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iSchool Teaching Professor Helene Williams asks a lot of tough questions. Who, she challenges Master of Library and Information Science students, are libraries serving? Importantly, who are they not serving? What can libraries do differently to accommodate unheard and underrepresented voices? How can you, as a librarian-in-training, help move the needle?

“She is a warrior for social justice,” says former student Twanna Hodge (MLIS ‘15), a Ph.D. student in the College of Information at the University of Maryland. “She endlessly disrupts and dismantles the white, heteronormative, patriarchal society through her teaching and service.”

Williams, who retires in December after a 40-year career in academic and public libraries and college classrooms, is esteemed by students for her fearlessness, fair-mindedness, humor and dynamic student-focused classes that begin with the question: “What do you expect from this class?” Though she’s considered a hard grader, her classes are packed. She has received two iSchool TEACH (teaching excellence and creative honors) awards, as well as an Outstanding Service Award.

Her goal, she says, is for students to “learn to learn,” whether they are going into academic, public, corporate or school libraries. For many years, Williams was the only working librarian on the iSchool faculty. Deeply connected with partners in the library world, she has consistently brought real-world library experiences and trends into the classroom, keeping content fresh and relevant. Students may study actual contracts to learn how to negotiate a million-dollar deal with a journal vendor or practice ways to handle book-ban protesters gathered outside library doors. “Our students have to understand what it is like on the ground, to be able to leave the classroom and go to work and not sit in a corner thinking lofty thoughts.”

An all-hours teacher, she meets weekends and nights to accommodate the needs of students, for example single moms juggling work and school or online students in different time zones. “It’s an equity issue. Every student should have access to someone who can help them when they need it,” she says. 

Williams, a first-generation college student, graduated with master’s degrees in both English (Purdue University) and library science (Indiana University). She landed at Harvard University Libraries in 2001 as an English bibliographer for the humanities. She found the system stodgy and out-of-date and set about changing that, working with a colleague to buy things Harvard had never had on its shelves, including language tapes, graphic novels, chick lit, sci-fi, and DVDs of popular TV series like “Dr. Who.” “The catalogers just freaked out,” she says, with the easy laugh that often finishes her sentences.

The charismatic teacher was an early adopter of technology. At the UW, teaching graduate research methods courses in the English and Comparative Literature Department, she had English majors learn HTML and build their own websites, long before programs like WordPress existed. “Students exited that class information literate,” she says. “All of them landed a job right out of school.”

Williams has been tireless inside and outside the classroom, serving on national library committees, editing journals, planning conferences. At the iSchool, she was a member of the MLIS Program Committee for years and worked to increase student diversity as a member of the Admissions Committee. “Right now, the library profession is 87 percent white,” she points out. “How do we bring in people of color, people from different backgrounds?”

A self-described “matchmaker,” she pairs students and libraries in the MLIS Directed Fieldwork program and helped create the iSTAMP mentorship program, connecting students with program alumni. “Helene has devoted herself to making sure the MLIS program has excellent, informed graduates who are ready to step into positions and make a difference in the library field,” says iSchool Teaching Professor Cindy Aden.

When she began teaching at the school, Williams had a question for herself: “Would I be one of those instructors to avoid or would I look forward to the opportunities this class provides?” Now, as she winds up her time at the iSchool, she can happily answer that, yes, students eagerly sought out her classes, and, truly, “there has never been a dull moment.”

Pictured at top: Helene Williams speaks with alumni during a gathering at UW Tacoma.