Madelynn Dickerson

Libraries

As an academic library leader, I am driven to inspire meaningful innovation and excited by creative scholarship in its many forms.

Curriculum Vitae

Professional Experience

  • Head of Digital Scholarship Services, UC Irvine Libraries, 2020-present
  • Research Librarian for Digital Humanities and History, 2018-2020
  • Information Resources Coordinator, Claremont Colleges Library, 2015-2018
  • Manager of Reference Services, California Lutheran University, 2014-2015
  • Evening Circulation Supervisor, California Lutheran University, 2012-2014

Exemplar Projects

The Bibliographic Records as Research Project was an experimental side project with colleagues Joshua Hutchinson, Sarah Wallbank and Danielle Kane in which we explored what it means to ask more nuanced questions of bibliographic records in the context of “collections as data.”

Preliminary results from our analysis of author names in the history monographs collection at UCI Libraries. The 5 most frequently appearing names are traditionally male and anglican.
Final student artwork from “Qrcade.” See more at https://scholarship.claremont.edu/dbe_artworks/2/

Design, Build, Experience (DBE) started out as a pitch and evolved into a collaborative student learning experience whose goal was to support students through the development of library-based art installations that rendered otherwise “invisible” electronic resources as tangible objects. DBE offered students opportunities to engage deeply with library “electronic resources” and newly designed library spaces, all while utilizing a design-thinking approach to communicating library services to the public.

VESSEL: Text (Re)Accessioned was a creative collaboration that included artists and writers Larkin Higgins and Jen Lagedrost Cavendar. A deaccessioned library copy of The Bountiful Sea, by Seabrook Hull (1964) became a series of folded paper boats from which poems emerged. This SCLEC Lightning Talk goes into more depth.

“This is / performance / compulsion / the fuel cell”

Publications

  • Dahdul, W., Dickerson, M., Kane, D. (2022). “Orienting Data Services in the Library: Evolution of a Digital Scholarship Services Department” in Academic Libraries as Partners in Data Science Ecosystems. IGI Global.
  • Bello, L., Dickerson, M., Hogarth, M., and Sanders, A. (2021). “Building a DIY Community of Practice” in People, Practice, Power: Digital Humanities Outside the Center. University of Minnesota Press.
  • Dickerson, M., Hutchinson, J., Kane, D., Wallbank, S. (Dec 2019). “Exploring Bibliographic Records as Research Data” in Catalogue & Index.
  • Bello, L., Dickerson, M., Hogarth, M., and Sanders, A. (Jun 2017). “Librarians Doing DH: A Team and Project- Based Approach to Digital Humanities in the Library.” Collaborative Librarianship. Vol.9, Iss. 2, Article 6.
  • Dickerson, M. (May 2016). “Beta Spaces as a Model for Recontextualizing Reference Services in Libraries.” In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

Other Writing

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