{"id":922,"date":"2020-11-16T16:20:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acrldvc.org\/news\/?p=922"},"modified":"2020-12-08T20:40:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T20:40:53","slug":"dr-stefani-gomez-library-director-cressman-library-cedar-crest-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acrldvc.org\/news\/2020\/11\/16\/dr-stefani-gomez-library-director-cressman-library-cedar-crest-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Stefani Gomez: Library Director, Cressman Library, Cedar Crest College"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tell me about your path to librarianship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fell into librarianship by accident. After college (I got my English BA at Penn State), I wasn\u2019t sure what to do next. I worked as a paraprofessional at a vocational school and then I worked at a bookstore for a little while. When I was working at the bookstore I thought that being the person that buys the books would be a great job. During that time my Mom had been pushing me to go to Library School because I loved to read so much, and by happenstance I got a job at the Allentown Public Library and decided that it would be even cooler to do acquisitions for a big library than a small book store. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a reference librarian and then an acquisitions librarian at a public library for a number of years. I liked it, but I was at a point in my life where there were a lot of changes and I had gotten a lot of encouragement during my MLIS to get my PhD, so I applied to programs. I received an ALA Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship, and decided to study human information behavior in groups at Rutgers.

I love theory and research, but PhD programs are geared towards developing academic teaching faculty members. I liked teaching, but I didn\u2019t love<\/em> teaching and because of my experience in academia and librarianship, academic library work seemed like a good direction for me. So that\u2019s how I ended up being an information literacy librarian at Kutztown University and then a library director at Cedar Crest College, where I am now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you most enjoy about your current position?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started in April, which was a crazy time to come into a new job as a director. I had been at Kutztown for the last couple years. I worked with a lot of great people there and had a lot of freedom. I was flourishing, but at the same time, there was no way for me to really move up. I had so many ideas about what I wanted to do and so I started to think about how I was going to move forward and began to look at Directorships. And then, this one opened up, and it\u2019s two blocks from my house. It\u2019s also in Allentown. I grew up in center city and the possibility of being able to contribute by helping to forge connections between the school and the community was a big draw for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do I like the best about my current position? I like that I can have an idea – especially since we\u2019re small – we can think about it, and then we can try it. There are lots of limitations, like budgetary cuts, especially right now. But I came in with a completely different vision from the prior director and it\u2019s been fun to try new things. It has been great to watch my staff become a real team. They are so talented and have been very supportive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are difficult times for many people. There\u2019s 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am hopeful that the capture on video of George Floyd\u2019s horrific murder by the police and the Black Lives Matter protests and movement that followed are causing a fundamental cultural shift. Diversity and Equity work used to be \u201cextra.\u201d It felt so often like I was spinning my wheels, but suddenly people seem to see the need for change like never before. This gives me hope.\u00a0It also provides an opening for me to do the kind of work that I\u2019m passionate about and hopefully we can get some traction for the real systemic changes that are necessary. I know the news cycle will change, but I think this time is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would be a completely different job if I had come in at a different time. I\u2019m six months in, but I feel like I have gained so much more experience than I would have had if I had come in under normal circumstances. I was involved in the college\u2019s COVID-19 Task Force. I\u2019m a member of multiple committees devoted to diversity and equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, also, that one of the benefits of coming in at a time of great change is that people expected change. I was so different from my predecessor and the staff were on board for change, but this moment in history demanded it. They couldn\u2019t say \u201cWe don\u2019t do it that way.\u201d because none of us have done anything<\/em> this way before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s switch gears\u2026 What have you read, attended or participated in recently that has had an impact on your professional development?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel right now that everything I do is professional development. I\u2019m learning hands-on how to manage and lead.\u00a0I\u2019ve also been involved in college-wide task forces and I am a member on a number of committees and initiatives focused on diversity and equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I have been able to focus more specifically on LatinX culture and have returned to reading about teaching and providing services to Latinx students. Often, diversity work is more generally focused, so it has been great to be able to come at the work from a more personal vantage point and work outward from my own Latina identity. To be able to think more specifically about my community is exciting and also kind of a relief for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kind of got involved on a whim.