As we continue our strange spring apart, we hope this new Faces of Randall feature helps you feel connected to our Randall Library staff! Also, this month's feature includes intergalactic puffins.

Name: Tammy Ivins

Title: Coordinator of Instructional Services and Distance Education Librarian

What that means: She helps students learn to work smarter, not harder, when doing library research. By making video tutorials and teaching classes, we are working smarter (not harder) by reaching many students at once.

Favorite book and current read: Tammy’s favorite book is Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik; it’s the only book she thinks she’s read over 5 times. A loose retelling of Rumpelstilskin set in a fantastical version of Lithuania, for Tammy “there’s something challenging yet comforting about it. Challenging because there are so many perspectives and voices, but comforting because in the end it’s about strong women making strong choices and living with them.”

Favorite place in the library: The Research Help Desk, because she gets to smile at people when they come in and see if she can help them right off the bat, before they get lost in whatever they’re doing. It’s a nice way to get their day off to the right start.

If you could instantly learn any one (real) skill, what would it be and why?:
She would like to learn to ride a bicycle, so that the little kids on her street would stop making fun of her when she rides her adult tricycle down the road. (“SHUT UP KIDS. IT HAS A COOLER IN THE BACK.”) When she’s riding her tricycle she can have her dog pull her, but she hasn’t done it for a while because last time she (the dog) saw a cat, and she (Tammy) wound up in an azalea.

About Tammy:
Tammy has been here at Randall for almost 5 years! She started out as the Transfer Student Services Librarian, then became Online and Distance Education Librarian in 2018. In the same year, she “upgraded into her final Pokemon form,” Coordinator of Instructional Services and Distance Education Librarian.
It’s a pipe dream for now, but when the world reopens, Tammy believes everyone should study abroad! The first time she ever got on a plane was when she went to Cypress, and studying abroad there changed her life. When she was in college, she spent three weeks in an archeological dig in the green zone between Turkish territory and Cypriot territory. Not only did she find a glass bead from thousands of years ago, she got a firsthand look at what it’s like for people to be living under UN jurisdiction in their own homes. “There was literally a Turkish military base on the other side of the border that would literally watch them with binoculars. It’s amazing how three weeks can make the world so complicated when you used to see the world in black and white.”

BONUS:
Tammy is a huge Star Wars fan. Her favorite Jedi is Qui-Gon Jinn, and she hopes to continue his legacy (of picking up "pathetic lifeforms") by training the first Porg Jedi padawan in galactic history. See her with her trainee here: https://500px.com/randalllib/galleries/tammy