12 - In the stacks: a reflection on library fellowship programs

Marcus Ortiz: Hello and welcome to Library Table Talk. I'm Marcus, one of your guest hosts for this episode. 

Lindsay Inge Carpenter: And I'm Lindsay, your other guest host.

Marcus: In Library Table Talk, we talk about what academic librarianship looks like in the day to day across different types of institutions and roles. We invite other librarians for a friendly and more informal conversation about the practicalities, responsibilities, challenges, joys, and realities of academic librarianship as a job and as a career.

Lindsay: Nothing is off the table. We're happy to have you here.

Marcus: Today, Lindsay. I will be talking about library residency programs, which provide early career librarians an opportunity to learn about academic librarianship as a professional pathway. We'll discuss our experiences participating in the Fisher Family Library Fellowship for Inclusive Excellence at the University of Maryland. We'll talk a bit about the history of residency programs, challenges associated with them, and an overview of the Fisher Family Library Fellowship from the perspectives of a Library Fellow and a fellowship coordinator. So let's dive in, shall we? Lindsay, if you would like to introduce yourself. 

Lindsay: Hello, I'm Lindsay Inge Carpenter. I'm the Head of Research Education at the University of Maryland Libraries, and I was the program coordinator for the Fisher Family Fellowship. Because we're talking about diversity, equity and inclusion, which means we're also talking about privilege and power, I wanted to share some of my positionality through my social identities and professional position as related to the Fellowship. So first, I'm a white woman, which is a race and gender that's overrepresented in academic librarianship. And I'm also in a position where I have permanent status, which is the tenure equivalent for faculty librarians at the University of Maryland Libraries, which comes with some job security and additional privileges. And finally, I also am in a management position, which means that I have insight into the organization and access to information that someone just joining the institution might not have. And, Marcus, I'll ask you to introduce yourself. 

Marcus: Thank you, Lindsay. Hi everyone. I'm Marcus Ortiz. I was one of two of the inaugural Fisher Family Library Fellows here at the University of Maryland, the second being Alana Norwood. But I am since, happy to share that I since left that position and I've accepted a permanent track librarian role here at UMD. In the same department my fellowship took place in. So that's very exciting. But professionally, I've worked in different parts of the greater GLAM sector. So I started in archives and museums, and then I transitioned into special public and most recently, academic libraries. My work throughout those different pathways have really been on the public facing side of the profession. I gained a lot of experience in the way of program development for adult and child populations, developed a number of reference services for folks, instruction and even some cataloging and metadata repair as well. And I'm grateful for all of these experiences, because they occurred really early in my career at the very first library that I worked at. And I think it's really given me a solid foundation to build upon after I left my first library job, and I think what ultimately helped me obtain the fellowship here, at the University of Maryland. So the first, section that we're going to talk about is a history of fellowships. And, Lindsay, if you'd like to sort of introduce, how the Fisher Family Library Fellowship came to be that’d great.

Lindsay: So in academia, fellowships are designed to provide current graduate students or recent graduates with fully funded opportunities to engage in research while receiving professional development and mentorship support. Fellowships are generally short term, with a set end date of 1 or 2 years. They're a way for emerging researchers to be socialized into the discipline and academia. In libraries, of course, this looks a little different. Fellowships in academic libraries are generally less focused on research, although that might be one component of those fellowships, and instead the focus is on developing core competencies, whether that be in public services, access services or technical services. Library fellowships do still incorporate professional development, mentorship, and socialization into the profession. And while institutions, of course, benefit from the labor and intellectual contributions of fellows, in an ideal world, fellowships are meant to be fellows centered, meaning the priority is to support fellows as they transition from graduate student to professional.

