Getting to Know TS Law Librarians: Karen Selden

1. Introduce yourself.

I’m Karen Selden, the Metadata Services Librarian at the University of Colorado’s William A. Wise Law Library.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

When I joined the University of Colorado’s Law Library in 1998, my job title was Catalog Librarian. However, in 2013 I changed my title to Metadata Services Librarian to better reflect my work with both traditional cataloging and creating metadata for digital collections. From a librarians’ viewpoint, I think my updated title accurately reflects my primary job duties: responsible for the cataloging, classification, and metadata creation for all library materials and digital collections created by the library; responsible for authority control and database maintenance; participate in creating the library's digital archives collections; and supervise the Metadata Services Assistant. However, I suspect that the average patron might not agree that my job title is very descriptive or intuitive. 

3. What are you reading right now?

I belong to a book group in the small town that I live in, and I love it for many reasons. I’m a slow reader, so the monthly meetings give me a target date to finish a book (or at least giving it a good try  J ). I also like the variety of nonfiction and fiction books that my group chooses to read; I’ve been introduced to many good books I wouldn’t have selected or discovered on my own. And, of course, I love the great discussions that we have and friendships that I’ve made. I’m currently reading my book group’s February selection, Mink River by Brian Doyle, as well as American Absurd by Pierre Schlag. Pierre is a long-time faculty member at the University of Colorado Law School, and this is his first novel. He’ll attend a book group meeting this fall to discuss his book with us.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

I started my library career (nearly 30 year ago!) as a paraprofessional in a public library. Last summer I was recruited to work very part-time (2-5 hours most Saturdays) in the tiny, spunky, positive, enthusiastic, and fun public library in my small town of Lyons, Colorado. While my detail-oriented, academic law library job suits me well, I’ve rediscovered how much fun it is to see and hear both kids and adults exploring and enjoying books and reading. Even though I’m not ready to retire from my full-time job, when that time comes, I think I’d like to continue working part-time in a small public library.