By A. Faulkner
What is your role in the GLBTRT?
I serve on the Bylaws committee.
What does the GLBTRT mean to you?
To me, as the oldest professional organization of its kind, the GLBTRT represents the open-mindedness, righteousness, and forward thinking that embody ALA and librarianship as a whole.
Are you involved in ALA in other ways?
Not at this time, though I hope to be in the near future.
What professional work do you perform?
I am the Digital Resources Librarian at the Florida Institute of Technology. My job involves cataloging and working with discovery systems, ERMs, ETDs, etc. I am also a liaison for the School of Psychology and the School of Behavior Analysis. I’ve worked here for a little over 8 years. I love my job and my colleagues!
What would you like to share about your personal life?
I’m a cisgender woman who identifies as queer. My husband and I have known each other since we were 14. We are best friends. We were even born in the same hospital just a few months apart! We married a little over two years ago and have two daughters together; Avery is 5 years old and Emma is 3 years old.
What are you most proud of?
My brilliant, spirited, and beautiful daughters: Avery Sunshine and Emma Isabelle. They are my world and I could not be more proud of them.
Who inspires you?
My husband, Ryan. He always does what he thinks is right, no matter how difficult. He is the strongest, bravest, and most gentle person I have ever known. I aspire to be more like him.
What are your goals? (Professional and/or personal.)
My personal goal is to take the time to relax more often. As a working mother of two small children, I find it difficult to relax when I could be doing all sorts of other productive things. But I know that relaxing is important for my health and I am intentionally making an effort to do it more often.
My professional goals are A) to become more involved in service on the national level and B) become more active in original research.
What do you think (or predict) is the future of libraries?
I think that libraries will continue doing what they have always done: evolve in an effort to best serve their communities. How they do this differs by location, population, library type, etc. but libraries and library workers will evolve, as we always have, to serve our ever-evolving communities.
In what direction would you like the GLBTRT to move in the future?
I would like to see the GLBTRT remain the strong, friendly, and brave group that I have always known it to be, especially in the face of adversity.
If you could only choose one song to play every time you entered a room for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Ani Difranco – Willing to Fight
If you could have a dinner party with 5 culturally or historically significant figures, living or dead, who would you invite?
Leslie Feinberg, Kathleen Hanna, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Baker and Taylor (the cats :) )
