Category: Meet the Board Interview

Tell me about your path to librarianship:

The most literal version of this story is that although I have always been a regular user of libraries, since childhood, I never considered it as a career path at all. My understanding of things began to shift because I decided to go to library school!

I have an undergraduate degree in history and in my senior year I started working for a research company out of the University of Chicago working at the National Archives in Washington D.C. collecting data. I was looking at Civil War records and I fell in love with the work that I was doing. But if I’m honest, I fell in love with the place and the idea of being connected to work of such importance – seeing all the different kinds of research that was going on and the idea that I could be in contact with so many other people’s research in addition to my own research if I were in the archivist’s “seat.” And “Archivist” was surely something I had never heard of before.

So I started looking into what it meant to be an archivist and found out my alma mater, the University of Maryland, had the number two archives program in the country and so I thought “Well, why not?” So I applied, I got in, and started classes the next fall. I graduated with a concentration in archives and records management.

Still, figuring out what that meant for me and the kind of work I wanted to do took some time – I just wanted to work somewhere cool and be connected to researchers. My original plan had been to be a teacher, so the education piece and helping people – finding that sweet spot between being a teacher, an educator and an archivist was really my goal.

But this was in 2008, there was a recession and there were not many jobs available. I also did not have the best guidance when I was in grad school – I didn’t do a lot of networking and connection building that would have been helpful. So I had this degree in hand and not a good idea of what to do next and needed to support myself. So I became a school librarian first.

I worked in a K-12 Charter School in Washington D.C. for 5 years as a school librarian, teacher and Jack-of-all-trades, since that is what it takes to be in a charter school. I helped with the Dance Team, taught after school tutoring and Saturday School. It became my world as a 25 year old figuring out what it means to be an adult. But after five years, I thought “I have to get out of here, this is exhausting.”

I ended up at MontgomeryCollege, a community college right outside of D.C. What an experience! The Libraries were in a restructuring mode, so I got to be a part of that. The work helped me hone my skills as a research librarian, but also exposed me to all kinds of other things like organizational development. I got to work on a redesign project and strategic planning projects. I got connected with other work happening on the campus. I discovered that academic libraries were where I wanted to be. I had found the sweet spot I was looking for: I got to help with research, I got to be involved with projects that teachers and students are doing, I got to be an educator, and I could be connected to the mechanics of it all.

Five years later (the millennial timeline!) I came to UD (The University of Delaware.) My husband and I came to UD together and it has been exciting. I’ve been here since 2017. UD has a lot of opportunity.  

What do you most enjoy about your current position?

My current role, Organizational Development and Learning Librarian is new to our organization. There were things that had been partly covered in other people’s work before, but now are formalized into this new role. The first thing I love about it is the excitement of creating something new. I’m always finding out where the boundaries lie and redefining what my work means. My job description is in flux. I find myself either being pulled into or sticking my nose into all kinds of things that maybe are not included in the job description, but having that flexibility is fun – I’m not a person who can do the same thing every day.

The other thing I love is that despite the libraries having a pretty traditional organizational chart of divisions and departments and units within departments and a long history of those reporting lines being how people work together, I don’t have to worry about that at all because I’m actually in an HR “bucket,” which is floating outside of all of that divisional stuff. The nature of my job is to work across the entire organization.

I get questions, requests for help, and am involved in coaching for our leadership team. It’s not my job to be an expert in the work that people do. My job is to be involved with development, learning, leadership, and staff support – helping them find their way to whatever it is they need to do and I get to do that with everybody from the AULs to individual staff people. People can come to me with HR related issues but also questions like “how can I make this process better?” That flexibility is really fun.

These are difficult times for many people. There’s a global pandemic, its devastating effect on the economy, people are acknowledging anti-Black racism and protesting – there are so many people in real turmoil – and there are real challenges in higher education as a result as well. How have these things impacted your work?

The first thing I have to say is that I feel blessed because this is not affecting my life outside of work. I’m stressed but I have a job, I have a paycheck, my work can continue and my work translates really well to a virtual environment.

I think the biggest thing is that while much of my work is still important, and people think of it as important (people need to learn, to retool, to deal with this new environment) part of my job is to think about ED&I (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) for our organization and I spend a lot of time providing training and trying to do culture building around how we talk about equity. The seeds that were planted before the pandemic are sprouting.

People think it’s important and still want to work on it, but everything takes a back seat right now. That’s the biggest issue for how it’s affecting my work. The things I want to do related to social justice, continuing the learning and growth we’ve been experiencing, facilitating conversations or the REAL work which we have to do, which is to look at our policies and start to ask “How can we make these things anti-racist?” Everyone agrees it’s important, but who has time?

