After having an “existential crisis” and moving to Japan, Sara Rue realized she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. Recalling a career aptitude test she took in third grade that said she should work in a library, Rue enrolled in graduate school for library information sciences.
“I was like, ‘Well let’s see how the library checks out,’” Rue said. “I’ve always really loved researching, helping other people find resources and deciphering what’s usable.”
She’s been at Ablah Library for eight years, working as the reserve specialist in Access Services. In this role, she deals with items outside the general circulation of materials that students, staff, faculty and community members can check out.
Rue recently took on a new position in the library. As the assessment and user experience librarian, Rue will expand on the library’s impact assessments while working to create a better experience for guests.
The new position is student focused, and Rue is working to make the library more usable and inviting for students. It is something the library had been working on previously but without a designated role.
William Weare, an associate dean for university libraries, said that usually user experience and assessment are two different positions, but since they are so closely related, they were combined into one position.
“So for assessment, what we want to know is what kind of an impact does the library have on student success,” Weare said. “User experience, it’s a little more fun, really finding what’s working for you and what you like.”
In her new role, Rue is in charge of both the local and national level assessments that libraries partake in.
“We’re required to send different data and statistics, (like) how many people we have coming in each day or what kind of materials are circulating to track national trends in library use,” Rue said. “On a smaller scale, we’re going to look at everything we offer to ask if we’re meeting the needs of the WSU community.”
Rue stressed her desire for students to know that she is always open to emails for issues they may have.
“I cannot promise that I can make things happen, but if I don’t know what their concerns are, then it’s harder for me to do my job,” Rue said. “We’re excited to try new things and make some changes, and we’re really hoping that the students love it because we feel like the library is the heart of campus.”
Rue can be reached at [email protected].
