Anali Perry is Collections & Scholarly Communications Librarian at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Anali has been an ACRL member since 2008 and is a Scholarly Communication Workshop Presenter. She is your ACRL member of the week for July 13, 2015.
1. Describe yourself in three words: Optimistic, dedicated, and balanced.
2. What are you reading (or listening to on your mobile device(s)? I’m just about to start reading The Martian by Andy Weir for our library book club. I’m also currently reading Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, a really interesting and creative anthology.
3. Describe ACRL in three words: Relevant, engaging, and educational.
4. What do you value about ACRL? As a Scholarly Communications librarian, ACRL has been one of the primary places where I can find other people with similar roles. When I started this job 9 years ago, there weren’t very many of us, and while the number is growing, it is still pretty small in the scheme of academic librarianship. Being able to connect with people and see how others do things and learn from them is critically important in any position.
5. What do you, as an academic librarian, contribute to your campus? I’m the go-to person at ASU for questions regarding copyright, fair use, open access publishing, and the ASU Digital Repository. I manage a collection of recently published articles by ASU-affiliated authors, which has proved to be a great way to reach out to faculty and engage them in conversations about their research and open access. On the lighter side, I’ve achieved a small measure of fame among the students due to my role as host our video series, The Library Minute.
6. In your own words: I think this is such an exciting time to be a librarian, especially in academia. There are so many opportunities for us to work closer with students and faculty than we ever have before. I believe we are becoming more engaged, both in research and teaching, and I think that many services that seem new to us – like information literacy, repository services, and data management – are just extensions of things we’ve always done. As long as I’ve been a librarian, we have been in a constant state of change. Good thing I’ve always enjoyed a good roller-coaster ride!
Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Elizabeth Caris at ecaris@ala.org for more information.