A university would not be complete without a library. In honor of Library Lover’s Month, American University of Health Sciences (AUHS) sends all its love and admiration to its very own librarian, Stephanie Lien.
“I think library love should be year round,” Lien said, “A lot of people don’t r
ealize the kind of resources that libraries have. The role of public libraries has expanded from being just about books to being community centers with movies, game nights and more.”
Lien’s love for books began at a young age. When she was a teenager, Lien was an avid reader of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Some of her all-time favorite novels are The Messenger by, Markus Zusak and The Trial by Franz Kafka. Lien also enjoys classic works from Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy. Recently, Lien has been reading nonfiction essays such as “Is Everything Determined?” by Stephen Hawking.
Lien has her own personal library at home with a “never ending collection of books.” She has two full bookshelves and the rest of her collection is stacked on the floor.
Not only did Lien’s passion for reading influence her to become a librarian but her interest in helping others to obtain the same knowledge and information.
“Being a librarian means you’re exposed to a lot of different kinds of information,” Lien said, “I like the role of helping people find info either in personal interest and academic research.”
Lien explained how when she was a child, she said she wanted to get a “Masters in everything.”
“Obviously (getting a Masters in everything) isn’t possible,” Lien said, “But when you think of being a librarian, you can be knowledgeable with a lot of different fields because you have access to a lot of different information.”
The majority of the publications available in the AUHS library are related to healthcare and medical studies to better serve the university’s nursing students. Lien and AUHS Teaching Assistant Jeanetta Mastron have recently created five resource shelves that will help AUHS students in their academic research or serve as a supplement to their studies.
The “Community Resources” shelf contains flyers and brochures about healthcare and medical services.
The first resource shelf that is available in the AUHS library is “Community Resources” which has flyers and brochures on topics such as health information for senior citizens, consumer health, and clinical trials. The “Community Resources” shelf even has a list of emergency hotlines for the Long Beach area including numbers for Alcoholics Anonymous, a child abuse hotline, a suicide hotline, and more.
The second resource shelf is the “New Periodical Arrivals” which holds the newest magazines and journals the university has received. These publications have been put out on display to make it easier for students to find them. This shelf includes publications from NIH MedlinePlus, Minority Nurse, Medical Design Briefs, etc.
The third resource shelf is called, “New Book Arrivals.” This shelf contains new books the university had received in the last month or so. Some books that are currently available on this shelf include The Nurse Anesthesia Pocket Guide by Lynn Fitzgerald Macksey, Policy and Leadership by Gayle Roux and Judith A. Halstead, the 2017 Oncology Nursing Drug Handbook by Gail M. Wilkes and Margaret Barton-Burke, and much more.
“In the future, the ‘New Book Arrivals’ shelf will be more geared towards certain courses being taught at the university, so they can supplement what you would be learning in class,” said Lien, “You may be able to use these books for research papers or other academic projects.”
The fourth resource shelf is “Academic Resources.” The resources in this shelf show you how to use academic resources that are free to access of had been purchased by the University. The “Academic Resources” shelf has APA guide handouts and guides on how to on how to use online databases such as Journal Storage (JSTOR), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Avid Open Access. It also has guides on how to use MedLife Plus, PubMed, and more.
The “Personal Interest” shelf contains self-help, fiction and nonfiction books for your reading enjoyment.
The final resource shelf is “Personal Interests.” This section is mostly fiction and nonfiction books that do not necessarily fit anywhere in the AUHS library but are available for your reading enjoyment. Books include Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton, Homer’s The Odyssey, self-help books, and more.
Libraries are meant to help provide the community access to books, computers and other sources of information. However, there are those who forget that libraries are a place of quiet and study. When visiting a library it is important to be courteous to other guests and have proper library etiquette.
Lien asks AUHS library guests to please not bring food or drink, except for bottled water. AUHS nursing students must wear their blue uniforms at all times or will be prohibited from checking out books or accessing the computers in the university library. Students are also not allowed to wear hats.
She asks AUHS nursing students to be respectful of the space they enter and to please return chairs, books and other items where they first found them. If a library guest takes a book from the shelf and is not exactly sure where to put it back, he or she can leave the book on the empty space of the shelf so a helpful librarian can reshelve it in its proper place. Please do not be disruptive to other guests in the library and to not have prolonged conversations. The AUHS library is “a quiet zone” and not meant for group study.
AUHS is a private, for-profit, minority owned, minority serving, Christian-based university whose mission is to educate and equip students with life careers and to produce quality health care professionals for the community, the nation and the world. It is a university where appreciation of life and one’s spiritual reason for existence can be nurtured.
AUHS offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSPS) and a Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR). To request more information, email admissions@auhs.edu or call (562) 988-2278. For the latest news, pictures and videos of American University of Health Sciences’ events, like us on Facebook @auhs.edu and follow us on Twitter @AUHS_Campus and Instagram @auhsedu.