Curriculum Vitae
Education
University of California, Los Angeles Sept. 2006-2008
Masters in Library and Information Science
University of California, San Diego 2004-2006
Master of Arts in Latin American Studies
Thesis: "Knowledge as a Marketing Strategy: Cultural Information and Ethnic Crafts in the Retail Environment"
University of California, Davis 2000- 2002
B.S. with Highest Honors in Design, emphasis in costume and textiles, minor in Dramatic Art
Cuyamaca College San Diego, CA 1998- 2000
University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland 1997- 1998
Professional Experience
May 2015 - present Adjunct Reference Librarian Diablo Valley College
Administrating and project managing DVC's Springshare services (LibGuides, LibAnswers, etc.) and the DVC Library website, managing databases and electronic access,performing in-person and online reference, teaching library instruction sessions in several disciplines, and creating graphic designs for library marketing and promotion. In addition, I have created numerous subject guides oriented towards individual research.
January 2016 - present Adjunct Reference and Instruction Librarian Contra Costa College
Teaching short-term online/hybrid library studies course. Providing reference services.
May 2002-present Owner Blue Moon Designs LLC
Running my own clothing and accessories design business. In addition to manufacturing products, my duties also include customer service and client relations, web design, vendor sourcing and purchasing, bookkeeping, managing online sales & website, budgeting, marketing, and scheduling events.
Jan. 2016 - April 2016 Senior Assistant Librarian (Temporary) California Maritime Academy
Taught semester-length LIB100 Library Studies course for freshman engineering students, performed library instruction in liaison areas (business, global studies, and economics), coordinated Maker Day events and library marketing and promotion.
Sept. 2014 - Dec. 2015 Visiting Librarian Holy Names University
Performed reference and one-on-one library instruction to undergrads, graduate students, and faculty at the HNU Library's help desk. Occasional supervision of student employees. Extensive weeding, and some collection development as needed in the subject areas of Romance language literature and young adult literature.
May 2009- Dec. 2014 Adjunct Reference Librarian College of San Mateo
Performed reference, information literacy instruction, technological troubleshooting, and special library projects, including LibGuides, video tutorials, and graphic design for library marketing and promotion. Weeding and collection development in the subject areas of technology, anthropology, and sociology. Helped to start the first makerspace in an academic library in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Jan. 2007- March 2011 Project Manager UCLA Dept. of Information Studies
Managed a community-based museum research project, "Creating Collaborative Catalogs." Duties include coordinating with project team and assigning tasks, writing and preparing scholarly articles for publication, project documentation and evaluation, maintaining project schedule, data management and analysis, and completing progress reports.
Feb. 2008 - June 2008 Reference Desk Assistant UCLA Arts Library
Provided reference service to Arts Library patrons, UCLA students and the public, tutored patrons in using the campus OPAC, course reserves, and e-resources, performed collection development and weeded the reference collection.
Summer 2007 Intern Claremont Colleges Digital Library
Assisted with developing an IMLS grant for a digital collection of Southern California Native American objects and primary source materials. Coordinated with partner institutions and developed criteria for outcomes-based evaluation of grant effectiveness. Also digitized book materials.
Feb. 2004-Aug. 2004 Assistant Librarian Visual Resources Facility, UC Davis
Catalogued and reviewed database records for new and existing slides in the collection, digitized slide images and created Web sites for undergraduate Art History courses, reorganized portions of the collection, and monitored the computing lab in the Facility.
July 2002-May 2003 Curatorial Aide Oakland Museum of California
Assisted in developing a major costume exhibition at OMCA, catalogued and registered 3-dimensional artifacts for the History Department.
Winter 2002 Research and Conservation Intern Vacaville Museum
Assisted with the creation of a costume-related exhibition by researching and restoring artifacts.
Volunteer Experience
Aug. 2008 - present Records Manager Black Rock Rangers
Maintaining, processing, and indexing the dispatch logs and incident reports for a volunteer organization of first responders at Burning Man, a large-scale annual summer outdoor arts festival in Nevada.
July 2009 - September 2010 Community Archivist Intern Red Barn Productions
Sorting, processing, and digitizing the personal & professional archives of the Patterson family, creators of the original Renaissance Pleasure Faires in California.
Teaching Experience
LIBST110A - Library Studies, Contra Costa College Spring 2016
Online/hybrid one-unit library skills class taught in 8 weeks, with a traditional annotated bibliography as a final project.
LIB 100 - Information Fluency in the Digital World, California Maritime Academy Spring 2016
Two-unit, semester-length library skills and key computing skills for second-semester freshmen engineering students, with writing a Wikipedia article as their final project.
Information Literacy Instruction, College of San Mateo 2011 -2014
Presenting library orientations to a variety of CSM classes in English, Mathematics, Career & Life Skills, and Sociology.
Teaching Assistant, Sociology Department, University of California Los Angeles Fall 2006
Facilitated the instruction of the course Families in American Society. Taught discussion sections and graded exams and term papers.
