One of the most expansive resources Sacramento City College students have available to them is the Joan Didion Learning Resource Center. The center’s massive database and availability for research help would not be possible without people like Jordan Jue.
Jue, a public services librarian at City College since 2018, uses the expertise from his years of studies and experience in the public school system to be a readily available resource for any students seeking help. With degrees in history and ethnic studies from Santa Clara University and a master’s in library and information science from the University of Washington, Jue helps countless students each week with their projects and studies. (He also coaches cross country and track at Elk Grove High School, adding to his experience working in public education and with students.)
The Express recently spoke with Jordan about what he does at City College and why it matters.
How did you get the position? Did you have to work your way up the ladder?
I heard about this job when I was working as a library technician. That’s what we call it here at Sacramento City College. It’s kind of like a classified role. And I was working at Sac State … at their Access Services Department, and someone over there let me know that they hired part-time adjunct librarians at Sacramento City College when I was finishing [my] master’s degree. I worked part-time at this college for one year, and then I also worked [a] part-time circulation job at UC Davis in that year in 2018 to 2019, and then I’ve been a full-time faculty member since 2019.
What does your day-to-day look like here on campus?
Public service librarians, we wear a lot of different hats, so my day to day will be very different depending on the day. What I could tell you is there’s some days where our librarians will be working the Research Help Desk. So we have a research help desk where students can come in anytime when the library is open to get help with research, citations or just general information; as librarians at that reference desk, you see all kinds of questions.
We help a lot with printing, too, and we just try to guide students in the right direction. We’re experts in information literacy, and we have some of the best hours on campus. So we’re open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Whenever our library is open, that means on the second and third floor, we have a librarian at the Research Help Desk.
On the second floor, we have the circulation desk. We have library technicians. You can check out things whenever we’re open. And that probably takes up anywhere from five to 10 hours out of the week. I also am the library instruction coordinator. And what that means is when a teacher has a research assignment or some kind of thing like that, and they want to have [a] librarian to help out with their assignment, to show students, because we’re experts in that field on how to create a topic, how to find resources, how to narrow down your research, all those kind of things. So what I’ll do is, I’ll make sure that there is [a] librarian to teach that class, either in person, it can also be online through Zoom, and it also can be embedded librarians, so we also help out in Canvas.
Outside of that, librarians are also subject area experts, so you’ll have to acquire books. There is some book part of it still like in our job, definitely, like, that’s something we have to do. So I have a few subject areas of math, engineering and kinesiology, and each year I have to buy a certain amount of books because we’re allocated a budget to purchase books for the subject area. So that’s a smaller part of my role.
We have Rebecca Goodchild who’s a collection development librarian, so more of her job is like acquiring the books, figuring out what are the right books to have for different subjects and departments on campus. But that’s another part of my role.
And then one thing that I do for college service, which is kind of unique, is I’m the advisor for the Jack of All Trades Club. So that’s a video game, anime, role-playing, board game, and kind of like any of those topics that students like, like to do, and are interested in on campus. I advise that club and that’s probably one of the bigger clubs that we have on campus. And then other things I do is also serving on campus committees. As faculty on our campus, you kind of have that expectation of college service, so I serve on [the] Academic Senate, and I serve on the Campus Safety Committee, and I also help out with the API group on campus.
What would you like the student body to know about you, your position or the library as a whole?
I’d like to say right now, we’re definitely seeing more students on campus and more students using the library — that’s something that’s very exciting to see. It’s good to see that enrollment [is] doing OK, in this post-pandemic environment. One thing that I’ve noticed is our library takes a lot of roles. We have to help out with printing and computers, so I think it’s good on campus to know that we need support in that part. And one thing we’re also trying to work on right now is that we have these group study rooms, reserved for two hours and two hours a day per student per group. And then one other thing I forgot to mention that’s going on on campus right now and in our library, we see a lot of laptop checkouts too. At the beginning of the semester, we have a few hundred Chromebooks that we check out and some Windows computers too. So that’s become a big part of the library recently as well.
This Q&A has been edited for length, clarity and flow.
Express Exchange is a Q&A series that highlights the people in the Sacramento City College community. Each conversation explores unique experiences, challenges these people overcame and perspective into what matters most in their personal journey. This series provides a space to connect and share meaningful experiences. Have an idea of someone for us to interview? Contact our editors at [email protected] and [email protected]
