Year 3 | 2025

Dear Tenure Review Committee:

This third year has been a time of growth and focus in my role as Skyline College’s Digital Services Librarian and Equity Coach. I have continued to strengthen the library’s digital presence to make it more inclusive, accessible, and culturally responsive for our diverse students and faculty. My work focuses on creating learning experiences that reflect our students’ voices and lived experiences while supporting Skyline’s mission to empower and transform a global community of learners.

One major milestone this year was receiving the President’s Innovation Fund Grant, which will bring Virtual Reality technology into the Skyline Library. This project will open new ways for students to engage with their learning while directly achieving Skyline’s goal of promoting academic excellence and open access for all.

Another highlight was a collaboration with faculty and classified professionals to lead AI-focused workshops, including a Flex Day session on using AI tools to create Open Educational Resources. These sessions invited our campus community to think about AI through a lens of equity and explore how this exciting technology can support creativity, access, and responsible use in education.

The Misinformation Exhibition, including a LibGuide, was a momentous achievement because it encouraged students and faculty to think more critically about online information. One of the featured pieces was an AI-generated music video that ignited conversations about ethics, authorship, and trust in information. The exhibit contributed to the growth of information literacy and demonstrated culturally responsive teaching by guiding students to think metacognitively about how their experiences and identities shape their perspectives and by extension, the information that they absorb.

Beyond teaching, I continue to secure, maintain, and improve our digital systems. This includes building strong relationships with our vendors, coordinating training for librarians, and ensuring access to and developing our online collection. An example of this is my partnership with the district Library Systems and Applications Developer to integrate the automated report harvesting system, Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI), into our library system, Alma, facilitating more efficient access to usage data. Another project, the new Primo Next Discovery Experience (Primo NDE) interface, will result in a more modern, accessible, and user-friendly search experience in the library catalog. Although these long-term projects will require time and resources, they will undoubtedly strengthen the library’s infrastructure and ability to connect users to the information that they seek.

Looking ahead, I hope to continue growing as an educator and librarian and help shape education by way of digital advancements at Skyline. Given the particular milieu of AI and "fake news" that we are in, education and critical thinking are more salient than ever. I see my role as helping to guard and enhance intellectual inquiry and nurture spaces for dialogue and curiosity. Through collaboration, digital innovation, and culturally responsive teaching, I am committed to helping our students think metacognitively, act ethically, and engage with the world as informed and thoughtful learners.

Sincerely, 

Vincent Kang