Emily Vardell is an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University. She teaches courses on the foundations of library science, reference, research methods, and health sciences librarianship. Her experiences as a gay woman who endured a long infertility journey inform her approach to research and scholarship which focus on health justice and addressing disparities through the lens of information behavior. Her recent publications address health insurance literacy, infertility information practices, and library science education best practices and trends. She recently co-edited the book Health Literacy and Libraries (Rowman & Littlefield). She is an active member of the Medical Library Association (MLA), including serving as Co-Chair of the 2024 National Program Committee and a member of the Educational Steering Committee. She has received grants from MLA and the Network of the National Library of Medicine, been awarded MLA’s Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award and the Beta Phi Mu Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, and served as a Fulbright scholar in Vienna, Austria.

Publications: 

Vardell, E., Wang, T., & Linares, B. M. Infertility Consumer Health Information and Resources (Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, 2024) 

Ming, Y., Vardell, E., & Thomas, P. Social Support and Health Information Sharing on Reddit: A Qualitative Analysis of Infertility Patient Experiences (South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association Conference, 2024)  

Vardell, E., Wang, T., & Linares, B.  Mapping Health Information Resources to an Infertility Patient’s Journey (ASIS&T Midwest Chapter Spring Symposium, 2024)

Vardell, E., Wang, T., & Linares, B. Investigating Infertility Information Needs (Southern Chapter/South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association Joint Conference, 2023) 

Vardell, E., Wang, T., & Linares, B. “I Wish There Was a One-stop Shop for a Lot of This”: Participant Design of an Infertility Consumer Health Resource (Medical Library Association | Special Library Association Joint Annual Conference, 2023) 

 Vardell, E., & Wang, T.  The Information Consumer Consumed by Information (Association for Information Science and Technology Mid-Year Conference, 2023)