Service Contributions

Like my Position Expectations essay, this one will have three features that should make it easy to read and fast to discern my case for promotion to Associate Librarian.

First, I have made it clear how the activities below connect to the “Contributions and Service to the University Libraries, the University and the Community” guidelines in the Librarian Personnel Code, which are on page 28.

Second, I have ranked my activities by putting the Top 5 at the beginning of this essay. I believe the Top 5 activities are my strongest for promotion.

Third, for my Top 5 Activities, I have included some details about how my contributions have been substantial, sustained, and significant. In the Librarian Personnel Code, those adjectives are used prominently to describe an Associate Librarian, so I am using them to argue I should be promoted to that rank.

Top 5 Activities for Promotion:

Title of Documented Activity: The Digital Scholarship Collective

• Description: This is a tri-campus UW Libraries group that meets once a month and that has the structure of a community of practice. The community here includes any library worker who does work with digital scholarship or is interested in it. The domain for this group–the focus–is the concept of “digital scholarship,” which, over the years, we’ve learned is anything but easy to define. Digital scholarship is forever mutating. And the “practice” of this community of practice is twofold: workshops and escape rooms. The workshop here is similar to the ones that creative writers or studio artists use in MFA programs in that, for Collective meetings, library workers share digital scholarship work, and then the group spends time experiencing it, understanding it, clicking through it, and critiquing it if the author is open to criticism. For the escape rooms, we work with members of the Collective to design an imaginary room loaded with tricky problems and mysteries that we have to escape from. Escape rooms have focused on challenges like losing Google Team Drives at the UW; teaching technical things (like coding) when you’re not an expert; and contending with copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use in the project management of digital Scholarship.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”
• Substantial (as in my contribution): With Erika Bailey (Data & Digital Scholarship Librarian at UWT), I have been a co-chair of this group since 2019. I have been responsible for creating agendas and making sure Collective meetings are announced via the Weekly Online News, email lists, and Slack channels. With Erika, I have been a lead facilitator during meetings. In preparation for these meetings, I have often identified Libraries colleagues working on digital scholarship, encouraged them to share work, and taken them through the process of filling out some forms we have where they describe, contextualize, and share their work in order to prepare for a workshop. 
• Sustained (as in over time): I have been a co-chair since 2019.
• Significant (as in to the UW Libraries and beyond): This activity has been significant for a few reasons. First, over the last three-plus years, Erika and I have proven to be highly positive and productive leaders, a fact that is only more impressive when considering that we are working across Seattle and Tacoma campuses. I know that the UW Libraries value cross-campus work deeply, and I think it’s a triumph that Erika and I have worked so well together and in service to such an important group. In fact, I work so much with Erika that I forget she’s at another campus. Second, the cross-campus connections don’t end with me and Erika. The Collective meetings themselves feature attendance from library workers from the three campuses as well as digital-scholarship work from Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma. One important quality of an Associate Librarian, I believe, is that they are working across campuses, strengthening and forging connections anew, and my co-chairship here is a perfect example of that. Finally, this work is significant because the workshops themselves have helped library workers edit and revise their digital scholarship. Annie Downey (Director of the UWT Library & Associate Dean of Libraries) is a regular Collective meeting attendee and participant and has said that her workshop of an Omeka exhibit was useful to her thinking about its expansion and revision. Amanda Hornby (Head of Student Success at UWS) workshopped a digital Undergraduate Research Tutorial at a Collective meeting, and later wrote to me and Erika with these words:

• “Hi, Erika and Elliott. FYI, I just wanted to thank you again for your feedback this past fall on the UW Libraries Undergraduate Researcher Tutorial . Lucinda and I added interactive student knowledge checks to each module, based in part by your helpful feedback at the Digital Scholarship workshop. Lucinda has now graduated from UW (and is starting a good job soon!), but was able to update the tutorial before she left. Cheers and thanks again! Amanda”