Another term for fellowship-like experiences are residencies.And in academic libraries. That's a term that might be more familiar to folks because of the ACRL Diversity Alliance, which offers residency programs. The ACRL Diversity Alliance states that its goals are as follows: one, increased adoption of inclusive employment and onboarding practices; two, the development of inclusive, healthy workplace cultures that support BIPOC colleagues; three, creation of paid positions with no required years of experience through early career diversity residencies and graduate student practicums; four, advancement of career path development of BIPOC early professionals; building professional network connections for BIPOC individuals; six, retention of BIPOC librarians and archivists in the profession; and seven, commitment of library leaders to the advancement of inclusive leadership and access to the profession.

So just a couple of points. First, we see that like other fellowships, the ACRL Diversity Alliance residency programs are for early career professionals or recent graduate students; that the goal is to provide a fully funded experience that allows early career professionals to explore the profession and build a professional network; and what's unique about the Diversity Alliance compared to just a general fellowship, is the specific focus on race and ethnicity, and diversifying the profession.

At the University of Maryland Libraries, I'm going to talk a little bit about the Fisher Family Library Fellowship, and how that is similar to and different from, the ACRL Diversity Alliance or other fellowships. So first, a bit of background about funding for the fellowship. The Fellowship was established in 2023 by Todd and Christine Fisher, with the goal of diversifying the library profession. Ms. Fisher is a graduate of the UMD Robert H. Smith Business School and a trustee of the UMD College Park Foundation. She had a really positive experience with UMD libraries as an undergraduate, which is what encouraged her to donate towards this program, which is exciting because it's hard to raise funds as an academic library because we don't have the same alumni base that specific colleges and departments have.

The language here is slightly different from the diversity residencies. So we're talking about diversifying the profession, but no specifics about what that means in terms of racial and ethnic representation or diversifying in other ways. So the program advisory committee, made up of librarians at UMD, was tasked with creating a fellowship program that would meet that goal of diversifying the profession and provide support and mentorship for Fellows, while also finding a way to make sure that the work Fellows were doing were supporting institutional needs.

I'll share some basic details about the Fellowship. First, our stated objectives were: one, for Fellows to be able to deepen their understanding of the ways in which historical and contemporary pressures shaped the academic library and higher education; two, acquire core competencies and skills related to their area of interest in academic librarianship; three, develop a librarian scholar identity and research agenda appropriate for faculty librarianship, appointment promotion and tenure slash permanent status processes; four, build a network of colleagues and mentors to support Fellows’ short term and long term career goals; and five, compile job seeking materials and prepare for the academic job search process. 

So to achieve those goals, we have several components of the Fellowship. 30 hours a week of the 40 hour per week appointment was devoted to a special project and a programmatic area selected by the Fellows.This could be in the areas of public services, librarianship, archives, technical services. We left it open when recruiting to Fellows’ interests. Another ten hours of every week was devoted to professional development, scholarship and service. One of those hours was a shared cohort office hour, so that the two Fellows in the Fellowship had an opportunity to touch base with each other. One hour per week was devoted to the Fellowship Professional Development Program, which was a weekly meeting for Fellows and the program coordinator to get together to talk about aspects of academic librarianship, including the history of academic librarianship, the hidden curriculum of academia, and the academic job search. And then finally, another eight hours were devoted towards other professional development activities, scholarship and mentorship.

With that overview in mind, Marcus, I'd like to ask you some questions about your experiences in the fellowship. So I mentioned that the Fellowship was designed to allow you the freedom to choose your role, and a project you would focus on throughout your fellowship. Can you talk about the project you selected and your role within the libraries, and how did you decide on this?

Marcus: Yeah, I think for me, when I first read the description for, the Fellowship, this was something I think that really pulled me in because it allowed me, like you mentioned, the freedom to determine what it is I would be doing, in this position. And so even before I started in my role, I started to think about already, like, okay, how am I going to frame my position? What are my interests? What am I thinking about? Right. And so in thinking about my previous work in, you know, the greater glam sector, I come from public librarianship and special libraries. But the thing that I really enjoyed doing was, sort of on the public-facing side of things. So developing programs, which oftentimes prioritized queer voices and Indigenous communities. And so I knew I wanted to continue that sort of outreach aspect of my work. And so in my sort of, search, I came across student success librarianship. And I think that this is something, is a role that's still sort of evolving. But oftentimes these positions and universities are looking at how librarians can support special populations. So first gen students, Indigenous folks, and really bringing the library to these communities and helping them sort of get oriented with the institution, because they face their own set of challenges. Right. And so I came into this position with that in mind and wanting to sort of develop my responsibilities around and in service to these, to these students.

