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Kirstin Duffin Research Support Librarian and Liaison to the Math and Science Departments Eastern Illinois University she/hers |
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Tell us more about yourself and how you became a librarian.
As an undergraduate, I pursued a degree in biology with an interest in conservation. Lacking solid job prospects upon graduation, I enrolled in library school after hearing an interview on NPR with a librarian in which I learned about the breadth of the field. At EIU I earned my second master’s degree in biology, my librarian skillset serving my thesis research very well. I now enjoy serving the full spectrum of majors on campus at our research help desk and working more closely with science and math students through library instruction as their liaison librarian.
How long have you participated in STS, and how have you been involved?
I have been a member of STS for the entirety of my 14-year librarian career. My first service to the Section was in 2021–2023, when I was co-chair of the STS Professional Development Committee and a member of STS Council. The Professional Development Committee was an excellent group to begin my active participation with the Section, as we compile continuing education opportunities for members and oversee the STS Mentoring Program. Through this work, I met several long-serving members of the Section as well as librarians fresh in their careers and looking to build their skillsets and networks.
Please share either how you have demonstrated a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, or how you might do so in STS, libraries, and/or the community.
Advancing opportunities for those who have been historically marginalized is essential to cultivating a vibrant and thriving community. Within the fields of the sciences and librarianship, we have far to grow to ensure our profession is reflective of the wider population. To this end, I served on my university library’s DEI Committee from its 2019 inception through 2022. We began the conversation in our library about how to foster a more inviting environment to our community through such means as exhibits and programming, diversity training in support of staff development, and providing equitable access to technology. From 2018–2024, I served as the founding co-chair of our university’s iSTEM group, which empowers diversity among STEM majors through mentoring and social and professional development events; I now help with group promotions. In 2021–2022, I led a mixed-methods study investigating Black undergraduate perceptions of feeling welcome in our library, which published in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice in 2023. Results from that study helped us understand that we needed to provide more EDI training for our staff, develop more inclusive hiring practices, create a designated librarian role whose duties include strategic student outreach, seek greater student involvement in creating our exhibits and programming, and expand our marketing efforts. Ensuring people representing broad perspectives are at the decision-making table contributes toward building a more equitable future for our profession and society.
How do you envision STS growing and changing, and what role would you play in that process?
Personal connections matter, and STS is instrumental in fostering relationships through continuing education events and mentoring opportunities. To remain visible and viable in members’ working lives, STS should continue to offer professional development opportunities and spaces to engage with STS members, both virtually and in person. Topics of interest will likely include broadening diversity and inclusion efforts, developments and considerations in the use of AI, library collections budgets and promotion of open science, along with library management in an era of staffing and budget shortfalls.
To prepare for a future in which STS remains dynamic and responsive, Section leadership should continue to champion EDI efforts in line with our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) core values statement. STS leaders should gauge section membership needs and interests in order to facilitate the advancement of the Section’s initiatives. In connection with ACRL leadership, STS leaders should advocate for its membership and communicate to its members relevant matters of the Association. As STS Secretary, I would review the Section’s recent membership surveys, stay attuned to trends in the profession, help promote professional development opportunities, and facilitate transparency for members in the work of the STS Executive Committee.
Is there anything else you’d like for STS members to know about you?
Personal interests include reading (need it be said?), playing cooperative board games, and going on hikes with my dogs (our shepherd/cattle dog consistently outpaces our basset hound).
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Nicole Helregel Librarian for Open Science and Liaison to the Mathematics Department New York University
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Tell us more about yourself and how you became a librarian.
I am the Librarian for Open Science at New York University. My journey to librarianship started when I was a history major in college during a research semester at the Newberry Library, where I decided to pursue librarianship. In library school at the University of Illinois I worked at a branch library situated in the College of Agriculture; I loved answering agricultural statistics reference questions and teaching workshops on science databases, and ultimately realized that science librarianship was the right path for me!
How long have you participated in STS, and how have you been involved?
I started attending events in 2016 when I started my first science librarian job, and officially joined STS and started my committee service in 2017. I have been a member of several committees (Conference Program Planning, Membership & Recruitment, College Science Librarians, Nominating, and Data Curation & Assessment) - service on these groups has been a great way to contribute to the section (mostly via designing and implementing programming), meet other members, and take on leadership roles (having served as a committee co-chair four times). I have also served on two recent task force groups (Future Modalities, and Section Structure & Responsibilities) that have taken on the work of envisioning changes and growth for the section. This work has been very rewarding and has enabled me to learn about the variety of projects and initiatives happening throughout the section as well as talking to members about their needs, goals, and professional lives.
Please share either how you have demonstrated a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, or how you might do so in STS, libraries, and/or the community.
At a baseline I cultivate a mindset of growth and lifelong learning when it comes to equity, diversity, and inclusion. I center the principle that no one ever really arrives/finishes this work but that I am ever learning and committed to being better and owning up when I fall short. Within my scholarship and practice as an open science librarian I try to bring a critical lens that pushes back on conceptions that openness is always inherently better/more equitable and I interrogate the ways that openness can, in fact, further existing inequities. Within my library and university communities I try to be mindful of the ways I can make the spaces and groups I am a part of more inclusive and welcoming; I invest in groups like the Environmental and Racial Justice Network, which fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration. Within STS I have worked across several programming-focused committees where I have advocated for accessibility practices and the funding, as needed, to implement them. I have long advocated whenever possible for the ability to compensate all speakers (a labor and equity issue), and was thrilled when ACRL recently changed their policy to allow this. I have also actively engaged in outreach outside of our group, especially to library & information science students, to include them in our spaces and at our events. In both my committee and task force work I have sought to actively inquire about and respond to the needs of our members (and potential members) to make STS an accessible, equitable, diverse, and inclusive community.
How do you envision STS growing and changing, and what role would you play in that process?
STS has been in the midst of a great deal of growth and change for the last several years. Being on the Future Modalities task force and co-chairing the Section Structure and Responsibilities task force have given me much more of a bird's-eye perspective on everything that happens across the section and the many ways things have changed since pre-2020 when we were very ALA-Annual-focused. We’re doing a lot of reenvisioning at the moment, always with an eye towards what our members need and how we can build an inclusive community. In terms of the role I would play in this process of growth and change: the Secretary is a member of the Executive Committee, under whose leadership and guidance large, structural change happens. I hope to be part of implementing some of the recommendations that came out of the Future Modalities and Section Structure & Responsibilities task force groups; being part of those groups has been very eye-opening in terms of the many nuances, needs, and goals involved in how our group moves forward. As STS evolves I hope to help lead an inclusive community where folks find enriching professional development, meaningful connections, and robust service & leadership opportunities.
Is there anything else you’d like for STS members to know about you?
I have a dream to someday make it to every national park in the US. So far I’ve only been to 8 (of the current 63). I have plans to go to Isle Royale (one of the least-visited parks) in the summer of 2025!
