By Jillian Eslami and Raymond Pun

California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) is a public university in the 23-school California State University system. In this interview, librarian Jillian Eslami shares her experiences supporting FYE through outreach, engagement, and programming across campus. Jillian also mentions her new work collaborating with student government to form a Student Advisory Group for the library.

By Melissa Cardenas-Dow and Raymond Pun

With a greater emphasis on data and numbers, the social sciences are becoming more interdisciplinary-based, with an increased focus on research methods and data collection plans. But what does that mean for instruction librarians supporting these research areas? The social sciences include fields like history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethnic studies, women’s studies, geography, political science, economics, and more. In this interview, social sciences librarian Melissa Cardenas-Dow shares her approach to teaching information literacy, and recommends selected sources to tap into the interdisciplinary nature of the social sciences. 

I recently attended the annual Charleston Conference in Charleston, South Carolina (November 5-9, 2018) for the first time. This conference is known as an important event to attend if your work involves scholarly communication, library publishing, collection development, acquisitions or e-resource management. The sessions and discussions covered many interesting and emerging issues including discovery, technology trends, budgeting, analysis and assessment, and user statistics. I learned quite a bit in this conference and chatted with publishers and vendors who shared some upcoming features in their products and services too.

By Mai Soua Lee-Cha and Raymond Pun

In this interview, librarian Mai Soua Lee-Cha explains her many different roles at Reedley College, a community college in California. Mai Soua tells FYE Correspondent Ray Pun that librarians are “aware and cognizant that FYE is the most crucial pathway for success in college and lifelong achievement” and shares how the library at Reedley College supports these efforts in the FYE space.

By Cynthia Mari Orozco and Raymond Pun

FYE Correspondent Raymond Pun recently spoke with East Los Angeles College’s Librarian for Equitable Services, Cynthia Mari Orozco. She details what her position entails, how she helps support students’ of all backgrounds as they transition to college, and different strategies for reducing library anxiety.

By Andy Rutkowski and Raymond Pun

Maps are incredible and powerful primary sources that can be used to inform and engage learners about the complexities of human geography. Today there are tons of free digital map resources such as NYPL’s Map Warper and the Library of Congress’ Digital Map Collections. These digitized maps can be used to teach visual literacy across the disciplines, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s possible when incorporating maps and geographic information systems (GIS) in library instruction. In this interview, Andy Rutowski, Visualization Librarian at the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries, shares some ideas that he’s been working on to promote information and data literacies through maps and GIS tools.

By Annie Pho and Raymond Pun

With rich library collections and services, UCLA is considered to be among one of the top academic research libraries in world. In this interview, FYE Correspondent Ray Pun interviews Annie Pho from UCLA Library. Annie shares how the library supports FYE through a number of activities including the common book program, embedded librarianship, and collaborative assessment services.

Many libraries from around the world are celebrating Open Access (OA) Week by hosting events, activities, and workshops for their larger academic communities to discuss the issues, challenges and benefits of open access in scholarship and research. This is an opportunity to exchange new ideas and discoveries freely, share scholarship and data, form collaborations and partnerships, and dismantle barriers to education and research.

I had the opportunity to attend the 3rd National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color also known as JCLC in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With over 1000 registered attendees from all over the country, the theme for this year’s conference was “Gathering All Peoples: Embracing Culture and Community.” From “Cultural Humility for Library Workers” to “Environmental Justice at Your Library and in Your Community,” many exciting sessions offered opportunities to engage and develop professionally and personally.

Last Monday, October 8th, many states and cities observed Indigenous Peoples’ Day, recognizing indigenous peoples of America in order to appreciate their shared culture, history, and contributions. I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic lately in relation to my work as an academic librarian.