Faculty

Karen Brewer

Karen Brewer, Ph.D., earned her Ph.D. at Case Western Reserve University and has worked for over 3 decades in academic health sciences libraries, with her career focused on the application of information to the solution of health care and research problems.

It is Dr. Brewer's goal as the Director of the NYU Health Sciences Libraries to make sure that not only do NYU's residents and students, faculty, physicians and administrators understand the power of the information that is available to them but that they know how to use it for their own purposes. In order to do this, the library has developed a broad teaching program that occurs in the hospital and clinic practice, in the classroom and on-site in the library. In addition the library is partnering with clinical departments to develop a strong community outreach program in health information for consumers and patients through our consumer health libraries in the hospital, in the Cancer Center and in the Pediatrics Department.

The NYU Health Sciences Library is recognized as a leader in the uses of technology in making health information accessible and understandable. Under Dr. Brewer's leadership, the library was funded by the National Library of Medicine to develop a Chinese language/English language health care web site using dual language patient education sheets from New York Downtown Hospital. Current technology projects include creating digital library projects on the history of NYU School of Medicine; maintaining a list of the publication output and research profiles of our faculty; and partnering with multiple elements of New York University in a National Library of Medicine funded strategic planning process for integrating technology and information science into the development of cancer education at all levels of the health care spectrum.