Beth Brown is the Director of Assessment and Scholarly Communications at Binghamton University in Binghamton, NY. Beth has been a member of ACRL for 7 years and is your ACRL member of the week for July 10, 2019.
Beth brings her expert knowledge of scholarly communication to academic libraries as a presenter for the ACRL RoadShow: Scholarly Communication: From Understanding to Engagement.
Describe yourself in three words: Introspective, curious, experimental.
What are you reading (or listening to on your mobile device(s)? Right now I’m in the middle of Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls. Two recent books I’ve read are the graphic novels The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt by Ken Krimstein.
Describe ACRL in three words: Informative, engaging, responsive.
What do you value about ACRL? I’ve found being a part of this community of academic librarians is a huge benefit in keeping up to date on relevant issues and innovations my peers are creating and using in their work. Scholarly Communications and Assessment draw from a many sources and ACRL has been one of these places I turn to for new ideas.
What do you as an academic librarian contribute to your campus? I lead assessment and scholarly communications awareness and policies, including promoting our campus’s newly passed Open Access Policy and best practices in Research Data Management. I’m also a subject librarian in the physical sciences (Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics). A newer role I’ve been involved with is coordinating library publishing activities through our repository, the ORB (Open Repository at Binghamton).
In your own words: Librarianship can lead you in many directions in your career. With ACRL I have been able to grow and learn in my career to build new skills and fill leadership roles in the new roles I’ve acquired. One of these roles has been serving as a Presenter for the ACRL Scholarly Communications Roadshow: From Understanding to Engagement. In this role I’ve learned planning, speaking, creating compelling presentations, and also incorporating pedagogical tools for librarians and educators.
Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.