We’re opening our doors on Tuesday [September 1] to completely new circumstances and the unknown. And then there is the spectre of wondering how long it may last. How long before we need to shut down anyway? It’s wild and fatalistic. If I were to show you my calendar and show you the things I’m spending time on, I’m not spending much time at all on longer range plans. I’ve been too busy in meetings trying to figure out our service model because I’m part of the leadership team. 

Priorities have shifted because we are in short term, put out the fire, high anxiety mode. And to add to that, I’m a teacher – I’m thinking about changing behaviors. If it’s about retooling or relearning how to do your job better, or if it’s about how to manage your time or if it’s about reflecting on your bias and how it shows up in the decisions that we make, or how it allows you to see or not see systemic racism… Your brain can not be all cortisol-ed up when you’re doing that work.

The physical manifestation of the stress we are all dealing with does not allow folks to reflect, to slow down, to learn, to build toward the long term vision that we all want to anchor to. Who can anchor to a long term vision when we have no idea what’s around the corner?

So it’s been hard to put those things to the wayside, but some of the things we’re sticking to – it’s on the calendar, it’s what we do. On Tuesday we had our regular, summer, professional development lightning talks and it was great. There were great presentations, there was good conversation. Are people going to take that and run with it like they may have in normal circumstances? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they’ll come back to it in three months when things have calmed down, if they calm down, fingers crossed!

There is something about the fight or flight feelings that we are all experiencing right now that makes the work that I was hired to do, which has two parts, learning and organizational development. The learning needs to go to the wayside for now. Instead I’m spending my time on planning the training that will allow staff to do different work. We’re in the meeting, we’re making the decision, and I’m putting on my facilitator hat thinking about what questions I can ask, how can we look at this from a different angle that will help everyone in the room move past the sticky point in the conversation?

Let’s switch gears… What have you read, attended or participated in recently that has had an impact on your professional development?

Because of the times and because of where we are and needing to decide where I want to put my energy, I’ve been thinking about anti-racism. I just finished Ibram Kendi’s book “How to be an Anti-racist” for the second time. I have a list of things I want to read, but decided to start here.

It’s a lot. It’s a different approach – a different way of using the language of racism. I was able to host a discussion about the content with our staff last week, which was really good. Folks seemed really engaged. We watched a TED Talk that he did and then had a discussion. I appreciate that folks are making space to be direct. The language we have used to couch the issues and provide comfort and a soft landing for some of these ideas is going away. We realize enough is enough.

And it’s not just white people! It’s important that we recognize what Kendi does in his book (and this is what makes it difficult for some people). Dr. Kendi really believes that we all are suffering from the cancer of racism. And we have to figure out how to stop seeing each other’s sickness as something that is inherently about ourselves, and see the culprit – the culprit is the policies and racist structures – and begin to put policies and actions in place that are going to dismantle that so that we can be well.

The impact of anti-Black racism on my life is so much more than the doors that have been closed or opened to me or ways in which my first name has maybe changed how people see me. When people think about racism they think about the inter-personal, or privilege vs discrimination. It has been ingrained in me to judge others based on all kinds of racist criteria even though I push against it all the time.

While this is professional development, it’s totally personal development too. It’s giving me tools to help my colleagues as individuals and giving me tools to help us reframe the conversation for how we make sense of the work that we do, but it’s also helping me heal, and helping me prepare to raise this child and learn to be an advocate in a completely new way. So I’ve really enjoyed engaging with that content.

Reading a book is not going to teach me how to be anti-racist. Reading the book is the beginning. Then there’s the conversations that I’ll have, the self-reflection, the quietly thinking about it. While it’s just the first step, at least my email isn’t distracting me. I can focus with the analog experience of reading a book.

With so many responsibilities and so much going on, why did you choose to contribute so much time and energy to the Delaware Valley Chapter of the ACRL?

I’m new to the area (I’m from the DC area and moved here in 2017) and the first local thing that I did was the chapter event in the Fall of 2017 in Philadelphia, Fact, False or Just Flawed: Critically Examining the News in the Age of Truthiness, with keynote speaker Dr. Pamela Newkirk.

I had never gotten involved in local librarian organizations and ALA was just overwhelming, so to come to this thing and realize that not only is it for librarians, it’s academic librarians. It was focused, the content was rich, the people were wonderful. I remember I recognized someone right away. There was an immediate community I was excited to be connected with because moving away from where you grew up and having to build a whole new community is really tricky.

It was not my intention to run for future president! I thought I’d just get involved, be on the board and help out with events, but the question came my way and I loved the people that I was connecting with and the conversations that I was having and so I said “why not!”

I’m humbled by the opportunity to be in a leadership capacity. The only reason I feel like I can do this is because I know Jasmine will be there and Stefani and Jess and other people that will do this with me. This isn’t about my vision, it’s about helping this community to thrive and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do that.

What are your goals or hopes for the upcoming year?

