Whitney Kramer
ALA Divisions:
Curious, collaborative, creative
I always joke that I will read anything I can get my hands on - I don't discriminate and will read any genre, and usually have at least two or three books going at once between print and audio. I finally got around to reading Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, and really enjoyed it. I always love interesting takes on historical fiction. I also just finished Time Loops and Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau. You can get me to read anything by pitching it as "time travel/time loop/multiverse." At a colleague's recommendation, I recently binged Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series on audio and am now anxiously awaiting the fourth installment (along with the rest of her fans!)
Connection, engagement, community.
I value the opportunity to connect with librarians with similar interests and those who are doing similar work. As a data librarian, my day-to-day can look very different from my colleagues, and it has been great to connect with others doing similar work, particularly through my involvement in ACRL's Digital Scholarship Section.
We are fortunate to have a robust library system on our campus, and I appreciate that we're able to offer such a wide variety of support to our students, faculty, and staff. My primary focus is data-related reference and instruction, and every day is a little bit different in terms of what we provide to constituents. Sometimes I am teaching students where to find sources for the first research paper they'll write in college, sometimes I am helping a PhD student navigate acquisition of a complex dataset, sometimes I'm working with professors on assignment design, and sometimes it is all of these and more in the same day! Cornell takes its "any person, any study" motto seriously, and librarians do a great job of supporting students and faculty wherever their research interests or coursework takes them.
I've worked in both academic and public libraries over the course of my career, and these dual experiences have made me truly appreciate the depth and breadth of services that librarians provide. In an age of misinformation, the information and data literacy skills that librarians can teach to researchers are invaluable. It is important the we continue this work even if it feels challenging and overwhelming at times.
Pronouns:she/her/hers
Title:ILR Research and Data Librarian
Workplace:Cornell University Library
Location:Ithaca, NY