Title of Documented Activity: The LibCares Team

• Description: This was a group that grew out of the UW Libraries Security Committee and that focused on helping library workers who work in public service and who have faced–or are worried about–harassment from library users. The LibCares Team itself was a tri-campus collection of mostly supervisors of help desk workers, and they strove to improve communication between public-service workers, their supervisors, and the Security Committee as well as to organize and run quarterly events or open sessions for listening and discussion about Libraries concerns about or incidents with library users.  
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”
• Substantial (as in my contribution): I was a creator and co-chair of this Team. I was part of a small task force that was responsible for creating the LibCares Team, and from the start, I urged that its foundation should be one of empathy for colleagues–that is, a care for one another, especially those who have had to deal with disturbing situations. I was also the co-chair of this group and was responsible for organizing Team meetings, setting agendas, running meetings, and organizing events for library workers.
• Sustained (as in over time): I was co-chair from 2019-2022 with Steve Weber (former Head of Odegaard Access & Building Services) and David Frappier (Branch Operations Supervisor at UWS). In 2022, Adam Hall (Research Services Head of Operations at UWS) and Lauren Pressley (Senior Associate Dean for Research Services at UWS) decided that LibCares had been a useful experiment but that it had run its course.
• Significant (as in to the UW Libraries and beyond): This activity was significant because, similar to the Digital Scholarship Collective, it was one that featured a governing style that wasn’t so hierarchical but more of a community of practice. Here, the community was UW Libraries workers, the domain was harassment faced while on the job in public service, and the practice was that we’d hold open meetings in which people could listen about experiences and share them–all while cultivating empathy and care for one another. Though, in the end, this group was disbanded, I believe it illustrated how the UW Libraries can grow as a learning organization, which is a key Strategic Goal. Not all committees, task forces, and groups can grow from the ground up, but I believe that LibCares did and that that kind of growth is just as essential to Libraries strategic directions as development that’s top down. Also similar to the Digital Scholarship Collective, a significant effect of this group was that it was also deeply tri-campus–on both the level of the LibCares Team itself as well as the quarterly meetings and events that we organized. The LibCares Team had supervisors in it from Seattle, Bothell, and Tacoma, and that proved to be especially important when the Libraries were reopening in 2021 after having been locked down due to COVID-19. At that time, there were a lot of worries about what kind of public encounters help-desk workers might face with people not wanting to wear masks or follow virus-mitigation protocol, so the LibCares Team was a great place for us to work on that together. Further, the quarterly events that we held–most of which were ones focused on open listening and discussion and that particularly attracted student workers–had tri-campus attendance. This is a significant achievement with a significant effect, especially during pandemic times when library workers had many concerns and worries. And though, in the end, the LibCares Team was discontinued, Adam Hall and Lauren Pressley did acknowledge that some of the LibCares practices–not to mention its tri-campus connections–should be incorporated into future work of the Security Committee or Libraries supervisors of people who work in public service.

Title of Documented Activity: The Accessibility Working Group

• Description: This group exists to promote, review, test, and improve accessibility in the UW Libraries. It does this through subcommittee work in things like e-resource compliance, facilities reviews, PDF remediation, accessibility trainings for Libraries workers, webpage and database testing, and digital-publishing platform accessibility guidance.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”
• Substantial (as in my contribution): I started out as a member of the facilities subcommittee, and in that group we reviewed lengthy material about ADA compliance, met with the UW ADA Coordinator (Bree Callahan), and created an ADA checklist for ourselves in order to examine UW Libraries branches. Using that checklist, I paired up with colleagues in order to check out the Foster Business Library and the Tateuchi East Asia Library, identifying issues like the heights of checkout areas, heights of printers, and lack of furniture on wheels. Later, in 2021, I became the leader of a new subcommittee on digital-publishing platform accessibility guidance. For this smaller group, I find meeting times, make agendas, and run meetings–all with the goal of creating a resource that will help library users make accessible digital books with the Manifold and Pressbooks publishing platforms.
• Sustained (as in over time): I have been with this group since 2020 and have been a leader of a subcommittee since 2022.
• Significant (as in to the UW Libraries and beyond): My work on the Accessibility Working Group facilities subcommittee is significant in that it led to documentation for library users about the physical accessibility of the Foster Business Library and Tateuchi East Asia Library branches. That information now lives in Library Building Accessibility webpage. My work on the digital-publishing platform subcommittee is ongoing, but we are on track to create a LibGuide–as well as example Manifold and Pressbooks books–that will guide makers in creating digital books that are as accessible as the platforms allow.  

