Curious, passionate, open.
I’m currently reading Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs – a gift from my sister. I’m just finishing up listening to Breath: The New Science of A Lost Art by James Nestor on a recommendation from my partner. And I’m re-listening to The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers, which was one of my favorites from last year; the novel serves as a fictional masterclass in intercultural communication, and I look forward to many future re-reads.
Connecting, collaborative, collegial.
ACRL is a hub of connection and a backbone of information for academic libraries. ACRL’s conference has consistently been a valuable forum for bringing library workers together to share and learn. It remains one of my favorite library events, and I’m pleased to be serving on the planning committee for this year’s conference. I appreciate the organizational commitment to creating resources for our community, such as the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. For the past year and a half I’ve been serving on the ACRL Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee, and I’ve seen that commitment reflected in ACRL’s organizational support for our work. With their support, we plan to share a new tool for supporting EDI work in academic libraries in the coming year. ACRL's constancy as a leader and partner for libraries enriches our work.
My work at Miami University over the last five years has focused on two areas that may appear unrelated: developing innovative technologies for libraries and leading organizational change to make our libraries more inclusive. Although the bulk of those activities have happened under the auspices of different parts of my job, they are both driven by a desire to make our shared resources usable and accessible. One of the projects of which I’m the proudest is our Software Checkout program. We’ve developed an open-source solution to circulate licenses for expensive software like Adobe Creative Cloud and Apple’s Final Cut Pro on demand, saving students thousands of dollars and helping bridge the digital divide. Other projects take longer to yield visible results. With many other librarians, I have been working for several years to develop and implement the Libraries’ Commitment to Inclusive Excellence, our Libraries’ roadmap to making lasting structural changes to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. Although the work can be slow I believe that sticking with it is our best road to a more inclusive future.
We are in this together. So much of what I value about libraries is our collaborative approach. The core structural principle of libraries is to collect resources to share with our communities; that spirit of collaboration extends outward to the powerful results of our scholarly and project-driven relationships. When I started down the path to academic librarianship almost 30 years ago, I didn’t expect for this field to be a site of cultural strife. But we find ourselves at a time when our value and values are in dispute, and it is more important than ever for us to stand together: with our libraries, with our users, with our universities, our unions, and our profession. I value our collaboration and find strength in solidarity.
Pronouns:he/him/his
Credentials:MILS
Title:Web Services Librarian
Workplace:Miami University
Location:Oxford, OH