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Robin M. Katz is a primary source literacy librarian, archivist, and educator who works to connect people to primary sources in meaningful and innovative ways. She is committed to diversity in libraries and archives: improving the range of collections, fostering new users and advocates, and diversifying the field of library professionals.
She moved to LA in 2015 from Brooklyn, NY, where she was Head of Reference and User Services at Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS). Before becoming part of BHS’s permanent staff, she was the grant-funded Outreach and Public Services Archivist from 2011-2014. In this capacity, she co-directed Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA), a collaborative postsecondary education program which built document analysis and critical thinking skills in first-year undergraduates. Independent evaluators found that students who visited the archives through SAFA were more engaged and performed better than their peers.
From 2009 to 2011, she held the position of Library Assistant Professor / Digital Initiatives Outreach Librarian for the University of Vermont Libraries’ Center for Digital Initiatives. Through a two-year IMLS grant, she helped students, faculty, staff, scholars, and community members participate as users and creators of digital resources in an open, collaborative environment. After teaching English to high school students in Post-Katrina New Orleans and in Strasbourg, France, Robin M. Katz received a Master of Library and Information Science from Kent State University in 2009.
While at Kent, she was one of the first Gerald H. and Victoria C. T. Read Graduate Assistants in Special Collections and Archives. She also held leadership positions in the graduate student chapter of the Society of Ohio Archivists, led Summer Reading Project book discussions, and participated in a Black-Jewish Diversity Awareness trip to Washington, DC. In 2008, Katz spent the summer as the Digital Library and Metadata Development Intern at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where she developed skills in emerging technologies and digital libraries.
She graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a double major in English & American Literature and European Cultural Studies. She minored in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and studied abroad at the University of Leeds’ School of English. At Brandeis, Katz was involved with the Arab-Jewish Dialogue Group and held an internship at Beacon Press in Boston.
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