A lot can happen in a few years. A person might take on a new job or a new hairstyle or a new field of research. That’s why we’re introducing a new article series called “Member Updates”. Member Updates revisit APALA members who have previously participated in Member Highlights. We hope this gives you a chance to get to know your fellow APALA members at multiple points during their careers! To participate in Member Highlights or Member Updates, contact Molly Higgins at mollylh(at)uw(dot)edu or Jaena Rae Cabrera at jaenarae(at)gmail(dot)com.
Here’s our second Member Update– Charlotte Roh. Thanks, Charlotte!
Charlotte Roh, Scholarly Communications Librarian, University of San Francisco
Can you tell us a little bit about the path that’s taken you to your current position?
From an MLIS at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I went to a scholarly communications residency at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. My boss, Marilyn Billings, really pushed me to learn and grow in scholarly communications – she gave me opportunities to present and publish in open education and repositories. I also worked closely with Laura Quilter, the copyright librarian, who really enabled me to learn the skills that I use in copyright advisory today. In fact, all the librarians at UMass Amherst were incredibly supportive of the growth in my career, such as Isabel Espinal and Madeleine Charney, and I’m really excited to hear that their residency is now a diversity residency.
I currently work at the University of San Francisco at the intersection of scholarly communication and social justice. It’s a small Jesuit university so I wear many hats: repository management, library publishing, copyright advisory, author rights, and I’m establishing an open education program and just passed an open access policy. I think (although I need to confirm this) it’s the first open access policy in California that’s not affiliated with a UC school, and the first of any Jesuit institution.
I also currently serve on the ACRL Research and Scholarly Environment Committee as co-editor of the C&RL News scholarly communication column, and am one of two inaugural Library Publishing Coalition Fellows.
How long have you been an APALA member? Why have you continued to be an APALA member? Are you currently involved as an officer/committee member/other volunteer?
I’ve been an APALA member since 2012, when I was one of three Asian Americans in the LIS program at UIUC. I know that the APALA list-serv email can sometimes be overwhelming, but I’ve always been grateful to it as a lifeline when I felt really isolated. It reminded me that APALA members were out there in the world, working and doing things. I actually did reach out to Charlene Hsu Gross and Michelle Baildon and got really valuable advice and help. I wouldn’t have discovered the Spectrum Scholarship and the Joint Conference for Librarians of Color without them, and from there the ARL CEP program and really my whole career trajectory and librarian community. I was involved fairly early on with the newsletter committee but am currently not involved in any committees. I plan to volunteer more when I’ve rolled off some other commitments – I’m not just saying that, it’s really my plan!
What aspects of librarianship are key to your personal satisfaction at work? Has that changed since you joined librarianship?
I’ve always said that it’s important to be in a healthy work environment because we spend more of our waking hours at work than anywhere else. In librarianship more so than my previous roles, I’ve found that the lines between the personal and professional are blurred, and that I can have really great relationships both internally and externally to my organization. For example, I’m really fortunate to work with APALA member Sherise Kimura and to be in the Bay Area where so many of our members are located. I love it when we all get together for a (vegetarian) meal, it feels like we’re a family even though there’s always people that I’m meeting for the first time!
What’s next for you?
I’ll be teaching at the Force11 Scholarly Communications Institute at the end of July and attending the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color! Come say hi! My Twitter handle is @charlotterock and I also co-moderate the We Here Facebook space, @librarieswehere on Twitter and Instagram.
This interview was conducted by Molly Higgins.