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Over the past decade, Virginia “Ginny” Steel, the Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian, has steered the course for UCLA Library. Her impending February retirement from UCLA will mark only the tenth time the Library sees a change in leadership at the helm.
Steel, who began her librarian career at Arizona State University, never imagined her impact could be so widespread. She thought certainly she would remain a reference librarian for the duration of her library career. Instead, she is capping a successful run having led one of the top research libraries in North America, overseeing eight campus locations, UC’s Southern Regional Library Facility, and the integration of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the second-largest repository of motion pictures and broadcast programming in the U.S., into the UCLA Library administration and collections.
With her next chapter beginning soon, Steel sat down with me to answer some of my most compelling questions. As an undergraduate student myself, learning the ins and outs of the UCLA Library has always piqued my interest. And who better to ask about it than the university librarian herself?
Over the course of our conversation, I discovered that Steel has seen the library profession face global challenges ranging from the proliferation of mis- and dis-information spurred by social media to the impact of climate change on library materials to reimagined services triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic – and she’s helped UCLA be at the forefront of finding solutions.
Through it all, it became clear that Steel has never let her contributions to solving broader academic library issues stop her from serving the UCLA student and scholarly community. Her dual focus on campus and the library profession revealed itself in the quiet confidence she carried when speaking on the work she’s done during her time in Westwood.
The following interview has been edited and abbreviated.
What makes UCLA and the UC unique
Steel is not hesitant to mention that the UC library’s extensive collections and worldwide prominence influenced her decision to work in the system. In fact, she’s spent time in leadership at the libraries of both UC Santa Cruz and UC San Diego in addition to UCLA. But she also pointed to a key difference between the UC and other university systems: while most university systems boast one flagship campus with many satellites, all UC campuses are now research engines.
“Fifty years ago, UC Berkeley and UCLA were the two libraries that were expected to build collections of record, where we would have the deepest and broadest collections in the system, and the other UC libraries would rely on us. As the other campuses grew, though, they became much more independent and not as dependent on UCLA and Berkeley. All the UC campuses are research campuses, so the need for excellent libraries is felt deeply at each one. To support students and faculty, the libraries have a long tradition of collaborating and cooperating.”
Yet before everything else, for Steel, working at the UC is about the people — both those in the library and outside it.
Beginning her career and stepping into library leadership
“I just fell into it,” Steel admits.
Steel first began to consider librarianship as an undergraduate, spending time between classes at the University of Rochester libraries.
“I used to go get a cup of coffee, hide it in my jacket and take it into the library where food and drink were not allowed. I had a particular place where I would sit at a little carrel desk in the reference collection. It happened to be by the catalogs for a whole bunch of graduate schools. Sometimes, if I wanted to take a break from whatever I was studying, I'd pull out some of these catalogs and look at them. And I looked at one, it was for an Australian university, but I somehow opened it to their program in library science. So I started reading it. I thought, ‘that sounds interesting, maybe I would like something like that.’”
A few years later, while working at the University of Chicago, Steel took a leap of faith and pursued a master’s degree. When she graduated, she moved to Tempe to work at Arizona State University. Her first library job took a turn she could not have predicted.
“Within the first month or two, there was a budget cut, and the library had to reduce expenses. While there was a hiring freeze in place, the head of the business library left. So I became the head of the business library when I’d been there only nine months. It just happened.”
Reflecting on the direction her career has taken, Steel thanks her past self for taking every opportunity that came her way.
“When I was in library school, I never thought I was going to be a library director. I thought I was going to be a reference librarian for the rest of my life. And yet, it was leadership opportunities that came along. I thought, ‘well, I'll try something new. I'll see if I like it.’ And I did. But if you would have told me then that I would end up as the university librarian at UCLA, I would have just laughed and said, ‘there is no way that could possibly happen.’”
Open access
The open access movement began and accelerated in the early 1990s and 2000s, with universities across the globe working to make research findings available to all who are interested. Since then, Steel has championed open access as the future of libraries – including at UCLA.
