Interviewer: At the very beginning, I just wanted to, for the record, have you introduce yourself, your name, your pronouns, institution, title.
Diane: My name is Diane López. My pronouns are she/they.
I work for the University of Texas at San Antonio.
And my title is Scholarly Resource Librarian, and I'm the subject specialist or subject expert in Architecture and Planning,
Construction Science, Demography, Public Administration, and Social Work.
Interviewer: What is your current job description, and what duties are included in your current job?
Diane: So my job description is essentially like the role of an academic librarian, of course,
right, where we provide reference services, instruction, liaison with faculty and departments.
What the core of liaising is about is about building those relationships with faculty and with departments, and connecting them--
you know, building that relationship between the department and the library, right? And of course, you know,
you do this more one-to-one approach, where there is a faculty liaison for the library, and then I'm the liasison for the subject.
And so, if it's like group emails, or announcements, or something new, or just a request,
we could approach the liaison first without having to go through the whole department.
We have that point of contact.
And that's the main aspect, is that the department has a point of contact, and then the library has a point of contact with the department.
And so, it's just for really more clear communication and, you know, having less noise, and just things like that, and a lot of customer service.
Interviewer: What's a typical day on the job look like for you? Diane: That varies.
And I've learned that in the two years that I've been with the institution, it varies.
It's not, you know, it's not consistent, right?
So from my experiences, I've learned that the most the busiest times is the beginning of the semesters,
especially like, the fall semester where it's like, you know, enrollment's high, there's a lot of new students,
and so there's a lot of requests for instruction, a lot of requests for materials and resources for courses.
And so those are like the--I want to say,
like the first two months of when the semester starts or when the quarter starts, depending on if you're in a system of semester quarter,
those are like the busiest moments where you're, you know--
It feels like you never step away from your desk, or you're constantly walking to some other place on campus. Or in this case
when working from home, it's that you never leave your desk, and you kind of just are just replying to emails, meetings over meetings.
And then, you know, it's just a lot of--It's heavily more faculty interactions than student interactions
because of how it's the beginning of the semester. Then, within like the second--within like--
Yeah, once you're in like a regular semester of 16 weeks, within like the fifth week,
that's when you start to get the students coming in, right? And especially, you know, if
students are starting to write their papers and things like that,
and so you start to get a lot more student consultations and faculty, you know,
interactions. The slow time is like the summer, but that's like everybody's favorite time,
I think, from my experience, because it's a time that you could just like, focus.
Interviewer: That sounds really great.
And I'm actually curious, is there anything over the last couple of summers or general professional developments that you've been very excited about?
Diane: So I've always been into programing, and I picked up Python up in undergrad, but I didn't practice it like you should.
And so when the opportunity came up again to learn to do--for text analysis, and
do and kind of learn how to set up a class with Python and for text analysis,
like I jumped on board on that because I was just like, "Yes."
I think programing, programing languages is, you know--One, I have a high interest in of it,
but it's also the direction I feel like a lot of institutions are going, especially with,
like, the data sciences and the digital humanities, was like keeping up with the industry and especially keeping up with the technology industry,
I think is one of those things that I've been focusing on a lot in
bringing into my role as a librarian, is making sure that I am keeping up with the tech industry and what the tech industry is doing.
And also, that I just have, you know, a love for technology.
And so I just like, you know, mobile communication apps, I'm always interested in that, and user experience stuff.
And so it just kind of helps, you know, bring that sense into the library because students are going to be learning about
these languages, and these methods, and learning new technology, and using new technology.
So I find it real crucial to always keep myself updated and never fall from that.
This summer, I focused on Python and revamping my GIS skills.
I feel supported at UTSA in the sense of they know that I have a high interest in technology and that I'm a tinkerer.
And so, you know, they're just like, "Yeah, go increase your GIS skills, go increase your data skills," because, you know,
in the end of all that professional development,
I could turn around and help the university and the library with developing like, the data services that we do.
We have a task team and it's four of us.
It's like our Scholarly Comms Librarian, and our STEM librarian, and our Engineering Librarian.
