Today's Hours
This week, we’d like to shine the spotlight on our Public Health Librarian, Emily Pagano. Emily joined CCNY Libraries in 2018 and provides research and reference support to students of the CUNY School of Public Health as well as serving the broader CCNY campus community.
Your educational background I got my bachelor’s degree in history from Hunter and went to Pratt for my MLIS. At Pratt, I concentrated in archives and museum libraries.
Your home town Born in Yonkers and grew up in Hawthorne (both Westchester County NY).
What made you interested in Public Health librarianship? I fell into both academic librarianship and Public Health. I had finished up a contract as an archivist for a project at the United Nations when I was originally hired in July 2017 as a College Assistant at SPH to assist the librarian that was there. Though I don’t have a background in Public Health, I’ve always been interested in science and medicine, especially the ways those things have evolved over the course of history. I’ve just shifted perspective on the type of information I’m making accessible and how. Whether it’s work with undergraduates at CCNY or PhD candidates at SPH, taking on this role has surprised me with how much I enjoy customer/public service (as someone who thought they wanted a career hiding in an archive). I’m finding it very rewarding to not only help people learn and discover, but to aid them in developing their own research and adding their own voices to important scholarly conversations in health and beyond.
Any opinions about the importance of reliable public health information in the age of Covid-19? Of course, the COVID situation has highlighted the significance of public health research as well as the (just as significant) importance of educating the public on that research. We’ve seen how “facts” can change (i.e. at first we were told not to bother wearing masks, now it is more or less mandatory; at first it wasn’t clear the major ways in which the virus spreads, etc.) We’ve also seen how news outlets can (knowingly or not) spread false information, mischaracterize data, etc. People need to know how to spot “good” information as well as know how to find that good information. We are not a public library but being a part of the backbone that supports Public Health research and educating the next generations of Public health experts and professionals feels very good at this moment.
Your research interests? I would like to pursue my second master’s with the Digital Humanities program at the Grad Center. I’m interested in the Digital Textuality track within this program which centers on the ways that scholarship and publishing continue to change with technology and the ways we produce, distribute, and store text and information. It also touches on digital archiving/preservation which appeals to me. I’m really interested in “scholarly communications” and the research lifecycle.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work? My main hobby is travel. Some of my favorite places I’ve been to include Oaxaca, Mexico and the Scottish highlands. I also enjoy food and dining out- I love trying new and different foods or seeking out the best of something. I also love going to museums/cultural institutions, I did archival internships at the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of the City of New York, two of my favorite NYC museums. I also enjoy amateur photography, being outdoors in nature, and of course reading (mainly nonfiction about science, history, and politics; biographies and memoirs).
Any pets? A cat named PJ (short for Pepper Jack like the cheese--because he’s a spicy boy).
To connect with Emily or to find more information on Public Health research resources available through the Library, check out the Public Health research guide at https://library.ccny.cuny.edu/PublicHealth, or email her at emily.pagano@sph.cuny.edu.
0 Comments.