Liana Bayne
Engaged, thoughtful, vibrant.
Professionally, I鈥檓 reading "Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity" by Kim Scott, and "Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library鈥檚 Future in an Uncertain World" by Rebekkah Smith Aldrich.
On my night table at home are "Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene" edited by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, and "Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy" edited by Amy Ratcliffe.
I鈥檓 not a big podcast person, but I鈥檓 pretty much constantly listening to music, and recently I鈥檝e been listening to Mandolin Orange鈥檚 newest album, "Tides of a Teardrop", and Hozier鈥檚 newest album, "Wasteland, Baby!", nonstop.
Connection, collaboration, education.
I joined ACRL when I joined and my local state chapter, Virginia Library Association (VLA), to have access to the fantastic resources and connections that all three of those groups provide. I know how important it is to buy in to our professional organizations. I鈥檓 proud to be able to support ACRL with my membership, so that I can, in turn, be supported by its resources.
I hope to eventually find myself in middle-to-upper leadership in an academic library, and I know ACRL will be a great help at every step of the way! Currently, I turn to ACRL resources and publications frequently for my MLIS coursework through the University of South Carolina鈥檚 excellent online
program, and for my job as an administrative assistant to the Dean and Associate Deans of JMU Libraries [link: ]. I鈥檓 so thankful and excited to have been honored with a Support Staff Scholarship to this year鈥檚 ACRL conference, as I know that staying involved with conference attendance will be a great way to meet others in the field. I鈥檓 sure that these resources and avenues for furthering my education and making connections will continue to aid me in my career journey.
One of my favorite parts of academic librarianship is the way in which it touches all areas of a campus 鈥 the beautiful way in which the library is an interdisciplinary hub for our students, faculty and staff, and community. Accessibility, sustainability, and the Anthropocene are three major topics of interest that I鈥檝e been so grateful to be able to work on both in my MLIS coursework and in my current job, and I鈥檓 so excited to see other academic libraries around the world working on these wicked problems, as well. Donna Haraway writes in <i>Staying with the Trouble</i> that our task, in our current troubled times, is to stay present, to 鈥渕ake trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events, as well as to settle troubled waters and rebuild quiet places.鈥 This call to stay present with our society鈥檚 wicked problems is a powerful one, and one that I hope to keep centered in my career journey in academic librarianship.
Credentials:MA ('17), MLIS (expected Dec. '19)
Title:Administrative Assistant
Workplace:James Madison University Libraries
Location:Harrisonburg, Virginia