1. What is your job and how long have you worked for the Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries?
I am one of the Research & Education Librarians, and I’ve just about finished my second year at Dartmouth. It’ll be two years in June.
2. What is your favorite part about your job?
I love working with students on their personal research projects. There is a lot of variety in the topics and in what students are passionate about, it’s a lot of fun.
3. What is your least favorite part about your job?
Overhead lights! But to be fair I think those are going to follow me no matter where I work.
4. How are you spending your isolation?
I feel like I’m spending it the way I would spend normal free time, which is going outside to hiking or knitting and reading.
5. If you have any pets or kids, describe them as your co-worker and tell us what they are doing right now.
My coworker (2.5-year-old dog) is trying really hard to open his snacks.
6. What pantry meal are you proudest of?
I make a lot of things with rice and beans as the base and then throw in whatever vegetables I have in my freezer. It sounds very simple and lazy, but it lets me play around with spice profile.
7. What are you reading/watching during your isolation?
I just started watching the IT Crowd, which is kind of cringy, but I can’t look away. I can’t think of a way to describe it without trying to compare it to the Office. Hmm let’s see, my podcast listening has gone down, but to be fair I mostly listen to news and politics. I finally got around to reading Batwoman! Totally different from the show, obviously, but the art style was really cool.
8. What is your hobby? Name your top 5 (hobby-related) recommendations and why.
My main hobby is knitting, but I dabble in spinning (yarn), weaving, embroidery and sewing. In other words, it’s really cool to make your own clothes.
Here are my top recommendations:
- If you’re learning, Tincanknits has really great patterns and she’s taken the time to incorporate tutorials.
- I’m not a fan of their yarn (I’m a sucker for natural fibers and indie dyers), but Lion Brand has great how-to videos.
Any book by the Yarn Harlot. Ok, ok, they all start to read the same after a while, but they’re so funny and completely relatable. I feel as though I’m in the room with her whenever I read her books. - Ravelry. I learned how to knit when I was about 11 or 12 and literally only ever knit scarves. Ravelry has so many patterns and yarn enthusiasts — the closest comparison is Facebook and that doesn’t really do it justice. If not for Ravelry, I’d still be knitting scarves!
- Your local yarn store. In grad school, I worked for a large yarn store and can’t stress how amazing it is to be surrounded by yarn, people who love yarn, and people who wear a lot of crafted things. I always leave inspired.
9. Where’s a favorite place you have traveled and where would you most like to travel to next?
My favorite place so far has been Greece. The mythos around each town was so interesting and the colors are some of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen. The place I want to go next is Scotland. I can’t help but dream of hiking through the highlands.
10. What frivolous things do you miss about being out in the normal world?
I really miss thrift shopping. I didn’t realize how much I did it to kill time until I couldn’t go anymore!
This post was written by the Water Cooler Committee, Samara Cary, Paige Scudder, Elaina Vitale, and Samantha Wiebkin, for the Biomedical Libraries.
