Release date: June 2024. Length: 6:13 minutes.
In which Hannah and Stephanie introduce ourselves and what we're doing with this podcast.
[intro music begins (instrumental, laid back rhythmic strings, drums, and piano)]
STEPHANIE: Hello, and welcome to Library Table Talk. I’m Stephanie Sparrow, one of your hosts.
HANNAH: And I’m Hannah Cabullo, your other host. In Library Table Talk, we’re two librarians exploring what academic librarianship looks like in the day-to-day – across different types of institutions and roles. We invite other librarians for friendly and more informal conversations about the practicalities, responsibilities, challenges, joys, and realities of academic librarianship as a job and as a career.
STEPHANIE: Nothing is off the table.
[intro music fades out]
HANNAH: Or left in the random chair storage room.
STEPHANIE: This happens everywhere, right? The random space full of everything that doesn’t have a place to go.
HANNAH: Anecdotally, yes? Anyway, Stephanie and I both recently started new jobs here at the University of Minnesota as liaison librarians, and we have the time and resources built in to be more ambitious in how we contribute to the profession.
STEPHANIE: As we were thinking about how we personally want to contribute, and focus our attention early on in our roles here, I know I for one was overwhelmed with the direction to go in. How do I commit to one topic or area? I’m interested in so many things! Where to begin, how to begin?
HANNAH: Exactly. So, even though I’m the engineering liaison, I do feel more like a generalist. I enjoyed working at a small liberal arts college before this in reference and instruction, where I did lots of different things in public services, from in-person reference to programming and outreach, of course information literacy instruction, eventually being a manager for awhile, and a handful of other things, like usability testing, helping with displays, etc., etc..
STEPHANIE: Wearing all the library hats.
HANNAH: Yeah! I don’t feel like an expert yet in engineering librarianship, so I’m thinking about what I can bring to the table right now, and as a mid-career librarian who was new not too long ago. Which for me is interest and exposure to many of the different things that academic librarians do, especially more on the public services side of things, and wanting to reflect on things that weren’t necessarily covered in library school. I was thinking about what I want to see in the professional conversation space, and podcasting is a medium that, if you’re here listening, you probably agree with this, I feel like has a lot to offer in accessibility and flexibility, so it’s a medium I’m really excited to be exploring here.
STEPHANIE: And after you shared what you were thinking, especially with a podcast, it really resonated with me, because I tend to be a question asker. I’m curious about what other people do. I love hearing about other people’s work, their challenges, successes, research interests. So when you brought this idea up, I thought, oh yeah, I can ask questions. And as an early-career librarian, like, in early career, this is my first library job, I want to learn about the field and the profession, because I feel fresh out of grad school with still a lot more to learn.
HANNAH: So that’s a little bit about us. And if you want the more formal resume stuff, you can take a look at our website at z.umn.edu/librarytabletalk.
STEPHANIE: Okay, so introducing ourselves we figured we’d give you a little more concrete picture of what we envision doing in this podcast.
HANNAH: So, as promised, our feature segment will be an interview/discussion with one or more guests, and we want our listeners to feel like they could be their direct colleagues, having a chat in the breakroom or before a meeting about those practical questions or issues that come up during the day that it’s nice to get another perspective on.
STEPHANIE: Yes! Like behind all the fancy schmancy resume or CV stuff, we’re all just regular people.
HANNAH: But here on the podcast, through the power of editing, we’ll be more concise versions of ourselves.
STEPHANIE: And after these conversations with our guests, we want to highlight a handful of articles, resources, etc., that caught our eyes recently. Because, let’s be honest, it’s hard to keep up with all the professional literature.
HANNAH: So we’re keeping our eyes on some of it, but just journals and other work that is open access, because we want to put our mouths where our scholarly communication values are.
STEPHANIE: Exactly. And besides those two main segments, we may sprinkle in some other small things as we play around with this whole podcast thing. We’d love to bring in listener contributions, for example.
HANNAH: And as we get this thing going, we’re hoping to release three episodes per semester during the academic year, that is, fall and spring, starting with fall 2024.
[outro music begins (instrumental, upbeat xylophone, clapping, and bass)]
STEPHANIE: And that brings us to a close, here, folks. Thank you for listening. We hope you’ll consider subscribing. You can also find us on our website at z.umn.edu/librarytabletalk.
HANNAH: Library Table Talk is produced by me, Hannah Cabullo,
STEPHANIE: and me, Stephanie Sparrow.
HANNAH: This episode was edited by Hannah. Thanks to our employer, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and University Libraries, for making this work possible.
STEPHANIE: Music is by Blue Dot Sessions, “Town Market” and “Dirtbike Lovers.”
HANNAH: Best regards,
STEPHANIE: Stephanie
HANNAH: and Hannah.
[short music interlude (instrumental music continues, with electric guitar adding in)]
HANNAH: Oh, let’s see. So, I think, did we wanna…
STEPHANIE: Well, I don’t know.
HANNAH: Say like, yeah, so like Stephanie, like you say “Stephanie”
STEPHANIE: at the …
HANNAH: and then I say “Hannah”
STEPHANIE: Okay.
HANNAH: And then we say it simultaneously.
STEPHANIE: Separately.
HANNAH: I’m gonna have to…
STEPHANIE: Simultaneously and then separately.
HANNAH: Yeah, okay. But then I’m gonna have to, um, make sure I see you so we can coordinate the simultaneously.
STEPHANIE: Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, hold on, let me pull my…
HANNAH: Yeah. So you can say “Stephanie,” and then I’ll say “Hannah,” and then maybe we can do like, one two three, and then…
STEPHANIE: Yeah, that sounds good. [laughs] Stephanie.
HANNAH: And Hannah.
STEPHANIE AND HANNAH (out of sync attempt at simultaneously): Stephanie and Hannah.
[both laugh]
STEPHANIE: Okay, maybe one more time.
HANNAH: Okay.
STEPHANIE AND HANNAH (slightly less out of sync attempt at simultaneously): Stephanie and Hannah.
HANNAH: Oh.
STEPHANIE: [laughs]
HANNAH: Maybe we need to, like, I don’t know, direct this.
STEPHANIE: Yeah.
HANNAH: I don’t know, were you ever in, play music?
STEPHANIE: No. [laughs]
HANNAH: Okay.
STEPHANIE: I mean, yeah, but I, not the conducting part.
HANNAH: Okay.
STEPHANIE AND HANNAH (still very out of sync): Stephanie and Hannah.
STEPHANIE: [laughs] Woo!
HANNAH: I don’t know if that’s gonna work.
[music fades out]