Hello, #hyperlib !

Hi everyone! My name is Mei and I am excited to be working with you all on the Hyperlinked Library. I currently live in Denver, and have for about four years. This is my third semester at SJSU, so we’re getting closer! I intern at the Helen Fowler Library at the Denver Botanic Gardens, working with their archives department, and I also moonlight with their catalogers when they need extra help. Before this, I worked for many years as a pastry chef, and before that I taught high school French. I have both a BA and an MA in French literature, so looking back, the circuitous path is all in one area of study. Go figure!

I am excited about this semester! I think it’s going to be good to imagine with the Library can be while also reflecting on where it’s been. In LIS, my main interests are books that have a haptic element to it, such as pop-ups or volvelles. I am also interested in old and rare books–I took Dr. Main’s course on the history of books, and I think that she’s right when she says that unless we find a way to modernize our scholarship and explanations of the very old, it will become irrelevant to future scholars. I think the Hyperlinked Library will be incredibly relevant to that line of scholarship, as it seems, so far, all about making accessible that which is present in ways that meet library users where they are while also making collections and older ideas relevant to the future.

When I’m not working at school or at the library, I quilt, bake, and sew. I also love to camp and hike, work in my garden, and drink endless amounts of coffee (black) and boba tea (nothing fancy! just straight up milk tea with boba).