Jessica Guardardo, the library’s newest staff member, holds the title of Archives & Special Collections Assistant.
Jessica was born and raised in South Los Angeles. She moved to San Diego to attend San Diego State University, from which she received a combined bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Spanish.
She always knew she wanted to provide services to a community, so she originally thought she would go into social work. When she began working as an undergraduate assistant in her university’s special collections department, Jessica realized she had found her ideal work environment.
About this experience, she writes, “I became passionate about the unique materials Special Collections departments hold and I appreciated what the librarians were doing in order to keep the history of the community alive.”
Upon graduating from SDSU, Jessica continued to work in the same department, hired into project assistant positions that had her processing archival materials as well as working with the public, and supervising the department’s student assistants. All in all, she spent nearly five years with SDSU’s special collections.
Jessica is excited to be here now at LMU, and looks forward to learning from everyone who works at our library. This year she also plans to apply to a graduate program in library studies to achieve her MLIS degree.
Jessica says, “The thing that excites me the most about working in Archives and Special Collections here is that we have so much to offer the community of LMU and Los Angeles. This university is rich with history — I am excited to learn as much as I can.”