Aasta Thomas
Name Pronunciation
ace-tuh tah-muh-sPronouns
She / HerTo acknowledge that assumptions about someone’s gender identity could be incorrect, many organizations, including NC State, have begun to encourage community members to include a brief statement of their gender pronouns as they introduce themselves within a group.
University Library Specialist
Department:
Learning Spaces & ServicesPhone: (919) 515-7523
Email: acthoma5@ncsu.edu
My areas of expertise
Shout-outs From My Colleagues
Shout-outs are kind words from Libraries staff to other Libraries staff for going out of their way to be extra awesome at their job.
The Bridging to the Wolfpack team put together a fantastic full day conference and workshop for high school librarians to learn about collegiate level information literacy, instruction, research, AI, and more! Their hard work in planning such an intentional experience for librarians across the state will have huge ripple effects for first year college students successfully engaging in research and writing at NC State, coming in more prepared as their librarians "bridge" them to these higher level competencies. I am especially impressed by Shira's willingness to hit the ground running in planning and executing the event, only starting her Fellowship a year ago. She and the team listened to the needs of these librarians and immediately took action to fill the gap, ultimately benefitting the students who will join the NC State community in the future. It was such a joy to witness the day and hear positive feedback throughout from the attendees.
— Cas Saroza
Last week's Accessibility in STEM Conference was amazing and part of the reason why was because of great library colleagues like Aasta Thomas, Alexa Carter and Troy Hurteau. Alexa did such a great job working with the College of Engineering to get put the event together and make sure everyone felt at welcome at Hunt Library. Aasta and Troy took time away from their conference/work day to help with our basic document accessibility workshop. While all of my workshop plans didn't go exactly as I had imagined, Troy and Aasta made it all work whether it was locating emergency microphones or discussing alt-text for complicated circuit diagrams. The attendees were great and we had a super collaborative session where I think everyone learned something. I feel so lucky to work with such smart, talented, helpful, and supportive colleagues!
— Beth Ashmore
Alison, Aasta, and Alexis are a team more reliable and resourceful than AAA. Without Alison's superior planning skills and creative ideas, the AccessFest 2025 collaboration may not have even happened. Alison's skills at fostering partnerships with other campus stakeholders like DELTA has helped the Libraries to play an important role in supporting accessibility campus-wide. On the day of the event, Aasta and Alexis were so welcoming and helpful to all the faculty and staff looking for accessibility help with their instructional materials. Aasta has been working hard to advocate for accessible instruction since she started with the Libraries and it was so nice to have her wonderful attitude and expertise at the event. Alexis is also proving herself to be a great addition to the team (and she is fast enough to keep up Ms. Wuf!) Thanks LSS for being accessibility advocates in the libraries and beyond!
— Beth Ashmore
This semester, Aasta has taken on responsibility for our team’s library instruction feedback and data analysis, and has knocked it out of the park. Each week she printed up and organized packets of feedback forms for each person who was teaching that week. She then collected, coded, and analyzed the feedback we received from students. At the end of the semester, she shared an 18 page document summarizing her analysis, which not only revealed where our instruction was effective, but also identified areas where we can fine tune our approach for the coming semester. So often the data we collect sits collecting dust, but Aasta’s work has provided us with actionable information that will guide us in making informed decisions and improvements moving forward. Thanks, Aasta!
— Anne Burke
This summer, Darrien Bailey led the LSS Instruction Team in the decision to solve a few recurring problems with the books for our ever-popular scavenger hunt by making our own fake books. This idea led to the creation of amazing book titles like: Runway Royalty: Miss Piggy's Fashion Design Masterclass, Dumpster Diving 101 with Oscar the Grouch, and Under My Wing: Psychological Safety and Emotional Expression with Big Bird for students to find. These books were made with use of the creative minds and tools we have at the library and a multi-department collaboration -- and they are a delight to share with students! Thank you to: Darrien Bailey and Aasta Thomas for pursuing this idea, coming up with clever book titles, designing cover art and for Aasta's attention to detail which involved digging into the Library of Congress to create accurate call numbers! To Lynn Whittenberger for (without skepticism!) being willing to add these books to the catalog - and thinking of the extra steps to make sure we don't accidentally confuse patrons! Just one example of the care and attention that Lynn puts into her work. To Justin Haynes for working with Darrien to laser cut the designs into the book covers and making the vinyl stickers inside book covers! He's even working on making a 3D print to mount inside each book. Justin takes this approach with every project and we always come up with something more interesting or better than we first imagined. To Emily Schmidt and Robin Harper for making sense of a fuzzy idea to help students return the books to the correct spot on the shelves - and then making (by hand!) custom boxes for each of the twelve books! The willingness and swiftness of their work was truly amazing. I am grateful to work with colleagues who are so willing to work on creative and fun projects outside of the realm of typical duties and to make a fun experience for our students!
— Alison Edwards