Title of Documented Activity: Media Making for Undergraduate Honors

• Description: Working with Juliana Villegas, the Associate Director of UW Undergraduate Honors, I have developed and taught one-shot, hour-and-a-half media-making workshops for undergraduate honors students working on fourth-year, culminating portfolios. In the first year of our collaboration, I visited Juliana’s classes to work with students on digital storytelling via video-making, but over the years, I’ve expanded to teaching students about podcasting and digital-exhibit creation as well.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Service in Integrating Technology and Teaching Practices at the University Level”
• Substantial (as in my contribution): Juliana had initially reached out to me and a colleague, Perry Yee, about visiting her class to talk about digital storytelling, and from there, I worked with Juliana to develop lesson plans that I would teach and that would guide students through the process of making videos, podcasts, and digital exhibits–and all while talking about things like copyright, Creative Commons, and accessibility along the way.
• Sustained (as in over time): I started working with Juliana on this activity in 2018, and it continues to the current time.
• Significant (as in to the UW Libraries and beyond): This activity is significant because it illustrates a strong, long-term link between two keystone institutions for UW undergraduates: the UW Libraries and Undergraduate Honors. In this instance, I think I have represented the Libraries exceedingly well and have shown students the diverse resources and services we offer–ones that include not just materials, like books and databases, but also help and guidance in media creation and digital scholarship. It’s also significant because an administrator and educator like Juliana has found it useful to her Honors students. She knows them and their work better than anybody, so I’m honored that she thinks this digital-storytelling work that we do is something she needs to include every year for Honors students, especially ones who are in their final year at the UW.

Title of Documented Activity: Directed Field Work for Information School Graduate Students

• Description: In my time as English Studies & Research Commons Librarian, I have served as a supervisor for three Directed Field Work projects for Information Graduate Students seeking MILIS degrees. For the first DFW I supervised, the student did a collection-development project in which she did an environmental scan of English-Department faculty interests and classes and an examination of library-book usage statistics in those areas before she did some research and proposed a collection of fifty books I should buy. The second and third DFWs were focused on classroom teaching, especially teaching having to do with media-making, and here the students observed my teaching and co-taught with me, developed a teaching philosophy, assembled lesson plans, and created a digital projects like videos, podcasts, a website, and a digital book.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Service to Graduate Students and Undergraduate Students in Ways that Enhance the Standing of the UW Libraries and Librarianship”
• Substantial (as in my contribution): For these three DFWs, my role has been to meet with a student to develop a plan and then to meet regularly over the course of a quarter in order to make sure that they stick to their plan and finish it. At the end, I also write up an evaluation of the student, and in each case, the student has not just met their plan but far exceeded it.
• Sustained (as in over time): The first DFW I supervised was in 2018, and my work on this activity continues into Fall 2022.
• Significant (as in to the UW Libraries and beyond): My service as a supervisor of DFWs for Information School graduate students is a great and significant contribution to the field of librarianship. Over the years, as an academic librarian who works closely with faculty in classrooms and in research, I have gained much experience and expertise, and I believe I should share what I’ve accrued with graduate students who are in the process of securing their MLIS and who want to work in academic librarianship. The graduate students I’ve supervised have all been successful in that they’ve fully satisfied the requirements of their DFWs, but I think their working with me has also been significant because, for each of them, I’ve stressed that, over the course of the DFW, they need to not only meet their goals but also develop a portfolio of materials and examples that they will able to feature when they go on the job market and interview for positions. In keeping in touch with these graduate students, I know they have referenced and exhibited their DFW collection-development work, teaching philosophies and concrete pedagogical approaches, and work in media making and digital scholarship.

Other Important Documented Activities for Promotion:

Title of Documented Activity: Re-Opening the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries after COVID-19 Shut Down and Limited Operations

• Description: I was part of a group responsible for coordinating reopening the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries for the 2021-2022 academic year. I quickly and efficiently hired and trained six new undergraduate student workers for the Allen South Research Commons Help Desk and also coordinated with Adam Hall (Research Services Operations Head of Operations) to meet with and help train new student workers in the Suzzallo and Allen North Libraries. This was all done with complex and shifting COVID safety protocols in mind. I was also part of a team of librarians who were being cross-trained to work at the new consolidated Allen North Information & Research Help desk.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”

Title of Documented Activity: Lake City Public Library Time Grant

• Description: In the past, UW Libraries Time Grants were only for scholarly activities, but in 2019 the program was updated to include community-service activities. Once this change was made, I requested a Time Grant to serve as a homework helper at the Lake City Public Library branch of the Seattle Public Libraries. In September of 2019, I would leave work at UW Seattle in order to help children and teenagers with their homework from 4:30-6:00 pm at the Lake City Public Library. I was able to do this work for just six months because the SPL branches were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. In that time, though, I was still able to do things like help high-school students with college application essays as well as research projects on things like neolithic people. I read to second and third graders, and I helped a sophomore revise a short story. I discussed the difference between primary and secondary sources with a seventh grader. This was an incredible experience, and I was sad that this program was suspended all through 2020 and 2021. Now, though, in 2022, Homework Help has come back, and I have filled out another Time Grant. Since September, I have been going to the Lake City Public Library on Wednesdays. I’ve been helping many young people, but, in particular, I’ve been working with a graduate of the UW Libraries High School Internship on job application materials, scholarship essays, and the college application writing section.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Community Service that Enhances the Stature of the University Libraries and the University”