“To live!” (joking) But literally, I go through my ups and downs of how hopeful I can be. It’s real. I’m lucky to have a house and space and my health and my family is healthy – including the new baby I have on the way, but any of that can change, so it’s scary.

Along with health, to live, is honestly the election. I don’t want to make it political, but it’s that we can have an election and that we get through it and that this country can continue to make itself better. The local elections are so important and that’s really on my mind. Can we all continue to use the model of American democracy to support one another and do what’s needed to get us out of this hell, or is it all going to go down? That’s the deep stuff.

It’s so hard to care about anything beside this little baby right now! My life is about to completely change, but beyond that, I’m very interested in seeing how education will shift. Anyone who wants it to go back to the way it was, is crazy. To me it’s the same conversation as the one we’re having about racism: If you’re confronted with something that shakes your understanding to its core, of course you’re going to say “No, I want to pretend I never heard that! I want to pretend that I’ve never heard of Covid 19. I want to pretend that we’ve never been in this place” But we can’t do that. We have to figure out how not just how to deal with this moment, but ask how do the things we’ve learned change the way we operate going forward?

And I think there’s lots of room for growth in higher education in terms of access, affordability, flexibility, the ways that we hold one another accountable for good pedagogy and stewardship of the work we’ve been asked to do. If it takes a bunch of students taking classes in their pajamas to stand up and ask “Why am I paying so much for this?” If that’s what it takes for us to start to really think about what it is that we’re doing here, who is this supposed to be for and what is the value of it? Then it’s worth it. Because we’re creating even more inequity in continuing to do things the way we’ve done them.

I’m excited about the ways that this crisis will turn into opportunity for growth. And that’s not only about the library. Think of what our online services have become! Wow. There is silver lining and light at the end of this tunnel – if we can survive to the end of the tunnel, there’s light for how things can be improved. But we’ve got to get there. Wear your mask, wash your hands, stay at home!

Tell me about your path to librarianship:

Like many librarians, I loved libraries as a kid. I was a military kid, so there was lots of moving around, lots of new neighborhoods, new schools and friends, but even though there were new libraries, libraries were a constant. I could always find libraries, and could always find librarians too, who were always friendly and like kindred spirits. They always treated me like an adult, they valued my questions, thoughts and curiosities so they have really special places in my heart.

Honestly, when I was an undergrad, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do and then I started working in my library at Pitt (The University of Pittsburgh) and I heard people talk about librarianship and thought “This makes a lot of sense!”

So I went to get my MLS after that, but I graduated into the recession, so it took awhile to get a professional job. I worked an overnight shift at Carnegie Mellon for a few years, and then got a job at Temple working the night shift. While I was at Temple I was lucky to have great supervisors who knew I wanted to be a librarian and they allowed me time and space to go out and do other things, like be at the Reference Desk and get experience doing other library work. I also earned another Masters Degree while I was there and that really helped me to get the Research and Instruction Resident Librarian position at Swarthmore College. 

That was such a wonderful experience. I remember how wonderful Swarthmore was and the library staff. I remember my supervisor Pam Harris would say that the Residency was like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book – I could follow my interests and be supported.

From Swarthmore I went to Lehigh and have been here five years. I think I’ve grown a lot – especially in my philosophy of librarianship, which has expanded to include thinking about students and faculty and community members as people more holistically – about how the library can support who they want to be beyond their academic work.

Quick follow-up – in what discipline is your second master’s degree?

It’s in Educational Psychology. I always wanted to teach and have been interested in teaching, but I was never taught how to teach, so it was great to learn and think about learning theory and cognition.

What do you most enjoy about your current position?

Lots of things! I work with our College of Education and they are super special and wonderful and so inclusive and they’re like-minded because they’re thinking about education too. I’m learning so much from the students and the faculty. And since it is an applied program, most of them know why they’re there, what they’re doing and what they want to get out of it, so there’s an immediacy that’s important.

The other part of my job is that I’m a manager now – I manage our Instruction and Outreach Librarians, so I work with amazing people who have such creativity and kindness and intelligence in thinking expansively about the role of librarians in our institution. It’s been great to do things like an Escape Room or a Poetry Workshop. The opportunities for creativity and experimentation are what I really value and the spirit of that in the people I work with too.

There are frustrations at my institution, like there are at any institution, but when you find like-minded people across the institution who are willing to partner and collaborate, so many wonderful and impactful things come out of that.

So what I enjoy most about my current position are the partnerships, the cooperation and the community, both within the Library, but also within the Institution and even the wider community. We have the opportunity to think broadly about what library outreach means and what it can look like.

These are difficult times for many people. There’s a global pandemic, its devastating effect on the economy, people are acknowledging anti-black racism and protesting – there are so many people in real turmoil – and there are real challenges in higher education as a result as well. How have these things impacted your work?

