your degree and experiences bring you to GW?
Tom: After completing my undergraduate degree, I was in a graduate program for Immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In that program, I worked in a lab doing basic research, but at a certain point, I realized that this was not the career path for me. However, to build on my background in science, I narrowed down what I wanted to do: become a teacher or university librarian. My sister had completed her degree in Library Science at the University of Illinois a few years prior, and I decided to go down a similar path. I attended UIUC as well, and after I graduated, I started working at the University of Maryland, College Park as the liaison for the Biology and Microbiology departments. I worked there for about three years before joining GW.
| |
What are your major responsibilities here at GW?
Tom: As the Associate Director for Reference, Instruction, and Access at Himmelfarb Library, I oversee many of the library's patron-facing efforts. My day-to-day responsibilities include administrative tasks such as planning, coordinating, and evaluating our services in those areas. In addition to these responsibilities, along with our team of reference librarians, I spend a lot of time assisting students and faculty who are performing large-scale literature reviews, usually systematic and scoping reviews.
In terms of instruction, I serve as a Librarian Instructor (LI) for the POM courses for first and second-year medical students during the Clinical Integration Sessions (CIS) to teach them how to use the library resources and how to give professional presentations effectively. I also have instructional responsibilities within the GW Milken Institute - School of Public Health and the School of Nursing.
| |
What is your favorite thing about your current role or responsibilities?
Tom: There are many things that I really enjoy doing as a part of my role. One of my favorite things is the opportunity to work with medical students. We see them frequently during the preclinical phase, then do not interact with them significantly again until the end of their medical school journey. It is amazing to see how much development occurs during that time period. They truly transition into doctors, and it's rewarding to see them near the final stages of their program.
Another favorite aspect is working with so many amazing faculty. Prior to working here, my only experience with doctors had been as a patient, so being able to work with them as colleagues, I’ve really come to appreciate how much they do. I appreciate the kindness, camaraderie, and support the faculty provide to the library and us as librarians.
Lastly, I really appreciate our amazing admin team within the Himmelfarb Library, including our Director, Laura Abate, and the Associate Director for Library Operations, Ruth Bueter. There is truly such a great spirit of teamwork among the three of us.
| |
Can you share some of your favorite resources that Himmelfarb has for our educators and researchers?
Tom: Some of my favorite resources for educators and researchers are those that streamline people's work, such as the Covidence software. This software dramatically decreases the amount of time required to perform a systematic review. Whenever I demonstrate Covidence to people with prior systematic review experience, their jaws drop when they realize how much time Covidence will save them.
In addition to software, some of the services we offer, such as the systematic review support service and a suite of author support services we provide, are very useful to educators and researchers. We are always identifying and adding new support services to better address changing patron needs.
Our Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC) is also a very helpful resource that functions as an online repository. This repository includes information such as faculty publications, conference presentations, and a variety of types of student work. The departments we serve have recently held their GW Research Showcase events, and we have been working on collecting posters from these events so they can be referenced in the future through a permanent URL. The HSRC has also allowed faculty and students to link previous work to their CVs and resumes so that they are easily accessible.
| |
How can faculty or students submit their scholarly work and research to the Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC)?
Tom: The first step would be to ensure that everyone who worked on the research project agrees to share it through the HSRC. Afterward, it is pretty simple to add this work to the database. Individuals can email hsrc@gwu.edu requesting their work be added to the repository, and the HRSC facilitators will contact them with the next steps.
We accept various types of scholarly output, such as posters, final projects, theses, and dissertations. Since the students or faculty put so much work into these things, this repository ensures that hard work does not disappear and gives it a way to last through time. We encourage students and faculty to submit any work they want to share.
| |
What about the future of Himmelfarb Library excites you?
Tom: In many ways, the pandemic brought about major changes to the library. The work experiences are certainly different and our team has regularly been adding new librarians and staff. It has been exciting to see how these changes to our landscape have occurred, but our library still carries on the longstanding tradition of excellent service. We have great people who work hard to provide the best possible services to our patrons. This includes not only the people in the library departments that I oversee but also the efforts of our other departments, such as the library operations and web services teams, who work so hard behind the scenes to ensure that we not only have an optimal selection of high-quality resources but also that those resources are as accessible as possible for everyone. It is really a team effort, and I am excited to see what the future has in store for our group. Our social media presence is a great way to stay connected with what we are working on and upcoming events!
| |
What impact do you hope your efforts will have on your trainees, colleagues, and peers?
Tom: When I first joined the library, I quickly noticed there was a strong focus on the academic, medical, and health community members who we serve. The team at Himmelfarb truly aims to go beyond to serve our community's research and education needs and provide the best service possible. This culture was created by the combined effort of so many current and past colleagues, including those in leadership positions when I started, and certainly many people who were here before me. When I think about the library's impact and what I hope continues, I remember the legacy of our past leaders, such as Anne Linton, the former Director of Himmelfarb, and Alex Gomes, the former Director of Reference and Instruction. These individuals exemplified the idea of supporting our patrons and being adaptable in the face of change, and it was truly a privilege to work with them for so many years. Both have since moved on from Himmelfarb, but we still have a very strong connection to that culture through our current librarians and staff members. The library continues to carry on these ideals and we continue to be a place where people can go to get help and be treated with respect and care.
| |
How does this spotlight/recognition make you feel?
Tom: I am deeply honored on a personal level to be recognized in this way, especially as the first person from the library. I had the opportunity to be a part of the Master Teacher Leadership and Development program and truly have admired the work done by the CFE to promote teaching excellence and leadership among faculty. So it's really a great honor to be recognized by the center and I am glad to be able to share the work we do within Himmelfarb.
| |
What is one thing that keeps you motivated during the day?
Tom: Sometimes, in an academic library, you do not always immediately see or appreciate the impact of the work that you do because you become so focused on the day-to-day operations and resolving issues that arise. That said, one of the most motivating things is to hear when faculty and students share how the library has helped them and how some resource or service we've provided has directly and profoundly impacted them and their professional and educational endeavors.
In thinking about what motivates me day by day, there is a quote that comes to mind from Teddy Roosevelt, that I originally came across in ‘Dare to Lead’ by Brené Brown, “There is no effort without error and shortcoming.” I like that quote because it means that when you make a mistake, it proves that you're at least trying to do something. You're trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
On a more personal note, I'm motivated by my family, including my wife, who has always been so supportive. Also my daughter, who’s three years old, and my son, who is one and a half. I always look forward to coming home and having them greet me when I open the front door after a long metro ride.
| |
|
|
|
|
