Librarian
I am currently a Research & Instruction Librarian at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. I am the liaison librarian for the departments of Anthropology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Digital Humanities, French, Italian, and German. Previously, I was the librarian for Anthropology and Psychology as well as the outreach and development librarian for the university's "special populations." When the opportunity arose for me to switch to covering language and content areas that I am most interested in, I jumped at the opportunity afforded to me by my manger. I have been with the University of Maryland since 2016. In addition to my librarian role at the university, I am also an affiliated faculty member in the university's iSchool, which I discuss in my teaching page here.
Before coming to the University of Maryland, I was the Research & Instruction Librarian for humanities and the User Experience librarian at McDaniel College. This position fully cemented my trajectory and represented my goal of working in an academic library which I had worked hard to develop the skill-set for through my positions previous to this.
These positions included:
Information Specialist, DARPA (ARTI Contract), Arlington, VA. This was a fascinating position where I had the opportunity to assist in the research of advanced technologies with various applications. I was able to read widely and assist in very interesting projects that I cannot, unfortunately discuss.
Technical Services Librarian, MPR Assoc., Alexandra, VA. In this position I was responsible for the cataloging and description of the agency's nuclear power and materials engineering technical reports. It was a fascinating and challenging role as I had to quickly adapt to a very different form of librarianship and subject area. I held this position at the same time as the position at the Episcopal High School. This was a challegning period in my professional and personal lives as I was living away from my partner and working nearly around the clock as I held a day job and an evening job.
Reference and Research Librarian, Episcopal High School, Alexandra, VA. As I mention above, I held this position at the same time as my position at MPR. As a residency school, the library was open to students in the evening and I was the nights and weekend librarian while I was with the school. I absolutely loved this job despite the challenges of working off-hours and away from my colleagues. The students of EHS were absolutely top-notch and asked interesting and challenging questions. Despite the difficulties I associate with this period, I look back on this position fondly. I pushed myself in this period to develop my skills into the librarian I wanted to be. It was very difficult, but ultimately the struggle paid off as it helped in my qualifications for later positions.
Library Assistant, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA. In this position, I was mentored and developed by the wonder director of the library who saw my passion and drive and provided me a pathway towards success. This position began as an unpaid internship while I was in my MLIS program at Simmons College (now Simmons University). I was asked to come back in a paid capacity following graduation. In this position it was my responsibility to work on outreach and development projects, marketing projects, and on-boarding/HR projects in addition to some collections analysis work and faculty outreach.
Reference Intern, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. In an effort to show initiative, I volunteered to work at the Ernst Mayr library in the Harvard University library system as a way to gain valuable experience to compliment my MLIS education. This was a wonderful experience and one that I cherish as it gave me a fulsome sense of academic librarian-life. I worked with high-profile scholars, stellar students, and talented librarians and was exposed to some of the most fascinating aspects of reference and instruction librarianship. I supplemented my income through ill-advised student loans, sure, and tedious jobs at big name bookstore, yes, but the internship experiences were absolutely essential to my overall experience and library education.
Information Specialist, Wellogic. Cambridge, MA. In this position I helped this health industry tech startup organize their chaotic information infrastructure. Ultimately, I learned that this sector was of little interest to me and the overall experience was unfortunately negative for multiple reasons.
Office Manager, Oxfam America. Boston, MA. Here I learned very important lessons about collaboration and team work in the information sector as I aided the information specialists, librarians, and subject matter experts in their important work.
Of course I also held many odd-jobs throughout my career such as a pizza-oven remover, clubhouse security guard, community pool attendant, mall shop worker, video game store worker, secretary, and more. The above highlighted jobs, however, demonstrate some of my path and trajectory towards my current positions.