Rhonda Rosen is the new Programming and Exhibitions Librarian for the William H. Hannon Library. This is a new role at the library that allows us to expand and strengthen our ability to support students through innovative programming and creative exhibitions. Rhonda has been with the Hannon Library team since before the building opened, most recently as the Circulation Services Librarian. We sat down with Rhonda to ask her about her new role.
Tell us about your new position at the William H. Hannon Library.
As the Programming and Exhibitions Librarian, I will work with my library and campus colleagues to promote the library as the intellectual and cultural center of the campus community. I will be open and receptive to finding programming of all sorts, that will connect students, faculty, and staff with the library’s collections and services.
How has your previous experience helped prepare you for being successful in this new role?
I have been leading the Sunday Jewish Book and Discussion group for the past 11 years, the longest running library program! I have worked with our fabulous outreach staff as the manager and I’ve developed relationships with our faculty and a variety of authors, rabbis, and others who have led our discussions over the years. I have tried to be creative by bringing graphic novels, fiction, non-fiction and films into the ways we look at Jewish history, literature, and culture. And, maybe as a foreshadowing of this new job, I coordinated the very first exhibit of the new Hannon Library – Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race – how the Nazi leadership, in collaboration with medical professionals traditionally charged with healing and the public good, used science to help legitimize persecution, murder and, ultimately, genocide.
What do you think will be some of your challenges?
I think the most formidable part about this job is the calendaring! The outreach department works overtime in partnering with the campus on a wide swath of programming events – it will be a challenge to keep all the balls in the air. With Hannon Library’s signature programs like Faculty Pub Night, Feel Good Finals, LMU Speaks, orientations and tours for students and faculty, new and prospective, as well as all the various programs and exhibits that the library partners with our campus friends throughout the year, I will be kept very busy!
What are you most excited/hopeful about in this new role?
I like to be creative and meet new people, so I look forward to doing more of that. Even though I have been on campus over 30 years, we are all so busy and tend to “silo” ourselves. So, if I can work with student groups and organizations and shine some light on them so that others can discover the fabulous job they are doing, then I will be happy.
Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself?
I love to read (for the Sunday Jewish Book group as well as my own personal book group in my home). I am an avid museum fan. I recently went to the Getty Museum to see a lovely exhibit on Monet, and the Skirball for a wonderful exhibit on film director Stanley Kubrick’s early career as a photographer for Look magazine. However, I am also the media librarian and my heart always belongs to film and television. I love to go to movies (I saw 4 over the December holiday break!) and binge on my cable tv channels. Please tell me what you’ve seen lately!
Rhonda Rosen began her new role as Programming and Exhibitions Librarian in January 2020. Please join us in congratulating Rhonda on her new position!