And so that really led me to, I think, what is more of a sort of traditional, maybe traditional liaison librarian role. And so my primary function, and responsibility during my fellowship was serving as a liaison to the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies department on campus, which was perfect for me. I was really grateful that that really aligned with the work that I had done previously. And then it also supported some other opportunities that I had wanted to work through. In particular my instruction skills. So again, I come from public librarianship. And so I've, I've been in front of, you know, a number of people before in the way of like, you know, showing folks how to use Libby and like especially with some older populations, helping them on like a computer with just general like screen literacy, because that's a, that's a big challenge for, some folks in our communities as well.

So I wanted to continue to build on that instruction, but sort of shifting that into the classroom, of course, right? And that was an area that I, I come into it knowing that I wanted to continue to refine. Because, again, completely different, different community. So I wanted to make sure the instruction that I was providing students to was, relevant and it was meeting their needs, which I think can sometimes be a challenge when you're working with, you know, such a large institution like the University of Maryland because you're working with so many different populations, right? But that was just, one, one focus or one area that I was really looking forward to when I came into this, into this position. 

Lindsay: And what are some ways you felt the fellowship provided professional or personal growth? 

Marcus: Yeah, I think that, for me, the fellowship did a solid job in this. I think when I started to again, I was coming from, a public library, and so the service population, I think was a little bit larger and more targeted, more focused, think. And so one thing that I, I wanted to do is, again, I mentioned this already about instruction, but also figuring out how I could develop my CV and take all of the experience that I had previously, and make that translatable into like academic speech, if you will. And so the, the libraries offered a more formal, mentorship program, and it was, of course, encouraged that I participate in this. And I think and correct me if I'm wrong, Lindsay, but the mentorship, program at the library, it's generally made up of 2 to 3 people. And it's also people within the libraries themselves, right?

Lindsay: Right. 

Marcus: Yeah. And so for me, I saw the value in this. But I had also some other, some things that were of interest to me at this time. And one of the things was continuing my education and pursuing a PhD in information studies. So knowing that I wanted to sort of reach out outside of the libraries and find myself a mentor, specifically in the College of Information here at UMD. And my thought process behind that was, you know, it would help sort of familiarize myself with that college in particular, because prior to this fellowship, I really hadn't had any connection to the university, right? So just trying to orient myself with folks in library and outside of that as well. And I was lucky enough to, be connected with, Dr. Diana Marsh, who's over at the College of Information. She's really awesome and does tons of great work, specifically in, in, archives and working with Indigenous communities in the context of archives, as well. So I was really happy when she sort of took me, took me on and was happy to provide support for me. And in this way it would be, you know, knowing that I would be potentially applying to PhD programs at the College of Information, but also helping me look at my professional trajectory overall. So in the libraries, but also, you know, as I consider myself a practitioner scholar, I think, like many of us do, right? So I think knowing that she could also have provided support in those areas specifically. So it was really, I was really excited, when I was able to begin to sort of work with her. Yeah, I think that was, that was a really good opportunity. And now that, you know, my fellowship is sort of come to a close, she's still been kind enough to continue to work with me in different areas as well. 

Lindsay: And can you share a bit about some of the challenges you faced as well? 

Marcus: Yeah, I think, with the same idea as like being able to build my position. I think that had obstacles to be a little bit of a challenge for me. Not a problem, yeah, but a challenge for sure. Just because, you know, it's in my mind and, I'm doing the work to, to create my position. Right. And then now I'm going in to actually implement it and all of the responsibilities that comes with that, as well. And so I think when I first started and I think I mentioned this earlier, but I feel like I hit the ground running even before my first day. I, emailed you, right, Lindsay?

