Background: This paper examines the experience of an academic librarian working as a contact tracer during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Librarian’s experience providing information services to both colleagues and clients provided an opportunity to use their Library experience and education in a public health role.
Objective: Reflect on the suitability of an information professional to provide a value-added service to their community through the role of contact tracer.
Description: This Librarian was hired by a contracted, not-for-profit public health organization to provide contact tracing services to their local community. After receiving training on data collection, contact tracing, and local services, they worked in a team setting to support COVID-positive community members and their contacts by contacting individuals and receiving in-bound calls through an informational call center.
Within the team setting, the Librarian was able to provide additional training to colleagues on providing information services, answering reference questions, and considering information ethics in the course of their work. In addition, they provided information resources on relevant topics, and assisted in the development of a vaccine outreach program for home-bound individuals. Experience conducting reference interviews proved especially important in providing a high-quality community service, as many conversations included questions that required exploration to determine the individual’s information need and knowledge gaps.
Conclusion: Librarians, particularly in STEM fields, are particularly well suited to provide services such as contact tracing, due to their training and experience working with people who have information needs, and providing high-quality, reliable information in an effective and ethical manner. Including information professionals in the public health team provides added value for the clients as well as for the other team members, who can benefit from learning many of the standard practices and skills of librarians.
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