Welcome to Mary Thomas, Hardin’s newest liaison librarian! Mary joined the Hardin staff on August 15, 2022 and is a recent graduate of the Master of Library Science program at Emporia State University and did an internship at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Boulder Labs Library. Mary was also a member of the 2021-2022 cohort of the Research Training Institute of the Medical Library Association, a competitive online program designed to provide training in advanced research methods to health sciences librarians. Mary’s research on the use of Mental Health First Aid training for library staff resulted in a virtual poster presented at the 2022 conference of the Medical Library Association in May.
Mary previously lived in Boulder, Colorado, where she received bachelor degrees in Psychology and English are from the University of Colorado. While working as a high school English teacher, she realized she could combine her interests in information literacy and health information in one job as a medical librarian.
After several weeks of orientation and training at Hardin, May will become the liaison to several departments, including Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Neurology, and will join other Hardin librarian in teaching Hardin Open Workshops sessions. Mary is excited to be able to use her teaching and librarian skills with her new community at Hardin.