Help for a person interviewing to be a librarian at a dental school?

December 27, 2003 8:52 AM

My friend has an interview for a job as librarian at a dental school. His background is in the humanities. Can anybody clue him in about what resources are used in this field, and point him to books or websites that would help him to learn about dentistry? Are there any 'hot topics' in dentistry he should be aware of?
posted by stonerose to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Mercury poisoning, but your friend had better not mention it.
posted by troutfishing at 10:25 AM on December 27, 2003

Medical librarian jobs have more to do with keeping the staff apprised of current topics than knowing them yourself. If your friend is going to be a librarian, it would probably be good for your friend to have at least a passing knowledge of MESH [medical subject headings] in the dental realm as well as what the good informational websites and journals are that are out there. Looking at some dental library websites [here, here and here] and seeing what they have linked is a good start. Remember, they won't expect your friend to be a dentist, just know where to go for dental information.

When I worked in a small medical library, a lot of what I did was skim the journals, copy out articles for the staffers, kept the library in good shape, set up systems for self check-out and check-in and circulated the journals we got before they went on the shelf. Sometimes I'd do NLM searches on topics that the doctors wanted more information about. It's not rocket science but it's worth being fairly handy with information sources and, at some level, being a "people person"
posted by jessamyn at 1:25 PM on December 27, 2003