Charlie Macquarie
How did you become interested in librarianship?
I started working with librarians and archivists in college and I really liked all of them!
Describe the first time you worked in a library.
I worked as an archival assistant at my college library -- Lewis & Clark College. I was helping to process the papers of the poet William Stafford, and my boss, Paul Merchant, would go through each page with me and tell me a story about the poem that was written on it. It was pretty incredible.
I am the local Chair for LAUC-SF.
What do you like best about being a UC librarian?
All the other incredible work that we are able to collaborate on and be exposed to through our colleagues around the system.
Describe a recent or current project on which you are working.
We've received a grant to extract textual data from historical documentation of the beginning of the AIDS/HIV Epidemic here in San Francisco, and to do preliminary work on computational analysis of the text using various natural language processing and machine-learning techniques.
Describe your recent professional work outside of work, such as association work, writing, research, or anything else.
I also have an ongoing creative project installing physical and solar-powered digital libraries in out of the way places and down dirt roads around California and Nevada. I also co-present an ongoing creative lecture series at the Prelinger Library in San Francisco called PLACE TALKS -- where my collaborator and I facilitate the creation of new creative work using the Library's collections. I'm interested in experimental and creative use of libraries and library resources, if you can't tell.
What would you like the next big thing in libraries to be?
Complete this statement: "One surprising fact about me is...”
I still love death metal. (but I hope that's not that surprising)
Can you recommend a book or movie or tell us your favorite book or movie and why?
I try not to pick favorites but I recently read Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives by Ray A. Young Bear, and I loved it. I think honestly part of the reason was that most books I had read about American Indian / Indigenous culture were written by white people, and so one written by a Meskwaki person reads like a breath of fresh air after that.
Please note your website or social media site, if you would like to share
http://charliemacquarie.com ; @advnturelibrary (Twitter) ; @location.library (Instagram)