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When Regina Mays and Rachel Fleming-May get together, it\u2019s a close camaraderie. They joke about which one of them is \u201cthe best\u201d (each claiming it\u2019s the other, and not themselves), and their interactions have that underlying trust and ease that takes years to build. In fact, it\u2019s been about a decade since the two began their professional collaboration.<\/p>\n
Mays is the University of Tennessee\u2019s first-ever assessment librarian, and a 2009 graduate of the School of Information Sciences. Fleming-May is an associate professor for SIS, as well as its director of graduate studies. The two never crossed paths as student and teacher, with Mays graduating just before Fleming-May came on board with the SIS faculty. But it wasn\u2019t long after Mays graduated that they started
\nworking together on a project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe first met working on the Value, Outcomes, and Return on Investment of Academic Libraries project funded by IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services). I was the program manager on that project, even before I started working at the library,\u201d Mays said. She was hired for the project by SIS Professor Carol Tenopir, who was the principal investigator for it.<\/p>\n
About 18 months into the project, the first assessment librarian position at UT Libraries was created. Mays applied for the position and got it. She said her research uniquely positioned her to have a strong grounding for the work of an assessment librarian.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to apply some of the principles and theory I had learned through research and see how it worked in the real world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The relationship between research and actual implementation was so beneficial that, when opportunities continued to arise for Mays to work with Fleming-May, they took it. Their collaboration has resulted in papers, articles, workshops, conference presentations and even a webinar.<\/p>\n
They also worked closely on the \u201cExperience Assessment\u201d (UX-A) cohort funded by IMLS, that specifically brought 12 students to UTK to earn the MSIS with a specialization in user experience and assessment. The program plan included creating and teaching a class about planning and assessment, which Fleming-May and Mays created and co-taught in the fall of 2017.<\/p>\n
While their relationship has benefited research, its impact has reached beyond that. When Mays needs student workers, she knows she can ask Fleming-May for references who will be knowledgeable about library practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt creates a win-win for us to do practicums and to hire (SIS students) as student workers. It helps us to get more done, and it gives students real-world experience,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve lost track of how many reference letters I\u2019ve written and reference calls I\u2019ve made…a student just getting into the game, it makes a big difference for them to get that experience. We can hire students from anywhere on campus, but the SIS students who are really interested in it, they\u2019re really high caliber.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fleming-May, in her position as SIS director of graduate studies, speaks to many potential students who see the relationship between the school and university library as an added attraction to the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have a lot of partnerships like this between LIS or IS programs and their libraries,\u201d she said. \u201cI really appreciate the relationship we have with the library.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fleming-May worked as an academic librarian herself at the University of Alabama, where she subsequently earned her doctoral degree in communication and information sciences. This segue from practitioner to researcher allowed her to address a lot of questions she had while she was working in the library.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still very interested in academic libraries, and how they fit into the larger institution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mays said Fleming-May doesn\u2019t just use their relationship to stay in step with the library, but that she also continuously shows up to library events and forges new connections with others who are involved with the library.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe tirelessly puts herself out there,\u201d Mays said. \u25cf<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Regina Mays and Rachel Fleming-May get together, it\u2019s a close camaraderie. They joke about which one of them is \u201cthe best\u201d (each claiming it\u2019s the other, and not themselves), and their interactions have that underlying trust and ease that takes years to build. In fact, it\u2019s been about a decade since the two began […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"locations":[],"class_list":["post-8421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"yoast_head":"\n