1
801: Interview with an Information Professional
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Kathryn Pudlock, MLIS (Masters of Library
and Information Science), who is presently the Branch Manager and Consumer Health Librarian of the
Pleasant Valley Branch of the Weber County Library System.
After receiving her B.A. in psychology at Chapman University, Ms. Pudlock thought she would be
a counselor, but while working at a special education facility as a librarian for educational toys, the
resident medical librarian suggested that she attend library school. She took up her suggestion and
completed her studies at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where she focused on public
and medical librarianship—particularly consumer health. Subsequently, she has made three career
changes.
Soon after graduating from UCLA, Ms. Pudlock became the director of a medical library, which
was affiliated with the state developmental system as well as with UCLA’s neuropsychology program.
Since this was a one-person library, she wore many hats, which included budgeting, purchasing and
creating bids for equipment, overseeing library committees, lobbying, seeking sponsors, and dealing
with irate employees whose paychecks were garnished for not returning books.
Her next career change was as a reference librarian, researcher, and instructor for a biomedical
library at the University of California at Irvine. In addition to doing reference work, she wrote articles,
did committee work, made presentations, and facilitated class instruction for medical students.
Moving to Utah, Ms. Pudlock became the librarian at the Ogden Regional Health Care Center,
which was again a one-person library. Doing collection development, she had to fight for everything,
including her budget for journals, books, and internet access (which was vital since funding for books
was limited.) Since the Center is a for-profit organization, she had to justify everything, including her
position. The bottom line was direct patient care. Interestingly, she said that she could only allocate
2
three-hundred dollars per physician for his/her interlibrary loan requests. Going over this amount might
be seen as preferential treatment.
Just across the street from the Ogden Regional Health Care Center, is the Pleasant Valley Library
where she is currently employed. “I’ve come full-circle in my career aspirations,” she said. “I really did
want to work in a public library.” She further added that her education at UCLA and her jobs at the
research library and the biomedical library helped pave the way for her present position. Specifically,
her medical library knowledge, her public speaking experience, and the office skills she gained while
managing a one-person library prepared her to become a branch manager as well as a consumer health
librarian. Currently, she is also working with community clinics and public libraries with the goal of
teaching public librarians to be better able to find health information for their patrons.
During the day, Ms. Pudlock is involved with community relations, managing work flow
(scheduling), personnel issues, building and grounds management, purchasing, as well as providing
reference services. What I thought interesting was that depending on programming, staffing changes.
So, during “Discovery Time,” there would be more people needed at circulation and at the sorting bins.
As for organizations, Ms. Pudlock is affiliated with the Utah Library Association, the American
Library Association, the Medical Library Association (MLA), and the Mid-Continental Chapter of the MLA.
These organizations been helpful, she said, in career development, continuing education, and
networking. “Specifically, they help me keep current on what’s happening in the profession, as well as
providing helpful day to day advice. I find the MLA DocKits are especially helpful.” DocKits, I later
learned, are unedited library documents from different institutions that provide practical how-to advice.