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Librarian Profile—Stacey Marien

Librarian Profile—Stacey Marien

A member of the AU community since 1999, Acquisitions Librarian Stacey Marien started her career at the American University Library as the Business Librarian. Stacey began working at libraries in high school, but she pursued other avenues of education before returning to the field of librarianship. As an undergraduate, Stacey attended McGill University in Montreal where she received her BA in Humanistic Studies. She then moved to Boston where she earned her MBA at the University of Massachusetts, Boston campus, before relocating to Geneva, Switzerland for two years. While in Geneva, she volunteered almost daily at the American Library, now called the Library in English, a membership-based library with a substantial collection of English language books and magazines. Her colleagues at the American Library encouraged Stacey to pursue a degree in Library Science, and when she returned to the US, Stacey attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where she received an MSLS.

Where can you find her?

After working as the Business Librarian for 10 years, Stacey wanted to try something completely different and moved to the Technical Services division of the Library. She now oversees the Acquisitions unit, which works to obtain books and other materials needed for the Library collection. Acquisitions is also responsible for developing relationships with and selecting vendors, an aspect of her position that Stacey particularly enjoys. In addition to her work behind the scenes at the Library, working with vendors and doing hands-on work with resources, Stacey also spends at least one hour each week on the Research Assistance Desk, helping students with their research questions.

When she is not at the Library, Stacey can often be found gardening at home or at her local community garden, where she works as the compost manager and liaison to the Campus Kitchens Project, an organization that works to reduce food waste. In this capacity, Stacey picks unharvested produce donated by her fellow gardeners and delivers it to the St. Luke’s Mission Center, where volunteers make and deliver meals to those in need.

Why she loves her job

Stacey likes the academic setting and energy of campus, particularly the engagement of both AU students and her colleagues. Her role cultivating relationships with vendors has been especially rewarding. As a detail-oriented person, she enjoys the challenge of problem solving and the “nitty gritty of dealing with resources.” Another perk of the job is “getting first crack at the new books!”

In the community

Here on campus, Stacey serves on the Faculty Grievance Committee and is working on a subcommittee which is developing a proposal for AU to hire an ombudsperson, who can hear complaints from faculty and help to facilitate discussions about faculty issues. Within the Library, she serves on the Collection Management Committee, which makes purchasing and budgetary decisions regarding Library collections.

Stacey is active within the broader field of librarianship as well, co-writing a bimonthly column, “Let’s Get Technical,” for Against the Grain with Resource Description Librarian Alayne Mundt. She also just returned from the Charleston Conference, where she and Chris Hagan, Acquisitions Data Management Specialist, presented "The Paper Chase: How One Library Tackled the Chaos of Media Acquisitions" on the Reserves Media Acquisitions Database system and how it is used for media and reserves ordering at the AU Library.

Her strong interest in the issues associated with aging in place led Stacey to volunteer with the Northwest Neighbors Village (NNV), a community organization committed to helping elderly residents of northwest DC remain independent at home. Stacey contributes content to the organization’s monthly newsletter, The Village News, (she interviews another volunteer in the October 2015 issue) and has been helping Ginny, a disabled member of NNV, for the past two years. Stacey admires Ginny’s spirit and strength, saying “She’s a firecracker. Her disabilities don’t stop her – and I hope to follow her example as I age.”