Faculty and Staff Achievements: December 2023

CMU staff and faculty build a snowman with CMU in lights in front of Hunt Library

At Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, we celebrate the many contributions of the faculty and staff who make the Libraries the destination for scholarly information, creative inquiry, and intellectual collaboration across disciplines, propelling the significance, reach, and impact of the university.


Tatiana UsovaDirector of Qatar Library Tatiana Usova presented a talk "Institutional Repository: opening doors to undergraduate scholarship" at The Forum for Open Research in MENA (FORM) on October 24.

Usova also attended ALA international conference in Sharjah from November 7–9, where she presented a poster “Student-led library outreach: Strengthening connections, engaging community” (see in Kilthub under CMU-Q group), and a talk “Tools and Resources Assisting Students and Faculty.”


Reya SalibaInstruction and Outreach Librarian Reya Saliba presented at the fourth Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture in October. Her presentation, titled “The Reversed Transformative Learning as a Result of the Emergency Remote Teaching Experience,” shares the results of her Ph.D. study in technology-enhanced learning. Using a mixed-method approach to collect quantitative and qualitative data and explore this transformation in adult learning, the value of this study lies in its ability to reconstruct the narrative that attests to the resilience, flexibility, and creativity faculty members displayed during exceptional times.

CMU-Q participated in developing and delivering C@CM iteration for Fall 2023. This collaboration with Qatar IT, the Academic Resource Center, the office of the Vice Provost for Education, the office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Innovation, and Eberly center, brought together a team of subject matter experts to revamp C@CM mini course for first year students in Qatar. The result of this initiative helped inform the next iterations of this course to improve content, delivery, and student engagement and ensure new students have a successful transition to college.


Ryan SplendaLibrarian Ryan Splenda co-authored an article with Erin Wachowicz (Yale University) in the Academic Business Library Directors’ open access journal, Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review — “From Solo to Duo ‘Business’ Librarianship: Case Studies at CMU & Yale.”


Tom Hughes and Melanie GaineyA preprint sharing outputs from a recent hackathon has been published in BioHackrXiv. The hackathon, co-organized by Open Source Programs Office Community Manager Tom Hughes and Open Science Program Director Melanie Gainey of CMU Libraries and Ben Busby of DNAnexus, delved into topics related to biomedical data management, knowledge graphs, and deep learning. Kristen Scotti, open science postdoctoral associate at CMU Libraries, is a co-author on the preprint, along with several undergraduates and graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University.


Sarah YoungPrincipal Librarian Sarah Young attended the What Works Global Summit in Ottawa, Canada in October. She presented on a panel called "Information retrieval for systematic reviews: advice from the experts and future trends" and presented a poster "Conduct and reporting of search method: An assessment of Campbell Collaboration systematic reviews".