[studentsuccesslibrarians] Welcome!

Thu Dec 12 16:59:57 UTC 2019

Hi Melody, Reanna, Nicky, and all!

My name is Ruth Monnier (she/her/hers). Like Reanna, student success and first-year experience are not in my job title and I have a similar ambiguous title to explain. I am the Learning Outreach Librarian at Pittsburg State University. In this role, I work with our Student Success Programs on library orientation for all incoming students and as the job description said "demonstrate a strong commitment to library user services and programs that support student success."  I am new to my role and southest Kansas as I started about 7 months ago. I am the second individual at the library with this title. However, like Melody mentioned it seems to be hard to give a quick overview of what I do to other individuals. I am curious how others are fulfilling this mission of supporting student success and as Melody said, what is the definition for student success.

I graduated from Kent State in August 2018 and previously worked in public libraries. I would consider myself an early career professional, but otherwise break the pattern of first-gen and POC.

Look forward to learning and hearing from everyone,
Ruth

Ps. Thanks again for starting the listserv, Melody!

Ruth Monnier, MLIS
she/her/hers
Learning Outreach Librarian and Assistant Professor
Leonard H. Axe Library
Pittsburg State University
rmonnier at pittstate.edu
Office: 620-235-4885<callto:620-235-4885>

________________________________
From: studentsuccesslibrarians <studentsuccesslibrarians-bounces at wiw.org> on behalf of Reanna Esmail <rke24 at cornell.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 10:11 AM
To: Melody Rood <mlrood at uncg.edu>; Nicola Andrews <nandrews at uw.edu>; studentsuccesslibrarians at wiw.org <studentsuccesslibrarians at wiw.org>
Subject: Re: [studentsuccesslibrarians] Welcome!

Hi everyone,

Thank you, Melody, for putting this together!

I'd like to also introduce myself. My name is Reanna Esmail. While student success and first-year experience are not in my job title, it is similarly open-ended, subjective, and ambiguous. I am the Outreach and Engagement Librarian at Cornell University. Part of my position includes planning first year (undergraduate and graduate) library orientation, developing learning materials, and creating programs for first-generation students. Thus, I feel that student success falls under the purvue on job responsibilities.

I am also a recent librarian. I received my MSLIS this past May and started my librarian position in June. I am also a POC and first-gen college student, so perhaps there is a pattern here?

Otherwise, I'm excited to be part of this group!

Best wishes,

Reanna

P.S. I'm actually originally from the SF Bay Area. I will be in the Bay for the winter break (12/24-1/4). If anyone wanted to meet for a coffee or something, please reach out!

Reanna Esmail

Outreach and Engagement Librarian

Research & Learning Services

she/her/hers

106 Olin Library

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

________________________________
From: studentsuccesslibrarians <studentsuccesslibrarians-bounces at wiw.org> on behalf of Melody Rood <mlrood at uncg.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 10:48 AM
To: Nicola Andrews <nandrews at uw.edu>
Cc: studentsuccesslibrarians at wiw.org <studentsuccesslibrarians at wiw.org>
Subject: Re: [studentsuccesslibrarians] Welcome!

Hi Nicola!
Thank you for the introduction! Your research goals sound really interesting! Now that you mention it, the Student Success librarians that I've met (only a few) fit that description--myself included. I'm early career and mixed POC/ first gen. I went to a conference earlier this year that talked about how Diversity Residents often move on to jobs like FYE/Student Success positions, so I definitely think there's something there. I actually have some research goals that similarly align with this topic, so we should keep in touch in the future.

Well, it's nice to meet you! I hope others will join in on the conversations. I was told listservs are commonly marked as spam, which is what I believe is happening here. So hopefully folks will eventually realize it and mark the listserv address otherwise. Good luck to you and everybody else during final exam season!

Best,
Melody

On Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 5:11 PM Nicola Andrews <nandrews at uw.edu<mailto:nandrews at uw.edu>> wrote:
Hi folks - I just thought I would introduce myself.  My name is Nicky Andrews, and I am the First-Year Experience Librarian at the University of San Francisco, a role I started in September.  This is a brand-new role, and I am considering ways to eventually do research or to present on what I perceive as being a trend of "Student Success/Undergraduate Success/First-Year Experience" type roles being created - and typically filled by young, relatively early career professionals from minority backgrounds; and what that means in terms of power dynamics within academia/the impact we can have on students/our profession.

So anyway - hello!  Thank you Melody for starting this listserv, and I hope it leads to some fruitful and supportive conversations.

On Mon, Dec 9, 2019 at 6:56 AM Melody Rood <mlrood at uncg.edu<mailto:mlrood at uncg.edu>> wrote:
Hello!

I'm resending this email since 1) Several people have signed up since I first wrote this and 2) it seems that these emails are going to spam boxes for a lot of people, so please make sure to mark it as NOT spam for future emails!

My name is Melody Rood (she/her/hers). I am the Student Success Librarian at UNCG--a new position in our library. I've been in this role for about 6 months now, so I'm still very new! I must admit, when I first started, I felt both anxious and excited to be the first person in this position. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to define my job. When folks asked, I would inevitably find myself in a circumlocutory speech about nontraditional students or retention rates, never really answering the question. I knew what I was expected to do based on the job description, so technically, I could explain what a Student Success Librarian does.  However, I found myself wanting to have conversations about what "student success" means in the library--not just the institution's definition. Who decides what is success? How are we measuring it? Are we benchmarking just to prove the library's worth? Who is being left out? So, I looked for associations and potential listservs where I could connect with people who were also in this fairly new position in librarianship. Unfortunately, I did not have a lot of luck. I was able to connect with a couple of people in the Southeast, but I knew there were more of us out there! I told myself if I couldn't find an avenue to connect with other S.S. Librarians by the end my first semester, I would make it happen myself. That led to the creation of this listserv!

I hope that we can use this space to have conversations, make connections, share CFPs and other professional opportunities, etc. Please feel free to share this listserv with other Student Success Librarians or folks doing similar work. Anybody is welcomed! If you feel inclined to introduce yourself, that would be great, but no pressure! Thank you!

To share the link to join: https://wiw.org/mailman/listinfo/studentsuccesslibrarians

Best Wishes,
Melody

--
Melody Rood (she/her/hers)<https://intercultural.uncg.edu/student-advocacy-outreach/lgbt-community/lgbtq-resources/trans-resources/why-pronouns-matter>
Assistant Professor & Student Success Librarian
Liaison to International & Global Studies
Jackson Library, UNCG
_______________________________________________
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studentsuccesslibrarians at wiw.org<mailto:studentsuccesslibrarians at wiw.org>
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--
Nicola Andrews, Ngāti Paoa
University of Washington MLIS 2017
http://nicolaandrews.net/

--
Melody Rood (she/her/hers)<https://intercultural.uncg.edu/student-advocacy-outreach/lgbt-community/lgbtq-resources/trans-resources/why-pronouns-matter>
Assistant Professor & Student Success Librarian
Liaison to International & Global Studies
Jackson Library, UNCG
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