2020 ULS Candidate for Member-At-Large: Annie Zeidman-Karpinski
Tell us more about yourself and how you became an academic librarian.
After many years of graduate school in geography, but leaving without a Ph.D. I worked as a researcher for several activist labor unions, then for a non-profit internet service provider and finally in Q/A for an search provider. All of it was perfect training for being a reference and instruction librarian at a research university. I have been at the University of Oregon for 18 years since graduating from UCLA in 2002.
How long have you been involved in ULS and what attracted you to the section?
I have been active in ACRL and ALA since I was a library school student, but I am only recently a member of ULS. The section is wonderful and aligns with my interests in the field more broadly, especially with helping new librarians.
In your opinion, what are some of the most interest topics or trends we’re seeing in university libraries?
I see us making an effort to meet students where they are. We are seeing the impact of the systematic underfunding of our public K-12 schools. Students are coming to college knowing that it is a huge financial investment and they are eager to make the most of their time in college. I am excited to see how we can work with them to help them grow and learn and be successful.
What goals for the section would you have if elected to this position? How do you envision committees and members helping the section achieve those goals?
If elected, I will need to learn more about what the section would like to prioritize. I am an excellent networker, so once I had a sense of what was important, I would work to connect the right people to the tasks at hand. I like practical tasks and I had re-doing work that has already been done.
Where do you see ULS going in the future? How does it need to change and evolve to stay relevant to academic librarians?
We need to help tell the story about how librarians are valuable for students, for research and for the success of our colleges and universities. I’d love to know more about how the members of ULS can do that well.
Tell us something interesting about yourself that not very many people know.
I think that the skills I learned as a union researcher often on the front lines made me very effective at working with difficult to wrangle science departments.