Everyday there is something that has changed that we now need to figure into our planning without really knowing what changes are actually going to happen. There are so many contingency plans.

I’ve been thinking a lot about change and change management because accelerating through change too quickly can be detrimental rather than useful to any organization, but yet, we’re in a time when there is no not-changing fast.

But in terms of what is the hardest thing? For me and for my colleagues, it’s about how we best support our students in relation to remote learning and being visible and available to students who are in different time zones and who might have varying access to devices and quiet space to talk. Also supporting our black students and students of color who have done tremendous work in voicing their experiences to our administration who don’t seem to really care because they don’t make changes. So how do we hold the Library accountable – what can we do to support those students, but also as a pretty critical part of the University, how can we hold the Institution accountable for making the changes that we need?

So there are definitely not any answers to that yet, but there’s been a lot of thought and the start of taking action. We’re pretty student centered, so the challenge is that we want to be available to them in whatever way that they need us but also keep in mind that they will be stressed and overwhelmed in all sorts of situations… Navigating that is the hardest thing.

Let’s switch gears… What have you read, attended or participated in recently that has had an impact on your professional development?

I thought of something from about a year ago: I went to Rare Book School in Philly at the Free Library. The name of the class was Community Archives and Digital Cultural Memory. I’m not an archivist, but that was the best professional development experience I’ve had personally. It was almost spiritual and it was deeply affecting.

The group of people who were in the class were so diverse in every way: their professional backgrounds, where they were geographically located, it has been to date the only library space I have been in that was at least half black or brown – it was mostly people of color.

The conversations we were having about reimagining archives were so rich and imaginative. It made me think differently about things I take for granted. Archives are human records, but yet they’re often not accessible in any way shape or form, so what are some ways of reimagining or re-envisioning the archive so that it is more useful? History is so important to understanding where we’ve come from so that we know where we’re going.

We had field trips to the Mutter Museum, which was an interesting conversation because that place does some problematic things. We went to the Library Company of Philadelphia when they had an Afro-futurism Exhibit. We went to the William Way Community Center and talked to the archivist there. It was really special to hear about all these people who are doing community archival work around the city and to be in this community with all these super wonderful people. 

I’ve been thinking about it because we all just met on zoom last week, which was so wonderful. It boosted my spirit to see them all again.It was intellectually stimulating and it also stimulated my imagination and I think we don’t leave space for that so much in our daily work lives. Let’s use our imaginations! It can feel unproductive, but it’s not wrong.

That sounds almost magical.

That’s the word for it!

With so many responsibilities and so much going on, why did you choose to contribute so much time and energy to the Delaware Valley Chapter of the ACRL?

I’ve gotten so much from being a part of my local library professional community. I was a part of our Lehigh Valley group and was pretty active with some of the programs there and I just looked forward to seeing those people and talking with those people – even if we might have disagreements, I feel I grew so much with the work with them.

And then when I started going to the DVC things, the keynotes, the panels, there were so many substantive things that I brought back and started plugging in to my institutional context. So, basically giving back because I wouldn’t be where I am or who I am as a professional or a person without those networks. I want to help contribute and develop and grow the wonderful work that has already been done so that other people have those opportunities

What are your goals or hopes for the upcoming year?

The recent past presidents Stefani and Jess were so good and their leadership was such a great example. They were so great about articulating DVC values. So I want to maintain that momentum forward, and also think about how we can think outside the model of a Fall Event and a Spring Event and have ways for our members – and even people who aren’t members – to continually engage with each other and the Chapter.

That’s really the heart of it: facilitating opportunities for growth and keeping in mind an expansive view of professional development too. You don’t necessarily have to have a presentation from a librarian talking about a project although those are wonderful and I’ve learned so much from them. But what are some other things we can do to be in dialog with each other and then bring that back to our institutions?

What about your non-working time? Tell me about your interests:

Well, I love to read! [laughter!] I love to read, especially biographies. There’s something about them I find endlessly fascinating.

I also like to write. I’ve taken writing workshops.

And I’m a harp player – I have a lever harp. I like to play Celtic music – that is what my harp is made for – and also pop music – I try to adapt pop music for it.

I’m a big fan of taking walks – it’s my quiet, reflective time in the early 5am morning.

And in the past five years I’ve been more and more involved with my community with various groups, like youth focused non-profits that are related to the arts in some way. Those things have been valuable to my personal and professional growth. I’ve learned so much from those kids and also the people who run those programs.

So those things keep me pretty busy!

Sounds like it! This conversation has been delightful for me, thank you! Before we close, is there anything else you want to say or want people to know?

Only to let people know that if there is anyone who is reading this, if you’d like to be involved in the Chapter, don’t hesitate to reach out – there are a lot of opportunities and we’re really open to new people!