The University Library’s Diversity Residency Program is designed to expand professional pathways for early-career librarians from historically underrepresented backgrounds and those who support the professional development of diverse individuals. This program provides residents with hands-on professional experience, mentorship, and career development opportunities in academic librarianship. As a member of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Diversity Alliance, the University Library supports its mission to promote inclusive hiring practices and professional growth in the field. More information about the ACRL Diversity Alliance can be found at www.ala.org/acrl/issues/diversityalliance.
In alignment with our mission to foster a supportive environment for all members of our university community,
this program is open to all eligible persons, regardless of race, color or national origin.
For our 2026-2029 cohort, we are currently recruiting for the following positions:
- Visiting Open Educational Resources Librarian
- Visiting Music & Performing Arts Special Collections Librarian
Residency Timeline
Residency Timeline
Year One:
Residents will spend their first year fully engaged in their home unit, building a strong foundation in their role and becoming familiar with the campus community. Orientation, training, job shadowing, informational interviews, meeting participation, and presentations will be scheduled to provide a broad understanding of the administration of an academic research library.
Year Two:
In their second year, residents will begin taking the lead on projects within their home unit. Based on their professional interests and the needs of the unit, residents may also initiate collaborative projects or rotations with one or two additional units. Ongoing training and guidance from mentors will support this work, as residents also begin planning their capstone project.
Year Three:
During the final year, residents will continue and complete any cross-unit projects or rotations. They will also finalize their capstone project, which serves as a culmination of their residency experience. The capstone may take different forms—such as a conference presentation, publication, or program reflection—depending on the resident’s goals and the group’s vision for sharing outcomes.
Goals of the Library Diversity Residency Program
At the end of their three-year appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University Library, the residents will leave having:
- A strong mentor-mentee relationship with faculty and staff within the Library
- Substantive opportunities for professional development
- Training to be successful in their ongoing professional careers
- Opportunities to design and implement innovative library projects
- Experience with meaningful service and committee commitments within the Library and/or the profession
- Developed relationships with professional organizations
- Engaged in the scholarly activities of the profession
Residents for 2022-2025
Grainger IDEA Lab Experiential Learning and Engagement Librarian: Celenia Graves
Celenia has a background in education, metadata for special collections, and public librarianship. Her research interests include accessibility, user experience (UX) design, metadata, and website design. They will be taking the lead in comprehensive programming and outreach efforts in the IDEA Lab to help bridge the digital and technical divide by focusing on engagement efforts to underserved and underrepresented communities on campus and in the Champaign-Urbana area. She is a first-generation American and a forever curious learner excited to work with emerging technologies such as 3D printing and VR/AR/XR. Celenia received a Master of Science in Library Science and Certificate in Archival Management from the University of North Texas (UNT).
Preservation Outreach and Engagement Librarian: Rachel Miller-Haughton
Rachel earned a Master of Library and Information Science and Certificate in Special Collections from the University of Iowa. She will promote awareness and access to the Library’s rich digital and physical collections, and advance public engagement through education related to the field of preservation and conservation of cultural heritage. Her research interests include accessibility and barriers for marginalized communities in the field of library science, specifically in the intersection of archives, special collections, and preservation.
Residents for 2017-2020
Archives Resident: Jessica Ballard
Jessica received both her Master’s in Library Science, and her Master’s in History from Indiana University in 2016. During her time at Indiana University, she specialized in archives. Jessica worked at the University Archives, the Black Film Center Archives, the Sidney and Eskenazi Museum of Art, the Lilly Library, the Kinsey Center, and served as an intern at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She holds a Bachelors in History, and a Bachelors in American Racial and Multicultural Studies from St. Olaf College. Before making the transition to library studies, Jessica was employed at the La Brea Tar Pits Museum, and volunteered with both the education department and the archives department at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Data Analytics and Visualization: Megan Ozeran
Following a BA in Media Studies from Pomona College, Megan Ozeran earned her Master of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. She received the 2017 LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award for a paper she wrote for her metadata class, and this paper is published in the open access journal Information Technology and Libraries. Megan has previously worked for a health information technology startup, in public services at a community college library, and in digital services at a university library. Before moving to Champaign, Megan had never lived outside her home state of California. She is thrilled to be part of a rich research library community, and to establish data analytics and visualization services in the University Library.
Digital Preservation: Karl Germeck
Karl Germeck joins the UIUC University Library Residency Program from North Carolina where he earned his MSLS with a concentration in Archives and Records Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016. He also holds an MS in American Studies from Utah State University and a BA in English from West Texas A&M University.
While a library student at UNC, Karl pursued his interest in digital curation and community-driven archives by collaborating closely with The Jackson Center, a public history center in Chapel Hill, NC, to develop and implement strategies for providing long-term care of and access to the organization’s Chapel Hill Civil Rights digital oral history collection. He has held additional positions as Project Librarian and Archivist at UNC’s Highway Safety Research Center and as Resident Art Librarian at The Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Karl’s current research interests include digital preservation and web archiving policy management, archival and born-digital preservation practices that promote diversity and inclusiveness within the digital historical record, and digital cultural heritage community building and advocacy.