Stephanie Roth is a medical research librarian and currently works in the academic setting where she serves as team lead of the systematic review service. She has over 10 years of experience as a co-authored systematic review librarian. In addition, she designed an open-access model for providing a team-based systematic review service and teaches the model to other librarians as an Medical Library Association (MLA) CE course, now webinar, Easy Steps to Building a Systematic Review Service. She is also the instructor for a Library Juice Academy course, Systematic Review Essentials and is currently serving as the Caucus Chair for the MLA Systematic Reviews Caucus. When she is not working she enjoys running, surface pattern design and spending time with her husband and two daughters.
What is your site’s URL?
www.systematicreviewlibrarian.com
Briefly, what is the current purpose of your site?
To share my systematic review work all in one place and to highlight my course. I also wanted to keep some of this work separate from my job so the two don’t overlap. My webinars and course must be worked on outside of work hours so it made sense to move it away from my job and have it live in its own place.
Was the original purpose of your site different from this current purpose? If yes, how and why did it change?
I bought the domain name before I knew what the purpose would be but the domain name was the inspiration. It was sort of ironic because I had hoped for an official systematic review librarian title at work so essentially I gave myself the title before anyone else gave it to me.
Are you actively looking for work? (check all that apply)
√ Other: I am always looking to grow and I am open to new opportunities whether that be internal or external.
Has your site brought you any work? And if so, what?
I have gained email subscribers and some interest in my course and the new self-paced course that I now have. Having that list was recently really helpful and allowed me to use my own internal network to find volunteers for my July webinar.
About Your Site and Sites in General
Did you pay someone to design or build your site?
√ No
Which of the following content do you have on your site (check all that apply)?
√ Descriptions or list of services you provide
√ References, testimonials and/or press
√ Twitter or other social media feed
√ Your Bio
√ Your photo
Which of the following personal links or connection methods do you provide on your site? (Check all that apply)
√ Contact Form
√ Form for people to subscribe to your content
√ ORCiD
Is your site strictly library/archives/LIS related?
√ Yes
When was your site last updated?
√ Within the last month
What causes you to update your site, and about how frequently does that occur?
If I have a change in a date a course is offered or once in a while I get the urge to change something.
Does your site use any of the following platforms/services?
√ WordPress.com
How much do you pay annually to run your website? (for numbers not in American dollars, please use other)
√ $20.01-$50
Do you allow comments on your site?
√ No
Do you have advertising on your site?
√ No
Do you have analytics on your site?
√ Yes
About how many people visit your site in a month?
√ Other: It ranges from 50-300+
Is having a personal website a “must”?
√ Nope! Not at All!
Do you have any privacy concerns associated with sharing your personal information, resume, etc., on a public website? If so, what measures do you take to feel safer?
No, I don’t share a full resume. I am very careful about how much private information I share. I try to stick with keeping the website and social media platforms strictly professional.
What advice would you give someone wanting to create their own personal professional site?
Don’t wait for perfection to launch. Get it done and then you can work on improving it over time.
This is funny but I was once asked to design a website for a previous job and I didn’t know how to code so I used a basic Weebly account to design what looked like a more expensive and complex website. Librarians are usually pretty good at figuring things out!
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your website? Or personal websites in general?
This is actually my secondary website. I recently upgraded my primary website (for surface pattern design) to WordPress Pro. I love all the features with Pro and I would love to upgrade this one at some point. The Pro version integrates much better with my email service provider and it would make signing up for my newsletter much easier.
What is your job title?
Biomedical & Research Services Librarian
What types of organizations do you work for or with? (Check all that apply)
√ Academic Library
√ Other: Medical Library
What part of the world are you in?
√ Northeastern US
Anything else you’d like to say, to me or to the readers?
I haven’t had my website for that long, it is still very new. It only took minutes to create on WordPress and I do most of it from my phone. I was able to create it and then leave it which is nice. I also feel like I lucked out with the domain name! I love to search for domain names and once in a while something will stick.
Thanks for reading! If you have a personal professional website that you’d like to talk about, please fill out the survey.
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