Maggie Murphy
ALA Divisions:
Triple fire sign.
I've been catching up on Lore Olympus (https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/list?title_no=1320), a web comic by Rachel Smythe on the WEBTOON mobile app. I have actually been reading a lot of WEBTOON comics during quarantine. I find the vertical scrolling soothing and the episodic format is perfect for consuming in bite-sized chunks. The art is also consistently incredible. Some other favorites include I Love Yoo (https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/i-love-yoo/list?title_no=986), Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell (https://www.webtoons.com/en/comedy/love-advice/list?title_no=1498), and Devil Number 4 (https://www.webtoons.com/en/supernatural/devil-no-4/list?title_no=1695).
Community of practice.
What I really value about ACRL is the composition of its membership, and the chance to make connections with and learn from other librarians. I also appreciate that, between all the different sections, committees, and groups the organization has to choose from, ACRL really gives members a chance to get involved at a level they are comfortable with and find their professional niche in academic librarianship.
As a visual art and humanities librarian, I work with the students and faculty in a wide range of departments and programs (art education, art history, studio art, interior architecture, philosophy, religious studies, history, and global languages and literatures) towards the goal of ethical and critical information access, use, and creation. I have developed collaborative teaching relationships with several faculty that I am really proud of, and I do a lot of one-on-one instruction with students to demystify disciplinary research methods and focus on developing dispositions for iterative inquiry and creativity. I also serve as a research mentor to a number of students in UNCG’s McNair Scholars program, which is a federal TRiO program that prepares students with backgrounds or identities that are traditionally underrepresented in graduate studies for the pursuit of a doctoral degree.
As a visual art librarian, in thinking about generating and facilitating access to information for students, I am really interested in the places where art making, the study of art, and the experience of art intersect with access—and how I can expand access to those processes. My experiences with teaching critical visual literacy concepts to students in the creative disciplines can just as easily be applied to interdisciplinary workshops, using the same domains of knowledge and material resources that support art students’ information needs on those topics. Visual and textual information needs are inextricably linked with the developing creative strategies of students in art and design fields, and interdisciplinary co-curricular programming in academic libraries with an emphasis on critical visual literacy and ethical image creation is a way for art librarians to provide greater access to artistic practice to all students in our academic communities.
Credentials:she/her/hers
Title:Visual Art & Humanities Librarian
Workplace:UNC Greensboro University Libraries
Location:Greensboro, NC