CAPAL Member Profile: April

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CAPAL’s Monthly Profile for April is of Mike Chee, Learning, Teaching, and Instructional Design Librarian at the University of Waterloo.

What is the best thing about living in your city? What’s the worst?
I live in Toronto, ON at present, and the best part in normal times is the ready proximity to any conceivable amenity: entertainment, food, shopping. I’d have to say the worst part is the lengthy commuting time, regardless of where you’re going or how (driving or public transit: both are slow).

What’s your best non-marketable skill?
I can build a camp fire quickly and efficiently. It comes in handy when you’re camping and notice that the sun is setting!

What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
“It’s not about you”. I put a lot of myself into my work, and as a new librarian, I still feel the pressures of imposter syndrome. I find this advice helpful to get out of my own head and let go, and to re-focus on what’s important: positive impact for collaborators, patrons, learners, and researchers.

What are you most excited to be working on right now?
I’m part of the EDI Working Group, and I am very excited and hopeful for change. This work is fraught, and involves grappling with systemic structures that have persisted for centuries. I think libraries are proceeding forward with a vision for the better world of tomorrow, but with uncertainty as to the precise steps that will get us there. My hope and goal is to help determine what some of those tangible steps might be.

Weigh in: is CAPAL pronounced ‘capple’ or ‘ca-pal’?
I always say ‘capple.’