Association of College and Research Libraries
Residency Interest Group (RIG)
ALA 2013 Midwinter Meeting
Saturday, January 26, 2013
4:30pm to 5:30pm
Westin Seattle Hotel, Olympic
Attendees
Latisha Reynolds: Convener, Humanities & Social Sciences Reference Librarian, University of
Louisville; Past Convener: Hannah Lee, Assistant Librarian, University of Delaware; Shannon
Simpson: Incoming Convener, Research Instruction and Special Collections Librarian, Towson
University (attended by phone); Sara Arnold-Garza: Web Committee, Residency Librarian,
Towson University; Tarida Anantachai: Web Co-editor, Resident, Syracuse University; Juleah
Swanson: Web Co-editor, Acquisitions Librarian, Ohio State; Martha Parker, Resident,
University of Arkansas; Melanie Kowalski, Research Library Fellow in Scholarly Communications,
Emory University; Sharde Mills, Mckinstry Fellow, University of Washington; Annie Pho,
Resident, University of Illinois at Chicago; John Meier, Science Librarian, Penn State; Camille
Chesley, Resident, Syracuse University; Sojourna Cunningham, Diversity Resident Librarian, UT
Knoxville; Jeff Banks, Head, Library Human Resources, University of Arkansas; Kathy Bradshaw,
HR Librarian, UNC Greensboro; Ingrid Ruffin, Diversity Resident, UT Knoxville; Jeff Eastman;
Kathy Webb, Dean of Libraries, University of Dayton; Christine Walde, Librarian, University of
Victoria.
Introductions & Announcements
Latisha welcomed the group, and thanked the current officers and members of the web
committee for their hard work. She acknowledged the work of the web editors who have been
working on projects such as updating residency program information on the web page, and the
day to day work of posting to the site. She also commented that the group submitted a
proposal and received an ACRL Friends Fund award for 3 RIG members to attend the Joint
Conference of Librarians of Color. Tarida Anantachai, Shannon Simpson, and Nataly Blas were
recipients and represented RIG at the conference.
It was also announced that RIG submitted 2 conference proposals to ACRL, one of which was
accepted. The accepted proposal entitled, "The Minority Report: An Open Discussion on the
Recent “Diversity Counts” Study and How to Foster Momentum Towards Inclusion in Our
Libraries" will be presented at 2013 ACRL conference in April.
Discussion Items
The group discussed several questions:
1. How can we provide more support to residents and new librarians?
Some of the suggestions included a career counseling Q & A/best practices for getting hired,
tutorial or welcome video for new members, and more outreach with residency coordinators to
get the new residents involved.
2. Are there changes to the organizational structure that might improve our overall efforts?
Shannon Simpson mentioned the idea of creating subgroups within RIG with leaders of each to
work on different projects. Suggestions for the committees included: conference
proposals/programming, web group, orientation, and mentoring. The groups would be led by
residents.
3. Coordinators page- What would coordinators be interested in seeing on the “For
Coordinators” page on the RIG website?
Attendees mentioned that “starting point” links for developing a residency, best practices, and
how to make the case for residencies would be helpful. Also, the story of how programs “did it”
is of interest. Information about the importance of mentoring might also be useful for this
section, maybe in the list of best practices. It was suggested that it is helpful to have a former
resident as a mentor.
4. Webpage- For residents who frequent the RIG site, what sections or types of posts are
more helpful?
The job postings seem to be one of the most useful features on the website. Also, Annie stated
that she read a post about a previous residency experience and types of residencies. These
were helpful.
Other suggestions and comments were mentioned:
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Facebook may be helpful as a networking space
Conversations or virtual meeting space for residents were suggested
Linking to residents’ personal websites or blogs
Suggestions for posts: “You landed a residency, what now?” and “A day in the life” of a
resident. “Transitioning out of your residency,” or “Thinking about the end and how to
manage it.”
In addition, posts on “How to position yourself while in the residency” or “How to get
the most out of your residency” were suggested.
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Frank discussions/advice column from former residents, and a resident’s page with
more information (i.e. institution, photos, and web page/blog links) were mentioned.
Tutorial for incoming residents or a welcome video
Career Counseling Q & A (best practices for getting hired—this could be a post,
discussion topic, or another format)
Capstone projects
 We discussed that there was very little feedback when we asked for examples of
capstone projects. However, it seems that it would be helpful to new residents to see
examples of previous capstones.
Wrap-up
We wrapped up by taking final questions/comments, thanked everyone for attending, and
collected a sign-up sheet of attendees as well as those interested in volunteering to work
with the group.