Gaines Receives National Award

Athens, GA- Julie K. Gaines, MLIS, AHIP is honored by the Friends of the National Library of Medicine with the 2018 Michael E. DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award for her achievements as an outstanding outreach health sciences librarian. Established in the early 1990s, this award honors a practicing health sciences librarian who provides outstanding services to rural or underserved communities.

Gaines was nominated by the Augusta University Director of Libraries, Brenda Seago, MLS, MA, PhD. Seago who states, “Julie is truly a member of the medical school faculty and is an outstanding role model in all areas of academic life—scholarship, teaching excellence, and service, locally, regionally, and nationally.”

Augusta University / University of Georgia Medical Partnership Campus Dean, Michelle Nuss M.D., said, “our campus is truly lucky to have such an outstanding faculty member like Julie. I am so proud of her many accomplishments and all that she does to teach our students as an embedded librarian.”

In her role as a medical librarian and core faculty member at the Medical Partnership, Gaines has contributed extensive work towards lectures about evidence-based medicine; mentoring students and faculty through the process of obtaining information; helping all learners to discriminate the quality of information; and teaching students and faculty to use the literature to answer clinical and basic science questions both at the bedside and in the classroom. Gaines also plays a significant role in the community and population health components of the curriculum where there is an emphasis on self-directed and small group learning. Her mentorship and guidance of students’ community-based projects as a faculty coach for the Athens Community Council on Aging (ACCA) team has greatly enhanced the overall wellness of the underserved population of older adults.

Outside the classroom, Gaines has contributed to research and collaborations on technology needs, including social, medical, and mobile technologies in academic and clinical settings; was the first librarian accepted as a Service-Learning Fellow at the University of Georgia; as the Chair of the Augusta Universities Library Faculty Assembly; and is the Chair of the Medical Library Association’s Grant and Scholarship Committee.