2024-2025 Impact Report_final version

Catherine Paolillo

FUN FACTS: I am a printmaker and sculptor by training. I also paint, collage, draw, make my own hot sauce, and am an avid home baker. I love challenging myself with complex techniques, developing recipes, and trying interesting flavor combinations. I recently put my skills to the test by entering several of the Home Arts & Hobbies baking contests at the 2025 San Diego County Fair. I came away with a slew of ribbons, such as the “Best of Division — Breads and Rolls” and “Best of Division — Cakes and Cupcakes”.

I am Copley’s Head of Access & Outreach Services Librarian. I oversee circulation, resource sharing, course reserves, building operations, our busy 24/7 schedule, and the Access & Outreach Services Department’s vital student assistant program. I am also responsible for the library’s social media presence, organizing outreach events such as our annual Banned Books Week celebrations, and assisting with promoting Copley’s collections, resources, and services to the USD community. I serve on several library committees, including Black History Month, Roy and Marian Holleman Copley Library Student Assistant Scholarship, User Experience (co-chair), and Website. I am also Copley’s First-Generation Student Liaison. I meet with first-generation students one-on-one, plan targeted outreach events, and serve as an active member of the campus-wide First Generation Action Team, which supports first-generation student success through proactive programming and partnerships. The best part of my job is working directly with students every day, whether supervising them, teaching a workshop, collaborating on projects, providing one-on-one help at the desk, or offering research consultations. In all aspects of my job, I am dedicated to fostering a sense of belonging for all students and ensuring they not only know what resources we offer but also how to leverage them to achieve their academic goals. I have been in this role for nearly a year. However, I previously served as Copley’s Visiting Evening Access Librarian (or “night librarian”) from 2018 to 2023. My fourteen years of library experience include roles at USD, a tenure-track position at California State University, Channel Islands, and library staff roles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the University of California, San Diego. I am originally from Lake Tahoe, CA. I am a proud first-generation college graduate, having earned my bachelor’s in fine arts from California State University, Chico, and both my master’s in library and information science and master’s in art history from the Pratt Institute. I predominantly present and publish in library leadership and management, focusing on supervising, developing, and celebrating library student employees. I am also interested in investigating how library outreach and engagement support student success. Most recently, I presented a lightning talk at the Access Services in Libraries Conference on our transition from a simple training checklist to a dynamic Canvas course and served as a panelist on the conference’s “Special Topic Panel Discussion on Student Success.” Earlier this year, I co-authored a book chapter titled “We’re Not a Regular CoP, We’re a Cool CoP: How Joy and Equity Transform Outreach Innovation,” with California State University colleagues for the forthcoming publication, Cultivating Collaboration: Communities of Practice in Librarianship (Rowman & Littlefield). I will also co-present about San Diego’s Regional First-Generation Student Success Summit at the 45th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience in Seattle, Washington, in February.

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