I am ACRL Member of the Week

Resilient, adventurous, thoughtful.

I recently picked up "Ways of Seeing" by John Berger, and I’m re-reading Annie Downey’s "Critical Information Literacy."

Community, support, inspiration.

As a subject specialist it’s very easy to live in my little music librarianship bubble. Through ACRL I’m able to connect with librarians from other backgrounds and subject specialties and learn from their experience and expertise. The discussions, publications, and conferences keep me up to speed on broader academic library trends, and keep me curious, inspired, and excited about the work that I’m doing.

I use my music background to develop specialized resources for and build connections with our music students and faculty. I work with both undergraduate and graduate students through group instruction and independent consultations on their research papers, on finding music materials, and developing critical thinking and information literacy skills for the text and music sources they interact with. Our students are passionate and bright individuals, and I love getting to learn about and support their work with my expertise as a librarian and fellow musician. Within the music collection, I identify opportunities to expand and update our circulating materials to facilitate access to current music research and to broaden coverage of research and repertoire. Behind the scenes, I’m focusing my energy on a project to document and digitize a collection of open reel tapes that contain recitals and concerts recorded on campus from the mid- to late-20th century. This project has been a challenging but gratifying opportunity to invest my efforts in facilitating preservation and access for these institutionally valuable materials.

As I finish up my first year in the profession, I’m starting to notice and appreciate how much I am challenged to learn and adapt in everything I do. Every project I work on and every person I interact with has taught me something, and has impacted me on both professional and personal levels. I'm constantly evaluating how I can use my skills and position to support the people around me, as well as to educate myself and be involved in larger social issues. I got into librarianship because I wanted to channel my passions for service, music, and knowledge into a profession that would allow me facilitate learning and growth for others, but until recently I had never paused to consider the growth that I would experience and the impact that my colleagues, peers, and patrons would have on me. It's been an exciting and rewarding journey thus far, and I'm looking forward to whatever lies ahead!