Since February, Emily Ford has been working as a reference and instructional librarian at the Portland State Millar Library for the College of Urban and Public Affairs. Her duties are to staff the reference desk, answer chat questions coming from students on the library website, and let classes know when the library has a guest lecturing on how best to do research and think critically about the material.
Kayla Nguyen/VANGUARD STAFf
Ford’s area is anything concerning the departments, programs, institutes and centers within the university. Before this position, Ford worked a similar job at PSU but as a part-time, interim faculty member.
There are so many things about working at PSU that excite her, but mainly she is looking forward to the opportunity to work with students and faculty to make things happen.
“There [are] all sorts of cool projects that I think students and faculty would like to do and I’d like to help them with,” Ford said.
Outside of her job, Ford absolutely loves to cook: “A lot,” she said. “And I love to eat.” She also recently got a little red scooter and has been enjoying her commute to work.
Ford encourages students to use the PSU library page. One tip: If students plan to use Google Scholar for research, they should make sure to use the link from the library website instead of going directly to Google.
“If you use the link from the library home page, it will help you get to the full text of articles that we have at the library, and I think that’s really important for students to know,” she said.
Ford believes that students, as a whole, are good about asking questions, but that sometimes they just wait a little too long. She tells her students—and even the faculty she works with—that if they spend longer than 15 minutes trying to figure something out, then it’s time to ask for help.
“I think sometimes people get frustrated, and there’s no need for that,” Ford said. “We’re here to support students, and that’s what we do. We love to help them in any way we can.”