Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Once a month the student engagement and communications assistant co-op student interviews library staff to provide library patrons with a peek behind the bookstacks at all the work that happens to provide a variety of services and resources that support the learning, research and innovation that happens at Waterloo. This month, co-op student Meray Philobbos interviewed Jude Doble, administration and strategic initiatives, associate university librarian.
1. How does your position benefit the library community?
Jude: My role provides strategic direction for the Library, so everyone can align their work with the goals of the Library, and ultimately the University. I also offer guidance to ensure our library business operations run smoothly, including the budget, human resources, employee relations, user-facing systems and our spaces.
2. What is one library service or resource that library users should know about?
Jude: I have two that are important! One: your WatCard is also your library card, and the Library has lots of fiction and non-fiction that will appeal to campus users. Two: when you hit that pesky paywall for an article, the Library gets you access via PressReader (yeah for libraries!).
3. What other faculties or departments do you work with on campus?
Jude: I spend a lot of time with the lovely people in human resources as well as colleagues in the Office of the Provost, space planning, information systems and technology and finance. I really enjoy engaging with colleagues across campus and am pleased to be a member of the new campus-wide Institutional Values Working Group, led by University Relations and Organizational & Human Development (OHD).
4. Where do you see the future of the Library?
Jude: People often think of libraries as study spaces and book repositories. While both of those are true, research libraries are so much more. Libraries offer deep expertise, tools, resources and programs that support the University's research and teaching mission. We are in the early stages of a library strategic space plan that will engage campus in a consultation to determine the best ways for the Library to be a strategic partner and meet the evolving needs of all our users.
5. What is your favorite book?
Jude: As a devoted reader, it is impossible to pick just one. However, I recently read Jesse Wente's Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenous Resistance that has stayed with me for months.
If you enjoyed reading about Jude's role at the Library, read our previous interviews with Cataloguing and Metadata's Courtney Bremer, Accessibility and IR's Michael R. Clark and Circulation's Amy Lim. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to be notified when we post the next interview!