Lindsay: Yep!

Marcus: And I was like, hey, I see that, you know, every year the Equity Center does Quelcome, as a welcoming event for all of our campus community. I was like, this is awesome. This is exactly my ally. I want to continue to do this work. So, Lindsay ended up putting in, like, a request to have the library's table there, and I ended up, you know, being there with some other folks who provided support at that event. But that was like a month or two before I started. So, I think, yeah, I when I started, I, kinda hit the ground running and I, I don't think, I, I slowed down, enough, or, I think I should have slowed down to just sort of take in this opportunity that I had, and instead I maybe just, I was like, okay, sign me up for all of the things that are of interest for me. So I think that to some degree, that could have been, for some folks, I think even for me too, to an extent was probably a little over burdensome. Right. And I think that's how it's a sure fire way to like, bring yourself out, which we know is also a big issue in our, in our profession. Right. Whether you're an academic libraries or even in public libraries. So it's something to sort of keep in mind, as folks move forward and in any position really, but especially I think, in, a fellowship or like a residency role. I think one one other challenge that I had, too, was just sort of balancing my work and school schedule. I feel like I've been pretty good up until this point in my academic and professional career, as being able to balance both. But I think that's an ongoing challenge for those of us who, you know, maybe work full time or are part time grad students. I know that's, you know, many folks. I have tons of friends who are also, you know, in that position, right, where they have to continue to work while they're in school. It's just it's too much of a, a cost burden, right, for folks to just be in school full time and and not work. But I think I've been able to, I was able to balance that, not certainly without challenges. And Lindsay mentioned this earlier, too, but the fellowship allowed some time for scholarship opportunities. And so what I really appreciated about this was that, I think for me, this is the first time in a little while where I can begin to see my research interests and the things that I was, wanting to pursue coincide with my role at the library. And there was a lot of support for that. You know, it's literally built into this fellowship. So that was really, I was really grateful for that opportunity. And I'm talking about this thinking about, you know, me coming from public libraries where I don't think we get folks getting nearly as much support, maybe, for maybe not just professional development opportunities in general, because I certainly did get that in my previous institutions, but I think that there's probably more perhaps flexibility with folks being able to engage with more scholarship, as part of that, as part of their responsibilities in their, their position at the library. Right. 

And I think too, and sort of that same note, is like me beginning to navigate like publishing more. Prior to this, I, I presented at a couple of conferences. But I hadn't published, like, an article, when I started. So I knew that this was sort of maybe the next step for me, and I think that the mentorship opportunities that we had, like, in our, what was it like our weekly professional development hour, I think things like that were helpful just to help me, like, orient myself with how to begin that process. Because it can be kind of confusing and, sometimes you just don't know where to start. So I think some of the ideas that came up in our sessions were extremely helpful for me, just to again wrap my mind around, going about that publishing process as well. And I would say maybe, perhaps the last thing that I was sort of facing was just like challenges of imposter syndrome. Right? And I think we've all probably experienced this, and I, and I wonder if this ever goes away because it's seemingly like it doesn't, but it's there. But, and I think for me, I was just, trying to sort of remind myself of like, hey, you made it here. They picked you, right? You are, you're doing the work. So I think just sort of gentle reminders about, like, you know, where I am and, and sort of reflecting on the work that I had previously done, served to sort of help overcome some of those, some of those, that challenge, really, of not feeling like I belong here, that I am again, like posing as someone I'm not, but. Yeah. Again. I'm here.