Reader, Sociology Department, University of California, San Diego Sept. 2005-June 2006
Graded exams and term papers for the courses Drugs and American Society; Youth, Crime, and Gangs; and Chicanos in American Society. Proctored exams and taught informal sections to students for preparing their term papers.
Teaching Assistant, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego Sept. 2004- June 2006
Facilitated the instruction of courses in Non-Western Art History: Introduction to Non-Western Art; Mayan Art and Architecture; and Native American Art of California and the Pacific Northwest. Taught discussion sections and graded exams and term papers. Occasionally proctored exams and prepared slides to be shown in class.
Publications
(primary author)
2007-- "Archived Anthropology: Thorny Issues of Disposition and Access in a Time of Change" Received Student Diversity Paper Award from the UCLA Department of Information Studies.
2007-- "Intellectual Freedom and Sensitive Knowledge: Embracing Pluralism in the Process of Knowing" received Honorable Mention from Progressive Librarian's Guild Braverman Award.
2006-- Knowledge as a Marketing Strategy: Ethnic Crafts in the Retail Environment. M.A. Thesis. University of California, San Diego.
(coauthor)
2009-- Katherine Becvar and Ramesh Srinivasan.
"Indigenous Knowledge and Culturally-responsive Methods in Information Research." Library Quarterly 79(4): 421-442.
2009-- Ramesh Srinivasan, Robin Boast, Katherine Becvar, and Jonathan Furner.
"Blobgects: Digital Museum Catalogs and Diverse User Communities." Journal of the American Society of Information Science and Technology (JASIST), 60(4): 666-678.
2009-- Ramesh Srinivasan, Jim Enote, Katherine Becvar, and Robin Boast.
"Critical and reflective uses of new media technologies in tribal museums." Museum Management and Curatorship, 24(2) 169-189.
2009-- Ramesh Srinivasan, Katherine Becvar, Robin Boast, Jim Enote.
"Diverse knowledges and contact zones within the digital museum." Science, Technology, and Human Values, 35(5): 735-768.
2009-- Ramesh Srinivasan, Jonathan Furner, Robin Boast, and Katherine Becvar.
"Digital museums and diverse cultural knowledges: Moving past the traditional catalog." The Information Society, 25 (4): 265-278.
Exhibitions & Presentations
"The Practicalities of Cultural Competence" April 6, 2014
A paper which I co-presented with Sarah Naumann at CARL: California Academic and Research Libraries 2014 conference, which focused on simple, practical steps that academic librarians can take to further their own cultural competence.
"Making a Library Makerspace: From Idea to Evaluation and Everything in Between" October 23, 2013
Tour of the College of San Mateo "pop-up" makerspace, and panel presentation with three other librarians/makerspace coordinators from different types of libraries (academic, public, and school).
“Information Literacy in Zero Gravity: Online Learning in Academic Libraries” November 4, 2012
A panel presentation at California Library Association’s 114th annual conference "Defying Gravity: Libraries without Limits," where I presented about the series of information competency video tutorials I created at College of San Mateo.
"Intellectual Freedom and Sensitive Knowledge: Embracing Pluralism in the Process of Knowing" March 24, 2007
A poster presentation based on a paper I wrote as a student, presented at the Information Ethics Rountable 2007: Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Property at University of Arizona in Tucson.
"Iconic to Ironic: Fashioning California Identity" March 15- September 21, 2003
History Department, Oakland Museum of California
An exhibition focusing on the history of clothing in California during the 20th century. I worked as the curator’s assistant, performing such duties as arranging for the donation and loan of many artifacts in the exhibition, as well as handling condition reports and temporary storage as described above.
"Waterhouse Transfigured: Re-Interpreting the Paintings of John William Waterhouse through History, Performance, and Costume" April 20, 2002
Design Department, UC Davis
An exhibition based on five paintings by Victorian painter John William Waterhouse, for which I created costumes, backdrops, and theatrical monologues. I completed "Waterhouse Transfigured" as the Senior Thesis Project for my degree.
Grants and Fellowships
Institute for Museum and Library Services Advancing Digital Resources Grant, awarded October 2009
“Creating Collaborative Catalogs,” funding the three year continuation of the “Recontextualizing Digital
Objects” project
President's Undergraduate Fellowship, awarded Winter 2002 Facilitated the creation of "Waterhouse Transfigured"
Professional Memberships
BayNet - Bay Area Library and Information Network, Academic Library Representative 2011-2013, Tours Committee 2011-2013, co-publicist 2014-2015
American Library Association (ALA), member '06-present
California Library Association (CLA), member '07-present
Honors and Awards
2008 Student Diversity Paper Award (cash prize), UCLA Department of Information Studies
Honorable Mention, Braverman Award, Progressive Librarian's Guild.
Departmental Citation from the Design Department Award in Design History, for my work on "Waterhouse Transfigured"
Dean’s Honors List, UC Davis, Fall 2000, Spring and Fall 2001, Winter 2002
Speaker of the Year, Cuyamaca College Speech and Debate Team, 2000
President’s List, Cuyamaca College, Spring and Fall 1999, Spring 2000