I’ve worked as an Instructional Designer and Outreach Specialist at the UCLA Library since 2019 and have served at UCLA in other instructional capacities since 2017. While developing a foundation in information literacy, library instruction and research assistance, I realized that my role came with certain limits. To expand my future career opportunities, I decided to pursue a Masters degree in Library and Information Science at UCLA with a specialization in Academic Librarianship. Through my studies, I’ve explored and developed interest in the flow and restriction of information in epistemic bubbles and echo chambers, taxonomies and ontologies that exist outside Western Linnaean systems, the impact of educational surveillance technologies on students, and the harm of policing in libraries. While disparate in subject, I believe all of these interests have coalesced around my interest in the  interrogation of hegemonic systems of power present in library and knowledge organization systems. 

Pursuing my MLIS has provided rich opportunities to explore these issues within a theoretical framework. This has been incredibly freeing as it has allowed me to imagine alternatives to current structures of power without being tied to the limitations of my own power and reality. My role at the UCLA Library has empowered me to take this theoretical knowledge into the classroom. Professionally, I’ve held a library liaison role with the UCLA Cluster Program, a series of year long, freshman only, interdisciplinary courses designed to help students transition from high school to college. For two academic years, I worked with the Global Islam Cluster, delivering library instruction, hosting research and writing workshops to assist students with their assignments, and providing research assistance via reference consultations. This liaison role enabled me to translate theory into praxis and has proven essential in my professional journey towards becoming an academic librarian. Inspired by such classes as Current Issues in Librarianship, Classification, Social Science Research Methodology, and Community-Based Archiving, I’ve worked to embody a self-reflexive and critical approach to pedagogy, acknowledging the hegemonic domination of certain systems of knowledge within the academy.

Both in my role as a student and UCLA Library worker, I’ve engaged with many professional organizations, attended conferences and events, and even had the opportunity to co-write book chapters and conduct research with colleagues through the university’s IRB process. Organizationally, I’m an ACRL and ALA member and attended the 2023 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition. Though I question ALA’s commitment to challenging systems of oppression, my attendance at the ALA Conference proved useful for connecting with library workers across the academic and public spheres. I’ve also attended the Los Angeles Archives Bazaar yearly and virtually presented at the TPS (Teaching with Primary Sources) Unconference. I’ve recently had proposals accepted into the ARL IDEAL Conference: Sustainable Resistance and Restoration in Global Communities, the 2024 IASSIST/CARTO Conference: Navigating the Future of Data, and the ACRL conference program at the 2024 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition. I’m excited for the chance to present at in-person conferences and expand my professional network. 

Co-writing with my colleagues at the UCLA Library has been instructive in the submission, research, writing, and revision processes. I have collaborated on two separate book chapters, one about the Writing Instruction and Research Education (WI+RE) team’s approach to creating open educational resources to teach critical reading skills and the other about developing a library instruction training program delivered to library student research assistants. These experiences were deeply meaningful to me, teaching me how to collaborate in a co-writing space, as well as how to incorporate editor’s feedback. I’ve also collaborated with colleagues to successfully navigate the IRB process. Our IRB study and survey have been approved and I’m looking forward to beginning my first research and data analysis within this framework and system. In the future, I hope to take these experiences and translate them into publishing within a peer-reviewed journal. 

In a series of fortuitously timed discussions, opportunities, and connections, a position was posted for an Open Science and Collections librarian for the Physical Sciences at the UCLA Library.  I applied, interviewed, and was offered the position. My interest in open access evolved from my involvement with the WI+RE (Writing Instruction and Research Education) team at the UCLA Library, a group that creates open educational resources. Witnessing the enthusiastic embrace of WI+RE’s open content by instructors within and outside UCLA, I became interested in other parts of the open movement, including open data, open publishing, and open code. I was taking Professor Furner’s “Doctoral Seminar: Theoretical Traditions in Information Studies” class concurrently with the application process and it was immensely helpful as a space to discuss the benefits and challenges of open access, specifically as it pertained to the politics of open data. I used these conversations to inform the presentation I gave for the interview process – a talk on how to provide collections and open science support to students and faculty across the research lifecycle and how to integrate anti-racism, accessibility, and openness into that work. 

Additionally, as part of an Individual Study I wrote my issue paper concurrently with the preparation for this job talk. Through conversations with Professor Furner both in the class and via one-on-one appointment, I filled in my understanding of this subject by writing about how the academic research landscape affects and often restricts open science. The research conducted for my issue paper was critical in successfully preparing me to speak knowledgeably about open science within my presentation and throughout the interview. 

I am beyond thrilled to begin my career post-graduation as an Open Science and Collections Librarian and recognize the multiple areas of growth and further education I can pursue to be successful in this role. I plan to reach out to and join such groups as the FORCE11 Scholarly Communications Institute and the LAUC Open Access Common Knowledge Group. The FORCE11 Scholarly Communications Institute is in partnership with the UCLA Library and would be an accessible option for professional development. Additionally, locating interest groups like the Advisory Committee on Open Science and Scholarship within the International Federation of Library Associations and Institution will prove useful in understanding the open science landscape nationally and internationally. Once more settled, I hope to connect with professional associations within my liaison subject areas. 

I am immensely grateful to the UCLA Information Studies department for providing me the theoretical background necessary to pursue and excel at new opportunities within my current role as an Instructional Designer, as well as position me to take on the new role I will be starting in July as an Open Science and Collections librarian. I hope to stay in academic librarianship and continue to develop subject expertise within science librarianship. Through my studies and my professional experience, I feel well positioned to access the resources, organizations, and knowledge to support this goal.