Library staff are online: Andrea Twiss-Brooks

Library Staff are Online is a news series providing a glimpse at the work University of Chicago Library staff are doing remotely.

Staff Member:

Andrea Twiss-Brooks

Job Title:

Director, Humanities and Area Studies

Where do you work normally?

Crerar Library and Regenstein Library

Where are you working from now?

At a desk in a corner of my quilting workshop.

What are you working on right now?

Since March, I have been working with humanities and area studies librarians and with colleagues in the Research and Learning division of the LIbrary to transition in person services to virtual services. I am a member of planning groups in the Library and help brainstorm, plan and implement new and revamped services. For example, in collaboration with course reserves staff, I help behind the scenes to connect teaching faculty to the appropriate subject librarian who then assists in helping resolve issues with online course reserves materials needed for remote teaching and learning. I am also a subject librarian myself, providing individual research support to faculty, students, staff and others who have information resources questions in chemistry, geophysical sciences and history of science, medicine and technology.

Do you have any coworkers where you are working remotely? Partners, kids, pets, plants, etc.?

My spouse.

What activities or hobbies have you been engaged in when you aren't working remotely?

I am a quilter and have been working on a variety of projects. I belong to a quilting guild that has made over 4000 reusable cloth masks for donation to a variety of care organizations, and have made about 200 masks as part of that effort. Quilters are known for their "stashes", fabrics accumulated over time and for caches of scraps from various projects. I've been using these to work on additional projects, including celebratory quilts for a high school graduate and a coworker who got a new job, among others.

What do you miss about being away from the Library buildings or University?

I miss the people: my coworkers, the faculty, the students, and the visitors.