And then there's me, right? That just I know GIS,
I know data sets, and I like, I play around with all that stuff.
So, you know, the four of us are trying to create our data services and we all have our unique, you know, skillset.
And so, you know, taking that advantage of a place that allows you to build on your own interest is so important, right?
Because it's going to be like, if they tell you to do something like, "Oh, you need to learn
data science," but you have no interest in data science, like, you're not going to be--you're not going to learn. You're going to know
but you aren't going to learn. Interviewer: What are your biggest goals in your current job?
Diane: I attended the University of Washington, the iSchool, right? In Seattle,
for the MLIS program, but in those two years I did not take any librarianship courses.
And the reason why: it was I was more interested in information science research, and I found myself stronger as a researcher than,
you know, librarianship. And so, like, one of my goals now as a librarian is to learn collection development and management,
and what does that mean, and how does that work?
Because I feel like since I did not take any of those classes at UW, I was just like, "OK, well, I should like, learn it now."
Now, my goal within becoming an academic librarian is really learning like, the collection development,
because how crucial a collection is for, you know, for faculty, for,
you know, professors, for students, graduate students, especially when they're doing research,
when they're doing their assignments, and making sure that all the stuff is up to date,
and it's relevant, and it's diverse, and it doesn't stay stagnant.
And so, you know, those are kind of my goals, is making sure that the materials and resources that students do have access
to is relevant to their needs, and making sure that I understand each department and where their goal is.
So then I make sure that the collection is keeping up with them, and following them instead of diverting
from where they are wanting to go, and weeding out a lot of books that are no longer relevant,
you know? Interviewer: So yeah, I'm curious about what your educational and career background is, and what brought you to libraries and digital libraries.
Diane: My bachelors, which was a beautiful seven year career, went from starting--
I earned my associate's at San Antonio College in Geography Information Systems. I was interested in that because of voting data.
You know, I wanted to learn, and how to map out, you know, where voting polls are at, what populations are voting, and what populations are not voting.
Where are most of the voting--like the promotions of the candidates and stuff like that?
Where are they placing it and stuff? And so that got me involved in GIS and just wanting to learn, you know,
that system and that information system of how do you organize, you know, geospatial data?
And so after graduating with that degree, I continued and got my bachelor's at Texas A&M in San Antonio on the south side, a very small college.
At that time, it was like a two year university, so you had to go--
You had to transfer from like, a community college,
and then, you know--because they only offered junior and senior level courses at that time,
which was really nice because there was a lot of nontraditional students and there was a lot of older students.
And just kind of--I went there just because I was just like, "I don't know if I could--."
Like, I thought UTSA was big, right? I really thought UTSA was a large campus, and I was just like, "No, I can't do that big of a room,"
Like, knowing that I have to share a space with like, 50 other people.
I was just like, "Nah," I. So I chose that.
I chose to go there.
And, you know, of course, people were just like, "Oh, they're [INAUDIBLE] to gain their accreditation, you know, how can you choose them?"
And it turned out to be a really great experience because, you know, there was a huge diversity of students.
A lot of people, you know--It was a lot of commuters, but a lot of like, individuals who are just like, "No, I want to earn my bachelor's.
I want to get this done." And then the faculty there was so supportive and understanding of the nontraditional student.
And, you know, they knew who they were working with. So they knew like, "OK, like, this is going to be different from a traditional university."
But you know, I did sociology and political science. I took a lot of statistics courses.
I got into stata. I did a lot of research in that.
In my senior year,
I did an independent study looking at broadband services, and how broadband providers decide where they're going to place services at,
and then learning about the digital divide and doing using--you know, being in sociology and looking at like, "OK, how does you know--
What's the gap in Bexar County?" And so, you know, the gap is between the north side of Bexar County and the south side of their county.
And like, knowing that the south side of San Antonio,
was like a technology desert and learning all this information and just kind of, you know, applying it--
And I think that kind of led me to wanting to know more about information, and how information
is shared, and how information is gathered, and how technology information is used.
