University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Magazine 2018SpringLibrariesForJoomag | Page 28

Putting Friends Funds to Work
M
onies generated by the used
book sales and gifts are always
put to good use by the Friends. This
year the Friends are distributing
more than $60,000 to benefit Library
projects that would otherwise go
unfunded. Recipients include:
• The Wisconsin Zoological Museum
Research Library, for the preservation
of century-old historic lithographed
biological wall charts that were hung
in UW biology classrooms at the turn
of the 20th century. These charts
were acquired by Edward Birge,
the curator of the natural history
cabinet and eventual president of the
university.
• The Wisconsin Center for Film
and Theater Research, for the
preservation of filmed episodes of
the 1950s Faye Emerson Show, an
influential television talk show that
aired on CBS and enjoyed celebrity
guests such as Frank Lloyd Wright
and Edith Piaf.
• The Max Kade Institute for German-
American Studies, for preservation
of 19th and 20th century publications
that provide insights into the ways
German-speaking immigrants and
their descendants were influenced by
and wielded influence on the citizens
of Wisconsin. Conserved materials
are on exhibit on the fourth floor of
the University Club.
• The Center for Limnology Archives,
for preserving and digitizing the
department’s collections to ensure
their materials are available and
accessible to future generations.
28 | LIBRARIES Spring 2018
Considered the birthplace of
limnology in North America,
UW–Madison’s holdings are key in
providing a coherent understanding
of the ecosystems of lakes and inland
waters.
• UW–Madison Libraries Cataloging,
for the hiring of a graduate student
fluent in Yiddish to catalog a recent
acquisition of more than 16,000
Yiddish items obtained from Harvard
University. Once complete, UW–
Madison Libraries will have one of
the largest collections of Yiddish
materials belonging to a public
university in the United States.
• University Archives, to hire a
student to inventory the current
film holdings, complete and update
descriptive information, and make
the items more discoverable and
accessible to library students and
patrons.
• College Library, to hire library
graduate students to upd ate research
guides used by undergraduates.
This grant benefits our iSchool
reference assistants with professional
learning opportunities, and provides
undergraduate students with current
research tools to use when they
complete their general education
requirement courses.
• Library Technology Group, for the
development of a tool that can be
used to inventory and assess the
condition of materials across our
library collections. The tool will
be used on a mobile device in the
library stacks to record data about a
randomized set of items, record the
condition of the items, and verify the
status in the catalog.
Getting to Know Us:
• Mills Music Library, to provide
high resolution scanning of historic
Paramount Record 78 rpm record
labels, including blues and Ethnic-
American material. The scanned
images can then be added to the
collection to enhance descriptive and
structural metadata to the existing
database records.
• UW–Madison Libraries Information
Specialist Internship Program,
to provide second-and third-year
undergraduates at UW–Madison with
hands-on experience in the field
of information and library services
such as collection management,
information technology, public
services, technical services, and
special libraries.
• Special Collections and Archives,
for the support of the History of Book
Arts at UW–Madison: An Oral History
Project which is a collaboration
between the Kohler Art Library
and The UW–Madison Oral History
Program. This project seeks to gather
and preserve the memories and
reflections of faculty, students, and
other campus community members
who contributed to the rich history
of book arts at UW–Madison between
the 1970s and the present.
• UW–Madison Libraries Collections
and Research Services, to support
travel to India, Germany, and
other international locations by
librarian subject specialists and
curators to acquire rare and unusual
materials, attend book fairs, and
meet with publishers and vendors to
continue developing our world-class
collections.
Meet Diversity Resident Librarian Kalani Adolpho
By Haley Griffith
M
eet Diversity Resident
Librarian, Kalani Adolpho.
They have a bachelor’s degree in
History with a minor in Spanish, as
well as a master’s degree in Library
and Information Science from UW–
Milwaukee. Kalani’s current interests
include working in special collections
or with archives.
We checked in with Kalani this
spring to see how their residency was
going. When asked what the best part
of the experience was, Kalani noted,
“It’s hard to pick just one thing. I will
say a number of coworkers at College
Library and other campus libraries
have really gone above and beyond
to help acclimate me to the General
Library System, and the profession
as a whole, as well as provide
support and avenues to further
diversity efforts in the libraries. I
am also really glad to have space to
explore my own interests through
the structure of the residency itself,
as well as through professional
development opportunities.”
The UW–Madison Diversity
Resident Librarian Program,
established in 2013, provides
entry-level librarians from diverse
backgrounds an opportunity to
develop skills and professional
growth in academic librarianship.
The three-year program aims to
merge professional aspirations of
the participants with the service and
operational priorities of the library.
The residency begins with a year at
College Library, followed by a two-
year placement in another campus
library based on needs and priorities
of the libraries, combined with the
resident’s interests and goals.
“Librarianship is in desperate
need of systemic and structural
change in order to ensure that any
diversity efforts and initiatives have
a lasting impact, or any impact at
all,” explained Kalani. “Cataloguing
and classification have very obvious
problems with perpetuating
colonialism and Western-centrism,
along with other types of societal–
isms and -phobias. Concerns related
to diversity spring up when it comes
to hiring, retention, workplace
culture, collection development,
outreach, and basically every other
aspect of the profession.”
The challenge of tackling and
understanding diversity is never
simple. Kalani spoke with us about
a struggle they faced as a Diversity
Resident Librarian.
“One of the biggest struggles for
me so far has been working out what
diversity means to me personally,
what it seems to mean to the
profession as a whole, what it means
to other librarians of color, what it
means to the UW–Madison Libraries,
and how to reconcile all of this in
such a way that is productive and
beneficial to my future as a librarian,”
said Kalani. “On a positive note, I’ve
had the opportunity to network with
other librarians of color and even
attend a workshop on Mukurtu, a
content management system which
allows users to access digital cultural
heritage resources in ethically and
culturally relevant ways.”
Kalani explained to that through
their experiences as a Diversity
Resident Librarian, they’ve aspired
to use what they’ve learned through
other librarians’ experiences, and
more as a way to grow personally
while encouraging and inspiring
others to do the same.
“It is my hope that this residency
and any subsequent positions will
provide me with opportunities to
use what I’ve learned to help support
other trans people and people of color
who are interested in librarianship,”
noted Kalani. “I also hope it will
offer the chance to collaborate with
indigenous communities on projects
relating to preserving and providing
access to cultural heritage materials.”
For more on the Diversity Resident
Librarian Program, visit www.library.
wisc.edu/about/employment/diversity-
resident-lib
University of Wisconsin–Madison | 29