Eve Kausch
MLIS alum
Q: Please share any additional academic plans (dual degree, research focus, minor, specialization, etc.) you may be pursuing.
A: I am focusing my education on academic libraries and archives.
Q: Please tell us about your background and why you decided to come to the iSchool.
A: I studied Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, where I worked after graduating at the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW). While there, I conducted a large-scale archival research project on BCRW's rich 50-year history as a feminist research center that engages with both scholarship and activism. This was what sparked my interest in the information field and academic archives more specifically. I decided to come to the iSchool at the University of Washington because I was excited by the dedication to centering Indigenous systems of knowledge, which relates to my own research interests, as well as the welcoming community within the MLIS program.
Q: What excites you about the information field?
A: I am excited by the possibilities that information organization creates and how interdisciplinary the information field is. There are so many different fields that being a librarian or archivist can impact! I am particularly interested in the digital humanities, and how information can be interpreted and displayed to help us understand the humanities and social sciences in new and interesting ways.
Q: What鈥檚 been your favorite iSchool course or learning experience (i.e. directed fieldwork, research project, etc.)?
A: One of my favorite classes was LIS 583: Cross Cultural Approaches to Leadership with Miranda Belarde-Lewis. This class encouraged us to think about our cultural background in new ways, and Professor Belarde-Lewis pushed us to be critical in our analyses of texts and class materials. I always loved our class discussions, and ended the quarter feeling sad that the class was only once a week!
I also did a directed fieldwork in the spring that continued as an internship this summer at the Saint Mark's Cathedral Archives. It was my first time working in archival processing, appraisal and arrangement, and I learned so much.
Q: Tell us about an experience you鈥檝e had at the iSchool that has informed or reshaped your career goals.
A: My career goals have been shaped both by my experience working at the Research Commons at the UW Libraries as well as the classes I have taken at the iSchool. I entered the MLIS program knowing I was interested in archival work, but through my work at the Research Commons I found my passion for the traditional librarianship path, especially academic librarianship. My professional experience with instruction, consultation services, and helping people with citation management tools further informed my class choices at the iSchool. The MLIS curriculum has allowed me to explore my passion for academic librarianship and strengthen my skills and knowledge through learning opportunities like the Capstone project.
Q: What about your iSchool journey thus far are you most proud of?
A: I am proud of how I have engaged with a very large breadth of different types of librarianship during my time at the iSchool. For example, during my first quarter at the University of Washington I took a class on multicultural resources for youth with 鈥淒oc Martin鈥 (Professor Michelle H. Martin), as I was intrigued by the field of children鈥檚 librarianship. After the course ended, I worked with Doc Martin in helping her put together a Native American Read-In Event hosted by her nonprofit, Read-a-Rama. I鈥檓 proud of myself for having the courage to go up to Doc Martin on the last day of class and asking her if I could help with this amazing project. My time at the iSchool has really helped me improve my confidence in approaching my professors and getting involved in various librarianship projects.
Q: What is next on the horizon for you?
A: After graduating, I hope to work at an academic archive or special collections that focuses on issues of gender, race, sexuality, disability, and other social identities. My dream is to combine my gender studies background with my skills as an information professional. I would also love to continue doing some component of instructional or reference work with students because I have really enjoyed doing it in my classes and in my position at the Research Commons.
Q: What鈥檚 the best advice you have ever received?
A: The best advice I have ever received was during an informational interview with someone who works at Smith College Special Collections. She told me her post-grad advice for me was to get a job at a place that teaches me and helps me build my skill set in my intended field. In terms of archival work specifically, she advised me to work at a place where they have an established system for doing archival work as opposed to relying on an entry level position to figure out or establish a system. I really appreciated this advice because I have had a lot of professional experiences where I have been thrown into a project without guidance and expected to figure it out. Considering that a lot of people in the MLIS program are coming to this degree younger and younger, it was reassuring to hear that at such early stages of our careers we don鈥檛 have to know everything or know all the archival standards. It鈥檚 reasonable to have the expectation of finding an employer that supports you in learning and expanding your skills.