So my senior year, Dr. Elias, one of the faculty had sent out
an internship opportunity with an institution called the
iSchool Institution--it's i3. I always forget how the whole thing is spelled, right?
But out of the University of Pittsburgh, and it was really targeted directly for underrepresented students. Being in that program,
I did a yearlong research project with them over recently arrived immigrants or English
language learners, and their use of mobile technology and mobile communication apps.
And so, you know, that turned out to be one of the funnest projects because, one, we, as undergrads,
we presented at the iConference in 2017 that was held at Wuhan, China, which is now my favorite secret about me.
"Oh, little tidbit. I've been in Wuhan!"
And then, of course, in 2018, my team, except myself--I didn't have a chance to go to was to the iConference in 2018 that was held in Sheffield,
U.K., where we did our follow ups--where we did our follow up study and looked at more of the user.
How does the user, you know, interact, especially being a English language learner?
How are they using, and what icons, or what features are easy to understand?
You know, just kind of just seeing how one interacts with their phone and if it's like--
Is the mic button universal design? All these communication apps: are they universal design or are they not?
And how do English language learners use it to communicate with their new city, and then their home country, and their family and friends?
One of our Ph.D. fellows, Bryan Dosono, from Syracuse, was like, "You need to
read Ricardo Gomez's work."
And so he tells me that he's a professor at the University of Washington, and that he has
focused a lot with migrants and immigrants, and a lot of the information communication
technologies, right? Because of that paper, and the way he wrote about it, and the way he wrote
about migrants and immigrants in a very sensitive and empathetic way kind of made me where like,
"Hmm, what else has he written?" And so then I started digging who he was, what he's done, and all his projects.
And so, you know, because at that moment, then I was like, "OK, UW is like a candidate where I want to apply to," right?
And I had to be smart because, of course, limited of money and stuff like that, I got, you know,
I was like, "OK, I don't have enough funds to pay for all those application fees and everything like that."
And luckily, i3 supported and helped a lot of us with those graduation fees and stuff like that.
So it wouldn't be a burden or a factor in our decision making, right?
And so, you know, reading all his stuff and then kind of then having the opportunity in 2017 at
iConference to meet actually three of his students gave me that chance to kind of be like,
OK, who is he? What kind of person is he? Ask those questions, all those things that you do at those--when you visit campuses.
And, you know, because I didn't do that, either. I was just like, OK, you're here.
I could just talk to you now, right? And so they they gave me--They were just like, "Yeah, no, he's really great,"
very positive about him and about how he approached teaching and stuff like that.
And so I put all my eggs in one basket and applied to UW and was like, "OK, let's see if this goes."
And so, yeah, I started at UW in 2017 in September.
I would say that was like maybe the first time I had a chance to experience what
university life is like as a traditional student because I didn't have to work.
I could go full time and I was just like, "Oh yeah, this is going to be fantastic." And I was just like, "OK, what do I do?"
And I was really glad that that Yvette Iribe, who was a Ph.D. student that I met at the conference,
also kept in touch with me after the conference. And Veronica, after we had our meeting, kept up with me.
There was a visiting student that Yvette and Veronica also knew,
and so the visiting student was there to take the same class,
the research methods course, right? Maria and me became really close.
And so then Maria was like, "Oh, you should join the team for SIET," right?
It's the System of Evaluation for Information in Communities.
And so it was like, I was like, "Yeah, I, you know, I want to learn more about qualitative research," since I did so much quantitative,
I wanted to learn qualitative.
And so it was like using his framework of fotohistorias, or photo stories, and using it to elicit storytelling and dialog building.
And so, I was there just to kind of learn the, you know, the method, right?
And so I asked him to say, "Hey, can I, you know, join the team and, you know, see, you know, like, what can I do, right?"
And so, you know, he had some criteria, right?
Like one of the main criteria was that you had to speak Spanish and understand Spanish fluently.
And that was because in other past experience, he was telling me that when he had students that didn't have a good ear for Spanish,
it wasn't that the communication portion, right?
