Scott Libson
ALA Divisions:
Persistent, introspective, loyal.
I just taught Ronit Stahl's Enlisting Faith, so that's the book that I read most recently. I'm currently slowly reading Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation for fun.
Advocate, essential, community.
ACRL (and other professional organizations) help us escape our institutional silos. In addition to fostering greater collaboration, often leading to friendship, these communities provide us with some much needed perspective. It makes us better at our jobs and, at least for me, it provides a lot of comfort.
I hope that students, faculty, and outside researchers see me as a partner who will help connect them with the resources they need to achieve their research goals. That could be through collection development, information literacy instruction, reference work, (re)description, or any number of other things. I think I have achieved that objective to some degree but it's a never ending and always evolving goal.
I am exceedingly grateful for the informal mentors I have had over the years. They have helped me find jobs and do those jobs better. I try to pay it forward, but the broader takeaway is the incredible community we have in academic librarianship.
Title:Special Collections Librarian
Workplace:Divinity Library, Yale University
Location:New Haven, CT