{"id":963,"date":"2021-03-11T14:46:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrldvc.org\/news\/?p=963"},"modified":"2021-03-11T14:48:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:48:54","slug":"meet-the-board-elise-ferer-librarian-for-undergraduate-learning-and-information-assistance-program-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acrldvc.org\/news\/2021\/03\/11\/meet-the-board-elise-ferer-librarian-for-undergraduate-learning-and-information-assistance-program-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Board: Elise Ferer, Librarian for Undergraduate Learning and Information Assistance Program Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

My path to librarianship was not a straight path. In college, I was really interested in art and fashion and I bounced between the two for a while. First I thought I wanted an art career, but then I ended up working in the fashion industry for about six years after college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I worked in what\u2019s called fashion production: looking at things coming in from factories before they were shipped to stores and putting things on fit models to make sure the look and fit was ok. It was interesting, but after about four or five years I was wondering if I wanted to keep doing it forever. That\u2019s when I started looking into grad school for librarianship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I talked to a few librarians – mostly academic librarians, because that\u2019s what I had been around my entire life. Both of my parents were university professors at a state school that extended privileges to state residents, so I grew up in and around University Libraries. When I was 12 or 13, I could use my library card and go to the library at night, which was really nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had studied art history in college and I always really liked the research aspect of it and thought maybe I could be an art librarian. So I went to library school but didn\u2019t get a job right away so returned to fashion for a few more years until I got a library job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I would be an art librarian or work at a fashion school, but my first job was at a small liberal arts college and I found I really liked working with undergraduates. That led me to where I am now at Drexel, where I started as a librarian for undergraduate learning. I continue to be really interested in what students are doing in the first year of college and that transition from high school. So much changes for them. One of the things I love about my work is hearing about all of their different backgrounds and paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I really like working with undergraduate students and also, my current position gives me quite a bit of autonomy – I can set my own priorities. I\u2019ve managed a reference program at Drexel for a few years and I\u2019m getting to the point where I feel comfortable saying \u201cThis is what I think we should do\u201d rather than asking other people what we should do. It took me time to get there and have the confidence to know what I\u2019m doing and what I think we should be doing or how to investigate if I\u2019m not sure. I like being able to set the priorities and decide what is most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m working with a new, part-time person who is helping out in reference. She’s a newly minted librarian having finished grad school in December. She\u2019s doing reference and helping out on a project for me and it\u2019s great to work with her and feel like I\u2019m helping her get experience and a good start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoy teaching too, but I don\u2019t do as much these days, not only due to the pandemic, but really due to the complexities of Drexel. It\u2019s nice to have a real mix of things to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past year has been difficult for many people. There\u2019s a global pandemic, its devastating effect on the economy, people are acknowledging anti-Black racism, both social and political unrest. 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\u2019ve been working from home since March 13, 2020, so it has been a year. I actually enjoy working from home and it\u2019s really nice that I\u2019m able to. I\u2019m also able to work from my Mom\u2019s house and my sister\u2019s house. They both live about an hour and a half drive away from where I live and it has been nice to have that flexibility even though I end up working the same hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drexel was already set up so well to transition to remote library services. Chat was already set up and we had been using zoom, so that was a fairly easy transition. My actual work isn\u2019t that much different due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of the other things, I had been thinking about racial injustice a lot even before, but the police murder of Walter Wallace last October happened about 15 blocks from where I live and I\u2019ve been thinking about that a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our library staff is somewhat diverse, but our student body is very diverse. I wonder how I\u2019m serving the student body as a white woman with a lot of privilege. I don\u2019t have answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drexel Libraries wrote an anti racism statement and I\u2019ve been working on updating reference training materials for new librarians to include our diversity and accessibility statements. It will also include a section on bias in language because I think it\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things I\u2019ve worked on in the past few years is to eliminate \u201cguys\u201d as a way of addressing people. To me, it was meant to be gender neutral, but I know that it\u2019s not. I\u2019m trying to not assume gender or ethnicity based on the names I see, but it\u2019s hard to unlearn these things, so it\u2019s a constant awareness to practice. I participate in an anti racism libraries group and I\u2019ll think about what we\u2019ve talked about over time. It\u2019s a constant learning process in both my personal and professional life, because they really go hand in hand.<\/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\u2019ve been trying to take advantage of anything that is free since our budget for professional development was eliminated this year. I attended the North American Virtual Reference Conference a few weeks ago and it was interesting to see what folks were doing during the pandemic. One of the presentations I saw was about the concept of \u201cslow librarianship.\u201d The pandemic has really shone a light on many things, including that we live in a productivity culture, which tells us we need to be productive and implies that whatever we\u2019re doing, it\u2019s not enough and we need to do more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve actually been pretty good at setting boundaries between my work and home life, but I got a lot out of the sessions about making time for yourself, not getting consumed by work and not getting consumed by capitalism and productivity culture. I found that really helpful.<\/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

A few reasons! First, to give something back to other people in a specific way and then to meet other interesting people who don\u2019t necessarily work at my institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also on the board of ACRL in the Instruction Division and chair of a committee this year. That has really helped me develop some of my leadership skills too. It\u2019s nice to be in a position like the chapter board where I\u2019m not so much a leader, but a contributing member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I crafted goals last February, but some of those don\u2019t really fit for where we are right now. The hope is that people will get vaccinated and that we\u2019ll get back to some semblance of seeing one another and feeling like it\u2019s safe to see each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I definitely have work projects I\u2019d like to see moving forward. The new person I\u2019m supervising is helping figure out how best to use the library FAQs we have set up in Springshare. We need to do some work on those and create a structure for folks to be able to do more with those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I\u2019ve also been working with other librarians at Drexel to develop a community of practice around teaching and I\u2019m really interested to see where that goes and how that develops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Well, in normal times, I like to travel and I\u2019d like to go back to travel. When I talked about setting boundaries between work and home, I\u2019ll admit I\u2019ve been bad about taking time off this year because there\u2019s nowhere to go and I don\u2019t like to use vacation time to stay home. Maybe by the summer I\u2019ll be able to travel somewhere close by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoy reading a lot. A lot of people have said that during the pandemic they haven\u2019t been able to read. Well, I\u2019ve kept reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sister has two children, aged three and six and I always spent a lot of time with them, but during the pandemic, I\u2019ve been helping out more. My six year old niece has learned to call me on a tablet and video chat. She\u2019s going to zoom kindergarten so she\u2019ll reach out between kindergarten zoom meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exercise has always been important to me and it is something that has helped me deal with the pandemic. I look forward to getting back outside when the weather is nicer, maybe meeting friends in the Wissahickon for walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the pandemic, I started taking art classes, and during the pandemic I\u2019ve been doing it over zoom, so that\u2019s been fun – to have one night a week to just do art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knit and do some sewing at home too (but not like my sister, who has made a lot of masks for children and for charity and to donate!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tell me about your path to librarianship: My path to librarianship was not a straight path. In college, I was really interested in art and fashion and I bounced between the two for a while. First I thought I wanted an art career, but then I ended up working in the fashion industry for about … <\/p>\n

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