Shout-outs to Staff
The following are Libraries staff who have received a shout-out from one or more of their colleagues for going out of their way to be extra awesome at their job.
Meredith Wynn
Meredith is an enthusiastic, cheerful, and tireless advocate for our users! Not only does she have web development and content strategy skills that make our website usable for the millions of people who access it annually, but she's also dedicated to conducting user research so that we can make informed decisions about usability and accessibility. The Databases pages and our staff profiles are just two examples of Meredith's excellent work. I might be biased, but I think they're head and shoulders above any similar pages on other academic library websites. Meredith, you're a gem of a colleague, and I'm grateful to work with you!
- Robin Davis, Apr 16, 2025
Aryn Baker
When the User Research Team was looking for fun incentives for user interviews, Aryn helped us by 3D-printing over 150 cool wolf figurines in a range of colors. Students loved them!! Thank you, Aryn, for your expertise and willingness to help!
- Robin Davis, Apr 16, 2025
Jon Page, Kevin Beswick
When the User Research Team was considering automated transcription tools to handle the dozens of interview recordings we create annually, Jon and Kevin helped to set up in-house transcription workflow using AI-powered technologies. They set this up in under 2 weeks. Not only that, but the transcripts were of higher quality than any of the other paid tools we tried. We're so grateful for their expertise and willingness to help!
- Robin Davis, Apr 16, 2025
Ashley Bandy, Lynn Whittenberger, Gabriel Israel, Lisa Madden
With the short turnaround for the launch of the campus Course Ready program, our colleagues in Acquisitions & Discovery had to quickly adapt in order to maintain workflows for the library’s Textbook Program. We want to give a special shout out to Ashley, Lynn, Gabriel, and Lisa for their extra effort to wrangle, clean, and make sense of a lot of new textbook-related data supplied by the Bookstore. Their expertise, teamwork, and clear communication really showed through in this process. Thanks for being such excellent colleagues!
- Kim Duckett, Bertha Chang, Feb 7, 2025
Robin Davis, Erik Olson
Robin and Erik did amazing work to update the Data Science Consulting Program’s, “Book an Appointment” page. They were so attentive to our request, and worked with us to come up with a great page that improves user experience, and highlights our consultant profiles. In addition to the final version of the page, they developed a temporary solution and a tight timeline and they really delivered. Our department, and our student consultants, are so happy with the page!
- Shannon Ricci, Jan 22, 2025
Colin Keenan
I am so grateful for Colin's expertise. In response to a recent request for older VR hardware (that we no longer circulate), Colin worked up a creative and elegant solution that is actually easier and more sustainable than the original set-up. Not only is Colin brilliant, he is also patient and understanding. He takes the time and care to explain technology processes and concepts, but never makes me feel like I am behind (which I often am). Big thanks to Colin for providing exemplary service to our users and colleagues.
- Hannah Rainey, Jan 13, 2025
Kristy Borda, Shaun Bennett, Cindy Levine, Rob Olendorf
Special thanks to Kristy, Shaun, Cindy, and Rob for their ongoing effort in 2024 to migrate our existing Refworks users to Zotero and other citation managers after Refworks became an unsustainable product. It can be thankless work to have to communicate disappointing news to faculty and students as well as help them find alternatives. But BIG THANKS to you! Thanks to Kristy for her leadership of the team and to everyone for their thoughtful approach to supporting researchers, designing online materials, providing workshops, and more. I appreciate your user-centeredness as well as your good sense about us deciding to end Refworks access and how to support users with finding better solutions.
- Kim Duckett, Jan 3, 2025
Laura Lloyd
Shout-out to Laura for her excellent organization skills — be it juggling many registrations, communication with attendees, and various logistics for the Designing Libraries Conference held in October 2024 or organizing a ton of uniform orders across multiple departments. These are just a couple of recent examples. Laura always communicates promptly and has been extra helpful with sorting out problems. Thanks for all you do, Laura!
- Kim Duckett, Jan 2, 2025
Cas Saroza
Major kudos to Cas, who has gone above and beyond in their work with the Heritage Display Team this semester, doing so much of the legwork in creating and assembling the monthly book displays at Hill Library! Thanks Cas!
- Tyler Kroon, Dec 9, 2024
Todd Kosmerick, Taylor Wolford
One of my favorite things this past year has been the release of a series of videos starring Todd Kosmerick, in partnership with Taylor Wolford, presenting snippets of campus history. The University Walking Tours [https://youtube.com/watch?v=3Jxv_YAJJcs] are informative and calming, obviously developed with care and affection for this place. Their efforts strengthen our connection to the community and present the Libraries in the best light (literally and figuratively!) Thanks, Todd and Taylor!
- Jamie Bradway, Nov 22, 2024