\u00a0Martha Stevenson, the Library Director at Kutztown, sent an email to the staff asking if anyone wanted to volunteer. When it first went through, I ignored it, but the second time I saw it come through, I thought \u201cThat could be good for me professionally.\u201d So I went back to Martha and she said \u201cWell, there\u2019s only one position left, the Vice President\/ President Elect.\u201d I wasn\u2019t sure about that, but decided to do it anyway. I had the whole year with Jess as president to get acquainted with the responsibilities and then I got to work with Jasmine and now Maisha\u2019s coming in and the whole board and planning committee have been so great to work with. Joining the DVC has made me feel more a part of the library community than I had ever felt before.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being president of the org last year was also central to me thinking about myself as a leader and taking on administrative responsibilities. If I hadn\u2019t done that, I don\u2019t know that I\u2019d be as ready to be a library director. I don\u2019t think it had much to do with me getting this job, but it did have a lot to do with me thinking that I could do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your goals or hopes for the upcoming year?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a lot of goals for the library. The library has been very traditional in the past. There was a website, but there was no Chat, virtual appointments, social media engagement, remote teaching and so on. Getting these things set up were my main goals coming in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then when the pandemic happened, everything needed to be reinvented. So then we had to shift all of our resources and services online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re also trying to increase our community engagement by building an authentic voice on social media.\u00a0We\u2019re sharing ourselves in a way that goes beyond a lot of the more formal library accounts that exist. We post about our resources, but we also share articles that we think are interesting, whimsical videos, staff interviews, etc. Our Black Lives Matter statement went out over social media. We make our stances specific to us, why we do what we do and who we are.\u00a0 It is going well, but we\u2019re still trying to make inroads with the students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figuring out how to connect with the students is definitely a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also have a lot of student workers and in the past, they would have done their homework during their shifts at the library. We are trying to take things in a new direction.\u00a0 We want the library student workers to think of themselves as campus leaders.\u00a0They should know about our resources and about information literacy.\u00a0They should have the opportunity to run events, create displays, build libguides, and have an influence on library decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about your non-working time? Tell me about your interests:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a Mom of elementary age kids and they are doing online schooling, so it\u2019s a lot – trying to have this new position of leadership and take care of my kids\u2019 education and their psychological well-being. Beyond the actual doing, there’s all this Mom-worry. Online schooling is such a feat of management with all of the assignments, platforms, and meetings. We are lucky that my husband is able to work from home, so he\u2019s taking on a huge amount of it, and we have family helping as well, but it\u2019s still so much. So there is all that comes with that, while we simultaneously try to build a happy and healthy home.\u00a0We also want our girls to be informed about what\u2019s happening in the world.\u00a0We\u2019re a very political family, which is very charged, especially at the moment.\u00a0So, to deal with all that, we focus on them as much as we can.\u00a0We are trying to get outside as much as we can. We\u2019re going hiking, biking, doing puzzles, watching movies. I take a lot of long walks to keep myself sane and grounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m reading fiction a lot more now too. I recently read The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Conjure Woman by Afia Atakora.\u00a0I used to read so much fiction before my PhD work, but the program was so consuming that I stopped.\u00a0But now, I\u2019m trying to read novels instead of reading the news, instead of going to Twitter.\u00a0So instead, I try to go to my Kindle app, and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also love television and I usually watch before I go to bed in order to relax. I\u2019m watching Vida right now on Starz, which is a story about two Mexican American sisters who are taking over a bar after their Mom dies. It\u2019s really centered on LatinX culture in the US. You don\u2019t realize how important representation is until you get some.\u00a0It feels great hearing the music, the cultural references, the food, the Spanglish, and so I\u2019m loving that right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also watching The Good Fight. It deals specifically with what\u2019s going on right now politically, and is critical of the administration in a way that other shows just aren\u2019t, which I find refreshing. It\u2019s hard to walk around all the time like everything is normal when it most certainly is not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tell me about your path to librarianship I fell into librarianship by accident. After college (I got my English BA at Penn State), I wasn\u2019t sure what to do next. I worked as a paraprofessional at a vocational school and then I worked at a bookstore for a little while. When I was working at … <\/p>\n

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