Student feedback, picks meet in new collection to debut in Watson Library

As part of its ongoing commitment to broadening collections and incorporating stakeholder feedback, KU Libraries invited four undergraduate students to step behind the scenes and create their own collection as part of a new student curator pilot program. The students’ collection, “Page Turning Tropes: Your Favorite Narratives, Themes, Cliches, Archetypes,” will debut with a reception and curator talk in Watson Library’s third floor lobby on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 3 p.m. 

Beginning last fall, students from KU Libraries Student Ambassadors Program - Margaret Baechle, Allison Bell, Ali Madden and Sarah Patti - met with librarians Amalia Monroe-Gulick and Sara Outhier to brainstorm ideas, and learn about the process of collection development and the various libraries departments that work together to provide access to resources.  

“It’s been refreshing to do something so fun and so explicitly student-centric,” Outhier said, “and we’re giving them a lot of space to do their own thing.” 

Monroe-Gulick said student curators learned about working within a budget, consulting a variety of sources, and collection development policies that encouraged them to understand their selections in a larger context. 

“It’s not just about what you like, but thinking about expanding yourself when you’re creating a collection,” Monroe-Gulick said. 

The student curators agree.  

“We wanted to pick a theme which would appeal to many students with varied interests as well as increase the number of leisure reading books in the libraries,” said Bell, a fourth-year student studying linguistics and German Studies.  

The students’ goal blended well with self-directed reading and viewing initiatives that KU Libraries continue to develop, and the recently added digital platform, Libby. 

“Getting an idea of what the students are interested in will help our efforts,” Monroe-Gulick said. “The creativity of how they built this collection -- it’s so interesting the topic that they’ve chosen.” 

The students’ collection contains seven subtopics and more than 90 titles, including print and electronic books and streaming films available in Libby and Swank. 

“Part of the inspiration for the trope idea was us wanting to appeal to a wide audience of people who may enjoy different styles and themes of books,” said Baechle, a senior studying English. “We thought tropes could be fun because there are so many and they are pretty popular among young readers right now.” 

The experience has also spanned opportunities for mentorship as some of the student curators consider careers in library science.  

“I think the reason I’m a librarian is I met another music librarian,” Outhier said. “So, I think this project is also part of this cycle, librarians helping aspiring librarians and that kind of mentorship that our discipline really leans into.” 

The project also installs the students as part of the legacy of KU Libraries, which has been building collections since the university’s beginnings, and is one of the top 50 libraries in the Association of Research Libraries by volumes held. The largest library in Kansas, KU Libraries holds more than 5.6 million items in seven campus locations.   

“The students are now part of that lineage of people who have helped steward this collection,” Outhier said. “The collection is a living thing. We add new things that are relevant. We maintain it but it’s not static, it’s an ongoing, living collection.”