Southern Library Support Staff Conference 2026

This presentation will be a panel discussion that will provide an overview of safety and security at Western Kentucky University Libraries. The panel will be available to field questions about handling emergency situations, overseeing student patrollers, communication, cameras, tools and other issues relating to safety and security in an academic library. Panel members from Western Kentucky University Libraries' Access Services Dept. are: Amanda Hardin, Tishiba Roberson, Jessica Simpson, Daniel Newman and Josh Salley.

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University employees 10-15 interns each year. These interns are spread across four departments (Research Services, University Archives, Collection Development, Technical Services) and two physical locations. Internships are designed to give students interested in libraries and archives experience with reference, public service, instruction, and processing. What these internships are not designed to do is facilitate connections amongst the interns or offer opportunities to build rapport and create networking opportunities with staff other than their direct supervisors.


This panel will discuss the evolution of intern engagement within the Rubenstein Library- recognition of the intermediate space interns inhabit in organizational hierarchies - more skilled than student workers, but less qualified than staff; the hard skills they are taught and the “soft-ish” skills they are expected to pick up; and how the earliest opportunities for establishing rapport and building networks must be seeded by staff.  Interns are future librarians, archivists, community activists, and leaders. The support we provide during their internships will play a critical role in their development as professionals and future colleagues.

Past experiences often define who we are today.  Our past has led and shaped each of us into the person we are now, but no one shares the same path in life.  Differences in backgrounds are what make each of us unique in our daily lives and future pursuits.  Today we'll hear from three individuals working in the same field of information science, each with very different pathways that led them to where they are now.  Bryn Murphy, Joanna Tuskey, and Riley Vagis share more about their individual pathways and stories and discuss the skills they have learned and utilized along the way in their professional pursuits.