ATG Interviews Rick Anderson Associate Dean for Collections and Scholarly Communication, University of Utah, and University Librarian, Brigham Young University by Leah Hinds (Executive Director, Charleston Library Conference) <leah@charlestonlibraryconference.com> and Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain) <gilsont@cofc.edu> The following is a lightly edited transcript of an episode of ATG The Podcast that was posted on August 18, 2020. LH: Hi, I’m Leah Hinds. Executive Director of the Charleston Library Conference and I’d like to welcome you to ATG! The Podcast. This week we have a new interview with Rick Anderson, currently the Associate Dean for Collections and Scholarly Communication at University of Utah and recently named University Librarian at Brigham Young University. I conducted the interview alongside Tom Gilson, Associate Editor of Against the Grain. Join us to hear a conversation about Rick’s transition from University of Utah to BYU, his love of music and his CD HotList website and some recent articles and projects he’s been involved with. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy this week’s episode. TG: Rick, first we’d like to congratulate you on your recent appointment as University Librarian at Brigham Young University and, speaking of which, can you tell us a little bit about how it all happened? What led you to apply for the job and what factors lead you to accept? RA: Yeah, so, I actually got my start at BYU. I got my undergraduate degree and my library degree there back when they had a library program and I have just always loved BYU. I’ve always missed it. I’ve always felt a pull back to my alma mater, and over the years, as I’ve come to find that I enjoyed the work of library administration and library leadership, the University librarian job there has sort of become my dream job in my head and the timing in the past had never quite been right. But this time it was, although the circumstances under which the job came open were tragic and very sad for me and for all of us in libraries in the state of Utah with the passing of Jennifer Paustenbaugh who was a friend and a huge hero to all of us. But, when they decided to open up the position again, the timing was finally right for me and I was at a point in my career where it felt like the right move, and so one of the things that really attracts
me about BYU is that I’ve been for the last 13 years at a Research 1 University that is an absolutely wonderful institution and a place where it is just very, very exciting to be, and that’s been wonderful and I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to be at the University of Utah. But, I’ve got about ten years left in my career before I’ll hit retirement age and I’m really excited about the prospect of spending those last ten years focusing on student success, undergraduate education and basically being of service to BYU students whom I have always loved and continue to love. So I’m really excited to be back on that campus working with the tremendous leadership team at the BYU Library and at a unique and wonderful university that’s focused on undergraduate education and student success. LH: Thank you, Rick. So, according to BYU Academic Vice President Shane Reese it was “Rick’s wealth of experience in libraries” that made you their top choice. As you look back on your past career, which of those experiences do you think best prepared you to take on the challenge of being the University Librarian at BYU? RA: It’s weird because in my mind I’m still kind of 28 years old and for anybody
Against the Grain / December 2020 - January 2021
to talk about me having “a wealth of experience” just seems kind of strange. But, the reality is that I’m 55 years old and that as I look back on it I go “Oh, wow, I actually have had a fairly long career already and a wide range of experiences,” and I’ve now worked at three different research universities, in three different research libraries, as well as spending the first four years of my career at what was then called Yankee Book Peddler serving all kinds of libraries as a bibliographer working with approval plans. Each one of those places where I’ve worked has given me experience and exposure to incredibly smart and accomplished, insightful people who have educated me and helped me along my way and all of those experiences have been tremendously important in preparing me to take on leadership in the library at BYU. But, I think the single most important experience and the most important preparation I’ve had for this job has been the last seven years that I’ve spent working under Dean Alberta Comer, who came to us in 2013. I just can’t say enough about not only what a talented leader she is but also what a tremendous example she sets of leadership that is simultaneously empathetic and genuinely caring for the people who work for her and focused on fostering the success of the students and the University. She’s always got that balance in mind and I’ve learned so much from working closely with her at moments when there have been crises or problems, and she’s responded in a particular way and I thought “Dang, I’m not sure that’s how I would have responded, but, that was the perfect way to respond!” And I’ve just sort of grabbed those experiences like a squirrel hunting nuts and cached them away in the tree of my brain and said to myself “I need to remember what I just saw her do, because hopefully someday I’m going to have the opportunity to put those lessons to use in my own leadership experience.” So, again, I think the time that I had to spend with Alberta has been the single most important preparation but certainly everything that I’ve done in small and medium size and large libraries and continued on page 30
<http://www.against-the-grain.com>
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