Member Spotlight:

Getting to know: 

Heather Cook
Assistant Director for Public Services
Caldwell University

  1. My first job ever was working as a cashier at a seasonal farm stand. I was able to spend most of my time outside reading!
  2. How long have you been a Librarian? I’ve been a librarian for five years, almost three of those at Caldwell University.
  3. What drew you to Librarianship? I first became interested in librarianship by volunteering in the Children’s Department at my local public library after graduating from college. I was drawn to academic librarianship while working at Bergen Community College during my MLIS coursework after I saw the diverse work of academic librarianship.
  4. What are your favorite ways to stay on top of Library trends? My favorite way to stay up on library trends is through listservs and journal alerts. Being a member of the NJLA/CUS ACRL-NJ Research Committee helps me stay on top of what librarians are doing in New Jersey.
  5. What are you most excited about or interested in currently (either at your institution or in the Library profession in general)? Right now, I am most excited about how the model of the academic library is shifting. Specifically by incorporating more services at the point of need through the Learning Commons model. At Caldwell, our new Learning Commons has fostered a collaboration with writing tutors. This has been a fruitful partnership for the library, tutors, and students.
  6. What do you find most valuable about your NJLA CUS / ACRL-NJ membership? I find the committees the most valuable part of my NJLA CUS /ACRL- NJ membership. I am currently on the Research Committee and the User Ed Committee. They provide a chance to work with librarians outside of my institution.
  7. The best part of my day is when… I am helping people- whether it is a student frantic about a paper or a faculty member embedding streaming videos into their Blackboard course.
  8. List your top five “Desert Island Books” (the five books you’d have to have if you were stranded on a desert island). 1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, 2. Complete Works of William Shakespeare, 3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, 5. Emily Dickinson Collected Poems.