NLTN Library user profile – Dr. Paul Park, California Food and Drug Laboratory Branch

Paul Park has been top of the charts as our most frequent NLTN Library user for the past two years. Dr Park is Research Scientist IV, Food and Drug Laboratory Branch (FDLB), California Department of Public Health (where the NLTN Library is housed, so he has a “home field advantage.”) His group recently received an award from the International Association for Food Protection “in recognition of their innovative work in the development and optimization of the recirculating immunomagnetic separation (RIMS) technique in successfully identifying E. coli outbreak strains from food and environmental samples,” stemming from last year’s outbreak of E. coli in spinach.

This is ‘outbreak season,’ a busy time for the FDLB,  recently involved in investigating possible Listeria monocytogenes in tofu and E. coli in bagged salad mix.

Here are Park’s comments on the library and NLTN: “NLTN is a very important source for me in getting information in microbiology. The books are generally up to date and provide valuable background information on subjects that I am looking for. Of particular interest to me are 1) microarrays (there are 4 books on it) – as it provides background info on the subject; 2) bioterror – organisms and “effects” and 3) training materials – such as microscopy and DNA techniques.

I particularly value the audio/video portion of NLTN – especially the training videos. Of course, the frequent NLTN training seminars via the web are invaluable – and I like the fact that the speaker’s slides are available for download before and after the session.”