Lindsay: To address imposter syndrome. Just, like, reflecting on how although the goal of a fellowship is to advance your career, but also, obviously the institution benefits and the way the institution benefited from your work was so immediate because, like you, that example you gave as soon as you started, you were reaching out to communities that we previously maybe had some tenuous or one-off connections, but nothing sustained. And you, even within a year, have developed multiple sustained partnerships with student populations and centers on campus that we had identified as places that we could provide more support and just never had. And so, the way that you went about establishing those partnerships and also making sure that the level of support you were providing was something that could be sustained in the future was really beneficial to the university.

Marcus: Thank you. Yeah, I just thinking about that. So yeah, it was the Equity Center that we worked with so immediately. And like one of the things that came from that was, me providing onsite reference at the Equity Center during their Queer Recess weeks. And so I did that, first, the second semester and my fellowship. And then of course, I had made contact pretty immediately too, with the Indigenous Futures Lab on campus. And so that was really nice. And so I've been able to support one of the projects they’ve got going on, and that's, the development of a post-custodial archive. And that's been really awesome because I've not worked in archives in years, but appreciate the work and efforts of archives and archivists all over, especially as it relates to Indigenous communities. And so I've been able to sort of call on some of those previous experiences to support this effort that they're undertaking, which is ongoing, but happy to provide support in that way as well. 

All right. So next, we're going to move to the next section of our talk today. I just want to hear  a little bit more from Lindsay, and the perspective of, of a coordinator. So we were hoping that you could share more about how the Fellowship was designed. And you did mention this in your opening, too, that there were some other residency programs, that you looked at, to establish this one. Maybe you can share a little bit more about that. 

Lindsay: Yeah. So the way that this Fellowship was developed was first, very high level conversations at the Dean level about the goals of the Fellowship and securing funding. But then the decisions about the day to day structure of the Fellowship were left to a program advisory committee. So we had directives from high levels of the administration about the overarching goals of the program, but then it was up to us to determine what was a way that we could achieve those objectives. And I was really hesitant when I was approached to be involved at first, because all of the stories I had heard from colleagues about residency programs were about very isolating experiences. So it, was it was a really positive experience to be involved from the beginning, to make decisions, to try to address some of those horror stories I had heard and think about ways we could mitigate that. So we conducted a literature review, first of research published by folks who had participated in residency programs, and we talked to people in our professional networks we knew who had completed them to learn about some common challenges, as well as things that their programs did that were really beneficial to them. So some of the common challenges folks mentioned were the isolation, and particularly in programs where, the focus was on racial and ethnic diversity, a sense of tokenism and experiencing microaggressions. So the fellow was usually the only person who was recruited as part of the program. There was no cohort model. They might be the only Person of Color at that institution, or at least within the division where they were working. And so they didn't feel a lot of support, when people reported experiencing microaggressions with no follow-up from their supervisors or program coordinators. And to the point of program coordinators, some folks said there weren't any formal support structures, so it was sort of unclear who you would go to with questions about the fellowship. Sometimes that role was performed by your direct supervisor, sometimes that was separate. People reported vague expectations and unclear communication through the onboarding process and then throughout the residency program, and then other folks reported a lack of buy-in from colleagues and the institution as a whole. So colleagues not really understanding what the goal of the fellowship was, or seeing the fellow or the resident as sort of intern with a student worker-type role instead of as a colleague. So we looked at, looked at all of those challenges, thought about ways that we could address that for our program.

 One thing that was different. So we were not a member of the ACRL Diversity Alliance. And so the language of our Fellowship was slightly different. Instead of specifically recruiting for librarians who were from a underrepresented racial or ethnic group in the profession, we were recruiting for people who prioritized diversity in their librarianship, which is a little squishy. And I think part of that was concern from an HR perspective about the type of call that we could send out for this Fellowship. I think another part of it was because as a university, at that point, we were, really prioritizing social justice in our strategic plans. This was Pre-Trump 2.0. And so the recruitment materials and the position descriptions were looking specifically for people who could articulate how diversity, equity and inclusion was important to their professional practice. So that also became part of the structure of the fellowship, was trying to make sure that other people in the libraries also understood that that work was important, and that it would be viewed as valuable contributions from the fellows to our ongoing work.