But it was more of the listening, that because we were already--we were working with individuals who spoke Tseltal, which is an indigenous language,
and so then we had translators of that indigenous language to Spanish.
And so to make the process smoother, he had to eliminate the translation of Spanish to English.
And so, you know, being a child of an immigrant and my mom only speaking Spanish, you know, I was like, "Oh yeah, I got that, right?"
Like, that's from birth. You know, first language, and you know, and stuff like that.
I carried my personal statement with me all the time because it always reminded me like, why are you here?
You're here to learn about information science and how to provide information in a safe and
accessible way, especially for undocumented immigrants, recently arrived immigrants, and migrant workers,
right? And so like, that was my whole purpose, right?
So I took every class, and I always applied human migration information in every class.
Essentially, they gave us like four core courses that we needed to take.
And then the rest of it's like, you choose, right? And so like, I took the programing, I took the metadata class,
I took a lot of special courses, the ones that like, "Oh, that's being taught this semester, this quarter,
and it's not going to be taught again until like three years from now," or something
like that, or those classes that just kind of get built for that quarter,
and that's it. But like I took like indigenous knowledge systems,
and a lot of different courses that dealt with underrepresentation because I was always like, "OK,
how do these courses apply to information science and what--Like, these courses are available in our program.
For what reason, right? Like, what are they going to show us?" And so that's the route I went.
I went down more of the information science or the information professional researcher
looking and focusing on human migration and information and at all different levels of it.
And so, you know, there's where I think--
You know, UW helped me kind of focus what I wanted to do and like, it provided the network that I needed and the support that I needed,
that I never realized I could get from like a university because a lot of it--
You know, when you go to community college or when you go to a small institution, sometimes you got to figure it out on your own.
So, yeah. Like, that's how I ended up at UW.
Interviewer: That leads me to wonder--A lot of the things you've said there, I think, has a lot of implications,
and what kind of a lot of good advice. But maybe I'll ask kind of directly:
what do you think that LIS and MSIS programs should be teaching students about digital libraries or libraries in general,
and what advice do you have for students interested in a career?
Diane: Teaching about digital libraries is crucial because I know I didn't mention this early,
but for one year I worked at BiblioTech, the first digital library in Bexar County,
and I think it was also like the first digital library for the nation, right?
And I did outreach for them. And so, you know, I went to--A majority of my time there,
I spent working in high schools or K through 12, and we had a program called BiblioTech Edu, where we donated,
I think, at least 10 e-readers to specific high schools within specific school districts.
It was a pilot program that year. We wanted to see if this would work to promote digital literacy, rights?
And so, of course, one of the one of the caveats to it was to do presentations about digital services to K-12 students,
which I was just like, "Oh my God, I know how I was in high school," I was like,
"No one's going to listen!" right? But I think was, you know--I think when we when we first started,
we we first started very professional and then we realized, like, "Why are we acting this way?
We were in their seats, you know, not that long ago.
We share similar backgrounds." And so then we were just like, "OK, we're just going to be who we are and you know, and just talk to them about it."
And so, you know, that really worked and made the presentation so much more digestible to deal with, and students were more active.
And yeah, I think--Yeah, I think MLIS programs and LIS programs
should have like a--how do you interact? How do you--Working in a digital library is different from working in a physical library, right?
Your traditional like, you know, brick and mortar ones, and stuff like that because you are going to get a different type of population,
I think, because you're going to get those a population that is affected by the
digital divide, and they're in that gap of having no access to internet,
no computer at home. And so you have this place for them to come in and do--
We saw so many students come in after school to do their assignments there or just to hang out there.
So many people were like using the computer to apply for jobs, or sign up for federal assistance, and things like that.
So, you know, talking about that. You know, and we, you know, we mention diversity a lot, right,
In MLIS programs now, and my thought is more like, "Oh, it's like, how do we work with, you know, vulnerable communities?
How do you work with oppressed communities?" where when someone says, "librarian,"
you imagine a different person. You think of that stereotype, right?
You think of that authoritative figure.
