About Me & My Site

Hi there, my name is Helena Marvin, but you can call me Lena. I am a librarian.

This website built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is based on the MIT Licensed work of Aras Güngöre, to whom I am most grateful for the technical ground work!

I am - "a librarian", "a technologist", "an open source evangelist", "a boardgame geek", "an academic", "a crafter", "a life-hacker", "an unconventional thinker"

  • City: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
  • E‑mail: lena.marvin@gmail.com

Education

City College of New York

Master of Arts in History
2010 - 2014 New York, NY

Major Subject Focus:
Intellectual History & History of Ideas.

City College of New York

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy
2004 - 2008 New York, NY

Major Subject Focus:
The History & Philosophy of Science & Technology

Experience

University of Missouri-St. Louis

Institutional Repository and Reference Librarian
Librarian Rank III
1/2016 - Present Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

  • Launched, organize and am responsible for the promotion and maintenance of the UMSL Institutional Repository Library. Created and implemented policies and workflows, while performing daily management and oversight of all repository operations.
  • As a liaison to the campus community educated faculty about open access, data management, Open Educational Resources (OER), and copyright and scholarly publication issues. Collection in the subject areas of philosophy, gerontology and gender studies. Aid researchers in one-on-one reference consultations and teach information literacy classes, as needed.
  • Compiled faculty showcase profiles garnered praise from University Deans and contributed to the development of positive relationships between the Institutional Repository Library and other academic departments.

University of Missouri-Columbia

Adjunct Instructor
1/2021 - 12/2021 Online

  • Adjunct instructor at the iSchool for an online library science graduate course, Organizing Information in Information Agencies, using an OER textbook I helped adapt.
  • Used Canvas for the course, Zoom for synchronous meetings and panopto to create and edit weekly introduction videos.
  • Evaluated student performance and provided feedback in a timely fashion. Provided consultation for students when needed.

City College of New York

Government Documents & eSerials
Assistant Professor Tenure Track Librarian
2/2010 - 1/2016 New York, New York, USA

  • As Chief of the Government Documents Division was responsible for the documents depository collection, including federal, state and international documents.
  • Supervised and trained part-time staff to copy-catalog, process and check-in documents. Troubleshoot problem catalog records.
  • Revised and updated collection development policy. As e-Serials librarian maintained the serials database and the electronic journals lists.
  • Maintain the library's database list (Libguides), A-Z list (Serials Solutions) and article-linker service (SFX). Analyzed and collected electronic resource usage statistics.
  • Provided one-on-one reference consultations. Taught information literacy classes as part of the Library Instruction Team.

Projects & Certifications

Repository Manager Certification Course

The Repository Manager Certification Course was hosted in Berkeley CA, by bepress and was an intensive three-day workshop for institutional repository administrators, where we developed crucial skills and expertise to succeed at institutional repository librarianship and scholarly communication.

Practicum in a Pandemic

The UMSL OA Practicum in a Pandemic Project began in April of 2020 at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. The pandemic made it impossible for many graduate students to finish or find an in-person library practicum opportunity. I supervised a remote practicum for 14 SISTL students, with 90 or 130 hours of work each, over the course of 2020. The students collaborated to develop, document, enact, and update a workflow for reviewing faculty works and discovering and harvesting Open Access articles.

Certification in OER Librarianship

In September 2022 I was certified in OER Librarianship! To achieve this I wrote a 26 page OER Action Plan available here.

Certification from Coursera for Google Project Management

In April 2023 I completed the Coursera Google Project Managment course.

Presentations

AI and Library Work at the SLRLN Tech Expo 2023

Exploring how OpenAI GPT-3 can be used by librarians in their daily work. We will discuss the capabilities of GPT-3 and the potential for librarians to use it to provide better services for their patrons. We will also explore the ethical implications of using such AI-based technologies and the potential risks of implementing them in library settings. Finally, we will consider the potential for GPT-3 to be used in other areas of library work, such as research and technology support. By the end of the talk, librarians will have a better understanding of how GPT-3 can be used in their daily work and the implications of using it. This abstract was written by AI.

A Book Revised (Missouri A&OER Conference 2022)

How two librarians formed a team of scholars (without a monetary incentive) to revise, reimagine and turn an old OER textbook into a new OER textbook. We'll dive into what we did and how we did it, as well as things to consider when revising an OER. Learning Objectives: Present an order of operation for revising an OER. Learn tips and tricks for revising an OER of your own.

Introduction to Statistics in the Psychological Sciences

Introduction to Statistics in the Psychological Sciences provides an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of statistics, and hypothesis testing as need for psychology students. The textbook introduces the fundamentals of statistics, an introduction to hypothesis testing, and t Tests. Related samples, independent samples, analysis of variance, correlations, linear regressions and chi-squares are all covered along with expanded appendices with z, t, F correlation, and a Chi-Square table. The text includes key terms and exercises with answers to odd-numbered exercises. A 265 page OER textbook.

Critical Friendship Striving Together for Scholarly Advancement

Critical friendship is a form of non-hierarchical developmental relationship in which there is no mentor or protégé. In critical friendship, individuals with similar aims and differing experiences and knowledge aid each other in achieving goals by critically observing each other’s performance and progress. Bonded with trust, critical friends serve as sworn friends who strive and struggle side by side and share joy and pain throughout their journey. Originating from within the field of higher education, the critical friendship methodology has primarily been used by educators to improve their teaching skills, but has been found to be a powerful resource for librarians. While the literature on critical friendship demonstrates its effectiveness when applied to educators' pedagogical strategies, it has not been studied as a means to promote scholarly advancement in higher education nor for its positive impact on professional development for librarians.
Chapter available as Open Access post-print.

Resume

SelectedWorks Profile

SelectedWorks is a platform I have used to create hundreds of faculty showcases sharing thousands of Open Access works. The link above goes to my profile showcasing my works.

LinkedIn

Much of my work history can be found on my LinkedIn profile.

Resumake.io

The resume below was crafted with https://resumake.io/ and the ability to save and make edits in JSON is very cool.

Contact

Social Profiles