Marcus: And then, if you can maybe share, a little bit more about your mentorship experience, and how you approach supporting the Fellows, in your role. 

Lindsay: So one of the reasons why I was asked to be involved in this program is because previously I had experience working as one of the co-directors for the UMD Libraries Research and Teaching Fellowship, which is a teacher training program for current MLA students. And so many things that I learned through that experience informed the development of this program. So, for example, the professional development type of activities that we did were borrowed almost directly from that fellowship experience, things that really worked well in the Research and Teaching Fellowship for community building, sustained engagement through regular check ins and having the opportunity to try out new things, not just to gain the experience, but also to learn whether you even like that type of librarianship. If in practice it was something that you would want to do. So I tried to bring those lessons into this program too. 

Marcus: I think you folks did a great job in that. I mean, I feel like as you were, you know, speaking, thinking about all the things that I did, of course, right? And I think that's pretty spot on my my experience is the able to explore, my own interests, and continue to like, build on the work that I had come to the university with.It really allowed me to, again, continue to build on that work, but also try new things. And, you know, explore, explore new areas, really.

We were hoping that you could share a little bit about maybe what success looks like in the fellowship, and if that has met, sort of your expectations or thoughts about success and fellowships.

Lindsay: On a personal level, when I was getting involved with the fellowship, what I was hoping for is that fellows would leave feeling like it was a positive experience. So whatever that meant to them, I wanted it to be a positive opportunity for folks. 

Marcus: Yeah. 

Lindsay: And you were mentioning earlier how there are so many different ways to assess the success of something. So one would be job placement, but another way might be learning what you do and don't like about academic librarianship or about institutional type. So we’re at an R1 public university, which is such a different experience from, you know, a private liberal arts college. 

Marcus: Yeah. 

Lindsay: So I think that those types of, both of those types of outcomes can speak to the success of a program. One of the interesting things about this program is that it was designed to be a two year program. And for both of the Fellows, it ended after one year because of pursuing other job opportunities. And so to me, that's success. Both of you moved in directions that were positive for your professional and personal lives. But it would be interesting to think about what the second year of that program, would it have provided any additional support or, you know, I don't know that we got to see the full fellowship since we did it for a year.

Marcus: Yeah. 

Lindsay: And one of thing I'll mention is that when we were designing the program, we were trying to be really flexible with, wanting to invite applicants from who are early career but with a wide variety of background experiences. So one of the things that was challenging was that we were providing professional development experiences, and not sure whether the people who were hired for the fellowship would be zero library experience or basically had had a career in libraries and just not academic libraries. And so I think, one of the things that was successful about the fellowship is that we were able to pivot, to adjust the professional development to meet your needs. Because I think, like I had an understanding of the professional development I had done for current graduate students, and you didn't need some of that because you already had those professional experiences.

Marcus: Yeah. 

Lindsay: And I hope that we were able to adjust as we went to adapt the program to be something that was actually useful for the current fellows and not for the imaginary fellows we had in mind before we actually hired people. 

Marcus: Yeah, I definitely saw that too, going through the program. I mean, again, when we had our weekly, like, professional development, check ins with me and Alona, like, you would always ask us in advance, Hey, what are, you what would you like to talk about this week? You had a sort of a rough draft, right? Of like, what was the planned idea, right? But, gave us the flexibility to switch gears or bring in, you know, other folks in the libraries to talk about different areas, right? And not, you know, solely relying on you and your experience, but drawing from other folks in the library and thinking that goes back to, right, you mentioned I think it was maybe one of the challenges was getting by, and or the other fellowships had buy-in from colleagues, right. And understanding that role, that you definitely were able to, again draw in other folks in the libraries to talk about different things and just to help us continue to build our experience with academic libraries. But also just understanding how, the one thing that comes to my mind is, just understanding the function of like an academic institution, like a university system, right? Like I've been in school for what seems like longer than I've been alive sometimes. You know, in my experience, really related to universities has been as a student, but not so much as, you know, a faculty member, right? So that's just very different. So, I think one thing that I'm still sort of wrapping my mind around is like how university functions, right, and how layered and bureaucratic it can be. So I appreciated all of the, that experience as it relates to libraries, but also just sort of like, you know, the campus, an institution at large.

