The 2026-2027 Libraries Student Advisory Council (LSAC) has started meeting! This year’s LSAC cohort will focus on exploring Libraries’ new Role Playing Game (RPG) Collection. Arts and Humanities Librarian Ashley Werlinich and Business and Entrepreneurship Librarian Jennifer McKee will work with students to explore themes of ideas of community, creativity, expression, and belonging through the medium of games!
Members will engage with games through reading, exploring, playtesting, and discussion throughout the year. They will learn how to critique and recommend games. As a final project, they will create recommendation guides for different role playing games in the library – which other students and community members will be able to use to find and understand the games in this exciting new collection.
Please join us in welcoming the newest LSAC members to the Libraries team.
Surya Anilkumar is a master’s student studying Information Systems Management in Heinz College. In his hometown, he spent years creating a community around tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons and Dragons. He hopes to use this experience to create an inclusive, accessible community around RPGs with the Library Student Advisory Council.
“I have always thought of libraries as a shared safe space that students and individuals from all walks of life can come together and leave after learning or experiencing something new, often at a nominal cost as well. This accessible approach to education and experiences is something that I've always found interesting and is also what I've tried to incorporate into the experiences I've built.”
Bee Appelbaum-Schwartz is a senior in the College of Fine Arts. Bee has been involved in the Libraries for all four years of college as a Circulation Assistant at Hunt Library, and enjoys playing RPGs to spend time with friends and explore storytelling.
“A goal of mine is to learn more about RPGs and how they work, and to discover more varied ones. I hope to contribute a creative, positive, and easygoing outlook, since people at CMU tend to take everything far too seriously.”
Robin Connolly is a first year student in Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. They’re excited about exploring all the Libraries can offer, from IDeATe’s sewing machines to study spaces in Hunt Library. As part of the LSAC, they’re excited to use their love for both video game RPGS and TTRPGs to shape the collection.
“I've found my past D&D campaigns to be really great opportunities to meet new people and problem-solve without the same constraints as real life, and I've really enjoyed how much flexibility you have with creating your character's backstory and deciding how you want to approach situations in the story.”
Michelle Escobar is a master’s student in Architecture at the College of Fine Arts. They’re deeply interested in design and anthropology, which has led to a love of storytelling and games. They especially enjoy the variety of experiences that RPGs can offer players, from playful to serious, with a surprising potential for depth.
“The stories we tell about ourselves, others, our history, and our future: these all shape actions, beliefs and sense of community. When it comes to RPGs, this power becomes more malleable and co-created, giving us the freedom to imagine new selves, new futures, and new community ties.”
Vanessa Gao is a first year student studying Information Systems. She hopes to contribute to playtesting and share her skills with information-related tasks. She most enjoys libraries because they allow students to explore old paperbacks, games, and unfamiliar knowledge fields.
“For someone who takes pleasure from storytelling and bold imagination, any role-playing game is a playground.”
Geela Margo Ramos is a master’s student studying Engineering and Public Policy in the Carnegie Institute of Technology. They hope to use their background in community organizing to empower students to discover their voices and build the capacity for change through play, and build excitement about how games and storytelling can serve as powerful tools for navigating complex societal dynamics,
“Stepping back into academia after a few years of working made me appreciate something many take for granted — unfettered access to an entire world of journals, news, research, and literature. Our libraries are our doorways to knowledge; these are the spaces that protect our freedom to create, to learn, and to explore.”
Abby Xiong is a junior majoring in Computer Science and Arts and Human Computer Interaction. She’s a 2D artist and filmmaker drawn to collaborative storytelling, and says that RPGS are one of the purest forms of this that combine creativity and belonging.
“Because my studies cross computer science, art, HCI, and philosophy, the Libraries are one of the few places on campus where all of those worlds meet. On any given week I might be pulling research for an HCI project, finding references for an animation, or reading philosophy for class, and the Libraries support all of it in one place.”