Spine of the school : A librarian’s dedication

The spine of a school is made up of those who keep the campus running during the school year as well as in the summer, often in the shadows. They contribute to the development of students and the community as a whole.

The fall and spring semesters are when most students attend classes and the campus sees the most activity. But in the summer, when many of those students are taking a breather after a brutal spring semester, who continues to help keep the campus going?

Often, the first group that comes to mind are the faculty. However, there are many other people and professions that help UAA fulfill its mission, especially during the slower summer semester.

The library is arguably the most important building in any university, acting as the center of information needs for students and faculty.

The librarians, who occupy that space and disperse knowledge, are some of the most important people contributing to a student’s education at UAA.

Some of the most recognizable faces, both during the normal school year and in the summer, are the librarians and staff of the Consortium Library.

First year students attending UAA must go to the library to obtain their Wolf Card. Your photo is then taken by the librarians and critical information is given by the staff to ease future semester sweats.

After the welcoming experience from the library staff, the upcoming semester gives students the opportunity to visit the library as an aesthetic place to study or ask for help from staff on projects or research.

I wanted to understand more of what many librarians do in a day, so I decided to stop and have a chat with them.

I introduced myself to Lorelei Sterling, a face I see nearly everyday I’m on campus. Her title is Head of Access Services, Associate Professor.

As I sat in her office, grateful for the chance to talk with a librarian, I was greeted by the masked cardboard cutout of Benedict Cumberbatch, overseeing our conversation.

Sterling said she is responsible for “Department head for circulation stacks maintenance, interlibrary loan,” and that she has “indirect reports of up to 20 student workers and … direct reports of nine staff members.”

The library also hosts a variety of events throughout the year, engaging students in events, seminars and discussions of community issues.

“We have some really popular rooms, specifically 307. Where we do everything from host community events — we had the surgeon general of the US this week — as well as senator Dan Sullivan to talk about the healthcare crisis, all the way to athletes using our spaces to do tutoring type services during the school year.”

“We also had the crane exhibit that’s in our great room. It’s the 5th anniversary of that installation this year so we had a reception for that,” said Sterling.

The sheer amount of events and organizations associated with the Consortium Library is astounding.

As we spoke, Sterling’s infectious enthusiasm for her job, her staff, events, and everything associated with the library influenced my own perception of the library as well, just in the first few moments of our conversation.

As Sterling spoke about her staff, her appreciation radiated for those who dedicate their time to the library.

“My favorite thing is watching them. They've really developed and become professionals and they're ready to start their careers. I want to make sure I’m providing all the skills and all the opportunities for them to learn and grow so that when they are ready and they graduate, they are able to be successful in their chosen career. I like to nurture them into their next step.”

While shocked at the actual number of librarians that work at UAA, I found that each member of faculty specializes in different subject matters and, as Sterling said, “I am not a liaison librarian. Research and instruction librarians are liaison librarians.”

For instance, she said, “we have a business and public policy librarian who works mostly with business and public policy students, we also have science and engineering, we’ve got a humanities librarian…”

When the individual librarian does a variety of different things in the library, each library has its own procedure. Sterling said she’s worked “just about every job in libraries” and worked at a special library where she did “metadata applications.”

“You know when you do a Google search and you’re looking for images? Well, how do they know what pictures to bring back from that search? Somebody has to apply words in the background to those images so they come forward. It’s not magic! It’s librarians,” said Sterling.

This was one of the most interesting topics to find out during our conversation. Something as common as Google searches foster demands for meticulously typed descriptions, often performed by individual librarians.

This is another example of the helpful people who are sometimes shadowed behind the binding of a book. No matter what we do as a community, there is someone dedicating their time to bringing the individual pieces of the whole, together. It’s never magic.

Sterling knew a small portion about the history of the Consortium Library, but gave me some insight as to some celebrations and additions throughout the years.

“This year is the 50th anniversary of our building. In 1973 it was opened and in 2003/2004 the addition was put on. The addition was all the glass, the great room, and all the curvy stuff,” she said.

Many students and staff may have noticed the large empty area where shelves once stood on the first floor of the library. This empty space is where the learning commons will be joining the library, sometime in the near future.

“So within the one building we’ll have the library and all the research help, the tutoring and learning commons support, and the testing center. So you can study for your test, get tutoring support to do well on your test, then take the test. All in one building.”

This streamlined use of study space is exactly what the library needed, and a learning commons in the library sounds like it should have always been there.

This installation of new learning commons could make the library an even more accommodating place for learning, essentially becoming another hub for students.

With all the installations, movement, and events happening in the library, I was curious as to Sterling’s opinion on the library itself.

Sterling quickly answered how she “would really like to see more group study rooms put into the library”. She said the library has many spaces to study and a few rooms already, but many students enjoy an actual room. Anything to entice students to study more and more comfortably, would be a big advancement for the Consortium, she said.

If there is one thing Sterling would like for the people who are a part of UAA to know, it is “never buy your textbook without looking at the library first.” While the book checkout period is just three days, this can save any student the hassle of purchasing an expensive textbook.

The library can also help with electronic books, as long as there is no code. “We can get a print copy but it's that code that gets in the way of a lot of us being able to support you,” said Sterling.

With all of this information about the library and those who keep it running fluidly, there is still so much more going on behind the scenes with everyone who is involved in this particular community.

The spine of a book holds all of the contents of inked papers that translate knowledge and creativity, the very same way the library and its dedicated staff hold the UAA community together.