So now we're going to transition a little bit into our reflections and some practical takeaways. So the first, the first question that we have here too, is just thinking about, you know, what questions fellows or residents should ask before accepting a position, right. And I think for me, I think it was clear from the beginning that there could be some potential room for advancement at the institution and advancement in the way of like professional development opportunities, mentorship, and then also finding like a permanent status position because, again, the fellowship was intended for two years. But of course, when you see like a, you know, a start and end deadline, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm already thinking about like, yeah, you know what am I doing? Especially when it comes to like the six months, six months out from that two year mark because, you know, it's in academic spaces, you know, probably taking six months to find a job right from beginning to end, starting that, that search process. And so I think those would be a few things off the top of my head for residents who are interested in these programs, to ask upfront, right. You know, think about what it is that you want coming into this program and identifying how they're going to support you, in those in those ways to.

Lindsay: To that point about, you know, taking advantage of the two years, in that time, how do you think residents can build community and support beyond their institution, knowing that they might not stay at the institution?

Marcus: Yeah. This was one that I thought about kind of really early on in my, my fellowship with those first couple of months. And I found a, one thing that I did, I was, I was just trying to, like, identify other fellows and residents. And there was a book, I think it's called, I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. But we can list it in the show notes too, I think it's, Residencies Revisited. And it is a collection of stories from folks who have gone through residency programs. And so in there I was, you know, just curious to see and understand what other folks had been experiencing. And low and behold, one of the, editors or one of the authors for that book was here at the University of Maryland. So I was able to connect with her and talk about her experience, and she was able to, you know, chat with me a little bit about, you know, some things to think about and consider. And that was actually a really pleasant surprise, to know that I was able to find someone really here at the institution. But beyond that, I had also come across the ACRL RIG Group, which is a resident interest group. And there's lots of, lots of folks who have come into residency programs, and then also, participated in the group itself. So, I ended up serving and still currently serving, as the social media and communications member. So we primarily provide, support in developing, social media posts related to programs, services or conferences that would be of interest for residents. And I think that was probably one of the few ways that I was able to sort of build a community outside of the institution. And that subsequently also led me to connect with other residents who are in the general area here. There's some folks over at American University that I was able to connect with, as well. 

And then next, our next question is, what skills or experiences, should residents prioritize? I think for for me, when I'm, when I think about my experience, the first thing that I thought about was what I wanted to do and like the things that I was interested in, and that sort of guided some of the things that I prioritized. And so for, for me, where that was really developing, continuing to develop my communication skills and building relationships on campus, I think those are, those serve, you know, a few different things, really, right. I mentioned this earlier too, but thinking about my instruction, because I knew that I was that was an area that I didn't have much experience in. So naturally that was something I wanted to continue to build. And then I think, you know, one of the other things that was important to me was just continuing to, to build my experience with research and practice. Again, up until this point, I hadn't had much, in the way of like carrying out a full blown research project that wasn't theoretical from like my MLIS program or the current master's program that I'm in. So I wanted to sort of get on a project that would allow me to see that from beginning to end. And I think those all speak to, again, the type of, the type of position that I wanted to envision myself in going back to, you know, the student success librarian. So I think those are, that is really what sort of guided the, the skills that I wanted to build and prioritize.

And so now we’ve reached our last section. Lindsay, if you have any closing thoughts on residency programs, what was for you, your biggest takeaway from this experience? 

