Associate Professor, UCLA Department of Information Studies & Director, of California Rare Book School
Power of Position: Knowledge Organization in the Life Sciences (Monograph) I am currently completing a book, tentatively titled, Power of Position: Knowledge Organization and the Biodiversity Sciences explores what ILS can learn about taxonomies from studying the history, construction, and articulation of biodiversity knowledge organization systems—particularly aggregated and consensus systems. Findings have important implications for libraries, museums, data repositories, and scientific communities at a global level. You can find out more about the early, NSF-funded dissertation portion of this project on Ampersand, the online magazine of the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, as well as on the UCLA Newsroom, the main media outlet for the University.
Comparative and International Librarianship Methodologically, I tend to work in the area of comparative librarianship. The assumption in such a comparative approach is that geographic, cultural, or societal boundaries are not only arbitrary (in that they are socially and culturally imposed), but that understanding the broader, comprehensive global library economy is essential to understanding and ideally, ameliorating, some of the inequities, injustices, and problematics within the library field. The approach can help articulate general theories for how libraries and librarianship function in relation to particular spatiotemporal social conditions and forces within and without institutional boundaries.
International Library Research and Development With funding from the U.S. Department of State, Fulbright commission, and the National Library of Kosovo, I am working on a multi-year project that is focused on analyzing, reconceptualizing, and implementing a new national-level ILS curriculum and training program in Kosovo. Initial activities involved an internal library training program and a country-wide evaluation and assessment of library and information services.
Generally, this research examines how libraries can be situated to broaden democratic and educational participation within a country that lacks basic this public infrastructure. Critically, the work involves coordinating with multiple entities, including the U.S. Embassy, Kosovo, the Kosovo Ministry of Culture, and the National Library—all entities that serve their particular political functions within the growing economy. The result is that all library activities (literacy programs, cataloguing, collections management, etc.) must attend to cultural sensitivities and political mandates.
Previous projects
Urban Green Infrastructure Working Group, Environmental Resilience Institute Part of the Prepared for Environmental Change, Indiana University Grand Challenge, this working group investigates the socio-economics, policy and ecology of designing urban green spaces for human health, food and energy systems. Lib-Lab members are focused on the quality and interoperability of data collected by this, and other Grand Challenge projects, to facilitate the open data standards central to the IU initiative.
Libraries, Climate Change, and Social Justice Indiana University’s museums, archives, and special collections provide access to a broad range of cultural documentation, ranging from biological specimens, paintings, films, rare books, and incredible amounts of data. These institutions preserve, house, exhibit, and make available for research hundreds of thousands of unique objects. However, the various impacts of climate change present significant questions about the sustainability of collections all over the world. Secondly, libraries are uniquely situated in communities and thus are able to take a grassroots, local approaches to offset some of the effects of climate change. What kinds of activities can libraries partake in to combat climate fluctuations? In what ways can libraries engage in environmental resilience discourses to support other systemic activities? Currently, I am working with the Indianapolis Public Library system to broaden and systemize their Seed Library program. I look to food justice theory to think about how libraries can support food desert geographies. This project has received funding from the Prepared for Environmental Change Grand Challenge and from IU’s Office of Sustainability through the Sustainability Scholars program.