Bernard Barrett 

Information Scientist

Health Service Executive West

Biography

Since becoming a Librarian in the late 1980’s, I’ve worked in a variety of settings from School, Academic, Public and Voluntary Agency Libraries, through to my present position in the Directorate of Mental Health, in Limerick, in the Republic of Ireland.  The three words which have become central to so much of what I do are “Reflection, Learning and Empowerment” and I try to put these into practice both in my job as an Information Scientist, and with all those with whom I work.  My second more than full time job is as Chairperson of the Irish Health Sciences Libraries Group - a position I've been elected to since 2000.

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Abstract

Questioning one's mental health: confessions of an Information Specialist.

In my current job, working for the state mental health services, I no longer work in a library, have little to do with librarians, and would not think or dream of visiting a library for most of my information and knowledge needs, and have my base of operations in a Psychiatric Hospital.

Consequently, my mental health as a Health Care Librarian has been considerably challenged, and I've needed to reflect and learn from some of the experiences of the last five years.  My presentation aims to share some of that learning, and will

(a) Point to some of the challenges that may await us as Health Care information and knowledge professionals.

(b) Highlight our potential and resilience to anticipate, respond to and go beyond these.

(c) Set the scene for some of the sessions to take place a little later in the morning.

This page was last updated on: 16 May, 2006