By: Daniel Esparza, University of North Texas
The theme for this year’s Texas Conference on Digital Libraries was Finding Joy! Playful Innovation and Community in Action. And while that theme can mean so many different things to each attendee, presenter, and committee member, for me, it felt like a homecoming after a long time disconnected from, and doubtful about, my current work. For those that don’t know me, my name is Daniel Esparza, and I am in my final year of graduate school at the University of North Texas (UNT), and I am also the graduate student intern at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Thomas B. Slick Memorial Library in San Antonio. I am extremely lucky and grateful to be part of both programs that continue to be significant contributors of research in various fields ranging from library and information sciences to STEM-based research and development projects.
TCDL (and conferences more broadly) has always been an exciting time for me as it really homes in on the idea of community and collaboration. Right now, I work with four other amazing librarians who all have clear ideas on what they want to contribute to our institute. And while they all may say I do a lot of work processing items and digitizing records for future access, I couldn’t shake this feeling of abject uncertainty. Perhaps it is because I am still in school figuring out how to shape my skills so that my role is more specialized for a specific area of library work, or maybe it is because my bouts of anxiety always appear before big life changes (remember: I’m in my final year of grad school, and I’ve been a constant student since I was four). Regardless, I was hoping for something to ground me and remind myself why I chose this field in the first place.
Enter: TCDL.
My first experience at TCDL was in 2024, when I presented with my supervisor at the time, Sarah Lynn Fisher from the UNT Digital Libraries. It was after my final semester of undergrad and right before starting my graduate program, so I was very excited to begin this next chapter once the conference was over. It’s been about two years since then, and I was beyond thrilled for this year’s conference and to be able to see all the new faces and projects the UNT Digital Libraries brought to present. Learning about their use of the EPIC framework for metadata improvement, web archiving for scholarly preservation, and the stewardship of unique collections reminded me that institutions of all sizes and specializations contribute to expanding access to information and preserving our shared cultural and historical record.
A great example of this was from Betsy Evans Helesic’s presentation Work in Progress: Alpine Restaurant Mapping Project. This passion project combined archival research and crowdsourced data to create a digital exhibit highlighting the restaurants of Alpine, Texas, both past and present. I thought this was a perfect illustration of how one finds joy in their work, utilizing existing materials and information along with contributions from members in the community to create something that highlights a place that might be overlooked. I was truly amazed and inspired and began thinking of how I can bring that energy back to my work at SwRI. We are a relatively small library, both in space and team size (especially when compared to many of the institutions present at TCDL), but SwRI itself has a long history and strong ties to the San Antonio community. Finding ways to document that history through the stories of the people that work here would have a large impact and an idea worth pursuing.
I was also able to chat with my colleagues over at UTSA, Daniella Flores and Vic Rocha. Their panel on Strengthening Digital Preservation Programs Through Peer Support with Sam Houston State University further emphasized the importance of collaboration, not just internally but externally as well. SwRI and UTSA are currently working together on a digitization project regarding a collection of papers from SwRI founder, Tom Slick. While much of our communication has been through email, it was wonderful seeing them in-person and chatting about their digital archiving and preservation processes, leaving me feeling excited about returning to work.
Overall, I am very appreciative of this opportunity to meet with other digital librarians and information professionals. Most importantly, I am grateful that my initial feelings of uncertainty gave way to a renewed confidence in sharing the work we do at SwRI, the processes that support it, and the importance of the projects my team and I are pursuing. Thank you TCDL Planning Committee, my colleagues, and everyone that made this experience an amazing one. I can’t wait to see what comes next!