Associate Fellowship Program: 2005-2006 Associate Fellows

From left to right:
Cristina Horta, Lisa Massengale, Oscencio Tom, Elizabeth Whipple, Mellanye Lackey, Amy Harper.

Meet the Associates

Amy Harper
Ms. Harper received her MLIS in May 2005 from the University of Washington. Her most recent library experience is with PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), where she provides reference and document delivery services to NGO staff involved in global health issues. She also has varied experience in academic and special libraries, including circulation, serials, cataloging, preservation, and acquisitions. Amy's professional interests include providing access to resources in support of international public health initiatives, organizational knowledge management and infrastructure, and public health informatics. She is also interested in consumer health informatics and the role of informationists in clinical health care. Her undergraduate training was in Latin and Classics.

Mellanye Lackey
Ms. Lackey received her MSI in April 2005 from the University of Michigan. She has experience as a reference assistant in both the medical library and public health library at the University of Michigan. She has also served as a summer intern in Hungary at the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe. She also spent two years in Americorps, serving in the San Francisco Conservation Corps and the Boston public schools. Her undergraduate degree was in Women’s Studies. Mellanye’s interests include increasing information literacy and improving online access to public health information. She is also interested in exploring ways to help new learners understand evidence-based practice.

Elizabeth Whipple
Ms. Whipple received her MLS in August 2005 from Indiana University Bloomington. She has experience as a reference assistant in Indiana University's Main Library and Life Sciences Library, where her duties included direct reference, bibliographic instruction, compiling serials data, and Website content management. She completed an internship at the Garceau Library at St. Vincent's Hospital, where she worked on consolidating all of the print and electronic journal information into a home-grown database. She also has experience working with an electronic journals subscription system in the Library Information Technology department at Indiana. Beth's interests include open access, electronic journals, and international public health issues. She is also interested in collaboration with other medical libraries and federated searching tools. Her undergraduate degree is in Mathematics.

Oscencio Tom
Mr. Tom received his MLS in May 2005 from the University of Arizona. He completed a graduate internship in Collection Services at the Arizona Health Sciences Library, where he worked on projects related to gift collections and interlibrary loan. He also has experience as a library assistant in the University of Arizona’s Law Library, including records management, filing of loose-leaf serials, circulation, and reference. As an undergraduate student, he worked with the Community Health Representative Organization of the Navajo Nation, where he developed a data entry procedures manual for a patient registry database and trained Community Health Representatives in its use. His undergraduate degree is in Communication. His interests while at NLM include being exposed to electronic library services, information technologies and networking. He also plans to continue to expand his knowledge of information seeking behaviors.

Lisa Massengale
Ms. Massengale received her MLIS in June 2003 from the University of Pittsburgh. She has two years professional experience as a reference librarian at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, where the library serves jointly as an academic and public library. In addition to providing direct reference services to undergraduates, graduates, and the general public, she is involved in library instruction, collection development, and Web page maintenance. She also has prior experience in circulation at a community college. Her undergraduate degree is in English Literature. Her interests include public health, user system design, and outreach.

Cristina Horta
Ms. Horta is from Mozambique and is participating in the program as an International Fellow. She comes to us with 28 years experience as a librarian and manager in Mozambique and Swaziland. Ms. Horta received her MLS degree in 1991 from SUNY-Buffalo, where she also had a graduate assistantship as a reference librarian in the University Library’s Government, International Organizations and Business Documents Department. She currently serves as a documentalist for the Ministry of Health’s Directorate for Planning and Cooperation. Her career also includes experience as Chief Librarian for the Mananga Agricultural Management Centre in Swaziland, Assistant Librarian in the Cataloging Department of the University of Swaziland Library, Librarian and Information Officer for The British Council in Mozambique, and Assistant Librarian for the Portuguese Cultural Centre in Mozambique. Her undergraduate training was in History.