Linda A. Watson Medical Library Association President 2002–2003

A simple recipe for success: choose a career you love … give it the best there is in you … seize your opportunities … and be a member of a team.—Anonymous

A simple recipe …

Proud of her New England roots, Linda Watson reflects all that is best about the region. She demonstrates an appreciation for history but a commitment to innovation and evolution. She celebrates Yankee ingenuity and technology but revels in her love for nature. She is committed to democratic collaboration and invites all to participate; but she does love to play sports and plays to win. So what does this say about the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) new president? Above all, Linda's life reflects a commitment to the values of excellence, balance, and service.

Linda grew up in the small rural town of Brookfield, Connecticut, in a house built by her father and uncle. The oldest of three sisters, Linda spent her childhood dividing her time between school, sports (particularly the Brookfield Belles softball team), pets, music, and enjoying the outdoors and visits to Jones Beach, Long Island, and to her grandparents' home in Hudson, New York. And always there were books—books about far away places, adventurous children, and animals, most special of all, stories about horses. But central to everything was her family. As Linda will tell you, she had “a stable family, with loving parents who had high expectations and strong moral values, and who sacrificed so that their children could thrive. It was a totally supportive environment” [1].

Choose a career you love …

Linda began her career in public services with an emphasis in collection services management. Of course, she was sixteen, working part-time at Joyce Memorial Public Library in Brookfield, and her salary was a whopping $1.00 an hour. Now this job could be described by less-informed observers as a simple first job, nothing more than reshelving and checking out books. But that would be underestimating the allure of libraries and underestimating Linda's understanding of the important role libraries can play in people's lives.

After attending Georgetown University for two years and transferring to the University of Connecticut, she graduated in 1972 with a degree in French. When reviewing graduate school options, Linda found a book in the University of Connecticut library titled So You Want to Be a Librarian? (No kidding! [2]). Her love for books, her earlier experience in libraries, and the fast-track nature of the degree convinced her to select librarianship. Linda attended Simmons College in Boston, worked part-time at the Boston Public Library and Spaulding Printing Company, and received her master's degree in library science in December 1973.

Give it the best there is in you …

Following graduation, Linda moved to Maryland. In March 1974, she was hired for her first professional job, at $4.00 per hour, at Tracor Jitco, a Maryland contracting firm that assigned her to a position conducting a serials inventory at the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC. Her next contract assignment was in late 1974 at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). She managed a project to recatalog their 20,000 journals from corporate main entry to title main entry, conduct an inventory, enter data into their computer system, and then supervise the physical move of the journals. It was her first project manager position. She worked hard and could see progress, and the NLM staff appreciated her work. They encouraged her to apply for NLM's postgraduate intern program. Linda began her life as an NLM library associate in September 1975. Eight years later, Linda was in charge of the curriculum for the associate program and on the interview team.

In 1976, Linda was named AVLINE coordinator at NLM. The late 1970s and early 1980s were pioneering years, when many new trends emerged in the use of educational technologies. Throughout her work with the creation of the AVLINE database, coordinating the quality review process with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and setting up the audiovisual (AV) lending network of libraries, Linda began to see the breadth of accomplishments that could come from visionary leadership, inclusive discussions during design, and efforts of a talented and committed group of individuals. The AV librarians of the day were a skilled and intrepid group, not afraid to explore new technologies amidst early skepticism. What began as AV services in many institutions evolved into computer labs, which today are ubiquitous.

During this period, she also had the opportunity to serve on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) national advisory boards for early information clearinghouses on diabetes and arthritis, an opportunity that has come full circle with her recent appointment as a member of the NIH PubMed Central National Advisory Committee.

Her first significant involvement in a professional association was with the Health Sciences Communications Association (HeSCA) from 1977 to 1985, serving on the Board of Directors in 1981 to 1983. She then turned her attention and energy to MLA and was the editor of the MLA News “Media Column” from 1984 to 1985. At the 1983 Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, Linda encouraged her colleagues.

You are a critical point in the continuum from AV production to a program's ultimate use. You have the purchasing power. I'm suggesting that you use it! Get involved in the AV production process at your institution, make yourself part of the production team. Provide specific detailed feedback to producers whose materials you preview, both positive and negative. Let them know you are aware of what constitutes quality. Don't give up—have confidence that collectively we will be able to affect improvement in the quality of AV materials. Medical librarians are the points of contact with the ultimate users. We should take full advantage of that position, and our expertise, to play an important role in improving health sciences education. [3]

Change the subject from AV production to electronic publishing and licensing issues and Linda's words are as relevant today as they were in 1983. Her approach to challenges to our profession is the same: methodical analysis followed by gathering and encouraging the team to attack the issue.

