M.E.A.L. Time is a food literacy program where participants Meet, Eat, and Learn at the University Library. The users of an academic library are primarily staff, faculty, and students. Those students vary in age from toddlers to senior citizens, come from different countries, and have a wide range of life experiences. What I have learned from working with students here and in Asia is that food is an icebreaker and a gateway to making connections. There’s the lighthearted side of food…What’s your favorite place for X? Have you tried Y? What’s your opinion on candy corn? (I’m ambivalent on that, by the way.) But, there is also a dark side. What do you do when you’re in school and don’t have enough money for rent and food? What if you’re in the dorms and need to supplement your meal plan because the value of swipes is not enough for full meals? What if you were forced to ignore nutritional content because of hunger? I was food insecure in college. Decades later, I am hearing the same struggles from my students in REPAIR Lab.
I envision that implementing Meet, Eat, and Learn (M.E.A.L. ) Time at the University Library will create a space for people to connect over food and answer questions about cooking basics, meal prep, recipes for busy people, and nutrition. The University Library is uniquely positioned to build strong partnerships because we have a college for agriculture, a college for hospitality, a strong care network, connection to on-campus daycare and high school, dorm networks, student groups, cultural centers, and an active development team. Student success in life and academics are our north star. Food plays a vital part in keeping everyone on track for success. To that, please see my innovation strategy and roadmap for M.E.A.L. Time, a meet, eat, and learn at the University Library food experience.
The hyperlinked library exists because of us. We made it with our inquiries, thoughts, needs, and actions. It may sound as I am speaking of just virtual spaces, but I really am not. I see myself as an information node that exists in both physical and virtual spaces—an ambulatory living library plugged also into a digital universe. I am hyperlinked. Hyperlinked librarians are knowledge facilitators who must embrace change because the information landscape is constantly evolving. They are perpetual knowledge seekers because there is always something new to know. 
Embracing technology changes is sometimes difficult. In longstanding units with defined processes, it may also lead to stress, frustration, and weariness. Thus, a hyperlinked librarian also needs to consider the whole person. People manage change differently. Their prior experience will also affect them. In my corner of the academic library world, the internet and new web-based applications changed technical services. Technical services—cataloging, acquisitions, receiving, processing, discovery, and resource troubleshooting—has many manual processes that are performed within set parameters. Regulations, terms, codes, and contracts only made best practices more highly structured. The internet and networked services threw a wrench into people’s physical world by adding electronic fluidity. We now have shared cataloging, consortia collections, integrated management systems, APIs, IT protocols, automations, discovery layers, linked data, and much more. In the end, managing these changes meant creating a TS group listserv, removing silos by sharing collective knowledge, and using tools like 
