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March/April 2016: Jeremy Donald

Jeremy Donald

TDL Member Profile: Jeremy Donald

The March/April TDL Member Profile features Jeremy Donald, Assessment and User Experience Librarian at Trinity University. Below is the full member profile with background information and a question and answer session with Jeremy.

 

Background

Education

  • 2004: Master of Science in Library Science, Catholic University of America
  • 2000: Bachelor of the Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Redlands

Professional Experience

  • June 2013 – present: Assessment and User Experience Librarian, Trinity University
    • Oversee library assessment, including the annual Assessment Plan and Assessment Report. Creation of annual report. Design, maintenance, and usability assessment of library website. Support of spatial technologies across campus, and ad hoc technology support of digital public scholarship projects, including database design and full-stack web development.
  • June 2008 – May 2013: Faculty Technology Liaison, Trinity University 
    • Responsible for instructional design and implementation support (including classroom instruction) for technology- and research-intensive modules in all departments. In charge of usability and development of library website.
  • June 2004 – May 2008: Assistant Professor, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Trinity University
    • GIS and Government Documents specialist; liaison librarian for various social science departments. Developed pilot information literacy & applied technology assignments for the Expanding Horizons Information Literacy Quality Enhancement Plan. Taught PLSI 4439: GIS & Demographics in Political Science, an upper-division research methods course for majors.

Professional Affiliations/Memberships

  • Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
  • South Coast Arc Users Group
  • Alamo Area Geospatial Consortium
  • Investigative Reporters and Editors

Volunteer Work

  • Program and Agency Review Volunteer, United Way of San Antonio, 2014-present
  • KRTU 91.7 FM, weekly on-air host (Mondays, 8-9 p.m.—listen online at KRTU.org!)
  • San Antonio GIS Day, volunteer instructor, 2006-present

Involvement with TDL

  • TDL Data Management Working Group, member
  • Texas Research Data Repository (Dataverse) Implementation Working Group, Convener of the Workflows & Outreach Subgroup

Publications

Question and Answer:

1) Why did you choose to work in libraries?

  • I believe I was born to help others connect their interests to the resources out there. Maybe because I grew up in the country before the internet was a thing, I came to value the people and texts that could help feed my curiosity and answer my questions very much. I think that because of this I am energized by people’s urge to find out more and inform their thinking and actions. While libraries aren’t the only place where one can play this connecting role, for me they represent the best combination of principles, resources, and eager minds.

2) What projects or initiatives are you most excited about at your library?

  • Our library is in the midst of developing a strategic plan which will take into account a raft of assessment data as well as institutional environmental shifts such as a new curriculum, new administrative leadership, and emerging patterns of user behavior. We recently invited an external review team to evaluate our library, and learned a lot from their feedback. We have also expanded our assessment program since the creation of my current position, so we have a lot of data and user responses to draw on. Right now we’re in the midst of developing student personas to guide our priorities in going forward as we shape our strategic plan.

3) What is your most memorable TDL experience?

  • Serving on the Texas Research Data Repository project has been a great opportunity to learn from my counterparts at TDL and from the librarians and researchers at the various member institutions involved in the implementation. In addition to questions of technical specifications and interface usability to investigate and resolve, the working group seeks to understand and support the practices and perspectives of the researchers themselves and the varieties of research data they produce. Last but not least, there are the end users to consider, the students and researchers who will consume the data held in the repository. The project presents a great opportunity to learn about emerging user needs in open scholarly communication!