Jillian Sparks
91´«Ã½ Divisions:
Knowledgeable, creative, decisive.
91´«Ã½
I just finished reading Louise Erdrich's "The Sentence" and am taking my time with "The Paper Garden" a biography of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) by Molly Peacock. Delany created 985 botanically correct cut-paper flowers (Botanica Delanica) which are held by the British Museum (interesting blog post about Delany's work ).
Engaging professional community.
91´«Ã½
I appreciate all of the resources that ACRL provides and the professional community. The webinars and literature organized and shared by ACRL are invaluable. As a member of RBMS, I'm so glad to have an engaged professional community whose work inspires me to think in new ways about special collections. The ongoing work of the Instruction and Outreach RBMS committee has been especially useful in challenging me to try new approaches in the classroom and I'm grateful to have a community of primary source instructors.
91´«Ã½
At St. Olaf I connect students, faculty, and our larger campus community to our special collections and archives. I primarily offer primary source instruction sessions, but I also curate exhibits and coordinate outreach events. I work closely with faculty and my colleagues in the archives to develop our collections through buying materials or creating opportunities for our community to contribute their St. Olaf experience to the archives. I love creating hands-on opportunities for people to explore the library’s collections and I hope people view our special collections and archives as a “lab” for the liberal arts.
91´«Ã½
I love being a special collections librarian with a focus on instruction and outreach. I find books as material objects endlessly fascinating and it is so rewarding to be able to share my interest in material culture with students. I'm lucky in my job that I can take time to research our collections and experiment with how to best share our materials in the classroom. The thrill of sharing these books and archives with students doesn't fade and I'm looking forward to the new academic year.
Credentials:she/her
Title:Distinctive Collections Engagement Librarian
Workplace:St. Olaf College
Location:Northfield, MN