A Love Letter to the Acquisitions Institute

December 14, 2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

About three years ago, at the Charleston Conference, I was sitting at a vendor dinner eating a steak (as you do). It was delicious- thank you, Gale. An old timer, a librarian from Wyoming, was bemoaning the way Charleston had blown up. It has gotten bigger in recent years by all accounts. Charleston is my […]

Scary Stories About Librarianship

October 17, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

It was 2010, and I was in library school. At a dinner, a retired librarian told me that getting an MLS was a terrible idea. Jobs were few and far between, and the positions that were available were undesirable. It was scary in there- I should stay away. It was 2012, and I was finishing […]

#workatRCL

September 11, 2017.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Check out the Storify of our recruiting event here.

Transparency, Empathy, Empowerment: Reframing Recruitment in Academic Libraries

September 8, 2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

I have long been critical of our hiring practices and interview models in academic libraries. I have sat on the interviewer side on many occasions watching candidates struggle and flounder, and it’s not their fault. It’s ours. I have often wondered- what do we think we are measuring by putting candidates through a grueling, repetitive […]

It Takes Guts to Be Gentle and Kind

May 17, 2017.Reading time 1 minute.

You may never have met me in real life, and at times in creating this professional portfolio site I’ve wondered how much my personality has actually permeated. Do you know that I’m a joyous sort of person, inclined to chatting and boogieing to music while doing my work? I am. I’m a laugher and a […]

Feminist Hacktivism

March 9, 2017.Reading time 1 minute.

One of the real delights of librarianship, from my perspective, is the varied work which lends itself to so many different styles of projects. Recently, through a UH Libraries Microgrant, I was lucky to be able to volunteer at a sponsored Feminist Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon. The goal of the event was to encourage participants to edit […]

Collection Data Visualization

November 30, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Here are some resources I have recently helped develop to facilitate and support the growth of a community of practice around Collection Data Visualization. Please use, enjoy, and collaborate. Collection Data Visualization Wiki – A collaborative workspace for us to share and discuss standard visualizations and templates. Data Visualization from Scratch LibGuide – A learning […]