I'm a Library Student Employee… An Interview with Alexis Reeves

Third-year Bio Sci student Alexis Reeves.

I'm a third year Biological Sciences major with a minor in Psychology. My future plans are to go to medical school so I have a long way to go! I came to UCI because I fell in love with the beauty of the campus; it is so pristine.

I have worked in the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) department for about two years. I love working in the library. It's a light-hearted place and everyone is happy. It's great to work on campus and the flexible schedule has been helpful to my studies.

My daily duties in ILL are to assist with the huge volume of books that are exchanged between UCI, the UC system, the State and the world. Researchers from around the world request books from our library on a daily basis and it's important to deliver them as quickly as possible. We send books as far away as Africa, Australia, China, and Japan; we are literally sharing knowledge around the world every day.

Working in the inter-library loan department has given me a greater appreciation of the importance of print books for researchers. There is so much talk today of electronic books and readers, but people need to understand the value of print materials as well. The UCI Libraries also have a lot of older books that are real treasures. It is very important to keep these resources for future generations. They can't be experienced online!

I'm in the library all the time, either for work or my studies. Librarians have helped me navigate the wealth of information on the web and taught me how to evaluate what's good information. It's great to be able to reach a librarian 24/7 by email or live chat. I've even gotten help from a librarian at UC Berkeley for help with a project.

Working in the libraries has given me a great appreciation of the global scale of information that libraries share on a daily basis. I can't see a college campus without a library. It's the main hub of student learning and a great resource. We definitely still need libraries!