Thursday at lunchtime, students passing through the East Entrance of Norlin Library gravitated towards the savory smell of pizza. About a handful of subject librarians greeted students with slices and library-themed swag.
“Meet Your Librarian” is a new event aimed at achieving an everlasting goal: to connect students with information and resources to guarantee success. Kathia Ibacache, the assistant professor who organized the event said the librarians present connected with over 80 students.
“Whenever they need help with research or finding sources or just help understanding citations, we want to make sure they know where to go and who to contact,” said Ibacache, whose specialty is romance languages with University Libraries.
Computer Science major Jacob Munoz and Computer Science Librarian Emily Dommermuth met at the "Meet Your Librarians" event on Thursday.
Jacob Munoz is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science. Munoz was able to meet his subject librarian.
“I didn’t know there were unique librarians for majors,” said Munoz. “Now I know who to go to if I need help for any research tasks.”
The University Libraries have experts in more than 60 subject areas and can match students with the right specialist.
Rebecca Laiho is a psychology major was able to meet her subject librarian on Thursday afternoon as well. Merinda McLure is the Health and Human Sciences Librarian with the University Libraries. She is the faculty librarian available to support psychology and neuroscience; integrative physiology; and speech, language, and hearing sciences.
“I’ve met quite a number of undergraduate students today who are in either psychology or neuroscience, or integrative physiology, and they all appear to be meeting me for the first time. That’s a success,” said McLure.
She said that with large projects looming for many students, the timing of the event could not have been better.
“I hope that some of them may feel welcome to follow-up with me. Perhaps they haven’t known until now that there is a health and human sciences librarian available and glad to support them,” she said.
Kathia Ibacache, Merinda McLure, Philip White, and Emily Dommermuth of University Libraries.
Ibacache said she hopes that given the event’s success, “Meet Your Librarian” could make a comeback next year.
Students interested in meeting with their subject librarian can chat with a research expert online, explore subject guides on the online portal or book a consultation. Students can also connect with University Libraries through text/instant messaging, by phone, email or in-person.