Librarian Lisa Ngo describes her engineering students at UC Berkeley as having “a drive to succeed” — sometimes literally.
“The College of Engineering has these student teams that compete nationally and internationally, and there are several teams that build cars, including one that builds solar-powered cars,” she said. “They race them and test them. It’s incredible what these students do.”
In her work, Ngo is likewise driven to support students and faculty members who are ambitious about changing the world. The assistant head of the UC Berkeley Library’s Sciences Division gets revved up about designing better systems and spaces for people poised to build bridges, map the cosmos, and cure diseases. For her dedicated service over 18 years, Ngo will be honored this week with a Distinguished Librarian Award.
Since 1990, the biennial award from the Librarians Association of the University of California’s Berkeley chapter has celebrated excellence in librarianship. Honorees are selected by a committee of peers and faculty members. Ramona Collins, the director of patron services at the Berkeley Law Library, is the other award winner this year.
Colleagues who nominated Ngo lauded her approach to librarianship as the perfect balance of innovation, inclusivity, and humility. She was hailed for her commitment to user-centered design and engaging instruction.
Ngo, who also serves as the STEM research and instructional services lead, is used to answering questions about science — but not about herself. So, naturally, we pried. And the proud San Franciscan shared more about learning English in the public library as a child, what motivates her at work, and the four wooden chairs she’s been trying to restore for the last year(ish).
How does it feel to be honored with a Distinguished Librarian Award?
I’m totally shocked. I still can’t believe that it’s true. Because I’ve been here for so long, I’ve personally worked with a lot of the librarians who have won the award in the past, and they’re all really awe-inspiring. I can think of at least 10 people who I work with right now who probably deserve it more than me. But I’m really, really honored just to have been nominated.
If I could, I would want to share the award with my team in the science libraries, and with all the other amazing staff in the UC Berkeley Library who do incredible work every day, and who are all, I think, distinguished.
What inspired you to become a librarian?
I grew up in the Tenderloin (a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco), and we lived a couple of blocks away from the main branch of the public library. My siblings and I spent so many summers just roaming free around the library. It was a way for us to get books and learn English, and be in a safe space. So libraries held a really special place for me.
Then, when I was an undergrad at UC Irvine, I got a library job. I was hired by Lorelei Tanji, who is actually the university librarian at Irvine now. And I loved working there. Everybody was really kind and gracious and generous with their time. They showed me that librarians were an integral part of research that changes the world. That seemed like a noble enterprise, and a place to be able to make a difference. So I ended up going to library school.
What motivates you in your work?
My colleagues. They are really incredible. And that makes me feel like I have to work even harder so I don’t let them down. The students are also motivating. They’re really ambitious. They want to get places. And that makes me want to do my best to connect them with the resources that are going to help them succeed in their research or in their classes or in their job search.
I also recognize how much work and dedication have gone into building the Engineering & Mathematical Sciences Library’s collections to make them so distinctive and reflective of the research and teaching in the College of Engineering. I want to continue to build on the legacy of the librarians and staff who came before me.
Talk about the project you spearheaded to evaluate library spaces for accessibility.
The Sciences Division had a goal to try to make our spaces more welcoming. So our group developed a checklist for accessibility that you could take to any space, and use it to identify places where students or other visitors might not feel welcome. For example, a person might have trouble navigating one place because of a blocked pathway, or there might be signs that are difficult to read at a certain height if you’re in a wheelchair.
We use that tool in each of the science libraries to generate a list of things we want to consider changing to make the space more inclusive. We sometimes have student employees do the evaluations to ensure that we get a fresh perspective. Some of the changes are quick and easy to fix, and others we keep on the list for when we have more funding.
How does collection-building in science differ from other subjects?
In engineering, in particular, there are types of publications that aren’t used as often in other disciplines — things like standards, which may be developed by other countries and professional associations, and could be applicable when you’re building something. Technical reports are another example. If you’re getting funding from a government body and you need to report back about what you’ve done, technical reports are where that information gets published. Those get used a lot in engineering. Also, things like patents are helpful as well as handbooks and manuals. That’s in addition to the scholarly journals that engineers use to communicate their research and practice.
What Library accomplishment makes you proudest?
I co-led a team that investigated the Library’s first centralized discovery system, which led to us adopting the EBSCO Discovery Service as our platform for searching for articles, book chapters, and other things. That experience prepared me to work on the discovery end of the Systemwide Integrative Library System project (which integrates library resources from campuses across the University of California system). Those are two of the projects that were most impactful for our users. I have heard from many people that it’s now easier for them to find and request things from the Library.
One of my favorite things about working on projects like those was doing user testing, talking to the students and faculty about how they use our systems, what their pain points are, what they expect when they do searches, and what we can improve.
What do you do for fun?
I’m a serial hobbyist. I don’t know if that’s self-explanatory? I pick up hobbies, and I learn enough about them to maybe be a half step above incompetent. And then I get bored and move on to a new thing. Right now, for example, I’m trying to learn how to restore midcentury dining chairs, which have been in my kitchen for the last year. You don’t know how many hours of YouTube I’ve watched of people reupholstering furniture!
This Q&A was edited for brevity and clarity.