Terry Barksdale is a librarian who completed her MLIS at the University of South Carolina via distance education in the early 90’s. She worked in public libraries for nearly a decade before transitioning to academic libraries. After serving for a decade as head librarian at the Cypress Creek Campus of Austin Community College, Barksdale is currently serving as Professor/Faculty Librarian at the San Gabriel Campus. She most enjoys working with community college students and innovative Community College faculty with an understanding of equity, inclusion and cultural humility. Barksdale is vehement in her belief that high impact practices, authentic relationships and high expectations are the building blocks faculty must bring to the educational environment to foster student persistence, completion and success. She has found meaningful ways to be successful in navigating the challenges of working in a complex environment to support student outcomes.
Barksdale has accepted challenges during her many years at ACC that include (most recent contributions appear at the top):
Led the ACC SGC BookClub for the book "Class" in Summer of 2024.
Participated in Professional Development opportunities including: Data Summit Event; IL Pedagogy Training, Data Deep Dive: NorthStar; Data Deep Dive: Belonging and Connection; Data Deep Dive: Meet Basic Needs; Cultural Mosaic Event; LS Department Meeting; All TLED Meeting, all in 2023-2024.
Participated in Cultural Mosaic Planning (2023-present)
Participated in IL Pedagogy Professional Development, EVC (2024)
Participated in ACC Data Summit, HEB Center (March 2024)
Volunteered at the ACC SGC LS Eclipse Event Table (April 2024)
Completed the ACC Equity Certificate Series: Becoming an Equity Minded Instructor, Sustain the Conversation: Keep the Spotlight on Race, and Grow an Anti-Racist Environment: From Conversation to Action (2023)
Completed ALLY Training (2022)
Completed ASCENDER Mentor training (2021)
Served as an ACC ASCENDER Mentor (2021- 2023)
Serve on LISD Equity Committee (2019-2023)
Led TLED Faculty Development's Faculty Talent Onboarding (FTO) Asynchronous Bb Course Redesign Team in Redesign Pilot (2022)
Conducted analysis of ACC TLED South Austin Campus Library Reference Collection based on posted, selector's weeding guidelines (2022)
Facilitated the Inaugural ACC Service Academy to center servant leadership into the College's culture (2021)
Contributing Member of the 50th Anniversary Event Committee led by MaryAnn Cicala (2022-present)
Contributing member to the TLED Syllabus Project (2021-2022)
Re-learned reference tool to support remote reference instruction; reviewed materials in wiki and reference newsletters to hone skills
Selected as part of the inaugural Virtual Reference Library Team (2021-2023)
Supporting TLED Associate Vice Chancellor, Dr Susy Warner-Sanchez in coordinating the Purpose and Belonging Speaker Series and subsequent iterations (2021-2023)
Serving on the ACC Equity Community Outreach Subcommittee (2020-2023 - sunset due to SB17)
Serving as a member of the Truth and Racial Healing Transformation Campus Center Steering Committee (2019-present),
Served on the ACC TLED LS Information Literacy Council,
Served on the ACC Distance and Hybrid Education Committee,
Served as the TRHT Campus Center Facilitator,
Serving in Libraries and community institutions as a facilitator of TRHT Racial Healing Circles,
Served as Equity Associate from 2017-2019,
Served on personal time as the Vice President of the ACC AFT for full time faculty, and assuring issues of improving the ACC culture are constantly in front of the ACC BOT and Administration.
Recognized for Equity Leadership Advisory Team (ELAT) Committee work in AY 18 by Dr. Rhodes at second Regional Equity Summit.
Honored as an Equity Advocate at a 2018 Board of Trustees meeting by Dr. Rhodes.
Coordinated team effort at Cypress Campus to offer Digital Fellows services on short timeline.
Supported student-led efforts including participating in and promoting events by Students with a Purpose (SWAT) and Circle Kiwannis International (CKI).
Participating in a second DL Taskforce at the request of the Provost and Dean,
Deeply committed to a deep dive into the emerging issues of Equity and Inclusion in our institution beginning 2016,
Accepted an invitation (2016) to serve on the Faculty Senate Symposium in which the Faculty Senate re-envisioned what constitutes an exceptional ACC faculty member (which eventually became the Faculty Values efforts),
Leveraging the Cypress Campus Leadership Team, of which she is a member, to position the Library on campus as the center of the campus - a partner in student success,
Leading the Information Literacy ReDesign and the Information Literacy Team (2011-2014),
Participating as a member of the ACC Student Success Initiative Goal 3 Team (2011-2016),
Envisioning, requesting and initiating an iPad pilot project at the Cypress Creek Campus Library and supporting a district-wide iPad rollout (2011-2014),
Supporting an eReader pilot at the Cypress Creek Campus Library(2011-2013),
Participating in and supporting the QEP Leadership Team as a part of the SACSCOC re-accreditation process (2012),
Serving on the SACSCOC Welcoming team at two ACC sites, participating on a college-wide level in the Distance Learning Taskforce (2012),
Participating as a Blackboard Committee member,
Planning, proposing and managing construction of a work-space for Circulation staff at Cypress (2015),
Serving on the ACC Scholarship Committee (2014-2018),
Serving on the Cypress Green Team (2014-2018),
Attending numerous Campus SL Events (each year).
In addition to mandated training, Barksdale has sought to improve herself through professional development offered through ACC's TLED, and through the TRHT workshops that examine the affects of institutional racism, inequities and exclusionary practices that are a part of our ACC system. Barksdale is aware of the importance of building capacity across our institution for having difficult conversations that support equitable treatment of our students, faculty and staff.
Barksdale enjoyed her time as Leader of the IL Team, and is continually amazed at the accomplished and talented faculty she was privileged to lead. Complimenting her work with ACC students, faculty and staff, Terry also participated in a long-standing relationship with Cedar Park High school in which ACC Cypress Creek Librarians helped prepare graduating seniors for the rigors of college research.
Previously, Barksdale worked as a member of the student support team and as the digital librarian for the University of Texas TeleCampus (UTTC), a nationally recognized unit within UT System that assisted in the delivery of distributed academic and professional development online courses and degree programs for the 15 UT institutions. Her focus in her role at UTTC was integrating the library into the curriculum and in strategically placing library and other learning resource services within the learning environment for just-in-time student access and assistance.
Barksdale lives in Austin. In 2022, her daughter graduated from an LISD high school, and is attending Community College .
Given her experience in the online learning arena with the UT TeleCampus, Barksdale stepped in as Distance Learning (DL) facilitator at ACC in October, 2010. She was appointed to ACC's Distance Learning Committee. In addition to attending DL committee meetings, Barksdale was invited to participate in DL's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) exercise, and provided input based on her years of experience and expertise.
Barksdale redesigned the Library Services tab in the Blackboard Portal to present the library's services using a more logical, student-focused design.
To address the frequently-heard refrain from classroom faculty that discovering resources to support their students is time-consuming and difficult, Barksdale and the IL Team reconstructed an award-winning concept Barksdale developed in her previous role at UT System. The result is the Faculty Teaching Toolbox and the Student Learning Success Toolbox. The Team is spreading the word about these resources in an effort to support ease of resource adoption by faculty for their students.
Along the same trajectory, Barksdale has spent the last several months working with a talented hourly to create an Assignment Calculator. Piloting is currently underway on the Cypress Campus across several disciplines.