What Our Members Are Saying: Lindsay King

Title Head of Bowes Art and Architecture Library Library, Institution Stanford University E-mail kingl@stanford.edu

What do you love about your work?

For me, the most fulfilling part is watching students light up at something in the library, whether it's the perfect article for their topic in PDF or a unique object in special collections. I like that feeling of making things happen for people so that they can do their work better or be inspired.

What are you working on now that you’re proud of?

Right now I'm working on building my professional network at Stanford and on the West Coast, since I just moved here over the summer, having spent more than a decade each on the other two coasts! There are a lot of new people working in the arts here, though Stanford is a STEM-focused place, and it feels like there's good energy and momentum to strengthen our connections and do new things. I'm also working on projects related to a few major artists' archives, and it's exciting to think about the future research that will enable.

What sorts of ARLIS-related projects have you worked on? Is there something in particular that you found meaningful?

I was a program co-chair for the 2018 annual conference in New York, the Executive Board Advancement Liaison in 2019-21, the chair of the 50th Anniversary Planning Task Force right after that, and most recently the chair of this year's Nominating Committee. I've also been on the Development Committee twice and reviewed a lot of books for ARLIS/NA Reviews. Working on an annual conference is amazing because of the number of people you end up in contact with, and being on the Board gives you a view of just how much work is going on across ARLIS/NA and the chapters at any given time.

Tell us about the kind of library you work in. What do you wish other librarians understood about the kind of library you are in? What makes it great? What makes it challenging?

To me, academic libraries are the most interesting library environment because you get to meet such a variety of people with different needs and questions. The challenge is often working within a giant bureaucracy (the only kind of organization I've ever worked in!), but with so many people you can also find allies and support for getting things done, which is rewarding in itself. I'm enjoying leading and advocating on behalf of an art library team within a larger library system, which is also specific to the academic environment.

How many years have you been a librarian/worked in libraries? What is the biggest change you have experienced in your career thus far?

I started working in libraries in 2004, though I had also had an internship in a museum library a few years before that. The biggest change in my career was moving from Chicago to New Haven to start my job at Yale in 2011. I hardly knew anyone there, but that job launched me into a variety of professional experiences in outreach, instruction, digital humanities projects, and management. I had four different job titles in eleven years and went from managing one part-time employee to as many as nine at one point. I also met so many more people in ARLIS/NA. I'm really glad I made that leap, and that enabled my most recent leap to all of these new challenges and opportunities.