The Strauss Library Education & Research Department is thrilled to welcome our newest faculty member, Hannah Pollard! Hannah is our go-to expert on all matters related to scholarly communications.
What is your position title and what is your interest in libraries?
My name is Hannah Pollard, and I’m the Scholarly Communications Informationist. In practical terms, that means that I focus on anything related to research and publishing – you can come to me for questions on copyright, citation management, predatory publishing, things like that. As far as my interest in libraries, in high school I got to help in our local library as a shelver and got to see first-hand all the ways that librarians help people.
What do you like most about it so far?
One of the things I like best so far is getting to interact with a wide variety of people at CU Anschutz – on the same day, I can go from assisting a faculty member with EndNote to helping a student navigate predatory publishing to advising a staff member on copyright.
What is your educational background? What schools did you attend?
I attended University of North Carolina at Asheville for my undergraduate degree, and then Florida State University as an IDEA Scholar for my masters in Library Science with a specialization in medical libraries.
What is your previous work experience? What are some other jobs you have had?
My previous job was working as a Health Sciences Librarian at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences in Yakima, Washington. Before that, I was a bloodborne disease counselor in Santa Fe, New Mexico, focusing mainly on HIV and Hepatitis C.
Would you like to talk about where you are from?
I’ve lived all over the United States, including Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, New Mexico, and Washington. I’ve spent the longest amount of times in North Carolina and New Mexico, though. I feel very lucky that I’ve got to experience so many different places.
What things do you NOT like to do?
I don’t particularly like going to concerts. At least for the bands I want to see, it’s hard to get good seats, or even hear the music over people screaming or singing along. That plus long waits to get in, it takes a long time to leave afterwards, people behaving badly – it’s just not for me.
What’s your favorite movie?
Clue (1985), dir. Jonathan Lynn. It has an incredible comedic cast, and it always makes me laugh.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I’d like to go to the Hainan Island area of China, which has both beautiful beaches and tropical rain forests. It’s home to large numbers of animals, especially birds, so I’d love to see them in their natural habitat.
What do you hope to gain from working at Strauss Library?
Most of my library experience is general. I’m glad I got to experience all the different parts of the library, but I’m excited to focus now on scholarly communication. I hope I can gain a broader understanding so I can better assist the entire Strauss Library community.