“We've been at the table when open access discussions are taking place. It's important to show that a major research university is committed to sharing the knowledge it generates with the rest of the world.”
Since Steel’s time at UCLA began in 2013, the university has explored a multitude of avenues through which to increase open access. Beginning in 2019, the UC now enters transformative agreements with journal publishers, which allow UC authors to publish their work open access in journals that are licensed by the system. UCLA has also started providing funds for researchers at the university looking to publish work through the Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem(opens in a new tab) movement, a group of university presses and libraries working to make materials more accessible.
Steel’s drive for open access has expanded beyond domestic materials, as she has paved the way for the preservation of primary sources across the globe. The Modern Endangered Archives Program(opens in a new tab), which grants funds to projects that seek to preserve 20th and 21st century materials, was established during her tenure.
“Over many decades, we've built incredible collections of materials in more than 400 languages in the Library. It just made sense for us to expand the reach of our collecting and to use the Modern Endangered Archives Program as a way of preserving and opening access to primary source materials that people would not have access to and were in danger of disappearing completely if they weren't digitized. It's been really exciting to see that program take off.”
Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic made one thing clear to Steel: the Library has always been on the leading edge.
“Libraries have always been quite aggressive in using technology. Before the pandemic, we already used online chat reference services. The University of California was also an early partner in the Google Books Project(opens in a new tab), so we had millions of books from the UC libraries collection digitized.”
These collections, now managed by the HathiTrust Digital Library(opens in a new tab) — a collaborative of academic and research libraries for which Steel is on the board of governors — made it possible for the Library to provide digital loans of materials on bookshelves.
Yet the pandemic brought forth an entirely new set of challenges as well: without the centralized assistance available at physical library spaces, would the resources provided by the Library be able to reach the UCLA community? Steel and her colleagues quickly came to a solution.
“Everybody was learning and getting comfortable with using technology at home. And it wasn't always home — it was also other places, depending on the person. One of the things the Library did during the pandemic that I'm really proud of is distribute laptops, Chromebooks and other kinds of technology to students and faculty who needed it. Libraries have always been in the business of borrowing or loaning materials out, so we had the processes in place and were able to manage that pretty seamlessly.”
As the pandemic has waned, remote services have continued to offer support to the community. But that doesn’t mean in-person consultations and spaces will become extinct. Moving forward, Steel sees balancing virtual and in-person services as a key factor for the Library.
Modernizing library spaces
Those who don’t know her may be surprised to learn that, despite her occupation as a librarian, Steel is not opposed to food in libraries; gone are her days of sneaking coffee by the bookshelves.
“Now, most libraries have a cafe or place where you can get a cup of coffee or have something to drink. We've really loosened up and reversed ourselves on the no food and drink idea.”
This change in approach is reflective of Steel’s larger aim: adjusting library spaces to fulfill the needs of users. Steel recognizes that libraries serve as a comfortable space for students whose life in the dorms may make it hard to spend time alone — and she wants to make sure libraries accommodate those students.
“We’ve tried to make our spaces more flexible, to make it possible for people to move furniture around, to have whiteboards on wheels, to have spaces where students can study as a group. We’re considering all the ways people use libraries and making the spaces suitable for all those uses.”
Climate change and preservation
“Mold is an enemy,” Steel says.
The average university student would probably agree with Steel – no one wants to clean mold out of their apartment. But as a librarian, Steel takes mold more seriously than most.
“The campus infrastructure was never designed to deal with temperatures that made it so hot for such a long period of time. When the temperature goes up and the humidity goes up, mold grows. Once mold is present, it travels quickly, and we can end up with a big problem in a very short period of time.”
Recently, the Library’s Preservation & Conservation Department placed 55 new data loggers in Library buildings to monitor temperature and humidity, helping the Library minimize environmental threats to materials.
Hopes for library future efforts
“The next university librarian will see things I don’t see, they will see things differently, and they'll develop their own set of priorities. I hope that they'll continue to do as much as they possibly can to help the Library to achieve its mission of really supporting the excellence of UCLA.”
Read 2022-2023 UCLA Library Impact Report(opens in a new tab)