You may have noticed a new face at the Reference Desk in the past few weeks. Himmelfarb Library is happy to welcome Deborah Wassertzug to our staff! Deborah is Himmelfarb’s newest Reference and Instructional Librarian. She’ll be helping answer your reference questions, assisting in systematic reviews, and will be involved in teaching informatics to Practice of Medicine students. Here are some more things to know about Deborah:
What are you enjoying most about your experience at Himmelfarb Library so far?
Hands down, all of the staff. I've felt so warmly welcomed and am really enjoying getting to know everyone!
What has surprised you?
While I knew that reference and instruction librarians at Himmelfarb are directly involved with a number of courses, learning the extent to which we are has been very exciting for me. I can't wait to observe my colleagues teaching… and then take part myself.
Tell us a bit about your background.
My career in academic libraries began some time ago, and my jobs have tended to support social science disciplines. Due to various life changes, I haven't worked in an academic library full-time in a few years. I'm so happy to be back in a very familiar environment, but also to be immersed in a subject area – health sciences – which is new for me.
During my years away from librarianship, I freelanced as a translator from Italian and Spanish to English. My work has appeared in print and on screen and has ranged from interviews with people who manufacture high-performance automobiles to essays on critically acclaimed films, to documentaries on pasta making (to name just a few). My skills as a librarian served me well as a translator, and my translation skills have been useful as I do a deep dive into health sciences terminology.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I enjoy spending time with my family. We're all big music fans, both as listeners and performers. I gravitate toward obscure books and films. Occasionally I make jewelry. A very recent thing I am doing in my free time is chairing a committee at my synagogue which has planned two semesters a year of adult education classes for the past 45 years. Our group handles finding instructors and topics, marketing the classes, and sending out surveys at the end of the term. When the pandemic began, our classes shifted to Zoom, which made it possible for us to hire instructors from around the world. I never quite knew I had an aptitude for this type of work, but I've had a great time working on our schedule for Spring 2023!
