Jessie Copeland
Practical, determined, good-humored.
I just finished The Girl's a Killer by Emma C. Wells. Before that, I had been on a locked room mystery binge, including The Library After Dark (Ande Pliego) and 6:40 to Montreal (Eva Jurczyk). I am a bit of a compulsive reader and also peruse several online newspapers every day. And no day would be complete without reading the Ask a Manager blog by Alison Green.
Connection, advocacy, education.
I have been a member of ACRL for nearly as long as I have been a member of ALA. Throughout my career, ACRL has provided a vibrant community of colleagues from across the country with whom I have been able to collaborate, learn, and grow professionally. As a new librarian, ACRL's competencies and frameworks gave me a strong foundation and helped guide my early career development. Since then, the association's extensive professional development opportunities, including webinars, online courses, and other learning resources, have continued to support and enrich my work. ACRL has played a significant role in my professional journey, and I greatly value the expertise, connections, and opportunities it provides.
As Director of Resource Services, I support the work that happens behind the scenes to ensure our collections, both print and electronic, are discoverable, accessible, and usable for all of our users. I collaborate closely with colleagues across multiple departments, including Collection Management, Technology, and other key areas, to provide seamless and reliable access to the resources our community depends on.
Equally important, I support the talented staff within Resource Services as they carry out their work as catalogers, acquisitions specialists, and electronic resources managers. As our collections continue to evolve through new formats, acquisition models, technologies, and metadata standards, our work requires a deep and continually expanding knowledge base. A critical part of my role is fostering a culture of ongoing learning and professional development, ensuring staff have the training, resources, and support they need to adapt, grow, and succeed in an ever-changing information landscape.
Ultimately, my role is to ensure that both our collections and our staff are positioned to meet the evolving needs of our users, enabling equitable access to information and supporting the library's broader mission.
Many people think of my work as "back-office" or "technical services," but at its core, everything we do is in service of our users. We acquire books, license e-books, provide access to databases, and ensure that the resources our community needs are available, discoverable, and accessible. Every record we create, every resource we activate, and every workflow we manage directly contributes to the user experience.
Technical services is public service. While our interactions with users may not always be visible, the impact of our work is felt every time someone successfully finds, accesses, and uses the information they need. As librarians, it is imperative that we continually adapt our skills and expertise to meet evolving user expectations. The research landscape is changing rapidly, and we must be willing to evolve alongside it, refining our processes, embracing new technologies, and reimagining how we support discovery and access in an increasingly dynamic information environment.
Our responsibility is not simply to manage collections, but to ensure that our users can connect with knowledge in the ways they need today and in the future.
Pronouns:she/her
Credentials:MSLIS
Title:Director of Resource Services
Job Function:I am the director of two departments, resource description and resource acquisitions. I have leadership, management, policy, planning, and advocacy responsibilities for each.https://www.facebook.com/jessiecopeland79
Workplace:Emory University
Location:Atlanta, GA