By Anna Larson
Many Information and Library Science (ILS) alumni from IU hold positions at university libraries across the country. Two of our alumni were recently appointed to new positions, and we talked to them about their new jobs and their time in the ILS department.
Grayson Murphy (MIS/MLS ‘22) recently started his new job as Digital Preservation Librarian at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). When asked what he is most excited about in his new role, Murphy expressed his enthusiasm for building the digital preservation program at UAB.
“UAB’s digital preservation program is in its infancy, so I am most excited about being able to help build a digital preservation program from the ground up. This means I will get to make decisions regarding workflows, policies, and strategies that will directly impact digital preservation activities at UAB for decades to come.”
Runxiao Zhu (MLS ‘14) has been appointed Head of the East Asian Library at the University of Pittsburgh and will begin her role on September 1, 2023. Zhu is looking forward to taking on “more responsibility and a leadership role in the field of East Asian Librarianship.”
Both alumni are passionate about their respective fields and reflected on the impact that the ILS department had on their careers.
Reflecting on her time at IU, Zhu expressed her gratitude for the support of the ILS department as she pursued her MLS degree with a concentration in Tibetan Studies.
“I am mostly grateful for the tremendous support from the department and from my advisor Professor Elin Jacob at IU. I was able to work with faculty in the Central Eurasian Studies department while working on my MLS degree; and to have flexibility schedule to continue working on my degree while taking on my first professional librarian job after first year study at IU.”
She believes that focusing on a particular field while working on a degree enables you to grow stronger and more specialized. Zhu’s focus on East Asian Librarianship allows her to continue growing her own research.
“I want to have a job that I can still use my subject specialty to do research and to keep informed on the current scholarship in the field.”
Zhu noted that there is lots of room for growth in East Asian Librarianship, which includes the Council on East Asian Libraries “as a community for newcomers and old folks to learn from each other and support each other.”
For Murphy, time in the ILS department re-directed his goals and helped him find the digital archive field that he is so passionate about. Murphy began as an MLS student interested in archive work but graduated with a dual degree in MLS/MIS intending to work in digital preservation, which in his words, “is the perfect combination of archiving and solving complex digital problems.”
Murphy’s plan changed after taking Dr. Devan Donaldson’s “Digital Curation” course. He says the class “opened my eyes to the vast amounts of digital material that we are at risk of losing in the long term.”
Besides a career shift, Murphy pointed out another important skill that has already been, and will continue to be, useful in his career.
“A big focus of a lot of my archives-related classes was how to do successful outreach and advocacy for archives and digital preservation work. These skills are invaluable once you enter the field because you have to be adept at conveying why your work is important to stakeholders who are not familiar with it or do not see the value in it. They also helped in the interview process because I was able to convey a high level of passion and know-how for the work I was interviewing for.”
We’re excited for these alumni and congratulate both of them on their success!
If you are an ILS alum and have career updates to share, please visit https://ils.indiana.edu/alumni/alumni-updates-form.html to let us know!