• How did you end up at the University of Illinois Archives? Tell us about your background.

I’ve had a varied work history, but the short version is that I fell in love with all things paper while working at an auction house as a cataloger, writing catalog descriptions for rare books, ephemera, maps, and art. I decided to go to library school as a way to help preserve our shared history and knew that I wanted to work in higher education. Graduating in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic led me to a job as a reference librarian, since special collections jobs were even harder to find than usual, but I’m happy to now be where I wanted to end up.

• What are your responsibilities?

As with everyone in the department, I have a mix of responsibilities, but I will primarily be focused on processing and accessions. Like all archives, we have a backlog, and our goal right now is to reduce that backlog—or at least keep it stable while taking in new accessions.

• What excites you most about your new role? What are some plans/ideas you have in mind?

I’m excited to be tackling challenges on a larger scale. I’ve already completed an inventory of our unprocessed collections in two of our locations, and I’m looking forward to creating a plan for processing these materials and making them accessible to researchers.

• What are the most interesting/challenging/fun aspects of the job so far?

Most of my work history has been in small businesses or smaller libraries, so it’s been challenging to adjust to the (often slow) pace of change in a large institution and the high level of inter-departmental collaboration that is required. It’s been fun to learn more about the history of the University. Even though I attended graduate school here, I am learning new fun facts every week.