Dani Brecher Cook
University of California, Riverside Library
Director of Teaching & Learning
What are some things you like about your job or about working in libraries in general?
I love how different my job can be on any given day–leading a class in interacting with primary sources, leading a lively discussion about the reliability of sources, tracking down a partially-remembered citation, planning a campus event with community partners, writing up work for publication, coding a web project, crunching data…. The diverse nature of the work keeps it interesting, and the intensely collegial nature of our profession keeps the work joyful.
What is one of your favorite things about NMRT?
NMRT was truly my gateway to ALA. My second year in NMRT, I chaired the President’s Program committee for NMRT–talk about jumping in the deep end! I learned so much about how ALA works as an organization, what it takes to put on a national event (a zillion moving parts), and how to delegate in a remote team. I still keep in touch with many of the people from that committee, so NMRT is the reason for many of my on-going professional relationships.
Do you have any advice for other new librarians?
Saying “no” is important! It’s so hard to do, but saying “yes” to everything (as exciting as it all sounds) is a quick path to burnout. I wished I’d learned to be more judicious with my time and energies earlier.