What did the associate program and work at NLM mean to Linda? “NLM gave me grounding for my career that could not have been matched anywhere. I learned from good bosses and mentors [Dan Tonkery, Lillian Kozuma, Sally Sinn, Betsy Humphreys, Bill Cooper], … had a fair amount of responsibility and national exposure and opportunity to travel promoting AVLINE at MLA, AAMC, and HeSCA meetings. I made some wonderful lifelong friends.” Personal milestones were also awaiting Linda at NLM.

In 1979, I met Bill [Cooper] when he joined the National Library of Medicine as associate director for planning, and later served as acting director of the Lister Hill Center and finally associate director of extramural programs during the exciting time when [the Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems] (IAIMS) were conceived and implemented. Nina Matheson and Bill made a terrific team in selling the concept and making sure the funding was there for it. Bill and I were married in December 1983, and I instantly gained a family—four grown children and several grandchildren!

In January 1984, Linda and Bill brought home another addition to their family, an eight-week-old ball of fluff named Casey, a beautiful Keeshond puppy. The same month Linda began riding lessons at Potomac Horse Park, a wedding present from Bill that eventually led to a life-long dream come true in 1993 when she acquired Chance Encounter, a horse of her own. Today, Casey and Chance are no longer with the family, but a spirited Keeshond named Shadow rules the household.

Seize your opportunities …

While at NLM, Linda was involved in a variety of special projects and initiatives. She worked on a team to define and implement an NLM preservation policy and worked to devise and implement a plan to reduce the cataloging backlog. One interesting project was “to chair a task force that produced a Report on Patient and Health Education Literature back in 1983 when NLM was still hesitant toward extending services to anybody but health professionals.”

After ten years, Linda felt the need to move on and wanted to focus on developing her skills in academic health sciences library management. Linda spent the next five years, from 1985 to 1990, at the Houston Academy of Medicine, Texas Medical Center Library. The Texas Medical Center Library was a challenging place to work, exactly what Linda had hoped to find. The library was an interesting environment, with many opportunities to learn.

The director, Richard Lyders, provided my colleagues and me [James Bingham, Kathryn Hoffman, Neil Rambo, Damon Camille, Janice Apted] opportunity to “spread our wings.” I started as director of information services (reference) and moved up to associate director for public services and then associate executive director for library operations. These were exciting times—implementing a locally mounted MEDLINE system TexSearch, coming up with a new online catalog, creating a professional-looking newsletter.

Leaving Houston was difficult, but Linda had accomplished her goals in Houston. It was now time to bring her experience and ideas together in a position as a director. It was also time to expand her activities in professional organizations.

And be a member of a team

Linda is committed to the concept of individual responsibility but understands how powerful the results can be when committed people come together as a team. From her childhood Brookfield Belles softball team; to high school participation in field hockey, softball, and basketball; to games played at Houston's Softball Country Club, Linda has learned about what could be accomplished through teamwork.

When Linda visited the University of Virginia (UVA) campus in December of 1989, she knew she had found an environment where she could thrive: “I remember my first interviews at the university … everything that had appealed to me in my research about UVA was true …. I sensed there would be a true collegial partnership between ‘administration’ and the library …. I'd have lots of autonomy, but also a lot of support to take the library into the future.”

Her perception has proved to be true. She credits Don Detmer, then–vice president, and Bob Reynolds, senior associate vice president, with setting the tone for library involvement. As director of the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library since 1990, Linda has been an integral part of the UVA Health System team. Linda has served on more than fifteen management and leadership committees at the university. She currently focuses on the UVA Health System Web Steering Committee, the Advisory Group for Academic Computing in the health sciences, the University Libraries Committee, and the campuswide University of Virginia Committee on Information Technology. She is also a lecturer in the School of Medicine's Department of Health Evaluation Sciences and has taught information retrieval as part of the health informatics curriculum. Linda is a member of the UVA Executive Leadership Network and has been a senior leader in the university's annual Combined Virginia campaigns (similar to United Way campaigns).

