Philip C. Shackelford
ALA Divisions:
Optimist, passionate, coffee.
I’m one of those people that starts too many books at once and then takes a while to finish them, but I did complete my reading challenge for 2018! Current in-progress reads include “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle, “Fault Lines” by Thomas Locke, “Teaching Information Literacy” by Patricia Bravender, and “Food in the City” by Jennifer Cockrall-King.
Resources, education, advocacy.
It is valuable to have an organization specifically dedicated to academic libraries in recognition that some aspects of academic librarianship are unique and different from work in other types of libraries. The resources that ACRL makes available inform best practices for academic librarians and provide a venue to keep up with important developments, trends, and standards.
One of the largest and most rewarding initiatives I’ve been involved with over the past couple of years is leading a shift in the way that the library is perceived in our campus community. We consistently strive to be visible, involved, and collaborative to promote increased faculty and staff engagement, student use and success, and increased college and community partnerships. I also lead the Open Educational Resources (OER) Task Force for our institution, working with a group of faculty and staff to explore the ways that our college can deploy these resources to our students’ benefit. Finally, as part of our collaborative, innovative, “let’s make it happen!” attitude, I am involved with leading several community outreach and programming efforts, such as the inaugural South Arkansas Literary Festival, held in April 2018.
One of my favorite aspects of this job is the freedom to be involved in a wide variety of different things. This profession affords me the opportunity to indulge my passions for creativity, collaboration, teamwork and leadership, and innovation in ways that not only benefit our faculty, staff, and students, but the community beyond our campus as well. I am blessed to experience higher education as an administrator and a librarian – and enjoy life in academic librarianship every single day.
Credentials:MA, MLIS
Title:Library Director
Workplace:South Arkansas Community College
Location:El Dorado, AR