I am ACRL Member of the Week

Librarian, musician, human.

Currently, I'm dipping in and out of "Devotions" by Mary Oliver in hard copy. I do the majority of my reading on Kindle these days, as it fits my stage of life better than a hard copy. I started "Tweet Cute" by Emma Lord on Kindle last night. On any given day, you can also find me with a stack of kids' books and child to two in my lap. Current house favorites are "Mother Bruce" by Ryan T. Higgins, "Peek-a-Who" by Nina Laden, and "Bear Goes Sugaring" by Maxwell Eaton III.

Living life-long learning.

I value ACRL's ability to bring librarians together to learn from each other. I always learn a lot from talking with other librarians, and ACRL is a great way to start conversations.
 

As the Undergraduate Education Librarian and Interim Head of Teaching and Learning, I work with students in transition to college and in general education settings. I oversee a department that is focused on the student experience and on creating meaningful connections in library spaces and educational objectives. I lead our Information Literacy Grant program, which awards grants to librarian and faculty pairs in order to deeply embed information literacy objectives into courses. I also lead our Teaching Librarians Community, which looks to support and extend the skills and interests of our teaching librarians. All of this provides a strong foundation for students, faculty, and librarians from which to build a fully integrated understanding of information literacy.
 

I tried for a long time to avoid writing a book, spending years dancing around an idea that became more insistent with time. I hear from more experienced authors that this is how it happens sometimes. I found that I needed to write the book so that I could stop thinking about it. Get the Job: Academic Library Hiring for the New Librarian, available from ACRL Press in late 2020, is the quintessential primer on the job search for librarians interested in academic libraries. Young librarians often seek information from more experienced professionals in the subject of the academic job search. As a form, the academic job search is a very specific process that has only superficial resemblance to a classic job search. Much of the practical information about the academic job search exists and is communicated in mentoring relationships and informal communication. By replicating the mentoring experience, aspiring professionals will find the consolidated and comprehensive support they need to launch a successful job hunt, thrive in the interview process, and transition to a new job. So much is unknown about how libraries and higher education and the world in general will change as we respond to the coronavirus crisis. I fervently hope that this book will be an encouraging guide for aspiring academic librarians, no matter the state of the world.