From 1994 to 1996, Linda was co-principal investigator on an IAIMS planning grant from NLM. In that role, she brought teams of UVA clinicians, basic scientists, and library and information professionals together. Linda's efforts during the grant laid the groundwork for cooperative partnerships that continue to guide UVA Health System planning. It also led to a number of consulting opportunities at other academic institutions.

In the library, one of Linda's key initiatives was to extend the library's public service outreach mission. Following a successful Grateful Med Outreach Grant from NLM that concluded in 1993, she received state funding for and recruited an outreach librarian to live and work with rural health professionals in far southwest Virginia. Private funding was then obtained to add another outreach librarian in south central Virginia. Currently, plans are underway to serve a Hispanic migrant population in western Virginia. Outreach has been, and remains, a key area of interest and commitment, for Linda.

As chair of the Virginia Council of Health Sciences Librarians, Linda was project director of the Virginia Medical Information System subcontract from the Southeastern/Atlantic Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM). Running from 1992 to 1996, funding was provided to place connecting technologies and provide training support to small hospitals and health care centers throughout the state of Virginia. For this effort and her leadership across the region, Linda was presented the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of MLA's Librarian of the Year Award in 1995.

In 1996, Linda turned her attention from building an external people-based network infrastructure to rebuilding a bricks-and-mortar infrastructure closer to home. After six years of making the case, state funding was received to expand and totally renovate the twenty-year-old health sciences library building. Teams of staff, facilities planners, architects, technology consultants, interior designers, and then construction contractors ruled Linda's life for the next six years. Talk about a team effort! Now, in 2002, staff and users alike appreciate the “new” Claude Moore Health Sciences Library.

During the 1990s, Linda expanded her role as a team player in professional organizations. From 1990 to 1994, Linda was vice-chair of the Joint MLA/Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) Legislative Task Force and in 1994 testified on behalf of that group at the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Health. With Carol Jenkins, she authored the associations' statement on the role of medical librarians in health care reform [4]. From 1996 to 2000, she served on the editorial board of the Annual Statistics of Medical School Libraries in the United States and Canada and in 2001 on the Future Leadership Taskforce.

Beginning in 1993, Linda's interests began to focus on medical librarians, their role in the health care environment, and the future of the profession. She served on the NLM Planning Panel on the Education and Training of Health Sciences Librarians from 1993 to 1994. She helped define the context in which librarians should make plans in her chapter, “Health Sciences Environment,” in volume 7 of the Current Practice in Health Sciences Librarianship series [5]. She also served as program chair for the 1995 MLA Annual Meeting, a joint meeting that year with the International Congress of Medical Librarianship.

In 1996, Linda was elected to the Board of Directors of MLA. Her term was from 1996 to 1999, and she served as treasurer from 1997 to 1999. Additional board assignments included a liaison appointment to the Continuing Education (CE) Committee. She was active in discussions to develop innovative methods of delivering CE to members. Her interest in creating a dynamic, enabling organization that can help the membership pursue their goals in a variety of creative ways was a theme of her tenure on the board.

She joined one more team during the 1990s. She and her library staff formed the MEDLINERs and participate annually in the UVA Hospital's co-ed softball league. With typical enthusiasm, Linda happily stated, “We've had good years and not so good years, but it is always a lot of fun and many library staff come out and cheer us.” The team even has its own Website ( h s c . v i r g i n i a . e d u / h s - l i b r a r y /general/medliners/)!

A simple recipe for success …

What does she want to accomplish as president? In her reply to the MLA Nominating Committee's questions during the election for president, Linda's answers reflected her beliefs. She spoke about the power of the team and the needs of individuals.

How does MLA add unique value to the professional lives of its members when there are other organizations competing for our time and attention? MLA needs to focus its attention and resources on areas of strength. Nationally, MLA has developed increasing visibility and impact through our legislative programs and our public relations initiatives with the help of skilled professionals. These initiatives reflect the strength in numbers that MLA must build on, as few of us individually can have such a broad impact. MLA should seek ways, however, to engage more of us in these efforts at the local level. [6]

So what do we know about our new president? She believes that success starts with a supportive environment. From that start, there is a continuum that will lead to excellence. While teamwork is essential, the individual talents and commitments of each member are essential to success. She believes in serving, doing one's best, and making time for the things one loves to create balance.

Why did use I the theme, “A Recipe for Success?” Did I mention she is also a wonderful cook?