And, you know, and that really detracts
the general population from wanting to interact with a librarian, right? And so I think
one of the things that I would love to see more, and this was something that I remember
always kind of having this issue when I was at UW, and interacting with my peers and my cohort, was the aspect of understanding
what is life like for someone who's vulnerable and oppressed.
And so I had a lot of peers who couldn't empathize with that, or couldn't understand it, but we talked about diversity so much.
And but at the same time, you know, when I was a reader grader for the research method for the follow up the next year,
I remember a group of students had said, "Oh, we're going to create a display for a library."
And I was like, "On what? And they're like, Oh, on Chinese books."
And I was like, "Chinese books? Why?" And they're just like, "Well, the librarians there said that they have a lot of different Chinese people coming in."
And I was like, "OK." And they're just like, "Yeah, so we're going to create we're going to make this display with all the Chinese books,
so they know that they're they have those." And I was like, "Well. Is that what they want?"
You know, and and I go, "Did you interview the patrons or did you just interview the librarians, and did the librarians interview the patrons?"
And they're just like, "No answer," and so I was just like, "No, you need to know what they want."
Saying, "OK, I need to interview my patrons to make sure that I am getting what they want in the library and supplying stuff,
not just picking things that I like and I think are going to be helpful."
I did have a tough time, was trying to get several of my peers to understand that
working with the undocumented students was not going to be easy peasy, right?
You know, it wasn't going to be in, you know--Having them understand like the aspect of why undocumented students are so put off with
working with university people because of the aspect of they're seen as lab rats,
you know. And they're just saying, "No, we don't want just this quarter long thing and then they disappear from our lives," right?
And so then I kind of became that barrier between the undocumented students and the LIS program because a lot of them even will say,
"Well, did you talk to Diane to see about your project idea?"
And you know, it became that way where, you know, if someone was interested in working with them
from my cohort, it was just like they had to talk to me first, and I was just like, "I'm OK with doing that," right?
It was a really interesting position, but you know,
the understanding of what diversity, and equity, and inclusion means to not academia, but to the real world
is completely different. And that was something that was like, I was just like, "No,
you have to put yourself in the shoes of these individuals. You have to understand what it
means to have an illiterate mother, or having a mother that doesn't speak English, and having,
you know, working class parents."
And, you know, there's a lot of things that go on in these, you know, in these individuals lives that you have to consider,
you know, and if you can't connect with them--If you can't connect or build a relationship with that population,
then you can't serve that population because that population values trust, and
relationship building, and transparency because of how much they've gone through, where,
you know, transparency wasn't a part of their life, and now they want that.
No matter what degree you get, you can always sell it how you want to sell it.
I have sociology and political science, and yeah, I took statistics classes, and then I just like did Apple,
and I was like, "Well, this is what I have and this is what I learn, and this is what I bring to the table.
You know, do you want it or do you not want it?" Interviewer: That work at BiblioTech
sounds fascinating, and it made me want to jump to a question that we had:
how do you define digital libraries and digital librarianship?
Diane: Yeah, no. BiblioTech was probably like, how I would--the object of how I would define.
I saw it as a place that brought resources to an area that, like I was mentioning, that was a technology desert.
It brought us space for people to be able to, you know, step outside their world, you know,
and have access to technology, and to reliable internet, and being able to do what so many of us,
you know, forget that we have the privilege of, right?
Like, being able to walk around with a laptop, or being able to have good access to internet.
And of course, there are downsides, right? Like the hours of operation, you know? A digital library's--Like, while everybody says, "Oh,
the digital library is open 24 hours," the physical building is not. One of my closest friends,
when her internet was down, or when she couldn't afford to pay for her internet bill, would go to the
parking lot and just park really close to the building and just kind of use the internet from there.
And so, you know, you saw that a lot. You did see that, you know, after hours, how people would, you know, go park next to the BiblioTech
you know, because the way the wifi was still on, right? And so they were able to do that.
But that risk of being in the parking lot at night.
The aspect of heat, you know? Texas, we know how hot it is.
