Community Profiles
Community Profiles
Get to know our students, alumni and instructors by reading about their backgrounds, interests, professional goals, favorite courses, accomplishments, careers, and more fascinating experiences. These stories cover a wide range of topics and showcase the talents of our vibrant global community.
Making Higher Education Accessible with Dr. Walter Butler
“So my interest was, how are [college] libraries changing? How are Open Educational Resources impacting their structures, and what new structures are now emerging to support this new effort?”
Dr. Walter Butler
Pasadena, CA
SJSU Ph.D. March 2022
Dr. Walter D. Butler received his MLIS from UCLA in 2008 but always had an intention of continuing on to get his Ph.D.
Discovering Data Science with Keith Fernandez
“Data impacts everyone. And that’s what this program is about – helping gear a person towards how to use that data and make sense of that data, protect that data, and leverage that data for health care and all kinds of industries.”
Keith Fernandez
San Diego, CA
SJSU B.S. in ISDA expected Spring 2023
Preserving Family History with Harold T. Pinkett Student of Color Award Winner Erin Castillo
“The award has really been the cherry on top to say, ‘you’re on the right path. Just keep going. Trust your instincts, follow your interests and what you enjoy.’ That’s what the award means to me – that my idea is something that is not available in every community right now, but could be beneficial.”
Erin Castillo, ‘23 MLIS
Los Angeles, CA
Paving The Way In Youth Librarianship with Jane Gov
“You need to know that you’re going to fail. I think there’s this perception that all of my programs are successful, and they’re not. That’s a misconception. It’s not that they’re failures, there’s always a learning curve.”
Jane Gov, ‘11 MLIS
Pasadena, CA
Understanding Good Library Management with Tiffany Duck
“I like being a manager. I know it can be stressful but I really like it. I think it gives you the opportunity to help shape people’s work and help them grow and get to where they want to go professionally.”
Tiffany Duck, ‘13 MLIS
Suffolk, VA
A Life of Libraries with Stephanie Saba
“I love libraries. I love this profession. You just meet so many amazing people every day…I just love it. Like I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
Stephanie Saba, ‘12 MLIS
Pacifica, CA
Jessica Pryde On Diversifying Your Career and Your Bookshelf
“I definitely recommend trying things out – take the classes that you’re interested in, do various types of internships if you can afford it. Get certain jobs if you can’t, and just sort of let your interests take you. You could find something perfect for you that you just didn’t expect.”
Jessica Pryde, ‘09 MLIS
Tucson, AZ
BSLISE International Scholar Sabrina Gunn Discovers a Love for Information Systems
“I actually do thrive really well with technology. It’s not this scary monster but I think so many of us just put up boundaries and think, ‘Oh, I’m not this way. I’m not this type of person. I can’t do this.’ I find myself saying, ‘I can’t do this’ a lot. And then I find that I actually can, and be very good at it.”
Sabrina Gunn, MLIS student (anticipated graduation Spring
2023)
Sacramento, CA
A Mother and Daughter’s MLIS Journey
“You start with a love of books and go down to questions of who is the keeper of the information, and how do we keep it safe, and how do we organize it in such a way that future generations can find it, and all that stuff… It’s very cool.”
Julie Tilsner MLIS
Long Beach, CA
Lizette Cabrera on Cultural Perspectives in the Library Environment
“I feel we are all equal. We all deserve an opportunity to better ourselves, to learn, to gain knowledge and wisdom to educate ourselves. I feel humbleness, it’s what identifies me as an immigrant. Humbleness, honesty and perseverance.”
Lizette Cabrera, ‘21 MLIS
Lemoore, CA
Natasha Finnegan: Aspiring for Library Leadership and Management
“I like doing a lot of things, I could never put myself into a box (when it came to a career,) but when I started working in a library, I knew it was where I was meant to be.”
Natasha Finnegan, MLIS Student (expected graduation date in
spring 2022)
Salisbury, MD
Alumnus Randall White on Changing the World with Informatics
“The informatic principles I am able to provide and assist a lot of our graduate students and our principal investigators with allow them to publish works that are pushing humanity forward.”
Randall White, ‘20 MS in Informatics
Computational Research Technical Consultant
Stanford University
Tulsa, OK
Student Carlos Bugarin: Leadership, Librarianship, and Lending a Helping Hand
“Everyone inspires me. Everyone has something different to contribute. The people I’ve interacted with have helped drive my passion for working with/helping others out. It’s like composing research in Library and Information Sciences - you start with a general idea, and it sharpens as you do more research.”
Carlos Bugarin, MLIS (degree expected Spring 2023)
San Diego, CA
Jerome Zhang on Mastering the Art of Informatics
“Find something you’re passionate about in the field: health informatics, human-centered design, digital asset management, etc. Definitely try to find something informatics-related and become an expert in that.”
Jerome Zhang, ‘20 MS in Informatics
Software Engineer at Amazon
San Francisco Bay Area
Reflections from Retired iSchool Director of Distance Learning, Debbie Faires
“It’s like looking at a lake and seeing all of these twinkles. How do you choose which twinkle is most meaningful? I have a whole lake full of beautiful twinkles of meaningful interactions (from my time at the iSchool).”
Debbie Faires, ‘01 MLIS
Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area
Alumna Alejandra Reyes’ Passion for Helping Others Through Public Librarianship and REFORMA
“I believe in treating your neighbor the way you want to be treated. If I were going through something, I’d want someone to help me, and I want to be that person for someone else…I believe I was always meant to do this, to go to San José, to become a librarian. Everything sort of fell into place!”
Alejandra Reyes, ‘20 MLIS
Messenger Clerk at Los Angeles Public Library’s Robert Louis
Stevenson Branch
Los Angeles, CA
Student Meredith Lancaster’s Passion for Art History and Archives
“I wake up in the morning and can’t think of anything else but art. When I go to bed at night, I can’t think of anything else but art. That’s how I know I was meant to be an art historian and archivist.”
Meredith Landcaster, MLIS Student (degree expected
spring 2022)
Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Alumna Beaudry Allen’s Passion for Digital Archives
“Whether it’s accessing images in our digital libraries that creates more equitable access, or when a researcher has what they think is a really difficult question and we have the material to help them – it’s really exciting to see your collection being used.”
Beaudry R. Allen, ‘15 MARA
Preservation and Digital Archivist Villanova University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Adrienne Bogard’s Role as a Floating Librarian
“We have policies and procedures that are across the board, that everybody follows, so the big stuff is all the same no matter where you are. But then things like workflow, the collection, how the collection is laid out, that changes from library to library. When you first start it can be quite challenging to remember all the details of the branch you’re working at that day.”
Adrienne Bogard, iSchool MLIS Student
Librarian at the Allen County Public Library
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Alumna Rosa Hall Made the Most of Her Time in the iSchool
“When I started the iSchool’s program I wanted to make sure that I got experience with different kinds of libraries and librarianship. Since I had started in an academic library, worked as a library aid in a public library as well as an intern in a corrections facility library, when I saw that they were hiring at Hansen Bridget I thought it would be a really good experience to try law librarianship as well.”
Rosa Hall, ‘20 MLIS
Assistant Research and Library Operations Specialist, Hanson
Bridgett LLP
San Francisco, CA