Online collections, digital zines, podcasts and Wikipedia might not be the first things that come to mind when you think about libraries. But, as Sarah Severson knows well, these digital resources are at the cutting-edge of helping libraries do what they do best: sharing knowledge with whoever wants to use it.
As a digital initiatives project librarian in the Library Publishing and Digital Production Services unit, Sarah plays a key role in making information at the university more accessible — whether it’s helping U of A instructors use Wikipedia as a teaching tool or creating digital versions of an existing collection. Over the past year, Sarah has helped students gain peer-review skills and create digitized and searchable archives of publications such as SEE Magazine and The Gateway.
In this week’s Innovator Spotlight, Sarah shares insights on how she’s striving to make scholarship open and equitable.
How do you describe your work to people who don’t work in your field?
This can be a tricky question!
I usually tell people I work behind the scenes to facilitate open scholarship of all kinds. Sometimes that means working on a project to digitize a collection of materials and make them available online — other times I’m working with a new student journal to publish their first issue or leading a workshop on Wikipedia editing as an alternative publishing method. All of this work is centered on how we can help make scholarship more accessible, which is the core function of a library.
What’s one big problem you want to solve through your work?
I really want to think about how we can create not only open but equitable systems of scholarship. Open access publishing is one element of that, but I want to think beyond that. What if all our digital collections were findable, accessible and usable? How can we help demystify the scholarly publishing systems so that new authors feel empowered? How would things like that impact equity in scholarship? There are so many moving pieces in the scholarly publishing ecosystem and I think the library is perfectly situated to have a big impact.
What does the word “innovation” mean to you?
Innovating is about making changes. So for me, innovation means collaboration because we can’t make meaningful change alone. I’ve been learning about feminist praxis recently and feel the values of prioritizing relationships and collaborative knowledge-building can really inform innovation.
How do you or your team come up with your best ideas?
For us, having unstructured time and space to think and explore ideas is key. It’s easy to get caught up in our day-to-day routines and having space to just chat and learn is so important. I can’t wait until we can all start safely getting together again.
What’s your favourite thing about working at the U of A?
I think we all say this but: my co-workers. The library is such a collaborative workspace and I feel that the perspective and expertise of my colleagues is so valuable. Every day I learn something new, whether it be about humanities computing, scholarly publishing or gardening!
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Innovator Spotlight is a weekly feature that introduces you to a faculty or staff member whose big ideas are making a big difference.
Do you know someone who’s breaking boundaries at the U of A? (Maybe it’s you!) We’re interested in hearing from people who are creating new solutions to make our world better. We want to feature people working across all disciplines, whether they’re championing bold ways of thinking, driving discovery or translating insights from the lab into the market.
Get in touch at blog@ualberta.ca.