LITS Student Guide: 2020-2021

Kim Ammons

She/Her/Hers

Access Services Evening Associate

Reading:  Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Listening:  Lindsey Stirling

Watching:  Hamilton on repeat forever

Hobbies:  Reading, writing, cross-stitching, playing video games (mostly JRPGs), watching Netflix

Favorite LITS resource:  Rosetta Stone! Did y'all know that MHC community members have free access?! There's an app, too!

Beth Bidlack

She/Her/Hers

Manager of Research Services

Reading:  Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight and 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings by Sarah Cooper

Watching:  I love mysteries on BritBox; Vera is one of my favorites.

Hobbies:  Working jigsaw puzzles, playing board games, transcribing 19th century letters, doing yard work (not sure if it's really a hobby, but the flowers are nice)

Favorite LITS resource:  Naxos Music Library! Also, it's really cool that LITS has Cambridge Histories Online. Someday, I'd like to explore Mango Languages.

Aime DeGrenier

She/Her/Hers

Manager of Community Technical Support

Reading:  Cookbooks from the library! Lots of them!

Listening:  Pods: Stay Tuned, Code Switch, DemocracyNow, This American Life

Watching:  Greenleaf on OWN, GH on ABC, Remy on Hulu

Hobbies:  Making comminity, walking, family, thrifting, cooking (especially Asian food)

Favorite LITS resource:  No more password expiration!!!

Marie DiRuzza

She/Her/Hers

Director of Campus Technology and Media Services

Reading:  Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before they Happen by Dan Heath

Hobbies:  Spending time with family, reading, gardening, playing with my 3 dogs, swimming, card games, board games, and puzzles

Favorite LITS resource:  The Technology Help Desk

Leslie Fields

She/Her/Hers

Head of Archives & Special Collections

Reading:  The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper for Desmond Fitz-Gibbon's FYS on Victorian England

Listening:  The Last Archive podcast with historian Jill Lepore

Watching:  The West Wing

Hobbies:  Painting nearly every room in my house a new color during a pandemic, knitting socks and dish towels, baking cakes with my teenagers

Favorite LITS resource:  The digitized Mount Holyoke student newspaper in the Archives' digital collections (of special current interest are the issues from 1968 through 1971)

   Jorge

Official LITS Spokesgoose

Reading:  Weather by Jenny Offill

Listening:  Joy Division

Watching:  Lovecraft Country

Hobbies:  Bagels

Favorite LITS resource:  Audubon's Birds of America

Caro Pinto

She/Her/Hers

Research and Instruction Librarian

Reading:  Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Listening:  Planet Money; Nice White Parents; Death, Sex, & Money

Favorite LITS resource:  Project Muse

Deborah Richards

She/Her/Hers

Special Collections Archivist

Reading:  Always reading. Currently The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Listening:  NPR and All Out 70s playlist on Spotify

Favorite LITS resource:  The Visual Browse

Rachael Smith

She/Her/Hers

Director of Discovery & Access

Reading:  The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Listening:  Beach House

Watching:  Watchmen

Hobbies:  Perfecting my bolognese, tending the garden

Favorite LITS resource:  ARTstor (browsing the Edward Hoppers is my go-to lunch break activity while working from home)