Celebrating National Medical Librarians Month!

Submitted by: Tara Douglas-Williams, MLA President

Medical Librarians: Trusted Expertise in Times of Change

October is National Medical Librarians Month, and I want to take a moment to celebrate you, the incredible health sciences library professionals who make such a difference every day.

As President of the Medical Library Association, I am truly honored to serve this profession that I love. I am proud to be a medical librarian, and I am proud of the work we do.

I believe in our profession. I believe in our expertise. And I believe in the difference we make.

Every day, health information professionals are supporting students, educators, researchers, clinicians, patients, and communities. We help people find the right information when they need it most. We teach others how to navigate an increasingly complicated information environment. We support evidence-based care and research. We create connections, build partnerships, and find new ways to meet the changing needs of the people we serve.

And so much of what we do happens quietly.

We may never know the full impact of the article we helped a researcher find, the search strategy we taught a student, the evidence we helped a clinician locate, or the trusted health information we connected to a community member. But our work matters, and it matters tremendously.

That is why this year’s theme, “Medical Librarians: Trusted Expertise in Times of Change,” resonates with me.

We are living in a time of enormous change. New technologies, artificial intelligence, misinformation, evolving models of healthcare and education, and an overwhelming volume of information are changing the way people find, evaluate, and use information.

Through all of that change, our expertise remains essential.

We know how to ask the right questions. We know how to evaluate information. We know how to find evidence, recognize quality, navigate complexity, and help others make sense of what they find. Most importantly, we bring something that technology cannot replace: our professional judgment, our relationships, our humanity, and our commitment to the people we serve.

So this October, I encourage you to celebrate your work—but also to tell your story.

Tell your colleagues about the difference you make. Share a success story. Highlight a service. Talk about a partnership. Celebrate a student, researcher, clinician, or community member you helped. Let your organization see the expertise and value you bring every day. Sometimes we are so busy doing the work that we forget to talk about the work.

This is our opportunity to make our impact visible.

I want each of you to know how much I appreciate what you do. Thank you for your dedication, your creativity, your willingness to learn and adapt, and your commitment to helping others.

Thank you for being there when people need trusted information.

Thank you for continuing to grow our profession.

Thank you for mentoring, teaching, leading, collaborating, and serving.

And thank you for all of the things you do every day. Both the things that are visible and the many things that happen behind the scenes.

I salute you, I celebrate you, and I am grateful to call you colleagues.

Happy National Medical Librarians Month!

Let’s take this month to remind ourselves, our colleagues, and our organizations of something we already know:

Our work matters.
Our expertise matters.
Our voices matter.
And in times of change, people need us more than ever.

With gratitude and pride,

Tara Douglas-Williams, MSLS, AHIP-D
President, Medical Library Association