And so I, you know, my thoughts of a digital library is, "Yes, 24 hour service online
but it's also a place to always remember that it's not just the online services that matter,
but the physical building and the resources that are within that building, right?"
Are the computers modern? Are they up to date? Are they, you know, are they providing instruction services about digital literacy skills?
Are they also working with community organizations to provide services, and things like that,
make it like a centralized place for anybody to go and do what they need to have done?
And so, that's kind of how I kind of see digital libraries. I think that they're very community base oriented.
You're going to have people in the community who are not going to care that you're a digital library,
and they're going to think of you more as the computer store, and you gotta be OK with that, you know?
You have to be OK with that, that they're going to come in and just use the computer and nothing else.
But if you start to have interactions with them, and you start to build that relationship, and you start to build that trust,
then you could do it like my friend Isabel did, where she started a book club, and she actually got kids in the neighborhood to read books.
And I remember we had them read Ready Player One.
And because she was like, "I have no idea what to choose." I was like, "Dude, choose Ready Player One.
Everybody play video games." And so she chose that one, and it was like, it was the start of a really good program.
And, you know, and it brought kids into realizing like, "Oh,
I could do more than just hang out here and use the computers to surf the web.
Like, I have people who could support me in what I want to do."
And you know, and she took that time to that book club and they did the read out loud.
And so she was helping them with, like, you know, the whole aspect of language, and proficiency, and literacy, and comprehension.
She did that in the afternoon from like four to six.
And like once a week, and so, you know, that's where I think digital libraries come into play, you know?
And like, our librarian was from San Marcos and she would drive in sometimes but she didn't have that huge of a role.
And it was a lot of the library assistants that did a lot of more work.
But for a librarian, I think with a digital library,
it's like you have to have a form of communication with your patrons because you're behind a screen, or you're in
another location because you can remote in, and you have to build a way to build that trust in that relationship
so then your collection matches the need of the community.
Interviewer: What do you love about digital libraries, and what keeps you motivated to work in the field?
Diane: OK, so when I started working at BiblioTech, that was 2014, right? And I had just finished
a seven year long job at Apple retail, right, where I was, I worked at the Genius Bar, right?
And I got to a point where I was just like, "OK, I like interacting with people."
But I started realizing how much I had distanced myself from my community and how empty I felt not having that presence in my life, right?
So that's how I got to BiblioTech and, you know, and it was a real life changer, right?
And so, I think one of the things that I love about my time there was having that moment to reunite with the community, work with the community,
really like stand in solidarity with them, you know, do workshops. Like, I think we would go do workshops in like,
at community centers, right? They would just call us and be like, "Oh, we want we want a presentation. Like,
can you come and do a presentation?" And our boss would be like, "OK,
you're going to take this one, you're going to take that one, you'll take that one," right?
And you know, there was moments where the presentations were in English or in Spanish.
And so then they gave me a chance to kind of recuperate some of the Spanish that I had lost as I was growing up.
And so the one thing I was really glad with working at BiblioTech was that aspect of community.
And I think that's the one thing I like about digital libraries, is that you can, you know,
there is a community out there that wants a digital library, and that are not unaware of digital libraries.
And you know, and, I just like the idea that you can have this mixture of physical items and digital objects coexist in one place.
Diane: Remember, you're not alone doing this. When you go into doing projects that are super close and personal,
and that would probably be another advice for students that I can share, is that like, don't step away from doing projects like that.
But then but make sure that you learn how to compartmentalize, and you learn how to manage your emotions
so when you're doing the research, you're doing it as a researcher, not as an insider.
You're an outsider at that time. And understanding that role of what does it mean to be an insider/outsider of your own community?
And so, you know, learning to compartmentalize your emotions, compartmentalize
the information that you're given. Also understanding, give yourself a break.
You know, it's OK that you, you know, you don't have to do
it every day, you know? You could take a week off, you could take a month off because the issue is still going to be there.
And that also, that you're not alone when you do like social justice work, especially, right? You're not alone.
You may feel like you're doing it by yourself because it is sometimes a solo job.
But there's other people out there to support you and help you.