Anthony LaBat
Dr. Anthony LaBat has been with UMKC Libraries for six years, and has been Operations Assistant for LaBudde Special Collections since October 2018. As Operations Assistant (Senior Library Information Specialist), Anthony already manages daily reading room operations, supervises LaBudde student employees working in the reading room, and processes collections, among other duties. With this promotion to Operations and Processing Associate (Library Associate), he will take on additional responsibilities for managing collections processing, particularly in training and supervising students doing this work.
Gail Williams
Gail Williams was hired as a Senior Library Information Specialist at UMKC Libraries in January 2017 and has been working in the interlibrary loan field for almost 15 years. In her new role as Interlibrary Loan Manager (Library Associate), Gail will take on new responsibilities for overseeing daily ILL daily operations, including supervision of two Senior Library Information Specialists in the department, and coordinating department communication. She will also continue to participate in daily department operations while serving as a resource for handling complex issues including ILLiad troubleshooting.
Genevia Chamblee-Smith
The Digital Projects Team is thrilled to announce the arrival of our new Digital Projects Fellow Genevia Chamblee-Smith (she/her). Genevia (Gen-ee-va) comes to us from her current position at the University of Florida as their DEIJ (diversity, equity, inclusion, justice) graduate intern. She is also currently finishing up her final semester of MLIS grad courses at North Carolina Central University, with graduation expected May 2022. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor’s in psychology, and has worked at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; the International Food Policy Research Institute; and Fisk University Library, among other places. She has written, published, and presented extensively on the experiences of women of color in libraries and archives, as well as historical representations of race and current intersectionalities, and the essential role of professional mentorship.
With our team, Genevia will provide direct technical support to our large-scale digital collections’ migration from Islandora 7 to Islandora 8 (March 28, 2022 -August 31, 2022), and will lead our DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility) assessment of current digital collections (September 1, 2022-May 31, 2023). This assessment, and subsequent changes to procedures and policies, will include a literature review; the development of DEIA criteria we can use to guide our local collections’ work; and will aid in evolving our digital collections practices at UMKC Libraries, in tandem with our special collections and archives’ division.