Lindsay: My biggest takeaway was that some of the work we did around hiring and onboarding for the fellowship are things that we can apply to all of our hiring and onboarding practices. So, for example, you and Alona brought such valuable experience and expertise in areas that we hadn't explored or addressed in any of our other previous positions, but because you hadn't had previous academic experience, that part of, you know, the job requirements that are 1 to 3 years in an academic library would have disqualified you from a permanent status position, which is wild because the perspective and work that you brought to the library is such a boon for our, our student and faculty population. So it's helped me to rethink my role on hiring committees and in drafting position descriptions to make sure that we are open to all types of experience and not limiting it to specific institutional type. Same deal with onboarding, the care that we took in providing detailed onboarding beyond just the checklist that you get from HR. That's something that we can offer to everybody who's new to the institution and hopefully would help facilitate that transition into a new position. 

Marcus: I think of that, on that same note too, my biggest takeaway, and I think you kind of touched on it too, is for me, just understanding how to translate my experience into, my current work now. Because again, I'm coming from public libraries, and I think maybe the struggle that I have in the application process was ensuring that I was hitting on the marks, air quotes, marks, on the application, right, making sure that what I was presenting to you folks was, you can see that being translated, in an academic space, and then also here at the University of Maryland, right? So I think for me, that was probably, one of the biggest takeaways that I had was just effectively being able to communicate, my previous work and where it fits in, here at the university. And then if you have one piece of advice for future coordinators or fellows. 

Lindsay: For coordinators, I would be realistic and honest with applicants about the type of experience that you can offer. We tried to build in a lot of flexibility and support into our program, but I think it helped that we were also upfront with fellows in like our one on one meetings about the challenges of this specific institution and the profession more generally, because I think it helped make informed decisions about your career after this point, about the types of places you'd be applying to. What about for you?

Marcus: I think for me, you know, because I mentioned this earlier, that like, I came into this position sort of hitting the ground running. But I think in thinking about my experience, there's always going to be like work to do or like interesting projects to participate in, right? Especially being here. But you can't do everything and you shouldn't do everything either. So I think really honing in on, you know, what you value in your practice will help sort of guide those projects that you, that you take on. And I think this can help ensure that you don't, you know, drive yourself into the ground and experience burnout, too. I think, you know, just take in, take in this experience, right? It's intended to help you explore and to experiment. So take your time when you're when you're going through these projects or, you know, whatever it is that you're participating in as well, allow yourself to really take in what it is that you're, you're doing.

Okay. So we started with the history of fellowships, and the Fisher Family Library Fellowship here at UMD. But let's look to the future. There's you know, many things happening right now that are really, unfortunately out of our control, right? Whether that's, political climate or finances or the economy at large, right? But if you had a blank check, how would you redesign or look at fellowships for the future? 

Lindsay: I think there's a lot of potential for partnerships between academic libraries and iSchools, and I would love to see a fellowship program that, instead of being designed for recent graduates, is for second year MLIS students, so that the student could work full time on an academic library, get paid a full salary, have the tuition covered for their last semester so that they're in a location where they've already committed to be as part of their studies, they're not being asked to move twice for a short term, which hopefully would reduce some of that financial precarity of fellowships. And it would help with that piece about translating the already valuable experience into a language that hiring committees understand. And instead of asking students to do that or need professionals to do that in their first position, have that be part of their graduate experience so they can just hit the ground running after graduation in a permanent faculty position, if that's what they're looking for.

Marcus: Yeah, I think that's a really positive idea. I know for me, going through my MLIS, I didn’t have an opportunity to take on an internship or, I think that's mostly because my program was online, but I still think that would be really helpful and beneficial to folks who might be interested in pursuing an academic librarianship pathway. Thank you.

Well, that brings us to a close here, folks. We thank you for listening, and we hope you'll consider subscribing. You can find us on the Library Table Talk website at z.umn.edu/librarytabletalk. This episode was developed and recorded by Marcus and Lindsay and edited by Stephanie Sparrow. 

Stephanie Sparrow: Thanks to our employer, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and University Libraries for making this work possible. Music is by Blue Dot Sessions, Town Market, and Dirt Bike Lovers.