Tracking the world in Social Sciences and Government Documents
Librarian Julia Stewart spent spring break in a setting familiar to her as a former high school teacher – a classroom.
Stewart, with a group of students and faculty, worked at the Children’s Outreach Project as part of SMU’s Alternative Spring Break program. Located in Denver, Colorado, the Children’s Outreach Project provides early childhood education to gifted and developmentally delayed children. Stewart assisted with classroom activities, playground maintenance and cataloging the library resources.
“I decided to participate in Alternative Spring Break because I was new to the University and wanted to learn more about SMU culture,” she says. “I wanted to be able to interact with students to find out what the library could do for them. Plus, I love to travel.”
As the new reference librarian for Social Sciences and Government Documents, Stewart collects reference materials related to government, business, economics and political science, while also serving as the liaison to faculty and students in those departments.
Harold Stanley, the Geurin-Pettus Distinguished Chair in American Politics and Political Economy, has worked extensively with Stewart this spring. They collaborated on locating a directory of Latino elected officials nationwide from 1985 to the present as a resource for political science students. Some pre-1990s documents weren’t available electronically, and Stewart tracked them down.
“It helps to have a faculty liaison for your specific department,” Stanley says. “It helps the library to be aware of faculty interests and teaching specialties.”
Before joining Central University Libraries, Stewart worked at Texas A&M University-Commerce as the business reference librarian. She previously taught English at R.L. Paschal High School in Fort Worth.
Originally from Oklahoma, Stewart graduated from Texas Christian University in 1990 with a B.A. in English and journalism. She received her Master’s in library and information sciences from the University of North Texas in 2001.
Stewart says she knew she wanted to be a librarian at a young age. “My mother was a librarian, so I grew up and always felt comfortable in libraries. You are never done learning when you are in a library.”