Title of Documented Activity: Signage Committee

• Description: From 2018-2020, I served on the Signage Committee. In 2018, when AC Petersen (the former UW Libraries Communications Director, now retired) was chair, I helped to remove old signs from the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries, put up new properly branded and accessible signs, and do walk-throughs of the twelve acres of Suzzallo/Allen to examine it for accessibility. In 2019, when AC retired, I became the interim chair of the committee, and in that time, I led the group in developing and starting to implement a wayfinding study of Libraries spaces. We came up with a list of tasks for undergraduate students to explore, and we’d observe them, taking notes about any potential signage issues in their wayfinding. In 2020, Sandy Hawley was hired as the new Communications Director and became chair of the Signage Committee. Due to the pandemic, we stopped meeting from 2020-2021, and we haven’t yet reconvened in 2022.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”

Title of Documented Activity: Cinema & Media Studies Librarian Search

• Description: In 2019, I participated in the search for the Cinema & Media Studies Librarian. I was a dependable and vocal member of the committee, and in the final stages of the search, we brought not just three but four excellent candidates to the Libraries for interviews. The end result was the hiring of Dylan Burns, who has become a colleague that I work with frequently in both the Arts & Humanities Liaison Team as well as digital-scholarship projects and programs, like Storytelling Fellows and the Digital Scholarship Summer Immersion program.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”

Title of Documented Activity: Digital Safety Working Group

• Description: From 2018-2019, I was part of this Digital Safety Working Group. We organized a few workshops for anyone in the UW community who was worried about their online digital safety and security, so in these workshops, attendees discussed where their sensitive information lived (like with regard to social media or online banking) and we suggested strategies for protecting that information. (I served in a support role for these workshops.) We also offered a few pop-up events in the Odegaard Undergraduate Library and the Husky Union Building in which we showed people how they could examine how much information Google or Facebook has collected about them–as well as online data aggregators like Spokeo. (I was responsible for working with attendees directly here.) Finally, through the Mozilla Open Leaders program, we developed an Open Educational Resource in the form of a Manifold book that could serve as a helpful teaching tool for researchers who are worried about their digital safety and security. This project is called Digital Safety for Open Researchers, and I helped to write it and organize it. Finally, at ACRL 2019, our group gave a full conference presentation about all this work.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”

Title of Documented Activity: Libraries Unbound

• Description: I have contributed in important ways to Libraries Unbound, a signature annual event and key fundraising opportunity in the Libraries. In 2018, my role was to introduce the evening’s featured speaker, the short-story writer Ted Chiang. In preparation for this job, I coordinated through Advancement to meet Ted for coffee and interview him. What I thought would be a half-hour chat ended up being an hour-and-a-half discussion, and I think that meeting--and my initiative--helped me to introduce Ted well and represent the Libraries accordingly. In 2019, the funding of the Open Scholarship Commons was a focus, and I was one of a series of people who took the stage to highlight exciting Libraries programs and outreach that could help the audience to envision what the OSC could support. I took a few minutes to speak about the UW Libraries High School Internship, a program that I started in 2017, and I also helped Advancement identify one of the other speakers--a graduate student in the English Department named Matt Howard--who told of creative ways he and his students have relied of Libraries innovations.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Productive service on University Libraries’ committees and task forces”

Title of Documented Activity: Connecting with Undergraduate Students about Librarianship

• Description: Over the years, I have spoken with a number of undergraduate students curious about librarianship and have represented the UW Libraries and the field of librarianship well in these contexts. As a supervisor of undergraduate workers in the Research Commons, I have spoken to two students who then went on to apply for the UW’s Information School. In my work as English Studies Librarian, I have spoken to five students about what it’s like to be an academic librarian as well as things they might want to consider when selecting an MLIS program. (The most recent student was interested in university special collections, and I wrote an email to introduce her to librarians like Sandra Kroupa [UW Libraries Book Arts & Rare Books Collector]. This student visited Special Collections and had an incredible time.) Further, when I audited Professor Geoffrey Turnovsky’s TXTDS 404: Texts, Publics, and Publications class, he would frequently call on me to speak about work in academic libraries for the undergraduate students who were interested in it.
• Connection to the Librarian Code: “Service to Graduate Students and Undergraduate Students in Ways that Enhance the Standing of the UW Libraries and Librarianship”